by Anna Morrow

"Over the last four years gentrification in the Mission
has gotten completely out of hand! .....now it’s time we
take things into our own hands! "

The emotionally charged words came from Lisa
Hernandez who told the crowd of mission residents,
artists, tenant advocates and recently homeless San
Franciscans, that her mother, a long time San Francisco
resident, had been forced out of her home by the
voracious appetite of the dot com dollar.

The crowd around 1660 Mission St. bursted into
cheering and clapping ; a rolling of Congo beats lifted up
into the air. The emcee of the protest, Oscar Grande of
PODER asked the crowd to raise their voices when they
felt compelled by one of the many speakers telling their
stories of eviction and/or gentrification. The target of the
angry voices were on the fifth floor of the large gray
concrete building at 1660 Mission st. A Mr. Gerald
Green Director of the San Francisco Planning
Department was concurrently presented with a letter from
five members of the Mission District Anti-Displacement
Coalition (MAC). The demands of the letter were:

1.Mr. Green and all staff members, including
senior staff members, attend a community
meeting scheduled for Wednesday June 28th, to
answer the demands of the community.

2.that zoning in the Mission be changed
immediately to protect our community from
further displacement

3.that there be no more development, including
pipeline projects, until permanent controls are in
place in the North East industrial zone and
protections are in place for the Mission Street
corridor and 24th Street corridor.

For the past four years, the Mission District as well
as other low income and working class multi-cultural,
immigrant, communities of color have borne the
brunt of gentrification caused by the booming
economy and un-checked development of live -work
lofts of high-tech multi -media offices. All parts of
our community, from small community serving
businesses to low income renters and non-profit
community based organizations, have been displaced.
The Planning department and commission have done
little to protect the most vulnerable residents,
businesses, and community based organizations. The
Department and Commission have blindly followed
the demands of powerful lobbyists and developers
and have overlooked the concerns of the low income
communities like the Mission.

As protesters raise their voices in sympathy and
solidarity to the stories being told by various speakers
it is clear that the plight of the Mission district is yet
another verse in

the song whose chorus is " Economic Boom For
Whom?????"

This is happening in the midst of a booming economy
that is increasing the gap between rich and poor, with
little if any response from city officials.

Last month the Planning Commission approved the
Bryant Square project despite the objections of
community residents. This 150,000 + square foot
project slated for 19th and Bryant streets would be
located right next to a residential area in the Mission.
Over 100 community members mobilized to oppose
the development believing that it would further
displace residents , erode community culture, and
increase traffic-- jeopardizing the safety of children,
seniors and families. Strong arguments made by the
community prompted a majority of Planning
Commissioners to agree that the project would cause
displacement and other problems in the
neighborhood. However the commission then
proceeded to approve the project by a 4 to 1 vote.

Like most of the people here today I represent one
generation of a multi generation San Francisco
family. I am sickened , saddened and outraged by the
careless handling of the our City’s destiny. The
essence of what makes San Francisco San Francisco,
the diversity which draws people from across the
globe, is being eroded and traded in favor of the
dollar. I am proud that we are here, taking a stand to
fight for what is rightly ours: the future of our lives
and communities, in our home - San Francisco.

by Leroy Moore

This is my third article on the increase of racial attacks, police
brutality and senseless crimes toward disabled people of color and I wonder,
am I talking to myself?! I ask this because racial attacks and brutality
continue to happen to disabled people of color, but no one is picking
up the mantle and voicing this issue. This issue hit home for me last year on my birthday, November 2nd. I was standing in a San Francisco Muni bus, and suddenly an African-American man pushed his way to the front of the bus, yelling. He grabbed my shoulder bag, dragging me to the steps of the bus.

I grabbed the inside pole, fearing that if he pulled me off the bus, it
would be all over for me. Fortunately my bag broke, and he fell off the bus, leaving my bag and my self inside.

As I sat down, tears came to my eyes. The man's girlfriend had been the only one who tried to stop him, and not one other person on the bus spoke up. The driver closed the doors and continued on her route.

I escaped that attack with only two deep scars on my neck, a broken bag and a new outlook on how I am an easy target because of my physical disability. I also thought about my disabled brothers and sisters who are not alive today because of racial attacks and police brutality.

Recently I've been keeping a list of incidents of police brutality, racial attacks and other senseless crimes towards disabled people of color, and every day this list grows like a weed.

The latest case brought tears to my eyes when I read it in the San Francisco Bayview Newspaper. A 13-year-old African-American boy with cerebral palsy was approached by two white teens during class. They asked him if they could tie him up. The boy firmly said,"No," but the two teens proceeded to tie him up and then placed a noose around his neck,and joked about tossing the rope over a pipe to hang him. What is even more shocking is the teacher witnessed the thirty-minute ordeal and did nothing. The boy's mother was quoted as saying "If my son was white, everybody in Texas would know about his case." This comment tells me that when you add race to the picture, it becomes even harder to one's your case.

My list of crimes towards disabled people of color is so hard to research because, until recently, the disability was not reported when a person with a disability was a victim of a hate crime. Many leaders in the disability rights movement refuse to talk about this issue, especially when it comes to disabled people of color, and so it goes unnoticed.

Almost five years ago Kathi Wolf authored an article entitled "Bashing the Disabled:the New Hate Crime" in The Progressive. The article reported that the Hate Crimes Statistics Act was amended to include bias on disability. The FBI has collected data about disability-based hate crimes, as well as those based on race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. In this same article, Mr. James Nolan, a coordinator of the FBI hate-crimes programs, said that his department will work with disability groups to understand and identify hate crimes, and will also work with police departments and law-enforcement agencies to make them more knowledgable and sensitive about disability issues.

Now, five years later, we have many documented cases of police brutality and hate-crimes against disabled people of color. For example a recently published book
entitled "Stolen Lives, Killed by Law Enforcement" recorded many cases
of police brutality and hate-crimes among disabled people of color. The
following are some cases:

1997: shooting and killing of Kelvin Robinson, a Black deaf man who was shot three times in the back by LAPD and bled to death because the officers refused to call the paramedics.

April of 1998: an Ethiopian man in Maryland was shot and killed by officer George Byce, a White cop with a history of racism and hostility toward mentally impaired people.

Last year Magaret L. Mitchell, a Black homeless woman with mental illness, was shot to death by a LA police officer.

Many people are surprised when I tell them that James Byrd, the Black man who was dragged to his death behind a truck in Texas, had a disability!

According to an LA Times study last year, since 1994 LA police officers have shot 37 individuals who had some symptoms of mental illness. Many were people of color. The study also found that LA police recruits receive only four hours of training on how to deal with people with mental illness.

On June 21, 2000, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article entitled "Senate Okay's Broader Hate Laws." The Senate voted on June 20th to strengthen federal hate-crime laws by extending civil rights era protections, for the first time, to include violence based on gender, sexual orientation and disabilities, but it's hurdle is in the House. If the Bill becomes law, it will provide the first major expansion of hate-crime law since the original bill that was passed in 1968, which covers only crimes involving race, color, religion or national origin.

