Thousands of Indians, Egyptians, Chinese, Filipinos, Turks, Germans, English, Italians, Malaysians, Koreans and a host of other nationalities are lining up at the borders and the airport to leave Libya. It begs the question: What were they doing in Libya in the first place? Unemployment figures, according to the Western media and Al Jazeera, are at 30 percent. If this is so, then why all these foreign workers?

For those of us who have lived and worked in Libya, there are many complexities to the current situation that have been completely overlooked by the Western media and “Westoxicated” analysts, who have nothing other than a Eurocentric perspective to draw on. Let us be clear – there is no possibility of understanding what is happening in Libya within a Eurocentric framework. Westerners are incapable of understanding a system unless the system emanates from or is attached in some way to the West. Libya’s system and the battle now taking place on its soil stands completely outside of the Western imagination.

News coverage by the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera has been oversimplified and misleading. An array of anti-Qaddafi spokespersons, most living outside Libya, have been paraded in front of us – each one clearly a counter-revolutionary and less credible than the last. Despite the clear and irrefutable evidence from the beginning of these protests that Muammar Qaddafi had considerable support both inside Libya and internationally, not one pro-Qaddafi voice has been allowed to air.

The media and their selected commentators have done their best to manufacture an opinion that Libya is essentially the same as Egypt and Tunisia and that Qaddafi is just another tyrant amassing large sums of money in Swiss bank accounts. But no matter how hard they try, they cannot make Qaddafi into a Mubarak or Libya into Egypt.

The first question is: Is the revolt taking place in Libya fueled by a concern over economic issues such as poverty and unemployment as the media would have us believe? Let us examine the facts.

Under the revolutionary leadership of Muammar Qaddafi, Libya has attained the highest standard of living in Africa. In 2007, in an article which appeared in the African Executive Magazine, Norah Owaraga noted that Libya, “unlike other oil producing countries such as Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, utilized the revenue from its oil to develop its country. The standard of living of the people of Libya is one of the highest in Africa, falling in the category of countries with a GNP per capita of between USD 2,200 and 6,000.”

In 1951, Libya was officially the world’s poorest country. Now, because its oil wealth has been shared with all its people, Libya has one of the highest standards of living in the region. Government subsidies keep food plentiful and affordable, everyone owns a home and a car, and education and health care of excellent quality are free to all. – Photo: ©Victor Paul Borg

This is all the more remarkable when we consider that in 1951 Libya was officially the poorest country in the world. According to the World Bank, the per capita income was less than $50 a year – even lower than India. Today, all Libyans own their own homes and cars. Two Fleet Street journalists, David Blundy and Andrew Lycett, who are by no means supporters of the Libyan revolution, had this to say:

“The young people are well dressed, well fed and well educated. Libyans now earn more per capita than the British. The disparity in annual incomes … is smaller than in most countries. Libya’s wealth has been fairly spread throughout society. Every Libyan gets free, and often excellent, education, medical and health services. New colleges and hospitals are impressive by any international standard. All Libyans have a house or a flat, a car and most have televisions, video recorders and telephones. Compared with most citizens of the Third World countries, and with many in the First World, Libyans have it very good indeed.” (Source: “Qaddafi and the Libyan Revolution”)

Large scale housing construction has taken place right across the country. Every citizen has been given a decent house or apartment to live in rent-free. In Qaddafi’s Green Book it states: “The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family; therefore, it should not be owned by others.” This dictum has now become a reality for the Libyan people.

Large scale agricultural projects have been implemented in an effort to “make the desert bloom” and achieve self-sufficiency in food production. Any Libyan who wants to become a farmer is given free use of land, a house, farm equipment, some livestock and seed.

Today, Libya can boast one of the finest health care systems in the Arab and African World. All people have access to doctors, hospitals, clinics and medicines, completely free of all charges.

The fact is that the Libyan revolution has achieved such a high standard of living for its people that they import labor from other parts of the world to do the jobs that the unemployed Libyans refuse to do. Libya has been called by many observers inside and out “a nation of shop keepers.” It is part of the Libyan Arab psyche to own your own small business and this type of small scale private enterprise flourishes in Libya. We can draw on many examples of Libyans with young sons who expressed the idea that it would be shameful for the family if these same young men were to seek menial work and instead preferred for them to remain at home supported by the extended family.

No system is perfect, and Libya is no exception. They suffered nine years of economic sanctions and this caused huge problems for the Libyan economy. Also, there is nowhere on planet Earth that has escaped the monumental crisis of neo-liberal capitalism. It has impacted everywhere – even on post-revolutionary societies that have rejected “free market” capitalism. However, what we are saying is that severe economic injustice is not at the heart of this conflict. So then, what is?

A battle for Africa

The battle that is being waged in Libya is fundamentally a battle between pan-African forces on the one hand, who are dedicated to the realization of Qaddafi’s vision of a united Africa, and reactionary racist Libyan Arab forces who reject Qaddafi’s vision of Libya as part of a united Africa and want to ally themselves instead with the EU and look toward Europe and the Arab world for Libya’s future.

Kings and sultans of Africa, long befriended by Qaddafi, came to the conference for “A Decent Life in Europe or a Welcome Return to Africa.” In the foreground is the king of Burkina Faso. – Photo: Minister of Information JR

One of Muammar Qaddafi’s most controversial and difficult moves in the eyes of many Libyans was his championing of Africa and his determined drive to unite Africa with one currency, one army and a shared vision regarding the true independence and liberation of the entire continent. He has contributed large amounts of his time and energy and large sums of money to this project and like Kwame Nkrumah, he has paid a high price.

Many of the Libyan people did not approve of this move. They wanted their leader to look towards Europe. Of course, Libya has extensive investments and commercial ties with Europe, but the Libyans know that Qaddafi’s heart is in Africa.

Many years ago, Qaddafi told a large gathering, which included Libyans and revolutionaries from many parts of the world, that the Black Africans were the true owners of Libya long before the Arab incursion into North Africa and that Libyans need to acknowledge and pay tribute to their ancient African roots. He ended by saying, as is proclaimed in his Green Book, that “the Black race shall prevail throughout the world.” This is not what many Libyans wanted to hear. As with all fair skinned Arabs, prejudice against Black Africans is endemic.

Qaddafi ended by saying, as is proclaimed in his Green Book, that “the Black race shall prevail throughout the world.”

Brother Leader, Guide of the Revolution and King of Kings are some of the titles that have been bestowed on Qaddafi by Africans. Only last month Qaddafi called for the creation of a Secretariat of traditional African Chiefs and Kings, with whom he has excellent ties, to co-ordinate efforts to build African unity at the grassroots level throughout the continent, a bottom-up approach, as opposed to trying to build unity at the government/state level, an approach which has failed the African unification project since the days of Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Toure. This bottom-up approach is widely supported by many pan-Africanists worldwide.

African mercenaries or freedom fighters?

In the past week, the phrase “African mercenaries” has been repeated over and over by the media, and the Libyan citizens they choose to speak have, as one commentator put it, “spat the word ‘African’ with a venomous hatred.”

In August 2008, Qaddafi called this meeting of traditional African rulers. Recognizing that African people tend to trust these kings and chiefs, he encouraged them to use their influence to urge African political leaders to work toward African unity. – Photo: BBC

The media has assumed, without any research or understanding of the situation because they are refusing to give any air time to pro-Qaddafi forces, that the many Africans in military uniform fighting alongside the pro-Qaddafi Libyan forces are mercenaries. However, it is a myth that the Africans fighting to defend the Jamahiriya and Muammar Qaddafi are mercenaries being paid a few dollars and this assumption is based solely on the usual racist and contemptuous view of Black Africans.

