top of page

Search Results

442 results found with an empty search

  • Kansas Revokes Transgender Drivers Licenses

    By: Frankie Hicks My childhood lives in Texas. If you close your eyes, you can probably picture it. Vast, uninterrupted blue sky providing the backdrop for spitting mad preachers and angry white men in camo baseball caps. Being homeschooled, I was isolated among people desperate to isolate themselves, frothing at the mouth to secede from the United States for all the wrong reasons. Lonely among loners, and repressing truths about myself that would have gotten me humiliated, hurt, or worse. At age nine, and 10, and 11, and 12, I knew nothing about the existence of transgender people, much less whatever I was. I just knew there was something dangerous about me.  Eventually, I found words that approximate how I feel, and I carved out a life for myself, but the feeling of danger never went away. Childhood for transgender Texans is getting harder, but, contrary to what they say, politicians are coming after transgender adults, as well – ultimately seeking to eradicate evidence of our existence from public life. The most troubling news lately comes from the state of Kansas, where about 130 transgender adults received personal letters from the state government on February 25th, stating their drivers licenses with the correct gender markers must be surrendered and replaced with documents reflecting one’s sex assigned at birth. The letter explicitly noted “the Legislature did not include a grace period for updating credentials,” a bizarre way of rolling out new rules effectuated by a rushed bill that went into law the day after the letters were sent. Trans people are now forced to somehow get to Kansas’s equivalent of the DMV without driving – as driving without a valid license is a misdemeanor in the state – and pay money to subject themselves to a license with a gender marker incongruent with their identity. The newly-passed law SB 244 effectively makes it illegal to be transgender in Kansas. Transgender Kansans can no longer drive, vote, get a library card, or participate in civic life with the gender marker they fought to acquire. Every time someone trans pulls out their license, they will be outed, inviting unnecessary danger into their daily lives. Tacked onto this law is an anti-trans bathroom ban that includes private businesses on the list of places transgender people must out themselves, forced to choose between entering the bathroom of the sex they were assigned at birth or risk a $1000 fine or misdemeanor. Of course, because of my own reality as a trans person, I know this dilemma all too well. As a minor, I had to use the teacher bathrooms at school once I came out as trans, and as an adult, most often I simply refuse to go to the bathroom in public.  Being transgender, I take an interest in hearing from other trans voices over the disinformation mass media often peddles. It was a trans-led online newspaper that first broke the story from Kansas; and it is from transgender people living in Kansas that I hear at least one person not born in-state but merely residing in it had their license revoked despite never changing their gender marker, only their name. Indeed, at least 4 trans people have had their licenses revoked by the state despite not changing their gender markers at all. People are scared this means the state of Kansas has a “registry” of transgender people living in Kansas and is in the process of combing through it. I grimly remember the very real registry Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton created in 2022 of people who changed both their name and gender marker.  This news troubles me greatly. To write this story, it has taken days of research interspersed with long periods of grief as more horrifying news comes out by the hour. Confronting this gruesome reality is hard. Staring at a blank wall is easy. Between bouts of depression, I did the math on approximately how many people this Kansas law affects. Most outlets reporting on this agree that it’s about 1,800 people forced to surrender their license – but many more will be impacted. The text of the law states that any citizen can sue anyone they think  is trans or using the “wrong” restroom, including any cisgender (i.e. not transgender) person who they deem nonconforming. All of this is meant to scare and intimidate people the government doesn’t want living there. What we are seeing from Kansas and other states is similar to the countrywide struggles undocumented immigrants and green card holders face when they appear at scheduled court hearings – only to be arrested and disappeared. Like trans people choosing which bathroom to use for their safety, immigrants are trapped because they played by the rules. But the rules do not apply to the Powers That Be. Forcing minorities to make impossible choices has been the capital “G” Government’s playbook since its inception.  From these stories, I have felt untold sadness and, yes, fear. But somewhere along the way, I also found a little hope. I learned that there are thousands of trans people in a deeply red state, many of whom are fighting back by joining a lawsuit penned by the ACLU against the Kansas state government. Through experience, I know that, perhaps because of the intense institutional oppression, small communities of like-minded people in red states tend to be tightly bound through shared experiences, and queer life is not as isolating as they want us to believe. I carry the memory of being deeply isolated as a queer youth in Texas, but now as an adult, I wonder how much of my loneliness was self-inflicted or simply out of my control. What society considers “natural” or “normal” is dictated by culture, by in-groups and out-groups, and, vitally, is subject to change. This is what minorities represent: change to the status quo. This is why  I am dangerous. If people can change their gender, that means gender is not an immutable fact, but much looser than the boxes society fits all of us into, thus transgender people specifically are a threat to the Natural Way Of Things. They are more scared of us than we should be of them.  Because of cruel laws like these, we assume life in red states is miserable for those of us who stick out like hitchhikers’ thumbs. Instead, talk to real people, hold their sadness and madness and joy and know that hands that destroy can also create. Bleak situations call for fire and fight, and can give clarity to the oppressed struggling for freedom. Assimilation is not the answer. Solidarity and fighting as one is the solution.

