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A couple months ago, a 1,500 pound Walrus who got named Freya started roaming the Norwegian coast. She was found many times sunbathing in boats that were left crushed after her departure. Many people became fans of Freya. She would be sleeping on the coast and jet skis, crowds and security would form in seconds. People taking pictures, watching and many getting too close , messing and testing her. “They are too close, I think. And it is not just one boat, but a dozen boats,” Walrus expert Rune Aae says. On Tuesday, he watched TV broadcasts from the area and could observe that the walrus reacted with sudden movements when some boats came too close. “Everything indicated that she wanted to get away. But she couldn’t because she was trapped,” he says. Many people are calling her a “visitor”. A common name used by and for the wrong people. Even though walruses have not been in Norway for about 23 years they are natives to that land. Norway are next door neighbors to the arctic and it was common for walruses to be in that area. Freya is native to that land, she is indigenous. Walruses are endangered species, their population has been on decline since the beginning of the 20th century. After a couple months the Norwegian government announced that they were going to kill Freya, their reason being that people get too close. The stupid actions of others means she should die? 2 days after the announcement she was euthanized. This part of the story hit me hard. She was another indigenous being killed. Death and murder are the “solutions” to all problems the colonizers have. Freya was no different than our ancestors that had their hands cut off for playing drums. Or all the indigenous sisters that have been harassed and murdered in the trail of tears. This ain’t nothing new and it ain’t over. She never had caused any harm to anybody, she was gentle in her massive body. There are many videos of her floating, sleeping on boats, trying to climb onto boats. But let's not forget that the coast is their coast. It could have been a way to reclaim that coast. The people that she left mad were all the owners of $40,000 plus dollars worth of boats and yachts. After some research I discovered that in that same ocean near walrus territory the Norwegian government just offered a whole lotta oil and gas mining licenses. Which do cause lots of pollution and destruction of mother earth. And the displacement of these endangered relatives. We as humans tend to get stuck in an idea that we are the only important beings, people even believe that different color equals difference in “worth”. It's a radical idea to advocate for animal rights. People are so blind to our direct connection to the beings of this earth. We are beings of the earth just as much as a bear, just as much as an ant. Freya gave her life to bring the disrespect and ignorance to light. To remind the world one walrus can body many boats, we should walk humbly on this earth.

PeopleSkool a Poor People-led Education Project for MamaEarth, Ancestors and All of us- PeopleSKool is focused on teaching non-colonizing, community-based and community-led media, art and organizing with the goals of creating access for silenced voices, preserving and de-gentrifying rooted communities of color and re-framing the debate on poverty, homelessness, disability, migration, incarceration and race locally and globally. POOR Press poverty skola authors and teachers created all curricula and readings for PeopleSkool. This two-day seminar is geared to bring/teach the medicine of hoarded wealth/inherited blood-stained dollars redistribution, settler colonizer decolonization, the ongoing violence of the Charity Industrial Complex, The Real Esnakkke industry and the revolutionary liberation of Community Reparations to as many folks as possible because politrickster solutions are NOT solutions and we MUST spread POOR Magazine's poverty skola-led solutions in this time of so much mass distraction, unhoused, gentriFUKEd, criminalized, mass incarcerated, racism/wite supremacized miseducated, silenced and intentionally dismantled peoples- in the triple pandemics of COVID-19, Poverty, PoLice Terror and Colonization. This seminar is powerful for ALL people-doing work in law, medicine, social justice, history, art, media, ComeUnity, or akkkademia. Registration for Peoples with different forms of race, class. formal education privilege click here Registration for currently in struggle povertyskolaz click here- Gray Areas are Real - email poormag@gmail.com if u dont know where u belong - ​