Actually, in truth, there are people all over Africa and the African Diaspora who support and respect Muammar Qaddafi as a result of his invaluable contribution to the worldwide struggle for African emancipation.

Over the past two decades, thousands of Africans from all over the continent were provided with education, work and military training – many of them coming from liberation movements. As a result of Libya’s support for liberation movements throughout Africa and the world, international battalions were formed. These battalions saw themselves as a part of the Libyan revolution and took it upon themselves to defend the revolution against attacks from within its borders or outside.

Anti-Qaddafi militia stop three Africans at a checkpoint in eastern Libya. – Photo: Kevin Frayer, AP

These are the Africans who are fighting to defend Qaddafi and the gains of the Libyan revolution to their death if need be. It is not unlike what happened when internationalist battalions came to the aid of the revolutionary forces against Franco’s fascist forces in Spain.

Malian political analyst, Adam Thiam, notes that “thousands of Tuaregs who were enrolled in the Islamic Legion established by the Libyan revolution remained in Libya and they are enrolled in the Libyan security forces.”

African migrants under attack

As African fighters from Chad, Niger, Mali, Ghana, Kenya and Southern Sudan (it should be noted that Libya supported the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army under John Garang in their war of liberation against Arab hegemonists in Khartoum, while all other Arab leaders backed the Khartoum regime) fight to defend this African revolution, a million African refugees and thousands of African migrant workers stand the risk of being murdered as a result of their perceived support for Qaddafi.

Thousands of Africans have fled Libya for Tunisia, where this new camp for 5,000 refugees has been set up. – Photo: Lefteris Pitarakis, AP

One Turkish construction worker described a massacre: “We had 70-80 people from Chad working for our company. They were cut dead with pruning shears and axes, attackers saying: ‘You are providing troops for Qaddafi.’ The Sudanese were also massacred. We saw it for ourselves.”

This is a far cry from what is being portrayed in the media as ‘peaceful protesters’ being set upon by pro-Qaddafi forces. In fact, footage of the Benghazi revolt shows men with machetes, AK 47s and RPGs. In the Green Book, Qaddafi argues for the transfer of all power, wealth and arms directly into the hands of the people themselves. No one can deny that the Libyan populace is heavily armed. This is part of Qaddafi’s philosophy of arms not being monopolised by any section of the society, including the armed forces. It must be said that it is not usual practice for tyrants and dictators to arm their population.

Qaddafi has also been very vocal regarding the plight of Africans who migrate to Europe, where they are met with racism, more poverty, violence at the hands of extreme right wing groups and, in many cases, death when the un-seaworthy boats they travel in sink.

Minister of Information JR, Ra’Shida and Hajj Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X, met Samia Nkrumah (second from left), daughter of Kwame Nkrumah, at a conference organized by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to improve the lot of Africans, whether they try their luck in Europe or return to Africa. Qaddafi has long championed Africans – to the dismay of some of his own people. He invited new, emerging leaders as well as veteran and traditional leaders to this conference, held in Tripoli this January. – Photo: Minister of Information JR

Moved by their plight, a conference was held in Libya in January this year, to address their needs and concerns. More than 500 delegates and speakers from around the world attended the conference titled “A Decent Life in Europe or a Welcome Return to Africa.”

“We should live in Europe with decency and dignity,” Qaddafi told participants. “We need a good relationship with Europe, not a relationship of master and slave. There should be a strong relationship between Africa and Europe. Our presence should be strong, tangible and good. It’s up to you as the Africans in the Diaspora. We have to continue more and more until the unity of Africa is achieved.

“From now on, by the will of God, I will assign teams to search, investigate and liaise with the Africans in Europe and to check their situations … this is my duty and role towards the sons of Africa; I am a soldier for Africa. I am here for you and I work for you; therefore, I will not leave you and I will follow up on your conditions.”

Joint committees of African migrants, the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and international organizations present at the conference discussed the need to coordinate the implementation of many of the conference’s recommendations.

Statements are appearing all over the internet from Africans who have a different view to that being perpetuated by those intent on discrediting Qaddafi and the Libyan revolution. One African commented:

“When I was growing up, I first read a comic book of his revolution at the age of 10. Since then, as dictators came and went, Col. Qaddafi has made an impression on me as a man who truly loves Africa! Libyans could complain that he spent their wealth on other Africans! But those Africans he helped put in power built schools and mosques and brought in many forms of development showing that Africans can do for themselves. If those Africans would abandon him to be swallowed by Western imperialism and their lies and just let him go as a dictator in the name of so-called democracy … if they could do that … they should receive the names and fate that the Western press gives our beloved leader. If there is any one person who was half as generous as he is, let them step forward.”

An African migrant commented: “Col. Qaddafi has made an impression on me as a man who truly loves Africa! Libyans could complain that he spent their wealth on other Africans! But those Africans he helped put in power built schools and mosques and brought in many forms of development showing that Africans can do for themselves.”

And another African comments:

“This man has been accused of many things and listening to the West who just recently were happy to accept his generous hospitality, you will think that he is worse than Hitler. The racism and contemptuous attitudes of Arabs towards Black Africans has made me a natural sceptic of any overtures from them to forge a closer link with Black Africa, but Qaddafi was an exception.”

Opportunistic revolt

This counter-revolutionary revolt caught everyone, including the Libyan authorities, by surprise. They knew what the media is not reporting: that unlike Egypt and Tunisia and other countries in the region, where there is tremendous poverty, unemployment and repressive pro-Western regimes, the Libyan dynamic was entirely different. However, an array of opportunistic forces, ranging from so-called Islamists, Arab supremacists, including some of those who have recently defected from Qaddafi’s inner circle, have used the events in neighbouring countries as a pretext to stage a coup and to advance their own agenda for the Libyan nation.

This Libyan ship loaded with aid for Gaza attempted to break the Israeli blockade but was diverted to Egypt on July 13, 2010. The attempt was made only six weeks after nine Turks were killed when Israelis attacked a large aid flotilla on May 31, 2010. – Photo: Pan African News Wire

Many of these former officials were the authors of and covertly fuelled the anti-African pogrom in Libya a few years ago when many Africans lost their lives in street battles between Africans and Arab Libyans. This was a deliberate attempt to embarrass Qaddafi and to undermine his efforts in Africa.

Qaddafi has long been a thorn in the Islamists’ side. In his recent address to the Libyan people, broadcast from the ruins of the Bab al-Azizia compound bombed by Reagan in 1986, he asked the “bearded ones” in Benghazi and Jabal al Akhdar where they were when Reagan bombed his compound in Tripoli, killing hundreds of Libyans, including his daughter. He said they were hiding in their homes applauding the U.S. and he vowed that he would never allow the country to be returned to the grip of them and their colonial masters.

Al Qaeda is in the Sahara on his borders and the International Union of Muslim Scholars is calling for him to be tried in a court. One asks why are they calling for Qaddafi’s blood? Why not Mubarak, who closed the Rafah Border Crossing while the Israelis slaughtered the Palestinians in Gaza. Why not Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Blair, who are responsible for the murder of millions of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan?

The answer is simple – because Qaddafi committed some “cardinal sins.” He dared to challenge their reactionary and feudal notions of Islam. He has upheld the idea that every Muslim is a ruler (Caliph) and does not need the Ulema to interpret the Quran for them. He has questioned the Islam of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda from a Quranic/theological perspective and is one of the few political leaders equipped to do so. Qaddafi has been called a Mujaddid (this term refers to a person who appears to revive Islam and to purge it of alien elements, restoring it to its authentic form) and he comes in the tradition of Jamaludeen Afghani and the late Iranian revolutionary, Ali Shariati.

