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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.

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

#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

#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

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

by Devorah Major, third Poet Laureate of San Francisco Palestinian children are writing their names on their bodies so they can be identified if they are killed. One writes, “No, I will not die.” child hands and legs and memory child hands and legs and memory do you remember holding your small child hand up to your father’s large comforting hand amazed at its size compared to your vine thin fingers? do you remember making fingers and palms Into church and steeple and then opening to see all the people? do you remember drawing eyes and mouths on fingers creating silly finger people? thumb folded around pointer finger making a mouth opening and closing- silly games of childhood laughter crawling down our bodies dissolving in the air and reappearing as a tickle giggle finger wiggle. Remember? not wanting to be one of the missing or one of the unable to be identified killed the little girl wrote on the inside of her heart shaped palm between heart and lifelines in neat Arabic script “if my hand survived this is my name” before she was slain. these children do not have numbers burned into their arms but many have written their own names statements and identification numbers. pants legs rolled up reveal the brothers inscribed legs reading Ahmad Nateel Jowan Nateel Rebhan Nateel. did the oldest write it for his younger brothers or were they perhaps written by a trembling mother or a father writing while damming his own tears? now they lie next to each other softly browned saplings chopped down before they could bear fruit. the whole family it seems assassinated in what their killers call a cleansing a mowing of grass a righteous final solution arer you old enough to remember being a child old enough to remember growing up maybe even remember becoming old they are not their dead bodies reflect the memories they will never have one child has written on her arm “no I will not die” does she still live land, settlers, and genocide: land, settlers, and genocide: america, australia and palestine 1. and the land was covered with trees pine to oak, maple to beech to redwoods stretching upwards for thousands of years and the first peoples were the only ones there to harvest the land’s bounty they nursed reeds until they were strong enough to be cured and woven into basket threads they prepared for the hunt deer to buffalo whale to otter to caribou every part of each animal used and honored they made their homes from rain forest to desert mesa snowed tundra to ocean shores and they danced together in celebration and they danced together in mourning and yes at times there was discord disagreement and conflict but yet they flourished until the ones who called themselves settlers the skinless ones came from Europe claiming destiny they manifested calling the first peoples savage animals less than human and showed no mercy in the massacres of women of children of elders and of the warriors who sought to protect them they created and taught the art of scalping Invented to prove the number of indigenous kills and when they had cleared land of most of the ancient trees dammed rivers and decimated buffalo the genocide was close to complete leaving only 2.9 percent of the population of the first peoples 2. and the land was covered with green and brown rainforest to eucalyptus forests woodland to savanna and the people gathered to share dreams and nourishment they carved masks tattooed skin for power and to celebrate their clan and calling walked their dream walks and they loved the land as she loved them and they sang in celebration and they sang in mourning and yes at times there was discord disagreement and conflict but yet they flourished until the ones who called themselves settlers the skinless ones came from Europe the poor, the criminals, the unwanted shipped from England to clear the land and the land’s people claiming the right as colonizers calling the first peoples savage animals less than human and they showed no mercy massacring women, children, and elders and the warriors who sought to protect them aiming at genocide leaving only 3.8% of their population to live in the smallest parts of their ancestral lands 3. and the land was covered with crops olive trees and carob trees dates and almonds rows of wheat and barley and the sweetest of pomegrantes and the people prayed facing the rising sun kneeling to the noonday heat backs to the evening sunset and the children played and laughed with abandon and the people sang and danced in celebration and in mourning and yes at times there was discord disagreement and conflict but yet they flourished until the ones who called themselves settlers the skinless ones came from Europe claiming that their god called them chosen naming the land’s people savage animals less than human and they showed no mercy because jehovah gave them the right for over 75 years to massacre women, children, elders and the warriors who sought to protect them to rape, to starve, to uproot the people brown skinned like the trees planted and nourished and the people resisted genocide as they were forced from the land they had farmed and loved for a millennium until they found themselves confined in an open-air prison with bombing as a part of life, with water that they used to swim in and drink wash and cook with controlled and cut off by these colonizers who without remorse exploded the bodies of children eviscerated mothers buried still breathing elders beneath the rubble of demolished buildings until surviving children saw dead bodies and splattered brains in their sleepless nights walked over a severed hand there a flattened skull there a still bleeding torso around the corner and the land’s people fought back resisted genocide while they were taught of terror and terrorism from those who had learned it themselves from the nazis those settlers had become but the people knew that their hope lied in the world rising up and demanding that the carnage stop and that Palestinians remember their olive trees which after fifty years roots buried underground beneath israeli planted pine trees grew out and began one by one to split the pines open and beckon to the the palestinians to to resist and survive to resist and survive so that one day they could flourish once again

