A Family Destroyed by Un-Just Eviction

“BANG BANG BANG… Sheriffs here,open the door, you have to vacate the premises” On Wednesday, April 8^th, at 9am after weeks of last minute legal maneuvers, unanswered  calls to the mayor and multiple pleas for a pro-bono lawyer to save the single mama Sabrina Carter and her three suns from one of the most unjust evictions I have ever  witnessed were exhausted, the San Francisco sheriffs, standing shoulder to shoulder with the souled-out housing managers were outside her door in the Plaza East apartments to change the locks and throw her and her suns into the street.

They were outside Sabrina’s no longer public- now privatized housing door in the Fill-no-Mo, like they were outside me and my mama’s door and so many other peoples doors who were devil-oped, rent-raised, gentriFUKed, negro-removed and destroyed by this capitalist system that encourages, supports and demands moves inspired by greed.

In these deadly, sci-fi-like moments, when entire families’ lives are destroyed by colonizers papers and politricksters lies, with names like unlawful detainers, notices to evict, and right to possession, time itself moves so strangely slow and so terrifyingly fast all at the same time. Suddenly before any of us could catch our breath Sabrina and her youngest sun were standing there in the early morning sun, holding back the tears as they watched large plywood boards nail shut what used to be their home.

Sabrina’s families tragedy of injustice has everything to do with the dismantling, destroying and privatizing of the public housing system in the US which is rooted in the misleading HUD acronym known as RAD (Rental Assistance Demonstration) and the ways that racism and policing and the criminalization of young black and brown men are used to implement that privatization.

Sabrina’s crisis began when her oldest, then 17 yr old sun, like so many like him began to be staulked and profiled by a local po’lice officer who obsessively over-polices the one block of majority African descendent residents (when I was sitting with the family on their front stoop, circled Sabrina’s one tiny block over 45 times within one hour). Multiple profiling of her sun eventually led to false changes against the young man which then led to the building management forcing the mother to file stay away orders against her own young adult sun and eventually stipulated agreements she could never keep and ultimately eviction to make way for richer, witer, gentrified tenants which make this building more desireable in the privatization pool.

“Plaza East is not part of RAD,” one of the managers who presided smugly over Sabrina’s eviction said at a tenants meeting POOR Magazine family was invited to a week prior. After his assertion that their apartments were not part of the filthy RAD pool where everyone from non-profit organizations to for-profit corporations like Goldman and Sachs were making bank , he went on to contradict himself in one paragraph,”Well, actually the SFPHA housing subsidies are now going to come from RAD and we are going to start moving people out who are not fully inhabiting their apartments”, he concluded, thoroughly confusing everyone in the meeting. He went on to cite the three projects that are slated for demolition, like the demolition of thousands of peoples housing was nothing more than having a cup of coffee and a donut.

Standing on the street holding this mama and her sun, dreams, memories, altars, momentos, toys and herstories were permanently lost in a series of hefty bags and clutched blankets.  These moments can’t be described and yet I have tried for years, the tears they cause could fill an ocean and no matter how conscious, how revolutionary, and how much I know them far too intimately, I am still destroyed by them.

We stood there, POOR Magazine co-madres and reporters Queennandi, Jewnbug and me, along with Sabrina’s neighbors and extended family, holding onto 13 year old young warrior sun, and her, a lost and overwhelmed mama.

My mind raced with the moves of the last few weeks. The desperate legal saves comrade Leo Stegman and I did for the family at POOR Magazine’s Revolutionary Legal Advocacy Project. The media justice campaign and the countless stories written with POOR/PNN, the San Francisco Bayview and Manilatown Heritage Foundation. The thousands of caring people who made phone calls to the sold-out mayor Ed Lee to try to get him to intervene in this illegal and unjust eviction but who never did because of course it was Lee that invited the private devil-opers MacCormack & Barron who bought this public housing and their lying lawyers, Bornstein and Bornstein into this town, and who not coincidentally are the same lawyers who have been evicting Ellis acted elders and families from their long-time homes by the thousands, while teaching landlords how to be better kkkapitalists and “not care” .

We are still looking for a lawyer to challenge this case. The un-justness of this story has no words.

If you are a lawyer who can help file a state challenge of Sabrina’s case please contact us. POOR Magazine will also be holding an organizing/info meeting in the Bayview branch of the SF Public Library in May entitled RAD=ERADICATION. Please stay tuned   

Poem for privatized, displaced mamaz..

“Been fighting for 30 years and i keep losing, why keep fighting when im never gonna win..?: said by one young privatized, gentriFUKEd mama in so much pain to me on the phone as I screamed out to touch her and Love her No Matter What…

“..Noooooooooooooooooo…,” I shouted to her and.to all the mamaz, the elders, the gentriFUKed and the Stepped on.

To the mamaz who hold their head up- even when their aint no more strength in their necks- whose eyes look foreward filled wit tears, who hands hold so much- whose souls were never built to be killed over and over again.

These stolen lands weren’t created by the gentriFUKators and all the haters- who make these laws and live on all this paper.

Dear Mama Sabrina, Mama Dee, Mama Mimi & to all the mamaz who never did nothing but care for their children in racist Amerikkka- im raising Superbabymama from the ashes of 1999 Dot com Evictions- Im calling upon Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer and Quetzalcoatl – im calling upon Mama Earth and Mama Creator.

The brutality of eviction and gentriFUKation is so deep and wrong and filled wit so much wite-supremacist monetary lies and deep hatred- THIS is our Freedom Ride family and all of us mamaz and ancestor mamaz are needed.

Hold out your hearts in the wind- Call to your ancestor mamaz to hold these children and these women.

This lie of civilization and corporate crafted institutional state-hood. Hold out your hearts Mamas – cuz you kno wut im saying. Hold out your hearts young mamaz, older mamaz, grandmothers and babies,

Cause the river of pain is to great to be sedated and the women and children are about to Completely go CRAZY.

The sounds will b loud and the vibe will b amzing –

cause We all KNOW Superbabymama Doesn’t play

Freedom Now! is a collaborative effort between community activists, artists, and scholars that reveals the organized abandonment resulting from the material desires of dominant social groups in Los Angeles. Freedom Now! is an example of work that bridges social action and education, and calls toward those in the streets willing to face up to what is killing us.

Editors Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton heed the call of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to “break the silence” about wars on impoverished communities and wars abroad. For King, breaking the silence meant abolishing the “Triple Evils” of poverty, racism, and militarism, directing special attention to communities that have been specifically exploited and marginalized. We enter 2014 with an abundance of examples of the ruthlessness that the neoliberal state exerts on impoverished communities in general, particularly homeless people. The editors argue that King’s call resonates now more than ever.

Reclaiming “the visions of freedom that have grown out of Black radical and working-class traditions,” Freedom Now! centers the work of the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), a social justice organization located in L.A.’s Skid Row that struggles for housing, civil, and human rights. Freedom Now! is an attempt to critically examine the housing crisis “from LA to Durban,” so we may understand why the demand for housing as a human right is not only a call within the the U.S., but a global one.

The book raises, I believe, many concerns about the complex involvement of university students and professors in poor peoples' movements. These concerns are described and legitimated by the experiences of POOR MAGAZINE and other families in the struggle. That said, Dr. Camp and Dr. Heatherton do not tell anyone’s story, or pretend to lead the movement they describe. As a Chicano Ph.D. student myself, from the City Terrace Barrio in East LA, I believe they present a great example of scholars' committed action, standing in unflinching solidarity with aggrieved struggling communities.

I became a graduate student to learn more about the East L.A. that my Big Dad would tell my siblings about: the fields he worked in; his pachucismo; the long-disappeared Steel Mills where he and many other working class Chicana/o and Black people labored. I wanted to learn why my community and others like it are disrespected by those in power. While I have come to find my own way into this work, Camp and Heatherton's work gets at the root of our communities her/histories in their own way. The book presents the issues of Skid Row through the voices, critical analysis, and desires of Skid Row activist/residents like Deborah Burton, Pam Wall, General Dogon, Lydia Trejo, Steve Diaz, and combines them with the resources, studies, and voices of long-time activists and professors dedicated to local and global civil and human rights struggles. In short, it’s work that working class scholars who enter academia to do work that matters, myself included, are proud of.

