Story Archives 2004

by Joe B.

MAIL CALL; SO, EMAIL ME!

It’s a rainy, windy Monday in the City,I rode a bus avoiding slogging uphill on foot through Polk and Pine Street.

But end missed the Pine Street Station bus stop walking down in the rain to get to my job.

Last week I set up a email column for asking or telling Joe columns.

Some people can be awfully rude and I can be right back but better not or I’ll have three editors picking apart my work again.

I want all those unseen eyes who’ve read my column to know how much I appreciate their time when they could very well be doing something else more important.

For six years I’ve written at POOR Magazine Inc.,been to benefits honoring local and foreign poverty heroes,heroine’s, poets, and sometimes POOR –M- itself.

We’ve moved once from the historic Local 6 Warehouse Union Hall on 255 9th Street; you know the one with the worker’s mural outside and its original inside?

Well Poor –M- maybe moving again.

There are other problems I cannot discuss that’s up to the two Genetically Connected- Mother/Daughter team of Dee & Tiny Co Editor’s of POOR Magazine Inc.,hard cover and internet magazine.

I’ve been part of both if not from its very inception POOR Magazine was Mrs. Dee and Tiny’s mental drive.

From nebulous mixtures of thought,concept,idea, to concrete fruition of solid product.

I just happen to be a replacement for Mr. Shawn who lived in Oakland though I do not know where he lives now.

I’m saying all this because… I may have to go, I’m thinking of moving to Berkeley.

Who knows it may not come to that. Now about another job lined up, resume written, interviews,all that’s just a nebulous a concept as the founding of POOR Magazine in 1994-’95 but from here it is 2004 and it still here.

As for me I know I’ve got to move on,I don’t know if I’ll ever write columns with odd,strange, and unusual topics that you have read (you know I’m a frustrated novelist, world traveler,and have been real lonely if not alone.)

But to make an exit one must have an entrance to somewhere else. My brilliant plan(yeah right) is to qualify as a research subject(Guinea Pig for money) for a month after that some of that money will be used as first,last,and security payment on housing for rent.

Selling drugs can get you dead but testing them may get you dead too!

However I’m thinking Marijuana smoking as a way to earn money legally.

I’d like to be a columnist living in Berkeley but I don’t think it may pan out because of so many rules but I can try anyway.

As for women; they are a likable lot aside from famous a dead serial killer,castration anxieties,and naturally large or body building, martial arts trained women that could easily body slam or deliver death blows as easily as make tender,unrelenting, passionate physical love to me as well lets just say I’ll take my chances with straight, lesbian, and maybe bisexual women than my own sex.

Men are great as buds, pals,fight-to-the-death- back-against-the-wall situations but as I’ve said before I’m hopelessly addicted to the feminine allure.

In other words this moth will dare flames, fly will enter spider’s web.

I have truthful, honest,and forthright now its you,my readers turn.

Everyday there are ads from all kinds of web sites for money, free vacations, love, astrology, breast and phallus enlargements (which I’d tried but have you seen what those large, bulbous, things look like up close on supposedly very endowed men? No wonder women both want men to be bigger but paradoxically worry about being ripped apart

Anyway readers email me at askjoe@poormagazine.org

I like knowing what you think of my column and especially to women if you send me wicked mash notes I will respond and not be a jerk with stupid smart aleck remarks unless you want it that way.

I’ve got to go to a dentists appointment then swimming and weight training sessions at the ‘Y. A
Pretty busy for a low wage worker but that’s life.
I guess this is another of my odd ball columns after all so be dear folks and email me sometime.


Donations C/0 Poor Magazine

1448 Pine Street #205

San Francisco, CA 94103

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joe B.

Billiejean,You Alright?

This is an open letter to a woman I met last year in Glide Memorial Church.

I met her immediately after announcing to this multi cultural,language, sexual orientation,non denominational congregation that I am heterosexual,single, healthy,and available!

Just before Ms. Billiejean sought me out, we exchange phone numbers, emails (I don’t think I got her’s right the first time.

Before leaving I kiss one of her hands because I didn’t expect that quick a response I expected no response at all.

We met a few times, talked about our lives, went church together once maybe twice and called each other nightly.

Recently she moved to 5th and Bryant Street – Multi Service Center South.

She mailed me an explicit describing what we’d might be doing together,relatives in Texas,and missing talking to me over the phone or taking a cruise on an Ocean Liner which is also a dream I’d like to realize too.

If anyone knows how she is doing please email me she is dear to me as long as she is healthy and sound of mind and body, her spirit high-soul free of demons that would be great to see by email.

I’ll embarrass myself publicly saying I miss your face,your touch and full lip-tongue lock kisses.

You were as gentle with me as I am of you it was the first time in years I felt good about being in church and though we had to separate afterwards it did feel awfully good sitting next to someone who as I enjoyed music, song,prayer,and bible reading.

Are You Alright is all I want to know.

Most of your demons you’ve beaten though a few may still nip a you.

Where ever you are I pray you are safe,with friends and family helping you stay strong when boys or men friends could be more of a hindrance than a help possibly it could be one of many reasons but there’s no use speculating on it just be careful and take great care of yourself Ms. M.

Now for the on-line ladies who seeing my physical(pictorial) profile wrote anyway – thank you all.

Warning: Ladies, your usernames will be only used,some of you know a few of mines and one I thought I had edited out but alas you’ll know by thinking of your own blessed anatomy*

(inner areas enabling bliss if gently, carefully,tenderly, administrated by being attentive listener’s on want,needs,not his).

