Street Spirit Volume 16, No. 05 May 2010 $1.00 A publication of the American Friends Service Committee JUSTICE NEWS & HOMELESS BLUES IN THE B AY A REA Media Ignores Huge March for California’s Future by Margot Pepper SACRAMENTO, Calif. — César Chávez Day came and went without acknowledgment from most mainstream print media of a Chávez-inspired, 365-mile march that lasted 48 days and culminated in thousands of Californians converging upon the State Capitol on April 21. Wave after wave of union workers, educators, students and parents demanded funding for basic services that citizens in developed nations expect for their tax dol- lars, such as functioning schools, roads and parks. Berkeley’s teachers and unions worked together to fill five buses to attend the protest. The rally honored those who walked from Bakersfield to Sacramento, in the footsteps of Cesar Chavez, in the March for California’s Future. The route was 25 miles longer than the march originally led by César Chávez in 1966 from Delano to Sacramento to protest growers’ deliberate spraying of striking farmworkers with lethal pesti- cides. The 1966 march led to a powerful The March for California’s Future mobilized thousands in a massive demonstration for economic justice. Mark Copelan photo wave of organizing that brought historic victories to the farmworkers’ movement. Tejada-Flores in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Californians. (PNS) in the San Jose Mercury News. “Most of the farmworkers’ energy was of Latinos and Latinas. The core group of marchers that While mention of the march can be found focused on the grape boycott. At its The recent March for California’s reached the finish line included a San on the websites at the Huffington Post and height, more than 14 million Americans Future began in Bakersfield on March 5 Diego college professor, a Los Angeles KPBS, the San Jose Mercury News was helped by not buying grapes. The pressure with the aim of safeguarding the future of probation officer and a Bay Area commu- the only established print media outlet was irresistible, and the Delano growers California’s students, the infirm and nity organizer. They endured rain and that followed the story in any depth. signed historic contracts with UFWOC in elderly, and protesting the severely deteri- heat, and slept in churches, schools and 1969,” observed PBS filmmaker Rick orated quality of life faced by the majority RV parks, according to Lori Abbott See March for California’s Future page 5 Cast Adrift in the Wake of the Great Recession by Robert L. Terrell his is a period of escalating des- peration for many U.S. citizens. Despite recent improvement in the stock market, and scattered Tsigns that the national economy is begin- ning to expand, the severe human devasta- tion engendered by the recent recession still casts a heavy pall of fear and suffer- ing over every section of the nation. Major municipalities, from San Francisco to New York City, are experi- encing massive financial problems. The same is true of many states, including California, whose residents took pride not too long ago in the fact that the state’s economy was larger than that of all but five of the world’s nations. At the time, the state’s coffers were filled with billions of surplus dollars. This is no longer the case. As a matter of fact, many financial experts are asserting that California is currently on the verge of bankruptcy. Nowadays, many public offices in California are closed at least four working days per month because of the state’s massive financial shortfall. Prisoners are being released early, and many of those “No Food. No Job. No Home. No Money.” The plight of 3.5 million homeless people ignored by society. Robert L. Terrell photo employed by the State of California are currently being paid 10 percent less than The fervent passion that government officials displayed when the big banks and Wall they were a year ago due to mandatory reductions in their salaries. Street were threatened with collapse is nowhere to be seen when it comes to addressing the financial morass which entraps hapless members of the middle and lower classes. See The Great Recession page 8 2 S TREET S PIRIT May 2010 Sidewalks Are for People: Defying the Sit/Lie Laws Latino day labor ers likened Newsom’s sit/lie law — and the way it pr ofiles the home- less poor — to the fear ed Arizona law allowing police to profile and arrest people pure- ly because they are Latino.

Story and photo by Carol Harvey n a sunny Saturday afternoon, April 24, San Franciscans partici- Opated in a second “Sidewalks Are For People” event, having fun with friends and neighbors at 17 locations all over town, by colorfully defying and resisting Mayor Gavin Newsom’s plan to banish homeless people from sidewalks. In the face of Mayor Newsom’s and SFPD Chief George Gascón’s “sit/lie” pro- posal to criminalize sitting or lying on side- walks between 7:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m., people reclaimed public spaces by barbecu- Protesters create art, play, sing, share meals and reclaim public sidewalks on a day of defiant resistance to Newsom’s sit/lie law. ing, playing frisbee, performing poetry, eat- ing cookies, chalking art on the cement, BBC World Service radio hosted a agenda is to target marginalized groups, action on April 24 by Latino day laborers strumming guitars, singing, lounging “on debate on April 4 between Andy Blue, the homeless youth, and young “crust punks” who sit and lie on city streets waiting for the dangerous sidewalks of the Haight” event coordinator with Nato Green, and traveling to post-hippie San Francisco. work. They lined Cesar Chavez Street (according to one tongue-in-cheek, online Ted Lowenberg, president of the Haight These young people bring color to the between Mission and Van Ness, likening invitation), or just plain partying. Ashbury Improvement Association, who Haight. They also face the same harsh Newsom’s sit/lie law to the recent Arizona The first “Sidewalks Stand Against solidly supports the sit/lie proposal. conditions as homeless people citywide, ban on undocumented immigrants, a law Sit/Lie” citywide flashmob on March 27, The law was introduced with the sup- most of whom are forced to carry their allowing police to profile and arrest people received national and international atten- port of Haight Street business people as a belongings on their backs and must even- purely because they are Latino. tion from the Huffington Post, the UK supposed method to curtail recent inci- tually sit down to rest. Newsom’s law California Republican Brian Bilbray Independent, and CBC radio. [See dents of “intimidation” by a group of would ban their very presence and crimi- told Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s “Reclaiming Public Spaces, Resisting Haight street “thugs.” However, anti- nalize their attempts to rest. Sit/Lie Laws,” Street Spirit, April 2010.] sit/lie activists claim the proposal’s real An ominous note was struck during the See Resisting Sit/Lie Laws page 6 Housing Officials Charged with Conflict of Interest in Plan to Terminate Berkeley’s Public Housing by Lynda Carson Berkeley’s public housing program, and corporate consultants that have infiltrated rent than I do currently, and I’m only get- the privatization of 75 townhouse-style the BHA, in their crusade to dismantle ting unemployment at the moment. We’re Berkeley — On Friday, April 23, public housing units. public housing. also being harassed and being pressured to Carole Norris, ICF International’s vice Highly paid consultants Erik Novak Berkeley public housing residents had sign new leases. They told me that they lost president and consultant, stationed at the and Scott Jepsen of EJP/Praxis Consulting authorized low-income tenant Keith my lease, and tried to pressure me into multinational’s corporate office in San Groups, were also at the April 23 meeting Carlisle to speak on their behalf at the signing a new one lately. I did not believe Francisco, traveled to the North Berkeley of the BHA commissioners, as was Jon April 23 meeting of the BHA, but he was that they lost my lease, and I refused to Senior Center to push for the termination Gresley, the soon-to-retire executive cut short by BHA commissioners while sign another. The new lease looked of Berkeley’s public housing program, director of the Oakland Housing doing his best to speak-out against the strange, not like the old ones. They’re try- from her lofty position as the Chair of the Authority (OHA), one of a few controver- scheme to terminate public housing. ing to trick us out of our housing. It’s terri- Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA). sial, experimental Move to Work (MTW) According to the July 2009, BHA con- ble what they’re doing to us.” BHA Chair Carole Norris of ICF Public Housing Authorities that do not sultants report, 86.5 percent of the BHA’s “I’ve lived here six years,” said Sharon International initiated the actions to termi- have to abide by the normal federal laws public housing tenants are African- Grines, “and they want to move us out, but nate Berkeley’s public housing program, protecting federally subsidized