As socialists, we know that healthcare goes beyond direct contact between providers and patients and into issues of budgets, community safety, and long-standing social forces like racism and misogyny. How can we organize for real public health? On tonight's show we're joined by DSA-endorsed Assemblymember, nurse, and organizer Phara Souffrant Forrest of District 57 in Brooklyn to discuss vaccine disparities, Cuomo's austerity baby, and the goals of our movement in Albany. We also hear from NYC-DSA's Healthcare Working Group on our campaign to pass the New York Health Act and the critical importance of universal healthcare to the overall socialist project. 

Follow Phara Souffrant Forrest, Assemblymember for District 57 at @phara4assembly. Follow along with NYC-DSA’s Healthcare Working Group at @NYCDSA_Health or email healthcare@socialists.nyc.

YDS Response to Father Leahy’s Statement

Father Leahy’s statement in response to the report in The Heights concerning Reverend Dziak is disgraceful. He shows no concern for the victims. In fact, he never even mentions or acknowledges them. He exhibits no empathy or regret. Instead he displays stunning arrogance and completely refuses to take responsibility for failing to take action that could have prevented further abuse.

It’s ironic that the man who founded the Church in the 21st Century in response to the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal is now revealed to be the prototypical church official who received complaints of concerning behavior, ushered the perpetrator on to his next job, and then disclaimed any responsibility for the subsequent abuse that took place somewhere else.

First Leahy confirms receiving complaints about Dziak in the fall of 1997. What Leahy doesn’t explain is what concerning behavior was reported to him, information was evidently so problematic that he claims he reported it to the Jesuits. Did Leahy bar Dzaik from interacting with students that fall? If not why? Did Dziak leave BC voluntarily or was his departure related to the complaints Leahy received? This is a crucial question. What was the timeline and context for his eventual departure from BC and who initiated this exit? In an articles in The Heights at the time Dziak repeatedly expressed regret about leaving BC.

Curiously The Heights reported in April 1998 that Dziak would leave his position in June but take a sabbatical at BC until the end of the year. What were the details of this arrangement? Was this some sort of suspension or attempt to keep Dziak away from BC students?

Leahy claims that Dziak didn’t sexually assault any students at BC. The reason he allegedly raped a student while working somewhere else is because Dziak left, or was forced to leave BC, and Leahy did nothing to ensure he was barred from being around students. By his own admission Dziak’s behavior “conflicted with University standards” and Leahy was so troubled by it he reported it to the Jesuits. But he wasn’t troubled enough to care if Dziak left to work at a high school.

Leahy then writes “Second, I was never Fr. Dziak’s religious superior, and was not consulted by the Province about his assignment to Jamaica or any subsequent assignment.” Dziak was an employee of Boston College. Leahy was his boss. More importantly Leahy claims, as if to excuse himself of technical responsibility, that he was not consulted about Dziak’s assignment in Jamaica. Again Leahy, in vague language that would make a defense attorney proud, says Dziak’s behavior “conflicted with university standards.” Leahy was troubled enough by this though to report it to the Jesuits. Dziak left BC either voluntarily or at the direction of Leahy as a result of his inappropriate behavior. Leahy knew Dziak then went to work at a high school in Jamaica where he would be around even younger and more vulnerable students. Asserting that he wasn’t Dziak’s spiritual advisor or that he wasn’t consulted about the move is a cowardly attempt to absolve himself of responsibility. How could he have no regard for the children at the school in Jamaica? How could he not worry about their safety? Even if he wasn’t consulted, Leahy knew there was a problem and knew Dziak could be a danger to the students. Why wouldn’t he take any steps to do anything? His being consulted about the move is actually irrelevant.

In the summer of 1998 Leahy acknowledged that multiple people raised additional concerns. So by his own admission he received repeated warnings about Dziak’s behavior. And he knew Dziak was moving on to high school, it was reported in The Heights in April of that year, but Leahy didn’t do anything else because it was no longer his problem?