Feminine onliners I than you all though all of you cannot be included many are thinking "Thank God/Goddess."

But I’d never can call everyone it would take up to much of my column.

For those mentioned its just a public Valentines Day from me (Yes,most of you have known valentines or unknown ones hidden in their hearts silently blushing with unrequited love.)

Ready Ladies; I’m not. Ms.Zelda 46,Angel-C, Walkingspirit, Mongolprincess,Angela@aeio 38,Ms.Valya678,chantal_d, Sveta_VI.

To new women logged on I didn’t know of until recently. Ms. Simpleloving,HiddeninSF, Silvressence32,
Sweetberry/clcalifornia, geeze?,Ms. AriaStarr(you may have a twin sister or look-a-like She’s Silvressence32! Angell4yu, kitty50, christine20+1(Way TOO YOUNG,Lovely One.)

So is girlAbby, isabelaarraes(T-Y but My Lord,I’m tempted.

Dolltydive(fine wine indeed),SexxxyGhanaGirl
(T-Y)You’re a reason science will find immortality!

Damn, I miss Metro-City Machine157.

If your what they’ve
Built over Cybernetic Me! Ship shape Lady Lawallyy,

Lastly for mysterygaldby of Durban,
KwaZulu-Natal,S.Africa.

Saw both profiles,you are a full figured woman, having children only makes you more womanly.

I pray you find the one who’ll let you be who you really are and rejoice in each others glory.

I have not been on-line for months then holiday, personal crisis,economic and medical woes took me away.

Oh,I did meet someone, I don’t know where she is now but only hope she is safe,warm,and with loved ones.

For the online women I did not name but profiles or photo’s that were seen.

This column was an open letter to one women but I could not talk of her without mentioning some of you who emailed me,last year.

All of you photo’s or not thank you for your kind and sometimes sinful words(most of us aren’t saints nor devils just mortals of flesh,blood trying to connect as best we can.

May all of you find the one that you want or from comedian/playwrite Margaret Cho "I’m The One That I Want."

Ladies if you find as I have that life is difficult at best at worse personal struggle keeping ones ideal,ideas,and self whole the worse is over,you’ve all lived it, be your own best friend because only you can make yourself happy.

Enough of that.

All I am saying is give all your lives a chance don’t do a comet’s burn out but live long,age well,like and love many as always change when you want to and not for anyone else.


Donations C/0 Poor Magazine

1448 Pine Street #205

San Francisco,CA 94103

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joe B.

Black And Rainbow Love Month

Its that month again of His/herstory and love. Ms. Yvonne King,eldest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of her late father’s "Dream" and how many of us may have lost our way.

Ms. Yvonne has her father’s oratory fire and an infectious sense of humor combined with urgency.

I was with a friend but left to get her the last of my phone cards.

On returning I am sitting in the back rows listening I knew I’d be late working Sunday at Poor’s office,but then it is Sunday so I figured J.C.,his spirit brother, and,Big G-the literal Godfather would spare for honoring his abode in prayer,song,and holy dance.

Didn’t remember the book of poems or inspirational stories because the non profit media job does not run me, no the drip of ink on paper,or electronic bits on a PC screen is important enough to concentrate on while in the lords home.

As with parties, celebrations,plain old day off fun I leave that behind because my work is not me,what I do is separate from what I am which is essentially living a humble,quiet, uneventful life; my highest goal in life to live it as long and with as much love before moving on to the next level of existence.

I still must clean up my place before Housing Authority see’s my sloppy side. Don’t know what say to all of you who haven’t placed questions on my askjoe site – I’ll keep asking and if no one posts anything well – That means its not my fault and readers would rather read than write what’s on their minds. Find with me.

Everybody make glorious long ever-ready bunny love,rest and keep at it.

Ahhh,Marathon loving, the only way to say hi-by and both folks have silly smiles of bliss on their faces.

For Women,Men,or whomever you are: Question
What is the longest time any of you readers made solid,wall-to-wall, carpet-to-floor,roof-to- attic/basement silent or sound barrier breaking lovemaking?

Some would say I’m going to far or not far enough but that’s up to all of your reading this column to decide…



Donations C/0 Poor Magazine

1448 Pine Street #205

San Francisco,CA 94103

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joe B.

Let’s Move On

The ever thinning San Francisco Examiner has had Gay and Lesbian Marriage as its Front Page for a week or so.

As new Mayor Gavin Newsom seemingly went against if not government law but moral laws in the five day,2,400 marathon marriage ceremonies of Lesbian and Gay Couples in City Hall.

I’ve been hearing words like historic,stunt,and politics surrounding this issue all week.

Being raised as a Roman Catholic myself I’ve been indoctrinated with venial and mortal sin concepts and the old "Its Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve answer.

That argument set in stone use to work except as one learns about black and white,multicolor,and gray words and situations blend it changes.

Sure men and women are the so called natural state where children issue forth replenishing the race.

All I took out is boy-girl equation with two human’s with a close, deep,abiding,bond and whichever people they are if they are committed to the point making a legal document announcing to the world they’re love then what’s the big deal?

The that dares not speak its name,forbidden fruit,hell bent is where those that break laws,or long standing codes of conduct.

Now I was not speaking of Homosexuality or Lesbian sex but what states and governments deemed as miscegenation
The illegal cohabitation or commingling of the races.

Mainly Black and White, Black Males with Females if its was White Males with Black Females that was deemed improving the darker race as our skins lightened.

Thank the most high that genetically melanin though diluted could never be wiped out,and a humble Austrian monk Gregor Mendel(1822)(1884)of the Czech Republic in the early 20th century.

