Story Archives 2014

Co-Madres/Co-Daddys Note: The theme of the 2014 Revolutionary Youth Construction/Science, Media/Arts & Permaculture Camp at Homefulness - was Environmental Racism and Gentrification. Each Youth Skola worked in a team to investigate the soil and water of the intentionally blighted, gentrify ready, colonized and stolen Ohlone land known as Deep East Oakland. It was a multi-generational classroom where eldership was practices, older youth taking on leadership and co-teacher roles to younger youth. They also learned/participated in media creation and dialogues about racism, poverty, permaculture, Poor peoples liberation and basic building, architecture taught by elders and comrades like the Black Riders Liberation Party and the Carpenters Union. They built scale models of the poor peoples liberation project called Homefulness. Finally and most importantly, each youth skola re-learned the importance of their own ancestral knowlege, and how important their love and respect is for their own original teachers, their mamaz, daddys, aunties, uncles, abuelos/as, ancestors, spirits cultures and Mama Earth.

Patience Oppression, Liberation and Me- by Youth Elder Nikolasi Niumeitolu
Day 1: On the first day, we opened our camp with a discussion on environmental racism. Environmental racism is when a group of people, like the government, puts poor and impoverished people, like us, in places that are polluted and contaminated by industrial waste, like east Oakland. We also discussed gentrification. Gentrification is when the government or the bank evict people from their homes or stores, so they can increase the property value by building condos for more “desirable” people. After our discussion we investigated our neighborhood for signs of environmental racism ad gentrification. We walked down to Richie and Macarthur and found a barber shop on the corner that was being gentrified by real estate snakes. We then crossed the street to a dirt lot and collected a sample of the dirt and a sample from a group of abandoned buckets that were filled with murky oil-like liquid. After taking the samples we made our way back to homefulness, taking note of all the many liquor stores. Taking a final sample from homefulness we ended out day concluding that we were in a neighborhood infected by environmental racism and gentrification.

Day 2: ON the second day we met the architect of the new Homefulness Project, Bob Theis. Bob Theis told us about the new environmentally friendly Homefulness he planned to build. Instead of using the conventional wood build for the new homefulness, Theis planned to use the indigenous straw build. Theis told us how many indigenous peoples used straw build houses, a popular example being adobe houses. We also met and interviewed Black Rider E Da Ref. E Da Ref made us aware of the constant oppression people of color are under from the government.

Day 3: On the third day we went to a creek, called Arroyo Viejo to investigate the water. The creek lay polluted, littered with plastic waste. We then came back to Homefulness to examine and test our water samples. The water samples had a pH level of 9, which is way above the level water is supposed to be. Water is supposed to be the neutral pH level of 7.

Week 2

Day 1: On the fourth day we learned the importance of the honey bee. The honey bee is responsible for pollinating one third of the world’s fruit and vegetable crops. We learned pollination is important because pollination is what makes the flower blossom, which later turns into the fruit or vegetable. The honey bees are being killed off by pesticides non-organic farmers use called neonicotinoids. These pesticides, if not stopped, will kill all the honey bees in the world. Without the honey bees alive, we will lose crops like tomatoes, apples and cucumbers. After that we started a scale build of homefulness. I made a basketball court with two basketball hoops.

Day 2: On the second day of the second week we learned about fracking. Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing is when you use large amounts of water to fracture the earth in order to obtain minerals and oil. Fracturing can cause earthquakes and tremors because the fractures can go miles into the Earth. We also discussed the many oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. In our discussion, we learned oil can contaminate the water, which contaminated the fish, makes it unfit for us to swim in and also makes it unfit for us to be around. After that we interviewed three black carpenters and one Black Rider. The carpenters told us a little about carpentry while the Black Riders told us about what the Black Riders do. We ended our day with finishing up our scale model of Homefulness.

The Last Day: Today is the last day of Hopefulness. Looking back on the past two weeks, I have learned a lot. I’ve learned about the environmental racism and gentrification oppression us poor people go through every day. I’ve learned more about myself. As an older member in the camp, I am mostly in leadership positions. Most of the time, my patience wears thin with the younger children, but these past two weeks have shown me to be patient and to help my younger brothers and sisters because we are all family. As we finish and paint our scale models of Hopefulness, I would like to say this camp has taught me more about our world and also was very fun to attend.

Without the Bees We Couldn't Exist- by Youth Elder Seven

Week 2

Day 1: On the first day that I came we learned about the bees and about if they no longer exist, we would not be able to live. Honey bees are responsible for pollinating over 100 crops. They also help us plant our fruit, like apples, almonds, blueberries, cherries, avocados, cucumbers, onion, grapefruit, orange and pumpkins.

Day 2:
We learned that BP oil is bad for the earth. Shell signed a contract with Lego to drill a hole in the earths crust from Canada to Mexico. Lego is a bad company for kids. The black carpenter came to inspect our small houses. 

Day 3:
We learned about how the world is filled up with traps. Electricity and fire are not a necessary element. In the past, people didn’t have a lot of electricity or water in their houses. I also learned that most of the cars are used by the devils. Then I finished making my mini poor magazine school model.