Although this expansion will include people with disabilities, the real voices behind this Bill are gays and lesbians, not people with disabilities. The same article mentioned James Bryd, but did not identify his disability as part of his identity, and the article also talked about Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who died after being beaten into a coma and tied to a fence. The article did not identify a disabled victim of a hate-crime.

I have many questions regarding the inclusion of people with disabilities when it comes to hate-crimes, but one sticks out to me. Why are the feds giving local authorities grants to help them deal with these crimes? A
great portion of these crimes among disabled people of color are at the hands of local authorities, i.e. law enforcement, the INS and prison guards!

Have disabled organizations voiced their opinion and advocated on hate crimes since 1995? My research on this issue has mainly come my way via mainstream media and the ethnic press, not through disabled organizations.

With the silence of the disabled community and local authorities inadequately training themselves on hate-crimes dealing with people with disabilities, no wonder things are worse since the Kathi Wolfe article of 1995. Reva Trevino, of the Los Angeles County of Commission on Human Relations Network Against Hate Crimes, was quoted in the Wolfe article. He said that while it is well organized on other concerns, the disability community hasn't yet organized around the issue of hate-crimes.

It is the year 2000 and Trevino's words are still true. Five years later
and still nobody is reacting while many of our disabled brothers and sisters continue to be under attack, and many were forced to leave this earth.

By Leroy F. Moore Jr.,

Founder of Disability Advocates of
Minorities Org.,DAMO

(415) 695-0153

by Scott Clark

"You have no right to be here, who are you people?",
said Will Lightbourne, director of San Francisco
Department of Human Services. This statement was
his first attempt to dislodge a small group of
protesting mothers and their advocates from his
office.

The recent passing of Mother's Day seemed to add
considerable weight to an action against the
Department of Human Services (DHS). On May 15,
2000, at 1:30pm, a group of about twenty
demonstrators met in the small office of POWER
(People Organized to Win Employment Rights), 126
Hyde St. in San Francisco. The protestors consisted
of Mothers on TANF (Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families), working poor Mothers, former
TANF recipients, Foodstamps recipients, and family
welfare advocates.

The reason for the meeting was to plan an action in
response to the implementation of a rigorous
fingerprinting system for recipients of CalWorks
(TANF) and Foodstamps, which was announced by
DHS to be taking place this very same day. The main
concern with the new fingerprinting system is that
DHS will share fingerprint data with other
government agencies, such as the INS (Immigration
and Naturalization Service) and CPS (Child
Protective Services).

The meeting proceeded with a roundtable of
introductions in English and Spanish, followed by a
few minutes of strategizing and answering questions
in the same bilingual fashion. By 2:15pm the group
had split into two factions. The groups were about
equally sized, one headed off to the office of Will
Lightbourne at 170 Otis St., the other to sit in on the
regular Monday 2pm Board of Supervisors meeting
at City Hall.

The conference with Will Lightbourne was brought
about with some argument from Will himself. To his
understanding, he had done the right thing in an
expedient fashion, putting his new fingerprint system
to work as quickly and substantially as possible,
justifying the departmental outlay of the money it
took to purchase the system. In doing this, he was in
accordance with state law, which allows counties to
implement fingerprinting and share the information
with other counties in order to prevent fraud. So,
when this collection of families and advocates
showed up without an appointment and demanded to
meet with him, he did his best to shoo them back out
of his personal offices.

They, however, refused to leave. It was unlikely that
Mr. Lightbourne would have showed up for an
appointment....... even if they had had one. He had a
reputation for not showing up when anyone had any
complaint at all. And they had come to do some
serious complaining.

The mere process of getting to his offices and then
getting him to acknowledge their presence had caused
the group to expend considerable creative effort.
They had bypassed the front desk security by coming
in through the parking lot elevators. Up to the eighth
floor went the bulk of the procession; the drivers of
the three cars they had come in were still parking. By
the time that the last two members of the group,
Steve Williams and another member of POWER, had
arrived upstairs, Mr. Lightbourne had made the
escape from his own front office, and was attempting
to hide (or maybe just take a deep breath) in the hall
bathroom. He might better have picked one with a
lock on the door, because Steve found him soon
enough. Steve calmly told him "Look, we're here
because we need to talk to you, and we're not going
away."

So the two of them headed back to the front office. Once
there, Will totally ignored the group, and again attempted
avoidance via the connected employees’ offices. The group
followed him, asking what the problem was, and why
wouldn’t he talk to them. He mumbled something about not
having an appointment and having to get back to work.
They came back around full circle again to the front area,
which included his personal office. He slipped in there and
attempted to close the door on them, but instead
encountered someone's foot, which kept the door from
closing.

Rebecca Vilkommerson of the Homeless Prenatal Program
(HPP) responded; "We have every right to be here, and
you need to find time right now to talk to us, because we’re
not leaving until you do." The group had brought signs
denouncing Mr. Lightbourne’s methods in respect to
making changes in DHS, not only as regards
fingerprinting. They were there to argue with his self-will;
he had paid no attention thus far to requests by this same
group of people to apply for a waiver from the state. This
waiver would allow for delaying fingerprint requirements
for up to two years. He had also ignored the waivers that
had been granted or were being requested by a number of
surrounding counties in Northern California.

These failings were pointed out to him again after he had
led his opponents into the building auditorium to proceed
with their griefs. They hung their signs on the walls and
took to the front of the room, while he took a front and
center seat, a wary or weary-looking audience of one. He
listened to them mostly in silence. At one point in the
discourse he started to try to respond to some things being
said by a mother with her toddler-aged daughter; he got as
far as "But, but, but...", before the mom resumed
speaking; then she was cut off by her baby repeating, "buh,
buh, buh". Everybody but Will thought this was pretty
funny.

To follow up on the action at 170 Otis St., this group was
to rendezvous with its other half, the complainants who
were to present these same problems to City Hall. The
Supervisors meeting had been dragging along on some land
use issues, and had not yet come to the portion of the
agenda allowing for public comment. This situation turned
the day’s momentum to an advantage.

The protestors who had just arrived from Otis St., when
they got to the City Hall building, went first to the office of
Tom Ammiano, who has been the City’s #1 responsive ally
when it comes to issues of family and immigrant rights.
There, they found Brad Benson, Tom’s assistant. They
explained their situation, and what had happened at DHS.
Brad agreed to work with them to write up a resolution for
presentation to the Board of Supervisors. They gathered the
rest of their consort from the Board conference room, and
Brad seated everybody comfortably in Tom’s spacious
office. He addressed the group briefly, letting them know
he was out to help them get this situation dealt with today in
an agreeable fashion. There were two lawyers present
within the group; Julia Greenfield from the Lawyer’s
Committee, and Eve Stotland from Bay Area Legal Aid.
They, together with a CalWorks mom (and member of
POWER) and Brad, collaborated to get the resolution typed
in legal language for presentation to the Board. When it
was typed and printed, the group in Tom’s office listened
to it read, and voted, approving it unanimously. The
resolution was for the Board to order the DHS to delay
fingerprinting, and to apply for a waiver from the state until
such a time as controls could be implemented, disallowing
the DHS from sharing such information with other
unapproved agencies, either Federal or State.