by Tiny Gray Submit poetry to poormag@gmail.com for blog, online column, and/or radio by Dec 1st This screamlove Poem goes out to the Mamas of Gaza terroized daily by settler colonial Trauma Who wake up daily to never -ending profiling, harassment, surveillance and now bombss The mamas scream to the bombas Where should we go This is our land and please dont destroy our homes But guns scream louder than mamaz And drown out the screams of them and their murdered daughters And suddenly there is no more food or water and no-one can breathe or see the mamaz, the suns or the daughters And Suddenly the paycheck prophets call genocide a Confict And the United Snakkkes settlers say we got u- kill them all - been there doing this - so we can build more condos and malls To Occupied Turtle Island Where poor/indigenous mamaz face daily evictions, removal trauma From their homes and lands of their mamaz Where 1st peoples lives and lands were stolen by weaponized paper that kills Removing desecrating and destroying for profit - numbing us all with alcohol and pills This is our Juice the Poltricksters say and do this same evil, right now right here- to this day ! Use guns, dump trucks, sweepers & wite mans phosphoros So they can kill ALL of us sweeping, evicting, removing for profit Normalizing hoarding until u can’t think or talk But paper knives scream louder than the mamaz Becuz they Believe mama Earth and her mamaz are merely a speck to b plucked off fo profit ‘ So u can kill all of us everyday- From Haiti, to Palestine to the occupied Bay This scream Poem Is to let you know we r with u Mamas and SUns and daughters Grandmomos and great grandmomas Auntys and fathers - Us houseless. indigenous , in struggle mamaz - We r standing close - trembling with each rocket and boms that destroys our homes We see thru the lies Our eyes are open Wide You see we too have brought and lost Life FRom so many forms of settler terror And no matter how many times They deconstruct our truths Desecrate our homes, towns and hoods Our hearts can’t be broken in half Like that - We Mamas are standing with u mamas from Gaza- past colonial borders and imperial governememnt orders We r with u crawling, sitting, standing, screaming, crying, shouting Your chant in our mouths - Palestine will be free from the river to the sea Mama Earth and all of us Mamas will be free

Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign POOR PEOPLE’S ARMY | Press Release For immediate release, Contact: Cheri Honkala, 215-869-4753 poorpeoplesarmymarch@gmail.com Poorpeoplesarmy.org Kensington Group Plans March on 2024 Republican and Democratic National Conventions In our quest for a transformed, inclusive, and peaceful USA, a resounding call to march has emerged. We march against the forces that oppress us, aiming to forge a united front from coast to coast. The Democratic and Republican parties serve corporate interests, and thus we will march at the 2024 Republican and Democratic National Conventions. The organization is holding a press conference to outline the details of the march and share how other organizations and individuals can get involved in our mission and contribute to the national fight for economic human rights. WHAT: Press Conference about 2024 Poor People’s Army March WHERE: Virtual Meeting on Zoom | bit.ly/poorpeoplesarmyzoom WHEN: Wednesday, October 25th, at 2pm EST WHO/VISUALS: Cheri Honkala, National Coordinator, Poor People’s Army (PPA) Pastor Keith Collins, Church of the Overcomer, DelCo, PA Shamako Noble, PPA Bay Area, CA A representative from Young Lords, Chicago IL A representative from Brown Berets, Chicago IL Barbara Maniotis, PPA Milwaukee, WI Kwame Shakur, Second Rainbow Coalition, Indianapolis, IN Tara Colon, PPA Haines City, FL Hy Thurman, North Alabama School for Organizers, Huntsville, AL Rosa Richards, PPA Athol, MA La Campañade de Derechos Humanos y Económicas de los Pobres de los Estados Unidos EJÉRCITO DE LA GENTE POBRE | Comunicado de prensa Para su liberación inmediata Contacto: Cheri Honkala, 215-869-4753 Poorpeoplesarmymarch@gmail.com Poorpeoplesarmy.org El Grupo Kensington planea marchar en las Convenciones Nacionales Republicanas y Demócratas de 2024 En nuestra búsqueda de un EE. UU. transformado, inclusivo y pacífico, ha surgido un rotundo llamado a la marcha. Marchamos contra las fuerzas que nos oprimen, con el objetivo de forjar un frente unido de costa a costa. Los partidos demócrata y republicano sirven a los intereses corporativos y, por lo tanto, marcharemos en las Convenciones Nacionales Republicana y Demócrata de 2024. La organización está celebrando una conferencia de prensa para esbozar los detalles de la marcha y compartir cómo otras organizaciones e individuos pueden involucrarse en nuestra misión y contribuir a la lucha nacional por los derechos humanos y económicos. QUÉ: Conferencia de prensa sobre la Marcha del Ejército Popular de los Pobres de 2024 DÓNDE: Reunión virtual en Zoom | bit.ly/poorpeoplesarmyzoom CUÁNDO: Miércoles 25 de octubre, a las 2 p. m. EST EST QUIÉN/VISUALES: ● Cheri Honkala, Coordinadora Nacional del Ejército Popular Pobre (PPA) ● Pastor Keith Collins, Church of the Overcomer, DelCo, PA ● Shamako Noble, Área de la Bahía PPA, CA ● Un representante de Young Lords, Chicago IL ● Un representante de Brown Berets, Chicago IL ● Barbara Maniotis, PPA Milwaukee, WI ● Kwame Shakur, Second Rainbow Coalition, Indianápolis, IN ● Tara Colon, PPA Haines City, FL ● Hy Thurman, Escuela para Organizadores del Norte de Alabama, Huntsville, AL ● Rosa Richards, PPA Athol, MA