low- American, and all are low-income. there is nothing wrong with my home. It privatize Berkeley’s 75 public housing income renters in the nation’s 3,000-plus During a phone interview on April 29 may need to be painted, but I can live units, and leverage financing for the pri- public housing authorities. with Berkeley public housing resident around that, and there is no reason to force vatization scheme by grabbing much- me out of my home. I don’t like it. I don’t needed Section 8 voucher subsidies from “I feel so sad that I am being displaced from my housing, want to move. I want to stay, and raise my the poor. The BHA is expecting approval kids in Berkeley. I don’t want to sign any- from HUD to dispose of its public hous- and everyone else feels the same way. I’ve lived here for thing that gives up my housing.” ing units by May or June, 2010. over 18 years, and I am afraid to say anything that might Carolyn Evans said, “I’ve had two In recent months, Berkeley’s public inspections in my home during the past housing residents have gone to the City anger the housing authority.” — Carolyn Evans, public housing tenant two months, and I had to sign a new lease Council to protest the scheme to privatize two months ago. It was the first time I had their homes, and stated that a conflict of The trio of consultants, along with ICF Rhonda Rogers, she said, “My hair is to sign a new lease in three to four years. I interest exists with the position of Norris as International consultant Norris, promoted standing on my head. They are trying to feel so sad that I am being displaced from a BHA commissioner. They also demanded their sales pitch to convince the BHA’s full find any way possible to evict us. This thing my housing, and everyone else feels the the resignations of BHA Executive Director board of commissioners to follow through has been wrecking our lives, and we have same way. I’ve lived here for over 18 Tia Ingram and BHA Chair Norris. with the plan to terminate and privatize been under a lot of pressure. They have years, and I am afraid to say anything that A conflict of interest exists because Berkeley’s public housing. been combing through my records and have might anger the housing authority.” Norris is beholden to ICF International OHA Executive Director Gresley was been trying to find a reason to kick me out. Currently, across the nation, public and its shareholders, despite her position involved in the controversy over the notori- There was an inspection last week, and housing is home to about three million as Chair of the BHA Commission. ous one-strike policy, when the OHA there was another one this week.” seniors, people with disabilities, and low- Wells Capital Management Inc., a moved to evict four innocent, elderly public Many longtime public housing resi- income families, and plays an essential role wholly-owned subsidiary of Wells Fargo housing residents for alleged crimes they dents say that the months of uncertainty in providing services for the elderly poor Bank, is a major institutional shareholder did not commit. The resulting legal struggle while they face eviction and displacement and others. Public housing contributes sig- of ICF International. In recent months, was fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme has created a great deal of stress and tur- nificantly to local economies by the direct BHA consultants have been directed to Court by Anne Omura of the Eviction moil in their lives. spending of $8.1 billion a year by PHAs on contact Margaret Schrand of Wells Fargo Defense Center, and a team of 26 local “It’s stressing me out,” Rogers said. capital improvements, maintenance, and Bank in San Francisco regarding financ- attorneys defending the rights of Oakland’s “It’s sad. I’ve been a public housing resi- operations, and generates an additional $8.2 ing for the privatization scheme. If all public housing residents in 2002. dent for 12 years in Berkeley, and they are billion in indirect economic activity goes as planned, BHA Chair Norris, ICF The April 23 vote to pass Agenda Item treating us horribly. I’m under pressure to throughout the nation’s communities. International, and Wells Fargo all stand to B of the BHA’s Action Calendar was part accept a Section 8 voucher, which I do not Lynda Carson may be reached at ten- profit financially by the dismantling of of a series of votes orchestrated by the want because I will have to pay more for [email protected] May 2010 S TREET S PIRIT 3 A Long March Down Prison Road March for California’s Future becomes a trek past an endless row of prison towns $29,000, with almost 30 percent of its res- “I can’t help but think that idents living below the poverty line. California, a state that’s now Wasco State Prison is just up the high- way, incarcerating 5,989 people, and down near the bottom in what employing 1,688, at an annual cost of $201 it spends on education, is far million. Wasco’s population is 25,665. and away the biggest spender Across the wide valley to the west are two more prisons. Avenal State Prison on prisons. It doesn’t take a holds 6,577 people, with a staff of 1,517 brain surgeon to connect the and an annual budget of $144 million. To dots.” — retired teacher Gavin Riley the north, Pleasant Valley State Prison houses 5,188 inmates and 1,388 guards, by David Bacon spending $195 million every year. These are even smaller towns. In the 2000 cen- Chowchilla, Calif. — High in the sus, Avenal boasted a population of mountains overlooking Bakersfield and 15,689, but had counted the 7,062 inmates the south end of the San Joaquin Valley is at that time as residents. The census count a piece of California’s past, the California in Coalinga, home of the Pleasant Valley Correctional Institution, or as inmates prison, was 11,668. know it, Tehachapi. In nearby McFarland, marcher Jenn It was one of the state’s first big pris- Laskin, a continuation school teacher ons, built at the height of the Great from Watsonville, talked to a fellow Depression in 1933 to contain the unrav- teacher about to lose her job. “She worked eling social fabric of Hoovervilles, high three jobs to put herself through school,” unemployment, a vast influx of Dust Laskin reported. “She’s in her second Bowl refugees, and left-wing political year, which means that on the first day of movements spreading like wildfire. next year she’d have had tenure and The penitentiary spreads across 1,650 couldn’t have been laid off. So she’s acres of a remote desert valley. Designed being laid off this year instead. for 2,785 inmates, it now holds 5,806 — “Her family’s lived in McFarland for 200 percent of an already inhumane stan- five generations. Her father’s been a custo- dard. And while it was built as the origi- dian for the district there for 23 years. nal California Institute for Women, today Without a job, there won’t be anything to its only inhabitants are men. keep her in the community where she grew The March for California’s Future exposed the massive prison-industrial complex. Jazzman Art Pepper, son of a Los up. The closest place to look for work is Angeles longshoreman, lived in its cells California’s prison future. Every day in Delano, 3,176 people go Bakersfield, where they just issued 200 for four and a half years in the 1950s. In their first week on the road, the to work in the prisons. Almost as many of pink slips, and many highly qualified teach- Like Pepper, today’s prison inmates are hardy group, drawn mostly from the the town’s families now depend on prison ers are fighting for the same job.” mostly there because of drugs. Pepper state’s schools, walked by Kern Valley jobs as those supported by year-round That McFarland teacher is the victim would have recognized them for another State Prison and North Kern State Prison field labor. Thousands of former farm- of cuts in the state’s education budget. reason. Tehachapi’s inmates are almost all in Delano, the first holding 5,013 inmates, workers now guard other Latinos and Another $18 billion will be sliced from it Black and Latino, like the rest of and the second 5,390. blacks — inmates just as poor, but mostly this year. California is one of only three California’s prisoners, and have been Delano was the birthplace of the from the urban centers of Los Angeles or states with a requirement that two-thirds since the prison system began. And poor. United Farm Workers in 1965. Marchers San Jose, rather than the rural communi- of the legislature approve any budget. While Tehachapi was mentioned in celebrated the strike started by Filipinos ties of the Central Valley. Even more important, any tax increase The Maltese Falcon, people like Dashiell that September and joined by the Delano’s population is 49,359. The takes a two-thirds vote as well. Hammett’s middle-class grifters don’t Mexicans led by Cesar Chavez two weeks two prisons hold more than 10,000 peo- So, even though urban Democrats have normally wind up there. Having no later. A year afterwards, in 1966, the first ple. A third, smaller prison run by the had a majority for years in both chambers money is practically a requirement for great farmworkers’ march left Delano for city, the Delano Community