Hmmm,isn’t the 1800’s closer to the 19th century?

Anyway,his theory of dominant and recessive traits – Meant scientifically speaking that: just because Whites sire light skinned children doesn’t mean those children will reproduce like dear old dad the dominant melanin pigmentation persists sometimes skipping a generation.

Its funny how people say ‘Hetro’s (myself included) sat "Get Over It" when an old law is taken off the books and better ones replace from leering a women in Hooter’s or Adult theater’s to electing Presidents.

I see how my fellow citizens home,hearth,and family values deal with same sex marriages they don’t like it one bit its sort of an affront to the way they were raised and taught.

Well,as you said to rainbow folks,immigrants seeking better lives for themselves and their families the shoe’s on the other foot.

Just as many of remember the political undermining, disenfranchisement of Black and Brown Floridian’s "Let’s see how you get over it."

I’ts 7 am. Tuesday, February,17,2004.

Walking down Market Street it occurs to me from all the news happening near where I live it behooves me to see what’s its all about people are lined up from the left side of city all as persons with booms (those mikes with what looks like fur to capture human voices yet muffle out other sounds).

NBC-11, Channels 5, 7, and KRON News Trucks are and I’m sure many others that I didn’t see as I rushed to get in on my quick time reporting of same sex marriages.

I thought I’d do a quick check inside before going to work I wanted to gay marriages up close inside San Francisco’s City Hall.

Being both historic and political because if Mayor Gavin Newsom pulls this off with legal backing he just might have both lesbian and gay votes in his pocket if he decides running for a second term as Mayor.

Of course this was never his strategy-no,he being both business man and humanitarian had no way of knowing that this brash marry ‘em and screw the consequences has no political agenda four years hence.

His honest civic duty to bend if not break this oppressive man-woman-only -as–nuclear family- appropriate statue is no high stakes political stunt but of a empathic human being doing whatever is in his power to help same sex couple complete the legal,sacred state of wedded bliss as he and his wife has.

Going through the metal detector before heading for the elevator. It is so huge, cavernous, this lair of opulence seemed to be taking a rest from its normal hustle bustle routine set aside for affairs of the heart.

Though inside city hall looks empty it teemed with people. Taking an elevation to the 2nd floor to see a better view I found it was the place to be but on the first floor where the steps are as photographer’s, videographer’s aim, snap, flash, and reload their machines. I only have a micro-recording device (and this is supposedly the 21st century!) Not being all that good at reporting I’m hesitant when asking questions screwed my courage up and letting my mouth, brain, and body relax.

School children, tourists, the rare true born and raised San Franciscan’s gather here also.

Feeling time was ticking by I am standing next a young woman
just as I am about to talk to her I notice my tape isn’t running or running slower which always happens when you press for a slower speed.

This is great not knowing how much time has passed while watching an anonymous same sex couple take their vows guess I’ll find out another day if I have one other interview or was using dead batteries halfway through the only two interviews I was able to hopefully record.

Yes,there is a part if I can get my tape working again.

So, What do any of you reading this think about Gay Marriages,Email me, use real,fake,or be Mr. Ms. anonymous I’d like to know.


Donations C/0 Poor Magazine
1448
Pine Street #205

San Francisco,CA 94103

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Leroy F. Moore Jr.

Sit down & listen

cause there will be a test at the end

Displaying & speaking

our history & culture

through music & art

From slavery to homeland security

Black disabled artists

roots grow deep

however this garden his starving for recognition

The most famous classical pianist

in the mid to late 19th century

was a Black Blind Autistic slave

Tom Wiggins aka Blind Tom was his slave name

his master used him to make money

and left him poor and broken

Horace Pippin, the first Black Disabled self-taught
painter

lost his arm in WW1

using his left arm

to prop up his right forearm

crafted his first masterpiece depicting horrors of war

Oh, the price he paid for being Black, Poor,

Self-taught & Disabled

Blues is the Black Anthem

attract blind singers & musicians

to make a living on the streets

some made it into recording studios

Blind Willie McTell born in 1898

played on the streets of Atlanta

Blind Willie Johnson born around 1902

a street evangelist

stepmother threw lye

in young Johnson’s eyes

causing blindness

Johnson became the first

gospel guitarist too record

he died of pneumonia

hospital refused admittance

due to his blindness

Blind Blake & Blind Boone’s

Birthdates are not known

Blind John William Boone formed

his own concert company

traveling all over the country

more than 8,000 concerts

in the USA Canada, Europe & Mexico

The most popular Male Blues

recording artists of the twenties

was Blind Lemon Jefferson

he was also a street performer

Black deaf schools

in the fifties produced

independent businesses like barber shops

down south and social clubs in the East

Writers like Mary Herring Wright, Linwood

Smith & Ernest Hairston

voice the experiences of our Black Deaf Brothers &
Sisters

Listen to the Melody Heartbeat of a Black Deaf
Woman

Jades fingers reads I’m a proud Black Deaf Woman

Black sign language was developed cause societal

attitudes & educational policy helped create a dual
system and what grew?

