Category: Articles

As has been demonstrated clearly since the current global pastry uprising began in October, pies fly when you’re having fun. Our brave and noble Dutch comrades of the fighting unit called TA.A.R.T, who claimed they were “inspired by the Californian based group Biotic Baking Brigade,” have struck another blow against neoliberalism and globalization.

Holland – January 4, 1999 Dutch minister receives banana-vanilla pie in his face T.A.A.R.T. strikes again!! Today the actiongroup T.A.A.R.T. (Dutch for PIE), surprised the Dutch finance minister Gerrit Zalm with two delicious vanilla-banana pies (100% organic) in his face. With this action we want to celebrate his contribution to the introduction of the euro: one of the most undemocratic, megalomanic plans imposed on the population this century. Also, we want to congratulate big business, that finally succeeded in creating the unified coin – euro-, after years of lobbying in shady organizations like the Association for a Monetary Union and the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT). The euro, the crown on the Internal Market – also a corporate initiative realised by european politicians.

What are the objections of T.A.A.R.T. against the euro?

1. For years now, the EMU project (Economic and Monetary Union) has been an excuse for politicians and the corporate world to annoy the European population with budget- cuts and reorganisations. Because we had to be ready for the euro and catch up with the EMU chteria! In the future, downsizing, public spending cuts and reorganisations will become structural policy, thanks to the Stability Pact. Governments have to balance their budgets according to this pact, and are not allowed to spend too much money on, for example, social secuhty and health care. If not, they will be punished by the omnipotent and unaccountable European Central Bank. The euro – we’re all going to pay for this. Or, talking in Zalm- speak: “we have to increase the safety margins”.

2. For the business world, the euro offers lots of advantages, but European citizens won’t taste the benefits. Just like always, Europeans will have to pay for using cash points, changing money and bank transactions. All the euro propaganda with which the government harassed us (tv ads, billboards, government leaflets, free info lines, newspaper advertisements etc) prove to be based on lies. The euro offers beautiful possibilities for companies to increase their monstrous profits. A strong, stable currency; a uniform, transparent market…. European politicians are trying their very best to create the most ideal circumstances for companies. Like Dutch Bank director Nout Wellink explained: ‘maintaining the Stability Pact is crucial for the trust of the private sector”.

3. Entirely according to European Union traditions, the European population was not included in the decision to introduce the euro. The euro will be for all of us, the European Commission says, but no-one voted for it! Just a few countries had a referendum on the subject. Dutch politicians must be thinking the population is too stupid to have a say in this. And now we are told -like we are little children – to be very happy with the new currency. What a shame!

4. The euro is the next in a series of megalomanic plans, thought out by euro- fanatics who only think in terms of economic growth, ideal circumstances for companies and the competing power of the EU. The European Union is beginning to look more and more like an economic- monetary dictatorship in which European politicians obediently realize the wishes of corporate Europe, at the cost of european citizens.

T.A.A.R.T. does not feel sad about the disappearing of the Dutch Guilder, but opposes a unified Europe in which monetary and economic interests prevail, without the population having any say in this. T.A.A.R.T. is in favor of true international cooperation, not based on money and corporate interests, but on solidarity, hospitality, fair trade and true democracy.

No to a europe of bankers and companies!!! International solidarity instead of euro- dictatorship!!!

Science is currently the domain of government military interests and large-scale industry. The establishment controls the funding for scientific research, and hence gets to decide what type of research is done. The ruling class maintains power by not funding projects that put science to work bettering the lives of oppressed people. Medical research supports the health concerns of rich people (plastic surgery, laser eyesight correction), while ignoring the high infant mortality rate for babies of color and the low life expectancies on Native American reservations. Lesbian health needs are not yet on the horizon of mainstream gynecological research. Geologists can often only find jobs in the oil industry; little funding is available for investigating claims of contaminated soil and water made by environmental justice organizations. “Pure science”, or research for truth’s sake, is not exempt: The Department of Defense and the Department of Energy disproportionately fund “pure” research in areas such as optics and plastics development in anticipation of new weapons materials. The current science is a vehicle of oppression.

