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  • Demand Berkeley City Council Pass a Ceasefire Resolution

    MAYOR: Jesse Arreguin, (510)981-7100 DISTRICT 1: Rashi Kesarwani, (510)981-7110 DISTRICT 2: Terry Taplin, (510)981-7120 DISTRICT 3: Ben Bartlett, (510)981-7130 DISTRICT 4: Kate Harrison, (510)981-7140 DISTRICT 5: Sophie Hahn, (510)981-7150 DISTRICT 6: Susan Wengraf, (510)981-7160 DISTRICT 7: Rigel Robinson, (510)981-7170 DISTRICT 8: Mark Humbert, (510)981-7180 mailxto.com/berk4pal for emails "Hello my name is ___ and I live in Berkeley, District __. I am calling to urge the Berkeley City Council to call a special meeting and pass a ceasefire resolution. Considering the deaths of over 20,000 Palestinians and counting, this request is urgent. If you fail to propose and pass a ceasefire resolution, you will lose my vote in the next election." Upcoming City Council Meetings: *passed Agenda & Rules meeting 12/4 *passed City Council 12/5 City Council 12/12 6pm (final meeting of the year)

  • Poem for Palestine: Oppressor Roles

    by Dee Allen photo by @eye.on.palestine Oppressed people Take on oppressor roles. Take hostages, Take out selected buildings, civilians, Oppressors’ army, their whole Zionist stronghold, news reporters catch bullets— Rockets and rifles, Tools taken up for the terrible task Seventy-five years in the making— I.D.F. would call it Total war. Hamas would call it Total vengeance. The world calls it Unnecessary carnage. I call it The chickens coming home to roost As Brother Malcolm X himself did. Oppressors deal out hurt to the oppressed And it returns three-fold Resulting in dead On both sides. Laying off the rockets, laying down the rifles Would be a start, for a globe sickened from bloodlet, burials & death-tolls— ________________________________ W: 11.3.23 I.D.F.: Israeli Defence Forces. Hamas: Political and military organisation governing occupied Palestine, based in Gaza City, Sunni Muslim by faith. Established 1987, during the First Intifada [ “Stone Uprising” ] against Israel. Also called Islamic Resistance Movement.

  • Poverty Scholarship and the Lie (Law)

    by Tiny Gray-Garcia aka Poverty Skola reprinted from NYU Review of Law & Social Change, vol 48. “Call us back when you get served, he said.” My 11-year-old self held the phone, not sure what to say. I was also not completely sure what “served” even meant exactly, but certain that the fast talking lawyer was wrong and should not be hanging up on me. “You trash better leave my property,” the landlord (or what I call a scamlord, slumlord, lord of the land) had screamed the day before outside our door. He had been threatening to call the cops on my mama and me. He told us we had to leave “immediately” while he was simultaneously shoving multiple pieces of paper under the door that stated we had to leave the apartment in 3 days, 48 hours or 30 days. In the end, it was a law student intern who had answered the phone at the only no cost law clinic that existed in our whole giant city. He had, as my mama aptly put it, never missed a meal. In other words, he had never felt the pain of hunger, the terror of poLice (police) harassment, the fear of homelessness and certainly not the voice of a screaming, violent scamlord through the keyhole. Twenty-Two Evictions Later Twenty-seven years later with 22 evictions and a childhood rife with homelessness, shelters, doorway cots, tents, sweeps, foster homes, poLice harassment and incarceration, not that much has changed. Scamlords still think they “own” Mama Earth, and she is still bought and traded on the commodities market for “income” and profit. Moreover, Black, Brown, and Indigenous poor women/men, children and disabled elders make up the majority of tenants facing eviction. Poor tenants rarely if ever get represented in landlord-tenant law cases in court or in any matters pertaining to their health and safety. Further, the Lords of the Land, as defined by Settler Colonial English Law, still win most if not all of the cases against us, the tenants. It was necessary for me to drop out of formal institutions of learning at 11 years old so I could enroll full time in the school of hard knocks where I graduated with a PhD in poverteeee (as one of my poems explains). Meaning, I had to learn how to file unlawful detainer responses, bankruptcy filings, car registrations, insurance claims, welfare forms and housing applications. All this while struggling with ongoing and increasing poverty and homelessness with my mama who was disabled and destroyed from her life in poverty. I joined an unseen workforce of thousands of poor children across Mama Earth that work with their families to survive, to help keep the family alive, interdependently, by any means necessary or die. I am honored that I, a good daughter in the Indigenous sense, was able to help keep my family alive. I am saddened that the formal U.S. schooling systems did not see my care for my mama as a valid reason to miss school, and instead criminalized my family for my repeated absences. In addition, my real-life, hands-on training in law, advocacy and survival weren’t seen as valid forms of education, which they most definitely were and what we later transformed into the theory, everyday practice (and textbook) we call Poverty Scholarship. While houseless, my mama and I alongside other povertyskolaz launched the poor/Indigenous people-led movement called POOR Magazine. For over 27 years, POOR Magazine has been concretizing the work we were doing to survive into homeless and poor people-led solutions like Homefulness, PeopleSkool, Deecolonize Academy, The Bank of ComeUnity Reparations, WeSearch and the Sliding Scale Cafe. There are literally hundreds of urgent teachings that this povertyskola would like to cover in this, the first part of a series on Poverty Scholarship and the Law. However, the first teaching must be that the decks are squarely, transparently, and almost arrogantly stacked against poor tenants. “No, you can’t do an appeal unless you deposit the $7,000 in back rent you owe the landlord, plus a deposit for 2 more months for the time the appeal process can take,” the judge proclaimed angrily to me. At the time, I was a budding jailhouse lawyer outside of jail without a degree presenting our case “pro per” to the Alameda County Court. My stomach sank, one of many times, knowing that whether we were living in unsafe, uninhabitable conditions or not, there was nothing I could do. Whether it was in a place where the roof leaked, the toilet was broken and never fixed or where black mold stretched across the walls into our permanently damaged lungs, there was nothing I could do. As a legal advocate once told me, the landlord is always right even if they are not. A Poverty Scholarship Informed Advocate Versus a Law School Trained Advocate It wasn’t so much that the guy was wrong when he said come back to me when you are served when I was only 11. It was the way he said it. The casual disregard for my terror, my mother and my growing anxiety, and the fact he really had no empathy for what we were dealing with or no training to even understand/overstand it. In addition, he was wrong. This povertyskola lawyer (or jailhouse lawyer outside of jail without a degree) has worked in the community “representing” poor tenants as part of POOR Magazine’s street legal clinic for over 15 years. I do this work along with my brothers and sisters, Vivi T, Leo Stegman, Charles Pitts, and Robbie Powellson to name a few of a huge unseen advocacy force of povertyskola survivors. We are not trained lawyers, we are poverty skolaz who know there are many steps that can be taken before you get to the eviction court. Merely telling someone to “wait til you get served” is actually negligent and dangerous. Scamlords can and will employ multiple tactics of shame, fear, intimidation, aggression and violence against tenants on the rocky and dangerous road to eviction court. It is not a one time paper process. The standard response to tenants in terror of eviction is to “call us when you receive paperwork.” This paperwork is actually a terrifying document called an “Unlawful Detainer.” Contrary to these facile instructions, there are many things you can do to prevent that document from ever being served. These are things that are done when you have representation from a lawyer or advocate, such as a letter responding to false claims, harassment, threats and oftentimes illegal presumptions and accusations. Knowing that someone is not alone when being bullied is an extremely powerFULL deterrent to the papers ever being served in the first place. This also serves as support/empowerment for the terrified tenant. It is not safe, smart or strategic to misadvise people when they are facing impending homelessness as once we are “outside” it is almost impossible to get back “inside.” People are in trauma and terror when they have been threatened in their only place of safety. Giving them an ear, hearing the plausibility of their fight, and/or hearing every aspect of the case like habitability or abuse can offer up another series of responses, reactions and arguments that can delay the eviction or derail it completely. I have drafted and sent countless letters, texts and offers of negotiation. And when I do direct meetings or phone calls, it is necessary I employ my best “white voice” which includes self-trained paralegal vocabulary to respond to escalating landlords. These efforts have led to launching successful negotiations and settlements that completely took cases off courts’ calendars and are some of what I teach/share with fellow youth and adult povertyskolas in PeopleSkool for povertyskolaz and Deecolonize Academy Liberation School. Take the case of John C., a formerly houseless elder living in a Below Market Rate (BMR) housing complex for seniors (or elder ghetto as I would call it), who was being threatened by his scamlord for “hoarding.” After a letter and a series of follow-up calls and emails, we were able to link John C. up with community support workers who helped to clean and unhoard his unit. This supported a new commitment to the scamlord who took the eviction threat off the table. This is just one of countless Poverty Scholarship cases I have advocated for and won! “We don’t have lawyers to represent tenants,” the local legal aid society told me over the years when I have sought help for myself and other povertyskolaz. The position of poor tenants is one of complete vulnerability. We have no legal representation and the courts and scamlords know this. In most counties in California, we also have no rent protections or rent control. This means we can be evicted for the color of our hair or any other litany of reasons the scamlords use. Our rent can be raised at the drop of a hat. Our pets are criminalized, our choices are tracked, and our families surveilled. The act of eviction and a low-income tenant’s vulnerability to eviction result in so many people being houseless, why so many of us just see those stacked up decks and humbly walk away. Those decks are loaded up with all the anti-poor people shame this krapitalist (capitalist) system can dish out. Thus, we end up in the sidewalk motel as my mama used to call it. Eviction as Elder and Child Abuse “I will die if I have to leave my home,” said Iris Canada. Iris was a 100- year-old Black elder who was facing Ellis Act eviction from her home of 40 years in San Francisco. Due to high-speed gentrification violence, her longtime home was being flipped into a condominium. In 2014, after several years of our own povertyskola led WeSearch (my name for poor people-led research), we at POOR Magazine were able to make the correlation and prove that eviction is elder and child abuse. We presented the findings and cases of Elaine Turner, Iris Canada, Ron Likkers and so many more elders who die from the extreme trauma of losing a home as an elder. Despite our work, when we came back for the final meeting to work on the case law, we were met at San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon’s door by armed sheriffs who barred us from coming in. Thus, the work remains unfinished. In the case of child abuse, eviction causes extreme hardship and destabilization of a family. This is especially true for single parents when their home is lost, like my mama. Over 93% of the WeSearch families we worked with ended up homeless which impeded their child’s education, mental health and ability to thrive. Eviction = Homelessness As poltricksters (politicians) and advocates wring their hands about the rise in homelessness, it is rare that they ever connect the dots to eviction. Right now in the unincorporated part of Alameda County, over 60,000 tenants face imminent eviction with the end of the eviction moratorium. This is the beginning of a series of Poverty Scholarship-informed Law which includes Family Dependency Court, Criminal Court, Drug/Homeless Courts and (No) Quality of Life Violations, CONservatorship and “estate” Stolen land/Liberation of Mama Earth law, to name a few. The Ellis Act must be repealed. Rent control must be instituted across the state. Poverty Scholarship must inform Law, Medicine, Social Work, Counseling and Education at the university level. I would like to suggest a Reparations Fund or Scholarship for low/no- income law students to get paid a living wage to work in public interest law firms. They would be an asset to those firms wanting to support poor/houseless tenants, houseless individuals, children and families in struggle, and immigrants/Indigenous peoples. I invite institutions of Law and Medicine to send their students to PeopleSkool and invite this povertyskola in to teach, speak and present as an act of radical liberation. The courts can truly be transformed into places of negotiation, radical sharing, liberation and support instead of their current state of harming, destroying, incarcerating, abusing and killing.