In the foreword, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Christina Heatherton set the stage for understanding LA CAN’s work and the ways impoverished people catch hell in downtown streets and residential hotels of LA. A critical moment in the current hyper-policing of Skid Row is the 2006 Safer Cities Initiative allocation of $6.5 million dollars to the Los Angeles Police Department. The $6.5 million was to bring more cops to the street. Meanwhile only around $5 million was allotted to homeless services citywide. Guided by a punitive ideology of “broken windows,” in the first 3 years the police made 28,000 arrests in a community of less than 15,000 people. The arrests were executed at the behest of the dominant business communities and political elites. LA CAN in one of few organizations to stand up to the police occupation of their community and speak out against the injustices taking place on a daily basis in the name of gentrification.

The intersectional outcomes from racialized police repression and pushes for gentrification  continually appear throughout the book; residents of Skid Row identify them as constant threats in their daily lives. Essays by Rhonda Y. Williams, George Lipsitz, David Wagner and Pete White; plus a tour of Skid Row by Chuck D of Public Enemy; to conversations with Mike Davis, Daniel Martinez HoSang, Pueblo del Rio resident activists, General Dogon, J.R. Flemming, Sam Jackson, and S’Bu Zikode of the Abahlali baseMjondolo (shack dwellers) Movement of South Africa--they all introduce readers to a range of oppressive maneuvers that seek to transform people facing problems, into the problem itself. Conversely, we are introduced to a range of invigorating homeless peoples' movement traditions that assert home as a right--all toward a more socially just world. Because gentrification claims peoples' home-spaces, because the lack of roofs over our heads invites police repression, and because of un- and under-employment during transformations in the political economy of the U.S., the reality of becoming homeless is closer to more people than ever.

Despite the unfavorable stakes, Freedom Now! demonstrates that with committed and knowing actions we can win. As Lilian Payan of the Pueblo del Rio community of South Central states: “It takes work to have a home, to have a roof, so you have to go forward to struggle. If I have to continue going to meetings and protests, I will be there. I want to secure my roof, things for my children, a home. Asegudar un techo, cosas para mis niños, un hogar.”

For me, Payan demonstrates a political willingness guided by King’s call to “break the silence” about oppression, and reveals that when individuals take part in meaningful action with social movements like the Los Angeles Community Action Network, bystanders of racist capitalism become collective- up standers for peace and justice. Heed the call of Freedom Now!

Are they for Sabrina and the 7 other families that were evicted in the same week? Are they for 71 year old Raza artist and curator Re'ne Yanez who is well known in SF as a cultural Icon and artistic Godfather to a generation of 'Chicano' artists, who now faces an ELLIS act eviction despite a terminally ill wife with stage four cancer and he himself is in remission? Their eviction is scheduled for July 24th while Mark Zuckerburg and his wife bought their 10 million dollar " Pied-a-Terre" in the Mission and plan to do 1.6 million dollars in renovations that will include "A new basement garage, complete with a turn table pad so cars can get in and out more easily", according to the SF Chronicle.

Co-editors Note: On March 31st @ 6p Join the Protest Against more fetishizing Corporate Sports Mascots in front of The Oakland Coliseum

In Newsroom for March 2014 I was ecstatic listening to Josh Cadji talk about his family from Morocco yet they do not identify as African, instead middle-class Jewish. He grew up in Los Angeles, and lived a life of joy. He does not like the injustices against the Native Americans within this country. I asked him why he cares so much for a race that is not his own, never having lived on a reservation. He explained that he sees himself as an ally not directly affected by the Indians' racial conflicts, not as victim but supporter.

Josh is hosting an event in the Bay Area. Food drinks and fun to raise money for the organization and advertise the beauty of diversity. The theme is called "IM NOT YOUR INDIAN ANYMORE: FUNDRAISING PARTY" (Party ccurred this past weekend, March 15th). There are protests against the Cleveland Indians' use of racist anti-Native images at the Oakland Coliseum and AT&T Park, March 31st and April 25th. For all the information you can go to the main website of AIM (American Indian Movement). You can follow up with this history to get a backdrop of what is going on in the world of indigenous organizing and life.

AIM's publications, images, merchandise, and logos are intended to be used only by American Indian Movement affiliated Chapters, AIM members, and AIM support groups and related organizations found to be in good standing with the American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council, AIMGGC. AIM has an aggressive copyright policy and has to keep their publications and etc. really closely protected.

They are forced to take this action due to the fact that several individuals, wannabes, frauds, phonies, rip-off artists, etc. for some time have expropriated their Trademarked intellectual and cultural property rights. With deceit and treachery, they have attacked the leadership of the American Indian Movement. Additionally, they have carried on a campaign to foment disruption and confusion among our friends and supporters nationally and worldwide. Moreover, some are soliciting financial support by using the American Indian Movement and/or the Leonard Pettier Defense Committee to line their own pockets.

Membership in the American Indian Movement is open to all people of goodwill nationally and internationally upon request.

AIM policies about knowing who they organize with has everything to do with people appropriating native images, native culture, and even native social movements for liberation. The event Josh helped to host this past weekend deals with similar issues of cultural approriation and undermining the dignity of American Indian peoples.

Thank you Josh for being a thoughtful ally!

Let me explain about the Ellis Act. It started out as a simple way of protecting private senior landlords. But its just like the favorite phrase goes, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Why do I say this? Well, it started in 1989 when San Francisco had a total of 300 major landlord agencies, better known as holding companies. Nowadays these 300 holding companies have been swallowed up by big business into 10. These 10 found a loophole inside the Ellis Act that says you can evict tenants if you agree to stop being a landlord. This is what the companies are doing: they are converting them to tenancies in common where they own the mortgages of the tenancies in common and also become the buildings' managing companies. Each tenant owns a part of the building. It is like a condominium but too complicated to explain in this article.

With the Ellis Act they are kicking out tenants that have been there 20, 30 or more years. Some of the landlords do not go through the courtesy of the eviction process. They use harassment fraud and the whole kit and caboodle. Most of these seniors worked hard all their lives. They were not doctors, lawyers or college graduates. These are the day to day people that built the city you are living in today, your grandmothers, grandfathers and mothers or fathers. They get nervous with big fancy-titled lawyer’s envelopes in their mailboxes which offer $5,000 or more to move out. Meanwhile the average rent of a studio is $1,000 to $1,500 in the City of San Francisco. These rent-control tenants do not know the real value their apartment until they move out and look for a new place. They will sign under duress.

The ones that try to fight it, they may get more money. Most elders, including my wife, held out and their health issues took over. Her feet were the size of an elephant's hoof. Other elders had heart problems and nervous ticks from the greedy behavior of the landlords. If I signed a contract for a TV set at Sears and the sales person acted that way to sell me something I didn’t need, he would have been arrested.

There should be 2 amendments written on the Ellis Act if they're not going to repeal it. 1. No senior or disabled resident can be Ellis Acted; 2. You must own the property at least 5 to 6 years before you use the Ellis Act . This time period will give you some vestment in the community. This is the best I can do under legal terms in the present condition. This will keep away speculators from making profits on the backs of the elderly and the poor.

To any reader that thinks I am a communist or socialist: I am a anarchist. If you make comments below, put that as a comment I am not a communist or a socialist because that system doesn’t work, and I am not a capitalist.

Thank you, this is Bad News Bruce signing out.