The lateness of the afternoon, however, did not allow for it
to be brought before the Board on that day so a promise
was garnered from Brad, and in Tom Ammiano’s name, to
present it to the Board at the next regular meeting of the
board. The group left the scene happily, looking as if
Mother's Day had been extended an extra day.

For more information call POWER at (415)776-9379 or
HPP at 546-6756.

by Maurice J., Darrin Lewis and Tiny

It was late.... so late and so dark, even the streetlamps started to fade
and flicker in that disturbing way they do at dusk and dawn. In this hour
of darkness something happened to a homeless friend of mine at the United
Nations Plaza in San Francisco..something that left him.in critical
condition..something that involved my friend and several police
officers...

a knife.." an altercation".... a shooting .

I didn't see my friend hurt. hardly anyone was around..... I did see the faint
glow of police searchlights flicker in tandem with the flickering streetlamps.
The birds, sparkling charcoal clouds and moist brick sidewalks whispered
to me that something was wrong but I was hidden and it is o hard to find
a good place to sleep when you are living outside that I denied what might
have been going on around the corner.

As a homeless not-resident of UN Plaza it is very clear to me, that between
the Mayor's office, the sheriff's department and the federal police, WE
ARE NOT WANTED HERE! Further, my opinions on this event and/or that of
any homeless witnesses, will not hold any weight, suffice to say we know
through personal experience, poor people are rarely believed, and their
opinions are rarely legitimized My neighbors and friends are saying it
was attempted murder by a federal police officer who wants us out of here
- my neighbors and friends are very scared because they feel like its
just a matter of time before they are the next "altercation" The FBI,
the branch of government who are "Handling this investigation" have released
the following statement:

At approximately 10:00 pm on Thursday, August 10th, an as yet unidentified
federal police officer encountered an as yet unidentified individual in
the small alleyway in UN Plaza, behind the fountain, that leads to McAllister
street. As per federal regulations the investigation is now being handled
by the FBI.The individual pulled a knife and proceeded to attack the officer.
After sustaining several cuts the officer then pulled his weapon and shot
the man in self-defense. The suspect is still in General Hospital while
the officer was treated and released that night.

At this point the homeless residents of UN Plaza have no official statement,
so far it is only that, "we are scared"

by PNN staff

One flyer from Zephyr Realty advises landlords that
they can raise the value of their buildings by 20% if
they sell buildings that are empty of any tenants.
Another flyer lists property bought a few years ago
and then re-sold in the last year at huge profits-the
flyer notes "Come In And Ask About Ellis
Evictions."

These practices, and the involvement of Zephyr
Realtor’s buying buildings, evicting tenants and
converting the apartments to condos was the focus of
a tenant protest and picket at Zephyr Reality in Noe
Valley.

Zephyr is one of the leading players in real
estate speculation in San Francisco leading to
the evictions of tenants for condo
conversions. Their ads for condos often say
"VACANT" or "DELIVERED VACANT."
These condos are being sold empty because
the tenants have been evicted, usually under
the state Ellis Act. Real estate investors are
buying up buildings, evicting tenants under
the Ellis Act, and then using loopholes in the
condo conversion law, the units are sold as
condos-usually for about $425,000 per
apartment (with the real estate speculator
typically getting $500,000 profit per
building).

These evictions-for-condos are the leading
cause of evictions in the city.

Using the state Ellis Act, real estate have evicted
about a thousand tenants in the past year for the
purpose of condo conversion.

Even though the city’s condo conversion law limits
conversions to 200 a year and prohibits senior
evictions for condos, these real estate investors utilize
loopholes in the condo law to convert thousands of
units. The Tenants Union is putting a measure on the
November ballot to bring all types of
"condominium-type" conversions into condo law.
When such a law is passed, all rental units which are
sold as condos will be covered by the condo law,
regardless of how the sale is structured or recorded
on the deed.

INFORMATION:

Ted Gullicken 282-6543

Pager: 791-1528

558 CAAP STREET- SAN FRANCISCO,
CA 94110 - PHONE (415)
282-6543-FAX:(415) 282-6622

Z

by Aaron Shuman

....Stories about provocateurs in the crowd is true, though there's been
some exaggeration about the materials thrown over the fence separating
delegates from the protest zone. black-clad anarchists were pressing against
the fence and giving cops the finger, and the lapd was using "supersoakers"
to douse the crowd with pepper spray to force them back, though don't
know who's chicken, who's egg. police directed protesters out of the protest
zone and up figueroa; then a cavalry of officers on horseback came riding
down figueroa, driving protesters back into the zone. they attempted to
herd protesters against the fence separating them from the delegates and
drive them out one exit. a toronto globe-mail reporter caught up in it
told me it was a "run the gauntlet" type situation, with police lined
along a narrow fenced-in corridor, delivering verbal and physical abuse
(kicks, batons). the protesters emerged onto olympic; some were given
contrasting directions from police lines, told to go east, then to go
west, then to go east again.

by Kaponda

Like a barge on water, the quaint abode plodded
along the narrow, city road. In tandem with the
seasoned vehicle that slogged ahead, it signaled the
last vestige of free will. Its eyes pored in every
direction in search of a piece of parcel on which to
rest. Even an old-fashioned drive-in would provide
sufficient relief to cool its engines.

But the signs posted on most of the streets -- "No
Parking Between 2:00 PM to 6:00 AM" -- represented
the disdain which most residents of China Basin have
towards homes on wheels. Neither will Officer
Swiatco, the code enforcement officer who represents
the San Francisco Police Department at the Bayview
station, show any compassion for this mobile home
in distress. A tacit contract has been put out on
vehicles used for sleeping or camping in California.

Officer Swiatco of the San Francisco Police
Department has been turned loose by the Bayview
Station in San Francisco on vehicles that are used as
homes. He aggressively pursues any vehicle which
exceeds the 72-hour parking law, or that fails to
display the proper registration. Swiatco, however, is
a puppet, dangling from a strategically vast
conspiracy of economics.

Invoking the time-honored proverb, "The love of
money is the root of all evil", these words could have
been written just for planners and developers in
Silicon Valley and other "growing" areas of
California. Not too long ago, inexpensive trailer
courts and mobile home parks were sprawled along
cities from Sunnyvale to Los Gatos. But the real
estate boom in California has curbed the growth of
these mobile home communities. Developers are
literally snatching the ground from underneath
vehicularly housed residents' wheels.

An article in the San Jose Mercury, dated Thursday,
June 1, 2000, by Laura Kurtzman, states the
deplorable extent to which developers will push for
the love of money. According to Kurtzman's article, a
91-year-old woman, Antonia Telles, a former migrant
worker who lives on $830 a month from her late
husband's Social Security, was given an eviction
notice after having resided for 50 years at the
Campbell Trailer Court in Campbell, California. To
further accentuate the evil visited upon her in the form
of the notice to vacate, according to Kurtman's
article, Ms. Telles' space is beside the cemetery plot
of her deceased husband.