43 years in solitary confinement. 43 years in isolation for protesting inhumane prison conditions of himself and fellow inmates. 23 hours a day in a cell since 1973 with just 15 - 45 minutes outside, each day. Finally released in 2016, Albert Woodfox, passed away August 8, 2022, a liberated man. As an avid reader of The SF BayView and California Prison Focus, I applaud the tenacious determination of both newspapers to educate folks like myself. We are kept in the dark on the truths of this system and the only way to find the truth is to read it from those who experienced it. Fighting the accusation of killing prison guard Brent Miller, Mr Woodfox, and two other inmates, Herman Wallace and Robert King, became known as the “Angola Three” and were immediately sent to solitary. In 2000, a civil suit filed by the Angola Three against the Louisiana Department of Corrections is still in the court. Prison officials denied its solitary confinement but “protective cell units” or “CCT a closed cell restricted.”. What’s the difference? Throughout his solitary confinement, Mr Woodfox has not wavered in his innocence. Even the widow of the murdered guard believed the 3 men were not guilty or involved. From his memoir, “Solitary”, Mr. Woodfox stated, “I thought it was sad that I had to come to prison to find out there were great African Americans in this country and in this world, and to find role models that I should have had available to me in school”. Ain’t that the truth? Albert Woodfox got politicized and found the readings of international revolutionaries fighting injustice. After meeting with Black Panther Party members in an East Coast prison, Mr. Woodfox was transferred to Angola (Louisiana State Pen) where he formed a Black Panther Party chapter. Recommended reading and viewing Videos: “Attica” “Burn Mother Fucker Burn” Reading: The SF Bay View California Prison Focus POOR News Network

Imagine the United States as it is today, with a rise in misogynistic role models that rule the right wing agenda, people who encourage violence and disrespect towards women to millions of young men my age. These people preach that being a real man is being an “Alpha Male”, someone who treats women like objects and focuses solely on a capitalistic rise to power fueled by fast food and steroids. Unfortunately, men like these aren’t the exception in many countries, but the norm. In a small state under Karachi along the west coast of India, these men who still believe women are second class citizens exist, and are in charge of the state government, and just recently they released 11 men who were serving a life prison sentence for a gang rape they committed against a Muslim woman Bilkis Bano. Along with being raped, her 3 year old daughter was thrown to the ground, killing her instantly. Bilkis was 5 months pregnant, and was one of the many muslim women who were brutally raped and murdered by the Hindu people of that area. Bilkis survived by playing dead while others around her were being hacked to pieces. This attack on March 3rd, 2022 was in retaliation to a anti-muslim attack on a train carrying Hindu pilgrims that saw 59 people killed after the train caught fire. The following retaliatory attacks by right-wing Hindu groups ended after 2,000+ Muslims in Gujarat were “hacked, shot and burned” according to Al Jazeera. Most of the women attacked were brutally raped then murdered. Narendra Modi, the current prime minister of India, was the state's chief minister at the time, and was actively working to suppress the voices of human rights organizers accusing him of not doing enough to stop the mass murder. Narendra has been shifting his country to a right wing agenda ever since his re-election in 2019. Narendra is also interestingly enough, a right-wing Hindu nationalist. In the 20 years since this massacre, Bilkis has fought tooth and nail for 17 years to get compensation of 5 million rupees (63,000USD) and the men were tried and sentenced to life in prison. “Today, it has become commonplace for Hindu supremacists to openly give calls for genocide and rape of Muslims – without any consequences.” Those are the words of the All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) on the results of the trial. Those 11 men now walk free with full support of the prime minister and his cabinet. Men like Narendra, Donald Trump, and many others are the reasons why in this world, after everything that has been done for women's rights, women are continually assaulted and murdered, disrespected and treated like objects and this treatment is being supported by the government. In the so-called “land of the free” women's abortion rights have been taken, and with the actions that we have seen in the United States that parallel the freeing of these terrible men, who knows what will be in store next for women of the world?