  • Houseless People Create a movie about Homelessness...

    While the US government signs an executive order to literally disappear houseless comeUnities from cities across the Nation and California towns implement more violent sweeps and sweeps orders against houseless residents  - A powerful new movie is created by houseless/formerly houseless artists, cultural workers, poets and survivors that tells the stories of the people being disappeared. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Contact Tiny or Muteado 510-435-7500 (Movie is in English and Spanish with English and Spanish Subtitles throughout) What: Premier Across So-called California: Tuesday, April 7, 2026 6pm Ceremony followed by Screening  ​​ Artist Television Access(ATA)​ 992 Valencia StreetSan Francisco, CA 94110 Tickets available here . MORE DATES COMING SOON! SEE THE TRAILER OF THE MOVIE HERE "This film needs to be seen because far too much time is taken up talking about the homeless problem instead of talking with the unhoused communities. Too much time is taken up in judgments and assumptions about who these people are and how they find themselves on the streets and not enough time spent listening to what their stories really are. Here is an opportunity to see truths of the unhoused in all of their colors displayed by the people who live those realities."  devorah major, former poet laureate ( read her review here ) “That’s my Wheelchair...” Reggie, a disabled, Black elder screams at a bulldozer coming for her comeUnity and her wheelchair. Crushing Wheelchairs, with an original screenplay written by houseless poet and povertyskola tiny gray-garcia, adapted from her award winning  play of the same name focuses on the violence of homelessness, city and state sponsored sweeps, and poLice terror. The movie includes an all houseless/formerly houseless cast whose motto is: “We aren’t acting, we are living.” It was shot primarily in houseless communities (encampments) and on the streets in Oakland and San Francisco.  The story of Crushing Wheelchairs is written in a prayer, a dream, and a scream felt and barely survived by me, tiny gray-garcia aka povertyskola, my houseless, disabled mama, and all of my fellow poverty/disability skolaz & ancestors portrayed/lived in this movie/story. This is the art of our lives, our almost survival, and our death at the hands of laws that say our bodies and lives are criminal and that we are trash. The lead characters in this powerful movie feature tiny and her mother, who struggled with homelessness throughout her childhood and later were arrested for sleeping on the streets of Oakland; Aunti Frances Moore, a formerly houseless Black Panther in Oakland; Stephanie Grant, who was pregnant and homeless when she witnessed the murder of Luis Gongora Pat by poLice in 2016, for being houseless and indigenous in a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco Mission neighborhood. The ancestors of homelessness we also focus on include Steven Taylor, murdered by poLice in Walmart while houseless for having a mental health crisis; Papa Bear, a houseless veteran of three tours in Vietnam, who died on the streets of San Francisco after receiving 280 citations for being houseless on the street, iris Canada , a 100 year Black Elder evicted to homelessness from her longtime home in the Fillmore due to gentrification, Shannon Marie Bigley, Cornelius Taylor and James Edward Oakley, all run over by bulldozers in sweeps of their tents in California and Atlanta, Anjileen “Green Eyes” Swan, who died after being violently swept in Los Angeles and Luis Temaj, burned alive while asleep in his sleeping bag  and so many more.   We are living in a moment when the US President signed an executive order yesterday to disappear houseless peoples bodies and comeUnities off the streets by force, and in addition is cutting all of our housing and treatment resources all of which further enhanced already dangerous sweeps that were amped up last year’s Supreme Court ruling that stated living while houseless in the US is a crime (City of Grants Pass vs. Johnson, 2024) and that houseless people have no protection under the Constitution. And that this crime is punishable by arrest and incarceration. But how can you incarcerate someone for being poor, for being disabled, for not having enough money or credit to pay rent to attain