  • The Forces That Nearly Murdered Me Are Meeting In San Francisco Today

    I was almost killed by Philippine troops upholding the global economic order on display at this week’s APEC Summit. By Brandon Lee reprinted from The Nation, Nov 15, 2023. Attendees make their way into Moscone South for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit held at Moscone Center in San Francisco, Tuesday, November 14, 2023. Today, I will come face to face with the forces who nearly killed me. In 2019, members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines attempted to assassinate me in response to my efforts to defend Indigenous Philippine lands from environmental and governmental degradation. Bullet fragments from the attack are still lodged in my body, and I am paralyzed from the chest down. But it was not only those specific soldiers who were responsible for my near-murder. It wasn’t even only the Philippine government. The global neoliberal economic model that prioritizes endless profiteering and exploitation over peace, equality, and environmental stewardship helped load the gun. Now, four years later, and back in my hometown of San Francisco, I am surrounded by the leading symbols of that global order—because my city has been chosen as the site of this year’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. For the first time in 12 years, the United States is hosting the APEC Heads of State meeting, a gathering of national leaders from 21 member economies—including Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., all of whom have arrived in San Francisco—and the business executives of some of the largest multinational corporations in the world. San Francisco is requiring all police and security personnel to work overtime and the federal Secret Service is deploying its forces to secure the closed-door APEC meetings. Meanwhile, thousands of local residents and small businesses are bracing for street closures, sweeps of houseless people, invasive checkpoints, harassment by the police, and inaccessibility of neighborhood services. I grew up in San Francisco learning about the struggle most people face at some point to put food on the table and earn enough to pay the bills, even while across town a few people lived in Victorian mansions and worked for the big banks in the skyscrapers that made up the city’s iconic skyline. I know this from direct experience, having spent nine years living with the Igorot Indigenous peoples of the Philippines as they defended their land, rights, and lives in the resource-rich area known as the Cordillera region. I saw firsthand how neoliberal policies supported by APEC, such as the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, liberalized the mining industry, allowing foreign mining companies to reap 100 percent of the profits from the plundering of Indigenous people’s lands. The stark divide between rich and poor from my childhood has only gotten wider, throughout the world and in San Francisco itself, precisely due to the kinds of policies that APEC is discussing during its week of meetings. APEC protests. Signs read: Abusing People and the Earth for Corporations. Stop Corporate Attacks on Climate Justice. Photo by tiny gray-garcia. According to APEC, its members encompass 41 percent of the world population, 44 percent of world trade, and a whopping 51 percent of the entire world’s GDP, which underscores how critical the Asia Pacific region is to the global economy and to geopolitics. APEC is always a forum where the great powers compete to bring member countries into their sphere of influence, but playing out in the backdrop this year is intense global competition and strife. The US in particular has been aggressively pushing the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) in negotiations with 13 other countries (including India, which is not a member of APEC) in the run-up to the APEC Summit. A free-trade agreement repackaged in the post-pandemic language of “fostering resiliency” and “climate-smart sustainable production,” IPEF is the trade aspect of America’s desperate attempt to gain the upper hand in its competition with China. In line with its Indo-Pacific Strategy, the US backs up its trade agenda by deploying military forces, expanding overseas bases, and forging new military agreements with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, and other countries in the Pacific to isolate and contain China. All of these maneuvers put APEC member economies—especially those in the first-island chain—right in harm’s way. Unbridled mining destroyed the environment and forcibly displaced Indigenous people who had been living there for generations. When the people protested against the foreign mining companies and the policies that enabled them, the state responded with violence. Indigenous communities were militarized, bombed, and strafed with artillery shelling. Individual Indigenous rights activists were threatened, harassed, surveilled, abducted, slapped with legal cases based on fabricated evidence, illegally arrested, and even extrajudicially killed. Because I protested alongside the Indigenous communities and as a journalist wrote about the daily attacks they faced, I was also threatened, politically vilified as a terrorist, and given death threats, culminating in being riddled by a fusillade from members of the 54th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in front of my home on August 6, 2019. More recently, under Marcos Jr., who was elected last year, a string of human rights violations have hammered the Cordillera Indigenous peoples: Phosphorus bombs were dropped in Kalinga province; three Indigenous rights activists were abducted; and four of my friends and colleagues in the Cordillera Peoples Alliance were tagged as terrorists for defending Indigenous people’s rights and land. Only the Philippine military and police apparatus trained by and supplied with arms from the US have the ability to systematically carry out these crimes on such a wide scale. The bullets that hit me were quite possibly funded by American taxpayers, as are the bombs that continue to be dropped all over the Philippines to silence the people protesting the policies that APEC is showcasing. The Indigenous people of the Philippines will be excluded from the APEC talks. APEC has never invited them nor any of the billions of ordinary people who bear the brunt of its free-trade deals: workers, women, migrants, and all sectors of society who comprise the 99 percent have never been given a seat in the APEC meetings, at the lavish dinners, or at the side meetings. Instead, the biggest US corporations, such as Amazon, GM, Chevron, and Boeing, are spending millions of dollars to back this November’s APEC meetings and thus get exclusive access to global leaders. These global leaders become the biggest customers of corporations like Boeing, which manufactures drones used in the bombing of Indigenous communities in the Philippines and in Israel’s war of genocide against Palestinians; and Chevron, which continues to seek expansion of natural gas production in the Philippines and with Israel in the Leviathan gas fields off the coast of occupied Palestine. The people of the Bay Area have not taken this lying down. Hundreds have formed the broad No to APEC Coalition comprised of grassroots organizations, and labor and climate advocates, and thousands have been protesting APEC all week. We will follow in the footsteps of a generation of people who have protested APEC since its inception. As San Francisco rolls out the red carpet for APEC and the 1 percent, I’ll be standing with the people again, ready to confront this institution that not only almost took my life but has contributed to the poverty, unemployment, and environmental destruction that have killed millions worldwide. Brandon Lee is an environmentalist and Indigenous rights activist based in San Francisco. He is a member of the San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines and was a recipient of the Center for Environmental Concerns' Gawad Bayani ng Kalikasan (Environmental Hero Award) in 2020.