But science can be a powerful tool in the construction of a liberated society. Converting science from a corporate puppet to a process accessible to all people will deal a major blow to the capitalist information-based economy. Science and the resulting technology have built the current exploitative “information age.” We must take science back. Science must not be seen as a force of oppression, but as a tool that can be used for liberation. We must re-channel science to clean up the social and environmental legacies of the current industrial/information society, and to support a new society where science contributes to all communities. Applied research can focus on topics ranging from public transportation to contaminated land and water cleanup to health care suited to each individual. Basic science research should be pursued with respect for the natural world it seeks to understand, and only after critical consideration of possible applications of the research.

The creation of a science that works for all people requires that people from all sectors of society understand and participate in science. The corporate elite can control science because the general public perceives science to be the mystical realm of experts. The establishment perpetuates the myth that science requires a higher level of intelligence, and that science is most easily done by people who are white and male or who “think like men.” In response to mainstream feminism and race-related civil rights battles, the military and corporate controllers of science have established several scholarship programs targeting women and people of color. However, recipients of the fellowships are frequently required to work for the military/corporate sponsor for at least a short period after graduation, and are thus sucked into the corporate science system through the promise of job security. Most people not from backgrounds of privilege are tracked away from science through racist and classist educational systems, and through media manipulation of the scientific process which feeds the elitism bestowed upon the scientist.

In fact, science can be done by anybody. The type of reasoning used in science is not inherently oppressive, male, or white, but can be used by anybody in everyday actions such as finding the fastest route to work or determining the best combination of groceries while shopping on a budget. People working on engines in shops use skills and thought processes called scientific when done by a Ph.D. Children have an innate experimental ability in their creativity, questioning, and theory-testing. The process of identifying herbal medicinal treatments is as scientifically valid as research done in the medical establishment. Indigenous and independent farmers do science as they identify the growing conditions and soil types that best suit certain plants.

Empowering people of diverse backgrounds to learn science is essential to reclaiming scientific knowledge and tools for everybody’s use. Equally important is the restructuring of the funding process. Research must no longer be funded by organizations within the military-industrial complex. Funding must be delegated by bodies directly responsible to the people. One suggestion is a committee of people chosen possibly at random and representative of all populations within an area. The committee would listen to presentations by research groups seeking funding, and would award funding after investigating multiple views on a project. The money would be public in origin, and the people would have to be generally satisfied with the research to keep contributing money. Research would then be truly responsive to the community’s needs.

Ideas for new research projects:

Birth/sperm control taken by men

Alternative sources of energy

Better mud control methods at construction sites

City lights that cause less light pollution

Studies of the ecology of all parts of the earth, and how humans have affected the ecology

Survey and remediation of contaminated water sources

It looks like the next target for corporate advertisements are the beaches of Florida, where Skippy peanut butter has already successfully steam rolled its image onto a stretch of beach half a mile long and 200 ft wide. Beach towns from Miami beach to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to Wildwood, NJ and Jones beach on Long Island are considering this tactic in return for profits made by selling “ad space” in the sand. From an ecological standpoint, steamrolling advertisements into the sand is probably more environmentally friendly and more ecologically efficient than using billboards (no paper, ink, etc.). However, from a basic human-who-wants-a-break-from-consumer-corporate-run-around-standpoint, this dream-induced marketing ploy (inventor Dori literally spruced the idea from a dream) only serves to remind us that corporate advertisements and the steady push for consumerism has risen to intolerably obnoxious heights in modern America. Who wants to think about Skippy peanut butter every time they go to the beach? What sort of state is the world in that a person’s self worth is directly linked to how well they as a worker can provide ideas for their corporation? Hopefully the human species can someday escape the strange notion that life spirals around working an 8 hour day only to buy, work again, to then again buy more consumer goods for the rest of their lives. 5000 pressed images of Skippy peanut butter jars strewn along the coastline …how many dollars are your dreams worth?

March is a cold month to bare breasts, but northern Idaho women can be topfree thanks to a recent court ruling. On November 30, 1998, Second District Judge John Stegner in Moscow, Idaho, dismissed indecent exposure charges against Lori Graves, Natalie Shapiro, and Stacy Temple.

The charges originated from last summer, when the trio was arrested in downtown Moscow for baring their breasts. On a 90 degree day in July, the three women walked through Moscow with five male friends who had their shirts off. Tired of wearing their shirts in the sweltering heat, the women removed them also.