Minister of Information JR and Ra’Shida walked around Old Tripoli during their visit in January, learning about Libyan history and looking at the architecture. Marcus Aurelius of the Roman Empire created a wall around Old Tripoli in ancient times. Qaddafi likes to remind Libyans that their country is part of Africa and the population used to be Black African. – Photo: Minister of Information JR

Libya is a deeply traditional society, plagued with some outmoded and bankrupt ideas that continue to surface to this day. In many ways, Qaddafi has had to struggle against the same reactionary aspects of Arab culture and tradition that the holy prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was struggling against in seventh century Arabia – Arab supremacy/racism, supremacy of family and tribe, historical feuding tribe against tribe and the marginalisation of women.

Benghazi has always been at the heart of counter-revolution in Libya, fostering reactionary Islamic movements such as the Wahhabis and Salafists. It is these people who founded the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group based in Benghazi which allies itself with Al Qaeda and who have, over the years, been responsible for the assassination of leading members of the Libyan revolutionary committees.

These forces hate Qaddafi’s revolutionary reading of the Quran. They foster an Islam concerned with outward trappings and mere religiosity, in the form of rituals, which at the same time is feudal and repressive, while rejecting the liberatory spirituality of Islam. While these so-called Islamists are opposed to Western occupation of Muslim lands, they have no concrete programmatic platform for meaningful socio-economic and political transformation to advance their societies beyond semi-feudal and capitalist systems which reinforce the most backward and reactionary ideas and traditions.

Qaddafi’s political philosophy, as outlined in the Green Book, rejects unfettered capitalism in all its manifestations, including the “state capitalism” of the former communist countries and the neo-liberal capitalist model that has been imposed at a global level. The idea that capitalism is not compatible with Islam and the Quran is not palatable to many Arabs and so-called Islamists because they hold onto the fallacious notion that business and trade is synonymous with capitalism.

Getting it right

Whatever the mistakes made by Qaddafi and the Libyan revolution, its gains and its huge contribution to the struggle of oppressed peoples worldwide cannot and must not be ignored. Saif Qaddafi, when asked about the position of his father and family, said this battle is not about one man and his family; it is about Libya and the direction it will take.

Artwork created in 2001 shows Qaddafi championing “Africa for Africans.”

That direction has always been controversial. In 1982, The World Mathaba was established in Libya. Mathaba means a gathering place for people with a common purpose. The World Mathaba brought together revolutionaries and freedom fighters from every corner of the globe to share ideas and develop their revolutionary knowledge.

Many liberation groups throughout the world received education, training and support from Muammar Qaddafi and the Libyan revolution, including ANC, AZAPO, PAC and BCM of Azania (South Africa), SWAPO of Namibia, MPLA of Angola, the Sandinistas of Nicaragua, the Polisario of the Sahara, the PLO, the Native American movements throughout the Americas, the Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan, to name but a few. Nelson Mandela called Muammar Qaddafi one of this century’s greatest freedom fighters, and insisted that the eventual collapse of the apartheid system owed much to Qaddafi and Libyan support. Mandela said that in the darkest moments of their struggle, when their backs were to the wall, it was Muammar Qaddafi who stood with them. The late African freedom fighter, Kwame Ture, referred to Qaddafi as “a diamond in a cesspool of African misleaders.”

The late African freedom fighter, Kwame Ture, referred to Qaddafi as “a diamond in a cesspool of African misleaders.”

The hideous notion being perpetuated by the media and reactionary forces, inside and outside of Libya, that this is just another story of a bloated dictatorship that has run its course is misinformation and deliberate distortion. Whatever one’s opinions of Qaddafi the man, no one can deny his invaluable contribution to human emancipation and the universal truths outlined in his Green Book.

Progressive scholars in many parts of the world, including the West, have acclaimed The Green Book as an incisive critique of capitalism and the Western parliamentary model of multi-party democracy. In addition, there is no denying that the system of direct democracy posited by Qaddafi in The Green Book offers an alternative model and solution for Africa and the Third World, where multi-party so-called democracy has been a dismal failure, resulting in poverty, ethnic and tribal conflict and chaos.

Every revolution, since the beginning of time, has defended itself against those who would want to roll back its gains. Europeans should look back into their own bloody history to see that this includes the American, French and Bolshevik revolutions. Marxists speak of Trotsky and Lenin’s brutal suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion by the Red Army as being a “tragic necessity.”

Let’s get it right: The battle in Libya is not about peaceful protestors versus an armed and hostile state. All sides are heavily armed and hostile. The battle being waged in Libya is essentially a battle between those who want to see a united and liberated Libya and Africa, free of neo-colonialism and neo-liberal capitalism and free to construct their own system of governance compatible with the African and Arab personalities and cultures, and those who find this entire notion repugnant. And both sides are willing to pay the ultimate price to defend their positions.

Make no mistake, if Qaddafi and the Libyan revolution are defeated by this opportunistic conglomerate of reactionaries and racists, then progressive forces worldwide and the pan-African project will suffer a huge defeat and setback.

Gerald A. Perreira has lived in Libya for many years and was an executive member of the World Mathaba. He can be reached at mojadi94@gmail.com. This story has previously appeared on Black Agenda Report and many other sites.

After the round dance (4am), I received the chance to interview two youth round dance singers, Fidel Wounded Head and Quinn Benally. They were very shy and when I interviewed them there were a bunch of other round dance singers watching. Big ups to these two singers for holding it down being interviewed when everyone else was scared to. The Above pic is of my homeboy Wayne and Giovanni from Ft. Hall!!! One Love!

Editors Note: On Tuesday, April 26th over 200 people protested the Criminalization of Public Space in the streets of Berkeley. The fight against the criminalization of our public spaces  and poor peoples is just beginning. Please begin your on-line resistance by signing the petition to Stand Up for the Right to Sit Down

Cover Photo of Berkeley Sit-Down Protest by Will Steele

"Homelessness is that intersection for all oppression."

Teague Gonzalez, Homeless Action Center stated during her address in a recent forum panel. Gonzalez discussed the treatment of house less/landless people, via po-lice harassment, and the laws that criminalize them.

"Po-lice State of AmeriKKKa. It is literally a crime to be poor in the U.S.A!"

"Tiny" Lisa Gray-Garcia, in her book "Criminal of Poverty" chronicling her life experience of po-lice harassment while house/less with her mom. The po-lice officer denied her wishes, and proceeded to tow their car/home.

As a community, poverty, race, and class segregation via "policy proposals" is what we face every single second of our lives. We're profiled by politicians (with po-lice and military as their arm) who allege and “pledge” themselves as "public servants." Often, one is brainwashed to believe that the "laws" inked into implementation is aimed only for "order" in society.

Despite the unrelenting efforts of my family at POOR, and many of our community comrades to defeat its voter approval; Sit/Lie law "civil sidewalks" was passed here in San Francisco, last year. Its ordinance is expected to parallel a perilous precedent in punishing the poor.

If someone sleeps on the sidewalk, the first “offense” is a fine of $50-$100. The second “offense” within a 24 hour period is $300- $500 and up to 10 days in jail or both. The third “offense” within 120 days of conviction is $400-$500, up to 30 days or both. In of itself, it is spreading across the country to other cities.