  • Press Release: Palestine to Oakland - Free the Land

    For Immediate Release: Contact: Jaz Colibri, tiny garcia (510) 435-7500 Palestine to Oakland - Free the land Houseless residents of Occupied East and West Huchiun (Oakland) demand an end to Colonial Occupation and Genocide and liberation of Mama Earth from Oakland to Palestine What: Press Conference and Council Meeting When: 5:30pm Tuesday, November 28th Where: Oakland City Hall steps Occupied Huchiun (Oakland) On November 28th, Houseless and formerly houseless resident leaders of Wood Street Commons and Homefulness, along with advocates and allies, will present our demand to liberate Mama Earth globally from Palestine to Sudan and right here in Huchiun so houseless peoples can be free of the ongoing violent sweeps, poLice terror and harassment that we face multiple times per day all across Oakland. "From the West Bank to West Oakland, after we are evicted, where do you think we go? After we are swept, where do you think we go...The same settler lies, I mean laws, remove poor/houseless/indigenous people from our homes, ComeUnities, streets, tents, and our bodies and belongings are seen as trash if we are in the way of their colonial land theft plan for profit all across Mama Earth," said tiny gray-garcia, formerly houseless/incarcerated Poet, co-founder of POOR Magazine, visionary of Homefulness and author of Criminal of Poverty:Growing up Homeless in America and many more. "Our visions are homeless people helping homeless people, that's what works, that's what was working at Wood Street Commons," said John Janosko, co-leader Wood Street Commons. Oakland by any means necessary should cut off our city's support of military aid to Israel and urge an end to Israel's apartheid state as well as urge full return of the land to the Palestinians. We pray that so-called Oakland by any means necessary will cease its complicity with America's ongoing genocide on BIPOC LGBTQ+ and the poor by ending encampment sweeps which treat our lives like trash, throwing what stability we build for each other into chaos which further isolates and displaces us in the midst of this ever growing housing crisis. In the midst of more and more people being evicted into the streets following the lifting of the eviction moratorium. The eviction moratorium must be reinstated and its protections extended to unhoused Oaklanders.... excerpts from the statement which will be read by houseless/formerly houseless residents of Wood Street Commons and Homefulness at the Oakland City Council meeting of Nov 28th To read the whole statement click here "The sweeps must stop, they are killing us, literally," Rick C , Houseless resident of East Oakland and RooflessRadio reporter for POOR Magazine Preceding the council meeting we will have a short press conference featuring houseless an formerly houseless poverty skola residents of Oakland. Story on this Subject: Houseless in Gaza

  • Poem for Palestine: In Jerusalem

    by Bu tamim Al-Barghouti Photo From: @eye.on.palestine مررنا على دار الحبيب فردنا ***عن الدار قانون الأعادي وسورها فقلت لنفسي ربما هي نعمة *** فماذا ترى في القدس حين تزورها ترى كل ما لا تستطيع احتماله *** إذا ما بدت من جانب الدرب دورها وما كل نفس حين تلقى حبيبها تسر *** ولا كل الغياب يضيرها فإن سرها قبل الفراق لقاؤه *** فليس بمأمون عليها سرورها متى تبصر القدس العتيقة مرة **** فسوف تراها العين حيث تديرها في القدس، بائع خضرة من جورجيا برم بزوجته يفكر في قضاء إجازة أو في طلاء البيت في القدس، توراة وكهل جاء من منهاتن العليا يفقه فتية البولون في أحكامها في القدس شرطي من الأحباش يغلق شارعا في السوق، رشاش على مستوطن لم يبلغ العشرين، قبعة تحيي حائط المبكى وسياح من الإفرنج شقر لا يرون القدس إطلاقا تراهم يأخذون لبعضهم صورا مع امرأة تبيع الفجل في الساحات طول اليوم في القدس دب الجند منتعلين فوق الغيم في القدس صلينا على الأسفلت في القدس من في القدس إلا أنت ... وتلفت التاريخ لي متبسما أظننت حقا أن عينك سوف تخطئهم، وتبصر غيرهم ها هم أمامك، متن نص أنت حاشية عليه وهامش أحسبت أن زيارة ستزيح عن وجه المدينة يابني حجاب واقعها السميك لكي ترى فيها هواك في القدس كل فتى سواك وهي الغزالة في المدى، حكم الزمان ببينها ما زلت تركض خلفها مذ ودعتك بعينها فارفق بنفسك ساعة إني أراك وهنت في القدس من في القدس إلا أنت ... يا كاتب التاريخ مهلا، فالمدينة دهرها دهران دهر أجنبي مطمئن لا يغير خطوه وكأنه يمشي خلال النوم وهناك دهر، كامن متلثم يمشي بلا صوت حذار القوم ... والقدس تعرف نفسها، إسأل هناك الخلق يدللك الجميع فكل شيئ في المدينة ذو لسان، حين تسأله، يبين ... في القدس يزداد الهلال تقوسا مثل الجنين حدبا على أشباهه فوق القباب تطورت ما بينهم عبر السنين علاقة الأب بالبنين ... في القدس أبنية حجارتها اقتباسات من الإنجيل والقران في القدس تعريف الجمال مثمن الأضلاع أزرق، فوقه، يا دام عزك، قبة ذهبية، تبدو برأيي، مثل مراة محدبة ترى وجه السماء ملخصا فيها تدللها وتدنيها توزعها كأكياس المعونة في الحصار لمستحقيها إذا ما أمة من بعد خطبة جمعة مدت بأيديها وفي القدس السماء تفرقت في الناس تحمينا ونحميها ونحملها على أكتافنا حملا إذا جارت على أقمارها الأزمان In Jerusalem We passed by the home of the beloved but the enemy’s laws and wall turned us away I said to myself, “Maybe, that is a blessing” What will you see in Jerusalem when you visit? You will see all that you can’t stand when her houses become visible from all sides When meeting her beloved, not every soul rejoices Nor does every absence harm If they are delighted when meeting before departure such joy cannot remain kindled For once your eyes have seen Jerusalem You will only see her, wherever you look. In Jerusalem, a greengrocer from Georgia, annoyed with his wife, thinks of going on vacation or painting his house In Jerusalem, a middle-aged man from Upper Manhattan holds a Torah and teaches Polish boys its commandments In Jerusalem, an Ethiopian policeman seals off a street in the marketplace, A machine gun hangs from the shoulder of a teenage settler, A person wearing a yarmulke bows at the Wailing Wall, Blonde European tourists who don’t see Jerusalem at all beside a Palestinian woman selling radishes in public squares all day long In Jerusalem, there are walls of basil In Jerusalem, there are barricades of concrete In Jerusalem, the soldiers marched with heavy boots over the clouds In Jerusalem, we were forced to pray on the asphalt In Jerusalem, everyone is there but you. And History turned to me and smiled: “Have you really thought that you would overlook them and see others? Here they are in front of you; They are the text while you are the footnote and margin O son, have you thought that your visit would remove, from the city’s face, the thick veil of her present, so that you may see what you desire? In Jerusalem, everyone is there but you. Jerusalem is the wandering deer As fate sentenced it to departure You still chase her since she bid you farewell O son, calm down for a while, I see that you began to faint” In Jerusalem, everyone is there but you. O historian, wait, The city has two timelines: One foreign, serene, with steady steps as if it is walking asleep The other wears a mask and walks secretly with caution And Jerusalem knows herself, Ask the people there, everyone will guide you