The Bees are Very Important- By Youth Elder Dante

Day 1:

The first day I came we watched a movie on bees and how they are very important part of our world and we wouldn't be able to eat all the fruits we need and love. So we got to take care of bees and quit killing them because they are very important. I also learned that in some cities they barely have any bees so they pay people to put the nectar on with a little Q-tip.

Day 2:

My second day we made groups and each group had an assignment to put in our little places that we had made. We learned about how to make a house by how we wanted it to look. So we had rooms and the outside looked like a real house. 

Day 3:

My third day we worked on the houses again and my team started again so we can make it look better. It was hard to, but we got it done because we didn't fight this time so it went fast.

Searching and WeSearching By Youth Skola Jisary

Day one: we went to Ritchie and Macarthur and took oil samples and dirt samples. We also learned about environmental racism. When we came back we looked at the dirt with microscopes and saw a whole lot of little bugs in the dirt.
 
Day two: we continued where we left off and the next group went to look at the dirt in the microscopes. My group had to go on the computers and search up what they where doing to our water and tiny called it we search. We also built plant boxes for our herbal plants.
 
 Day three: we did an interview with E Daref one of the black riders. We asked him a lot of questions. After that we went to go play basketball and others played tag and hide and go seek.

 Day four: the black carpenters came to teach us about building and where going to build the next day when we where done learning we went inside to eat some greens and macaronie and cheese.
 
 Day five: we started to build models of homefullness my team built a healing center because the shape of the drawing looked like one. The shape was like a octagon.
 
 Last day: a woman spoke to us about radiation and a spill in Japan called fukashima daichi and it effected all the fish in the pacific ocean. After that we had to finish our houses and after that we had freetime and I had fun.

Studying Our Neighborhood By Youth Elder Janina Scislowski

Day 1:
ON the first day we came to people’s School, we went out to Ritchie and Macarthur street, and went to study and observe the neighborhood. There were abandoned lots, empty yards, trash, building parts on the ground, and fences separating areas. There was a bad smell as we walked through the places, the unused buildings, and the gated, unfinished houses. There were many houses for lease, yet they looked old and vacant. When we were approaching a lot with broken doors and windows in it, we smelt a burning, sweet smell. We saw two orange buckets and inside that was oil. Unattended full oil. It was thick and it smeared the side of the bucket. WE took samples of the oil and dirt from the dirty lot, and when we later put the grains from the dirt under the microscopes we found that the dirt was infected with bacteria.
Gentrification is all around us.

Day 2:
On day 2, we met Bob Theis, a building contructor. We taked about building, different ways to build, and he said that the building was built in 1925. Before this building was empty for ten years. We learned that people used to build buildings feom trees, but we are wasting them, so we now build with hay/straw. Also, the wood would try to reunite with its family in nature, so it later rotted. Now, we put a concrete slab under the wood, and build our straw material in the walls. These inds of houses were built mostly in Central Valley. We were taught about different kinds of wall designs and plaster, and cool facts like that straw buildings don’t catch fire, and mud hardens naturally when you put it into the walls. Naturally made houses are some of the best, and they’re good for the environment.

Day 3:
On day three, we went to Arroyo Viejo, and learned that ten years ago, this river was fill of fish. It was healthy, but later it got contaminated. The world arouns us was fracking (a form of taking energy by drilling DEEP into the ground and taking the healthy water) and we were told that CA might start doing this. In Pennsylvania, when people turned on the tap, they got fire instead of water. Fracking in Oklahoma caused three earthquakes in the same week.

Week 2

Day 1:
On day 1, we learned that bees are dying, and that Lego and Shell are signing a contract and setting a bad example for the children who play with Legos. With bees, we’d have HALF the fruit and vegetables we have today.

On the last day, we interviewed a carpenter, and architect and a designer. They’re gonna help us build our school, café and houses. I thought they were some of the coolest and devoted people and they made me want to go on my video game where you can build your own house. We then interviewed the Black Rider comrade and he told us about how companies use stores with cheap stuff to get to make the town look so back so no one would want to live here, and they’d have a reason to tear down the homes to make more places for the rich people.
 

Contaminated Oil and Dirt by Youth Elder Iris

Week 1

Day 1:
On the first day of summer camp we took a field trip to Ritchie and Macarthur and took multiple samples of contaminated oil and dirt, and that is what we concluded with on day one of week one.

Day 2:
We did wesearch (research) abut the multiple samples and we also found out what lead does to the human body. We talked to an architect named Bob Theis and he taught how to draw out blueprints and explained about strawbale construction.

Day 3:
Continuing with the dirt samples and oil samples we tested the contaminated oil and dirt and also went to go get samples of water from a creek names arroyo Viejo river. Everyone went back to test the water and it came back an interesting and rare result.

Week 2

Day 1: When we came back from our short extended break, we learned about the bees. Also, I learned that there are 19,200 different species of bees and that half of our fruit is produced by bees, including avocado, cherries, apples, etc.

Day 2:
I learned that Shell and Lego signed a contract together to cause an oil spill to pollute the ocean which is also BP oil. I learned more about building and environmental racism.