Seconds later, a police car pulled up. Two police officers asked the women to put their shirts on. When asked if the men had to put their shirts on as well, the officers said no. “When pressed for a reason why, he said ‘it’s not normal behavior for ladies to go topless in society,'” said Graves. “I responded by saying ‘100 years ago, it wasn’t normal behavior for ladies to vote.’ He then said ‘you’re distracting people and children might see!’ He didn’t get it.”

The officers decided to charge the women with breaking Section 1-16 of the Moscow City Ordinance, Indecent Exposure, which stated that “no person shall willfully expose his or her person or the private parts thereof in any place where there are other persons likely to be offended or annoyed thereby.”

The officers, when asked about men’s private parts, responded with “men’s parts are public, women’s parts are private.” “It was clear to us that the law was non-gender specific and ambiguous, yet the officers chose to selectively interpret it,” noted Temple.

Finally, the women were arrested, taken to the local jail-still topless-and arraigned and released, pleading not guilty. The judge set a $115 fine if the women were found guilty.

The trio immediately enlisted the help of Moscow attorney James Siebe. Their defense was that the law was vague and violated the 14th Amendment to the US. Constitution because it violated women’s right to equal protection under the law.

The judge agreed, dismissing the charges and ruling that the term “private parts” did not include the female breast and that the term “your person” was unconstitutionally vague and ambiguous.

According to the Lewiston Morning Tribune, the prosecutor has already drafted a new ordinance that would prohibit “pubescent female breasts below the top of the areola” in public, but an exception would be made for breast-feeding. It is unknown if or when the Moscow City Council will decide on it.

It was once illegal for men to be topfree. That all changed following a 1930s movie in which Clark Gable removed his shirt. Soon men were removing their shirts in public, and were arrested. Judges started throwing out the cases, recognizing the inherent right of men to be topless. That’s what we need to do to change a law. We need to challenge unjust laws by breaking them. That generates attention and controversy and makes people question why the law exists in the first place.

People around the world are currently organizing what may become the largest international protest ever against economic globalization, the process by which corporations are forming an international dictatorship of commerce that supersedes the interests of workers, the environment and freedom.

On Friday, June 18, 1999, people on every continent will simultaneously take the struggle against corporate domination to the heart of global economy: the financial districts, stock markets, banking centers and offices of multinational corporations. Now is the time to get involved in this international effort by organizing a protest in your community or joining ongoing efforts.

In many cities including San Francisco, the protest will include a march, critical mass bike ride, street party, and other creative tactics, highlighting the growing links between anti-globalization activists, environmentalists, labor activists, cyclists and everyone interested in self-determination, democracy and people over profits. Contact San Francisco Reclaim the Streets at 415 820-3226 to get involved in organizing the event. SF RTS is hoping to work with dozens of local organizations, artists and musicians on the event. Ideas, proposals and energy are very welcome.

The June 18 event is set to coincide with the international meeting of the G8, the leaders of the eight most economically powerful countries in the world, who are meeting between June 18 and 20 in Koln, Germany. The global protest has been proposed by London Reclaim the Streets and other British groups. London RTS organizes street parties to fight the domination of cities by the car and corporate commerce, and last year called for a global protest which ultimately featured simultaneous events in 30 cities in 20 countries.

Groups currently discussing the June 18 international protest include the Karnataka State Farmers in India, the Rainbow Keepers in the ex-Soviet states, Process de Communidades Negras in Columbia, Friends of the Earth in Uruguay, CTERA, the Argentinean teachers Union, RTS groups in the Czech republic and Australia, the El Salvadoran textile workers union COMUTRAS, peasant movements in Mozambique and various European organizations.

How To Get Involved.

Contact the international June 18 discussion list by writing to J18/RTS, PO Box 9656, London N4 4JY, England or by e-mailing listproc@gn.apc.org with the message “subscribe J18discussion [your name].” Or try USJ18 coalition- ban@tao.ca.

Or contact San Francisco RTS at 415 820-3226 to get involved in organizing local June 18 actions or for information about organizing a June 18 action anywhere else in North America. SF RTS is looking for more members and energy, so call and volunteer. SF RTS is especially seeking people involved in the labor movement, corporate accountability movement, environmental movement, anti-globalization movement, and folks in the rave scene who have knowledge about/access to sound systems for a proper street party. After some more time for discussion, a time and meeting place for the San Francisco event will hopefully be announced in April on the voice mail.

An inspirational video about the RTS movement in England is available from SF RTS and is being screened around the Bay Area (including on public access TV) to generate interest around the June 18 event. See it on April 9, 8:30 at 3124 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley.