The City of Berkeley, CA is next in line to lobby and legislate this "law." The "civil sidewalks" replicated, re-introduced into "sidewalk management."

Its history even ranges as far as to the 14th century under the guise of "settlement laws." The first was passed under Edward III of England in 1349; although these laws would not be titled as "settlement laws" until three centuries later. The Tudors was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of Ireland and its realms from 1485 till 1603.

They privatized church holdings beneficial for seniors, people succumbed to sicknesses, orphans, and veterans. Because there was an "epidemic of homelessness" the Tudors incorporated Edward's Poor Laws for "social control."

Myself, my mentor "Tiny" Lisa Gray-Garcia (POOR co-founder) and fellow comrade Ruyata Akio Mc Clothin a.k.a RAM, have each experienced the consequences for the sole act of being poor. It is one of the key components at the core of why we re-port and sup-port in resistance to all injustices.

Tiny ticketed throughout her many grueling years for living on the street, while caring for her mom, "Mama Dee" Gray-Garcia. RAM racially-profiled by members of the San Francisco Police Department, on numerous occasions. Myself, while sitting in a single room occupancy hotel one night over five years ago, for a crime I did not commit. My very life almost stolen as a result.

Ironically, some things never change for others in similar instances:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/crime/2011/03/cops-accused-bad-busts

http://www.poormagazine.org/node/3715

On March 17th, 2011 (Saint Patrick's Day) the three of us attended a forum panel at U.C. Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law. On the panel were fellow comrades in our struggle. Bob Offer-Westort, from the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness. Teague Gonzalez, an attorney from the Homeless Action Network. Osha Neumann, supervising attorney for the East Bay Law Community Center.

The purpose for this panel was to prevent this "proposal" from passing, and displacing house/less people from sidewalks. How would this affect the most vulnerable house/less who're seniors and people with disabilities?

"We have 550 cases we're representing in court." Teague Gonzalez said. She would later describe her office's client capacity in court. "As we win cases, we take cases but our capacity is around 550." I then asked her how many of those cases involved homeless people cited for living on a sidewalk.

Gonzalez explained that their Berkeley office receives many cases of clients "cited for all sorts of living outdoors citation."

"Nobody has been cited with living on.........or lying that I know of." Gonzalez says. "But if the law passes (sidewalks management) I imagine we'll start seeing more of that." Unlike Municipal Police Code Sections 22-24, and California Penal Code Section 647c that addresses “sidewalk obstruction” Sit/Lie only addresses non-obstructive sitting and lying down. No other activities.

The unforgettable-era of the civil rights movement was pivotal in penetrating these injustices. Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat led to the defeat of white segregation/supremacy on public transportation in 1955. The student "sit-ins" like the incident in a Woolworth's department store in Jackson, Mississippi on May 28th, 1963.

The students were viciously attacked by angry white mobs for their agitation to segregation.

In 1968, the Haight-Ashbury Merchants and Improvement Association lobbied the S.F. Board of Supervisors to pass a law that would remove all hippies in that district. In the Castro District, gay men were targeted by pol-ice officers for sitting outside bars. In 1979 it was repealed due to violations of the Fourteenth Amendment which cites a citizen’s right to Due Process and Equal Protection clauses.

Ironically, in a history repeating of sorts, the "Sit/Lie" proposal resurfaced last year in the Haight-Ashbury District. The perception from my mentor, Tiny, was this would start in this particular area (that's predominately white) then it would trend towards areas targeting house/less folks, and communities of color.

“In the wake of the proposed sit-lie law, which would make it illegal for poor people to sit or lie on any public sidewalk or street, the San Francisco is increasingly giving public streets and sidewalks away to large corporate festivals where rich, mostly white people stumble around with open containers, drunk and disorderly."

Tiny in her article, "When the rich can sit on sidewalks." http://www.sfbg.com/2010/06/09/when-rich-can-sit-sidewalks?page=1

Lobbyists lure the minds of the ignorant and/or supporters with covert corporate components: T.V. commercial ads, mainstream media, and bulletin board posts in communities. This can be said of so-called journalists. S.F. Chronicle writer, C.W. Nevius known for his homeless hounding editorials appeared arrogant and smug following the passage of “Sit/Lie” last year.

“If they want to mutter and grouse about the election, that's fine. They've been muttering and grousing about other, similar issues they opposed - Care Not Cash, the Community Justice Center - for years.”

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-11-06/bay-area/24817628_1_citywide-vote-...

Its unseen ulterior motives are often seen by us poverty scholars when we witness "sweeps." From po-lice officers "enforcing" city ordinances forcing house/less people from sleeping in doorways, parks, storefronts, and office buildings. In the case of Rhonda Patterson in 2009, a landless African Descent woman who slept in a storefront was falsely accussed of harassment by a lawyer.

“I’m not going to do anything about Mrs. Patterson. I have known her for many years and she has never hurt anybody.” Officer Chiu, a San Francisco police officer said to Tiny. She had witnessed the attorney yelling at Miss Patterson to move. http://sfbayview.com/2009/i-was-born-here/

"In 1994, the City of Berkeley passed a law against aggressive panhandling." Osha Neumann explained. Like S.F. Board of Police Commissioner, Petra De Jesus pointed out before a hearing held on "Sit/Lie" last year, Osha stated that "there is already a law in place against lying on a sidewalk."

Elsewhere in 1994, then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani created similar components of “Sit/Lie”. They would later generate to other cities (countries even) targeting poor people via "sweeps."

In his words for instituting this fascism model: "It's the street tax paid to drunks and panhandlers. It's the squeegee men shaking down the motorist waiting at a light. It's the trash storms, the swirling mass of garbage left by peddlers and panhandlers, and open-air drug bazaars on unclean streets."

In terms of these trends, other cities have proposed this law in the past. Bob pointed out that it failed "three times" in Portland. In the Los Angeles 2006 case of Jones v. Los Angeles (444 F.3d 1118 [2006]) the court prohibited pol-ice officers from arresting house/less people, who slept on the sidewalks when shelter beds weren't available.

Moreover, it violated the Eight Amendment of the U.S. Constitution citing "cruel and unusual punishment."

Recently, this Race, Media, Poverty (and Legal) Scholar attempted to contact the Downtown Berkeley Business Improvement District. "They're the primary mover on this." Bob later explained to me. When I called the office, a woman claimed that she "didn't have any knowledge" to this proposal, but would research this proposal.

She did, however mention in mid-sentence per my inquiry that the "sidewalks" should be clear for the disabled.

"The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship."

George Bernard Shaw

Above, always I hear your call, and cry out

"Without Mama Dee, whom there would be no me!"

Our journey began with you and me

At twelve, you gave me air to breath

Asleep side by side, in storefronts parking lots,

in our very car, resting our feet

Our journey began with you and me

Fully grown with community, collective voices, and cultures

Every "I" voice silencing every vulture

Smiling, proud, holding you as seen on our wall for all

Ashes alongside each ancestor above, pleased of your praises

Hold the line, share the wealth/health of communities below,

and have faith,

Homefullness heading your way!

Our journey began with you and me............from Mama Dee

"Lisa, I left............. but never departed from you.

Luminous light, spiritual sunset, sky no longer gray

You were always my day, still are my day. That's all I want to say"

"Mama Dee's spirit is an ethereal light to all dark tunnels around us, and within ourselves. It empowers our efforts to eliminate the inequities in our communities, locally and globally."