(Image of Remigio Fraga with Idriss Stelley Foundation outside the Ellis Act Evictions are Elder Abuse action sponsored by POOR Magazine, Idriss Stelley Foundation, The Manilatown Heritage Foundation and the SF Bay View)

Co-editors Note-We evicted peoples wish these conscious senators luck- in the mean-time we continue with filing criminal charges on the spekkkulators)

*** PRESS RELEASE ***

MAYOR LEE & SENATOR LENO ANNOUNCE LEGISLATION TO AMEND STATE ELLIS ACT LAW TO PROTECT LONG-TIME TENANTS

Closing Loophole in State Law to Prohibit Real Estate Speculators From Using the Ellis Act to Displace Tenants in San Francisco

San Francisco, CA—Today Mayor Edwin M. Lee and State Senator Mark Leno joined State and local leaders, including Assemblymember Phil Ting and Supervisors David Chiu and David Campos along with tenant advocates, labor groups and business leaders to announce legislation closing a loophole in the Ellis Act that allows speculators to buy rent-controlled buildings in San Francisco and immediately evicting long-term tenants. To counter a recent surge in Ellis Act evictions in San Francisco, Senate Bill 1439 authorizes the City to prohibit new property owners from invoking the Ellis Act to evict tenants for five years after the acquisition of a property, ensures that landlords can only activate their Ellis Act rights once, and creates penalties for those who violate the law.

“We have some of the best tenant protections in the country, but unchecked real estate speculation threatens too many of our residents,” said Mayor Lee. “These speculators are turning a quick profit at the expense of long time tenants and do nothing to add needed housing in our City. These are not the landlords the Ellis Act was designed to help, and this legislation gives San Francisco additional tools to protect valuable housing and prevent Ellis Act speculator evictions, which already displace working families and longtime San Franciscans. This carve out is a good policy for San Francisco, and I thank Senator Leno for being a champion on this issue. Together we have built a large coalition of renters, labor and business leaders to fight this battle in Sacramento to support middle income and working families here in our City.”

“The original spirit of California’s Ellis Act was to allow legitimate landlords a way out of the rental business, but in recent years, speculators have been buying up properties in San Francisco with no intention to become landlords but to instead use a loophole in the Ellis Act to evict long-time residents just to turn a profit,” said Senator Leno. “Many of these renters are seniors, disabled people and low-income families with deep roots in their communities and no other local affordable housing options available to them. Our bill gives San Francisco an opportunity to stop the bleeding and save the unique fabric of our city.”

Ellis Act evictions in San Francisco have tripled in the last year as more than 300 properties were taken off the rental market. This spike in evictions has occurred simultaneously with huge increases in San Francisco property values and housing prices. About 50 percent of the City’s 2013 evictions were initiated by owners who had held a property for less than one year, and the majority of those happened during the first six months of ownership.

In light of the growing problem of speculative Ellis Act evictions, Mayor Lee joined Senator Leno, Assemblyman Ting, Supervisors Chiu and Campos and a diverse coalition of supporters, including business leaders, property owners and developers, to reform the Ellis Act in Sacramento. Senate Bill 1439 was the result of this effort.

“Rents in San Francisco are at an all-time high. My former neighbors and I, working families and seniors, were displaced from the place we called home for several decades,” said evicted senior Gum Gee Lee. “Those that have yet to receive an Ellis Act notice continue to live in fear, fear that they too will be evicted from their homes. For seniors such as myself who rely on public transportation and access to social and health services within our community, Ellis evictions cut our lifeline, our independence to thrive. For working class families such as my former neighbors from Jackson Street, they continue to struggle to survive in San Francisco. San Francisco is our home.”

Enacted as State law in 1985, the Ellis Act allows owners to evict tenants and quickly turn buildings into Tenancy In Common (TIC) units for resale on the market. In San Francisco, the units that are being cleared are often rent controlled and home to seniors, disabled Californians and working class families. When these affordable rental units are removed from the market, they never return.

SB 1439 will be heard in the State Senate Policy Committees this Spring.

Editors Note: Jose is one of several power-FUL PNN Plantation prison correspondents who was involved in the Hunger Strike to end all solitary confinement and the in-human treatment of all of our incarcerated brothers and sisters.

The New Greaser Laws

After the U.S. War on Mexico in 1848 when Aztlan (the south west) was stolen, there came what has been described as “The Gold Rush” which erupted when gold was “discovered” in California at Sutter’s Mill. This “discovery” resulted in a mass migration of settlers from across the U.S. as well as around the world. These settler immigrants flocked to California in a quest to exploit its resources.

Suddenly post U.S. war on Mexico the peoples who had been living in California for hundreds of years and in some cases longer were now considered as competition to the settler. This resulted in racist legislation which codified national oppression. At this time the most successful mining operation came from those proto- Chicanos and Raza (Latinos) more generally who also migrated from Latin America. Raza were all lumped together by the settlers and referred to as “greasers”.

Beginning in 1850, Amerika began implementing a series of laws that were aimed at Raza in California who were thought of and labeled as “greasers”, thus these laws were known as The Greaser Laws. In this way the oppressor Nation had institutionalized oppression, that is, they made it “legal”. The initial law that began the greaser laws was the Foreign Miners Tax Law of 1850. When we learn about a historical event such as the greaser laws, we should not just reflect on the law and the physical restrictions thereafter, but also of the effect this must have had on the psyche of Raza at the time and for generations thereafter, when a people suddenly become a “foreigner” in their land as happened post 1848 and how the colonizer began legalizing oppression thereafter.

The Foreign Tax Law stated that a non U.S. citizen that wanted to mine needed to pay $20.00 a month for the license. $20.00 was a huge amount at that time and this was enacted as a form of controlling the newly colonized people. Although the foreign tax law also affected Chinese laborers who were a strong presence in California at this time, the greaser laws were primarily enacted to uphold white supremacy and to criminalize Raza. From this point on Raza culture was criminalized and this worked to criminalize all Raza under the label of “greaser”. To the public, “greasers” became synonymous with criminals hence began the idea of our barrios as criminal. The Greaser Laws targeted things like bullfighting and cockfighting, which were part of Raza culture, were suddenly turned into crimes in order to add another tool in the oppressor toolbox used in carrying out national oppression. It’s essential that we grasp why the state cahoots with white labor at this time worked hand-in-hand with the Greaser Laws. Sakai summed this up:

           “What was the essence of the ideology of white labor? Petit-bourgeois annexationism. Lenin pointed out in the great debates on the national question that the heart of national oppression is annexation of the territory of the oppressed nations by the oppressor nation.” (1)

This I think cuts to the heart of the origins of the Greaser Laws and even more so speak to national oppression. Today the U.S. Prison population has skyrocketed, the quakers in their early experiments with prisons would probably be awestruck at the behemoth the dungeon has become. For our oppressor, this is only the beginning for the penological colonies. As Marx taught, matter is in motion, and prisons are no exception to this scientific rule.

What has been detected, initially in U.S. prisons, is ‘The New Greaser Laws’ which have been mostly applied in California. Just like in the early days, during the birth of the Chican@ Nation, when the Greaser Laws first arose, so too are we seeing a revival of the Greaser Laws at a time when Chican@s’ are making a leap in consciousness within U.S. prisons. What has become apparent and what not enough has been discussed about is that once again Raza culture has been criminalized within U.S. prisons in a concerted effort for the state to thus criminalize Raza and particularly Chican@s’ in the popular sense. Only today we are labeled “gang member” or “security threat group” whereas the old Greaser Laws labeled Raza as “vagrants” or “bandits”.

California prisons have been taking Raza culture and using our practice and enjoyment of such cultura to prove we are engaging in “criminal acts”, “gang activity”, or the newly worded “security threat group activity”. Today in California prisons drawings depicting Pancho Villa or Zapata, the hero’s of the Mexican Revolution are used as “gang symbols” by the state. Drawings or photos of art depicting Aztlan symbols such as the calendar, statues of depictions of warriors are used as points to validate us. The Aztec thunderbird that is used out in society to evoke the struggles of farmworkers throughout the U.S. is used against us to validate us as “gang members”. The Mexican Eagle which evokes the legend of Aztlan with the snake in it’s mouth and which is the flag of Mexico, is used to criminalize us.