Transcript: In Chinese there are two characters for the word crisis: danger and opportunity. A lot of people I know say because I left the comfortable existence in the suburban wilderness of New Jersey, I was more, I was in danger. I was more in danger living five years in a toxic relationship. That was way more dangerous to my soul than being out here. It was a cost of my psyche that was incredible and immeasurable. It's a challenge for me to be here on the other coast but I'm not alone. I have my ancestors walking with me, keeping me motivated to go onward and upward. It is an amazing opportunity to learn who the authentic me is because for five years I forgot. I'm living la vida pobre even with a job in the poverty industrial complex but it's all good because things are going to work out some way or somehow. I will never again forget who I am, a strong Indigenous woman. And from now on, I'm serving authentic me realness. I'll never shrink myself to make others comfortable ever again and money never bought me happiness. Freedom does. Transcript: During the Black Joy Parade that I was in, I was reaching out to the people and letting them know that in Oakland, we're still here. We are still here. And we will continue to be here. And it's become like a catchphrase so I kind of like put it in art form. What I want to share with you is my, what I'm very proud of: a little book of a, a children's story. But it's also for the inner child and everybody. And it's a story that's actually, I interpreted it but it's written in the book of nature. It's a story about meditation, visualization, imagination, and illumination. It's a story about Butter. And Butter was a worm. And he used to go around in his garden community and tell other worms that one day he was going to fly. And the other worms laughed at Butter and called him crazy behind his back because they had never seen a worm fly. But one day Butter disappeared for 40 days and 40 nights and all he thought about, all he dreamed about, all he schemed about was one day flying. And one day to his own amazement he began to notice a little bump coming out of the side of his body and it got longer and longer and he remembered what he had seen the birds do. So, he began to flap his newfound wings and he flapped them harder and harder until it happened. Butter was airborne! Wooo! And all the other worms were looking at their Butter, they're like, “Butter’s like a god world. He's like the king of king of worms!” And Butter was like, “Nah, man. I'm just Butter. Flying. Have faith, do as I do, and one day you'll be able to fly too.” And Butter, because he believes in himself and that he could do what nobody else thought he could do, became the first butterfly in the history of the world. Okay? So, I always believe the dreams that come to you, that's the seed that comes from the divine. Whatever it is, however crazy it may be. Work on it, move on it, believe in it, until something better comes. Or until fruition. Thank you so much. Transcript: Three two one cue smalls in, Smaller Baller out of East Stockton by way of Berkeley because this family home to me as well out here. I was doing my thing years ago out here, caught my first felony out here on the streets of Oakland not even on 98th and Brookfield, you know what i'm saying? So this is home once again. I lost my uncle on December 4th, 1993 when I was 8 years old. I just turned 37 on June 26. Amen. Hallelujah. Eric Ronald Reagan's in front of my own young eyes due to murder shots fired all I can say is - signs of violence. Make peace. I also have my phone number five one zero four three zero zero seven zero nine. Smaller Baller. I would sell my music out here, wise, give or sell food with children, substitutions for my life and keep everybody uplifted on that. Plus taking donations to help us all. We have a 501(c)(3) but due to corona we gonna skip that shit. 2781 Telegram is our United Root Center. That's founded by William and Fergie at the Black Eyed Peas. We established that due to the Ella Baker Center with Van Jones. I finished the court recipes column now you know and um we're just trying to open that up. But you guys are always welcome to always get music off our website. And uh family right here, right here this is family. So you know, I ain't been out here in about a month and a half but had to come show up and just greet everybody and my new word. I stay stankin’. Transcript: And how you became homeless or what’s your background? The story is not about homelessness, it’s about my story. I just thought it was a little significant with me in front of my dad. They called him Poncho and this is his tree. So it's just a little bio with a little spoken word twist to it. Okay, so… My mom’s Berkley and Berkley bounce. We moved to Chi town twice. Until the rich grew up with Black pride and then we moved back to Oakland Northside Kiloplast Tinted Rock Alcatraz Famous block Tackle football on cement I got fast With gangsters but it wasn't shit because if you couldn't come from the shoulders then you shut your lip. These rules for young fools to live by some still apply those were the days, mm and all those days weren't fly. But all I know was that they pass you with the blink of an eye. And all you could do is, laugh man y'all can’t lie, But in those days you did. You see no matter how ugly they wise words hugly and for no reason unconditionally love me. The light lace so I made an about face. Then I didn’t have to become a disgrace to my race. The price was priceless. This advice for life is these folks that I toast to keep close with. Whether I sit twisted with a sip in the fifth kick back and reminisce with this and feel the vibe. They go with those nine to five and think of the things in life that’s gone tight. It's gonna be alright. Transcript: Alright, what's your name? I’m Country, last of the Mohicans. Uh yes sir. Uh I came out here but they call me Cassius, you know what I'm saying? Aka, Toshun, you know what I'm saying? I came out here in 2005, man. I'm telling you, I was homeless and had nowhere to go, you know what I'm saying? I really came out here on faith. Real talk, you know what I'm saying? This is before all of that you know what I'm saying? Look, I was staying in Fremont everything bro. Like I was going through the motions. My ex, man, she was mistreating me, doing me dirty you know what I'm saying? I'm just giving you like the fast paced of it, but you know what I'm saying. But then after that, then I started migrating so I