Marlon Crump

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack has directed the Forest Service to work with the USDA’s Office of Tribal Relations (OTR) to review existing laws, regulations, and policies and examine their effectiveness in ensuring a consistent level of protection for American Indian and Alaska Native sacred sites located on National Forest System lands. Secretary Vilsack asked the Forest Service to consult with Tribal leaders to determine how the Agency can do a better job addressing sacred site issues while simultaneously balancing pursuit of the Agency’s mission to deliver forest goods and services for current and future generations.

The Secretary has asked the Forest Service and USDA OTR to provide a final report and recommendations for sacred site policy changes and proposed policy language by November 2011, following the conclusion of Tribal consultation. Information on the policy review can be found athttp://www.fs.fed.us/spf/tribalrelations/sacredsites.shtml 

The following Sacred Sites Listening Sessions have been scheduled on Navajo Nation. 

March 14, 2011 - Navajo Nation Museum @ 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 
Location: Navajo Nation Museum, 
Highway 264 and Post Office Loop Road, Window Rock AZ, 86515 

March 15, 2011 - Coal Mine Canyon Chapter House @ 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 
Coal Mine Canyon Chapter House 
Directions: West 139 miles from Window Rock on Hwy 264 to BIA Indian Route 6710 

From Tuba City go 15 miles east on Hwy 264 to BIA Indian Route 6710 
  
March 16, Shiprock, NM @ 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 
Shiprock Chapter House 
Directions: East from the junction of Hwys 491 & 64 in the town of Shiprock, 500' east from the junction on your way towards Farmington. The Chapter House is on the north side of the Hwy. 

Noon Meal will be pot-luck style. 
In partnership with Dine Hataalii Association. 

Not able to attend?  You can still get your comments in. 

"Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free, prior, and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return."
    -Article 10 of UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples

On Friday, March 25th, the United Native Americans(UNA) will be demanding reparations and accountability from the people whom they know need to do the repairing: The Hearst family, and their media conglomerate that has made a fortune off of Lakota and Sioux native lands. The UNA's battle with the Hearsts is relavent to the lives of all landless people, especially those who've fallen prey to the Hearst Corp's dirty lies about poor folks.

 I work amongst a small group of folks in POOR Magazine’s Solidarity Board to mobilize peoples with privilege to think about the role of reparations for landless indigenous peoples in poverty like the poverty and indigenous scholars who lead the art, media, land and equity sharing project called Homefulness at POOR Magazine. We are speaking about what exactly reparations are, and about all of the oppressions that Western, Euro-centric wealth directly or indirectly rests upon—i.e., all the reasons that stolen lands and resources need to be restored to indigenous and poor peoples. This includes US Imperialism in the South Pacific, underpayment of employees, stolen indigenous land in Amerikkka, and displacement of urban poor communities. Our work includes talking to our friends and family about why land ownership is central to the processes of colonization and imperialism, and why land ownership should be at the center of reparations for those who have been displaced.

Reparations need to happen to heal the wounds that capitalism has inflicted upon the people the mainstream media indicates are the least important: indigenous communities, people of color, children, people in poverty, disabled people, migrants, elders, and mothers. Daily newspapers are the media through which we consume ideas about what to do and who to be, and tell stories to make us understand where we come from. These newspapers, like the Hearst-owned SF Examiner, tell us stories about what sort of ideal human we should all strive to be. The problem is, most media in wide circulation has been taken over by corporate interests, and ignores atrocities against folks who need their land back, like the Lakota people of the Black Hills, because indigenous folks, we are told, are not the ideal humans we all want to be. "Very few people know about these facts," says Quanah Brightman, a Lakota/Sioux leader of the UNA with whom I spoke. Manipulation of the media is a strategy that kkkolonizers like the Hearsts have used throughout history, and indigenous people at POOR and the UNA are turning the tables with their own people-led media!
 
In 1877, George Hearst, a patriarch of the Hearst newspaper fortune, "purchased" the Homestake Gold Mine in South Dakota. When residents in nearby Deadwood expressed concern over his business partnerships' plans to mine the gigantic lode of gold in the Black Hills, George Hearst founded a local newspaper to influence public opinion on the matter. A local journalist wrote ciritcally on the mining operation in a different newspaper, and was beat up in the streets of Deadwood as a result. The company used media to attack indigenous opposition to the advance of Capitalism into their sacred land.

Just the year before, in 1876, Custer's Last Stand marked a moment of displacement for the Sioux and Lakota folks living in the Black Hills. US Army troops were sent there to drive indigenous folks farther out onto the Great Plains and farther from ancestral lands. Contrary to the fact that "the statute of limitations on the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty is forever," says Quanah Brightman, the US Government supported corporate prospecting in the Black Hills and broke the promise. "What are treaties made for if they're allowed to be broken?," asks Quanah. This is what paved the way for three white miners to "purchase" the Black Hills site from the Indians, and sell it the next year George Hearst and his business associates.

"Where would three white miners get a land title from Indians who couldn't read or write?," asks Lehman Brightman, founding member of the UNA, community elder, and member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. At least $1billion is staked on the answer to Mr. Brightman's question for George Hearst's decendants and the media conglomerate that grew out of his early ventures into journalism in South Dakota and elsewhere. The Homestake Gold Mine is the largest and deepest gold mine in North America, and the Sioux and Lakota people who were kicked out of the Black Hills have not seen any of the profits. The Sioux and Lakota people have not seen any reparations at all in the aftermath of the Hearst Corp's atrocities.

The Hearst family has made a fortune off of similarly slimy acts of lying and betrayal throughout history, at the cost of poor people of color around the world. For the sake of bolstering profit and the interests of the white owning class in Amerikkka, they have combined military, journalistic, and ecological forces over the past century and more, consolidating wealth with the violent ownership they had stolen in the past.

William Randolph Hearst I, George Hearst's son, convinced George to buy the San Francisco Examiner after the family had earned millions from their silver mine in the Comstock Lode in Nevada and the Homestake site. The Hearsts envisioned the Examiner to be the first and only "populist" newspaper in US print. It denounced the corrupt deeds of Gilded Age corporate entities and advocated for fair prices and the security of poor farmers in middle America during the 1880s. However, the Examiner soon developed a character more akin to contemporary FOX News. William Randolph Hearst I found that low prices, color pictures, and big headlines could garner wider circulation of stories that reflected his personal political ambitions. Where the old "populist" kick served the family well in encouraging railroad construction and gold currency (at the expense of native lands in California, Nevada, and the Plains), the new "yellow journalism" trend solidified Hearst's position as a big-business politician, bringing him closer to power in government, while using his newspaper to "paper over" all the exploitation he used to gain it.

William Randolph I used fear-mongering stories to promote the Spanish-American War in 1896. In response to a photogaphers' protests that the photos he was asked to take in Cuba were too controversial and violent, William Randolph I famously replied, "You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." This man was basically a war profiteer, set to use media to alienate people from Congressional decisions, and to wreak havoc upon the people of Cuba and the Philippines without accountability. Here again, Hearst demonstrated no desire for transparency, and in fact waxed opaque while he used cheap dramatic tactics to gather support for the imperialist war. The power of media to smash native sovereignty in this set of incidents is incontrovertible.