In Los Gatos, Doug McNelly, owner of Los Gatos Mobile
Home Park, admits that it would be very difficult for a
person to find other housing in the California runaway real
estate market. McNelly has put a moratorium on renting
spaces and has negotiated the buyout of every mobile home
resident on his property. He has cleared the way, along
with the hopes and aspirations of many poor people whose
only resort is to find housing in mobile home parks, to sell
his land to a developer, Barry Swenson. Again, both
McNelly and Swenson will probably earn huge amounts of
money in view of the real estate boom in California. But
their financial gains will displace poor and low-income
people throughout Silicon Valley, because most cities are
not creating space for vehicularly housed residents. Santa
Cruz, however, is an exception.

As of May 23, 2000, the first reading of legislation to
decriminalize sleeping in vehicles or outdoors at night was
approved by the Santa Cruz City Council. For years, Santa
Cruz had had a draconian sleeping ban. According to the
June edition of the Street Spirit, in an article written by
Robert Norse of Homeless United for Friendship and
Freedom (HUFF), so severe was the Sleeping Ban,
"...that the City1s own Interfaith Satellite Shelter Program
(ISSP), which has had homeless people sleeping on the
floors of churches for 13 years, is itself illegal in the City
(since churches are not considered domiciles under the
law)."

The recently approved proposed legislation is the product
of a combination of aggressive protests by Campaign to
End the Sleeping Ban (CESB) and bold actions by HUFF.
According to Norse's article, the new law, if sanctioned at
the second reading, scheduled for June13, 2000, "would
throw out entirely the Blanket Ban, which now bars
covering up with blankets at night...". It would also
"...establish legal areas to which the police could direct
homeless sleepers, giving everyone (in theory) a legal
place to sleep within City limits. For those without
vehicles, that would be on thin strips of pavement unless
private property owners granted them access to industrial
lots. Private property owners would be freed for the first
time in 22 years to allow sleeping anywhere on their
property, provided the activity does not create a public
nuisance or violate zoning laws."

The cause of the vehicularly housed was taken on by
activists such as Robert Norse, Becky Johnson of HUFF
and David Silva of CESB. These individuals
single-heartedly committed themselves to the struggle
against the injustice thrust upon one-third of the homeless
population in the City of Santa Cruz. They braved the
mean-spirited attitudes of the people and leadership of
Santa Cruz to gain this historic victory.

by Kaponda

The melodic sound waves from the Xylophone and
Gardigan instruments did not, alone, inspire the expressions of exultation.
Nor could the warmth of the brilliant sun claim all the credit for the
joyous faces. The groundbreaking ceremony and commemoration of the 23rd
anniversity of the eviction of Asian tenants from the International Hotel
fashioned the smiles on the faces of the many people at the juncture of
Kearney and Jackson streets.

"One of the things that we are very committed to
do is to make this happen, come hell or high waters. Many
individuals died because of the International Hotel." Supervisor Leland
Yee was very emotional as he expressed his thoughts during an interview
with me after he had addressed the predominantly Asian-Amercian audience.
"There memories cannot go in vain. The reason it is important to build
this project is so that their memory and legacy will live on from now
and into eternity." Although the Housing and Urban Development had awarded
$7.7 million and the Mayor's Office of Housing had committed another $5.5
for construction of an affordable housing project, there was still a tone
of skepticism in Supervisor Lee's voice as we talked. I asked if a groundbreaking
of the new building at the site where the International Hotel had been
located would occur during the Fall of 2000? "This is a done deal to the
extent that all of the plans and all of the agreements are there, but
we have still not somehow pulled it all together yet. But somehow and
some way we've got to make it happen. There are still some last glitches
in terms of right-of-way and so on that will be dealt with."

The Internatinoal Hotel was built during the 19th
century on the corner of Kearney and Jackson streets. Its occupants were
single Filipino and Chinese men who worked as longshoremen and seamen.
Due to its proximity to the wharf, the International Hotel provided a
convenient location for the Filipino and Chinese community. Since a single
room rented for $45.00 per month, it provided affordable housing as well.
Between 1960 and 1977, during the golden age of the Kearney street corridor,
the Filipino community stretched more than four blocks. This enclave was
dubbed, "Manilatown" and the International Hotel would play a key role
in the Asian Community.

Like a shark in a frenzy from the scent of fresh
blood, in 1968, commercial developers sensed huge profits along the Kearney
Street corridor. Since that time, construction of buildings such as the
Holiday Inn, Transamerica and Bank of America have taken place. In 1968,
notices to vacate were given to nearly 200 residents of the International
Hotel. It was learned that a permit to demolish the hotel was issued,
so that construction of a multi-leveled parking lot could began. The tenants
-- most of whom were elderly -- were only given until January 1st of the
new year of 1969 to pack up and move out. That eviction notice was the
catalyst of a cohesiveness that would propel a fierce, nine-year battle
in the Asisan community over racism and civil rights.

After nine-years and three mayoral administrations
of legal gridlock, on August 4, 1977, at three o'clock in the terror of
the morning, the elderly and all other tenants of the International Hotel
were forcibly evicted from their homes. It was a night when injustice
and racism bellowed every aspect of their tyrannous power. The forced
evictions would result in the dispersal of the historical and cultural
roots of a first-generation of Filipinos whose origin went back to the
beginning of the 20th century.

A resident of the International Hotel in 1977,
Emil De Guzman, who is now affiliated with the Manilatown Heritage Foundation,
a community-based organization formed to assist in the development of
a new Manilatown Center, shared with me his first-person experience of
that night. "On August 4, 1977, 200 police, sheriffs and firemen forced
their way through thousands of protesters into the International Hotel.
The San Francisco Fire Department trucks were used to hoist policemen
onto the rooftop of the International Hotel. People were dragged out of
the building."

The Reverend Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial called
the hole in the ground where the International Hotel had been, "The most
important civil rights' issue in San Francisco." Furthermore, he went
on to state as he spoke on the raised platform at the 23rd anniversary
of the forced eviction, "We have to make sure this will never happen again."

I remembered the words of Gandhi, "If the cause
is right, the means will come," when I heard Nancy Hom of the Kearney
Street Workshop, encourage the crowd by stating, "When the cause is right,
the human spirit will prevail....Its what's in the heart that matters."
Many people were in the audience who were personally involved in the struggle
from its beginning.

Bill Sorro, an organizer, activist and former tenant
was married at the International Hotel. He had lived there since May of
1970. Bill did not disguise his frustration while discussing his feelings
with me. "Quite frankly, more and more people need to say, 'screw you,
I ain't leaving' [to any future landlords with plans for gentrification].
I know a lot of people who were there and were hurt. During the
'70's, horses were a legal weapon used to control crowds, and so policemen
came into the crowds on horses wielding billy clubs."