migrated all the way like to like San Leandro, Hayward, everything you know what I'm saying, all the way to the town. So, then when I got to the town it was a whole different flavor a whole different love, whole different everything, you know what I'm saying? Still homeless, still going back and forth, you know. Couchsurfing, everything you know what I'm saying? I even lived in South Hayward too but anyway you know what I'm saying, make a long story short. And all of that man you know what I'm saying through the grace of god man, I got my own place now you know what I'm saying, at age 44 man, you know what I'm saying? I even sold him pants though you know what I'm saying on Brookfield you know what I'm saying? I was in Brookfield selling pants and everything man I was doing everything just to keep my head above water man. Real talk. All I’m saying man is god, god is everything you know I'm saying? The greatest influence that pushed me through everything you know what I'm saying? It's about sipping on the drink, boy, everything you heard me, going through the motions man. On the streets, I'm talking about sleeping on the bench, I'm sleeping on the bench, we was in downtown plaza. I'm talking about sleeping, sleeping uh by the uh by the BART Station actually you know what I'm saying? Real talk, you know what I'm saying? Real life man, real real life situation. It just did, it just really made me a better person you know what I'm saying? Really made me humble and be a better person, man. God is great, man. God is great. It is what it is, man.

By Ziair hughes, Deecolonize academy student /POOR Magazine Youth poverty Skola In Canada a situation has flared back up, from the late 1800s to 1997 more than 150,000 indigenous children were taken from their families and put in Catholic churches and residential Schools and the people who ran the schools, which were scattered all across the US and Canada, would punish the children for speaking their native language, abuse them physically, mentally and sexually and they would even cut the childrens long hair. These residential schools are not unique to Canada; there were once over 400 across the United states. A lot of kids died and the people who ran the churches would find poles and pipes to build crosses for the graves they dug for the children or often just bury them secretly with no cross at all. Sadly most of these institutions sexually and physically violated the children. Patrick who was one survivor of the many victims said “Then the priest got me drunk and i didnt know what happened when i got up the next morning”, concluded patrick Through all this the pope issued an apology and took a picture with a war bonnet on, now the church and the pope think the issue is solved . At Deecolonize Academy, we study the true history of this land and we believe everybody deserves the truth. No sugar coding at all. To me the apology from the pope didn't seem sincere enough, to add on, you can't apologize for somebody else's trauma or somebody else's wrong doing, if anything the survivors should be granted money and the church should either be given to the survivors or be named after them.

By Momii Palapaz, POOR NEWS NETWORK poverty scholar I walked onto the property of People’s Park in Berkeley, California, where two tents and a few houseless adults were sleeping on the ground. '`Do you have something to eat?’ asked a lone woman laying on the grass. “Yes”, I responded. I happened to have baked chicken made the night before last, with rice in a to-go container. She immediately chomped on the cold chicken, so hungry, she ate too fast. Her name was Sally. She couldn’t remember how long she was living there. At that moment her only concern was satisfying her hunger. I’m on Ohlone- Huichin land, stolen by the systems of “higher” education. The same system of universities that murdered, stole and are still holding the treasures of indigenous ancestors. UC Berkeley is the overlord, determined to monopolize and manipulate, dominate and drive out the poor and houseless throughout the communities in California. This whole square block was once inhabited by over 40 tents with residents, the sounds of laughter, groups of students sitting in circles on the grass, embraced lovers laying on a blanket, bouncing basketballs, and aromas of hot food from the Food Not Bombs. For over 50 years, the fight for People’s Park has been constant. Death by the National Guard, personal involvement from then President Ronald Reagan, combat with UC regents in the classrooms to the streets, the park has taken a vicious turn and aggressively active UCB in eliminating People’s Park. Yesterday is gone and now the displaced residents have been replaced with humongous logs from the Berkeley Hills. Strewn about the park, amidst sawed down trees whacked into wood chips, the logs were said to be brought for fire prevention. But Aidan Hill, organizer with the anti-gentrification of People’s Park said, UC Berkeley says they “really want to stop people from camping here.” Over 40 people were evicted from the park and sent to Rodeway Inn on Sacramento and University Avenue. In years’ of attempts to build student housing an explosion of UC Berkeley real estate development has intensified in the last few years. 1921 Walnut Street, a rent controlled building was destroyed and UCB is constructing student housing. Residents of Berkeley are losing rent control to UCB, who does not have to follow the City of Berkeley housing laws. In 2020, POOR MAGAZINE/HOMEFULNESS UNTOUR, took place on the campus of UC Berkeley, specifically at the Hearst Museum where artifacts from Native peoples have been kept in the basement for years. The UNTOUR continued to walk the length of the UC property, stopping along the way to expose the capitalist endeavor of evicting tenants in housed rent controlled units. The final destination of the UNTOUR of over 50 supporters, met at People’s Park. The POOR UNTOUR closed with ceremony, libations and park residents outing the cruelty and greed of UC Berkeley. The battle is in the courts as the National Landmark status is being proposed, but, “UC Berkeley could care less”, said Aidan Hill, for the People’s Park on Dwight and Bowditch streets. Aidan Hill has been at the forefront in the battle to save People’s Park from housing development. It is of “significant value to keep the park. It is a means of survival. The counterculture is still alive”. Wednesday at 6PM, organizers to save People’s Park are having a musical support event.