William Randolph Hearst I also bought hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Chihuahua, Mexico, after the indigenous warrior Geronimo lost that territory to Mexican troops in the 1880s. To justify the land claims, the Hearst-owned Examiner simultaneously began to publish racist articles on Mexicans and the Apache resistance. Later, when Pancho Villa looted the Hearsts' giant Chihuahua ranch, the family hired one hundred private security personnel to chase off the revolutionaries. And still later, in the 1930s, Hearst used anti-Mexican images and language in their newspapers to promote the criminalization of marijuana. Here again, the Hearsts exhibited a sound disrespect for indigenous folks by not only stealing their land, but also by criminalizing their political and economic strategies in media. By calling the shots on the media circuit, the Hearsts got away Scotch-free of accountability and any publicly legitmized call for reparations.

In the 1970s, the Hearst family was presented with a unique opportunity to repair some  of the damage their activities have caused, but basically blew it. When Patty Hearst was taken hostage by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) in the Bay Area, the SLA demanded that the Hearsts distribute $70 worth of food to every needy household in California, in return for Patty (which would total $400 million). The Hearsts gave up $6 million in food, but when they realized Patty wasn't going to be released, they closed up their pocket books once again.

In 2001, The Hearst-owned SF Examiner ran a series called "The Mess on Market," which used hygenic discourse to describe how folks in the TL needed to be "swept away," or at least under the rug. According to an archived article from POOR Correspondent Joe Bolden, the stigmatizing images that the Examiner used were a-historical, and strategically caused readers to forget what the neighborhood had contributed to the city, and to its low-income residents in particular. Article after article in the POOR Magazine archive, by Tiny Grey-Garcia, Joseph Bolden, Fiona Gow, and more, describe how the Examiner used words like "mess," "blight," and "clean up" to desribe what was going on in the neighborhood that people so dearly loved and could call their own.

Echoing what happened to Times Square under NY Mayor Giuliani, the Examiner worked in collaboration with the SF Redevelopment Agency and police forces to harrass, intimidate, institutionalize, and incarcerate folks out of the neighborhood and make way for the new Business Improvement District (BID) that Mid-Market is today. What a coincidence that the Hearsts happen to own real estate in that very area. What a coincidence that the Hearsts used the same exact tactics to steal land from the Lakota and Sioux people of the Black Hills; people of the Philippines and Cuba; people of Chihuahua Mexico; and many, many others.

Like the UNA resistors of the 1960s and 1970s, including elder Lehman Brightman; Geronimo, Pancho Villa, the victims of the 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee and Custer's Last Stand; Cuban resistors; the Ohlone people of the San Francisco Bay; and countless others, people who have stood up to Capitalist land interests have been named by the police and the mainstream media as "militants," according to Lehman. Some were exlied, many were killed, and some of the UNA protestors who will be at the March 25th rally and press conference were arrested by the FBI.

Quanah and Lehman Brightman trace their lineage of reistance back through time and across all the victims of US Imperialism. Quanah says, "We support all indigenous people who are trying to reclaim their ancestral lands."

There is so much to be repaired. The Hearsts and others like them have taken so much from people by spreading lies about the beneficial effects of capitalist land grabs. People's ancestral lands have been swept out from under their feet. White families like mine have been told stories by the mainstream media about why this doesn't matter. While folks like me can live securely on our bought/stolen/inherited land, it's obvious that this isn't the whole story: that our comfort rests on the unwilling sacrifices of others, that the Hearsts "basically became rich off the Sioux Nation," says Quanah, just like us privileged colonizers. That needs to be addressed through projects for reparations like Homefulness and the calls to action released by the UNA. Someone lived here before. Someone is trying to cover the fact up. Newspapers like the Hearsts' bloated media empire are making the land safe for capitalism, but Poverty Scholars at POOR Magazine and our allies with the United Native Americans are trying to turn that around with better media, people-led media.

Just like with HUD and the San Francisco Planning Department, the policy-making entities with jurisdiction over the Black Hills are allowing lands sacred and foundational to poor folks of color to go to the corporate hounds. Agencies like the California [Indian] Native American Heritage Commission and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which claim indigenous leadership, have been "desecrated by their corporate interests" and "obviously, are co-opted," says Quanah. Lehman states that "the Interior Department have never been an advocate" and that "the BIA are supposed to act as a guardian of sort" but have shirked responsibilities in loyalty to US State interests. Native rights actually come under the sway of US law more than any other legal entity, such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Quanah says that "Ohlone ancestors are not being allowed to rest in a proper way" because the Ohlone are recognized by the State of California but not by the Federal government. Therefore, many peoples such as the Ohlone cannot gain control over their sacred lands. At this juncture, for instance, they are trying to build a Safeway supermarket on an Ohlone burial site in Pleasanton.

What has the Hearst Corporation contributed to the struggling folks they have stolen land and culture from? Not much. Lehman says that the Hearst Family "has never tried to make amends with the Sioux Nation." The heir to the Hearst fortune, William Randolph Hearst III, has "not given one red cent to the Sioux Indians. He could have set up a scholarship or something." Upon review of the Hearst Foundation (the NPIC charitable branch of the Hearst Corporation) grants of 2010, some of the biggest recipients of cash include the Stanford University Medical Center ($2.5 million), the Guggenheim Museum ($350 thousand), and other Non Profit Industrial Complex scams. "Office visits are generally discouraged, and except in rare cases, a site visit to the organization is required prior to Board review." Not only does the Hearst Foundation website make it real hard to understand what it's all about and how/why granting decisions are made; it also specifies that organizations with less than $1 million are very unlikely to "qualify" for a grant. In addition, they will not consider grants for organizations outside the United States, or organizations intending to use grant money outside the US.... Does that discount the indigenous folks of North America?

Obviously, the charitable face of the Hearst Corporation is not at all committed to a project of redistributing wealth or repairing stolen land or damage done to communities. Rather, the Foundation gives money to high-profile organizations that serve wealthy cultural and educational interests.

We cannot wait for the charity of folks like the Hearsts, for them to hand out crumbs. United Native Americans is demanding reparations, and we must join them in helping to spur on a widespread movement for the rights of indigenous and landless people. I am proud to be part of a media organization that actively counters what the mainstream media has got to say about the people most vulnerable to imperialistic, militaristic, capitalist, racist State-sponsored action. POOR Magazine and the UNA are taking poor people's voices back to demand land reparations from privileged people like me.

Please join the UNA in protest at the gates of Hearst Castle on Friday, March 25th, and Saturday, March 26th, from 8am to 3pm. 750 Hearst Castle Rd, San Simeon, CA 93452.

Watch the UNA leaders speaking on this action in POOR Magazine's March Community Newsroom session

Today I left home agian and drove up north to the Unitah and Ouray Reservation in Utah. There I meet up with my Northern Ute Fam Bam and we drove up further north to Idaho. We soaked in the Lava Hot Springs, which was amazing. There I laid under the sky and felt the warmness of the waters and steam. Tomorrow is the day we drive back down to the Salt Lake City Indian Center to go to a rounddance and I am so excited! YES!

Tonight was an amazing time! I spent the night volunteering at (and enjoying) the Mamas of Color Rising benefit for the Sankofa Birth Companion Project I will be participating in. The mamas linked forces with Detroit based artist Invincible and organized an all women in hip hop showcase at Austin's historic Victory Grill.

The energy was fierce and full of serious love. A lot of information and consciousness raising went down. Paula Rojas my sister organizer with Mamas of Color Rising and studying midwife shared that "In the U.S., 2.5 times the number of black women than white women do not have pre natal care. " and "Infant mortality for black babies is twice the high versus white babies, that means the percentage in which black babies are dying is worse than poorer countries in the world".

Paula went on the share more about what they call "Womb to Prison Pipeline". We know that at an early age children of color are tracked in the school system in different ways for example,  to either go to college or prison in  what has been called the "School To Prison Pipeline."  What Mamas of Color is saying is that this sort of tracking of our children,  happens much earlier, it starts in the womb.