Day 3:
Today we had a talk about more environmental racism and nuclear radiation. We learned about deregulation and the nuclear bombs that hit Japan.
 

Avocados, Cucumbers, and Oranges- by Youth Skola Joyous
Day 1:
On day one, I learned about bees. If all bees died we would have only four years to live. Here are ten crops that would disappear without bees: apples, almonds, blueberries, cherries, avocados, cucumbers, onion, grapefruit, orange and pumpkins. I also learned that scientists say there are over 19,200 species of bees.

Day 2:
I also learned about Exxon and BP oil. Shell signed a contract to drill in Antarctica. I learned about Palestine and the point of killing Palestine is for oil.

Day 3:
I learned that Fukushima has killed many people and animals. I learned about the deregulation which means the city can take stuff from you like water.
 

Neonicotonoids by Solomon Campbell/Youth Skolar POOR Magazine

Day 1

We walked around the block taking dirt samples we also found an oil bucket right in front of it. Then we went back to home fullness and collected dirt samples. We noticed that the home fullness dirt had more nutrients than the other places we got dirt samples from.

Day 2

On this day half of my team we searched and found this.
Lead contaminations in Oakland
    West Oakland
Oakland army base
         Amco
 Verdese Carter park
5.        Cypress Freeway

We also met this guy named Bob he told us home fullness was built 1920.  There are also making houses out of straw. Also regular houses burn easier than straw bale houses.

Day 3

Why we need bees?
 If bees disappeared from the face of the earth humans would only have four years to live. Honey bees are also responsible for pollinating over 100 crops. These are ten crops that will disappear without honey bees.
 
apples
almonds
blue berries
cherries
avocadoes
cucumbers
onions
grapefruit
oranges
pumpkin
Neonicotinoids:

Class of neuron-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine.

Day 4
We watched a video about how Lego signed a contract with shell telling the kids shell is alright or cool cause they are helping Lego.
They are also building a XL pipe line from Canada to Mexico causing earth quakes within the a

I learned how the earth is in crisis and we need to help.
Our  mama earth

Revolutionary Construction by Youth Skola Muh' Queenah

day 1: we walk to ritchie and macarthur to get dirt sample

day 2: revolutionary construction Bob Theis. The house of decolonize school 1925. Blocks of straw are 50 two kinds of plaster. Earth blaster. Straw bales don't burn. 

Commercial Gentrification and Environmental Racism by Youth Skola Tiburcio

Week 1

Day 1:
I couldn’t believe it! I was finally going to the camp that I’ve been hearing so much about! We came at 7:20 or something like that and I saw my mom felt the same way. At about 9:30 Nico came along with Connie and his mother Loa. We had fun and I got to know Nico. And then finally at 10:20 everybody cam in our car with Philip Standing Bear. We played a lot at first and then my mom came and said that we are going to sample dirt in two different places. I learned on the way to our first location, Ritchie and Macarthur. I found a barber shop being closed down and the realtor was Simon Raya and the company was KW Corporation. They did commercial professional gentrification. And I also learned that most of the trash in the gutters flows in to the bay. Then we went to Ritchie and Macarthur and saw that there was oil and trash on the streets and in the garden. When we got back after lunch we had to leave.

Day 3:
On day two we came and learned more about environmental racism and how it affects us. Then my mom said that we should go to a river called arroyo Viejo. We took samples of mosquito larvae and water and learned about fracking drilling for oil in the earth’s core and destroying the earth. When we went back to Homefulness and tested the water, the results were a little too clean. We figured out that the water was infected with high amounts of chlorine.

Day 4:
On day 4 (which was my third day), we learned about how environmental racism targets bees. If the bees die, apples, pineapples, avocados, cherries, blueberries, cucumber, onions, grapefruit, oranges and pumpkins would all have a hard time growing. WE may only have four years to survive if all the bees die and that was actually said by Albert Einstein himself.

By Youth SKola Sahara Shell is polluting our kids imaginations. BP - British petroleum

Lead poisoning our Water by Youth Skola Trew
Day 2
We went to Arroy Vienjo Creek  and learned it used to be much bigger - We also learned about hydraulic fracturing or "Fracking" . We tested the water from Arroyo Viejo and found out it was very high in chlorine and acid. We also Wesearched about lead in our soil and how so much of our soil is filled with lead and how it makes us sick. We also found out there was no lead in the creek.

Day 3 We learned about straw bale architecture from a builder. We learned that earth plaster is non-flammable and a good thing to use when you are building a house because it is strong and will also withstand an earthquake

Evictors, and the Old Creek by Youth Skola Josia

(Homefulness has brought me more knowledge, than other camps and schools. Homefulness has been a fun and great experience for me. It has been thrilling and exciting. Homefulness camp has felt like a school, but better. The adults know me, and it isn’t awkward at all. -Zosia)

Week 1
Day 1:
On the first day of Homefulness camp, we did a prayer, introduced ourselves, and walked over to Ritchie and Macarthur and saw an eviction notice; the evictors name was Simon Raya  and then we saw the weeded lot that was trashed with old furniture, molded clothes and oil cans that were definitely not healthy for humans and the environment. Next, we sampled dirt from the lot and compared it to some dirt we got from our house and some dirt from homefulness. The Ritchie and Macarthur dirt was filled with wayyy more germs homefulness.