Hopefully, people everywhere will come out of the woodwork to organize protests in their own communities. Every place on earth is being effected by the global economy and every place on earth has some local representative of corporate power which can be a target.

East Bay activist Nick Frabasilio was assaulted and arrested by the Berkeley Police at a December 17 march against the bombing of Iraq. As of press time he faces three misdemeanor charges: participating in a riot, failing to leave the scene of a riot, and resisting an officer. There was no riot.

Frabasilio was clubbed in the face by Officer Craig while on his back not resisting arrest with two other officers on top of him. He was taken to Highland Hospital in custody where he received 5 stitches for a punctured cheek.

The incident came towards the end of an entirely peaceful 3-hour demonstration when the police refused to allow the crowd to march back up University Avenue, instead forcing them onto small, dark. quite residential streets. Police reports from the incident contain numerous lies by Officer Craig to justify the beating and arrest. Fellow arresting officers Morizono and Kassebaum support the lies in their reports. Defense has submitted an obtained video which disproves many of the falsifications.

A pretrial hearing is set for March 10 at 9:30 a.m. in Berkeley Municipal Court, Department __. The defense is still $200 in debt for legal expenses and may need more money. Send checks to: Nick Frabasilio P.O. Box 4169 Berkeley, CA 94704.

This year marks the second annual Reclaim May Day festival. Last May Day five thousand people-participated in Reclaim May Day, an event to renew the honoring of International Workers Day. This year housing, homeless, community, labor and historical groups will be coming together to celebrate and also to oppose the assault on the poor and working people of San Francisco.

The modern May Day honoring workers came about because of the events in Chicago 1 886. the Haymarket Riot. 1 886 saw much agitation for the eight hour day with Chicago being particularly active. In the previous five years there were an average of 150,000 workers involved in strikes in each of those years, but in 1,886 500,000 workers participated in strikes. May 1 st saw strikes called nationwide and 350,000 workers went on strike. Every railroad in Chicago was shut down and most industry was non-functional. On May 3rd, in front of the McCormick Harvester Works, strikers and sympathizers were fighting scabs. the police fired into the crowd of strikers, killing four and wounding several. A meeting was called for the next evening, to be held at Haymarket Square. About three thousand people were there and by all accounts it was peaceful. Toward the end of the meeting it started to rain and much of the crowd was leaving. At this time about 180 cops showed up to disperse the crowd . In the midst of this a bomb was thrown, exploding near the cops, killing seven and wounding sixty- six. No one knew who threw the bomb, but the call went out to round up known anarchists. Eight anarchists were arrested for the crime even though only one was at Haymarket Square that day and he was speaking when the bomb went off. There was no evidence against any of the eight arrested but they were all convicted and five were slated to hang.

Internationally, meetings were held to try to put pressure on Illinois to free the Haymarket Eight, but to no avail. Just a year later, 1887, four anarchists, Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer and George Engel were hanged. The fifth, Louis Lingg, died by his own hand in his prison cell. The three others we eventually pardoned.

Reclaim May Day

Saturday, May 1st

11 a.m. on Dolores Park
Events include:

May Day Picnic, Performances by

San Francisco Mime Troupe,

Shaking San Francisco,

Art and Revolution Collective.

May Pole Dance by

Reclaiming Collective.

Hundred foot

graffiti wall.

Live music.

Street Procession.

Looking at the block of Shattuck Avenue between Durant and Channing streets, there is no way to tell that you’re standing in Berkeley, California, rather than in Kansas City, San Diego, Columbus or Atlanta. Like downtown strips across the globe, Berkeley too is increasingly occupied by unbroken rows of chainstores, populated by underpaid, de-skilled, part-time workers, and controlled from afar by massive corporations. The Block of Horror in downtown Berkeley features a Barnes & Noble unit, a Jamba Juice smoothie counter, a Blockbuster Video and an antiseptic High Tech Burrito. At least so far, it is one of the few blocks of unbroken chainstores in Berkeley.

Unfortunately, the Block of Horror is far from an aberration: most new businesses that open in Berkeley are chains, and chains are gradually replacing locally owned shops. In the last 5 years, downtown Berkeley has gained a Starbuck’s coffee, an Eddie Bauer, a Ben & Jerry’s, a Taco Bell, a Ross Dress For Less, Ms. Fields Cookies, and a Walgreens. If things keep going in the same direction, far from being a relative rarity, the Block of Horror may soon became the norm in Berkeley, as virtually identical blocks already represent the norm most everywhere else in the United States. Even in the world.