shelter? How can we be punished for living outside without access to shelter, for being poor? In the state of California, the Governor has claimed that our bodies are equivalent to trash and is proposing yet another anti-houseless people bill. In the city and county of San Francisco, the mayor has deemed our presence a blight; and passed a ban of all houseless peoples living in their vans and in Los Angeles where, on average, six unhoused people die everyday, our outside comeUnities (encampments) are being destroyed, evicted, and disappeared. and in Huchiun (Oakland) Ken Houston is proposing a new level of hate and violence that will kill more of us houseless residents. Our Lives are now deemed unworthy of human rights, so I suppose in the eyes of the State we are not human, we are in fact trash. The panels in this last series of Trailer screenings will focus on these acts of violence and our active resistance to them. “Because we are not trash. This movie at this time is urgent medicine for humanity itself, who through this art can realize that we as houseless people are just like housed people. We are workers, and artists, and poets and innovators, and survivors. We have solutions and backstories and HERstories and visions – this movie lifts up those urgent stories, those urgent solutions – this movie is Medicine for Mama Earth and all of us, “ concluded tiny gray-garcia. The movie was co-directed by Adrian Diamond, formerly houseless povertyskolaz, tiny gray-garcia, and Muteado Silencio  and produced by Green Diamond Projects and POOR Magazine. It includes renown poets Tongo Eisen - Martin, Ayodele Wordslangar Nzinga, Luis Rodriguez, Devorah Major and Po Poets; Dee Allen, Frances Moore, Leroy Moore, Muteado Silencio and tiny gray-garcia, as well as indigenous leaders and prayer-bringers Corrina Gould, Tony Gonzales, OG Rev, Harry Williams, and Brother Mink as well as formerly houseless leaders from Wood Street Commons and Homefulness.

  • CRUSHING WHEELCHAIRS Reviews + Tickets to April 7th Screening!!

    Get your tickets to April 7th screening at Artist Television Access (ATA) in Yelamu here ! Limited tickets available! Film Reviews Black Repertory Theater screening: "See this film. See this film however you can. Crushing Wheelchairs, with an original screenplay written by houseless poet and povertyskola tiny gray-garcia, adapted from her award winning  play of the same name focuses on the violence of houselessness, city and state sponsored sweeps, and poLice terror. The movie includes an all houseless/formerly houseless cast whose motto is: “We aren’t acting, we are living.” It was shot primarily in houseless communities (encampments) and on the streets in Oakland and San Francisco." Juliet Lee "Honored tonight to be in the traditional lands of Huichuin, aka Berkeley at the Black Repertory Theater for the showing of this powerful film "Crushing Wheelchairs" as it takes us through the violence of homelessness & poverty in the U.S. Thank you Poor Magazine & the Homefulness Family who were the actors in this beautiful film.. #LandBack #EndStateViolence #FuckICE #StopTheSweeps Free Palestine 🇵🇸 ♥️" Kim de Ocampo "Everyone should see this movie. I have seen low budget movies that were created by folks with good intentions and a camera.  They're not always the best films.  Recently my folks from the housing collective formed by formerly unhoused people called, Homefulness aka Poor Magazine, created a film.  I actually appear in the movie.  I saw it for the first time last night.  When the lights went off in the theater, I was floored!!! The story was riveting.  The characters performed like professionals.   The film was professionally made.  There were moments when I couldn’t breathe!  It should be on a streaming service.  I would urge anyone involved in creating public policy around homelessness and any faith community, social service or social justice worker to see this movie.  If you want to see what happens when people lose their housing see this movie.  If you want to know the story behind the face of that person in a tent under the freeway underpass, see this movie.  I wish that it could be shown at Oakland City Hall.  If presented with the opportunity, see this film!" Harry Louis Williams Tovaangar aka LA screening: Dennis review Anthony Review Matt Solomon Review Get your tickets for April 7th now !