For Immediate Release: Contact: tiny gray-garcia or Muteado Silencio- (510-) 435-7500 /poormag@gmail.com Homefulness is HEALing.. Houseless Leaders Propose an innovative Rent-Free Housing/ Healing Model for one of San Francisco's Vacant Office Buildings. What: Rally for Homefulness Healing Proposal for SF When: 10:30am Tuesday, November 7th Where: San Francisco City Hall steps "We have our own solutions, please listen to them," said Aunti Frances Moore, formerly houseless co-founder of Homefulness- a homeless peoples solution to homelessness that was dreamed, visioned, worked on and manifested by low and no-income families , youth and elders of the Bay Area and now houses 15 formerly houseless families and elders in Oakland. On November 7th Houseless and formerly houseless San Franciscans, along with advocates and allies will present a proposal to the City of San Francisco to transform one of the thousands of vacant office buildings in Downtown SF to a Homefulness Project, an arts, education and healing model to house and heal houseless residents of SF. This project would be modeled after the innovative, homeless peoples -led and visioned model currently housing 15 formerly houseless youth, adults & elders in Oakland. "Thousands of buildings stand vacant while thousands of us houseless San Franciscan residents continue to be swept like we are trash, face ongoing harassment, incarceration or death. This is an opportunity of hope and life for San Francisco." 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. Houseless and formerly houseless residents and poverty skolaz of San Francisco from the Coalition on Homelessness, POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE, Western Regional Advocacy Project and other communities will offer their poverty scholarship on homelessness and the importance of Homefulness as a real solutio, in addition to advocates and allies.. “To meaningfully address our city’s homelessness crisis, we need to listen to people with lived experience, the advocates who have successfully piloted people-first models across the Bay Area,” said San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston. “That’s why I’m proud to stand with Homefulness activists and to support efforts to bring this program to San Francisco.” Press conference and rally co-sponsored by The Coalition on Homelessness, Idriss Stelley Foundation, Anti-PoLice Terror Project, The Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) Krip Hop Nation, San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, Race and Equity in All Planning coalition in SF (REP-SF). and more to come

By Yousef M.A. reporting out of Istanbul, Turkey October 26, 2023 Family homes destroyed by Israeli airstrike. The support that Poor Magazine provided was graciously received on October 15, 2023, from which the family of Mr. Hatem Al-Rai received a portion. Mr. Al-Rai’s family live in the Gaza Strip in the city of Deir Al-Balah and consists of ten members who live in a dilapidated house comprised of two rooms. The house was recently destroyed in an Israeli airstrike after a neighboring house was targeted resulting in the martyrdom of the mother Noura, and her two children, while the rest of the family members were injured. The family is now in desperate need of special care, especially since all of them are children, ranging in age from eight months to 15 years, and the father is unemployed due to a disability in his leg. They urgently need support to cover the costs of treatment, care, and housing. This is the suffering of just one family out of hundreds of families in Gaza. Hanan, 6 years old, martyred in an Israeli Airstrike. Abdul Aziz, 5 years old, martyred in an Israeli airstrike.

WEEK OF ACTION NOW TO TUESDAY NOV 7 Email Oakland City Council Submit public comment for Nov 7 meeting Direct action at City Hall 11/7, 3 pm DEMANDS Introduce resolution against genocide of Palestine Call a special meeting to pass it immediately The City of Richmond became the first in the nation to pass a resolution affirming solidarity with Palestine against genocide on 10/24. Oakland must do the same immediately. Richmond’s City Council resolution was introduced by their Mayor and Vice Mayor. Oakland’s mayor Sheng Thao, and Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan have been silent. We must contact our councilmembers, urge them to introduce a similar resolution, and pass it as quickly as possible. We are calling upon Oakland City Council to convene a special meeting to pass a resolution against the genocide of the Palestinian people. Download social media graphics and use email templates: bit.ly/oak4gaza