 Language is not even safe, the use of Spanish, which is the Chican@ language, is used to brand us as engaging in criminal activity. Tattoos showing our history and culture are used as “proof” of us being criminals, gang members.

The way we interact socially in ways that promote interdependence and community as Chican@s’ and Raza more generally whether it be sharing, eating communally and expressing ourselves as a group is criminalized in prison. This behavior has nothing to do with “gangs” it goes back to our indigenous roots of how we interact and how we raise our youth. This tradition is twisted into a negative phenomenon by our oppressor and used to further our repression, to increase our torture and justify our placement in these torture centers also known as S.H.U.!

Our way of life, which has been passed on generation after generation, is criminalized in an attempt by our oppressor to sever us from our culture, from the very essence of what it means to be Chican@s’, of being Raza. This assault on the Chicano nation California in prisons is meant to discourage us from holding on to who we are and to stifle our political development i.e, to kill our consciousness. This is all re-run and is the same vein of oppression used on Raza in the original Greaser Laws- it is an attempt to assimilate s into Ameri-kkk-a!

The New Greaser Laws that we are experiencing in California prisons have a direct link to the Old Greaser Laws of 1848. The old greaser Laws are linked to the land grab and Amerikan Imperialism, thus our oppression ultimately tethered to U.S. Imperialism. Stalin once said “Imperialism was instrumental not only in making the revolution a practiced inevitability, but also in creating favorable conditions for a direct assault on the citadels of capitalism” (2)

 Oh how his words ring true today in that the New Greaser Laws are actually the fuel in the engine of the Chicano nation that has been rekindled due precisely to the assault at Aztlan.

Why the New Greaser Laws today?

           When we attempt to identify this stepped up assault on the Chicano nation, we must analyze the concrete conditions in the U.S. today.

The population growth is one factor that is playing into the scheme of things. It we look back to 1980, the U.S. population consisted of 80% white, 12% Black, 6% Latino and 5% Asian. If we move forward 30 years to the year 2010 the U.S. population was 64% White, 12% Black, 16% Latino, 5% Asian. (3) As this data shows most folks had their population reduced or stayed the same for the most part while Raza population made a leap in the U.S. and this leap did not go unnoticed by the oppressor nation.

This development ushered in more of these Greaser Laws and more enforcement of these assaults that came in many forms. Even the existing laws such as the California Three Strikes Law which is aimed primarily at the oppressed nations in the U.S. (Brown, Black and Red Peoples) began to increase. Indeed, almost 40% of California’s Three Strikes cases come from Los Angeles county (4) which, it should be noted, has the largest concentration of Chican@s’ in Aztlan.

In a further attempt to curb the replenishment of Aztlan via newly arrived migrants, Amerika has created the “Secure Communities Program” which is another “Greaser Law”. The way it works is, anyone off the street who is arrested for anything, has their fingerprint sent to the FBI to check their legal status. As one writer put it…

           “Under the Secure Communities Program, those fingerprints are then sent to Homeland Security to check for immigration violations. People who are flagged are then examined by ICE and could be deported.” (5)

This program heightens the assault on Raza where now every Brown person in the U.S. becomes a suspect and criminalized in the eyes of the state and public. This program has been abused horrifically, indeed a study in 2011 found that about 3,600 U.S. citizens had been wrongly arrested by ICE.

What’s different from the Old Greaser Laws and the New Greaser Laws is today, many from within the oppressed nations have been bought off by the oppressor and end up unwittingly maintaining such low intensity war aimed at Aztlan. We know the “Secure Communities Program” is a product of the Obama administration, at the same time if we look at the numbers for those who voted to put Obama into office we find 93% of New Afrikans voted for Obama, 69% of Latinos, and 74% of Asians voted in his favor. (6) Ironically it is the Brown, Black and Yellow folks now feeling the brunt of the “Secure Communities Program”. The oppressed nations should take heed to these lessons because they we are to move forward. In our struggle for national liberation we cannot get lost in appearance, we should not be swayed by form but we should focus on content. When it comes to the oppressed nations there is class contradictions within each respective nation on these shores and Amerika's bourgeois politics attempts to lure the oppressed to get struck in its ballot box scam and conceal class contradictions at all costs. Mao spoke of class in his day when he said: "The ruthless economic exploitation and political oppression of the peasants by the landlord class forces them into numerous uprisings against its rule...it was the class struggles of the peasants the peasant uprisings and peasant wars that constituted the real motive force of historical development in chinese feudal society." (7)

Todays class contradictions affect all of the oppressed nations in the US and most prisoners derive from these oppressed nations and we will be the real motive force in ultimately resolving these class contradictions. Just as our efforts today to better our conditions and stop the the SHU torture are arriving via a United Front, so too will we reach national liberation in the future cia this same approved of the united front.

One of the things the left in the US is leaving out of the equation and must be dealt with is the states targeting of Chicanos at an enormous rate for SHU torture. More Raza are placed in shu solitary confinement that any other peoples in california prisons (8). Of these Raza the vast majority are chicanos. The shu has been identified even by Amerikan "liberal" groups like human rights watch or even amnesty international as 'cruel and unusual' torture. It is well known that solitary confinement creates psychosis after long durations and even for as little as ten days can cause psychological trauma. What this means is in California Chicanos are being tortured and rendered mentally ill more than any other group of prisoners even though chicanos are not the majority population of California prisons. The closest phenomenon to this in the US prison system is the fact that new Afrikans are the largest population on death row, the only difference is new Afrikans are also the largest population of the prison system whereas chicanos are a minority in California's state prison system. They are facing a legal lynching and we are facing a psychological legal lynching.

Those in the prison movement need to look more into this phenomenon and identify the changing contradictions for todays concrete conditions. We need to see more analysis of this phenomenon in movement publications to find ways to combat this situation and glean what can be gleaned to push the movement forward.

This phenomenon of the control unit and specifically California's "shu" can thus be seen as another aspect of the New Greaser laws that are aimed at neutralizing the Chicano nation. The shu is a formidable opponent, it is a big gun in the oppressions arsenal, solitary confinement is its biggest stick. Today, nearly 100,000 people are locked in solitary confinement. This is something that prisoners across the US prison system experience at some time and the impact it is having on the people's mental capacities is only imagined at this time. Terry Kupers, a psychologist, states in a deposition "Everyone who is in a supermax has some kind of psychological damage as a result." (9) The evidence is there that solitary is neutralizing a person without a visible weapon but the state is doing this intentionally in my opinion. No longer are they using a whole town to lynch the oppressed nations in the town square, no longer are thousands rounded up and placed in ovens or gas chambers, instead we are rounded up and locked up for the rest of our lives in solitary confinement! It is a bloodless torture we suffer for being born with Brown, Black or Red skins. White supremacy has only become more sophisticated.

The warden of pelican bay Greg Lewis has said, "In my experience ,the men that are housed within this security housing unit have suffered no ill effects from their segregation." (9) This is akin to Amerikkka telling the first nations that they suffered no "ill effects" from the trail of tears.

The new greaser laws are creating new contradictions and new struggles within prisons that have not been seen in decades. This mobilization of the lumpen works to combat the new greaser laws in the form of a united front against prison repression. But in our efforts we must raise this aspect of todays repression when we can and get prisoners and our outside allies to grasp this form of development. Our strategy on the ground should raise the consciousness of the U.S. left by being able to translate the changing face of today's prison oppression.

Revolutionaries commonly read, study and declare the Marxist method of the material world being in constant motion. Most people grasp this in theory, in practice however is a different story. Many have failed to implement this method when it comes to the assaults aimed at Aztlan. This parochialism leads to disconnect where nobody identifies the changing conditions and thus the proper response is not coordinated.