The Heights also reported that Dziak, once in his new job in Jamaica, would “help coordinate various American university-sponsored volunteer trips to the island, including those from BC.” So Leahy knew he would be supervising the very same service trips where Dziak had been abusive towards students at BC, prompting the numerous complaints to him that year.

Leahy also conveniently fails to address the letter that Beth Eilers sent him in March of 1999, again raising concerns about Dziak’s behavior and the fact he was still working with students. If a graduate student was that worried Dziak was still around young people, how could Leahy look at her letter, being fully aware of all the previous complaints, and still do nothing?

Leahy’s most offensive and cowardly assertion comes in his conclusion. “At that time I had no authority or administrative responsibility regarding Fr. Dziak, and that has been true in the 23 years since.” That is stunning – I had no administrative responsibility. The fact is after Dziak left BC Leahy had MORAL responsibility to do something. He had a moral responsibility to every potential future victim, to every student at the high school in Jamaica, to every student who would go on a service trip under Dziak’s supervision. He had by his own admission received numerous complaints from members of the BC community warning of Dziak’s behavior, raising the alarm that he should not be supervising young people. Yet Leahy did nothing while knowing he was at another school and still in a position of authority over young people. And his answer is to say he had no administrative responsibility to do anything?

What an absolute coward.

This response by Leahy is wholly inadequate. Leahy has forfeited all moral authority to lead BC and must resign or be fired by the board of trustees. An independent investigation must be done, and not one that will whitewash BC’s responsibility in service to salvaging the school’s image. It must be a thorough and honest investigation into what happened.

YDS of BC calls for Father Leahy’s removal as President of Boston College. The reports in The Heights and The TImes Picayune demonstrate Leahy has no moral authority to continue as the President of the school. Multiple members of the BC community made complaints to Leahy about Reverend Dziak’s abusive behavior and warned he should not be allowed to supervise students and young adults. Leahy, like so many others in the Catholic Church, failed to ensure this behavior would be stopped, enabling Dziak to prey on countless others in the future. In 2004 Dziak allegedly raped a student from DePaul during a service trip.

During Father Leahy’s tenure Boston College has expanded by almost 150 acres, its endowment has grown to over $2.5 billion, and new athletic facilities and academic buildings dot the campus.

To this we say who cares.

Throughout his career Leahy has shown little interest in the well being of students at his own school. For years he refused to speak out in the face of hate crimes, to confront institutional racism at BC, or to provide adequate support to LGBTQ+ students. If students don’t feel safe or welcome on their own campus, who cares about rankings or or expansion? Does it matter how many new buildings there are, what the average SAT score of the incoming class is, or how much the endowment earned last year, if your actions contribute to the harming of others? It’s all meaningless.

In 2017 he did not attend the Silence is Still Violence march on campus but attended fundraising meetings in Los Angeles. In 2018 in response to another hate crime he did not show up to a community wide meeting instead choosing to attend a fundraiser in New York.

These latest revelations show he failed to protect young people outside of the BC community. The details in these reports should trouble us all. This news confirms our belief that Father Leahy is not fit to lead BC. He must resign or be removed as the President.

Link to petition here.

Three hundred thirty one days since George Floyd was murdered by officer Derek Chauvin. On April 20th, we received a small victory of Derek Chauvin’s arrest and charges on three counts of murder totaling to 40 years in prison. But what would justice look like? A system that serves one guilty verdict to one killer cop is not justice. There are still adults and children dying by the hands of police brutality. Since the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, 184 African Americans have been killed by the hands of police. Of those murders, 55 were in just the 110 days so far in 2021. Since at least 2013, about 1,100 people have been killed each year by law enforcement officers. These numbers are representative of the larger problem in our law enforcement and carceral systems, which have their roots in racism. These numbers do not reflect community safety or servitude. These numbers need to stop. Our country must divest funding from our punitive policing structures and truly invest in meeting the needs of our communities. Justice will officially be served once the system isn’t the oppressor.  