  • Sunday 12/3 POOR Magazine at 2023 Howard Zinn Book Festival

    This Sunday 12/3 POOR Magazine will have a table with revolutionary media throughout the entire 2023 Howard Zinn book fair from 10-6pm at CCSF Mission Center 1125 Valencia St SF AND will be presenting a panel discussion together with Sogorea Te Land Trust from 12:30-2pm: Decolonizing Homelessness-a resistance to settler theft, use and ownership of MamaEarth With tiny gray-garcia aka povertySkola/POOR magazine/Homefulness & Corrina Gould/ Sogorea Te Land Trust and Homefulness With Fellow poverty, indigenous skolaz from Homefulness More information at: https://www.zinnbookfair.org/

  • Homeless in Gaza

    The Connections between our targeted, unhoused relatives in GAZA and our unhoused bodies on occupied Turtle Island By tiny, daughter of Dee, mama of Tiburcio @povertyskola Photos by Pearl Ubungen, Ken Miller and Tiny for PoorNewsNetwork Greeting the big wigs flooding San Francisco for the APEC summit, these towering signs allege that APEC stands for Abusing People and the Earth for Corporate rule. “WTF??? Three cops came up to me in succession, first cajoling, then demanding, then threatening arrest if I didn't leave. This wasn’t just a sweep, this was terror.” Jonny X, longtime RoofLessRadio at POOR Magazine reporter from Occupied Yelamu, SF reported from under his tarp at 8th and Mission. While Jonny was calling me, my phone was pinging with updates of thousands of humans being removed, harassed, bombed and dying in hospital rooms and street corners in Gaza. “This is my home, where will we go?” A Palestinian Mama cried holding her injured baby to face the camera from the streets of Gaza, standing in front of a frayed shell of her now bombed family home. “This is the only place I have to live, where will I go?” While Israeli army descended on the biggest hospital in Gaza with lies about underground headquarters being under the hospital swirling through CorpRape media, a disabled houseless family member was facing eviction and removal from their RV in occupied Huchiun (Oakland). Another in a never-ending “Sweep” that has continued, uninterrupted, all across the Bay, from Oakland to SF, in an endless attempt of push houseless peoples out of sight and out of our homes. Houseless in Huchiun or Houseless in Gaza… where will we go? Where can we go… Settlers have claimed Palestinian land on top of the people already inhabiting it, while here on occupied Turtle Island, poor, houseless and longtime working class residents are evicted and pushed out of their neighborhoods, tents and homes if that neighborhood is now seen as “desirable” for richer, witer people to live in. Palestinian youth made sure that the genocide – the massacre – going on in their homeland is front and center at the APEC summit, where the heads of state of the U.S. and China will meet. Not only are the settlers ruthlessly bombing babies and families and elders in GAZA, they are also bombing people's homes, apartment buildings, trees and entire neighborhoods and—just like the global CONtractors always do—will come in after the genocide and start more extractive CONstruction projects to build right on top of all they destroyed, receiving multi-billion dollar CONtracts for all that “re-building,” and best believe the multi-national devil-opers will be right there, getting right to work on top of people's graves and lives. As we all “live” in this settler occupied pseudo peacefulness of the U.S, with murder and genocide of Palestinian people happening in our name (not to mention Syria and Afghanistan, Africa, Iraq and beyond), it is extremely important for people to overstand that our “neighborhoods” wouldn’t even be our “neighborhoods” of San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland or the entire United Snakkkes without the genocide of 1st peoples of this land, removed in almost the same terror, genocidal playbook as our relatives in GAZA are being right now. Read the powerFul statement by Tribal Chair Corrina Gould in her statement in support of Gaza. Signs at the APEC protests read: STOP JET FUEL & ARMS SALES TO FASCIST MYANMAR JUNTA. Uproot Facism | End the Airstrikes | Stop the Bombings | Activism is Not a Crime Removed for what? For the right to steal, buy, sell, hoard and extract Mama Earth and her resources for a few wealth-hoarding humans and to perpetrate the krapitalist lie of private property and the business plan of selling and buying her for profit. “Who is coming to town cause they were more brutal than usual and DPW showed up and took everything, I had no chance to even leave,” Alice, another long-term, disabled POOR reporter cried out to me from her little corner behind a building in the Embarcadero. Incidentally, Alice is neuro-divergent and used to dwell silently and peacefully in the TransBay terminal before she was brutally evicted for the ridiculous purpose of re-building a perfectly good building so it could become SalesForce, another CorpRape extractor on that site. Signs at the APEC protests read: POLLUTE NO MORE. RESIST RISE FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE But the other urgent dot we need to connect is that houseless peoples, who don’t extract and destroy, but merely try to survive closest to Mama Earth with no walls, or doors, or PGE or grant deeds or leases or stolen land ownership lies are brutally, constantly, harassed removed, targeted and swept from every street, park, doorway, corner, lean-to and tent, across this stolen land. And to make it even more ironic, in the face of this idiotic APEC—another corpRape poltrickster CONference—where they are convening to plan the destruction of more indigenous lands from the Phillipines to West Papua, they put up 12 foot tall iron fences and have harassed and removed literally hundreds of houseless, disabled elders and folks holding on by a thread to “prepare” for APEC. At 7 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, the San Francisco Police Department squares off as the APEC summit begins. They are at Fifth & Mission, home of SF Chronicle headquarters. Let’s not understate the settler Lies being perpetrated in Gaza, that somehow the settlers lives are more important than the people already living there. That with the Settlers presence the Palestinian Mamas, grandmommas, Uncles, Fathers, and Babies already living there must be erased. And the CorpRape media tropes about the people already living there are also rampant. Poltricksters talking about the “Palestinian problem” like they talk about the Homeless problem. In a worldview rooted in truth, we would not only recognize the sovereign rights of the original Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza, but we would hold a conversation about the bizarre truth vacuum that exists when a new group of people goes somewhere and denies the presence of the people already there. Another frightening example of this and how it impacts houseless, poor and working class relatives in Occupied Turtle Island is gentriFUKation itself. When a devil-oper “buys” a huge swath of Mama Earth like they did at 73rd and BlackArthur in Deep East Oakland ( after it mysteriously burned down), or at 18th and Wood Street in West Oakland, only to construct some new monstrous CONdominiums being “sold” with an insane figure of “starting at $800,000,” the new residents immediately launch a series of violent and consistent “Sweeps,” read: eviction of all of the hosueless relatives who already have been humbly living in their own vehicles, on the street in a tent and wherever they can sort of safely hide. This is what happened to Wood Street Commons—a homeless people's solution to homelessness— and continues to happen. Hundreds show up to protest the APEC CONference And then—like one of the badass revolutionary lawyers Ari Pomerantz, who helps us houseless people at Homefulness, pointed out in their statement in solidarity to Gaza—when we build our own solutions like Homefulness, the same Settler lies that rule this occupied land make it impossible for us to even build a self-determined, rent free solution to homelessness. In the end, this violence of krapitalism is the system that extracts the most, kills the most and terrorizes the most and so like all bullying systems, it seems to “win,” but there is a new truth of Indigenous sovereignty, LandBack, Black Land Return and houseless peoples speaking for ourselves being lifted up all across Mama Earth. And even if they would like to, they can’t sweep us, kill us, or remove us all, and we are fighting back everyday from West Oakland to the West Bank. Come to Oakland City Council meeting Nov 28th at 6pm to hear houseless residents from Wood Street Commons and Homefulness and unhoused advocates speak on the danger of sweeps of houseless Oaklanders and the launching of our own solutions. Personas sin hogar en Gaza Las conexiones entre nuestros parientes sin hogar en Gaza y nuestros cuerpos sin hogar en la ocupada Isla Tortuga Por Tiny, hija de Dee, mamá