Correctional of the legislature, a solid Republican bloc residence. Sacramento, writing the grape strike into Facility, contracts with the state to house can keep the state in a continual economic When teachers and home-care workers the nation’s history books, and pulling an additional 600 inmates. Almost none crisis until Democrats agree to slash rallied down below in Bakersfield on together a union that eventually overcame can vote, so they’re no threat to the politi- spending. With huge deficits from declin- March 5, and kicked off the March for the state’s corporate growers in the seat of cal establishment that profits from their ing tax revenues, and a recession boosting California’s Future, few had more than a their power. The symbolism of those past presence. But they do count when it’s state unemployment over 12.5 percent, a vague idea of the kind of presence events, and the profound effect they had time to calculate Delano’s population, and Tehachapi and its fellow institutions would See March Down Prison Road page 7 on California’s future, wasn’t lost on therefore its share of state revenue. cast over them as they walked up the San today’s marchers. At the same time, although hundreds of Joaquin Valley to Sacramento. “I think about what those marches did prisoners may come from Compton, for They then spent 48 days in a traveling Street Spirit for the farmworkers, in terms of insisting instance, one of California’s poorest cities protest over the extreme budget cuts that on basic human dignity,” recalls marcher in heavily black and Latino South Central Street Spirit is published by American have cost the jobs of thousands of Jim Miller, a San Diego community col- Los Angeles, Compton can’t claim them as Friends Service Committee. The ven- California teachers, and threaten those of lege teacher. “So I think in that sense, residents in calculating its piece of the state dor program is run by BOSS (Building thousands of other public workers. we’ve chosen the perfect place to do this. pie. Prison-building places poor communi- Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency). But while its participants may not have Access to affordable education is a civil ties in competition with each other, and intended it, the March for California’s Editor, Layout: Terry Messman right. The purpose of this march is to Delano gains an advantage from housing Future became a march through make that more evident to the public.” Compton’s lost souls. But it is competition Contributors: David Bacon, Claire J. California’s prison towns. The explosive For years, the UFW was headquartered over a pie that’s shrinking quickly. Baker, Jack Bragen, Lynda Carson, Jesse growth of communities based on incarcer- at the Forty Acres outside of town, before The Kern Valley State Prison and Clarke, Mark Copelan, Randy Fingland, ation also offers a vision of what it moved its offices into the mountains North Kern State Prison have a combined Carol Harvey, Art Hazelwood, Margot California could become. above Bakersfield, just a few miles from annual budget of $294 million. By com- Pepper, Race, Poverty & the It’s not the vision of the marchers, Tehachapi prison. The union still keeps its parison, the town’s 2010 General Fund Environment, Max Rameau, Take Back clearly, who want social change that original hall on Garces Highway, but just was a tenth of that, and the budget of its the Land, Robert L. Terrell makes prisons a lower priority than a couple of miles away are the two new public schools a twentieth. Delano’s schools. But it is surely a vision of what All works copyrighted by the authors. prisons, built in the 1990s. median family income is just over life will become without that change — The views expressed in Street Spirit arti- cles are those of the individual authors Donate or Subscribe to Street Spirit! alone, not necessarily those of the Street Spirit is published by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Homeless vendors receive 50 papers a day, earn American Friends Service Committee.. income and find a job providing a positive alternative to panhandling, and educate the community about social justice issues. Please Street Spirit welcomes submissions of donate or subscribe to Street Spirit ! Help us remain an independent voice for justice! articles, poems, photos and art, but can- ❒ I enclose $25 for one year's subscription. not guarantee they will be published. ❒ I enclose a donation of ❒ $100 ❒ $50 ❒ $ 25 May 2010 Contact: Terry Messman Mailing Address: Send Donations to: Name: ______Street Spirit AFSC Address: ______65 Ninth Street, 65 Ninth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 San Francisco, CA 94103 City: ______State:______Zip: ______E-mail: [email protected] 4 S TREET S PIRIT May 2010 Take Back the Land: What We Are Doing Is Illegal A campaign of housing takeovers confronts the banks, police and government

Editor’s Note: Max Rameau is a founding member of the Miami-based Take Back the Land, a group of housing activists who have taken over vacant buildings and blocked the eviction of families from foreclosed homes. This article is based on a presentation Rameau recently gave in Oakland, as edited by Race, Poverty & the Environment, a journal for social and environmental justice published by Urban Habitat. See their Spring 2010 issue at www.urbanhabitat.org/rpe by Max Rameau e have been doing our Take Back The Land activ- ities in Miami since the summer of 2006. Our work Wbegan in response to the gentrification of low-income housing. We recognized that we could no longer depend on the govern- Housing activists in Miami took over vacant land and built a shantytown called Umoja Village. Photo courtesy Take Back the Land ment to solve the problems with extreme gentrification and extreme housing prices rations relate to land and to one another in our community because they were an [in relation to land]. We believe that it’s integral part of the problem. So we decid- possible in our lifetime. Umoja Village Shantytown ed to start a new organization and focus If we engage in a protracted, vigorous The Umoja Village Shantytown was On April 23, 2007, Umoja Village our attention on the internal capacities of and broad political campaign, we can win founded on Oct. 23, 2006, in the Liberty celebrated its six-month milestone with our community, rather than figure out vast public policy changes, possibly even City section of Miami, Florida, in the following actions: the replacement of what the government can do for us. amendments to state constitutions, which response to gentrification and a lack of wood shanties with more durable struc- Take Back The Land is a collective would make housing a human right. A sec- low-income housing. “Umoja” is Swahili tures; the building of a water well; par- with a leadership of about five — myself ond major goal we can pursue is to intro- for “unity,” hence “Unity Village.” ticipation in local anti-gentrification and and four women. There’s a larger group duce new political leadership — particular- After months of planning, Take Back pro-housing campaigns; a demand for of about 20 that we can call on at any ly people of color, low-income people of the Land seized control of a lot (on the legal rights to the land from the city; and time. Given the nature of what we’re color, and specifically, black women. corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in plans to acquire land and build low- doing, it’s very difficult to build a mass BUILDING A NATIONAL MOVEMENT Miami) that had been vacant for about income housing. organization because at its core, what we eight years after low-income housing On April 26, 2007, the day that the are doing is illegal. We can’t have public We are now trying to build a national Take Back The Land movement, bigger there was demolished by the city. Take first new structures were scheduled to be meetings to say that we’re going to break Back the Land erected several tents and built, Umoja Village burned to the into this house on this date. There are just and different from the one in Miami where we were able to take advantage of wood-frame shanties to provide housing ground in a mysterious fire. There were too many logistical and legal repercus- for homeless people in the area. no casualties or injuries but Miami police sions. Also, we did not want to seek fund- specific situations and benefit from them. We want to build something flexible Police, City of Miami and Miami- took the opportunity to arrest 11 resi- ing. We got one grant, which we trans- Dade County officials were unable to dents and activists for attempting to ferred to a nonprofit partner. So, there’s enough for people to apply those princi- ples in their own communities. evict the residents or organizers because remain on the land and the city erected a no staff and no budget to speak of. of a 1996 settlement with the ACLU that barbed wire fence around the property In October 2006, we took over a The U.S. Human Rights Network is coordinating the national effort. We have forbids the arrest of homeless people on that same day. vacant piece of land and built the Umoja public land when there are no beds for To ward off