Peter Rubin of Local 261 acted as a member of a
security team outside of the hotel that helped form the barricade around
the hotel to deter the police from storming the building on the night
of August 4, 1977. Many members of Local 261 were sympathetic to the people's
struggle to resist the vacate notices by the owners of the International
Hotel because the members of Local 261 understood the nature of the struggle.
According to Peter, "The sheriff himself came down here and smashed in
some of the doors to get to the tenants who were locked inside their rooms.
When we found out that the police were coming we set up our barricade
around the building. It was six-people deep around the building. The police
came from Washington Street. The San Francisco Fire Department occupied
the adjacent parking lot so that police units and sheriffs could successfully
occupy the roof. The police were pretty violent. Police were riding on
horses, swinging their clubs"

Marshall Werner, a part of the San Francisco community
at-large, shared her thoughts with me about the night of August 4, 1977.
"It was not just activists who were involved. Rather, it was a citywide
effort that saw people from all of the Bay Area providing support to tenants
of the International Hotel. This act [of eviction] by the hotel owners
was viewed as a precedence for developers in San Francisco to seize land
from tenants and the working class for commercial development. Looking
back, historically, it has become true. In addition, the emergence of
greed began to gain politically power among local politicians. We are
no longer able to form the alliances to stop the rapid displacements in
all of the districts in San Francisco. "

As the band, Scratch Pickles, filled the air, I
watched Pearl Ubungen and Wailana Sim Cock interpret the International
Hotel eviction through a dance performance on the barren sidewalk filling
the atmosphere with hope, resistance and revolution.

"By virtue
of its nature, change must occur. Whether a radical or positive force
effects that change depends on you......" Kaponda, August 8, 2000.

by Kaponda

The zephyr bored through the thin layer of protective
shelter and pelted the young lad as his eyes opened to
the dawn of another school day. It carried the noxious
elements of the naval shipyard to woo the uncorrupt
lungs of the middle school senior. Yet, Jimmy has
known for quite awhile that his generation has had to
endure the brunt of unfulfilled commitments by
virtually every institution of America.

The sparse surroundings of Jimmy's bedroom
bounced off his eyes through the mirror, as he
prepared to encounter another struggle at Luther
Burbank Middle School. In an effort not to frustrate
his schoolmaster, Jimmy had begun his journey at the
customary time. Looking at the abutting structures
from the window, Jimmy watched as his house
drowned in the distance, as the bus accelerated past
the density of drab houses. He mused over whether
anyone within that enclave of southern migrants --
from which he, too, is a proud product ñ- has ever
enjoyed anything other than substandard living
conditions since their arrival to the Bayview-Hunters
Point District at the height of World War II.

As he expectorated the noxious residuals from the
wind that had earlier swirled around his residential
community, Jimmy peered at a rodent, which bolted
off into a separate entrance of the Luther Burbank
Middle School. His eyes made a futile search of the
halls for anything that had not been riddled by decay.
The first battle for Jimmy will be to find a seat after
he enters his classroom, as there are not enough to
accommodate each student. There will not be a need
for him to check his coat because it will help insulate
him from the extremely cold classroom due to the
broken heating system. Jimmy has always focused on
completing his studies and passing his advanced
placement examination to continue his education at a
competitive university.

The substandard learning and living conditions to
which Jimmy is exposed may pose a threat to his
plans to further his education. For example, the
curricula offered at schools such as Luther Burbank
do not adequately prepare Jimmy for advanced
placement examinations. In addition, his problems are
compounded by a sense of inferiority, which affects
the motivation of a child to learn. These wretched
conditions were not hatched over night. Rather, they
are the result of years of Federal and State neglect.
Furthermore, these substandard learning conditions --
in which Jimmy must struggle to realize his hopes ñ
violate the laws of California, which require the State
to ensure the delivery of basic educational
opportunities for every child in California and vest the
State with ultimate responsibility for the Stateís public
elementary and secondary school system.

Neglect by the State of California to improve substandard
learning conditions in schools for people of color can be
traced as far back as the early 1950ís, when the majority of
schools for people of color were far inferior to the schools
of their white counterparts. The neglect of the State of
California to provide equal access to public education
regardless of race, color or national origin is rooted in the
May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education, unanimous
decision, read by Chief Justice Earl Warren of the Supreme
Court.

In California, schools in economically disadvantaged
communities were underserved so severely that on May
17, 2000, the 46th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of
Education, civil rights groups and attorneys in California,
coordinated by the American Civil Liberties Union, lodged
a historic class-action lawsuit on behalf of students in 18
schools. The lawsuit charges that California has failed to
provide the "bare minimum necessities" required for an
education. According to the Complaint, the state of
California has allegedly "...reneged on its constitutional
guarantee to provide all students with at least the bare
essentials necessary for an education...."

The indictment of gross negligence underscores the reason
that supports the probability that Jimmy will never achieve
an education comparable to that of his white counterpart.
Furthermore, people of color in schools throughout
California have been subjected to the following conditions
as part of their everyday educational experience, according
to the Complaint:

• Lack of Materials and Basic Resources;
• Inadequate Instruction; and
• Massive Overcrowding.

California has recently adopted a system of statewide
educational standards. It entails a criterion that must be
satisfied by each student before being promoted to the next
rung of learning. However, ìofficials of the state of
California charged with carrying out educational
obligations have failed to develop or implement appropriate
procedures to identify and correct the substandard
conditions at the schools attended by Plaintiffs,î according
to the Complaint.

Furthermore, according to the class-action lawsuit lodged
by the ACLU, ìAlthough the State has established
academic standards that students must meet, the State has
failed to meet its responsibility to ensure that schools
provide teachers who are adequately trained to prepare
students to satisfy those standards, has failed to provide
sufficient materials to enable students to have a reasonable
chance to pass tests that measure their performance, and
has failed to provide facilities in which students can safely
learn the materials they need to meet the State-mandated
standards. In other words, the State has established a
system for education but has abdicated its responsibility to
oversee and superintend that system to ensure it functions.

Jimmy was not born during the decision of Brown v.
Board of Education by the Supreme Court. However, the
Board of Education of California continues to preclude him
from any hope of attaining to the same educational level of
equality and justice as his white counterpart. Through
sheer determination, Jimmy may be one of the few among
people of color who succeed in passing the Advanced
Placement examination by rising beyond the seemingly
insurmountable obstacles of inadequate instructions,
massive school overcrowding, too few textbooks, no
access to libraries, as few as 13 percent of teachers with
full teaching credentials, chronically unfilled teacher
vacancies, and substandard living conditions.

by 24 inmates of the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility

>We are 24 male prisoners currently held
at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility for our participation or attempted
participation in the August 1st non-violent direct actions against the
Republican convention in Philadelphia. The carefully choreographed conventions
of both major parties have nothing to do with democracy. They are corporate
sponsored pageants designed to legitimize a system of corporate class
rule that crushes the human spirit and that is destroying the planet.
The criminal justice system of cops, courts and prisons that targets poor
and working class people in general and people of color in particular
is a cornerstone of a system that serves the rich and maintains their
rule. Our actions in the streets of Philadelphia were intended to shine
a light on the incarceration of 2 million people in the U.S., on the systematic
use of police brutality to terrorise whole communities, on the racism
and cruelty of the death penalty, on the many political prisoners, including
Mumia Abu-Jamal, who are caged for their commitment to social justice.
Our actions were aimed at disrupting the Republican convention to the
best of our ability. While weíre sorry any inconvenience we may
have caused the people of Philadelphia, we are proud of what we did to
expose this rotten system.