de Tiburcio -povertyskola Fotos de Pearl Ubungen, Ken Miller y Tiny para PoorNewsNetwork Al saludar a los grandes pelucones que inundan San Francisco para la cumbre de APEC, estos imponentes letreros alegan que APEC significa Abusando de la Gente y la Tierra para el gobierno corporativo. “¿WTF??? Tres policías se me acercaron en sucesión, primero engañando, luego exigiendo, luego amenazando con arrestarme si no me iba. Esto no fue solo un barrido, esto fue terror”. Jonny X, durante mucho tiempo RoofLessRadio en POOR Magazine reportero de Occupated Yelamu. SF informó desde debajo de su lona en 8th y Mission. Mientras Jonny me llamaba, mi teléfono estaba sonando con actualizaciones de miles de humanos que estaban siendo retirados, hostigados, bombardeados y muriendo en habitaciones de hospitales y esquinas de las calles en Gaza. “Esta es mi casa, ¿a dónde iremos?” Una mamá palestina lloró sosteniendo a su bebé herido para enfrentarse a la cámara desde las calles de Gaza, de pie frente a un proyectil deshilachado de su casa familiar, ahora bombardeada. “Este es el único lugar donde tengo que vivir, ¿a dónde iré?” Mientras que el ejército israelí descendió al hospital más grande de Gaza con mentiras sobre el cuartel general subterráneo que estaba bajo el hospital arremolinando a través de los medios corporativos, un miembro de la familia sin hogar discapacitado se enfrentaba al desalojo y la expulsión de su vehículo recreativo en la ocupada Huchiun (Oakland). Otro en un “barrido” sin fin que ha continuado, ininterrumpido, por toda la bahía, desde Oakland hasta SF, en un intento interminable de empujar a las personas sin hogar fuera de la vista y fuera de nuestros hogares. Sin casa en Huchiun o sin casa en Gaza… ¿a dónde iremos? Dónde podemos ir… Los colonos han reclamado tierras palestinas encima de las personas que ya la habitan, mientras que aquí en la ocupada Isla Tortuga, los residentes pobres, sin hogar y de larga data de la clase obrera son desalojados y expulsados de sus vecindarios, tiendas y casas si ese vecindario ahora es visto como “deseable” para la gente más ricas y blancas para vivir. La juventud palestina se aseguró de que el genocidio —la masacre— que está ocurriendo en su patria esté al frente y en el centro de la cumbre de la APEC, donde se reunirán los jefes de Estado de Estados Unidos y China. Los colonos no solo están bombardeando despiadadamente a bebés, familias y ancianos en GAZA, sino que también están bombardeando las casas, los edificios de apartamentos, los árboles y vecindarios enteros y, al igual que los contratistas globales siempre lo hacen vendrá después del genocidio y comenzará más proyectos de construcción extractiva para construir encima de todo lo que destruyeron, recibiendo contratos multimillonarios por todo lo que "reconstrucción", y mejor creer que los desarrolladores multinacionales estarán allí, consiguiendo el derecho a trabajar sobre las tumbas y vidas de la gente. Mientras todos “vivimos” en este poblador ocupado pseudo paz de los Estados Unidos, con asesinatos y genocidio de palestinos ocurriendo en nuestro nombre (sin mencionar Siria y Afganistán, África, Irak y más allá), es extremadamente importante que la gente sepa que nuestros “barrios” ni siquiera serían nuestros “barrios” de San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland o todos los estados unidos sin el genocidio de los primeros pueblos de esta tierra, eliminados en casi el mismo libro de terror y genocidio que nuestros familiares en GAZA están siendo ahora mismo. Lea la poderosa declaración de la Presidenta Tribal Corrina Gould en su declaración en apoyo de Gaza. Los carteles en las protestas de APEC decían: DETENGAN LA VENTA DE COMBUSTIBLE Y ARMAS A LA JUNTA FASCISTA DE MYANMAR. Desarraigar el facismo | Fin de los ataques aéreos | Alto a los bombardeos | El activismo no es un crimen ¿Removido para qué? Por el derecho a robar, comprar, vender, acumular y extraer a Mama Tierra y sus recursos para unos pocos humanos que acaparan riqueza y perpetrar la mentira capitalista de la propiedad privada y el plan de negocios de venderla y comprarla con fines de lucro. “Quién está llegando a la ciudad porque eran más brutales de lo habitual y DPW apareció y se llevó todo, no tuve oportunidad de ni siquiera irme”, dijo Alice, otra POBRE reportera discapacitada de largo plazo, desde su pequeño rincón detrás de un edificio en el Embarcadero. Por cierto, Alice es neurodivergente y solía vivir silenciosa y pacíficamente en la terminal de TransBay antes de que fuera brutalmente desalojada con el ridículo propósito de reconstruir un edificio perfectamente bueno para que pudiera convertirse en Sales Force, otro extractor corporativo en ese sitio. Los carteles en las protestas de APEC decían: NO CONTAMINAR MÁS. Resistir el ascenso por la justicia climática Pero el otro punto urgente que necesitamos conectar es que los pueblos sin hogar, que no extraen y destruyen, sino que simplemente tratan de sobrevivir más cerca de Mamá Tierra sin parades, ni puertas, o PGE o concesión de escrituras o arrendamientos o mentiras de propiedad de la tierra robada son brutalmente, constantemente, acosadas removidas, atacadas y barridas de cada calle, parque, puerta, esquina, inclinación y tienda, a través de esta tierra robada. Y para hacerlo aún más irónico, ante esta idiota APEC —otra conferencia política corporativa— donde se están reuniendo para planear la destrucción de más tierras indígenas desde las Fillipinas hasta Papúa Occidental, levantaron vallas de hierro de 12 pies de altura y han acosado y removido literalmente a cientos de ancianos sin hogar, discapacitados y personas que se aferran por un hilo para “prepararse” para APEC. A las 7 a.m. del martes 15 de noviembre, el Departamento de Policía de San Francisco se enfrenta cuando comienza la cumbre de APEC. Están en Fifth & Mission, donde se encuentra la sede de SF Chronicle. No subestimemos las mentiras de los colonos que se están perpetrando en Gaza, que de alguna manera las vidas de los colonos son más importantes que las personas que ya viven allí. Que con la presencia de los colonos, las mamás, abuelas, tíos, padres y bebés palestinos que ya viven allí deben ser borrados. Y los tropos de los medios corporativos sobre las personas que ya viven allí también están desenfrenados. Los políticos hablan del “problema palestino” como hablan del problema de las personas sin hogar. En una visión del mundo arraigada en la verdad, no solo reconoceríamos los derechos soberanos de los habitantes palestinos originales de Gaza, pero sostendríamos una conversación sobre el extraño vacío de la verdad que existe cuando un nuevo grupo de personas va a algún lugar y niega la presencia de la gente ya allí. Otro ejemplo aterrador de esto y de cómo afecta a las personas sin hogar, a los pobres y a los familiares de la clase trabajadora en la Isla de la Tortuga ocupada es la propia gentrificación. Cuando un desarrollador “compra” una enorme franja de Mama Earth como lo hicieron en 73rd y BlackArthur en el Deep East Oakland (después de que se quemó misteriosamente), o en 18th y Wood Street en West Oakland, solo para construir algunos nuevos condominios monstruosos que se están “vendiendo” con una cifra insana de “a partir de $800,000”, los nuevos residentes lanzan inmediatamente una serie de “barridos” violentos y consistentes, lea: desalojo de todos los parientes sin esperanza que ya han estado viviendo humildemente en sus propios vehículos, en la calle en una tienda de campaña y donde puedan esconderse con seguridad. Esto es lo que le pasó a Wood Street Commons —una solución para las personas sin hogar— y sigue sucediendo. Cientos de personas se manifiestan para protestar contra la Conferencia APEC Y luego, como señaló uno de los rudos abogados revolucionarios Ari Pomerantz, que nos ayuda a las personas sin hogar en Homefulness, en su declaración de solidaridad con Gaza cuando construimos nuestras propias soluciones como Homefulness, las mismas mentiras de colonos que gobiernan esta tierra ocupada hacen que sea imposible para nosotros siquiera construir una solución autodeterminada, libre de alquileres para la falta de vivienda. Al final, esta violencia del krapitalismo es el sistema que más extrae, mata más y aterroriza a los más y así como todos los sistemas de intimidación, parece “ganar”, pero hay una nueva verdad sobre la soberanía indígena, LandBack, el retorno de la tierra negra y los pueblos sin hogar que hablan por nosotros mismos siendo levantados en toda la Tierra Mamá. E incluso si les gustaría, no pueden barrer con nosotros, matarnos o sacarnos a todos, y estamos luchando todos los días desde West Oakland hasta Cisjordania. Venga a la reunión del Concejo Municipal de Oakland el 28 de noviembre a las 6pm para escuchar a los residentes sin hogar de Wood Street Commons y Homefulness y defensores desalojados hablar sobre el peligro de los barridos de los residentes sin hogar de Oakland y el lanzamiento de nuestras propias soluciones.