more protests, the city Village shantytown in Miami, Fla. [See signed on 10 organizations in 10 cities focused on elevating housing to the level them in city shelters. initially offered the property to Take sidebar on Umoja Village.] It stood for six By December, Umoja Village housed Back the Land to build low-income months before falling to a suspicious fire. of a human right, and at least in the initial stages, on the path of direct action: hous- approximately 50 homeless people who housing, but later reneged on its offer We felt that we had built a model, but ran the village democratically. The vil- under pressure from local power brokers it lacked long-term viability because we ing defense and liberations. We think it extremely important to use lage enjoyed broad support in the com- and lobbyists. had no public policy component to what munity, so was able to successfully repel For more information on Umoja Village, we were doing. In fact, we had explicitly direct action to challenge the prevailing paradigm around land and land relation- numerous attempts by government offi- see the Take Back the Land website: taken an anti-public policy stance. cials to tear it down. http://takebacktheland.blogspot.com/ So, when the Miami City Manager sent ships. Consequently, breaking the laws that support the paradigm is a critical part one of his minions over to say, “How can after a couple of negotiating sessions, the them will be prohibitive. At some point, we resolve this?” I said, we’re going to of our model. It’s a tactic designed to reach something bigger, which is to bank offered us the house for $1. the banks will recognize that it is in their give you our demands. When he took out But we had no way to accept the financial interest to just hand the places his pen, we said, “We want you to get off advance public policy initiatives that ele- vate housing to the level of a human right. house. Not only did we not have an orga- over to nonprofits. By taking the $10 bil- our property!” That was our only demand. nization that could deal with victory, we lion in tax write-offs they will actually We felt then — and until recently — that Our position is that progressive public policy in the United States is effectively weren’t even clear about what that organi- come out ahead, financially. we specifically did not want to have any zation or model should look like. So now, Our direct action has to make it so the engagement with the government. But we dead because we cannot move it. And the reason for that is that we have no real as we build the movement to the point banks have a clear financial interest in giv- also did not have a public policy piece or where we have those victories, we need to ing away the foreclosed homes rather than alternative institutions in place. leverage; meaning, we have no money to give to public officials. What we do have concurrently build the alternative institu- continuing to spend money on getting back You can’t build the movement or cre- tions that can sustain those victories. properties they supposedly own. ate social change that way. is our labor and this sense that we should be able to stay in the buildings, and in the THE DIRECT ACTION MODEL: HOW HOW TO AFFECT GOVERNMENT THE OPPORTUNITY OF CRISIS homes. Since we have no viable leverage TO AFFECT BANKS It used to be that when they put a 24- Today, because of the economic and to advance progressive public policy, we To bring about this kind of social hour eviction notice on someone’s door in political crisis, we are at a historic point have to go on a hard, direct action binge. transformation, we have to make it affect Miami, it meant that the police would where people are willing to rethink their Ultimately, our objective is bigger the financial self-interests of the financial come the next day or the day after. Now it relationship to the land, the economic sys- social change through public policy, but I sector and the government, which also takes the police seven to 14 business days tem, and the financial system in a way that don’t think we can get to that without the controls large amounts of properties. to follow up on an eviction notice. That’s they were unwilling or unable to do before. direct action. But first, we need a plan. We can start by focusing on one bank — how backlogged they are. If we had tried to do land takeovers five or What do we do after we win? In Miami, Citibank or Bank of America. Say they The Trody family was evicted on a six years ago, we would have been kicked we were unprepared to cope with victory. own $10 billion worth of toxic assets. First Friday. They spent the weekend in their out by our own neighbors. Now we get In fact, that happened with the home of they spend money to do a foreclosure, then truck, and we moved them back into the great press and community support. the Trody family, which was featured in the they spend money to do an eviction, then same house on Monday. Seven police cars Things that seemed crazy and not pos- Michael Moore film [ Capitalism: A Love they spend more money to board the house and eight police showed up in response sible five years ago suddenly are relevant Story]. The bank sent the Trodys a second up, and some more on upkeep and blight and stayed for about two hours, but then and mainstream. Consequently, this opens eviction notice a few months ago, and of abatement. Then somebody moves into the left without doing an eviction. That hap- up an opportunity for the social justice course, the next day we were there, ready to vacant house and they have to spend money pened on February 23, 2009, and the fam- movement to offer viable alternatives. take arrests, defending the family’s right to on evicting them and boarding up the place ily is still in the house. In broad terms, our goal is to funda- stay. One of our leaders called the bank — all over again. If we can mount this kind of action even mentally transform land relationships — U.S. Bank, which got $6.6 billion in bailout If we can occupy 10,000 of these 10 percent of the time — where they will the way people, governments, and corpo- funds from the federal government — and homes, the cost of repossessing all of See Take Back the Land page 6 May 2010 S TREET S PIRIT 5

The media virtually ignored the thousands who joined this huge rally against state budget cuts, held in front of the State Capitol on April 21. Mark Copelan photo

Berkeley’s teachers and unions, including the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, worked together to fill five buses to attend the rally in Sacramento. Mark Copelan photos

of 50 percent of the U.S. population.” tion for a ballot measure that will change March for California’s Future In 2007, the top 1 percent held 43 per- the two-thirds voting threshold to a simple cent of U.S. financial wealth, according to majority for the Legislature to pass budgets from page 1 [averaging $1.6 million in annual income] has nearly doubled its share of adjusted UC Santa Cruz Professor G. William and to impose higher taxes on corporations Before Gov. Schwarzenegger’s latest gross income since 1993 from 13.8 percent Domhoff. It is tempting to reason that and the wealthy. cuts, California ranked 47th in the nation to 25.2 percent in 2007... The state income were this wealth divided among the But while this legislation is desperately per pupil spending. Now critics predict it tax rate of this super-rich group has been remaining 90 percent, it would likely be needed as a quick fix, were César Chávez will be closer to 49th. Adult schools, the pared during that time from 11.3 percent to almost twice as wealthy. Instead, Gov. still alive, he might caution its supporters last safety net for those who “have been 9.3 percent, robbing the state of $3 to $6 Schwarzenegger and Republican lawmak- about turning over all their power to the left behind” are being closed throughout billion each year. Another $9 to $10 billion ers led the charge in recent budget negoti- legislature instead of building a move- the state, increasing the likelihood of in annual revenues have been whittled away ations to further cut corporate taxes by $2 ment willing to engage in direct action, more costly incarceration, noted Berkeley through corporate tax reductions.” billion a year, according to Judy Lin (AP) strikes, sit-ins and boycotts. Adult School Educator Lynn Kalmar at According to Alternet’s David in the San Jose Mercury News. When the California Legislature creat- Wednesday’s rally. DeGraw, “The poorest one-fifth of the To help remedy this situation, State ed the Agricultural Labor Relations Board Among other cuts to parks and public population pay more than eleven percent Assembly representative Alberto Torrico in 1975, the United Farm Workers (UFW) services affecting children, the poor and of their income in taxes, whereas the top has authored AB 656 that will levy a 12.5 was forced to give up wildcat strikes and elderly, the governor has threatened to one percent earning an average of more percent extraction fee on oil companies secondary boycotts. Growers used legal eliminate the In-Home Supportive Services than two million dollars a year, are paying that currently