 #JusticeForAll

DSA wants to get the PRO (Protect the Right to Organize) Act passed, and we need your help!

The PRO Act is the most comprehensive update to labor law since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act nearly a century ago. The PRO Act closes the contractor loophole created by Prop 22, ends right-to-work laws across the country, and makes it easier to organize unions and get to a first contract. An organized labor movement was essential in obtaining the New Deal and will be equally as important in making the Green New Deal a reality.

Silicon Valley DSA has teamed up with East Bay DSA, DSA SF, and Peninsula DSA to host a Bay Area PRO Act Town Hall. We’ll hear from worker organizers that are part of active campaigns, including SEIU 1021, ILWU Local 6, and the Alphabet Workers Union, followed by a moderated panel discussion with Jovanka Beckles, James Tracy, and Andres Soto.

Learn about the PRO Act, the importance of organized labor, and how to get involved in the ongoing campaign. Be PRO-Active and join our town hall tomorrow, Tuesday, April 27th at 7pm.

The post Newsletter – 2021-04-25 appeared first on Silicon Valley DSA.

A statement from the Portland DSA Safety Working Group

With his latest statement, Ted Wheeler actively threatens the safety of Portland residents. By directing unknown people to track, record, and report so-called “black bloc” protesters, he is jeopardizing the safety and security of any number of Portland residents. These residents may or may not be associated with any protests. Furthermore, Wheeler is, wittingly or unwittingly, inviting and encouraging violent, far-right cells to act as vigilantes within our community. Because Ted Wheeler cannot offer real solutions to our city’s problems, and cannot rally the support of people who live in this city, he is placing untold numbers of our fellow residents in danger in an ill conceived attempt to quell righteously justified protests against him and his police.

Sadly, each and every time Ted Wheeler has been faced with an opportunity to lead this city and solve real problems he has made the lives of the people of Portland far worse and less safe. This is true whether the problems stem from traveling bands of white supremacists invading our streets and terrorizing our residents or from his own unaccountable, violent and murderous police force.

In the last few months alone we have seen Ted Wheeler’s police collaborate with far-right brawlers who later went on to storm the capitol in DC, dox the District Attorney (elected by a popular margin, unlike Wheeler who couldn’t muster even a simple majority), and attempt to frame a city council member by leaking information to online grifters. And just outside our city last summer, we watched as right-wing vigilantes established armed checkpoints, some with the explicit help of law enforcement, due to false rumors of “antifa” starting forest fires. These are the legacies of Ted Wheeler’s tenure as mayor and police commissioner.

Now Ted Wheeler is calling on these same elements to harass and intimidate Portland residents accused of no crime, solely based on attire and general proximity to a protest that he believes might be involved in some kind of future crime. In the midst of uprisings against an unjust system, Ted Wheeler has firmly sided with those who attempt to harm us with impunity again and again. He is unfit to be mayor and is a danger to our community.

Ted Wheeler is a threat to anyone who believes in freedom of assembly and speech. We condemn Ted Wheeler’s attempt to restrict the freedom of Portlanders and we call on our fellow residents to condemn his cowardly actions that will hurt us and our neighbors.

An Imagined Future if We Pursue Alternative Energy

By: Joel Campbell

It’s a pleasant summer afternoon in Whitefish Point. You have spent the day on the stony, cold shores of Lake Superior. The water is crystal clear and the silence is only interrupted by the other visitors to the Shipwreck Museum. This point, so far removed from the factories of Detroit, once so intimately connected, is connected once again.

Ships full of iron ore, like the Edmund Fitzgerald which lays only a few miles off coast, used to traverse this area on their way south. You’ll be there soon enough. Maybe it’s an art gallery opening for a friend, a Democratic Socialists of America event, or a sports game. Taking the new Michigan maglev line, the trip that once was a five and a half hour odyssey has been reduced to an hour.