A strong Black Deaf identity

integration killed Black Sign & almost

erased Black Deaf Culture

Let’ s travel to Jamaica

Where in the fifties Polio infected the island

Skelly, Wise & Apple are Israel Vibration

they met each other

at Mona Rehabilitation Center

got kicked out cause their religious beliefs in Rasta

homeless, poor & disabled

began to sing on the streets

now they are the Fathers of Reggae

Back to Africa

tribal dancing

to the drumming, guitar strumming and singing

of Amadou & Mariam

a Blind married couple

blending Rock, Pop, Jazz & Hip Hop

with an international flavor

from Cuba to Asia & India to America

Coming home to the Bay Area

to swing from Charles Curtis Blackwell & Avotcha’s

jazz Poe-tree & celebrate

Disabled African American Visual Artists

at Harambee’s annual art show called KUUMBA

So get out your number two pencils for your final

on Black Disabled Art History

By Leroy F. Moore Jr.

by Staff Writer

The GLOBAL WOMEN'S STRIKE was born in 1999, when women in Ireland
decided to welcome the new millennium with a national general strike. They
asked the International Wages for Housework Campaign to support their call,
and we called on women all over the world to make the Strike global on 8
March 2000.

The Strike came out of a long grassroots history, starting in 1952 with a
little
pamphlet called A Woman's Place and continuing with Power of Women and
the Subversion of the Community, now a classic, in 1972, and Sex, Race and
Class in 1973.* All three made the case that the work women do for wages is
a second job, that the work we do in the home and in the community without
wages, producing all the workers of the world, and our struggle to change
the
world, were invisible but central.

Since then, we have been campaigning to get RECOGNITION and WAGES
for all the unwaged work women do, as well as for PAY EQUITY-- these are
JOINT LEVERS against women's poverty, exploitation and discrimination of
every kind. According to the UN, women do 2/3 of the world's work: from
breastfeeding and raising children to caring for those who are sick, older
or
disabled, to growing, preparing and cooking the food that feeds families,
communities and continents (80% of food consumed in Africa is grown by
women), to volunteer work and to work in the informal economy as cleaners,
seamstresses, street sellers, sex workers, as well as work in the formal
economy. Here again women's work is often caring for people, in hospitals
and schools, as domestic workers, childminders, personal assistants . . . or
in
sweatshops - jobs where men who do comparable work also get low pay. But
women get the lowest, and often face sexual and racial harassment.

Although in every country all this work is basic to the welfare and even
survival of humanity, it is devalued and ignored by the Market, and women
get
only 5% of the world's assets in return.

In Beijing in 1995, the International Women Count Network which we co-
ordinate, supported by more than 1,500 organisations, won a major UN
decision. National accounts were to include how much of their lifetime
women
spend doing unwaged work and how much value this work creates. Trinidad
& Tobago and Spain have put this into law; other countries are carrying out
time-use surveys and increasingly consider unwaged work in court decisions
and government policies.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Women in over 60 countries

Since 2000 the Strike has been a great success. It has brought together
women in over 60 COUNTRIES, including grassroots organisations with
impressive track records, who also demand a world that values all women's
work and every life, and who have achieved much. They are now part of an
international network of Strike co-ordinators.

In Venezuela, we are working with the women who are building a caring
economy and won Article 88 of the Constitution, which recognises housework
as an economic activity that creates added value and produces social welfare
and wealth, entitling housewives to social security. The Strike has been
spreading news of such momentous victories, supporting the revolutionary
process there in which women from the grassroots are the most active
participants.

The Strike is part of the movement against war and occupation not only in
Iraq
but in Palestine, Chechnya, Colombia, Congo, Kashmir . . . Our priority has
been to highlight the struggle that women make and the direction this gives,
from which the whole movement benefits but which is often as ignored as the
unwaged survival work we do. With the theme INVEST IN CARING NOT
KILLING, we demand that the $900+ billion now spent on military budgets is
used instead for basic survival needs -- clean accessible water, food
security,
healthcare, housing, education, safety from rape and other violence,
protection of our planet -- and therefore for women who are the first carers
and the first fighters for the survival of loved ones. We claim for a start
the US
military budget -- over half the world's military spending -- with which
"Corporate America" imposes its economic and political interests on the
whole
world (including on people in the US).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The contribution of those sectors most discriminated against

Those sectors of women who are most discriminated against - all women of
colour, including women of Indigenous, African and Asian descent, single
mothers, women with disabilities, immigrant women, sex workers, lesbian
women . . . use the Strike to spell out their contribution to every economy,
society and struggle. The Strike insists that more powerful sectors
acknowledge this contribution.

We also demand recognition for the contribution of men who actively support
our struggle because they agree that INVEST IN CARING NOT KILLING is
the priority of all workers and all humanity. Not only do men owe women
their
daily survival -- from breastfeeding to cooked meals, clean clothes and
emotional support -- but they also depend on women prioritising survival to
oppose the values of the Market, values which now threaten the survival of
the world. The web page of Payday, a network of men,
www.refusingtokill.net,
is an important contribution to the movement against war, and to the
recognition of all those who risk their own life and liberty in defence of
everyone's life and liberty.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A framework for unity

We are often told that in order to win we must unite, but we don't hear much
about how to do that (except from political parties that want to lead us).
We
use the Strike as a framework for unity -- among sectors of women, between
women and men, within and among countries -- because it is based on each
sector accepting and enriching the independent struggle of every other. The
Strike is not party political, nor is it separatist. It is ambitious for
the
movement for change but it stands against personal ambition that undermines
mutual accountability.

The Global Women's Strike has extended from taking joint action every 8
March. It is now a global network that strengthens the ongoing daily
struggle
of grassroots women (and men). We attach what Strike coordinators in some
countries say about what they have achieved with it.

The Strike establishes that as carers, waged or unwaged, we are always
WORKERS, and that we have the power to bring the whole economy to a halt.
That's what women did in Iceland on 24 October 1975. They said: WHEN
WOMEN STOP, EVERYTHING STOPS. We add: STOP THE WORLD AND
CHANGE IT.