>From the moment of our arrest we have
experienced and witnessed

the workings of a system designed to dehumanize
people. Many of us were brutalized in the course of arrests. Some of us
were beaten or peppersprayed after we were handcuffed. In jail as many
as nine people were packed into cells designed for two people. People
with dietary restrictions went without food for up to 48 hours. In some
cases our hands and feet were cuffed together and some of us had our cuffs
so tight that we lost feelings in our hands or bled as a result.

>We were denied the opportunity to meet with
our lawyers prior to arraignment and were arraigned in a court room closed
to the general public with the exception of select members of the capitalist
media. We were arraigned with a court appointed public defender serving
as counsel despite our explicitly and repeatedly stated desire to be represented
by our own counsel who were denied access to the proceedings. We were
charged with a variety of misdemeanors and in a few cases with felonies.
Our individual bails have been set at between $10,000 and $1,000,000.
Many if not all of the charges against us are either greatly exaggerated
or completely falsified.

>At Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility
County Jail-we have been placed in a special pod where we have little
contact with other prisoners. While we regard our conditions here as dehumanizing
we recognise that we are receiving special treatment such as extra food.
So far we have not been beaten or physically hurt by personnel here.

>Throughout this process we have sought to
resist and stand in solidarity with each other to the best of our abilities.
Almost all of us have refused to give our names. Many of us have had to
be physically dragged through the various stages of this process. We have
kept our spirits high through singing and chanting and pounding on our
cell walls. We developed systems for communicating with each other and
for reaching decisions by consensus. Many of us ripped the bracelets intended
to identify us off our wrists. We resisted fingerprinting and attempts
to photograph us. Some of us have refused food. In jail we stripped naked
to make our processing more difficult. In the course of all this we have
discovered strengths we never knew we had and have built a wall of solidarity
based on profound love and respect for each other. We have drawn particular
strength from the proud defiance of the sisters whose loud voices we have
heard and whose acts of resistance we have occasionally been able to witness.
While our access to information is restricted we are aware of the efforts
of those on the outside to assist us. We love you all. We are in here
for you and know that you are out there for us.

>We believe that our experiences so far strongly
vindicate us in our decision to take powerful action to expose the brutality
and injustice of the so-called criminal justice system. As we go through
this process we are learning personally of the mistreatment people experience
every day in this country. As a group of mainly white and mainly middle
class men we know full well that the treatment routinely received by poor
people, people of color, and other marginalized people is much worse than
what we have received.

>While we have had little contact with other
prisoners, that contact has been overwhelmingly positive, they know why
we are here and they let us know in many ways that they support our actions
and respect our commitment and solidarity. In turn we are learning from
them about the workings of the prison and their own traditions of resistance.
They have our respect, admiration and solidarity. So far the efforts of
some personnel to cultivate distrust and antagonism between us and the
other prisoners have failed.

>We are political prisoners:

>We are being held on outrageous charges,
in many cases with no foundation whatsoever in our actual actions; Our
bail figures are far out of proportion even for the crimes we are falsely
accused of; We are here because of our political commitment and because
we dared to defy the corporate powers that be as they were attempting
to give a veneer of popular support to the rule of the few.

>We call on those who support us to continue
to put pressure on the Philadelphia authorities to win our quick release.
We urge you all to continue to organize protests on our behalf and to
write and call the mayorís office, the prosecutors and the prison
authorities to demand:

>1.Our immediate and unconditional release
on our own recognizance

>2. That all charges be dropped and

>3. That prisoners with dietary restrictions
(vegans and vegetarians) be provided with adequate food that they can
eat.

>Call these officials and let them know that
you support our demands:

>District Attorney Lynne Abraham 215-686-8701
Mayor John Street 215-686-2181

>City Solicitor Ken Trujillo 215-683-5003

>30 of us have gone on hunger strike to win
these demands. We want everyone to know that we are in good spirits and
remain strong in our solidarity. We come from a variety of backgrounds
and perspectives, but we are united in our commitment to genuine democracy
and an end to corporate rule in general and to the criminal injustice
system in particular.

>FREE MUMIA ABU JAMAL AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS
STOP POLICE TERROR

>TEAR DOWN THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
END THE DEATH PENALTY

>Write to us:

>John Doe ìJDî Professor

>John Doe ODB

>John Doe Wolfman

>John Doe 6010 ìDingerî

>John Doe ìThatís not good
for businessî John Doe Slick

>Camilo Viveiros Jr.

>John Doe 6013

>Christopher Hartley

>John Doe Mac

>John Doe Mango

>John Doe ìB.A.î

>John Doe Sparky

>John Doe Flea

>John Doe ìHank H. Partsî

>John Doe ìWispî

>John Doe Tennessee/Jimnikov

>John Doe Buckshot

>John Doe GOD

>John Doe Switchblade

>John Doe Ms. Pac Man

>John Doe Zeke

>JD Lovebug

>J.D. Kowbone

by Rodessa Garcia

"But it is an emer.....gen.............." the last part of
my sentence was cut off by my own saliva which was
draining into my throat at a rate of three gallons per
second.

"No Miss Garcia, I don't think so"..... the admitting
clerk mistook my choking pause for uncertainty, and
proceeded to start shaking her head from side to side
while she filled the silence with her persistent rant, "
We can only see you if it is a life threatning
emergency, and of course that is only if there is no
other county facilities available."

"I'm.....tell...ing.....you....I can't..... breathe.....It
is an emer....." She was still shaking her head. I
managed to spit out one last sentence. "Can you ask
your sup...ervis..or..?!"

At this point she made a small snort of
frustration/confusion and walked away.

It had been several months since I had had an asthma
attack quite this bad and when I had the last one I
vowed to never go to an emergency room due to an
example of what I call "Hellth-care" which included
sitting in a County funded emergency room for no
less than 16 hours before I recieved any treatment.
Unfortunately illness is an untameable beast which
strikes unexpectantly when you are least
prepared....and for poor people that is always.

But this day started simply. The sun was cool and
flat....Mountain and ocean breezes from opposite
ends of the sky collided in the San Francisco
atmosphere refreshing my pores. And then......all of
sudden....... a slice of fresh pollen coupled with
several hundred wayward dust mites entered my nose
and mouth.

It began as just a difficulty breathing and proceeded
into a monstrous cough/ wheeze, at that point, logic
and all other normal thoughts disappeared in place of
adrenalin fueled terror and extreme states of anxiety. I
walked into the emergency room of a hospital owned
by Catholic Healthcare West, a private non-profit
corporation, and began an odd sort of battle to prove
the emergent nature of my illness.