It is especially surprising to see the Block of Horror in a town with nationally known, locally-run bookstores and restaurants, and within blocks of a really impressive locally owned video store. Twenty or thirty years ago, Berkeley residents unceasingly fought chainstores when they appeared, such as the Gap and Tower Records on Telegraph, which were both repeatedly protested, boycotted and even looted. The new wave of chainstores is being welcomed, even celebrated, by Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean and downtown landlord interests. They can’t seem to tell the difference between revitalizing downtown with more businesses, and sowing the seeds of the downtown’s destruction by bringing in chainstores which will suck the downtown dry, and which ultimately have no commitment to the success of downtown Berkeley over the success of any of their outlets in any random mall in Iowa. It is highly ironic that local Chambers of Commerce like the one in Berkeley actually want to bring in chainstores, since the chains’ agenda is to eliminate all local businesses, centralizing decision making and the economy into distant corporate board rooms. For downtown property owners, chainstores are a boon because they can pay higher rents. These higher rents, together with relentless competition from chains so large that they can win price breaks from suppliers, are precisely what drives locally owned stores under.

The increasing success of chainstores is part of a trend whereby consumption is increasingly centrally managed. At the start of the Industrial Revolution, factory owners learned how to centrally organize production for greater efficiency. One-hundred and fifty years later, factory technology is incredibly efficient, and the heads of industry have now turned to the management of consumers to achieve the highest rates of consumption using the least inputs of resources. Chainstores, and increasingly internet commerce, represent the highest technology of managed consumerism.

Scientific market research (together with mass media advertising) determine what the consumers will buy. Massive corporations, funded with billions from Wall Street, achieve economies of scale by vertically integrating purchasing, distribution and retail, or by cutting sweetheart deals with producers. On the local level, retail sales are conducted through chainstores units, centrally designed and managed to standards established through research. Each unit is connected to the central office using computers and satellites with efficiency never before possible. The chain’s average wages are lower since fewer skilled employees are required to operate a chainstore.

By contrast, locally owned retail outlets are highly inefficient because they can’t order by the truck full, they don’t have access to national market research and advertising, and their design and marketing decisions are made unscientifically, according to individual taste. According to chain-think, independent stores must be replaced so that chains can gain market share and dominate.

A community that loses all local control or contact with the functions of the economy–production, consumption, meeting human needs–is doomed as a community. Globalization of the economy has repeatedly demonstrated that multi-national corporations have no commitment to any particular place, and will remove jobs or services as soon as it becomes economically attractive to do so. A community dominated by chains and massive multi-national employers cannot exercise any local, democratic control over what labor and environmental responsibilities businesses have to the community. Instead, unaccountable corporate boards gain unfettered power over how or whether local residents will work, and what they will consume.

Chainstores rarely invest in the communities in which they locate. Instead, every dollar spent at a chain is paid as profit to investors or is concentrated at its corporate office for more investment in new outlets elsewhere.

As chainstores increasingly dominate retail, local character and the possibility for innovation are lost. Local opportunities to break out of the corporate rat race by using local currencies or by setting up cooperatives or collectives are frustrated. It becomes increasingly difficult to talk to the person in charge who can make changes.

To preserve democracy and communities worth living in, chainstores must be fought. And this doesn’t just mean not buying from them. Its time for creative and militant tactics to attack these blights on the community. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Barnes & Noble Type of Business: Books Number of Units in the Chain: 1,011 Crimes against Freedom: B&N is the largest bookstore chain on the planet with annual sales exceeding $3 billion. It recently announced plans to merge with the world’s largest wholesale book distributor, Ingram. Together, B&N and Ingram would control 40 percent of all books sold in America. B&N and fellow mega-chain Borders together have driven thousands of independent bookstores out of the market, replacing them with bland corporate culture, lower wages, less local character and less local control. As the chains have exploded, market share for independent booksellers has dropped from 24.2 percent in 1993 to 17.2 in 1997. These chains won’t carry books (and ideas) published by small presses unless the small presses can afford to print massive runs, subject to massive returns if the books don’t sell in a few weeks. Locally owned Alternatives: (not complete list) Black Oak books, 1491 Shattuck, 486-0698 Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave, 845-9096 Dark Carnival, 3086 Claremont, 654-7323 Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo, 548-3402 Gaia books, 1400 Shattuck Ave, 548-4172 Mama Bears, 6536 Telegraph Ave., 428-9684 Moes Books, 2476 Telegraph, 849-2087 Shakespeare’s, 2499 Telegraph, 841-8916 Sierra Club, 6014 College Ave, 658-7470 Walden Pond, 3314 Grand Ave., 832-4438