It did not start with this impressive, Detroit-built, high-speed rail line. It started with electric trolleys in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Detroit, and a dozen other cities. Mayors, finally matching their political rhetoric with the realities of car emissions in Michigan, implemented the demands of a wide-ranging coalition.

Rather than pouring billions into fixing an auto-centric infrastructure, a robust, multimodal public transit system has eliminated the necessity of a personal automobile. In order to alleviate cars on the road, the state offered grant money to cities and residents that took the initiative to become car-less. Bike co-ops could apply for loans or grants to help offset the need for more workers and tools as the influx of riders increased.

It took the work of many activists, organizers, and workers to accomplish this. Although the politicians will claim it was them, it was regular people working together that did it. Activists with the Sunrise Movement, ecosocialists in the DSA, and others canvassed cities. They agitated in city, county, and state elections for politicians to increase funding for renewable energy, multimodal transit, and green roofs. Union workers from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and others joined with them, demanding that all jobs be unionized.

While many claimed that they cannot jumpstart the Green New Deal on a state level, let alone a federal one, activists and union workers knew better. Municipalities control a lot of money that is put into maintaining carbon-based infrastructure such as roads for cars. There are plenty of projects on city and county levels that are readymade for an environmentally sustainable future. So we coordinated to help grassroots groups in each city build local power.  It’s amazing what our creative might can produce when directed by the people.

Idle factories were seized and repurposed to produce 21st century infrastructure. GM’s Hamtramck facility, for example. Still represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW), the plant’s workers set about building tracks, trams, and railcars out of recycled cars. The state purchased recycling facilities around Michigan, converting cars and other sources of scrap metal and plastic into the necessary raw materials.

Unions such as the IBEW, ATU, UAW have become some of the strongest supporters of this transition. These are good jobs, after all. IBEW, working alongside electric co-op workers and unionized city electrical workers, have electrified cities and rural stations for charging rail lines and the few electric vehicles around.

The residual benefits have been astounding. With the removal of excessive highways and parking lots, endangered and threatened species have begun to return. As cities had to retrofit their roads into protected bike lanes and wider sidewalks, they have begun to use a passive heating method to eliminate the need for salt in the water, allowing for healthy streams and land. Across the state, an improvement in air quality due to the reduction of cars, passive exercise, and accessibility to nature has reduced the number of heart disease and other health problems.

The federal government is still debating whether or not to implement the Green New Deal, but having lived under Michigan’s for the past few years, and seeing other states pursue their own, it will only be a matter of time. It happened with marijuana legalization and gay marriage before, it can happen with the Green New Deal now.

The post Say YES! to Michigan! appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.

Much of conventional labor organizing is centered around a shared physical location for workers, like a shop floor or a break room. But what about those who work in cars, on bikes, or in others' homes? Our labor movement stands in solidarity with all workers because an injury to one is an injury to all. On tonight's show, we'll talk to NYC-DSA endorsed candidate for City Council Jaslin Kaur about organizing for justice for taxi workers and why her home district in Eastern Queens is ready for democratic socialism. We also speak to Margaret of the Ain't I A Woman? campaign of home health care workers organizing for control over their time. Finally, we hear an update from our Defund NYPD campaign, which has launched a new pledge for City Council candidates to affirm their commitment to defunding NYPD and investing in social services. 

To learn more and get involved with Jaslin Kaur’s campaign for City Council, please visit jaslinkaur.nyc.

The Ain’t I A Woman? campaign is calling for community support at a picket outside Chinese-American Planning Council in Manhattan Chinatown on April 28th. Learn more and RSVP at tinyurl.com/APR28CPC or visit aintiawoman.org.

To learn more about the Defund NYPD campaign and its pledge for City Council candidates, go to defundnypd.com

Yesterday, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the murder of George Floyd. While we recognize this was in fact the correct decision the jury could make, we acknowledge the problems of violent white supremacist policing run much deeper than any one officer or any one court case. We recognize that policing in the United States is rooted in white supremacy, and enacts violence, oppression, and death upon communities of color in general, and Black communities in specific.