  • Honoring the Unseen Women

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:  tiny gray-garcia or Muteado Silencio Phone:  510-435-7500 Email: poormag@gmail.com Organization:  POOR Magazine / Homefulness Honoring the Unseen women Homeless/Disabled/Indigenous/Refugee, Incarcerated and Comfort Women Honored for Women’s HERstory Month What Prayer Walk/March  and Testimony  When 11am Wedesday, March 11th  Where Launch at the Corner of Market & Montgomery in San Francisco (Yelamu)  (Listen to a PoemCast by Povertyskola For all the UnSeen Women...) The HERstories of poor women are rarely if ever spoken about, remembered or recognized. In this humble prayer walk/procession/march led by houseless and formerly houseless women and youth, disabled women, indigenous women and joined by our solidarity of housed ComeUnity, we will lift up and recognize the HERstories of sisters, aunties, daughters, mothers and grandmothers who have died from the violence of homelessness, false borders, imperial wars and state terror. We will be launching the walk at Market and Montgomery in San Francisco above the BART station where many houseless, disabled women have tried to sleep and rest and have been violently “swept” because the so-called public sidewalks and public transportation are not actually for ALL of the public. “I was arrested for sitting at the BART station, just because I looked homeless,I ended up in the hospital that night because my temperature dropped so low i almost died from hypothermia,” said RoofLess Radio reporter Maria X   Women experiencing homelessness are the most impacted by the state terrror of Sweeps as they are vulnerable to violence when they are on the street in exposed, unlighted areas and/or lose their street communities and networks of protection.  Since the 2024 Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson , houseless people have lost constitutional protections, leading cities across California to dramatically increase sweeps—each one more dangerous and deadly than the last. Like San Francisco and Oakland, most cities across the US, housing is unaffordable, scarce or inaccessible to poor and houseless women and children. “When my disabled mama and I were being police-harassed, swept, and arrested for trying to sleep in doorways, bus shelters, and the back seats of cars in San Francisco and Oakland, we tried to get into housing and never had enough money for the rent and the costs of move-in fees,” said tiny gray-garcia , co-founder of POOR Magazine and visionary co-founder of Homefulness . Our next stop on the procession is the previous  site of the ICE/DHS court in SF, where thousands of women, children and families have been terrorized by the racist, classist profiling and detentions of indigenous refugee women from the other sides of the false borders.  We will culminate our prayer walk/procession at the Comfort Woman Memorial which honors the rarely spoken about ancestors and survivors of Imperial wars that exploited, enslaved and raped thousands of poor women and girls from Korea to the Phillipines   This powerful prayer procession/march is co-sponored by Houseless/formerly houseless people-led movements and a broad range of community organizations in solidarity POOR Magazine/Homefulness: Coalition on Homelessness, Wood Street Commons, Western Regional Advocacy Program, Self Help Hunger Program, Room2Grow, CALMA, Globa Womens Strike, Parent Voices, Nikkei Decolonization Tour, Together We Stand, and ASEJ  Please join us on March 11th at 11am at Market and Montgomery in San Francisco  Follow:  📣 @poormagazine for livestream of event