Another black man AJ Stewart died at a young age by racism and many more have died because of the color of their skin. Aj Stewart was a 27 year old who liked to support his friends that are in need and he grew up on St. Paul Eastside attended Highland Park High School and also he was a loving Uncle, Son, Cousin, and a Brother. He had returned from Georgia where he studied business management to visit family in St. Paul. On December 2,2021 Arnell’ “Aj” Stewart was outside of Kjellberg”s property on the 17 00th block of 7th Street East in St. Paul Kjellberg said he called 911 after stabbing Aj Stewart with a metal tub sharpened to a point and wouldn’t let Aj Stewart enter on his own car because Kjellberg said ‘’he was tired of dealing with parkings problems’’. Watching this video makes me sick to the bone. Also, when I saw this 50- year old white middle class wite man for killing a black and brown young man it was all hate for him just the color of his skin even though he was a human being too. Racism isn’t born, it's taught. It's taught through parents, video games. To the children and when the kids are grown up they spread the racism, teach their kids also now the racism spreads like a virus that keeps on going, never finding the cure. I want to say racism never left it still here nowadays, you barely see it’s secretly hidden from our eyes and children.

There’s been many powerful revolutionary groups, The Black Panthers, Move Africa, SNCC, The Zapatistas, and of course the heroes of today: The Landback Turkeys. Right now February 8, 2022 there is a group of about 2 dozen turkeys “wreaking havoc” in the Nasa Ames Center in Mountain View, CA. These turkeys have been pecking at cars, windows and blocking traffic. Throughout my life I've learned from many elders, this particular story makes me think of Don Guajolote. An homeless, revolutionary, poverty skola white turkey who one day decided to stick around Poor Magazine. An old turkey is a rare sight, he had battle scars from the many ThanksTaking (Thanksgiving) that he has survived. When Don Guajolote arrived he became family, he wasn't nice, he would tell one what he was thinkin and no sugar coating, But he was one of us. Broken, lost, and alone. “He would always stick by us and he always had something to say,” said Tiburcio, one of the residents and workers of Homefulness. Amir, another resident and worker in Homefulness added “That man would always come up and make a sound, I feel like that sound was him saying ‘i'm here’”. We all miss him and I know that he is the leader of the Landback turkeys putting an end to NASA scheme’s and eventually ThanksTaking.