While George Floyd’s murderer has been sentenced, we recognize that many similar murders have not had such consequences. We remember Donovon Lynch, who was murdered by Virginia Beach police less than one month ago. We remember Xzavier Hill who was murdered by Virginia State police earlier this year. We remember Marcus David-Peters who was murdered by Richmond police in 2018, while he was suffering a mental health crisis. Even yesterday, as the Derek Chauvin verdict was being read, police in Columbus, Ohio murdered Ma’Khia Bryant only hours earlier. She was sixteen years-old. We remember these, as well as countless other Black men, women, and children murdered by police whose families have not yet seen any amount of justice or accountability. 

We affirm, in the face of this senseless death that Black lives matter, and that police departments exist counter to this fact. We also affirm that it was the institution of policing and its supporters at all levels of government that is the root cause of these killings, and not merely the fault of flawed individuals.

It is for these reasons that we call for the abolition of municipal, state, and federal police, as well as the abolition of the carceral state. The criminal justice system, as it is, is not justice and cannot produce justice. Justice would be the dissolution of all police departments, and members at all levels of these departments being held accountable for the violence committed by the institution of policing. Justice would be protests and actions addressing police brutality being allowed to proceed unimpeded, and that organizers and protesters alike being cleared of any outstanding criminal or civil charges related to their activism. Justice would be jails and prisons of all types across the country being abolished in favor of justice that seeks to restore and heal rather than to punish.

We make these demands in solidarity with the families of people murdered by police, with abolitionist activists across the globe, with Black communities under the constant threat of policing, and Black community members subjected to violence from the police state, and criminal justice system.

By: Joel Campbell

To commemorate the 110th anniversary of the Furniture City Strike, Grand Rapids DSA is hosting its first Strike & Bike ride! The goal for each participant is to bike 110 miles from April 19th to August 18, the duration of the strike. It’s free to join! Friends and family members are asked to pledge at a dollar a mile for each rider. Funds will be used to further our mutual aid work in the community. Participants can join the Grand Rapids DSA Strava Club to help track their miles.  Before you ride, please register here!

The top three riders will receive one of the following prizes: 

• City Within A City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Manoomin: The Story of Wild Rice in Michigan
• Strike! How the Furniture Workers Strike of 1911 Changed Grand Rapids

We’re hosting hosting two group rides! Our first will be June 21st and the second will be on June 26th. Meet up at Sixth Street Park at 5:30pm and roll out is at 6pm for both nights. We’re limiting our ride size to 20 people per night. You can preview the route below. Lights and helmets are strongly recommended! Any questions, please text 616-209-9708.

Please register at: forms.gle/EzxJDeuDnqJ7Xt2a6

To help promote cycling in Grand Rapids, we’ll be hosting three free bike repair clinics. These clinics will be held May 15th at Lincoln Park, June 12th at Riverside Park, and July 10th at Martin Luther King Park from 12pm – 4pm. You can show up to the clinic the day of or fill out this form ahead of time so we can make sure to have the materials for your bike.

As part of our Strike & Bike ride, we created a tour that takes you around the city and details various aspects of its history that don’t often get any attention. To get stop by stop directions, click here!

1. The Furniture Strike of 1911

The Furniture Strike of 1911, now memorialized on a plaque next to the Spirit of Solidarity statue, is arguably the most important strike in Grand Rapids’ history. On the morning of April 19th, 1911 more than 6,000 workers, largely made up of eastern European immigrants, walked off the job demanding higher wages, shorter work days, and union representation. The John Widdicomb factory, our first stop, was the main site for most of the strike. In retaliation, the Furniture Manufacturers Employers’ Association pressured banks to foreclose on workers’ mortgages while the Christian Reformed Church issued an edict that sought to expel striking workers from their church. During the strike, the Grand Rapids Police Department fired into the picket line. The strike ended on August 18th, about 5 months after it began. Much of the dissolution came from the lack of strike funds. Strike funds, even today, are largely comprised of dues that union members are required to pay which is why Right to Work legislation, signed by former Governor Rick Snyder is so effective in dismantling unions.