  • Women Hold Up the Sky

    By Momii Palapaz A recent instagram video from Bojongo, Bonaberi, Douala, Cameroon revealed an intense confrontation between a middle aged man and about 10 women. Armed with long sticks, the women in the village surrounded him and took turns whacking his body. What happened was, this man was beating his wife regularly. For fear and shame or whatever, she did not seek help. That changed when neighborhood women heard her crying. That’s when they found out the man was giving her bruises.  That’s when the community sisters banded together and beat his ass. I’ve been there and still experience episodes of gender violence. I have never gotten any physical support from others while in the depths of abuse.  I’ve run and got motel rooms, spent days away and thwarted encounters that put me in harm's way.   In the US it is a rare sight to see women backed by their neighbors and communities standing up to abusive partners. If at all.  The perpetrators of gender violence are met with fear and distance. The abusers are cowards. Their fears are transferred into anger and directed at those closest and the most vulnerable. In Mexico City, I stayed at one of two apartment buildings called the Organización Popular Francisco Villa de Izquierda Independiente (OPFVII).  They also have a compound of homes, schools, library, apartment building and radio station. The land was liberated by single mothers and women who turned a dump site into a gated women and children community with OPFVII.   One day, a woman reported that her husband was hurting her. All the women from the building came out of their units and confronted him. He was pushed out of the apartment and onto the streets.  He was not allowed to return. This is the same policy at the compound and all programs of the OPFVII.  Liberating a community of women and children has to have solidarity in action within the community. Protection, self defense and education arm the OPFVII to fight for not only the women and children but outside the walls of liberated communities.  Women and children are the worst off in the USA. There are no remedies for immediate or long range supports.  When a woman and her child are met with gender abuse, the system looks the other way, or gives status to the “man” of the house.  Centuries old traditions of patriarchy put the woman and children as property.  When a woman decides to leave, she will have to take the chances that a partner will not come after her.  To hold off the attacks, women have to pay the law to keep herself safe. This is not good enough. On March 8, and 11, International Women’s Day in Ohlone/Huicin/Yelamu land will honor those women, Indigenous, disabled, refugee and comfort women communities who all experienced, still endure and have turned the corners to aid their sisters and children.  Whether it's the violent control by partners at home, work on the streets, March 8th marks an everyday struggle for women's liberation.   Women hold up the sky.