The Asian elephants are an endangered species (like most animals these days) their population has decreased an estimated 50 percent in the last 75 years. There are an estimated 20,000-40,000 left in their habitats. Happy the Elephant, one of these asian elephants was born in the early 1970s, She was captured and sent to the Bronx Zoo in 1977 with her fellow elephant Grumpy. Sadly, Grumpy died in 2002 from fatal injuries sustained from fighting two other elephants. Now people are fighting to free Happy the 50 year old elephant from this uninhabitable cage in which they've had her locked up for most of her life. Poverty, Trauma, Incarceration are some of the themes in this story, very similar to the things ive seen or experienced in my community. Grumpy dying from a fight reminds me of stupid and petty disputes people get killed over. The Uninhabitable habitat Happy now lives in by herself is no different than the projects, than these “affordable” houses. Toxic environment, too small, no water, no heat, overgrown weeds, I can't tell the difference from a zoo and the houses our families live in. Separation comes in many ways. We are taught how superior we humans are than all these other animals, as if we aint animals ourselves. We have Zoos were we go and just stare down at these abused “animals”. How is this different from the “studies” that were done to prove how white people are superior to black people? Our incarceration system ain't no different. Brothers and Sisters locked up in Rowed cages almost as display, while the guards mess with, laugh at and act as if they are superior. Recently the advocates for Happy started a court case to free her and send her to an elephant sanctuary. The judge ended the case by declaring “Happy the Elephant is not a person”. Happy can feel pain, She can feel the sadness of losing her brother, She feels the isolation, she feels the dehydration. As I pull up pictures of her, one stands out. I see her standing in a concrete overgrown with weeds and a fence surrounds her. Looks almost as if she's inside one of these lots in Oakland. Her eyes are sunken, head down, focused on her task, her trunk wrapped around one of these weeds, trying to organize. She looks no different than our poor, housless and incarcerated elders. We can't separate ourselves from our animal relatives. We all are living on the same earth. The same boat if it sinks we all drown. We are taught to live in our heads, in our lives, individualisation, i'm the main character everyone is the side character. People are Ignorant to their own actions because they constantly do them. Free Happy the Elephant cause she clearly is anything but.

POOR Magazine signs on to a letter of support to free our incarcerated elders, in collaboration with MinisterKingXPyeface & KAGE Universal. Dear Governor Newsom et al., California Prison Focus (CPF) and K.A.G.E. Universal are requesting your immediate action under the current humanitarian health crisis to investigate the ongoing retaliation being faced by the imprisoned human rights activists and members of the Prisoner Human Rights Movement (PHRM) who authored and honored the historic 2012 Agreement to End Hostilities (AEH), significantly reducing violence on California’s prison yards, and beyond. The Agreement to End Hostilities encourages conflict resolution and direct communication between races to counter violence between prisoner organizations. This opened the doors for the prison to begin providing a host of rehabilitative programs. Because of the sacrifices those individuals made, countless others have been saved from enduring decades-long solitary confinement torture as they did. When these men, who had been tortured in solitary confinement for decades had attempted to disseminate and promote this historic accord, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) obstructed their efforts, claiming that the AEH qualifies as third-party communication. Staff members refused to post the statement throughout the prison, while during that same period, and since many years earlier, CPF was receiving reports that guards were placing “disruptive” individuals on the yards to instigate fights. [See Prison Focus archives, www.prisons.org] [1] “Mr. Y stated that some people try to sabotage it, namely the correctional officers, who continue to try to trick the general population with their anti-solidarity games…” Pelican Bay State Prison Report, PF Issue 48, Winter 2016 CDCR claimed that the signers of the AEH presented a major threat to the safety of the general prison population and in September 2013, there were approximately 3,881 prisoners in CDCR’s Security Housing Units (SHU) when the AEH had just been distributed inside CDCR and outside to civil society. Approximately 2000 people were released from the SHU starting in early 2016 as a result of the Ashker v. Brown settlement agreement. When these older men