Day 2:
On the second day of homefulness camp, at the end of the day, a construction worker, Bob Theis who talked about scales and the homefulness house and how it was built, with what it was built, when it was built, etc. He also talked about different types of houses, like wood, adobe, plaster and straw. He talked about different kinds of roofs and walls.

Day 3:
The third day of homefulness was when we went to “Arroyo Viejo” meaning old creek in Spanish. We left in two card, the poor magazine family van, and muteado’s truck. WE talked about  the lake’s origins and who made the name. After that, we took down notes and samples of the water. We saw a playground and you can guess that we started playing there. Then we left and the group split in half and some wrote down information about the creek, and the other half looked at the water samples with the telescopes.

Day 4:
Day four was the second week of homefulness camp, and I was late (because of reasons), so I walked in on the groups talking about bees dying and disappearing from neo-nicotinoids, which are pesticides close to nicotine. So basically, they’re putting nicotine on our food and crops. After that, we made models of the sliding scale café, and the homefulness that we’re going to build.

Day 5:
On the fifth day of camp, we had a deep east TV meeting, interviewed two carpenters, interviewed a construction worker, interviewed Askari, had a BBQ and fed the people on the streets, and continued on our homefulness models.

Day 6:
We finished our models, a speaker came in and gave a speech about radiation and cars, and also a war that is going on (but not literally). We finished our models by painting the house/model walls.
 

Revolutionary Peopleskoo

by Youth Elder Sean

Even though this summer camp was only two weeks long, I think it was the most informative summer camp I have ever had the pleasure of being involved with. From the first project that we did I could tell that I would enjoy it. We tested some water from arroyo park. What we found was that the water was too clean. Indicating that someone (most likely a company trying to hide something) had treated the water before it flowed down to us. I liked that experiment because it showed that it is smarter to be humble when doing experiments, and in life, so that you will be more prepared to understand unexpected results. 

On the third day we learned how to make our own herb boxes. That was important because we have to learn how to provide our own healthy food as part of breaking the chains of economic slavery that we found out we live under. Before that though, our revolutionary architecht Bob taught us how to build with straw and mud and why thaty ancient method is easier  and more economical than traditional construction. that showed us that we are being controlled by antiquated techniques of building and energy production and that the ancient methods are still more economical. Big money has manipulated and deregulated our planet so that they can charge us more money and keep us enslaved.

The 2014 Revolutionary Youth Construction, Arts/Media, Science & Permaculture Camp included several forms of media and writing as well as Youth-led WeSearch on Environmental Racism and Liberation. (click here to read their WeSearch findings) The following are the youth skolaz poetry from a youth empathy exercise we call SLAM BIOS. Which asks the youth to think of senses to describe themselves and then to speak a line about their "struggle"

Sahara Curley

My favorite color is purple. I like to eat ice cream. I like to smell candles. I like rap. My name is Sahara Curley. I am from Berkeley. My struggle is freedom

Dante

My name is Dante

I touch a lot 

I taste food

and smell roses

My name is Dante

I'm from Oakland

I touch games and laptops

My struggle is I don't see my Uncle

Queena

Pink

honey bus

roses

cotton

jam

queena

ghetto

Nikolasi Niumeitolu
Color: Blue
Taste: sweet taste of mango
Smell: salty smell of ocean breeze
Touch: fur of a cat
Sound: the lapping of waves as they hit the shore
Name: Nikolasi Solomone Namoa Niumeitolu Sarafi (?)
Where are you from: I am a boy born in Tonga but raised and brought up in America and American culture.
A line about your struggle: Already dealing with my father’s death I struggle to find who I actually am. My mother and I struggle to find a home.

Janina Scislowski
Favorite color: blue/violet
Favorite scent: a rose
Favorite taste: the taste of a nice warm savory homemade sandwich
Favorite touch: the feeling of my cat’s soft fur
I am from Mexican, Native American, Polish, Irish, Scottish and Dutch people. I have been here and there, and I am from my mother who fights for the right thing and who takes care of me and my little sister, trying her hardest, and I am from my father who came from his country believing to have a better life when all he got was bloodstained shirts and broken bottles to the head because of where he was from and how he talked.
My mother was homeless with me for two years, my older sister four, and we built our lives back up after my father’s death. We’re never going to live on top of the world, but we manage.

Tiburcio
Color: Blue
Sound: Silence
Touch: my face
Taste: pizza
Smell: shampoo
Tibu is my name. That sound is my power. It’s always my enemy’s bane.
I am from the hospital in Mexico and here. My future and my past both are very austere. China, the Philippines, all over the place. When I’m eighteen, my past will plaster me in the face. Blue is my past’s color. Shampoo is my future’s smell, and my present just sorrowly fell.