  • Return to Humanity: END THE US BLOCKADE ON CUBA

    By Momii Palapaz, PNN reporter Her long, slender fingers picked up the seed. This was the first thing I noticed; her soft, unblemished hands, nimble fingers and lacquered nails. She maneuvered them to place a speck of seed in a tiny square space of a box.  Efficient and quick, this young woman was a working owner at the 25 acre Oranoponico Vivero Hamar Punto de Venta. One hundred and sixty-six farmers work here and are paid to grow 250 species of plant life, fruits and 10-12 varieties of vegetables. This is in Alamar, Cuba. One of over 260 organic farms. “The US university trained me by way of chemicals”, said Norma Romero Castillo, an engineer and farm leader/teacher. “So I went back to school and relearned” the industry of agriculture. The Ministry of Agriculture created farm labs throughout the country by making it a mandatory project and finding empty spaces.   The farm produces fertilizer from animal feces, tobacco plants (for decorative plants only), worms from Vietnam and fungi mushrooms. The irrigation system uses wells to create bio diverse sustenance. 95% of the plant life grown is used for medicine, spiritual ceremonies and food.   Initially, the 25 acres of land was set to construct a baseball field and hospital but with the economic collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the priority switched to organic farm investment; 90% and 10% to tourism. From centuries of oppression by a variety of European colonizers to 1959, It was an agrarian movement that then became a Cuban revolution.  A whole country of farmers, the indigenous Taino descendants, united with cities of students, academia, and the working class of Cuba, executing a war of liberation. Another Name for Genocide That visit to the organic farm was April/May 2016, ten years ago.  Cuba and US Relations were temporarily softened with the Obama administration in the White House. He lifted some rules and was publicly tolerant of US tourism feeding the Cuban economy. There were still restrictions but nothing like what we are witnessing today.   I took advantage of this window of time and traveled in a Pastors For Peace tour group.  Since my teens, I have been fascinated with the Cuban socialist system and people.  My curiosity opened the door to witness and learn from the communities on the western side of the island. The Cuban people are friendly, laid back, innovative, creative, hard working and welcoming. But they also will tell you straight forward about the US damage to their country.   The U.S. has been relentlessly sabotaging every part of Cuban life and government since 1959.  Despite over 60 years of US government meddling in economic, political and humanitarian life, Cuba has withstood additional crises from climate disasters and international contentions. The US embargo is another form of genocide.   With the blockade, import exports of all medical supplies including medications, medical equipment, farming equipment, oil, electricity, computers, and more are banned or in the  process of intensification.  The US government is even banning Cuban doctors from traveling to other countries in need of support. What we have taken for granted here on turtle island is held tightly and rationed in Cuba.   The Cuban people have dealt with many challenges to their independence and staying a sovereign nation.  Individuals and organizations have donated financially, on the ground support and collections of said items since the revolution.  Don’t believe what you hear and read in the mainstream press about Cuba. Make connect with solidarity organizations, answer your curiosity by learning more.  Cuba is a peace loving country.  Our support from across waters is vital to keep their country from the cruel claws of US imperialism. All power and Solidarity with the Cuban people.

  • Covert to Overt: Contrasts between Chile and Venezuela

    By Evander McElroy Early on January 3 rd , 2026, U.S. special ops forces entered Caracas and detained Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Within hours, they were on a U.S. aircraft bound for American custody. Federal prosecutors charged Maduro with leading a narcotics trafficking conspiracy that allegedly used the machinery of the Venezuelan state to move cocaine into North America.¹ Washington called the mission a law-enforcement action made necessary by a corrupt government unwilling to police itself. To some this was justification enough, but when foreign troops enter a sovereign capital and remove its president, the act cannot be reduced to an arrest. It’s a kidnapping. Watching this event play out in real time brought me back to an event that I learned about in school, the 1973 Chilean coup   d’état   that ousted and led to the death of the first democratically elected Marxist leader in the western hemisphere, Salvador Allende. 2 While the United States did not send troops into Santiago, declassified documents later confirmed sustained efforts to weaken Allende’s government through economic pressure and covert political operations before General Augusto Pinochet was brought to power.² Washington saw Chile as they saw lots of left wing countries in the early 1970s- through the lens of the Cold War. Allende’s socialist reforms and his decision to nationalize the country’s copper industry convinced U.S. officials that Chile might slip into the Soviet orbit. This sort of back-door shadow manipulation was framed as containment! Stopping communism before it spread to other nations of the western hemisphere. Unfortunately what followed was not a strategic shift, but years of fear. Under Pinochet’s seventeen-year rule, people were detained in the night, tortured in secret prisons, and “disappeared” without explanation.³ Families searched for answers that often never came. Whatever anxieties existed in Washington about geopolitics, the consequences in Chile were measured in broken families. Venezuela in 2026 was defended under a different banner. This time, the language was not about communism but about crime. U.S. leaders pointed to indictments accusing Maduro of protecting drug trafficking networks, manipulating elections, and silencing political opponents.¹ Meanwhile, ordinary Venezuelans were living through rolling blackouts, empty grocery shelves, and an economy so broken that millions packed up and left their homes in search of stability. These are not minor accusations or distant policy debates as they reflect real suffering and real anger. But recognizing that reality does not automatically settle the question on whether a foreign military has the right to directly intervene in another nation's sovereign affairs! To echo something I brought up before, the United States has repeatedly revised the language it uses to justify its repeated interventions. In one era it was stopping communism. In another, promoting democracy. Later, fighting terrorism. Now, combating drug trafficking. Each justification reflects the dominant fear of its moment. Each presents action as reluctant but necessary. The continuity lies not in ideology, but in the willingness to violate another nation’s sovereignty when Washington concludes the stakes are high enough. The 2026 operation made that continuity clear. Unlike Chile, where U.S. influence operated largely in the shadows, American forces entered Venezuelan territory directly and removed a sitting head of state and first lady under armed guard.¹ The symbolism matters: it signals that the United States feels that it has the right to enforce its judgments beyond its borders. International law is supposed to be a guardrail. The United Nations Charter bars countries from using force against the political independence of another state.⁴ Supporters of the 2026 operation argue that sovereignty should not protect leaders accused of turning their governments into criminal enterprises. Critics counter that when the strongest countries reserve the right to determine who deserves sovereignty, the promise of equal protection under international law begins to fade. There’s something that has to be made very clear though! Pinochet’s crimes were undeniable.³ Maduro’s government faced grave accusations. The issue is not whether these leaders were flawed or abusive. The issue is precedent. When the United States acts as investigator, judge, and enforcer across borders, it reshapes the norms it claims to defend. From Santiago in 1973 to Caracas in 2026, the vocabulary has changed, but the pattern remains. If security concerns can justify military intervention, sovereignty becomes conditional. And conditional sovereignty, history suggests, is a standard applied unevenly. That is the legacy these moments force us to confront. FOOTNOTES U.S. Department of Defense, “ Statement on Operation Absolute Resolve ,” January 3, 2026; U.S. Department of Justice, indictment filings against Nicolás Maduro, 2020–2026. U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXI: Chile, 1969–1973 ; Central Intelligence Agency, “CIA Activities in Chile,” declassified memorandum, 1975. National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation (Chile), Rettig Report , 1991. United Nations, Charter of the United Nations , art. 2(4), 1945.