Interview with Desun Oka Momii Palapaz Poor News Network “To this day, the Japanese state continues to deny the existence of sexual slavery of comfort women during the 1930s and 1940s,” said Desun Oka of Eclipse Rising. Japan has not admitted nor acknowledged fully the kidnapping of hundreds of thousands of women from Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines and China. Women and girls were snatched up, enduring rape and assault. Little girls who hadn’t yet reached their teens were among those used for physical and sexual violence by Imperial army soldiers. Japan has refused to address this issue for decades. “This denialism is common throughout much of Japanese society as well,” said Desun, “save for a few civil society organizations and activists. So we will be visiting them on the Nikkei Decolonization tour (NDT).” On instagram, the NDT pilot tour of 2019 has posts of visits to the comfort women and activists. Desun, and other members from Eclipse Rising, traveled to Osaka and Okinawa to meet comfort women and their caretakers. “The first woman, Pae Pong-Gi, that caretakers assisted, publicly came out” to tell her story. She was “living in a shack, completely homeless and mentally ill, no one knew where she came from. She was secretive about her history, until Okinawa was reverted back to Japanese control.” During a 1970 tally of the racial population in Okinawa by Japanese officials, Pae Pong-Gi slowly told her story. This was the first documentation of comfort women and sexual enslavement. Hundreds of thousands of women like Chen Lien Hua, were subjected to unimaginable sexual assault. May 12, 2019, Japanese Consulate, SF “These organizations are educating people in Japan about the system which is linked to the resurgence of right wing politics, which is then connected to militarism, xenophobia, homophobia and sexism all across Japan. We are visiting to understand the history as well as understand how the denial is connected to the violence Japanese society perpetuates on others”. As a 69 year old Japanese American woman, and a descendant of a Japanese supremacy, I feel much responsibility to share what I will learn about the inhuman practices by the Japanese government. Just as US imperialism erases their bloodthirsty past, so has the government of my ancestral land, Japan. I asked Desun about the status of being born non Japanese. He said, “Being born in Japan doesn’t guarantee citizenship. You have to have a Japanese mother or father. This locks you out of voting rights and in some places, public office.” You’re “not a citizen, but under special alien resident status, like green card holders here.” With no Japanese parent, you are “stateless” and some people “naturalize to South Korean citizenship.” Doing harm toward non Japanese citizens, I hear, is alarmingly common in Japan. Gangs of young people similar to the racist “proud boys” in the U.S. and Japanese supremacist groups regularly taunt and assault those who are of Korean, Chinese and other nationalities residing there. AND all levels of the government do little if anything about it. There are no ANTI DISCRIMINATION LAWS IN JAPAN. In 1910, Japan invaded and colonized Korea. The imperial army of Japan brutally controlled the Korean population. Over 100,000 Japanese moved to Korea and proceeded to settle in neighborhoods of Korean citizens. Korean citizens were forced to migrate, live in Japan and work in factories supplying the war machine. The U.S., Europe, Russia and Japan were locked into battling for land, slaves and natural resources. In 1923, a huge earthquake, measuring 7.9, brought chaos and contributed to organized vigilantes and army units of Imperial Japan attacking and killing Koreans in Tokyo and surrounding areas. A minimum of 10,000 Koreans as well as Chinese perished. This became known as the Kanto Massacre. “To this day”, said Desun, “the Japanese State which has played a big role in initiating this massacre, has not fully acknowledged the scope of the massacre or proper redress. Fast forward to 2023, a lot of scholars and academics with survivors (descendants) of families organized a symposium to talk about this, research it and find ways to commemorate it.” March 1st, 1948: Some of the 80,000 Korean people gathering in to commemorate Korea’s Declaration of Independence from Japan The Kanto Massacre “shows how much violence affected the community. It erased communities and erased collective memories. 1923 provided an opportunity for the emergence of a fascist State in the 1930s. When the massacre first struck, the newspaper[s] reported that socialists and Koreans would riot and kill Japanese. The army, military and proState link[ed] Koreans with socialists, giving them the opportunity to suppress the growing working class and socialist movement. The massacre gave the State the ability to tap down on and drive a wedge between Japanese and Koreans.” “One of the key aspects of a fascist movement," continued Desun, “is to make a cleavage between ordinary people. Divert attention away from the struggle they are experiencing or the Japan ruling class.” Sandra, from Japan Posts reported in July 2023 that the 100 Anniversary Kanto Massacre Ceremony Executive Committee requested Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike to acknowledge the massacre with a message of condolence. Although she had sent a note of condolence in her first year as Governor, Koike has refused for the 7th year in a row to make any statement or condolences on the 100th anniversary. Ceremony executive committee member, Yasuhiko Miyagawa, told reporters, “It’s completely regrettable. The governor is turning a blind eye to the historical fact of the massacre of Koreans. [Her] attitude can be seen as denying the historical fact” (Mayuko Watanabe).