2. 1925 Ku Klux Klan March

On July 4th, 1925 over 3,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan marched down Bridge Street. The intimidation of them marching directly into the heart of the Eastern European immigrant and working class community cannot be overstated. The Klan in the 1920s, called the Invisible Empire was galvanized by the pro-Klan film, Birth of a Nation. Millions of Americans joined in droves. Members frequently included mayors, judges, business owners, and police officers. They sought to repel the immigration of Eastern Europeans into America through intimidation and violence. With Polish immigration came numerous other nationalities and ethnicities including a surge of Jews, Catholics, and Orthodox worshipers. These religions were, and still are, considered an affront by the KKK to a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant America. The West Side of Grand Rapids, famously proud of its Polish heritage, is still home to a thriving Jewish community. On November 2, 2020, Jewish graves were spray painted with “TRUMP” and “MAGA” in the Ahavas Israel Cemetery. Anti-Semitism and anti-immigration sentiment continues to animate hate groups like the KKK, Proud Boys, and Oathkeepers to this day.

3. The Plum Tree Orchard

The Plum Tree Orchard that once stood here was demolished in the early 1870s, along with 46 burial mounds on land that Charles Belknap called “Mission land.” In his memoir, The Yesterdays of Grand Rapids, Belknap details how he spent his summers as a water boy quote “…for the men who did this grading | and had ample opportunity to gather the flint arrowheads and other implements that were unearthed in nearly every burial mound | along with the bones of the vanished race.” End quote. According to Belknap, much of the looted material, if not kept in private collection, was taken by the Kent Museum or shipped off to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. 

In 2018, Anishinaabe artist Jason Quigno created the Plum Tree Memorial to commemorate this spot. In addition, you will also see the ANISHINAABEK mural, painted by Alan Compo, a member of the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians. This piece was also unveiled in 2018. In an interview for Grand Rapids Magazine, Compo recalled the destruction of the Plum Tree Orchard. He said, “The story goes that it was burned down, and who knows if it was to stop them from coming or if it was for progress, but I just wanted to bring it back.” 

4. Breonna Taylor Way

Breonna Taylor, who grew up in Grand Rapids, was killed by Louisville Metro Police Department officers in her home on March 13, 2020. Officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove were responsible for the no-knock warrant that led to her death. The raid was part of a dedicated unit created by the Louisville Metro Police Department to help with the ongoing gentrification of Elliot Avenue where Taylor lived. The road you are riding on is dedicated to her memory.

Gentrification in Grand Rapids, like Louisville, is enacted through police violence against communities of color and working class neighborhoods. For years, the Grand Rapids police department received extra funding from the Department of Justice for Operation Weed & Seed. This program focused on the West Side, Heartside, and Southeast districts and saw the rise in police officers working the beat. In every single one of those areas today, gentrification is apparent. The new glistening buildings stand as monuments to police violence in both Louisville & Grand Rapids. 

5. Viva Flaherty

Viva Flaherty worked as a secretary at Fountain Street Church during the Furniture Strike of 1911. While the minister of the church preached for calm and unity between workers and the factory owners, Flaherty stood solidly on the side of the workers. In October 1911, only a few months after the end of the strike, Flaherty published “History of the Grand Rapids Strike” and detailed the lengths to which the owners, organized as the Furniture Manufacturers Employers’ Association sought to crush the movement for unions. One passage calls to us even now: 

“The workers lost the strike. Moral victories do not pay for potatoes and sugar, or secure the rest and relaxation that a hard day’s work merits. It was might not right that settled this strike and, consequently, industrial peace has not been secured in Grand Rapids. No one concerned yearns for another strike – particularly not the striker, – because he and his family suffer the most. But will the workers never wake up to their power, for they have it!”