  • Tools of Fascism: February 19, 1942, EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066

    By Momii Palapaz On February 19th I thought of my mom who was just 18 years old, ready, but not allowed to attend graduation and get her diploma. It was 1942 in Redwood City, California and the Takagi family was ordered to report to a designated site. No other details were given.  Mom said “Somebody told dad to go east”.  In the midst of round ups by the FBI and WRA (War Relocation Authority), Japanese Americans and their families were deemed a threat and laws were instituted to make imprisonment “legal”.  Being farmers, Jichan (grampa} hauled mom, aunts, uncles, grandpas, and her 4 siblings from Redwood City onto the truck destined to ‘go east’. They were one family of about 1,000 people who tried to get away from the concentration camp. They only made it to Marysville, CA.  Not far east enough. Racist rallies and meeting notices called for the removal of Japanese Americans from homes I thought of dad also. At 21 years old, he watched his father taken away by the FBI on December 24, 1941. Dad never talked about that day. I found out through records from the FBI documents my parents applied for and received in Washington, D.C.    His mom, now alone, handled the four sons, youngest 15, then responded to the order of the Executive 9066 on February 19, 1942.  After months of living in a horse stall at the Tanforan racetrack, called an assembly center, they were shuttled on a 24 hour railroad ride, shades drawn, to Topaz, UT.  There, they met thousands of Japanese Americans from throughout the West Coast. Bachan Matsu Momii died in the concentration camp in 1943, leaving her youngest son to fend for himself. This is a haunting date.  What happened 84 years ago, was publicly denounced in the 1980s, and called a “mistake” by the US government.  Japanese Americans and their families got $20,000.00 per person incarcerated.  We were then labeled “model minority” and applauded for something.  It was actually a bait and switch, a sucker deal that divided families, communities, races and classes in the never ending plot to erase all responsibility by the fascist system.  Look at the creation of tragedy, fomenting violence and racist relations amongst all of us.  This doesn’t go away. Fascist ideals consciously evolve and fester with fakery and snooty attitudes.  Japanese Americans are no better than any other migrating ancestors and their descendants, but the US government needed a cop out and a diversion to protect themselves as the source of what history exposes today. ICE OUT OF EVERYWHERE. SOLIDARITY WITH REFUGEES FROM IMPERIALISM.  ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