came out of the SHUs, their principle thinking, and mentoring of younger prisoners in General Population yards created a dramatic decrease in violence, except when instigated directly or indirectly by prison policy and/or guards. To the contrary, as the men returned to the yards struggling to cope after decades of torture, they continued to promote and honor the AEH. Their commitment to non-violence and class unity among the SHU “kickouts” was even more remarkable as CDCR did nothing to assist SHU prisoners in transitioning to General Population even though it was extremely difficult for them after decades of being in solitary, living 24/7 in tiny cells with no natural light and under severe and harsh conditions. CPF received reports and letters that the elders who were released from solitary confinement after so many decades were having a profound impact in reducing violence on the yards. At the same time CPF was were receiving hundreds of letters a year, reporting incidents of violence that were directly or indirectly caused by both overt and covert actions taken by prison staff, sanctioned by the policy and prison administration of CDCR. The signers by every organized group in CDCR, those who promulgated the AEH, and their fellow prisoner organizers of the California Prison Hunger Strikes, have been suffering from extreme retaliation ever since. Twelve of the original 16 signers continue to languish in prison today, as most of them are still being held in one form or another of solitary confinement. One organizer died before he was ever to see freedom. Others have received new and serious charges that are possibly retaliatory, so as not to disrupt CDCR’s false narratives that the organizers of the historical California Prison Hunger Strikes are the worst of the worst. [2] And while studies claim that California faces a 66% recidivism rate, [3] they continue to refuse to release these elders who pose a risk of less than 2%. This constitutes a human rights crisis and we can no longer remain silent. We demand that the signers of the AEH, as well as for all organizers and participants of the California Prison Hunger Strikes, to be safe from retaliation, including further torture, isolation or, as laid out in the PHRM Blueprint, from being coerced, threatened and blackmailed to betray fellow prisoners with false accusations. We demand that the signers of the AEH be granted 2933 credits, based on the attached Certificate of Acknowledgment, to reduce or modify their sentences, and receive an immediate opportunity to demonstrate their readiness to return to their communities, starting with the individuals who have already had a positive impact on their community and society and would clearly have an even greater positive impact they will have on society as a whole if released. In addition, the PEACE program that has already been established at Pelican Bay State Prison joins CPF and KAGE Universal to request that the AEH be posted throughout all CDCR institutions, using Inmate Welfare Funds. Sincerely, Kim Pollak, California Prison Focus, Executive Director Minister King X, K.A.G.E. Universal, Founder, Executive Director California Prison Focus, Director of Culture and Art Cc: Kathleen Allison, CDCR Secretary Signers of the Agreement to End Hostilities [1] California Prison Focus produced a 48-minute video production called Maximum Security University (now on Youtube) which depicts the deaths of four imprisoned men shot by guards during the notorious gladiator fights at Corcoran prison in California. Correlated to the video, CDCR paid $2.2 million to settle a shooting lawsuit by formerly imprisoned Vincent Tulumis. Tulumis, who was being tortured in solitary confinement for three years at the time, for drug possession. Tulumis was asked by his cellmate at the behest of guards to fight and beat up another imprisoned man from a different racial group, also in the SHU. Tulumis testified that he had previously beaten other prisoners to curry favor with guards. Earlier in that same year CDC had settled the Corcoran shooting death lawsuit by the estate of Preston Tate for $825,000 and the San Quentin shooting death suit filed by the estate of Mark Adams for $2.5 million, after the warden and CDC director were found liable for punitive damages in the shooting. [CDC Settles Corcoran Shooting Suit for $2.2 Million, Prison Legal News, December 15, 1999] This manufactured violence, encoded in CDCR policy, continues to this day. [2] As of February 28, 2022, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) admits to holding 9,397 in SHU solitary confinement. (7% of the population) And SHU is only one of several forms of solitary confinement torture commonly practiced in U.S. prisons today. [3] Development of the California Static Risk Assessment (CSRA): Recidivism Risk Prediction in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, UC Irvine, 2013.