Today's lumpen experiences a multifaceted assault which has changed in some ways since the 1970s which was the pinnacle of the prison movement's last development, we as revolutionaries and activists whether in prison or out in society must change our response to the changing developments on the ground. should we apply a 1970 approach to today's contradictions, we will stray off the path of advancing the new prison movement and making real strides for people. but prisoners must take more responsibility for progress made and advances in the prison movement, it is after all us who are buried in this trench of despair. Our external allies may hand us a shovel and feed us oxygen but ultimately it must be us who dig ourselves out. In some ways, those of us in SHU have become slaves of the state since we exist in a caste like existence. One writer has put it this way..."The racialized idiom of slavery in the American social order depended on the legal fiction of 'civil death'; the state of a person who though possessing natural life has lost all civil rights." (10)

We are definitely alive and breathing yet we exist on life support obtaining sustenance to keep us breathing but without experiencing what it means to be human and stripped of civil rights like our counterparts in Guantanamo Bay.

We are seeing that todays prisoners are not mute partisans of violence but people who no longer will suffer in silence, our voices will be heard and voices shall be amplified by those who remain loyal to something called humanity out in society. the power we see manifesting in the strikes are symbols of solidarity of the lumpen class. the strikes coupled with the call to end hostilities reflect developments in U.S. prisons. These developments for prisoners are a leap from a quantitative stage to a qualitative stage or as Engels described simply from 'quantity to quality.' Where the imprisoned social forces have demonstrated a certain amount of consciousness to identify our common oppressor and the class contradictions that exist even in prisons, this knowledge was then used to make a decision to act as a class to advance out class interests. This action was a development not seen in the U.S. prison system since the uprising in Attica in the 1970s! This of course is great but our analysis and future struggles must go deeper and farther if we are to regain our humanity as people and our civil rights as prisoners.

Ultimately, like most contradictions in Amerikkka that result in the interests of the oppressed nations, the fight against the new greaser laws, supermax torture, the Anti-SHU struggle or prison conditions, more generally will only come from how we explore United Front efforts, that is manifested in a lumpen class-wide movement. Prisoners in some aspects exist as the canary in the coal mine where we serve as the social thermometer to where the state is going in its repression projects that will be used on the broader society at some point, so we play an important role in identifying which way the wind blows behind prison walls but this can only be done if prisoners are conscious and able to put critical thinking to the task. To satisfy our responsibility prisoners need to study the contradictions in today's society which revolve around Nation, Class and Gender. Only in this way will we find solutions and understand the interconnection of us and the outside society, only then can we attempt to add to what is bubbling in today's theoretical realm in the internal semi-colonies here in the U.S. and internationally.

The stranglehold of U.S. prisons will continue with employing the New Greaser Laws and other modes of repression until all our energies can be properly harnessed to breaking this link that is one of many in the long chain of oppression unleashed by U.S. Imperialism.

By Jose H. Villarreal

Notes

(1) J. Sakai, "Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat," Morning Star Press, 1989. pg 32.

(2) J.V. Stalin, "The Foundations of Leninism."

(3) Analysis of census data by Barnett Lee, John Iceland, Gregory Sharp at Penn State's Dept. of Sociology and Population Research Institute.

(4) Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone Magazine. April 11, 2013, "The Stupidest Law Ever."

(5) Alan Gomez, USA today, Nov 6, 2012 "Immigration Policy Review Delayed."

(6) NEP Exit Poll 2012

(7) Mao Zedong, "The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party." (December 1939), Selected Works, Vol II, p. 308

(8) April 26, 2013. The Michael Slate Show, KPFK Radio, Los Angeles.

(9) Jeff Tietz, Rolling Stone Magazine. Dec 6, 2012. "Slow-Motion Torture."

(10) Colin Dayan, "The Law is White Dog," Princeton University Press, 2011. p 44.

I was with a friend

The other day and as

We walked down Market

Street I thought I’d

Seen the circus

6 or 7 people stood

Around and they appeared

To be wearing clown

Suits

Are those guys with

The circus? I asked

Are you crazy? My friend

Replied, those are the

Fare inspectors, they

Inspect the buses for

Fare cheats

Fair inspectors? I asked

Fare inspectors, my friend

Answered

And I continued watching

Those fare inspectors

Whose  clown suits were

Some sort of skin

Made of high quality

(or semi-high quality)

synthetics that, judging by

the ill-fitted appearance on

the human (or semi-human)

bodies they clung to, appeared

to be of the one-size-fits-all-variety

And with the

Authority of the clowns

They boarded the bus

And with clown authority

Pulled a few people aside

And wrote them tickets

On clown pad and paper

Taking their sweet

Clown time as

They did it

and the passengers

look on in silence, as

if they were being reprimanded

in some kind of clown classroom

If you really want

To fuck something

Up

As the song says

Send in the clowns

© 2014 Tony Robles

Co-editors Note: Papa Bear Transitioned to his Spirit Journey on or around March 10th- POOR Magazine will be holding a humble homegoing ceremony for him on the street corner where he lived and worked at Geary & Van Ness on Tuesday, March 25th @ 7:30pm - bring a flower or a prayer to share. Papa Bear, a survivor of the US Military Industrial Complex and the poor people hate law called Sit-Lie, shared his monthly reports of living and working as a panhandler in the racist classist streets of Amerikkka every month at POOR Magazine's Peoples Newsroom we call Community Newsroom- here is his last report, translated by PNN Poverty skola Leontyne Smith-

As people know, Papa Bear comes to newsroom every month with a report straight from the streets of Frisco, as tired as he is from pan-handling all day and getting harrassed by the police. He said recently the police have expidited their patrols to three to five minutes. They are taking photos of the dope dealers and beating them up.

Even though he talked about the usual stuff that goes on in the Tenderloin he brought up the problems with power washing. A lot of people are dying because of what the Department of Public Works put in their washing chemicals. Some people think this is happening on purpose to demean the homeless and make them know the are supposed to be inferior.

I read on Google the only harm that happens to the homeless is self-inflicted, and they should just die without food and shelter. This month at Newsroom the news about how homeless folks in the room are getting treated is absurd. At shelters they make you sign in at five oclock in the morning and you are never gauranteed a bed. They are ususally infected with bed bugs which are really hard to get rid of and usually you get bites all over your body instantly.

Other people in the room talked about how the staff are worse than the clients, and they do not care. Being that i have been working with Poor Magazine, a lot of people were homeless and/or living in low income housing, which in itself costs way too much now.

At the end of Papa Bear's update, he talked about getting another warrant which is number nineteen now and he is aiming for twenty. Police have broken his ribs for sleeping on the streets and now they are even closing parks just to give homeless people a hard time. Golden Gate Park closes one hour before midnight, and that is making trouble with people enjoying the earth and people who need to sleep there too. Parks are nature and that is something that brings peace and contentment of mind. I used to love writing in my journal in the cuts of the trees in Golden Gate Park when i was a teenager. That was my escape from everybody and everything. It was like hiding out in a little forrest where nobody could find me. Something about breathing in the trees, flowers and the beautiful plants.

I am not homeless and I am seriously mad as hell because nature is a safe-haven for some people. Papa Bear has been homeless for a long time after serving his country for half his life and what does he get? Racism and warrants, wow.
 

Oakland - As the massive automatic across-the-board sequestration budget cuts continue to devastate the poor in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, greedy nonprofit developers are pushing for Rental Assistance Reform (RAR) legislation that would result in higher rents for the poor, the acceleration of the privatization of our public housing sites all across the nation, and the loss of Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers for the poor.

The wealthy nonprofit developers want more Section 8 vouchers to be taken away from the poor so that they can be converted into project-based vouchers for their projects.

Meanwhile, as the massive sequestration budget cuts continue to harm the poor, the executives in the nonprofit so-called affordable housing industry continue to demand higher rents from the poor, at the same time they receive massive bonuses and increases in their salaries and wage compensation.

At this point, I am demanding a freeze in rent increases on the poor in all so-called affordable housing projects being operated by nonprofit and for profit so-called affordable housing developers.

I am also pushing for a salary cap of $125,000 in salaries and wage compensation for all the executives in the so-called affordable housing industry that have projects subsidized by local and federal tax dollars.