Seven
Color: blue
Taste: Chicken
Smell: perfume
Touch: pillows
Sound: music
Name: seven
Where I’m from: Oakland and Africa and India

Joyous
Color: green
Taste: pizza
My favorite smell is when my mom is cooking
My favorite touch is my bed
My favorite sound is when my mom sings
My name is Joyous, I am from Oak & Pil.
We have moved so many times.

Iris
Colors: purple, pink, baby blue
Taste: pickles
Smell: Body scents
Touch: blankets
Sound: music
My name is Iris Ashanti Gantt
Daughter of Kimberly Swan and Brian Gantt.

Zosia
Color: Green
Taste: Buttered toast
Smell: Lavender
Touch: Leather
Sound: bell
From: Irish, Polish, Mexican
I saw my dad drink himself to death.

Solomon

color:purple

touch: soft

sound: silent

taste: sour candy

smell: fresh

Trew

taste: captain crunch

color: red

smell: candy

touch:pillow

sound: loud

The government thinks they can take everything but they can't. If being free is a crime I don't care. I'll fight for my freedom. Don't put me in the slammer I just begun. 

Incarceration, does not mean one has nothing to give for experience, nothing to teach as future knowledge, for wisdom, nothing worth to say as solid motivation and inspiration, for on the contrary, “all” is giving, taught and said as the jewels of survival. Releasing the glimpse of reality, as a “valuable asset” from those souls of the minority of the streets we have once walked, the gangways, hustlin’ the lane, hoping poverty would change, for the family to you’re grade, the status of the game, but now we sit in concrete and steel, built to house society “miscreants” or should I say that’s misunderstood. From the lack of education, getting it on our own was the only “available” motivation, or maybe preached to the wrong life meaning and not revived to the truth of knowledge and principles, that life can be beautiful. We have traveled the hallways of super max cell blocks and we are not dead. Long as we have a mind to receive the glimpse of reality, we breathe deeply and slowly despite the lack of life oxygen, exhaling our fears into self-correction, inhaling our goals and dreams. To breathe peace and humbleness of the future for pretty days. The soul can’t strive, if you don’t try and can hardly survive, the eyes cannot scan if they do not understand, the glimpse of reality, we embrace our friends, partners and family in our mind's eye, while they evade our physical grasp contents with the future and the past, in luren of the present, for change, progress and survival, we accept our flops as mistakes and heal, then begin on our next attempt to embrace, the jewel of freedom. As that better person from a glimpse of reality from concrete and steel.

35th Annual Xicana Moratorium Day: Displace Gentrification, Not Our Hoods

Sunday, August 31st, San Antonio Park, East Oakland (Ohlone Land)

In 1970, over twenty-thousand Raza people filled the streets of LA to call for an end the War crimes in Vietnam that not only took a toll on Vietnamese lives, but also took the lives of Raza and other folks of color being disproportionately put on the front lines to die for this capitalist for profit country. Chicana Moratorium Day called an end to the violence and crimes the U.S. government was committing abroad, but also called for an end to the violence, crime, and inhumane conditions that Raza and other communities of color were experiencing in barrios and ghettos all over the U.S. at the hands of police, the education system, the prison system and other arms of this capitalist system. More than forty years later we gather to continue calling an end to the terrorist criminal acts of the U.S. Government over sees and here on our streets.

In 2014, U.S. military is no longer in Vietnam, but people of color continue to be heavily recruited into the military to take part in ongoing Western Expansion and its never ending greed for profit, power and land. Today, U.S. military forcers play a lead role in the destruction of land, economy and lives of people in Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Philippines, Guam, Egypt, Syria, and the list can sadly continue for much too long. While millions of people in the U.S. are homeless or have no access to quality affordable housing, food, health care, social services or quality education, all under the guise of lack of funding, an endless sources of wealth continues being poured on the daily into funding terrorist governments such as the Zionist killing machine of Israel, or into funding U.S. military operations to continue for profit wars around the world.

Today, Western powers play a predominant role in carrying out the displacements of Third World people’s not only from their home countries, but also the displacement and separation of families that have taken refuge here within the U.S. We could look at different places throughout the world and directly see the connection between displaced peoples and U.S. Involvement in this process. We could look at the Philippines as one of those places where the U.S. government and military has had its hand in taking over land, resources and has controlled its government in the best interest of U.S. economic profit since 1898. In 2014 the number one export from the Philippines is workers, particularly women, who often end up as low wage hotel workers, domestic workers and airport workers in the U.S. and in other nations across the globe. Filipino people flee their homeland due to the continual violence at the hands of the U.S. trained and supported military, the U.S. funded and trained counterinsurgency to the Filipino resistance movements, and U.S. funded and controlled puppet governments that work to keep Filipinos landless and living in extreme poverty.

When we move further west, we can see Palestine as another perfect example of displacement at the hands of this Government. Mainstream media constantly justifies the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people at the hands of U.S. trained and funded Israeli military, but how could you justify 80% of the casualties at the hands of Israel being civilians, most of which are children and elders? Let’s not forget the backyard of the U.S., Central America, where the U.S. has funded, trained and controlled both puppet governments and its military at many different junctures throughout the history of the United States. The U.S. has caused so much instability and violence that today the violence in Honduras is comparable to the violence in Iraq during the peak time of the War. This violence has caused thousands of children to flee their home countries and brave the dangerous trek up north just to have a chance at survival.