The supervisor returned with the admitting clerk who
was still shaking her head, in a permanent state of
no...... "Miss Garcia...we will admit you this time
but....." The supervisor's voice was loud and
smashed through the glass window between us "
because you have no insurance we will have to bill
you...." I thought this was a strange comment from
the admitting nurse's supervisor but somehow it
meant I could be considered "an emergency"

After this 45 minute financial diagnosis I was able to
recieve care. I saw the doctor for four minutes,
hooked up to breathing machine for ten minutes, and
recieved a prescription for an inhaler. Two weeks
later I recieved a bill. It was for several hundred
dollars.

I called the hospital billing office after recieving the bill, "
After a full minute of annoyance laced pleasantries between
me and the billing clerk, I began my tirade, " I told the
admitting clerk I was unemployed and homeless, I told her
I had no money to pay for services...I told her I wanted to
recieve services under the Hill- Burton act......why am I
recieving this bill? "

Many non-profit hospitals have an obligation to provide
charity care because of their use of low interest rate
financing from the federal government through the
Hill-Burton program.Approved by congress in 1946, the
program extends to hospitals and other health facilities
money for construction and modernization. In return,
recipients of Hill-Burton funds are required to provide a
reasonable volume of services to persons unable to pay and
also make their services available to all persons residing in
the facilities area.

"Well Ms. Garcia, we know someday you will be able to
work and until that day we will continue to bill you"

"You are not hearing me...! ...I said I am very low income
and I asked to be treated under the Hill-Burton Program."

"I told you what we will do......click

After that phone call....I began recieving bill after bill, until
the blue and green colored envelopes turned into hues of
pink and red. Billing turned into collection....and
eventually collection locked in my cycle of poverty
culminating with a landlord refusing to rent to me because I
they thought I was a "bad credit risk"

Despite the growing numbers of medically uninsured San
Franciscans, the city's three largest private hospitals (St
Mary's Medical Center and St Francis Memorial Hospital
of Catholic Healthcare West and California Pacific Medical
Center of Sutter Health reduced their rate of charity care
spending by 15.7 percent during the past four years. In
1998, the three hospitals spent less than half of one percent
of their revenues on charity care- approximately one-sixth
the national average for tax exempt hospitals. Together
these hospitals control more than half of the city's licensed
hospital beds.

All hospitals --for profit and non-profit alike-- have an
obligation to serve the sick and uninsured. Tax-exempt
hospitals are further bound by a basic social contract with
the general public due to their tax-exempt status. In
exchange for receiving millions of dollars in tax breaks,
tax-exempt hospitals are expected to provide charitable
services to poor and uninsured patients. Tax-exempt
hospitals' tax breaks include exemptions from property and
income taxes, access to tax-free bonds issued through
government agencies, and access to tax-deductible
donations from the public.

PT 2 HEALTHCARE..!!!

On June 26, 2001 At the Board of Supervisors Health Committee Hearing, Sup. Sophie Maxwell who has been working with SEIU local 250 on this issue, introduced an ordinance that requires private hospitals to notify patients of their right to apply for charity care. The ordinance also requires hospitals to file an annual report with DPH describing how many people applied for charity care, received charity care and were rejected, as well as cost info, etc. The ordinance establishes financial penalties to be levied against hospitals for failing to comply.

This ordinance will help hold hospitals accountable and is a first step towards establishing greater public accountability.

The ordenance was passed by the full board on Monday, July 2, 2001

"Charity Care Policy Reporting and Notice Ordinance"(print this and keep it with you, poor folks!!)

I. Purpose: According to the ordinance, its principal purpose is to provide City agencies with adequate information to plan for the provision of health care to city residents and "to maximize the access to charity care within the community and to enhance the health of the public by informing individuals of the availability of charity care.

II. Provisions: This ordinance would add language to the San Francisco Health Code requiring San Francisco's private hospitals to:

Notify patients about their right to apply for charity care;
Submit annual reports to the San Francisco Department of Public Health describing each hospital's provision of charity care.

Patient Notification Requirements:
Hospitals would be required to verbally notify patients during the admissions process about the availability of charity care and any process necessary to apply for charity care.
Hospitals would be required to post multilingual notices about their charity care policies in several prominent locations within the hospital, such as the emergency department, billing office, and waiting rooms.

Public Reporting Requirements:
Hospitals would be required to file annual reports with the San Francisco Department of Public Health containing the following information:
The dollar amount of charity care provided during the year, as measured in terms of costs to the hospital;

The total number of applications for charity care received by the hospital, as well as the numbers of acceptances and denials, including visit code of each patient's residents;
The number of people applying for charity care who were referred to other facilities, including the name of the facilities to which they were referred;
The description of the type of services delivered to charity care patients (i.e., emergency, inpatient, outpatient or ancillary medical services);
All of the hospital's charity care policies, including but not limited to explanations regarding the availability of charity care and the time periods and procedures for application, determination, and appeal; any application forms used; and the hospital locations and hours at which the information may be obtained by the general public;
Other information that the Department of Public Health requires.

III. Enforcement: The ordinance would establish a penalty of up to $500 per day for hospitals that violate the ordinance.

IV. Applicability: The ordinance would cover all private acute-care hospitals in San Francisco. Kaiser Foundation Hospital San Francisco would be covered by the notification provisions of this ordinance, but would be exempt from the reporting provisions because Kaiser hospitals, which operate on a pre-paid basis, do not have billing systems capable of collecting the data required by the reporting portion of this ordinance. This mirrors a similar exemption for Kaiser hospitals under state law.

The ordinance was passed
by the full board on Monday,
July 2, 2001.

by Kaponda

Radiating bitter condemnation, the eyes of Leroy Moore, Jr. conducted
the crowd through years of disappointment experienced by disabled people
of color. His suggestive indictment of the exclusionary policies of the
Americans with Disabilities Act cast a pall of gloom over its 10th Anniversary
ceremonies around the country. The people at City Hall listened that Wednesday,
July 26, 2000, as the president and founder of Disability Advocates of
Minorities Organization (DAMO) told the other side of the ADA story.

by Kaponda

I felt like I had been atop Mount Everest, as I listened
to the small child in front of the United Nations Plaza.
Even the raised concrete structure on which the
beautiful, three-year old girl stood did not make her
appear any taller. The sound of her voice resonated
out of a loudspeaker as the breeze caused the unfurled
banners to cradle her body. True to the proverb, "Out
of the mouth of babes and suckling," it was she who
had provided me the insight into the significance of
the event held on Friday, May 12th, when she
uttered, "Happy Mothers Day to all of the Mothers in
Prison."

"Mothers in Prison -- Children in Crisis" was
sponsored by Families with a Future, an organization
founded by the mother of the three-year old wonder,
Ida McCray. Now in its sixth year, Mothers in
Prison, Children in Crisis is the first and only
national organizing campaign that seeks to establish
alternatives to incarceration as the sentencing norm
for women with dependent children. Based in the
state of New York, it has a broad-based community
of supporters around the country whose mission is to
use compelling statistics to demand legislators to
overhaul current sentencing regulations.