don’t pay a dime in taxes to loopholes in the union election rules to Program, employing 65,000 of the state’s about seven percent.” extract California’s oil. The revenues drag out negotiations for years and avoid in-home care workers and jeopardizing the Over the last 60 years, the federal would generate nearly $2 billion a year signing contracts with the UFW. lives of the disabled they care for. income tax levied on those earning more for the state’s colleges and universities. As for the media blackout on the Yet this is “the richest state in the rich- than $400,000 has dropped nearly 20 per- “Even Sarah Palin’s Alaska and George March for California’s Future, one need est country in the world,” says the cent, according to a recent report by the W. Bush’s Texas levy an oil severance only inquire whether the owners of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. The math Institute for Policy Studies. fee,” said Torrico in an opinion piece in the newspapers and stations are in that top doesn’t add up. At the Capitol rally, Marty Apparently, not everyone in our nation San Jose Mercury News. “California is the one-percent earning more than 1.6 million Hittelman, president of the California is suffering from the recession. DeGraw only oil-producing state that continues to dollars a year, to know whether they stand Federation of Teachers (CFT), attributed pointed out that the United States has the miss the opportunity to generate funds with for a more equitable tax distribution or California’s woes to the absence of a pro- highest inequality in the industrialized a fair oil severance fee.” prefer that this story disappear. At present, the Assembly Bill is likely gressive tax system requiring the ultra-rich world. According to Forbes, in the first full More information on the March for to pay their “fair share.” year of the economic crisis, the wealth of to fall short of the two-thirds majority vote California’s Future is available at CFT spokesperson Fred Glass the 400 richest U.S. men increased by $30 needed to raise taxes since Proposition 13 www.fight4cafuture.com. explained, “Taxes for the wealthiest have billion. This, said DeGraw, brings “their passed in 1978. This is why rally organiz- Margot Pepper can be found at been steadily reduced even though the top total combined wealth to $1.56 trillion, ers are calling on citizens to sign UC http://www.margotpepper.com and http://free- one percent of taxpayers in California which is more than the combined net worth Berkeley Professor George Lakoff’s peti- domvoices.org/new/node/93. 6 S TREET S PIRIT May 2010 Resisting War and Its Propaganda Machinery

In order for war to become a who’s extinct? thing of the past, individuals by Randy Fingland must collectively be deter- privatization = corporatization = mined to defy the will of dic- degradation = tators and governments. globalization = genocidization = by Jack Bragen profitization = chemicalization = n his acceptance speech for the civilization checkmate = Nobel Peace Prize, President Barack planet reconstructs = Obama said, “Sometimes war is a military-industrial complex death necessity...” When I heard those Iwords and was aware of the context in which they were spoken, in the back of my mind, I knew something was wrong. Futuristic The human species is plagued by its by Claire J. Baker supposed need for war. War has been with Picture the hawk of war us since the beginning of recorded history, surrendering to the dove. and today threatens to overtake, engulf and Envision the hawk of war obliterate the human species. It is a com- unfeathered from the gore, mon misconception that, first of all, war is “Study For A War Monument.” Engraving by Art Hazelwood from “Hubris Corpulentus.” perished & limp as a glove. sometimes needed, and second, that war is an inevitable component of humanity. defense. Inevitably, both sides of a con- our way of life is in jeopardy, and that we office. One doesn’t know in what ways War threatens to kill the human species flict will claim virtue and will portray must begin the bombing immediately, or those in power would retaliate if Obama and destroy the planet it lives on. There their opponent as horrible and inhumane, face our demise. The “enemy” that our state really rocked the boat, as he promised to has to be another, more advanced way to in order to gain worldwide support. The wants to battle must be seen by the public do in his campaign. respond when someone initiates hostili- public doesn’t have access to the actual as immoral, violent, inhumane, and inhu- This is why a real grassroots move- ties. We must discover it for the sake of facts of these situations, short of going man, people we must fear, and not as a peo- ment is so necessary, the very movement our survival. there and observing firsthand. ple who could otherwise be our friends. that Obama initiated when he ran for pres- In our recent past, it was necessary for In today’s world, in which a minute I have great respect for President ident. It is a movement that I predict will the United States to go to war to stop the amount of effort can trigger massive, or Obama. He is a lot more presidential than become something much bigger than sim- spread of Nazism. We were dealing with a even universal destruction, we need to his predecessor and has already accom- ply electing Obama. dictator in the process of attempted geno- have all parties back off from threatening plished much. Strangely enough, waging In order for war to become a thing of the cide not only of the Jews, but also the dis- war on their neighbors, and on their own war in the Middle East is a much easier past, individuals must collectively be deter- abled, persons of other than heterosexual citizens. The human species needs to sell for a Democratic president. Obama’s mined to defy the will of dictators and gov- orientation, homeless and unemployed peo- evolve into a state of peace, and if it fails popularity among liberals has done much ernments. These are entities that don’t stand ple, as well as the execution of anyone who to do so, we will all perish. to calm the antiwar movement. to lose anything from the outcome of war, disagreed with them, and of any people In the United States, a war cannot be It seems the current administration is leaving it up to individuals to become who didn’t look and act like them. This was fought without a certain amount of sup- giving us much the same medicine as maimed or lose their lives while in the a fairly clear-cut situation in which a fascist port from the general public. When U.S. Bush, only the pills are sugarcoated, process of doing their government’s bid- dictator needed to be stopped. government officials decide they want to instead of bitter. The pressures on the ding. The public can begin by disbelieving In today’s world, it seems that nothing go to war, they must first sell the idea to president exerted by big money and the what the propaganda machine tells us, and is clear-cut. It is not obvious in the wars the American people. mega-corporations that control much of in fact, by becoming skeptics of our own of today which side is the aggressor, and A necessary part of it is to convince the society, including the oil companies, one assumptions and thought patterns. which side is simply exercising self- public that we are under a dire threat, that cannot know unless in the president’s

olution opposing the proposed sit/lie law ing. Despite our “normal” appearance, they Take Back the Land Resisting Sit/Lie Laws with its broader discretionary powers and singled us out as we climbed the hill. A from page 2 pointing to the redundancy of sit/lie in the few doors from the mayor’s home, police from page 4 face of these pre-existing police laws and cars blocked the way. An officer, flanked “Hardball” that people can be profiled by penal codes prohibiting sidewalk obstruc- by three others, stopped us. have to bring in seven police cars — it their shoes. Liberal radio commentator tion and pedestrian harassment. We watched them escort passers-by will back up the foreclosure/eviction Mike Malloy observed sardonically that Before the DCCC overwhelmingly down the sidewalk on which we were for- process even more. The municipalities Mexicans arrive in ragged shoes after voted against sit/lie, one wry observer bidden to tread. One was a slim, blonde and counties will then be motivated to walking hundreds of miles across the joked, “When can you ever rely on the jogger. Another carried a shopping bag support turning the properties over. desert. They work like dogs to buy a pair police for common sense?” from a high-end clothing store. We asked OUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE of sneakers. That’s how you spot them, If it is, on its face, redundant and dis- the SFPD why they did not roust people If we had a whole new world, what he quipped. criminatory in its use of police profiling, we had passed on the way whose garage would it look like? The key similarity between San what is the ultimate purpose of the ordi- sale was a clear obstruction. The mild- We need alternative structures for Francisco’s sit/lie law and Arizona’s ban nance? Are San Francisco