Jamba Juice Type of Business: Smoothies Number of Units in the Chain: 221 (including 96 stores in recently acquired Zuka Juice chain) Crimes against Freedom: JJ is the nation’s largest smoothie chain, hoping to cash in on the exploding market, which was expected to have total sales of $504 million for 1998. JJ had sales of over $55 million last ye ar. Since starting in 1995 with early venture capital funding from Howard Schultz, president of Starbucks, the chain’s founder Kirk Perron has been fond of making pretentious claims: We do a lot to create a passion around the higher purpose, which is really about enriching people’s lives. Locally owned Alternatives: (not complete list) Juice Bar Collective, 2114 Vine, 548-8473 Smart Alec’s, Durant & Telegraph

Blockbuster Video Type of Business: Video rental Number of Units in the Chain: 4,438 in US 2,005 internationally in 26 countries. Crimes against Freedom: Blockbuster is the largest video chain on Earth with 38 million people in the US holding cards. It boasts of operating a store within a 10 minute drive of virtually every major neighborhood in the United States. Their mission is to be the global leader in rentable home entertainment. After only 12 years in business, it controls one-third of the video market in the US. Blockbuster’s third quarter 1998 revenues were up 13.3 percent after the chain worked out deals with Hollywood studios to get hundreds of copies of each movie on a profit-sharing basis, permitted Blockbuster to avoid paying up-front costs. These deals, unavailable to independent video stores are putting thousands of independent video stores out of business, and may be challenged in a Federal anti-trust suit. Locally owned Alternatives: (not complete list) Good Vibrations, 22504 San Pablo, 841-8987 Movie Image, 64 Shattuck Sq, 649-0296 Rasputin Video, 2411 Telegraph, 486-2690 Videots, 2988 College, 540-0222

High Tech Burrito Type of Business: Food Number of Units in the Chain: 16 Crimes against Freedom: The so-far smaller chain, which tries to take the Mexican out of burritos, recently pioneered technology to permit people to pay with their ATM card if they let a computer scan their fingerprints. We’ll see if this format eventually makes it big. Locally owned Alternatives: (not complete list) La Cascada, 2164 Center St., 704-8688 Mi Tierra, 1401 University, 841-1544 Taqueria La Familia 2971 Shattuck, 548-3420

Food Not Bombs serves dissent at SF City Hall Reopening Ceremony

Police sweeps have returned as the official policy on homelessness in San Francisco. In keeping with political tradition, Willie Brown has resorted to the tired tactic of using police to ticket, arrest, and harass homeless people in public spaces in an attempt to win votes under the guise of ‘doing something’ about homelessness. Like his predecessors, Art Agnos and Frank Jordan, Brown has entered his reelection year in office with ‘get tough’ policies that make headlines and garner approval from downtown business, but do nothing to improve the situation for poor people. Police sweeps have been on the rise all over San Francisco – in the Haight, the Castro and Union Square in particular. By December, the police sweeps were launched in full force in Civic Center in preparation for the reopening of City Hall. City Hall had been closed for upgrade, restoration and retrofitting since early spring of 95. Over 300 million dollars had been spent on City Hall, including 4 to 5 hundred thousand dollars for gold plating on City Hall’s dome. Using the policy of ‘zero tolerance’ (i.e. if you look poor and aren’t white, then you will be questioned), the police forced people out. Additionally, all of the benches in Civic Center were removed and using enormous lights, the entire plaza was lit up throughout the night to prevent sleeping.

On January 5th, City Hall reopened and was kicked off with a ceremony lead by Mayor Brown. The ceremony took place across the street in Civic Center and all signs of poverty had been removed – the reality of failed homeless policy, the effects of welfare reform and economic inequality had been hidden to make way for the photo opportunities of a triumphant ceremony of city politics as usual. However, Food Not Bombs decided to ‘celebrate’ the reopening of City Hall with an all day protest and community meal for poor people.