I am demanding that the executives immediately reduce, and freeze their salaries at the level of $125,000 annually.

I am asking for community support in demanding an end in rent increases on the poor in so-called affordable housing projects, and ask for community support in pushing for a salary cap of $125,000 for all executives in nonprofit and for profit housing organizations that have so-called affordable housing projects subsidized by local and federal tax dollars.

Click below for a list that includes some local nonprofit so-called affordable housing developers in the East Bay...

http://www.ebho.org/get-involved/membership/our-members

See the latest in salaries and wage compensation for some of the top executives from some local 501 c3 charity nonprofit housing corporations operating in Oakland, according to some of the latest 990 tax forms filed with the federal government that are available for
public viewing.

EAH Inc.; In 2012, more than 11 executives at EAH Inc., earned well over $100,000 per year, including 2 people raking in well over $200,000 a year. Leading the pack, Mary Murtagh, President, was paid $298,850 in 2012. Laura Hall, Chief Operating Officer, was paid $208,286. Cathy Macy, CFO, was paid $186,709. Stephen Lucas, VP Acquisitions, was paid $182,991. Dianna Ingle, VP Re MGMT, was paid $163,324.

Affordable Housing Associates; In 2010, Susan Friedland, Executive Director of Affordable Housing Associates, was paid $133,731, but was paid $152,966 in 2012, a huge wage compensation increase of $19,235 during a period of massive budget cuts to the nation's housing programs during that same period.

Bridge Housing; In 2011, the top executive at Bridge Housing took in well over $300,000 that year, with 6 other top executives pulling in well over $200,000 annually, including an additional 6 other top executives raking in well over $155,000 that year. Leading the pack, Cynthia Parker took in $330,249 in compensation during 2011. Rebecca Hlebasko was paid $278,224. Kimberly A McKay was paid $255,665. Susan Johnson was paid $235,875. D Valentine was paid $235.840. Lydia Tan's compensation was listed at $224,474 for 2011 (Severance pay on 1/3/2011, of $118,244, and distribution of an additional $106,230). Brad Wiblin was paid $200,887. Ann Silverberg was paid $196,499.

Christian Church Homes: In 2011, Don Stump, President/CEO, was compensated $181,874. Cynthia Lappin, VP Operations & COO, was paid $157,295. Winthrop Marshall, VP Finance & CFO, was paid $151,687. Leilani Siegfried, VP Human Services, was paid $138,810. Geoffrey Morgan, VP Development, was paid $130,948. Sheryl Stella, Controller,
was paid $123,832.

Eden Housing; In 2011, Linda Mandolini, Executive Director, was paid $188,834. Jan Peters, Chief Operating Officer, was paid $187,538. Terese Mcnamee, CFO, was paid $175,804.

Satellite Housing; In 2011, Ryan Chao, Executive Director, Satellite Housing was paid $175,321. Dori Kojima, was paid $105,179. Miriam Benavides was paid $100,093.

East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation; During 2011, Jeremy Liu, Executive Director, was paid $125,217. Peter Sopka, CFO, was paid $125,101. Mary Hennessy, COO, was paid $110,126. Carlos Castallenos, Director of Real Estate Development, was paid $103,329. Records also show that in 2009, former Executive Director of EBALDC, Lynette Jung Lee, earned as much $140,536 that year, including an additional $5,942
in other compensation. Joshua Simon is the current Executive Director, of EBALDC.

Resources for Community Development; In 2011, Dan Sawislak, Executive Director, of received a total compensation of $127,330.

Lynda Carson may be reached at; tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com

Last month’s Community Newsroom at POOR was in honor of Black History Month ( even though we know at POOR Magazine, that every month is Black History) One of our guest speakers, named Kinara Sankofa, blew the crowd away. Being that I graduated from an Africana Studies program his name automatically intrigued me because Sankofa is an important part of black history. Though our guest did not talk about the meaning of ‘Sankofa’ I thought it was important to understand the history context of this historically significant name. According to Black Student Union coordinators at the University of Illinois:

“The concept of ‘Sankofa’ is derived from King Adinkera of the Akan people of West Africa. ‘Sankofa’ is expressed in the Akan language as ’se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenki.’Literally translated, this means ‘it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot.’ ‘Sankofa’ teaches us that we must go back to our roots in order to move forward. That is, we should reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us, so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward. Whatever we have lost, forgotten, forgone, or been stripped of can be reclaimed, revived, preserved, and perpetuated. Visually and symbolically, ‘Sankofa’ is expressed as a mythic bird that flies forward while looking backward with an egg (symbolizing the future) in its mouth. This ties with our motto: ‘In order to understand our present and ensure our future, we must know our past.’ “

Kinara Sankofa is an inspiring artist, entrepreneur and leader. He has been writing poetry for years. When I asked him what kind of poetry he writes, he said his biggest dream is to write about love and the beauty of the black women. He went on to explain how valuable black women are and that we deserve to have good men in our lives. He moved to Australia for about twenty years where he fell in love with a woman who inspired much of his poetry. He also talked about how men are disconnected from their femininity. He said that for men to cry and show vulnerability is actually a sign of strength, not weakness. In an insightful linguistic flip, he used the term “white inferiority” instead of white supremacy, and he made it clear that we have to stop blaming other people for our problems. He said that we need to educate the next generation of powerful black revolutionary leaders by teaching our history in our communities (such as the often forgotten fact that Oklahoma used to be the black Wall Street) and celebrating people such as Malcolm X, Assata, Muhammad.

Among his many accomplishments, Kinara Sankofa has also written a book, and started a clothing line. Black Power Clothing has a beautiful logo of a black fist with African colors. Visit his website at www.ashaybythebay.com.

He closed out his presentation at the POOR magazine newsroom with a poem entitled “The Coldest Summer Ever.” He captured the moment with his last sentence in the poem saying, ‘niggas’ spelled backwords is ‘saggin.’  This poem was awesome and really got the newsroom thinking. There were no disagreements with anything he was preaching. After his poem, we finished with a drum circle and a prayer. What can you get that is better than that?! Even though February is the shortest month of the year, we celebrated Black History Month with unity and community at POOR magazine.

Painting by Tiffany Aldridge

News room was crowded and popping as usual. Before I started asking questions of this new guest we had named Benito, I saw a man playing a drum. Drumming in my mind automatically reminds me of the root of music with indigenous people. I know this because as a graduate out of the Africana studies department I studied music relating to Africa. I learned people in Africa used the drum as a means of communication and expression without words, and sometimes the women would dance and move to touch the earth mentally and physically. 

The guest known as Benito had already attracted everybody spiritually when I saw him playing on his drum. When it was his turn to talk about his story he talked about being a first generation Filipino-American in 1950. HIs last name was senator, and his family destined him to become a lawyer. He expressed how he learned how to meditate because he was always forced to stare at the wall when he got in trouble in school. Then when he didn't own up to his parents dreams in 1971 he decided to do dance theatre at SFSU with an emphasis in creative arts. 

He came from doing gigs around the bay area to working for the San Francisco Unified School District working with children that have been diagnosed with ADD. He has worked at Philip Burton high school since 1999. He expressed how he is the only one who can get to the kids because of his skills with a drum. The hardest kids that supposedly never listen light up when Benito has a drum circle every week, and invites everybody. Even if you are in a wheelchair or if you are deaf, he wants everybody to come to the drum circle. The other teachers are amazed because all of the children behave (even the one's they usually cannot control). Benito came outside the box. He is bringing children back to the indigenous way of healing and fun. He said the children got heart and everyone has to release in a positive voice. He feels he is the spokesperson for people who cannot speak. He feels that he could leave (die) right now and still be blessed. He loves to use his drum to make a connection. Not rainy whether or anything else will ever make him stop. 