As Third World Survivors of Western capitalist expansion build roots in barrios and ghettos through out the U.S., this government continues to remind our people that our existence is a threat to the system that seeks to keep us as a disposable labor force. When we try to build roots and create beauty in our communities, this system will always attempt to destabilize and uproot our people or dispose of them when they are in the way of economic profit. In the last decade we have seen this destabilization and uprooting come in the for of gentrification that with it brings racist laws and militarization of our communities that work to build fear amongst our people and criminalize our communities as a way to push us out. San Francisco and Oakland are two prime examples of this gentrification.

When you visit the San Francisco Mission today – one of San Francisco’s most highly gentrified neighborhoods – its as if there was no semblance of a once predominantly Raza neighborhood with a rich culture. The Mission today attempts to continue profiting off of the beautiful Raza culture, but the city has brought in gang injunctions that criminalize brown youth that once lived there, no loitering laws that specifically target homeless people, and condos that have made rents skyrocket and make housing no longer affordable for working class families. Now white young professionals can enjoy the culture of the Mission, eat at fancy new restaurants, enjoy the fancy new clubs, and park their beamers at $5 an hour meters without having to fear that the people who once lived there will be roaming the streets. When you cross the bridge to Oakland, a very similar dynamic is taking place. We have seen gang injunctions, no loitering laws, proposed youth curfews, proposed stop and frisk laws and increased budgets for the police department who we know are intended to push out people of color from the streets and neighborhoods of Oakland. We have seen the condos and are seeing area specific plans like the West Oakland Specific Plan and the East Oakland Specific plan that attempt to “revitalize” and further develop areas to attract new residents that will bring with them more money and will attempt to displace working class communities of color from communities we have been long rooted in.

This long and ongoing history of displacement can cause anger and resistance towards this government, and for that reason, the U.S. has heavily funded their population control plan which takes the shape of prisons, detention centers, deportations, the heavy militarization of our streets, counter insurgency strategies here at home, and the heavy surveillance of its population. In September, Oakland plans to host and support the funding of the 9th Annual Urban Shield conference, a training for SWAT and Police agencies that brings together local, national and global law enforcement agencies with defense industry contractors to provide training and introduce new weapons and suppression tactics to these agencies that will later be used to further militarize our streets. Today prisons and detention centers have become for profit cages that force men, women and children to live in conditions that are so inhumane, that last year, 30,000 California prisoners engaged in sixty day hunger strike to demand basic human rights within these cages. Today the U.S. Senate mocks the humanity of our people by supporting new legislation that would reverse federal law that protects Central American children from deportation if they face the threat of violence in their home country, and calling that bill the “HUMANE Act.” This so called HUMANE Act would lead to the deportation of thousands of Central American children.

On the 35th annual Bay Area commemoration of the 1970 Chicano Moratorium Day we want to call attention to the displacement and gentrification we see in working class communities through out the country, but we also want to draw the connection of the different forms of displacement and terror that this country is causing through out the world. We still call for a Moratorium on the war against indigenous people, third world people, against our land and against what every community should hold as their treasure – the Children! We ask that you all join us this year as we celebrate la Resistencia and we stand collectively to honor the struggle that we must continue upholding now more than ever!

Join us for the 35th Annual Xicana Moratorium Day

Displace Gentrification, not Our Hoods

Sunday August 31st

5am - Sunrise

10am - 12pm: Aztec Dance hosted by Grupo Cuauhtonal

12pm - 5pm: Festival

San Antonio Park: Foothill Btw 16th and 18th Avenue in Oakland

What to Expect: Poetry, singers, bands, speakers, DJ, Dancing, Kids Activities, Free Food, Vendors, and Community

July 29, 2014

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?

Eminem vs. Nestle? Maybe, maybe not. But we all need water no matter how big or small we are.

Nestle CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe not only claims that water is not a human right, but has also been bottling water near Cabazon, California on the Morongo Indian reservation. California is in the midst of a 3-year drought and the driest spell in recorded history. It is a shame that water is being bottled for profit in such a context. Many California municipalities, including San Francisco, are considering drastic measures to address the drought, such as closing its few public restrooms and allowing green areas in parks to dry up if the drought doesn’t end by next year.

Of course, Morongo Indians have a right to bottle and sell water to whomever they wish, but it is particularly sad that they are selling water to Nestle, one of the companies that consumers have been called to boycott as part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement in solidarity with Palestinians. The sadness is amplified when you consider the similarities between the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the US “Indian Wars.”

The Palestinians are and have experienced their own water shortages, as their water supply has been cut off by Israel several times in history. In 1988 Palestine sued and had their water returned.

And in Detroit, water rights are being refused poor people in predominantly black neighborhoods. As part of Detroit's economic suffering, the city has already suspended many needed public services including public transportation and nighttime police services. Suspending water has turned Detroit into a less-than-developed region in the most prosperous nation in the world. Detroit has literally had to appeal to the United Nations for help. Canada finally came to the aid of Detroit, but not before the Detroit Police used sonar technology to disburse a peaceful and lawful protest of the water shut-offs.