For years, Food Not Bombs had served free food across from City Hall in Civic Center. By sharing food in a high profile area and visibly protesting against poverty and the criminalization of poor people, FNB was targeted by Mayors Agnos and Jordan for arrest and political repression. Since the closing of City Hall, the group has been sharing food in United Nations Plaza. With the reopening, FNB returned to Civic Center in an effort to both draw attention to the social injustice of poverty and to protest the city’s punitive attacks against homeless people.

From 9 am to about 7:30 pm FNB served on the opposite side of Civic Center from where the ceremony was held. With two large banners reading “Food Not Bombs” and “Visibility is a Human Right”, FNB served breakfast, lunch and dinner, distributed literature, engaged hundreds of people walking by and created a safe space for poor people to return to Civic Center after being forcibly removed. While the number of servers/protesters never exceeded a dozen or two, hundreds of people received food and literature and many stopped to read the banners and get an alternative perspective on city politics.

“Virtually every passer by remarked on the importance of our mission – to feed people and thereby make the clear statement that government is failing in it’s mandate,” commented Rg Goudy, a workfare worker and member of People Organized To Win Employment Rights, the Coalition on Homelessness and FNB. Goudy as stated that he was “amazed at the press interest in FNB’s historic, visual and vocal return to Civic Center”. While there was much press interest, there was also concern from the police which included a surprise visit from the City’s Health Department to inform FNB that it was conducting an illegal activity.

Sasha, an activist with FNB, later said, “By the amount of attention we got early-on in the day, it was apparent that we had touched a nerve in city government. Willie’s dream seemed to be a City Hall for it’s upper class tastes to serve the upper class people who run the city. We served as a reminder to everyone’s conscience that it’s wrong to have dessert at the expense of someone else’s dinner.”

Tai Miller, who recorded much of the event for Free Radio, wondered “why we let them take our tax money to build a monument to people who are so boring while others of us starve”. Miller, a long-time activist with FNB and the Industrial Workers of the World, also wondered, if City Hall belongs to the people, as the Mayor stated during the ceremony, why were poor people forced away. “Such is life in the capitalist world,” she said.

Now that City Hall is reopened, poor people are still being cleared out of Civic Center and at the end of January, the Board of Supervisors under the impetus of Amos Brown have voted to increase the police sweeps in United Nations Plaza. Amos Brown who has argued that SF’s homeless problem is due to “compassion overload” and the generosity of the city, has repeatedly called for increased punitive measures against homeless people and “zero-tolerance”. Homeless people are being pushed into the neighborhoods as police make their presence felt in the plazas and parks. Politicians like Amos Brown have turned the public debate away from the lack of affordable housing, lack of drug treatment programs, lack of decent paying jobs, and other economic and social dynamics onto issues of personal behavior and individual conduct.

Fortunately, protests have been taking place throughout February. The Coalition on Homelessness held a “Have A Heart” rally for Valentine’s Day at City Hall. A group of almost 100 people went into City Hall and visited the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor with chants of “L-O-V-E”, “Have a change of heart”, and my person favorite “Stop in the name of love”. All supervisors who supported the police sweeps were given broken hearts, while the three who opposed the sweeps were given beautiful valentines. Religious Witness For Homeless People also held a rally denouncing the police sweeps and political rhetoric that attacks homeless people. On Feb. 17th, over 150 people rallied at Civic Center and kicked off a 21 day fast to protest the enormous amount of housing available in the Presidio that could be given to homeless people. Over 250 people are currently fasting (as this article is written). Some people are fasting one day, while others are fasting on a liquid diet all 21 days. The fast has garnered mainstream media and has been accompanied with daily vigils in front of City Hall.

Public protests, like those of Food Not Bombs, the Coalition on Homelessness and Religious Witness, aim to bring the public debate back to the real issues of economic inequality, misplaced priorities and the need to address social issues like homelessness with social and economic justice.

The slogan “Homes Not Jails” rings painfully true as the government spends more and more money on prisons to warehouse the poor, and San Francisco looks to “crack-downs” and police sweeps as answers to economic inequality and homelessness.

For more information please call SF Food Not Bombs at 415.292.3235.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of People’s Park. Therefore, Slingshot publishes this short history of the Park as a public service.