Selma James and Nina López, 17 January 2004

womenstrike8m@server101.com www.globalwomenstrike.net

*Until then, it was assumed that only those who did waged work, mainly men
in industrial countries, were 'real' workers, and that only they could
change
the world. The Wages for Housework Campaign broke with this sexism and
racism, establishing autonomy as a new basis for organising and unifying.

Strike demands

* Payment for all caring work - in wages, pensions, land & other resources.
What is more valuable than raising children & caring for others? Invest in
life
& welfare, not military budgets & prisons.

* Pay equity for all, women & men, in the global market.

* Food security for all, starting with breastfeeding mothers. Paid maternity
leave, breastfeeding breaks & other benefits - stop penalising us for being
women.

* Don't pay 'Third World debt'. We owe nothing, they
owe us.

* Accessible clean water, healthcare, housing,
transport, literacy.

* Non-polluting energy & technology which shortens the hours we work. We
all need cookers, fridges, washing machines, computers, & time off!

* Protection & asylum from all violence & persecution, including by family
members & people in positions of authority.

* Freedom of movement. Capital travels freely, why not people?

* Visibility and respect * Wider networks *

* Grassroots women's anti-racism *

* The largest women's anti-war event in our history * We've all changed
*

ARGENTINA, Santa Fe

"For more than 15 years we struggled in isolation for the huge amount of
work
we women do caring for others to be recognised with a wage and a pension.
Trade unions, civil servants, political parties and many feminists, said we
were
"backward and mad".

With the Strike we found there were women like us on every continent. This
has strengthened our organisation. We have made a great leap forward
locally and nationally. Now they look at us with respect.

We have been able to reach more grassroots women, encouraging them to
form autonomous women's networks.

We know we are not alone and that in the face of any attack women in other
parts of the world will raise their voices in our defence."

Sindicato de Amas de Casa de Santa Fe
_______________________________________

GUYANA, Georgetown
"Sometimes Guyana is a country at war - when the tension and conflict that
the British and American governments first helped create between Indo-
Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese explodes into violence. Then there is the
violence against those of us who are Indigenous Guyanese, whose interests
are just thrown aside.

In the last two years the Strike helped us to make our opposition to the
racism
and violence whose main victims are grassroots women and children visible.

Every year we put forward practical demands - especially against the higher
prices we're paying for water and electricity because of privatisation. But
our
main demand has been for an end to racist violence.

We have begun to feel we're part of a global movement. We feel as if
something happens in Guyana the Strike will fight with us internationally."

Red Thread
________________________________________

IRELAND, Galway

"The Strike has given us a way to come together across many divides. Irish
women are not expected to unite with English women, who come from the
country that waged war and occupied Ireland so many centuries ago. The
religious divides between Protestant and Catholic that are a legacy of this
have plagued us on this island, and now the new rift the warmongers have
stirred up between Muslim and Christian is added to that.

We have been able to use the Strike to organise against war and occupation,
bringing women together from North and South of Ireland, Catholic and
Protestant, Muslim, Christian, atheist."

Wages for Housework Campaign
______________________________________

PERU, Lima

"With the Strike we have related to other women's organisations which fight
with great courage and determination for our fundamental rights as women
and as workers who care for the whole of humanity.
The Strike has helped us to accept ourselves as we are, so that, for
example,
our sisters can have free sexual choice. Before the Strike we were
prejudiced
because of our machista and patriarchal culture. Lesbian women are able to
organise autonomously and make their situation visible.

We have learnt to be self-critical about our mistakes. "

The Strike is part of me because the demands of the women of the world are
my demands. I feel that we are invincible because we are the great majority
and they are my sisters in struggle."
Centro de Capacitación para Trabajadoras del Hogar
_______________________________________

PERU, Puno

"The Strike gives us visibility, a space where rural women can participate
and
speak out about the issues that affect our daily lives. With the Strike we
have
won over more women's organisations such as mothers' clubs, craft groups,
soup kitchens, as well as the support of men.

The income that rural women contribute through Andean crafts is for the
benefit of the family - its education, food, housing. We now hope to reach
an
international market with our produce and cut out the middle men."

Centro Aymará "Pacha Aru"
_______________________________________

SPAIN, Barcelona

"The Strike has transformed us, helping to break us free of the habit of
relating and prioritising one sector of women over others, to move beyond
our
neighbourhood and region, to act locally - in our neighbourhoods, plazas,
markets, schools, workplaces - but with an international perspective, and to
widen our networks. It has made visible the contribution of those of us who
are immigrant.

The mass Strike actions brought together women's opposition to war and
globalisation."

Campaña por un Salario para el Trabajo sin Sueldo
________________________________________

UGANDA, Kaabong

"We are neglected and discriminated against because we are poor. BUT the
Global Strike has changed our lives. We have gained free medical services,
no cost sharing. The Land Act also allows women to own land and properties
and inherit the late husband's properties. The Strike has helped to express
our point of view in a more effective way. Like we say, Invest in Caring Not
Killing. Wars will never bring peace in the world.

Our major demand for this year's Strike is: we need accessible clean water.
We have the source of the river Nile in Uganda. Why shouldn't we take the
water for agriculture, so that women have enough food for their families!

Kaabong Women's Organisation
_________________________________________

USA, Los Angeles

"The 2003 Strike was the largest women's anti-war and International
Women's Day event in LA history, with an estimated 3-5,000 participants. It
brought together grassroots women, with the major anti-war networks, and
activist celebrities.