Chronicle mannered, not unfriendly sergeant said control. Land trusts and co-ops are a on immigrants is that in both cases, police columnists like C.W. Nevius, who was simply, “I can’t be everywhere at once.” good base to build from, but we need to discretionary powers are broadened, allow- present for the DCCC vote against the He would allow us to assemble across go further. If we’re going to fundamen- ing them to issue citations in San Francisco sit/lie law, promoting San Francisco big- the street, but not fire up the grill. He said a tally transform the economy as a whole or make arrests in Arizona, using arbitrary money interests by using the sit/lie crack- barbeque-style party could spin “out of so that housing is de-commodified, we “common sense” judgment. down as a tough-on-crime wedge issue to control.” He expressed concern for the will need to develop alternative finan- Currently, San Francisco’s Municipal turn voters against “left-wing Democrats” mayor’s safety, especially near open cial structures, such as community-con- Police Code 6.11 states officers must “be in the November Supervisor election? matchbooks or flames. The mayor’s home trolled credit unions. At present, we able to articulate specific facts that sup- Are Mayor Newsom and Police Chief sits on a rise high above the street, fronted think about land and ownership in two port every element of Penal Code Section Gascón copying the trend of U.S. cities by a barrier wall impossible to climb. ways: private and public. We would like 647c and Municipal Police Code Section like New York, Washington, D.C., Los We asked him to divulge whether a to establish a third method of ownership 22 before taking enforcement action.” Angeles and Portland toward granting the citizen’s complaint had been registered where the community would have some Penal Code 647c establishes as a mis- police broader discretionary powers as with the SFPD. The officer declined to level of control over the land without demeanor willful and malicious obstruc- pre-emptive crowd-control measures in answer. Whether or not Newsom was government involvement. tion of “normal access to public places.” an increasingly unstable economy where peeking out at us from behind his curtains So, we are asking organizations to Municipal Police Code Section 22 is people are enraged by corporations and at the top of that alabaster wall, his join us by amplifying the work that they intended to be enforced “when a person banks “too big to fail”? response to our attempt to reclaim “his are already doing and encouraging them persists in willfully and substantially Whatever the answer, on April 24, sidewalk” below was crystal clear. to take it up to the next level. obstructing the free movement of another during the second “Sidewalks Are For Feeling profiled as “unruly activists,” In May 2010, we want to have orga- person in a public place.” MPC Section People” event, members of my group we lugged our grill back down the hill to nizations doing liberations or defenses 22 states, “When enforcing either law, climbed to the top of the hill outside Haight and Cole where someone etched in several areas. Our goal is to help 100 the issue is the obstruction, not drunken- Newsom’s fashionable Upper Haight beautiful pink, white, yellow and blue families in a nationwide campaign ness, streetwalking, or any other suspi- hacienda. We were carrying a portable chalk drawings and letters on the side- where we either move them into places cious or illegal activity.” And certainly grill for a repeat of the March 27, “No On walk saying, “Stand Against Sit/Lie.” that were previously vacant, or defend not one’s race or housing status. Sit/Lie Barbecue” on that spot. We milled around talking, cooked them against eviction. If we don’t do On April 21, labor activist Gabriel The last time was fun. Today was a great food, and partied with the rest of the this in a real way, by this time next year Haaland introduced to the Democratic beautiful day. We were hungry. However, Haight Street “thugs.” we will have missed our chance. County Central Committee (DCCC) a res- somehow the SFPD knew we were com- May 2010 S TREET S PIRIT 7

“These legislators say they’re against ual freedom, strong national security, Long March Down Prison Road crime, but then they take away people’s respect for the sanctity of life, traditional jobs and homes. What do they expect?” marriage, the importance of family and the from page 3 utopian community in response, in the She’s the angriest of the marchers. “It’s exceptionalism of America.” It doesn’t middle of the San Joaquin Valley, taking time for us to start standing up and fight- specifically mention prisons. It doesn’t budgetary crisis is not difficult to create. to heart Booker T. Washington’s advice to ing back,” she vows. “We’re going to have to — support for them is just assumed. Nowhere is unemployment higher than meet racism by building independence make sure you hear us, and hear us loud.” The San Joaquin Valley finally ends in in California’s rural counties, often twice and self-sufficiency. Its streets were Chowchilla, which marchers passed a the great delta, drained and turned into as high as on the coast. Small agricultural named for Sojourner Truth, Frederick few days later, is also the site of two pris- farmland by Chinese contract laborers 150 towns like Delano and McFarland are Douglass and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. ons, Valley State Prison for Women years ago. At the confluence of the rivers filled with workers who can’t find jobs, The colony failed, and for years the (3,810 inmates, 1,058 staff and $125 mil- flowing out of the San Joaquin Valley to while at the same time budget cuts reduce tiny settlement it left behind lay stranded lion budget) and the Central California the south, and the Sacramento Valley to the social services for unemployed fami- next to Highway 99. Reacting to the Women’s Facility (3,918 inmates, 1,208 the north, is Sacramento, the state capital. lies, and shower teachers in the local assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King staff, and $153 million budget). It is one This was the marchers’ goal. schools with pink slips. Jr., Ed Pope, a surveyor for the California of the main towns in the district of The California Federation of Teachers When marchers talk about the state’s Department of Parks and Recreation, Assemblyman Tom Berryhill. Tom and and the American Federation of State, future, some of them remember a time began a campaign that led in 1976 to a his brother Bill represent adjacent districts County and Municipal Employees, the when, at least for some residents, the sys- state park re-creating the African- in the State Assembly. march’s main organizers, brought out over tem had a more functional social contract. American utopia. Tom, a fourth-generation farmer, lives 7,000 union members and community “I view myself as a legacy of the Last year the park was closed by bud- in Modesto, home of the Gallo wine activists, who marched down the Mall to California system when it worked,” get cuts. More African-Americans now empire. Not surprisingly, he’s a law-and- confront the legislature and Gov. Arnold remembers marcher Gavin Riley, a retired live in just one of the prisons near order advocate, campaigning for the rights Schwarzenegger in a huge rally on April teacher from a district on the border of Allensworth than ever lived in the town of crime victims and for speedier applica- 21. Before the marchers got there, though, Los Angeles and Orange County. “I went itself. Meanwhile, most of the 120 fami- tion of the death penalty. Last year, the they passed two juvenile prisons in to school in the 1950s when our school lies residing next to the state park are California Rural Crime Prevention Task Stockton (with an estimated 815 inmates, system was ranked as one of the best in Mexican immigrants, sleeping in trailers. Force named him “Legislator of the Year.” 960 staff and a budget of $132 million). the nation. When it was my time to go to They have no sure source of water (which His brother Bill Berryhill, from Just east of the Capitol is the prison college, the state university was free. helped doom the utopia long ago), and no Stockton and Ceres to the north, sits on made famous by Johnny Cash — Folsom “The theory back then was that if we store or gas station. the board of the Allied Grape Growers. State Prison. This also is a double institu- had an educated electorate, they’d be more tion, with a total of 7,676 inmates, 2,716 productive, more supportive of the state. staff and a combined budget of $310 mil- People wouldn’t get in trouble. I think that “We’ve seen boarded-up homes everywhere. In Fresno, we lion. Deuel Vocational Institute to the worked, at least for me. They gave me a walked through a Skid Row area where people were living west in Tracy rounds out the total San free education, and I came back and in cardboard and wood shacks underneath a freeway, Joaquin Valley prison count. It has 3,748 worked my entire life teaching in our inmates, 1,393 staff, and spends $189 mil- schools. I think I’ve more than returned the sleeping on the sidewalks. We’ve