  • Palestine to Oakland - Free the land

    City Council Statement: "From the river to the sea Palestine will be free" Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Philippines, Armenia, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Nepal, Afghanistan, Turtle Island, we raise your names and lives in prayer We must stand to stop genocide everywhere Oakland by any means necessary should cut off our city's support of military aid to Israel and urge an end to Israel's apartheid state as well as urge full return of the land to the Palestinians. We must be resolved to not let our city's ports and resources be used to fuel the genocide in Palestine or anywhere else on mama earth, we hope that these measures will be included in any resolutions for ceasefire considered by our city council. The US spent 17 billion dollars on military aid to Israel and has only offered a measly 100 million dollars of humanitarian aid to Palestine. The US must cease its military aid to Israel and increase its humanitarian aid to Palestine. It should be ensured that those funds make it directly into the pockets of the most impacted of the Palestinian people to restore their livelihoods and their homes and not into the pockets of the government elite to misappropriate. Our tax dollars should go to holistic housing, healthcare, and education; not genocide. Beyond funds the occupation must be ended and the land rightfully returned to the Palestinians. Oakland should also resolve to cease the use of our city resources in the exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the US's meddling role in agitating the current violence that stems from a long history of covert political manipulation of the DRC by the US. We must hold the US government accountable for how it wrongly advertises the DRC genocide as "internal conflicts" uninfluenced by the US and other world powers' exploitations of its natural resources. The US is willing to spend 17 billion dollars on military aid to Israel but only 486 million dollars in humanitarian aid to the DRC where 10,000 people have been killed and over 7 million internally displaced. It should be ensured that divested military spending funds make it directly into the pockets of the most impacted of the Congolese people to restore their livelihoods and their homes and not into the pockets of the government elite to misappropriate. Our tax dollars should go to holistic housing, healthcare, and education; not genocide. Beyond funds the Congo should have full autonomy over its natural resources and not be conned by foreign corporations and submitted to inhumane labor practices. Also in regards to Sudan, Oakland should resolve to cease the use of our city resources in the exploitation of natural resources in Sudan that is fueling the genocidal violence. The US removed Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism when Sudan forged ties with Israel in 2020. The US has ceased military aid to Sudan, but not to Israel. In contrast to the 17 billion dollars spent on military aid this year to Israel the US has only spent 550 million dollars on humanitarian aid to Sudan where over 9,ooo people have died and over 5 million have been internally displaced. It should be ensured that divested military spending funds make it directly into the pockets of the most impacted of the Sudanese people to restore their livelihoods and their homes and not into the pockets of the government elite to misappropriate. Our tax dollars should go to holistic housing, healthcare, and education; not genocide. Beyond funds Sudan should have full autonomy over its natural resources and not be conned by foreign corporations and submitted to inhumane labor practices. We must weed out and cease the United States' complicity in creating the global conditions necessary to fuel violence and grow poverty in countries around the world. We must recognize that to be against genocide anywhere we must oppose genocide everywhere. Which means we cannot ignore the ways it festers in our own country. We must free Turtle Island from the grips of the Amerikkklan. We pray that so-called Oakland by any means necessary will cease its complicity with America's ongoing genocide on BIPOC LGBTQ+ and the poor by ending encampment sweeps which treat our lives like trash throwing what stability we build for each other into chaos which further isolates and displaces us in the midst of this ever growing housing crisis. In the midst of more and more people being evicted into the streets following the lifting of the eviction moratorium. The eviction moratorium must be reinstated and its protections extended to unhoused Oaklanders. Oakland must undo the current criminalization of unhoused and BIPOC folks by repealing penal codes around encampments, parking, and vehicles that discriminate against us because we don't have the funds to move and/or register our vehicles. Oakland must abolish the racist institutions of prisons and cops and use the liberated funds to invest in communities with access to free education, free healthcare, and the necessary wrap around services to ensure all community members needs are met which will eliminate survival crimes of poverty and desperation over time. Oakland must be seriously critical of the possibility of abuse and criminalization that could be sanctioned by DPW's “safe work zone” ordinance. At the sweeps DPW will often indiscriminately caution tape around unhoused people's whole living area including tents and vehicles calling this a safe work zone. Sometimes they'll caution tape off whole blocks where unhoused folks live and call that a safe work zone. If this ordinance makes refusing to leave a safe work zone after being asked by police a misdemeanor, this will allow the city to further criminalize, forcibly displace, and arrest anyone trying to protect their homes and communities from being swept like they're trash. Oakland should not be criminalizing people for being poor. Oakland should move funding away from cops and towards community centered permanent supportive housing with on site access to holistic care. This will help communities grow as well as keep them safe in all the ways that cops and prisons have consistently failed to do. Oakland must say no to "CARE COURTS" which is a violent piece of legislation that will allow civilians to accuse anyone of being mentally unwell which will force the accused into a court process which will most likely lead to conservatorship and imprisonment. People need rehabilitation not incarceration. People need care not courts. Oakland should voice its opposition to "CARE COURTS" and support intentional community housing initiatives, such as Carroll Fifes social housing initiatives, such as the land and people liberation of Homefulness, such as the Land Liberation Act put together by Homefulness and Sogorea Te, such as the sanctioned lot of Camp Resolution, such as communities of care proposals for the North Gate parcel from Carroll Fife and Wood St that will foster community support networks so people can heal and grow together thru holding each other in the full complexity of our humanity as opposed to criminalizing anyone for their mental health. Oakland must voice its opposition to and promise not to implement laws criminalizing unhoused folks for not accepting shelter. Many shelters fail to provide any of the services they are contracted to offer by the city. Many of the shelters are a carceral environment with unfit staff who harass residents. Shelters have 5150d more residents from their shelters than they've ever gotten permanently housed. Thousands of people have been returned to the streets from these temporary shelters, meanwhile we can count on our hands the people we know who've gotten housing. Of those who have gotten housing many are returned to the streets after their one year rent subsidies are up and they can no longer afford the rent. There is no permanent supportive housing available yet cities across the bay enforce evictions and sweeps, as well as pass laws to criminalize unhoused folks who refuse to be retraumatized by being recycled through temporary shelter programs that leave us more homeless than we were when we went in. We demand a full audit of these temporary shelter programs contracts and expenses so we can see where all these millions of dollars are going and have a better picture of where this money is getting spent instead of getting spent on wrap-around services that will actually help people. We also demand a full audit of how many folks have been successfully transitioned into housing from these programs and how long they were able to stay housed vs how many have been returned to the streets from these programs and/or their housing. We urge Oakland not to follow in Sacramento and San Francisco's footsteps by divesting from failed temporary shelter programs and investing in community centered permanent supportive housing projects. For those who ask: "but what will happen to the staff's jobs if the non-profits contracts are voided?" They can become care providers who outreach directly to encampments like HAC and Lifelong Street medicine. If they're respectful and caring they could even get jobs providing care in the community centered permanent supportive housing projects. We need dedicated and patient care givers for our communities, not security, overlords, and red tape middlemen waiting on a paycheck who don't seem to give a damn about us as people. Oakland must abolish the encampment management policy that aids in the criminalization of unhoused Oaklanders and allows cops and city employees to dismantle people's lives and displace them from their support systems. As an emergency measure until long term/permanent community living spaces can be established, we urge the City of Oakland to replace the encampment management policy with encampment care action. Funds for encampment care action would be sourced from divested sweep, cop and prison funds. Encampment care action would ensure aid in constructing temporary structures for individuals in tents to healthily and safely live in. It would ensure vehicle maintenance and covering of registration fees for vehicle dwellers. It would ensure on site low-cost makeshift shower infrastructure and regular porta potty service. It would ensure dumpsters at every encampment with regular trash pick up. It would ensure safe use sites, sharps containers, and harm redux/street medicine centers at every encampment. It would ensure regular meals and water are provided to encampments. It would ensure seasonal support for inclimate weather conditions. Encampment care action would ensure the provision of a guaranteed income that could help folks in need make ends meet, until the harmful bloody institution of money can be abolished because the only cost of living should be our care for one another. Encampment care action would ensure the health and safety of us unhoused Oaklanders which would in turn benefit the health and safety of our housed neighbors. Encampment care action would ensure the immediate support necessary to make encampments more livable until long term to permanent community living spaces are built. We urge the City of Oakland to seed land sovereignty to the Ohlone, and provide active support to landless people's movements like Homefulness, Sogorea Te, Camp Resolution, and Wood St who house, feed, clothe, educate, and heal people with no cost to the city. The city of Oakland should follow Carroll Fife's suggestion of using eminent domain to open vacant land and buildings for public use. These spaces could be utilized by all of Huichin's landless people's movements who are doing the daily work to keep each other alive