The line up was strong and powerful. The Line up included local artists DJ TKAY, Tiger Lily of RAS, Yoli of Public Offenders, T-fly of the Cipher, Queen Deelah, EMT, Gabi, Perseph One, Las Krudas Cubensi, and Detroit's Invincible.

What an amazing and magical event that I was honored to be a part of. What a declaration of community and solidarity and sisterhood!  And a personal affirmation that my path to becoming a birth companion and midwife is the right one for me...

 check out my youtube channel for more footage!!

http://www.youtube.com/rachelcaballero

The Anti-GentriFUKation Mural is an art in resistance project of POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE

The Anti-GentriFUKation Mural was co-created by youth, children, mamas, daddys and elder poverty, migrant and indigenous scholars and gentriFUKation survivors in residence at POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE in collaboration with revolutionary artists Asian Robles, Carina Lomeli, Muteado Silencio, Nube, Vivian Thorp, Tiny and Oji Eli.

This art was created as a resistance to the impending gentrification due to the Eastern Neighborhood Plan and out of control real estate development and government complicity of the Redstone Building- a historic landmark where POOR Magazine's PEopleskool classrooms, Al Robles Living Library and indigenous news-making circle currently lives as well as The SF Living Wage, CISPES/FMLN , WRAP offices and hundreds of other revolutionary groups maintain headquarters.

After a 9 hour drive through the night from El Paso to Austin, my new friend and carpool buddy Avina Gutierrez (from a long line of Chicano Activists, daughter of cofounders of Raza Unida Party in Crystal City and fierce student activist at UTEP) arrived just in time for the Rally at the State Capitol to Save Texas Schools.

As we approached the capitol lawn and building,  Kids of all ages,  Elders, Teachers, students, families, short, tall, bodies filled the lawn bearing signs of protest such as "Save Our Schools" and "Ignorance costs more than Education".

An estimated 11,000 people came through the Capitol to protest over 10 Million in proposed Budget cuts to Texas Education System. The Proposed cuts would cost teacher jobs,decreases in employee  pay (starting at the bottom), school closures and launch Texas schools into a deeper crisis for resources.

The energy was alive and unified in Austin. People from all over Texas were standing together in Declaration.  I was happy to be present at the event and in protest of gov. big Dick Perry. 

EDUCATION NOT INCARCERATION!!

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety"

Benjamin Franklin

Michigan's governor, Rick Snyder, belongs in a padded cell, along with the rest of the state Assembly and Senate.  This poverty skolah has lived on social security for several years without a COLA (Cost of Living Allowance) raise.  The government of Michigan wants to double pension taxes, abolish the Earned Income Tax rebate, and pass the "savings" to the state and corporations.  They really want to be thought of as "business-friendly".

All inspections of dairy products (by state officials) have been cancelled, all philanthropic donations to state and local colleges and universities will be taxed, and city governments under extreme financial pressure will be dissolved by the governor and pub under corporate receivership.  This is the Robocop future of the city of Detroit, MI, owned by a mega-corporation.

Imagine Detroit being renamed Blackwater-ville (Blackwater changed its name to "Xe Services LLC"..imagine Detroit renamed "Xe"...).  The Controller of the corporation managing the receivership has the power to declare all contracts null and void.  The Board of Directors (especially the Chair) will have feudal power over citizens of their fiefdom, acting as Barons over serfs.

Get ready, people of Detroit, for the new. improved. feudal ages.  Your Barony of Neo-Detroit may well go to war with Amwayville over property and water rights.  The governor, your King, will sit back and watch the end of Democracy.

Snyder was probably inspired (in part) by Sandy Springs, Georgia, which voted to incorporate itself in 2005.  Incorporation isn't a bad thing, but what the leadership of the town did after that is questionable at best, even if they truly did want to reduce the cost of being a town or city in 21st Century America.

Sandy Springs signed a $32 million contract with CH2M-Hill, a multinational corporation, to perform "...all the public works, all the community development, all the administrative stuff, the finance department, everything is done by CH2M-Hill", the Mayor, Eva Galambos, said in a 2006 newspaper article written by Leonard C. Gilroy of the Reason Foundation.

The argument for doing this was couched as saving money ($32 million is just over half what Fulton County charged Sandy Springs in taxes for services rendered) and working to do the job of governance better and more efficiently.  Those are good goals to shoot for, but will everyone who sees this solution to the high cost of running a city be so magnanimous?  The citizens of the City of Oakland, CA, have endured years of poor management of resources, nepotism in City Hall, strong mayors (like Jerry Brown) who were more business-friendly than people-friendly, weak mayors like Ron Dellums (embarrassed by a nepotism-minded city administrator who appeared to be stronger, certainly more stubborn...), and more.

Michigan and Wisconsin are leading the way to the deconstruction of our communities--we thought California was bad!  
 
This nightmare has a solution.  Recall the entire government of Michigan.  To paraphrase one of the Founding Fathers of this country, freedom of speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent, you'll be led like sheep to the slaughter.  Don't be sheep.

Walking the capitol lawn I hear strumming and drums a familiar rhythm in the distance. I followed the melody and came towards a circle of familiar faces.

Armed with Jaranas and Resisting on the green lawn of the Texas State Capitol was Fandango Tejas. A family of jaraneros and son jarocho musicians, poets, artists, and dancers armed in resistance with their art and culture.

Son Jarocho is a tradition from the coastal state of Veracruz, Mexico,  the melding of African, Spanish & Indigenous cultures during the process of colonization and the practice of slavery in the Americas.

The circle of music and rhythm at the capitol was powerful, a fire of political expression, a melding of lyric, and a warm authentic solidarity. Fandango Tejas was manifesting liberation. My companer@s were holding it down, occupying space, filling it with beauty, love, solidarity and community power.

A beautiful day to be rezisting and singing!

facebook.com/sonarmado or son.en.movimiento@groups.facebook.com>>

Today I dropped by the KPWR studios,  in a little room in a series of  warehouses sits the KPWR People WIll Radio Studios. KPWR is an urban community web based radio project based out of East Austin what my long time compa El Capitan calls  "occupied East Austin".  

It was great walking into the studio hip hop playing in the back seeing my friend El Capitan on the turn tables and on the mic. His show Radio Rasquacho has been on the air for over 6 years and serves as a space for community building, music, live performance, poetry, and political expression. Its been a long time hangout space and spot for companeros over the years every wednesday night.

KPWR is a non hierarchical all volunteer collective, member driven, created, and funded. Through hard work by its collective determination and collective organizing KPWR radio still exists! The radio project has existed without private donors or any type of funding making it community led and owned and operated. Not so many years ago I grabbed the mic and had a radio show...

KPWR exists to make radio/media accessible and Free, non corporate and truly  independent. It was inspiring  to see that  El Capitan as an artist, DJ, musician, radio personality, media maker, and provacatuer is still on the air diseminating knowledge, rythms, and energy to the masses.

Que Viva Radio Rasquacho y People Will Radio......