Despite this story the real experience he wanted to talk about was how he got attacked by skin heads. There were a couple of white men in a car, and they stopped for him. Not knowing these people were racist they ran him over as soon as he walked the crosswalk. He flew out into the street, and to this day he doesn't know what happened until he woke up in the hospital. He couldn't move and now after hella physical therapy, he wakes up around four o'clock in the morning straightening out his spine, because he refused to get surgery after the incident. 

Last but not least he was really at news room to advocate for his housing. So, this article became three stories in one. What I admired about Benito was that he did not talk about his tragic experience of getting forced to leave his home, but he talked about his experience with children and the drum. 

Under the Ellis Act, Benito has been given an eviction notice. POOR magazine is filing a law suit against his landlords and he is thankful. He said he does not have a second plan on where to live but he was still smiling no matter what. At the end of this magical story about him he lead a drum circle with a prayer and closed the whole news room down. People were touched by his drum and his beat, along with his ability to talk to Mother Earth.

Co-editors Note: Recent changes in statewide curriculum requirements are attempting to reduce or eliminate Ethnic Studies programs across California. Ethnic Studies departments, such as the Africana Studies Department at San Francisco State University, were implemented as a result of hard-fought battles for racial equality and justice. For many people of color, Ethnic Studies have been an opportunity to become conscious of our own history/herstory and have inspired political engagement and community organizing.  The recent cuts to Ethnic Studies departments reflect the degradation of Civil Rights victories. This article by Leontyne Smith is an example of how Africana Studies can uplift, awaken and activate revolutionary scholars. The move to downsize ethnic studies departments is a part of the war on Black and Brown folks in Amerikkka.

Adults in this era do not know their true history, because a lot of schools do not teach the truth of African indigenous ancestral heritage. I know this for a fact, because from the first day of school to the last day of high school I did not have a clue about people like Marcus Garvey, Frank Douglas, Malcolm X, and every positive aspect of black history. Western European theories consider black people to be savages.

A reality check came to me my first year of college, when I took a class called West African tribal customs. My mouth dropped when I saw all of these classes named after African traditions and African Americans. Honestly I didn’t know that there was a difference. After taking this class with Doctor Wobogo, I fell in love with these classes, because we learned about the real customs of womanhood, manhood, in the context of our ancestral history. For example women were treated like royalty and men were treated with dignity and respect at a young age. In fact, in the tribe we studied, boys went into training around the age of five and were taught how to take care of a family and own their own land by the age of seven. Men would provide a hut, land, and animals, as well as skinning their own meat, and how to strategically how to hunt.

Learning about West Africa was awesome; I went through college without thinking about my future and what struggles I might have by majoring in Black Studies. I chose classes like Afro-centricity and the Dawn of Science, Black Religion and even a Black Journalism class. I wondered why black people in different majors would say the Black Studies major was a cop out. Still I didn't understand why people considered the Black Studies program a joke. Even some of the teachers would ask me, "Did you choose this major because we do not require statistics as a requirement?” This is absurd in my opinion. I didn't understand the politics with the Black Studies department and how we struggled so hard for this program to come into fruition. The BSU and Greeks were fighting when I attended and I would have to say Brother Maurice, and Brother Black put in blood sweat and tears. They stayed in school postponing graduation just to keep up the BSU, and what SFSU stands for. Brother Maurice always talked about unity, and people would hate on him because he was a fighter for indigenous people, even people outside of our race. He was straight out of Hunters Point and people thought he was ghetto because he grew up in the hood, but he actually stayed on the deans list and got straight 4.0 every semester. I really felt for some of the coordinators of the BSU, because a lot of people gave them a hard time. I came to a conclusion that your own people will turn on you, and a lot of people want to be the leader. Egotistical stuff ruins things, but despite all the challenges, they did keep up the kings and queens meetings.

Nine years passed by and I graduated in May of 2012 with a bachelors degree in Black studies. Every agency I sign up with for help tells me not to mention to a potential employer I have a Bachelor’s in this ethnic background. They tell me to just say “social sciences.” Now I believe people do not go to college to learn; they go to college for a high paying job in the future. It is said if you graduate from college you are guaranteed to have a job because of a piece of paper. I worked so hard in college and honestly I am proud to have a Bachelor’s Degree in Black Studies, because teachers like Nobles, Tsuruta, T Shaka and etc empowered my soul. They made me feel like I am somebody. I got a lot of support from my academic advisor. He was the only person who believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself. He was also African American, and he ran the whole undergraduate advising center. All of our teachers would send us to Marcus Bookstore for our textbooks, and a lot of the teachers wrote multiple books.

Establishing a Black Studies major was a hard-fought battle. There were riots and people died to have the chance of having something of our own. Black people in the past demanded a lot more than just having a Black Studies department, but they negotiated and even established Malcolm X plaza, and the Cesar Chavez student plaza. Even though I cannot get a job (which has been a huge struggle for me), I am going to graduate school for to get a Marriage and Family Therapist License. I will carry all the knowledge I received from my elders at SFSU. I can teach children to love themselves just based on their history, and talk to them with an Afro-centric approach and teach them what I know they will not learn in school. Hopefully I can work at the youth guidance center or a place with troubled people and help them with my knowledge of Black Studies along with the MFT license.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Rise Up and Walk.

That's what Mom said.
But the thing is, I couldn't--
I was already dead.
It isn't like I didn't know how,
I used to love walking...One foot
After the other, just eating
Up the distance between where I was and
Where I wanted to be...

It was good, good to walk,
And as I walked and sometimes stopped to talk to people I met,
Or the animals I'd see along the way, I would
Even have
A word or 2 for the flowers
Along my path,
The ancient trees who leant me shade, or
Clouds that trailed lazily along with me.

Sometimes I even spoke to the Man.
The one who wanted me to get up,
And get walking again. I assume that's the reason
He was talking to me now.
When I thought about it and remembered how
I would sometimes ask him for things, beg Him for help.
Curse Him in my pain, and he would take it
All in stride, as long as I
Kept on walking.

So I guess that explains why He told me to do it.
Thank You.

February 12, 2014

State of California, Department of Justice
Office of the Attorney General, Kamala D. Harris
Attn: Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550

To Attorney General Kamala D. Harris:

 As a California resident who has lived here my entire life and as a Legal Advocate who works with mentally ill communities in California, I am writing you this letter in regard to the recent mass influx of police brutality that continues to be committed against our citizens, children and communities throughout California in near-epidemic proportions. Police brutality is rapidly increasing each day, where unnecessary brute force by sworn-in, P.O.S.T. law-enforcement officers/peace officers is being against our citizens, children and communities.

Most importantly, police brutality is being used against our citizens, children and community members who have either mental illness or are having a mental crisis at the time of incident, where in most instances has lead to inexcusable death committed by a law enforcement officer. This includes but not limited to incidents with citizens, children and community members who were unarmed or posed no real threat at the time of incident, being wrongfully harmed by improperly trained law-enforcement officers, who either lack and/or have no education, training or experience dealing with citizens who have mental illness and/or a mental crisis.

It is clearly imperative at this point that you Attorney General Kamala D. Harris and The Department of Justice of the State of California implement legislation that would establish an independent, non-law enforcement involved review board specific to this issue, mandating that all law enforcement agencies in the State of California who are involved in such acts of police brutality, be subjugated to a full investigation by this board on each individual case when a citizen has been wrongfully either verbally and/or physically brutalized, abused and/or killed by any P.O.S.T. law enforcement officers from any law-enforcement agency in the State of California (ie: Highway Patrol, County Sheriff’s Department, Municipal Police Department, Transportation Law-Enforcement agencies/BART Police; with several agencies listed here, but not limited to).

Not only should a full investigation be conducted in regard to each specific case in the instance where law-enforcement officers have inflicted severe physical harm to a citizen, leading to either injury and/or death, but that full judicial due process be mandated through legislative law and policy which would hold any of the law-enforcement agencies involved, who have committed such wrongful acts of police brutality fully accountable monetarily to those affected by such egregious acts of terror and violence upon citizens in compensation for incurred costs (medical bills, financial hardship, funeral costs, etc.).