The Strike helps those of us in the US, no matter how poverty stricken we
may be, not to scab on our sisters in the South who are in much more dire
straits. It has helped open our eyes to the leadership offered by those
resisting US domination outside of the US and to be strengthened by it."

Global Women's Strike/LA
Women of Color in the Global Women's Strike
_______________________________________

USA, Philadelphia

"The Strike gained visibility, prominence and respect for women's voices and
demands in the massive protests against war in Iraq.

We won't allow the disabilities and illnesses created by war and weapons
pollution, in countries attacked by the US as well as among US vets and
their
families, to remain hidden.

The Strike brought together the most diverse multiracial crowd. We have
been a crucial voice for mothers and grandmothers against military
recruitment programs in school. A Black woman raising her grandchildren said
what we oppose: 'Billions for war and not a dollar for a child.' "

Wages for Housework Campaign
WinVisible - women with visible and invisible disabilities
_________________________________________

USA, San Francisco

"Our strength has been the organizing for the civil and legal rights of
women
in the sex industry. Many of us are lesbian, and we have a wealth of
experience based on organizing against the discrimination women, especially
'sexual outlaws', face from the police, courts, judges, in both criminal and
family law. We used the Strike to press City Hall on a resolution to end
violence against sex workers.

The Strike has helped us to extend our network to other sectors,
organizations and neighbourhoods."

US PROStitutes Collective
Wages Due Lesbians

_______________________________________

Global Women's Strike Co-ordination
ENGLAND
International co-ordination
Crossroads Women's Centre
230a Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2AB
Tel: 00-44-20-7482 2496 Fax: 00-44-20-7209 4761
womenstrike8m@server101.com
Website: www.globalwomenstrike.net
Co-ordination of men's actions and support:
Address above payday@paydaynet.org
Website: www.refusingtokill.net

ARGENTINA
SAC, Francia 3036, 3000 Santa Fe
Tel: 00-54-342-453 0216 & 496 0868
izanutig@gigared.com; amadecasa@gigared.com

GUYANA
Red Thread, 72 Princess & Adelaide Streets, Charlestown, Georgetown
Tel/Fax: 00-592-227 7010
thread@sdnp.org.gy

INDIA
Chhattisgarh Women's Organisation
Pithora, Mahasamund, Chhattisgarh 493551
Tel: 00-91-7707 71107
sharmanand@yahoo.com

IRELAND
10 Galway Bay Apartments, Salthill, Galway
Tel: 00-353-91 520269
maggie.ronayne@nuigalway.ie

PERU
132 Wakulski, Cercado, Lima
Tel: 00-51-1-423 1958
ccth@terra.com.pe

Jr. 20 de Julio No 159, Urbanización Fernando Belaunde Terry, Chanuchanu,
Puno
Tel: 00-51-51-356 808
pacha_aru@hotmail.com

SPAIN
Centro 'Las Mujeres Cuentan', Radas 27 Local,
08004 Barcelona
Tel/Fax: 00-34-93-442 2304
huelgademujeres8m@teleline.es

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
NUDE, Mount Pleasant Rd, Arima
Tel: 001-868-667 5247
domestic@tstt.net.tt

UGANDA
KWO, PO Box 9344, Kampala, Uganda
Tel: 00-256-41 271012, Fax: 00-256-41 346456
akulum@hotmail.com

USA
Los Angeles Crossroads Women's Centre
PO Box 86681, LA, CA 90086-0681
Tel/Fax: 001-323-292 7405
la@crossroadswomen.net

Philadelphia Crossroads Women's Centre
PO Box 11795, Philadelphia, PA 19101
Tel: 001-215-848 1120 Fax: 001-215-848 1130
philly@crossroadswomen.net

San Francisco Crossroads Women's Centre
PO Box 14512, SF, CA 94114
Tel/Fax: 001-415-626 4114
sf@crossroadswomen.net

by Martrice Candler /Youth Po Poets Project

Man we have to change to survive

Language is an important factor

Niggaz try n’ to stay alive

Streets talking: What’s up nigga?

Could b a lil’ different

Hello would be nice

But that’s how shit is when you trying to Get it

I’m sorry

Unacceptable in the hood

My bad nigga, it’s all good

That’s niggaz making a peace treaty

Woo Coooooo

Excuse me would have been nice

Words will make ya heart Jell-O

Wooooooo coooooooooo

Will make the situation most mellow

He gives:

“She’s my ma fucka”

I receive:

I love you

I love you’s in his life has been scarce

It’s hard to articulate I love you

When it’s been scarce in ya life

I love my nigga

He my ma fucka

This is the art of language

When I say what’s up to my niggaz that’s a proper greet n’

It’s called s’language

Martrice Candler's new book; Disconnected published by POOR Press© is available through the POOR Press Catalogue order form. See below to order on-line.

by Tiny/PoorNewsNetwork-PNN

"We have been Florida for a long time" a small circle of civil rights activists, media and concerned citizen's formed a tight circle on the steps of City Hall last Thursday as Willie ratcliff, publisher of the SF Bayview spoke at a press conference exposing the frightening allegations of voter abuse that occurred in the recent San Francisco mayoral race, "I am really glad to see this come up - we have been trying to get this story out for a long time - this is nothing new"