This is a call to rappers and conscious musicians everywhere to fight for all people's water rights. Without water there would be nothing: no weed, no food, no fans to support any artist of any kind (including Detroit-based rapper Eminem). In the spirit of Farm-Aid and other such charitable events, this is a shout out to concert promoters everywhere to help make the water flow and flow, maybe make some cash flow while they’re at it!

August 5, 2014

As I listened to the reports back from Gaza as Israel intensified its attack, my heart sank deep into my chest. I immediately thought of the Mamas and Babies/Children that are trapped in Gaza with no way to escape the terror that is the State of Israel. I then thought of my son who was at the Homefulness Revolutionary Youth Camp and felt so much gratitude for conscious programs like this that exist, so that our children can grow up aware with a revolutionary state of mind. The world needs what Homefulness is so graciously and unapologetically offering.

Lisa “Tiny” Garcia, Muteado Silencio, and Needa Bee came together with guest instructors from the Black Riders Liberation Party to create a camp which focused on Revolutionary Skills, aka Life/ Survival Skills, for our Black/Brown Youth. When we think of the skills needed to survive as a Black/Brown person in the world today, it goes beyond the mainstream and becomes very specific to our cultures and experiences. Knowing this all too well, Homefulness Revolutionary Camp brought it!

The camp provided skills in understanding systematic racism, environmental analysis through the perspective of race as well as science (the kids took samples of soil and water and looked at them in microscopes), basic construction, and healthy eating. All throughout the two weeks of camp, the Young Skolas recorded their data and reflections with journals, cameras, and digital recorders. Being a voice in media was a running theme in the Homefulness Camp. The youth were taught that they can and should create their own narrative, the one that they are seeing and experiencing themselves, not the one fed to them by corporate media.

Needa Bee provided healthy lunches that included lessons. The kids helped prepare their food, which included picking greens from the Homefulness garden and learning about the healing properties of the food they were about to eat. I don’t think they got around to it this summer, but Homefulness has in the past taken students to corner stores to gain skills in choosing healthy foods on a budget in your neighborhood.

Tio Muteado led the construction class. Each of the Young Revolutionary Skolas built their own planter box, gaining basic construction skills using power drills, saws, and geometry. Each Skolar then dedicated their box of freshly planted herbs to an ancestor.

Mama Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia brought writing, journaliing and investigative journalism basics  through an investigative journalism study on Environmental Racism as well constant teaching on inter-dependence and eldership including "homework" to love and honor your parents, care-givers and cultures.

Perhaps the most important lesson and skill taught at Homefulness Revolutionary Camp was the prioritized ritual of morning prayer to call in and honor ancestors who guide and protect our People as we navigate this out-of-balance world which seeks to systematically destroy Black and Brown Babies. Homefulness Revolutionary Camp understands the urgency with which our children need to learn these survival skills which are not openly taught in schools or society, but need to be sought out and fought for.

Keeping with the theme of Building Our Future, the Young Skolars got to create scale models of the Homefulness Compound. This included gardens, a healing center, and a main house (all wheelchair accessible, of course!). The details on these models are incredible and really have to be seen to fully appreciate the thoughtfulness that went into them.

The vision of the Young Skolas was presented to us, their parents and community, in an epic presentation of the things they had worked on and learned. It was clear that these Young Skolas had a lot of fun while learning about some very serious topics.

Master screen printer Jesus Barraza donated his talents and was part of the closing ceremony. We made beautiful Homefulness posters which immortalized and captured the spirit of the Youth Skolars Revolutionary Camp Summer of 2014!
Knowing my son was a part of this camp this summer gave me some feeling of hopefulness as Israel continued and increased its siege on Gaza. One thing is for sure, these Young Skolas will make the positive, revolutionary change that is so desperately needed today.

Check out our interactive slideshow summarizing Homefulness Camp, complete with Bob Marley soundtrack!
 

All the Revolutionary Mama, Uncle, Brother & Auntie Skolaz who brought you the Revolutionary Youth Camp will be launching the Deecolonize Academy - For more information or to enroll email deeandtiny@gmail.com or call (510)435-7500 or (510) 355-7010 - Open House Saturday, August 30th- 1-3p at 8032 Macarthur Bl Deep East Oakland

Aug 5, 2014

PeopleSkool has made me feel independent and heard, by writing about things that matter to me and other people at POOR Magazine. In POOR Community Newsroom at the beginning of July, I expressed my trauma from the medical treatment of my cat.

They have welfare for children, but what about people who suffer from illnesses and keep animals to help make us happy? Not everybody has kids for the sake of happiness, but it's hard to take care of a child when you're disabled, at least speaking for myself. A lot of psychiatrists recommend animals to help people cope with tough things they may go through. For example, depression makes some people stay inside for weeks without connecting to the world, and other people give up on themselves. I go through hard times and my cat, Cinnamon, cuddles up to me.