seen farms where the land lion every year. investment. But we’ve kind of lost track of is fallow and the trees have been allowed to die. About the There are other prisons to the east and that. At one time we were a selfless society north, on the coast, and in rural areas in California. We seem to have become only thing we’ve seen great growth in, is prisons.” throughout the state. But the total count more selfish. That’s unfortunate, because for the San Joaquin Valley alone gives a we’re losing track of the dream.” As marchers headed up the road, they Both inherited their membership in the prison population of 67,059 human beings For Maria S. the dream is harder to passed the prison that became a national political class here from their father, leg- incarcerated in 13 institutions, guarded by attain than ever. She came from Mexico to symbol for abuse of inmates — California endary Republican legislator Clare another 21,215 human beings, at a cost of Bakersfield as a teenager, and after a terri- State Prison in Corcoran (5,544 inmates, Berryhill. For the Berryhills, prison con- $2.4 billion. No wonder there’s no free ble accident, has been in a wheelchair 2,322 staff, $270 million budget). A 1996 struction is an economic development education any more at state universities ever since. Nevertheless, she got her GED Los Angeles Times article by Mark Arax strategy, and they point to its role in creat- for Maria S. or anyone else. at adult school while working, and then an stated that guards there had shot and ing local jobs. The problem with California’s future AA degree at Bakersfield College. killed more inmates than in any other Bill Berryhill bemoans that Stockton’s isn’t just a bad voting system in But when it came time to move on to prison nationwide. schools have just sent out 192 layoff Sacramento. That could be fixed by an California State University in Bakersfield, In addition, they’d staged fights notices. But turning reality on its head, the initiative that the marchers, along with the free education given to Riley wasn’t between inmates, called “gladiator days.” budget cuts demanded by the Berryhills teachers unions, students, other labor even a memory. Instead, she found that 60 Minutes even showed a video of an and their colleagues are not responsible, organizations and community groups are budget cuts had produced a tuition fee of inmate killed by guards in 1994. Finally, they say. The culprits are taxes and regu- putting on the ballot next November. If $1,700 for each quarter. “With a bachelor’s eight guards and supervisors were indict- lations on business. “While the state flirts they win, budgets and tax increases will degree in mathematics, I’ll be the first in ed, but were acquitted in 2000. with tax increases, our agricultural, truck- be adopted by simple majority vote, rather my family to achieve a higher education,” Corcoran has a second prison as well, ing and educational sectors continue to than two-thirds. she said. “But I still haven’t been able to the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility decline,” he fumes. It will be easier to pass AB 560, a pro- raise the funds, so I’m not going to school (7,628 inmates, 1,786 staff, $230 million One of their allies is State Senator Jeff posal by state Assemblyman Alberto this winter. Tuition has become so high I budget). Despite the jobs in the two facili- Denham, whose district not only includes Torrico to charge oil companies a royalty can’t afford it. As an immigrant, I have to ties, however, Corcoran, like most Valley a large chunk of the San Joaquin Valley for the petroleum they pull from under pay more, and I get no financial aid.” towns, has much higher unemployment but stretches across the mountains to the California’s soil. California is the only Immigration reform would certainly than the state’s average — 19 percent. neighboring Salinas Valley, fondly oil-producing state that doesn’t charge the help solve some of her problems, but as a The general fund budget for the referred to by agribusiness as “the oil giants for what they take. federal issue, it’s not really in the direct Corcoran schools last year was $29 million nation’s salad bowl.” But giving more power to Democrats, purview of the marchers, even though — like Delano, a twentieth of the budgets The valley is also home to one of the and a better system for arriving at a bud- they’re sympathetic. But the money ques- of its two prisons. The penitentiaries are state’s most famous prisons, Soledad, get deal, still won’t reverse the state’s pri- tion is. The state’s universities won’t get giant behemoths in towns like Corcoran, where George Jackson wrote Soledad orities. California spends enormous sums more funding and tuition won’t move with spending that dwarfs schools or city Brother in 1970. It is actually two prisons, jailing people, while finding few alterna- back toward where it was in the 1950s services. Yet for all the promise of jobs, the Salinas Valley State Prison and the tives to incarceration, and slashing money without political change in Sacramento. they don’t make much of a dent in the job- Correctional Training Facility. Together, for the education that might open other Of course, even those good memories lessness endemic to rural California. they house 11,552 people, employ 3,195 doors to the state’s youth, especially its of the 1950s are only shared by some of Going by prison after prison was espe- guards and other personnel, and spend a poorest. Democrats vote for prisons too. the state’s residents. That was also the cially heartwrenching for Irene Gonzalez, combined budget of $327 million. “We’ve seen boarded-up homes every- period of Cold War loyalty oaths, when who joined the march, not as a teacher, but Denham gets an A-plus rating from the where,” said Gavin Riley, describing the many teachers refused to denounce their as a worker in the criminal justice system. Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association, marchers’ journey up the valley’s prison coworkers for left-wing ideas, and were She looks at the institutions, and knows not architects of the tax-cutting policy that is road. “Coming into Fresno, we walked fired. Jazz musicians like Art Pepper went just who they house but the people who driving the state into astronomical debt, through a Skid Row area where people to jail, in part because they took drugs, work there. She doesn’t see them as ene- and a 100 percent perfect score from the were living in cardboard and wood shacks but also because most were black artists in mies, or people sucking up budget dollars California Taxpayers Association. Neither underneath a freeway, sleeping on the a black community patrolled by the Los that should really go elsewhere. association is worried about the tax bur- sidewalks. We’ve seen farms where the Angeles Police Department like an occu- “In the probation department in Los den of prisons, however. land is fallow and the trees have been pying army. And before the Delano grape Angeles, where I work, we service the Behind these legislators is the most allowed to die. About the only thing strike, growers brought in contract bracero community in rehabilitating minors and extreme element of the state’s Republican we’ve seen great growth in, is prisons. workers from Mexico every year, sending adults, and a lot of our services are being Party, the California Republican “We’ve walked by beautiful, wonder- them back across the border once the cut, too,” she explained. “We used to give Assembly. They only gave the Berryhills ful prisons. I look at that and say, what a work was done. referrals, and could provide help in get- 67 percent ratings. Abel Maldonado, a waste, not only of land but of people. I The San Joaquin Valley has its bitter ting jobs or developing reading skills. But Republican who voted to break the can’t help but think that California, a state racial memories. Just north of Delano and with the cuts we can’t do that any longer.” Republican-engineered budget deadlock that’s now down near the bottom in what McFarland, marchers came upon She predicts a social explosion if the last session, got 22 percent, lower than it spends on education, is far and away the Allensworth, a town founded in 1908 by state’s priorities aren’t changed. “It should some Democrats. biggest spender on prisons. It doesn’t take African-Americans, in the period before not cost us an arm and a leg to send our The Stanislaus County GOP, an active a brain surgeon to connect the dots.” World War I when lynchings were com- kids through college, or to go there our- participant in the Assembly and part of the mon and the Klan rode high in the South. selves. What they’re going to have is more Berryhills’ base, lists its principles as For more articles and images by David Colonel Allen Allensworth founded a people living on the streets,” she said. “smaller government, lower taxes, individ- Bacon, see http://dbacon.igc.org. 8 S TREET S PIRIT May 2010 The Great Recession The U.S. economic collapse has jeopardized state and local governments from coast to coast, under- mined schools and universities, and caused mas- sive unemployment and homelessness.