For more info go to www.kpwr.org

January 8, 2010

The Inhumane GA Cuts in Oakland

Full Board Hearing Tuesday,February 23rd @ 9 am
1221 Oak street, Oakland, CA
Please come and speak up for your brothers and sisters in struggle

PNN-TV posse: Camera: Muteado Silencio
Editor: Carina Lomeli

Stuart x/Oakland Poverty Reporter-PNN
Friday, January 8, 2010;

This is not my name. But i wont tell u my name. I suffer from the disease called shame. Shame fueled by racist, classist, capitalist values of "success" and achievement. I am currently on General Assistance in Oakland.Which means i am seen as a bum, a useless human and other stereotypes created to make people feel bad if they arent functioning as a non-stop cog in the constantly moving machine. This hate and distaste is at the core of why Oakland's GA recipients, people like me, are facing drastic, inhumane cuts.

I am an african descendent, Choctaw indian poet, born into this hell called Amerikkka. I worked for 22 years without missing one day at a machine shop, 9-12 hours a day. then one day i got sick. My sickness was messy, i might be disabled, i might just be a "to-up", broke-down machine no longer able to produce, to pay taxes, to pay rent, to "put out", but sickness and inability to work doesn't fit with a system that only supports you when you are able to produce.

As of January 2010 we, the poorest of the poor in Oakland, the disabled, the veterans, the domestic violence victims, the foster care youth transtioning out of institutionalization, will only recieve three months of General Assistance a year.

Get a job, i can hear the digital collective scream. To which i reply, i am one of the many of folks, who have tried to get employed in this economy. i am too old, most jobs tell me. I am also intermittantly sick, I am very discouraged.

These crumbs, known as "Budget cuts" are continuously threatened to be removed from us. From Schwarzenegger to Bush, from local to federal, we are never safe. And the more they take from our small little support, the more they seem to take from us.

So where does that leave us? the confused, the disengaged, the allegedly employable who are barely surviving in Oakland? Unsure, scared, desperate, hungry. Angry. Dead?

Join the coalition to Stop The GA Cuts at stop-the-ga-cuts@googlegroups.com. To learn how to become a community journalist like Stuart X, go on-line to www.racepovertymediajustice.org - or email deeandtiny@poormagazine.org to register for the upcoming session of PeopleSkool at POOR Magazine.

I went to the Lava Hot Springs Museum. There was a section of the museum that was done by a Native American about the history of Native peoples in this area. Check it Out!

The past two days have re-energizing for me before I head my way to Florida, and then after that Rachel and I will rejoin again in the east coast!

When I drove up on Tuesday, I decided to listen to the voice within me and go to places that I was told to go to. I listened to God and God took me to places that i was supposed to go and saw things and was told things, and saw 3 butterflies! I just listened inside and followed. God lead me to pick certain and be in certain places and when I got home there were three hawk feathers waiting for me on my doorstep and received different financial gifts inside my mail. YES! I LOVE MY LIFE AND THE REALITY I CREATE EVERYDAY!!! YES!!!

Today, I visited one of my favorite woman elders and told her about my journey and some of the visions I have had. She joked and I joked around and talked for hours. I learned much from her and gave her some of what I received yesterday. I wanted to meet up with this other elder but that will have to wait in two two weeks when I come back from florida. I will be spending the next two weeks with my sister in Florida and I am so excited! Her is to Family, and the ones we adopt as family... Love u Sissy!

The concept for the new Krip-Hop album is compiling about 8 tracks from some of today's most talented disabled, female, hip-hop artists.  This will be a collaborative effort between Leroy Moore (founder) and Kalyn Heffernan (Wheelchair Sports Camp) in which together we will find the best artists, select the best tracks, and release the collaboration to show the underrated talent of some of the most powerful disabled women in the game.  Krip-Hop's mission has always been to shed light on disabled hip-hop artists working their way through the restricted and controlled music industry, although this is the first time Krip-Hop has ventured into a female only disc.  We look forward to working together to provide another banger that we're proud of and hope to release it sometime Fall of 2011.

If you have a Hip-Hop song and want to submit it to this project, please email both of us at:

wheelchairsportscamp@gmail.com

kriphopproject@yahoo.com

Deadline is August 15th/ 20011

Kalyn & Leroy

I met Danielle Bear at the Healing the Spirit Round dance and we both looked at each other and I felt I was looking at a younger version of myself. That I was staring into myself as a little kid. I knew there was a interview there...

I then asked her mom if I could interview her about round dance. I knew nothing about this little girl not even her name but by the end of the night we definitely connected through the healing spirit of round dance songs and dancing. I think this was one of my best interviews of the night! Also one of her Uncles are in Northern Cree... I am just saying thats all!

Scroll down for English

Soy una mujer Guatemalteca, madre de 4 niños.

Pobre porque haci nasi. En mi tierra me sentia sola ahunque tenia a mis hijos y a mi madresita.

Pero siempre me hacia falta algo muy importante. Cuando me divorcie me quede sin hogar.

Yo me fui a la capital con el bebe. Aveces yo no comia por miedo de quedarme sin dinero! Y sin trabajo!

Yo lloraba todos los dias cuando salia a la calle con la ilusion de encontrar trabajo y nada. Pero cuando me quedaban solo 10 quetzales Dios me consedio un trabajo y me asepto una señora con mi hijo. por fin ya tenia un techo y un trabajo para mantener a mis hijitos.

Un dia hiso fiesta en su casa y yo cocine y mi bebe se fue con ella a la sala. Pero derrepente yo escuchaba unas grandes carcajadas de la gente, me dio duda y fui aver que pasaba. Me encontre con la sorpresa mas desagradable que era ver a mi hijo brracho como loquito y ver como se dibertian con el. Me dolio y me enoje tanto por que ellos le dieron cerbeza para que no los molestara y se durmiera yo me puse como loca pues el no tenia la culpa de no tener un hogar donde bibir y siendo tan indefenso y como era un bebe de tan solo un año de edad, el no sabia que le estaban dando en la mamila.

Lo abrase y le pedi perdon y regrese a la casa de mi mama. Me vine a los EEUU pensando vivir mejor y me encuentro con otra cosa igual o peor llebo un anno buscando un lugar donde vivir. Me disen: si tienes niño no te rentamos nada. Otros disen si pero tienes que pagar mas
No me haceptan, por eso yo pienso que linda fuera la vida si los pobres y las madres tubieramos un lugar donde refuguiarnos con nuestros hijos un lugar seguro donde podamos vivir en paz nesesitamos tierras y casas seguras.

Ingles Sigue

I am a Guatemalan woman, mother of of 4 kids.

Poor because that’s how I was born. In my land I felt alone even though I had my kids and my dear mother.

But I was always missing something very important. When I divorced I ended up houseless,

I went to the capital with my baby. Sometimes I wouldn’t eat for fear of running out of money! And no job!

I cried every day when, disillusioned, I went out looking for a job and found nothing. When I only had 10 more quetzales God answered my prayers and I found a job where I could be with my baby as well. Finally I had a roof over my head and a job to support my children.

One day a woman had a party at her house, and while I cooked my baby was in the living room with my boss. But when suddenly I heard some loud chuckles from everyone, I got filled with doubt and went to see what the fuss was all about. I was horrified and surprised to see my son drunk and acting crazy while they were being entertained. It hurt and I got so angry that they were giving my son beer so he would fall asleep and not bother them, I felt as though I went insane. It was not his fault I didn’t have a home—he was one year old and defenseless; he didn’t know what they were making him drink from his bottle.

I held him and asked him for forgiveness and returned home to my mom. Then I came to the USA thinking I would live better, but I find things here the same or worse. I spent a year looking for a home. They tell me if you have a kid they can’t rent you anything. Others say yes but you have to pay extra. That’s why I think it would be wonderful if poor folks and mothers would have a place to take refuge with our children. A safe place where we could live in peace, we need land and safe housing: Homefulness.