6. The 1967 Rebellion

On July 25th,1967, an uprising in Grand Rapids began. For the next three days, in the predominantly black neighborhood, people sent a message to the city that they would not take any more abuse. As Will Mack of Black Past notes, “extreme poverty, joblessness, poor schooling and segregation….” were among the grievances of the community. On the second day, some white residents joined together and acted as vigilantes to try and suppress the uprising.   The Grand Rapids Police Department, unable to completely control the situation, relied heavily on reinforcements sent in by Governor George Romney. The Michigan State Police, arriving on the heels of neutralizing the rebellion in Detroit, engaged in a systemic crackdown that led to the arrests of 320 people and forty-four injuries. Over a thousand people participated in the uprising. This intersection where you are was one of the many spots in the city where police used tear gas against the rebels. 

The inequality that these uprisings sought to address never ended. Police brutality against the black community continues unchecked. In 2017, Officer Caleb Johnson pulled his gun on five black children as they were walking home. A few months later, Honestie Hodges, who was eleven-years-old at the time, was handcuffed and held at gunpoint. The officers involved were not disciplined for this action. The compounding racial discrimination helped fuel the uprising in 2020 and saw the return of tear gas to the streets of Grand Rapids.

7. Hopewell Burial Mounds

Before the Anishinaabe followed the manoomin west and settled in this area, the Hopewell lived here. Their territory extended from the Straits of Mackinac to New Orleans and ranged from West Virginia to Kansas. Grand Rapids was originally home to two sets of mounds, the Converse which was along the river, now called Ah-Nab-Awen Park, and the Norton group which is before you. These mounds were built sometime between 10 BCE and 400 CE. 

As you learned at the Plum Tree Orchard stop, those mounds, also called the Converse group, were leveled by colonizers while building the city of Grand Rapids. The Hopewell Burial Mounds before you are currently besieged by the highway and oil derricks which populate this area. These serve as a reminder that colonization is not something that happened long ago in the forgotten mist of time. It is happening right before your very eyes. 

8. 1836 Treaty of Washington D.C.

The Treaty of Washington D.C., sometimes called the Treaty of 1836, was signed between the United States, the Odawa and Ojibwe. The treaty encompasses 13 million acres and stretches from the southernmost point, where you stand, to Whitefish Point in the Upper Peninsula. The treaty guaranteed the rights of the Odawa and Ojibwe to hunt, fish, harvest, and worship. The Odawa and Ojibwe have been at the forefront of calling for the end of Line 5, Enbridge’s pipeline that runs through the Straits of Mackinac, as its continued existence threatens these very rights. 

9. Carbon Infrastructure in West Michigan

Grand Rapids Storage #2, 4026870000, owned by Goodale Enterprises, LLC, a subsidiary of Atonne Group, this storage tank is one of many parts of carbon infrastructure that dot not only Millennium Park, but all of Michigan. When we discuss climate change and massive oil and gas corporations like ExxonMobil, BP, or Shell, we tend to ignore smaller players like Goodale Enterprises or Wolverine Gas & Oil.

Unfortunately for local activists, the permitting of these storage tanks and oil derricks is handled by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, in particular The Oil, Gas, and Minerals Division. This places the responsibility firmly in the hands of the governor. To decarbonize our world, we must confront the reality that while large oil corporations are a problem, we must uproot the fossil fuel industries in Michigan as well. 

10. 1821 Treaty of Chicago

The Treaty of Chicago, signed in 1821 between the United States, the Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe ceded five million acres to the United States. It covers much of Grand Rapids at its northernmost and extends to Elkhart Indiana at its southernmost. Kalamazoo and Battle Creek are also part of this treaty. 

This is our last stop on the tour. Thank you so much for taking time to learn more about this land and the people who have struggled to make it a better place. This tour is part of the Grand Rapids DSA’s Strike & Bike fundraiser. All money raised will go to our mutual aid fund. 

The post Strike & Bike! appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.