At the start of 1969, the site that is now People’s Park was a dirt parking lot. The university had bought the property for new dorms in the mid-60s but then after demolishing the wood frame houses that had been on the lot (which had, coincidentally, formed a home base for many radicals which the UC Regents wanted out of Berkeley) the university never built the dorms. In the spring of 1969, after it had sat empty for some time and become an eyesore, community members decided to build a park on the lot.

Building the park mobilized and energized many of the hippies, street people, activists and regular Berkeley citizens who participated. They were doing something for themselves, not for profit or bosses. Hundreds of people worked hard putting down sod, building a children’s play ground and planting trees. From the beginning the ideal was “user development”–the people building a park for themselves without university approval, planners, etc. Seizing the land from the university for legitimate public use was and is the spirit of the park.

After the initial construction on April 20, negotiations with the university over control of the park continued for about three weeks. For a while it looked like a settlement could be reached but suddenly the university stopped negotiating and in the early morning on May 15 moved police into the park. A rally protesting the fence was quickly organized on Sproul Plaza on the UC campus. In the middle of the rally, after a student leader said “lets go down and take the park,” police turned off the sound system. 6,000 people spontaneously began to march down Telegraph Ave. toward the park. They were met by 250 police with rifles and flack-jackets. Someone opened a fire hydrant. When the police moved into the crowd to shut off the hydrant, some rocks were thrown and the police retaliated by firing tear gas to disperse the crowd.

An afternoon of chaos and violence followed. Sheriff’s deputies walked through the streets of Berkeley firing into crowds and at individuals with shotguns. At first they used birdshot but when that ran out, they switched to double-0 buckshot. 128 people were admitted to hospitals that day, mostly with gunshot wounds. James Rector, a spectator on a roof on Telegraph Ave., was shot and died of his wounds a few days later.

The day after the shootings, 3000 National Guard troops were sent by then Governor Reagan to occupy Berkeley. A curfew was imposed and a ban on public assembly was put into force. Mass demonstrations continued and were met with teargas and violence by the police. 15 days after the park was fenced, 30,000 people marched peacefully to the park, and active rebellion against the fence subsided. The fence stayed up.

During the summer of 1969 on Bastille day protesters marched from Ho Chi Minh (Willard) park to People’s Park. Organizers had baked wire clippers into loaves of bread and lo and behold–the fence was down. Police attacked and a riot ensued.

The fence was rebuilt and didn’t finally come down until 1972. In Early May, President Nixon announced the mining of North Vietnamese ports. The same night as his announcement, a hastily-called candlelight march in Ho Chi-Minh Park, starting with only 200-300 people, grew into thousands as they marched through Berkeley. During the night, people tore down the fence around People’s Park with their bare hands, a police car was burned and skirmishing with police lasted into the wee hours.

In 1980, the university put asphalt over the free parking lot at People’s Park to turn it into a Fee parking lot. Students and others occupied the ground and began to rip up the pavement. After a week of confrontations between students and police, the university let the issue drop and the pavement was used to build the garden at the west end of the park.

During the late 1980s the university employed a subtle strategy to again try to retake People’s Park. Community efforts to make improvements in the park, such as installing bathrooms, were met with police and bulldozers, while police, through constant harassment elsewhere, forced drug dealers to do their business in the park. These tactics continue today.

In 1990 and 1991, the City of Berkeley negotiated a deal with the university to “save the park” by “cleaning it up.” The university agreed not to construct dorms on the land if sports facilities were constructed and the character of the park was changed. By this time, the park was being used to provide services to the growing number of homeless in the Southside area including free meals and a free box for clothes. The park continued to serve as a meeting place for activists and as a forum for political events and free concerts. It became clear that “cleaning up the park” meant eliminating freaks and the homeless.

On July 28, 1991, the university again put up a fence at the Park so that it could construct a volleyball court there, part of the “cleanup” plan. During protests that followed, police fired wooden and rubber bullets at fleeing demonstrators every night for 3 nights in a row. Hundreds of police occupied Berkeley. All the while, construction continued on the volleyball courts, which were eventually completed. The Courts stood, despite constant protests and vandalism, from 1991 to 1997, when they were finally removed by the university due to complete non-use.

As the Park celebrates its 30th Birthday, volunteers continue “user development” of the Park as they use the wood which once formed the hated volleyball courts to build an entrance trellis to the Park, complete with flowers.