By Momii Palapaz, Poor Magazine/Homefulness Poverty Scholar “Please support the pardon of Phoeun You.” This plea from Jun Hamamoto made my heart sink. “I have known Phoeun since 2010”, writes Jun, “when he joined the San Quentin Prison Buddhist sangha, where I am a core group member. I have witnessed his personal growth, healing, transformation and determination to make substantial positive changes in his life.” In January 2022, Phoeun was given an early release after completing 25 years. He was immediately picked up by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). While this is a violation of civil liberties, California Department of Corrections regularly corroborates with ICE, and has proven to play a malicious role in racial profiling and actively suppporting ICE in deportations. “I am not an American on paper, but I feel like an American,” lamented Phoeun You. Although he never pursued changing his refugee status to become a citizen, he says, “now it matters. I want to return to the community and make amends. There is a strong possibility I will get deported.” It was the last thing on his mind while doing time. Mr. You is presently in the Mesa Verde ICE detention center in Bakersfield, California. Phoeun and his family escaped Cambodia's Khmer Rouge “killing fields” in the 1980’s. He was 4 years old when his parents and 9 siblings ended up in Ogden, Utah. The “people I lived with were white. It was strange.” He had never seen so many white people. 5 years later, connecting with the other Cambodian immigrants, his family eventually made it to Long Beach, California. From the time he and his family were violently forced to leave their homeland, Phoeun and his siblings have endured decades of trauma. Being new arrivals to the USA, Phoeun felt the animosity from neighbors. He had never seen Black or Brown people until this move. “I don’t think they like us”, he said, remembering that he and his brothers would have to defend themselves fighting “on the way home from school”. The attacks escalated over a period of years. After being bullied and beaten by young gang members in the Black and Brown community of Long Beach, Phoeun knew only one way to respond and that way promptly put him on the fast track of the US Prison industrial complex. In 1995, Mr. You was convicted at 20 years old and sentenced to 35 years. Phoeun spent over 25 years in state prisons and was due for an early release given his positive record while doing his time. In 2007, he was transferred to San Quentin State Prison. Phoeun developed journalism, writing production on staff with the prisoner published San Quentin News, mentor and counselor with the program Victim Offender Education Group, and a counselor with Bay Area Women Against Rape. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Phoeun has a degree from Patten University. He is a founding member of Restoring Our Original True Selves, which connects to ancestors and restorative justice. Nevertheless, despite campaigns to urge Governor Newsom to let him be free, the State of California Prison system turned him over to ICE. Jun is gathering support and donations for Phoeun. In the latest update on his detention, some of the Cambodian immigrants deported by ICE are connected with an American Zen Buddhist nun who has lived in Phnom Penh since 1996. She finds housing, jobs and is the link to deported immigrants from the USA. As a teenager, I, along with millions around the world, witnessed the viciousness of imperialism and colonization on the people of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and other countries of southeast Asia. Babies and children were kidnapped by US government agencies exiting the chaos and transported by plane to the US. Families were broken and separated, killed, and left in the rubble of their slaughtered land. When he entered prison, “I looked around…I see men, large men. I felt like a little boy amongst men.” Phoeun had armed himself with a tattoo that represented the killing fields. “Number 1 for history, number 2, the identity piece that Asian Pacific Islanders will see. It serves me as a protection piece and potentially a threat..They won’t mess with me”. If it wasn’t for the invasion of Indonesia and the plundering of the land by the US government, millions of southeast Asians would determine their own destiny. The involuntary removal of thousands have resulted today in continued tragedy and racial discrimination and trauma. Whether Phoeun had “papers” or not, ICE and the US Prison system are blocking all options for him to return to his family in southern California. Jun has kept in touch with Phoeun often in the past year. Jun is also an active member of Tsuru For Solidarity that was formed in response to the imprisonment of migrant children and families. As a Japanese American led organization, Tsuru is bringing the past traumas of Japanese Americans incarcerated in US concentration camps during WWII into the present day. Tsuru for Solidarity is connecting the white supremacist players of USA history to the violent removal of families of immigrants today. While Phoeun has “been quite distraught… he is lifted up by the amazing support he is getting from all of you. He didn't know so many people cared about him. Phoeun said, whatever happens, he feels loved and supported.” I think of a past co-worker, Che, who is also Cambodian and had similar experiences growing up here. Like Phoeun, Che, as a child, had to fight to stay alive in the midst of war, travel a world away and defend himself and family from racism, bullies and violent encounters. In 2011, Che was arrested for a nonviolent crime and immediately sent to a Texas detention, then deported to Cambodia. Most importantly, please support Phoeun and send a message to California Governor Newsom. Your donations are especially appreciated, as Phoeun needs to keep in touch with loved ones and supporters. The POOR MAGAZINE FAMILY welcomes Poverty Scholar Phoeun You. His life is steeped in history, knowledge, and has radically evolved to serve the people. Phoeun is still in imminent danger of being deported to Cambodia! Please continue call and email Governor Newsom. details here: bit.ly/ProtectPhoeun GOVERNOR NEWSOM, PARDON PHOEUN YOU NOW!!! Thank you for the following resources: Read more about Phoeun You and the Cambodian community in POOR MAGAZINE. Cambodian to Cali-deportation Cambodian Mamaz San Quentin News, published by inmates The Prison Within, a documentary on Restorative justice in the prison system The Last Mile, Tech and Business program preparing inmates for the working world William Drummond, American Journalist Ear Hustle podcast, San Quentin