and provide the conditions necessary for healing compacted trauma from hundreds of years of systemic displacement and abuse. These liberated land spaces would be built by and for the communities they are chosen to house. Residents would be able to live there indefinitely rent free. Residents would have full access to wrap-around services on the site they live in. Access to food, medicine, safe use, harm reduction, mental wellness support, skills training, education, creative outlets, gardening, recreational activities, computers, doc-ready support, family reunification services, and legal aid. Residents could have on site small businesses that make the community self sustainable. These permanent sites will be more successful than any temporary site will ever be, because when you celebrate someone's whole humanity and engage their creativity you can't help but inspire them to grow. These places of liberated land and people will provide the time and space necessary to heal years of systemic displacement and abuse. The Israeli government, just like the Nazis, have modeled their genocidal settler apartheid state over Palestine after the United States ongoing genocidal settler military police state over BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and the poor. After the Mexican-American War California state made it legal for settlers to enslave and kill natives following in the bloody tradition of the enslavement of Africans in the US. 9,000 to 16,000 natives were killed. A 1910 census showed fewer than 20 Ohlone left in California at that time. Now the Ohlone struggle to rematriate their land with little to no recognition or support by local, state, and federal governments. Israel invaded Palestine in 1948, since that day over 75,ooo Palestinians have been killed by military weapons and tactics provided by the US through 50 billion dollars worth of economic and military aid to Israel since 1949. Israel used the term "town planning" after Americas racist practice of "urban planning" so they could put rose colored glasses over their gross investment in the building of settler communities to displace millions of the local Palestinian population into derelict refugee camps, homelessness, and abroad. The start of this process happened alongside the 1940s/50s red-lining in Oakland and cities across America that excluded communities of color from wealth building and homeownership after their labor was exploited to build Oakland infrastructure that ultimately supported the WWII era US war machine abroad more than it ever supported or uplifted local communities of color. This violent force of gentrification continues to this day in Oakland as market rate developments rise atop the land of the displaced. Even the developments that the city totes as affordable housing are not at all affordable to unhoused Oaklanders; and many of these developments in actuality are mostly market rate units with a small percentage of "affordable for 50k per year" units. Black folk make up 60% of unhoused Oaklanders and that's only counting those who have been forced into the tiny tomb cabin concentration camps after millions of taxpayers dollars and houselessness support funds are spent to destroy, displace, and fracture our unhoused communities through sweeps enabled by Oaklands Encampment Management Policy. These displacements are carried out knowing that there are over 5,000 unhoused Oaklanders and only about 1,000 or so shelter beds. Most of which are congregate shelter beds. These displacements are carried out knowing full well that the housing that these few and far between rapid rehousing programs are supposed to be sending us to, does not physically exist. These temporary programs return countless of us to the streets no matter how many times we go through them because low to no income housing is not getting built and the vacant buildings that do exist are not getting turned into low to no income housing. This necessary housing is not getting created because the money is being spent to displace us and recycle us from programs to the streets and the city has refused to open vacant land and buildings for supportive intentional community housing projects. Israel has denied Palestinians food, water, and electricity. Oakland criminalizes unhoused oaklanders when we tap public electrical/water sources and take food we cannot afford for ourselves and our loved ones. Oakland has closed public restrooms and erected anti-homeless architecture to deter unhoused folks from seeking refuge on public land and city streets. Israeli military and police stand by and physically assist civilian Israeli settlers who violently attack Palestinian civilians. OPD physically enforces encampment sweeps and have stood by while civilian housed settlers have ransacked unhoused Oaklanders homes and belongings, setting fire to our tents and our vehicles. Israeli settlers dump their trash in Palestinian communities. Oakland housed settlers dump their trash in the city sanctioned dump piles Oakland has designated in our unhoused communities. Israelis have painted the Palestinians as a "cancer", "vermin", and "human animals". Oakland government and media have painted unhoused Oaklanders as "sprawling", "blight", "lazy", "crazy", "drug addicted", "human trash". Israel has blocked transit to Palestinians and severely limited the spaces in which Palestinians are allowed to exist. Oakland continues to pass laws that criminalize and displace the unhoused for the locations and conditions of the vehicles, tents, and structures that we live in, telling us the only places we can exist are out of sight, in tiny tomb cabins, Mental institutions, and prisons till a far off housing maybe or not gets built. Just this year the US gave 17 billion dollars worth of military aid to Israel's military police state. This year Oakland gave 353 million dollars to Oaklands military police state. At least 3 million dollars have been spent on Oakland encampment sweeps in the last year. 17 billion dollars has equaled 10,000 Palestinian deaths this year. 3 million dollars has equaled over 300 deaths of accounted for unhoused Oaklanders this year. Our deaths don't make headlines, we are the silent quiet deaths, the nameless isolated deaths, the deaths often with no funeral, the "they should have known better" deaths, the deaths my wood st fam and I have added up since we were displaced. In the months following our eviction, 8 people who lived on our parcel have died. Over the years we have lost countless others of our loved ones to the violent institutions of the US military police state. Jay Jona -ase- Deuce -ase- Kara -ase- Mingo -ase- Brittany -ase- Chuck -ase- Demetrius -ase- Tasha -ase- Puffy -ase- Tara -ase- Terry -ase- Black Mike -ase- Frankie -ase- Tam -ase- "K" Lo -ase- Bonnie -ase- "Y" Not -ase- Bobby -ase- Kat -ase- AB -ase- Robert -ase- Retox John -ase- Fuertes -ase- Dennis Howelet -ase- "Spider" Dongabon -ase- "Spider" Buddy Hasgar -ase- Eddie Edwardo "Sleepy" -ase- Noni -ase- Heather -ase- Uncle Hallowman -ase- Keelie -ase- Mama Dee -ase- Dona -ase- Tony -ase- Sam -ase- Sonny -ase- CJ -ase- Eric -ase- Tamico -ase- Nina -ase- Lovely "T" -ase- Swivle -ase- Jason Coleman -ase- DeLow -ase- Mike -ase- Mr. Greg -ase- Darth Vader/Marvel -ase- Shanni -ase- Red with the dreads -ase- Tauri -ase- Mrs. West -ase- Kae Walker -ase- Drew -ase- Vu Nguyen -ase- Kenya -ase- John -ase- Butchie -ase- Leilah -ase- Ember -ase- Marralla -ase- Gutter Slut -ase- Danny Blue -ase- "Tink" Amy Chew -ase- Miguel -ase- Philly -ase- Kaegan -ase- Felicia -ase- Pneuma -ase- Jayda -ase- Mess -ase- Campy -ase- AB -ase- Charlie Brown -ase- Michelle -ase- Bobby McCoy -ase- Cara -ase- Andrew -ase- Lynn Molex -ase- Juanita McClure -ase- And so many more whose lives were lost to street sweeps, cops, prisons, and other violent institutions of this country -ase- When 1707 Wood st was alive people stayed out of prison and no one fatally overdosed. So don't look us in the eye and say "Sweeps don't kill" Cuz denial is the last stage of genocide and no dollar amount should be worth taking anybodies life. It's a good thing Wood St is alive, that Homefulness is alive, and Sogorea Te is alive, so that instead of supporting the US war machine from Palestine to the Philippines and instead of supporting death making high rises, bulldozers, tiny tomb cabins, and cops; the city of Oakland can open vacant land and buildings to all its landless people's movements who are doing the daily work to keep each other alive and provide the conditions necessary for healing compacted trauma from hundreds of years of systemic displacement and abuse. Oakland by any means necessary should cut off our city's support of military aid to Israel and urge an end to Israel's apartheid state as well as urge full return of the land to the Palestinians. Immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Allow humanitarian aid: water, food, fuel, and medicine. End settler violence in the West Bank. End the occupation. Free Israeli hostages and all Palestinian political prisoners. EMD the billions of US tax dollars Congress sends to Israel. Arms embargo. Sanctions now. End Zionist colonization of Palestinian lands. Bring the refugees home. Restore properties or provide restitution and compensation. Facilitate the long process of reconciliation in which Israeli Jews acknowledge their genocidal history towards Palestinians; and ultimately allow the peoples to build a shared existence based on equity and justice. Oakland must put forth a resolution against genocide anywhere that contains actionable steps towards opposing genocide everywhere. That means Democratic Republic of Congo, that means Sudan, that means Ethiopia, that means Haiti, that means India, that means Myanmar, that means Nigeria, that means Pakistan, that means Syria, that means the Philippines, that means Armenia, that means Zimbabwe, that means Cuba, that means Nepal, that means Afghanistan, and that means Turtle Island. Oakland by any means necessary should cease the use of our city resources in the exploitation of natural resources across the globe and ensure that divested military spending funds make it directly into the pockets of the most impacted people's of those countries to restore their livelihoods and their homes and not into the pockets of the government elite to misappropriate. Our tax dollars should go to holistic housing, healthcare, and education; not genocide. Beyond funds these countries should have full autonomy over their natural resources and not be conned by foreign corporations and submitted to inhumane labor practices. To effectively say no to genocide everywhere Oakland, by any means necessary, should cease its complicity with America's ongoing genocide on BIPOC LGBTQ+ and the poor by ending encampment sweeps, repealing the current criminalization of unhoused and BIPOC folks, saying no to "CARE COURTS", abolishing the encampment management policy, prisons and cops, creating free Healthcare and education, seeding land sovereignty to the Ohlone, implementing Homefulness and Sogorea Te's Land Liberation Act, and providing active support to landless people's movements like Homefulness, Camp Resolution, Sogorea Te, and Wood St who house, feed, clothe, educate, and heal people with no cost to the city by embracing the complexity of all our humanity and engaging all our creativity to heal our hurting world. Viva Palestina Viva Congo Viva Sudan Viva Ethiopia Viva Haiti Viva India Viva Myanmar Viva Nigeria Viva Pakistan Viva Syria Viva Philippines Viva Armenia Viva Zimbabwe Viva Cuba Viva Nepal Viva Afghanistan Viva Turtle Island Viva Wood St Viva Camp Resolution Viva Homefulness Viva Sogorea Te