As Willie spoke myself, and my fellow PNN reporters Joseph Bolden and Clive whistle shook our heads in frustrated agreement. Clive mumbled, "maybe the truth about A. Phillip Randolph Institute (known as APRI, or Willie Brown's voting machine) will finally come out " Within minutes several representatives from the newly formed, People of color electoral coalition approached the microphone, demanding redress and accountability from the City Attorney, Ethics Commission and Secretary of State if need be, for over 150 incidents of documented voter abuse. This press conference and coalition building was inspired in part by the recent allegations of the nine street cleaners who were pressured to vote for Gavin Newsom and walk precincts for the Newsom campaign. As the testimonies were spoken, I remembered back to the year 2000 and the odd experience of having to tell homeless people who were expecting their "payoff" from APRI, for voting, that there was nothing we could do (we shared an office building at the time). Later, that year I heard from Clive that he, as a homeless shelter resident was approached several times to "vote for the right person" and then in the last election as reported in Clives' SF Bayview Op-ed that he was aggressively "courted" by Newsom supporters coming to and fro his Sunnydale apartment

"When I went to vote I had a poster of Matt Gonzalez on my truck -and I heard a man scream at me, " Alvin Jones, you can't vote here," Alvin Jones from the Bayview Project Area Committee (PAC) and Community activist for the Bayview was speaking nervously into the mike, " I didn't know what to think so I went down to the Matt Gonzalez headquarters, and there I saw all these young folks outside, threatening people, intimidating people, saying things like, "you gonna lose your homes if you vote for Gonzalez"

"The worst thing I witnessed was in our district (dist 10) especially on election day," After Mr. Jones left the mike Community Activist Majeid Crawford (who was profiled in a PNN/SF Bayview article by PNN youth in media writer Martrice Candler on October 21) "The newsom people were blocking the entrance in front of our office - slamming our doors open and shut - intimidating people, bumping into people - telling us they were gonna come down shooting. If people had Matt Gonzalez stickers and posters on their cars they would snatch the posters and rip them off the cars -so on election day when we needed to walk the precinct our staff was inside the office intimidated, it got so bad that we had to bring folks down just to protect us" Majeid went on to relate the story surrounding an event called "pop yo collaz for Matt gonzalez" in which a "newsom supporter showed up threatening the organizers with violence if they promoted Matt Gonzelez on the mike

"I am a true believer of civil rights - my family fought for the right to vote", Bianca Henry from Family Rights and Dignity of the coalition on Homelessness best expressed the basic tenets that the grassroots coalition claimed as their founding principles; To preserve and protect the voting and civil rights of communities of color. and is why as well as an investigation of the hundreds of abuses of voters rights, the coalition is demanding that the City Attorney also deepen their investigation to initiate pro-active steps by the city to ensure that an on-going, permanent voter fraud unit be established by the Department of Elections as well as fund and publicize a city wide multi-lingual voter fraud reporting hotline.

"What I still can't understand is the plantation mentality that informs an election like this one," Clive was still mumbling under his breath next to me, " galvanizing all these poor folk of color to vote for this rich white boy (newsom) backed by all these other rich white power brokers only to promote more and more gentrification and decimation of poor communities and communities of color like the Bayview"

"Something stinks in City Hall", Riva Enteen, civil rights attorney and part of the Matt Gonzalez voter fraud unit, revealed the levels of corruption plaguing this last election,
" There were over 400 reports of voter fraud reported to Gonzalez volunteers who were monitoring polling places as well as 150 incidences of abuse such as Power outages, harassment by newsom volunteers, and newsom campaign staff walking door to door with provisional ballots. Riva continued with a shocking revelation that the director of the Cities' Ethics commission demanded that members of the ethics commission destroy documents disclosing how newsom campaign money was supposed to be used, and that luckily the commission staff refused to destroy the documents.

The conference ended with inspiring words by Coalition member, Ana Maria loya exec director of La Raza Centro Legal, "San Francisco is not Florida - we are here to demand that the most basic civil right of people to vote be protected and that steps be implemented so the next election in San Francisco is fair and free and safe"

by christopher robin

If you see

somethin

in my eyes

It ain’t me

This medicine

makes me dizzy

and hostile

in the cereal aisle

I put the big shoes on

now

and it’s made a

thug out of me

creepy

and perplexed

in leather jacket

mouthing words

to myself

in the aisles

but I’m only counting

Even so I have

self restraints on

I used to hit my hands

now wear wrist splints

used to dance around

now blurt out nonsense

and hostile

over coupons

by J.Damu

You’ve got to hand it to Haiti. Not only was it the world’s first country of enslaved workers to stand up and demand their freedom and independence; now they are the world’s first country to stand up to their former slavery-era master, France and demand the return of its stolen wealth. Everyone say “Amen.”

Haiti’s president and other government officials claim their country was held-up at gunpoint in broad daylight in 1825 and now they want the admitted thief, France, to replace the stolen wealth to the tune of $21.7 billion. This, despite massive attempts, well documented elsewhere, by the United States and world lending institutions to destabilize and overthrow the democratically elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Government officials also say due to forced efforts to hand over its wealth in a timely manner to France, the coerced payments so distorted and stunted the economy Haiti feels the effects this day. They also say due to those efforts, Haiti became saddled with a form of class oppression that resembles racism.

In a soon to be published booklet provided to a U.S. reporter by the foreign press liaison to President Jean Bertrand Aristide, Haitian government officials dissect the 1825 “agreement” that initially forced Haiti to pay to France 150 million francs in exchange for liberty.

The booklet, as is Haiti’s restitution claim, is based largely on the research of Dr. Francis St. Hubert, a member of the government’s Haiti Restitution Commission.

“I did most of my research in New York at the Columbia University Library and the Schomburg Center,” Dr. Hubert said by phone from Port au Prince.

“We are pursuing this case from three different angles. We are doing publicity and educational campaigns. We are pursuing our claims through the diplomatic community and we are preparing a legal case,” he said.