In addition to this legislative law, it would be required that all involved P.O.S.T. law enforcement officers and/or law enforcement agencies in the State of California be held fully liable and accountable for their wrongful conduct and acts of violence, being tried with due process in criminal court and that those affected by such (ie: victims, affected family members, impacted community members, etc.) have the option of filing criminal charges against any law-enforcement agency and/or the law-enforcement officers involved in the wrongful act of police brutality. This would also pertain to any instance during the time of investigation on an open case/matter that any law enforcement officers involved in such an incident of police brutality to not be awarded with ‘paid leave of absence’, including being prohibited from active duty/serving the community.

At a time when this trend of police brutality is on the rise with the rapid increase of wrongful death incidents of unarmed citizens and children in California, it is also critically imperative that the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights in California be extensively reviewed by an independent citizen-based/non-law enforcement review board in an effort to implement up-dated, just and fair amendments to this bill with legislation that would protect citizens from acts of police terror/violence being committed upon them by law-enforcement agencies and/or officers in the State of California. It is time that we here in California begin this process, so that the inexcusable act of police brutality and violence will stop in our communities. As a former victim of police brutality myself, due to wrongful identity by a law enforcement officer, I thank you for your time in reading my letter.

Sincerely,

Vivian Thorp 

“They just told us they sold the building, none of us knows whats going to happen but now we know why all of our young people are being criminalized and their families evicted,” said Mary X, one of the long-time residents of the now no longer public housing project known as Plaza East. She was referring to a confusing announcement made by Housing Authority on Friday, Feb 28, 2014

The newest revelation in the shadowy world of RAD-gate- just got more shadows. According to Sara Short from the Housing Rights Committee, (in a post on Facebook) one of the prize jewels of the Housing Authority known as Plaza East was already sold to a private housing corporation who is partly owned by Goldman Sachs, known as MacCormack & Barron So who do we trust, and what are they hiding?

Goldman Sachs???!

If you read my original story written back in September 2013, the proposals of a new acronym known as RAD (Rental Assistance Demonstration) which to put it simply is the selling off of all public housing buildings across the US to private investors like Goldman Sachs was “presented” to an already bought in/mayor appointed Housing Authority board as the way “to save public housing”.

This pseudo-public meeting of the San Francisco Housing Authority, held just two weeks before the “deadline” to turn in the RAD proposal, was attended by a very small pre-selected group of non-profit housing organizations, many of whom would be beneficiaries of the RFP’s that would go out to “control” read: receive funding, to manage the housing authority buildings.

This meeting was the first time I or any of my fellow public housing warriors heard about the RAD program.  And I only happened to be there because I had to advocate for a tenant on an unrelated matter.

“The RAD program will enable these buildings, many of which were in serious (intentional) dis-repair to be saved, was the constant refrain from careful speaking Mayors office representatives selling the meeting on RAD’s benefits.

Public housing needed to be “saved” we were told, because the perfect storm of (intentional) “bad management” and (politrickster-stolen) stripping of funding from HUD made them uninhabitable so the only ‘answer’ presented was non-profit and for-profit privatization of public housing buildings. This budget genocide to HUD’s budget which began as far back as Nixon has been painstakenly researched and documented by poverty skolaz at Western Regional Advocacy Project

But this clean, simple corporate-esque solution was missing so many pieces, like what about the intentional blighting and boarding up of unit after unit of repairable housing in Hunters Point, Sunnydale and Alice Griffith?   What about the endless jaws of John Stewart and Lennar waiting in the wings with millions of dollars for redevil-opment, buy-outs and removal, followed up by racist, plantation worksites that don’t hire locally and racist plantation management that create age-separated capitalist ghettos, demand credit checks, incomes and place insane rules on their tenants.

No, family- RAD, just like its older brother Hope IV is a deep, dark lie of corporate mayors and corporate gentriFUKation and actually part and parcel of a more frightening process to control, eradicate, remove and criminalize public space, and us black, brown and poor people who convene, shop or live there.

RAD Evictions begin with Our Black and Brown Youth

“I can’t control my 19 year old son,” Sabrina Carter, African-American single mama and life-long resident of public housing in San Francisco, who is but one of over 7 families whose children have been criminalized, have been forced to sign stay away orders against for their own children, followed up by insanely unfair stipulated judgements which are adjudicated by San Francisco Judge Quidachay and end up in their eviction.

I a 10 year resident of Asheville Housing Authority in Asheville, NC. Last year our Housing Authority told us that they was applying for RAD and promoted to the residents like nothing is wrong with it and its there only option because they are running low on funding. I wanted to know if there is anyone we can contact to get help on how to address this. (comment to PNN)

Notwithstanding all the “confusion” about when Plaza East was privatized and why, what we know for sure is the criminalizations and evictions that Sabrina and so many families from San Francisco to North Carolina who just received in public housing have recently been increasingly facing  are but a small taste of what we as public housing tenants have to look foreward to as we face the privatization of what used to be public housing.

This a clear example of the overall plan to send poor people across the US to the other “Public housing” aka plantation prisons, all locally all the remaining low-income peoples of color out of this increasingly wite, rich City.

Click here to see the buildings in San Francisco approved for RAD funding

POOR Magazine is seeking a conscious law firm to represent the families of public housing in a class action suit. Any families who would like POOR Magazine to come out to your buildings and help you organize about RAD please email deeandtiny@poormagazine.org

Please join us in Singing in Sprit for Our Families in Struggle Action at SF CIty Hall @ 9am, Tuesday, March 11th, 2014

Until the bulldozer scrapes the landscape of this plantation,
I'll remain.
My phantasm in residence
Long after my body is unchained.

Strange to think I ever see
That day from where I'm sitting now.

But that's the illusion they want me to believe in--
That I'm never getting out.

I know better at some level
That I consciously keep submerged and hidden.
Lest the overseer see it in my eye,
And decide to kick my shit in.

My spirit must always appear to be broken.
My shoulders round in defeat.
No elbows out, or nose open in defiance
Compliance evident, Colonization Complete.

But as I said, My Ghost, My Ghost,
Will haunt this place.
Will always be here waiting for
The bulldozer that brings the smile back to my face.

Frisco was born in the back
Of the bus
Frisco grew up with sirens
In his ears
Frisco was the family
Fuck up with a good heart
Frisco walked down the street
With knives hidden
In her hair
Frisco stayed up all
Night with eye sockets
Filled with light
Frisco bore the skin
Of tree branches and
Lashing whips
Frisco was blackboards
That were brown and
Yellow and black and
Blue
Frisco was ancient pots
With built-on grease
Built-on year after
Year, generation after
Generation
Frisco was squeaky
Victorian bones
Soaked in thick soy sauce
Fog
Frisco was your father’s
Foot in your ass
Frisco was nightsticks and
The sign of the cross
Frisco was poets with
Calloused tongues
Talkin’ that Frisco shit
Frisco is ears filled
With wax voices of
That “Don’t call it
Frisco” dumb shit

Hella frisco shit
‘sup blood
Tha’s what’s up

Frisco was dad’s
Janitorial job that
Kept food on the table
And toilet paper in the
Bathroom

Frisco was dreams
On display in
Pawnshop windows
Horns waiting to be
Blown, conga drums waiting
For the beating caress

Frisco was bilingual
Trylingual
Beef
Pork
Lengua
Menudo
Fish heads
Pig ears
Pig nose
guts

Yesterday’s leftovers
Tomorrow’s hunger

Frisco was a black
Radio with static
From a can of beer

Frisco is abuelita
Balancing the world
On her head

Frisco is
Straight F’s

Frisco
Frisco
Frisco

Frisco is an evicted
Poem with
Everything to show
For it

Frisco is burned
Into our arms,
Our flesh, our
Memory

Its sound
Its life
Swims across
Our skin

Skin
To
Skin

Swirling
On our
Tongue

Call it
Frisco

© 2014 Tony Robles