  • Kopwatch: Illegal detainment

    In this episode of Kop Watch AZtlan Chicano Gang task force brother Gera was illegally detained for not giving the officer enough space (20FT). Advocating for the people can be dangerous as you can see in this episode. At the end of this episode the brother who was initially pulled over was let loose after the Hayward police dpt illegally searched his vehicle violating the rights of not only him but then violating the rights of Kop watch Aztlan. Rookie cop grabs the journalist, and illegally detains him

  • Kopwatch: Saved Unhoused Guy From Going To Jail

    In Hayward police rush to the scene for a man who was sleeping inside a abandoned building vacant "La Familia" building. He was handcuffed and because of the arrival of Kop watch released with a warning and told not to ever return to the vacant building. Name and badge numbers were collected and advocacy was provided to the houseless young man. There is a housing crisis in every city and this is one of so many cases of a human being being treated like trash for the simple reason of being houseless.

  • Kopwatch: Justice For All Those Killed By Pig Terror

    A man was beaten for walking up the street with a stick that he used as a cane, accused of not complying with Tyrants. Officers ask Kop watch for the video he had so that they can delete the evidence he has of them attacking a man walking up the street minding his own business. Man was ultimately arrested and taken to jail for no reason. Name and badge numbers were collected in this episode. Tyrants were out of control and always are. ALWAYS FILM THE PIGS

  • Estados Unidos detesta a los inmigrantes/US Detests Immigrants

    Por/By Teo Las comunidades hispanoablantes se unen a levantar la voz al mundo en general en el superbol. Lo miramos, lo sentimos en la manera que nosotros celebramos el Cone Malo / Bad Bunny. Pero uno dia antes, anunciaran precencia de ICE (que yo entiendo es la policia judicial Federal) para "amar y respetar y proteger" a todos los que se encuentren en nuestros pueblos y ciudades. Puedo hacer una lista de todas las personas que atemorisan, que en esta tiempo es todo el mundo, pero las personas emigrantes mucho mas. Algunos no tenemos suerte y nos deportan de USA. La migra siempre ha trabajado en USA. Es el govierno que tiene el poder pero en los ultimos anos lo ha privado y crece su gente una dos tres y muchas veces mas. Puedo hacer una lista y es muy exstensiva, como violan todos nuestros derechos como seres humanos que somos todos, pero en general son violentas y abusan su poder y les maltratan en las detenciones privados que rentan para detener seres humanos. No les ofrecen sus derechos menos sus medicinas y tambien le golpean a la gente cuando tienen la oportunidad. Yo entiendo su sistema de crapicho del #47 que los apolla en la casa principal del poder. En este tiempo, nos detesta a la gente inmigrante! Spanish-speaking communities join in raising their voices to be heard by the world at the Superbowl. We see and feel it in the way we celebrate el Cone Malo, Bad Bunny. But the day before, they announced increased presence of ICE, which I understand to be the federal and judicial police that supposedly "loves and respects and protects" everyone they encounter in our towns and cities. I could list out the people who are afraid right now-- I mean, the whole world is afraid right now. But immigrants are much more afraid. Some of us are unlucky and get deported from the US. La migra has always worked in the US. It's the government that's in charge of it, but recently private corporations have multiplied la migra by one, two, three, and many times more. I could make an extensive list of the ways they violate our rights as human beings, but in general they violently abuse their power and mistreat people in the private detention centers they rent to detain human beings.   They don't offer them rights besides some medicines and they beat people whenever they have the chance. I know that the 47th crap-tain supports them from the Whitehouse. In this era, they detest us immigrants!

bottom of page