  • Poem for Palestine

    #Poets4Palestine by Shayla Chandler i never cared much for the idea of heaven or religion at all for that matter but by god do i pray and pray that those lost are carried by angels off to somewhere beautiful. Photo From: @eye.on.palestine

  • On Your Feet

    #Poets4Palestine by Robin Nardi Photo from: @eye.on.palestine reshared from @iAmien Put your feet in the street Let them know where you stand. Put your feet in the street The feelin' will be grand. Put your feet in the street Let them know they're out of hand, Cause in our democracy Protest can't be banned. Let them know they can't do it Let 'em know genocide is bad Let him know our democracy Will fight for peace in other lands. Ignore our Human Rights. And war will come within. Lying to our faces Is wearing very thin. Watch out for us pacifists Watch out for us all Cause you're in for a lesson That is counted by foot fall. Hold hands, sing together Make signs big and clear We'll be out there in bad weather We're a force to be reckoned with A force to be reckoned with A force to be reckoned with

  • DeeColonize Academy Palestine Statement

    We, the children of DeeColonize Academy, in Oakland CA USA support the children, families and elders of Gaza and Palestine. We believe that the children of Gaza should get clean water We believe that they shoulds get their land back We believe that they should get food We believe that they should get medicine We believe that they should stop bombing Gaza We believe that the people of Gaza should get their power back We believe that the children of Gaza should get clean clothes and socks

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