“Haiti’s claim is not really for reparations for slavery,” said Ira Kurzban, Miami immigration attorney and Haiti’s chief counsel in the U.S “but for restitution specifically that happened in 1825. It is based on the French government’s efforts to extract 150 million French francs (which is equal to $21 billion today) from an economy the French knew couldn’t afford it, through the use of force. This is impermissible under international law.”

“I can’t tell you how we plan to proceed legally,” he said by telephone. The Haitians will make their own announcement when they are ready he said.

According to the booklet, which will soon be published under the name of the Haiti Restitution Commission, following the 1804 revolution that expelled France, Haiti was divided into two districts, northern and southern, but was re-united following the death of Henri Christophe in 1820. Under the new president, Jean Pierre Boyer, diplomatic notes began to be exchanged with various French functionaries on the diplomatic recognition of Haiti.

Finally in 1825, France, which was being encouraged by former plantation owners to invade Haiti and re-enslave the Blacks, issued the Royal Ordinance of 1825, which called for the massive indemnity payments. In addition to the 150 million franc payment, France decreed that French ships and commercial goods entering and leaving Haiti would be discounted at 50 percent, thereby further weakening Haiti’s ability to pay.

According to French officials at the time, the terms of the edict were non-negotiable and to impress the seriousness of the situation upon the Haitians France delivered the demands by 12 warships armed with 500 canons.

The 150 million franc indemnity was based on profits earned by the colonists, according to a memorandum prepared by their lawyers. In 1789, Saint Domingue (all of Haiti and Santo Domingo) exported 150 million francs worth of products to France. In 1823 Haitian exports to France totaled 8.5 million francs, exports to England totaled 8.4 million francs, and exports to the United States totaled 13.1 million francs, for a total of 30 million francs.

The lawyers then claimed that one half of the 30 million francs went toward the costs of production, leaving 15 million francs as profit. The 15 million franc balance was multiplied by ten (ten years of lost revenues for the French colonists due to the war for liberation) which coincidentally totals 150 million francs, the value of exports in 1789.

To make matters worse for Haiti the French anticipated and planned for Haiti to secure a loan to pay the first installment on the indemnity. Haiti was forced to borrow the 30 million francs from a French bank that then deducted the management fees from the face value of the loan and charged interest rates so exorbitant that after the payment was completed, Haiti was still 6 million francs short.

The 150 million franc indemnity represented France’s annual budget and ten years of revenue for Haiti. One study estimates the indemnity was 55 million more francs than was needed to restore the 793 sugar plantations, 3117 coffee estates and 3,906 indigo, cotton and other crop plantations destroyed during the war for independence.

By contrast, when it became clear France would no longer be in a position to capitalize on further westward expansion in the Western hemisphere, they agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory, an area 74 times the surface area of Haiti, to the U.S. for just 60 million francs, less than half the Haitian indemnity.

Even though France later lowered the indemnity payment to 90 million francs, the cycle of forcing Haiti to borrow from French banks to make the payments, chained the Black nation to perpetual poverty. Haiti did not finish paying her indemnity debt until 1947!

According to the Haitian government’s reparations booklet the immediate consequence of the debt payment on the Haitian population was greater misery. The first thing President Boyer did to help pay the debt was to increase from 12 to 16 percent all tariffs on imports to offset the French discount.

The next step Boyer took was to declare the indemnity to be a national debt to be paid by all the citizens of Haiti. Then he immediately brought into being the Rural Code.

By Haitian First Lady Mildred Aristede’s account in her book “Child Domestic Service in Haiti and its Historical Underpinnings,” the Rural Code laid the basis for the legal apartheid between rural and urban society in Haiti. With the Rural Code, the economically dominant class of merchants, government officials and military officers who lived in the cities legally established themselves as Haiti’s ruling class.

Under the Rural Code agricultural workers were chained to the land and allowed little or no opportunity to move from place to place. Socializing was made illegal after midnight and the Haitian farmer who did not own property was obligated to sign a 3, 6 or 9 year labor contract with a large property owner. The Code also banned small-scale commerce so that agricultural workers would produce crops strictly for export.

The Haitian Rural Code was all embracing, governing the lives not only of farmers but of children as well.

The Rural Code was specifically designed to regulate rural life in order to more efficiently produce export crops with which to pay the indemnity. The taxes levied on production were also used predominantly to pay the indemnity and not to build schools nor to provide other social services to the generators of this great wealth, the peasants.

Leading Haitian activists in the U.S. claim between 1804 and 1990, when President Aristide was first elected, a grand total of 32 high schools were built in Haiti, all within urban settings. Since then more than 200 have been built, they say, most in the countryside.

To this day the discrimination between rural and urban areas takes the form of color discrimination by light skinned blacks toward darker skinned blacks and it remains intense.

St. Hubert and the national bank compute the exact amount Haiti is demanding from France as $21,685,135,571.48 at 5 percent annual interest.
“France is getting off easy,” St Hubert told a U.S. newspaper. If Haiti charged 7.5 percent interest on the money, “France would owe $4 trillion today and much more tomorrow.

“The French can debate whether they want to pay as long as they like,” he said, “but at 5 percent interest it will cost them $34 per second.”

For more information about Haiti or to learn what you can do to support Haiti please contact the Haiti Action Committee (510) 483-7481, write them at HAC, P.O. Box 2218, Berkeley, CA, 94702 or visit their website at www.haitiaction.org.

J.Damu is the acting Western Regional Representative for N’COBRA-National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. He can be contacted at jdamu@sbcglobal.net.