According to statistics gathered by Campaign 2000
JusticeWorks Community, there are now 146,600
women incarcerated in United States prisons and
jails. An astounding statistic by the U.S. Department
of Justice: Bureau of Justice Statistic, states that of
the 146,000 women incarcerated, 75% are mothers.
Furthermore, two-thirds of these women have
children under the age of 18.

A formerly incarcerated woman, Ida McCray had
spent 12 grueling years in the California Prison
System, California Youth Authority and Federal
prisons. I asked her what she would most like to
express to the people concerning the rally at Civic
Center Plaza. "We need more places that will help
families. Monies have been appropriated to fragment
families. We need money to build families,"
according to McCray. Standing firmly on her
commitment to end the separation of biological
families, McCray continued to express her feelings,
as the wind gingered up her healthy dreadlocks, "This
is a form of genocide which is being given no
attention. A glaring example is our children." Unlike
many incarcerated mothers, Ida McCray did not lose
her children during her time in prison.

Children are the first casualties when their mothers
are incarcerated. According to a statistic by the U.S.
Department of Justice: Office of Justice Programs,
"Women currently in prison or jail are mothers to
more than 250,000 children, the majority of whom
are under 18 years of age." "While children usually
remain with their mother during the incarceration of
their father," according to a study by The Obsborne
Association, "Children of incarcerated mothers are
much more likely to experience a change in primary
caretaker."

The strategic efforts of the supporters of the Mothers in
Prison, Children in Crisis movement have opened the
doors of people in high places. Acting under authority of
the State of Iowa, Governor Thomas J. Vilsack proclaimed
May 7, 1999 as Mothers in Prison -- Children In Crisis
Day." Also, acting under authority, Governor Mike
Huckabee of Arkansas, during a rally in May of 1999,
proclaimed May 9th through May 11th of 1999, "Mothers
in Prison, Children in Crisis Weekend."

One of the speakers at the rally was San Francisco District
Attorney, Terrence Hallinan, who gave the onlookers hope
when he stated that he would like to, "Declare an end to the
war on drugs. A war on drugs is not the solution, as it
causes more problems and much more misery." Hallinan
further stated that "Women are being incarcerated for
victimless crimes...."

An official for the Department of Health, Jimmy Loyce,
gave a passionate speech before the crowd at the Civic
Center Plaza. "Every day a mother does in prison, her
child does in prison [also]," Loyce stated. He added that
"The only crime is a disease called alcoholism and drug
addiction," implying that a connection exists between
women who are incarcerated and their addiction to drugs
and alcohol.

A recent study by the U.S. Department of Justice: Office of
Justice Programs has determined that, "Women in prison
are more likely than men to have ever used drugs, to have
used drugs daily the month before their offense, to have
been under the influence of drugs while committing the
offense and to have committed the offense to get drugs."
"Less than 10% of those who need substance abuse
treatment in prison actually receive it. Seventy-five percent
of the general population who seek substance abuse
treatment, never receive it," according to The Nation1s
Number One Health Problem.

Claire Campbell of Jelani House, Inc., a refuge for
pregnant women, underscored the misappropriations of
funds to criminalize offenders of victimless crimes by
stating, "Women are in jail for nonviolent crimes, like
holding drugs for others." She called for women to stay
tuned in to each other.

The Executive Director for Standing Against Global
Exploitation (SAGE) provided recommendations to
changing the system. She stated that "Since changing
institutions is very difficult, we must change the minds of
individuals inside the system, and expose them to
alternatives to incarceration."

According to the Mothers in Prisons, Children in Crisis1
Fact Sheet, "Alternatives to incarceration have been
legislatively endorsed for more than 20 years. The
understanding which guided the early movement towards
alternatives was that penal institutions are destructive to the
humanity of prisoners, guards, administrators and the
community. Thus, alternatives were designed to keep
people out of jail and prison.

The recommended alternatives to incarceration of women
would probably decrease rapidly increasing separation of
biological families. There would be more children in the
warm embrace of their loving parents. It is a concept that
would give Mothers Day a whole new meaning.

by James Tracy

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently released
a report entitled "Waiting In Vain: America's Housing Crisis." It "revealed"
what most U.S. renters, especially the working poor, could have told them
for free: our housing crisis is nationwide, and housing affordable to
low-income people nearly extinct.

by Jesaka Irwin

I see this battle as only growing in strength, as it
broadens and deepens it1s reach; and as it challenges
Capital1s lust for death; and as it supports the cause
of life, of freedom, and of Justice.I salute You!
-Mumia Abu Jamal-

On Saturday May 13th the world stood together to
fight a racist judicial system....the world stood
together to fight the Death Penalty... the world stood
together to free it1s political prisoners. .....the World
Stood together to Free Mumia Abu Jamal.

I rose early, anticipating the union of events today. 70
countries mobilizing for many reasons in the name Of
Mumia Abu Jamal. The sun had decided to support us
despite a rainy forecast. I met up with my fellow
journalists at PNN and proceeded to the "March for
Mumia" in downtown San Francisco.

As we arrived, there was an overwhelming amount of
information being dispersed from every direction.
The mobile stage projecting words, and sounds of
inspiration before the March down Market Street to
the Civic Center.

Around noon the March began. 9,000 people strong,
not including the lines of policemen who walked
beside us with their helmets in hand, and billy clubs
attached to their sides. The Chants were strong "
FREE MUMIA ABU JAMAL.... AN INJURY TO
ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!" and increased in
volume through the one mile march lead by POOR
Magazine's own; Kaponda.

As I marched many thoughts journeyed through my mind.
I tried to imagine what it would be like to be sentenced to
death for a crime I didn't commit. During my own
incarceration in the State of Florida I remember straining
my eyes through the fence covered windows searching for
a piece of sky. I remember the anxiety I felt waiting for the
guard to scream my name and tell me to grab my stuff;
"You're free to go." I didn1t know how long I would be
there, but I prayed everyday for freedom.

Black, political, and a journalist, Mumia was framed for
these reasons along with the fact that he exposed a corrupt
police department in one of Americas most unjust actions,
the bombing of the MOVE house in Philadelphia.

When we arrived at the civic center the many banners that
streamed over head as we marched made a circle in front of
the stage. Over 32 people spoke and 6 bands performed.
Many organizations were represented, one being The
National Federation of Teachers, who are fighting to teach
their children about Mumia and the Death Penalty. Another
being Longshoremen from across America who shut down
many ports on April 24th in the fight to free Mumia. I was
also extremely moved by Michael Franti of Rage Against
the Machine, who1s words and poetry painted a picture
that still lingers in my mind.

I ended the day with my own poetic rant on the stage;

"We need to realize who really has the power, and break
free from the nineteen inch screen torturing our minds with
the mundane so we don1t go insane over things WE
BELIEVE are out of our control. Wake up people! and
smell the democracy distorted and dismissed; Why do you
think it was the FIRST ammendment."

As I wandered down 10th street on my journey home I
was consumed by the reality of how many peoples lives
are resting in our hands. Mumia is just the beginning of a
long fight for Life, Freedom, and Justice.