The economic collapse has left homeless women living on the streets Photos by of San Francisco, where they face increased risk of assault and rape, Robert Terrell and are plagued by health problems that shorten their life expectancy. from page 1 excruciating. If they attempt to tough it out by continuing to pay mortgages for As is the case in many other states in properties that, in some areas of the the nation, those implementing budgetary nation, are now worth less than 50 percent reductions are targeting California’s pri- of their former assessed value, they risk mary and secondary educational systems. ending up throwing good money after Thousands of classroom teachers across bad, a hopeless situation. the state have been fired. And academic Giving up, turning in the keys and programs are being ruthlessly eliminated walking away may save those experienc- with little thought being given to the dis- ing this dilemma from the corrosive A sick, disabled, emaciated man tries to survive on the streets of San Francisco. astrous impact that such reductions will agony of their short-term pain. But nega- have on the long-term prospects of stu- tive consequences will haunt them for exuded when the big banks and Wall Street unemployed, and millions of others facing dents, their families and communities. many years to come via the intentionally were threatened with collapse is nowhere to homelessness. Draconian cuts are also being made punishing impact of onerous, expensive, be seen with regard to the manner in which The net result is that the United States is across the board in California’s institu- cumulative penalties levied by financial they are addressing the expanding financial faced with a crisis of unprecedented size tions of higher education. Valuable degree bounty hunters deployed by the govern- morass which entraps hapless members of and complexity. Moreover, the nature of programs are being eliminated, essential ment-bailed-out financial institutions that the middle and lower classes. our problems is such that they will almost purchases have been halted, and academic hold their mortgages. In any event, I am encumbered by the certainly metastasize unless far-reaching, programs with little or nothing in com- Some of those caught in this demoral- strong, persistent, impression that virtually fundamental reforms are implemented. mon are being forced to merge — and izing trap are hoping to reverse their sink- all of the public officials entrusted with We can hope for the best. But my best parrot, as best they can, the allegation that ing financial fortunes by working harder responsibility for implementing policies sense is that many of us, those in the mid- being merged with strangers possessing for longer hours in order to acquire a designed to improve the nation’s overall dle classes and below in particular, should diametrically opposed outlooks, agendas, modicum of fiscal leverage. But this will economic performance are missing the begin planning for the worst because the values and cultures is a good thing. not prove to be a winning strategy for the boat. At best, the nation’s political leaders economic infrastructure they have As is the case in many sections of the vast majority of those seeking to put it are attempting to get the economy back to depended on up to this time to keep life nation, California’s institutions of higher into action. where it was before the crash that shook the and limb together is in tatters. As a result, education are intentionally purging stu- This is primarily due to the fact that the foundations of the global trading system. the number of U.S. citizens who live in dents. The chancellor of the California United States currently has one of the But this will not prove possible, and essentially Third World-type circum- State University System has declared that tightest job markets in living memory. As they are bound to experience failure as stances, on a more or less permanent he is intent on reducing enrollment by at a result, tens of millions of people are job- long as they pursue this objective. This is basis, is going to grow during the years least 40,000 students. Some of this is being less, with few prospects of obtaining ade- due to the fact that the recent Great immediately ahead. accomplished via cuts in courses and pro- quate employment any time soon. Recession was great indeed, because it The key point to be understood is that grams. But the purge strategy is also being Depressed and discouraged by their poor formally demarcated the moment when the recent Great Recession was almost implemented via steady increases in prospects, millions have simply given up the nation’s chickens began coming home certainly engendered by a phenomenon tuition, penalties and fees. the search for employment. to roost in earnest regarding the declining that eventually will be recognized as a In addition, California’s public col- Some of those who fall into the latter economic and military strength of the structural contraction of the U.S. economy leges and universities have fired thou- category are currently homeless. U.S. Empire. vis-à-vis the rest of the world, China and sands of professors during the past few Moreover, without a highly improbable Wars are costly affairs, and this is par- India in particular. months due to budgetary constraints. massive expansion in the economy, it is ticularly the case when they are not deci- Those responsible for administering Moreover, all indications at this point are inevitable that the number of homeless sively won. President George W. Bush, government aren’t willing to publicly that the situation will get much worse people living and dying in primitive cir- and the neo-conservative buccaneers who acknowledge this fact. Nonetheless, before it begins to improve. cumstances on the nation’s streets will had his ear, rolled the dice in Iraq in an everyone who is homeless understands California’s fiscal woes are not unique. substantially increase. effort to cop a cheap, easy, vastly lucra- this tragic truth, at least on a visceral Similar modes of triage are being imple- Despite crude, insensitive, and fre- tive victory. Things obviously have not level. It is also understood by the millions mented in education and citizen services quently irrational Republican opposition, worked out as planned. of people who are unemployed, and still by state governments in every part of the the Obama administration, supported by The United States has ended up having millions more who are on the verge of nation. The key point to be understood is the frequently hapless Democratic majori- to pay hundreds of billions of dollars more losing their homes. that our overall economic system is ty in Congress, is making modest progress than anticipated, due to the long-drawn-out Given these stark realities, I am left undergoing a fundamental transition. in the uphill struggle to stabilize the econ- insurgency that has kept Iraqis in agonizing wondering how long will it take for our The housing sector can be cited in omy, and promote policies that will hope- turmoil since the Bush administration’s ill- largely clueless leadership class to recog- order to elaborate the point. Millions of fully produce more decent jobs that pay advised “shock and awe” attack that nize that we are faced with a systemic homeowners, at least one in eight, are adequate living wages. destroyed their government. economic crisis of epic proportions, and “underwater” on their mortgages. They But progress on this front is minimal. The insurgency continues, albeit in a begin to legislate accordingly? are faced with the probability that they Thus, those who are in most need of jobs subdued form, and the cost of the disas- Robert L. Terrell is a Journalism Professor will never recoup the huge sums of hard- and additional financial resources are trous fiasco is still being tallied up in and Coordinator of Media at California State earned money that has vanished into thin being provided little assistance, or none at terms of dollars spent, diminished authori- University, East Bay. Terrell has devoted air via reduced property values. all. Moreover, it is painfully obvious to ty and clout for the United States in world many years to photographing and writing The dilemma of those caught in this those who fall into this category that the affairs, and a bruised national economy about poor people in the United States and in particularly demoralizing situation is fervent passion that government officials that has left tens of millions of citizens Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.