I recently read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle and a lot of people expressed how they cannot find apartments that are pet friendly. I know for disabled people you can say it's a companion animal, and the law permits anyone with a disability to have a pet in their home. A woman in the article has a dog and nobody will accept her pet. They have a pet apartment list at the SPCA for people who do not have legally-recognized companion animals.

It's extremely hard to keep pets because of hospital vet bills. An exam for my sick cat was $1000 just for testing, not including treatment and other necessities. I'm crushed my cat might die because I cannot afford health care for my Cinnamon.

Something like this makes it extremely stressful, and it's not fair when someone may get a disability, and that is more than one check just to get your animal treatment. I discovered pet insurance, but they do not cover sick animals and it is around $60/month. They do not include emergency fees, lab testing, grooming, and a lot of things that need to be done by doctors.

They have health coverage for people, but animal coverage is also a must for welfare, because they pets are important assets for people like me, and a lot of people feel for their animals. It's a bad thing to get your cat or pet put to sleep. I would never do that and that was the suggestion the SPCA gave me. I took Cinnamon home and went to another vet that was a little bit cheaper, but I spent my whole paycheck on Cinnamon and I am only a temp position at my job. This is heartbreaking.

People need to realize that mental health is very critical, but an animal can make wonders, and so there should be subsidized coverage for pet care.

Aug 5, 2014

Since Barack Obama, the alleged leader of the so-called free world, or any other world leader for that matter, doesn’t have the courage or integrity to do so, I have to take it upon myself to demand an immediate cease fire and direct assistance to the women and children of Palestine. I do this with the only weapon at my disposal: the truth!

I demand that Israel stop all attacks on Palestine immediately.

I humbly ask Hamas to stop (if in fact they are responsible for all rocket attacks into Israel and Israeli settlers in Gaza) to cease fire at least long enough to allow the dead to be buried and the injured to be attended to.

Each day that goes by I cast more and more doubt on the legitimacy of Israel’s claim of aggression they're receiving from Palestine. Israel admits that its initial claim of three Israeli youth being kidnapped and murdered by Hamas was not true, and that they knew this even before the first salvo of missiles were launched into Palestine. Israel's most recent claim was that after years of Hamas terrorist attacks and holding back on retaliation, it grew tired.

The truth is, Hamas has for the last few years curtailed any outward aggression toward Israel, and has in fact arrested violent/militant radicals who attempted attacks on Israel and Israeli settlers in Gaza. Israel promised to return land in Gaza to Palestine and to stop allowing Israeli settlers to continue erecting settlements in Gaza, and went back on both promises.

My appeal to Hamas is to give Israel some benefit of the doubt (which they prove to earn less and less of every day). If in fact Hamas is firing rockets at Israel in response to the massacre (which is like a combination of a death camp and a blitzkrieg [1]), in hopes of bringing Israel’s defenses and morale down like a modern day Goliath, it's important to remember that David didn’t hope to bring Goliath down just like that. He practiced with his sling and had faith in God.

Which is not to say that Hamas doesn’t have faith in God, but as Muhammad instructed his followers, “learn how to shoot, learn how to shoot, learn how to shoot!” Muhammad was of course referring to bows and arrows which would actually be a good tactical weapon to disrupt morale and to surprise attackers in modern warfare.

Confronting Israel with the truth is easy. Expecting a positive response is not very likely, as they have lied from the very beginning.

Israel claims that it reserves its compassion for its own citizens/children. This is a false understanding of compassion and a false claim. Practicing compassion is being kind to someone in a bad situation, whether they "deserve" it or not. Instead, Israel is catering to select citizens' desires to annex more of Gaza so that their lust for land can be filled.

When I see pictures of the broken bodies of children in Gaza, I can not help but be reminded of the emanciated and broken bodies of the youngest Jewish Holocaust victims. When I see a ten-year-old Palestinian girl pleading for her life in an online video in remarkable but highly accented English, I can't help but think of Anne Frank, whose diary was found and published after she was killed in a Nazi concentration camp. When I see the online videos of Palestinian mothers begging and pleading with Israeli soldiers as thier children are ripped from their arms to be beaten, tortured, imprisoned, and murdered, I can’t help seeing images of Jewish mothers going through the same agony.

When confronted with images of mothers weeping at the loss of their children, dying one thousand deaths, burying their own children, each death repeated over and over again, I can't help to think of Jewish mothers during Nazi occupation.

For grandmothers who are survivors they endure twice the burden.

And finally when I think of the young people in South and Central America willing to brave adverse weather conditions across vast deserts in hope of freedom from imminent execution, forced participation in drug gangs, and human trafficking and prostitution, I can’t help think of millions of Jewish children trying to flee Europe to avoid concentration camps and the death ovens, but being refused admittance into the US because America “reserved her compassion for her own children,” and forced the children back into those same death camps.

If Israel the US and the rest of the alleged free world has any compassion they will have no choice but to see the same images I see.

Footnote:
[1] Blitzkreig: lit. "lightening war," a phrase coined during WWII to describe Germany’s massive bombings of civilian populations in Europe.