Democracy Under Attack on the Streets of Berkeley
It took the savage beating of a homeless man to reveal the terrible cost of allowing business owners to create their own private patrols on the streets of Berkeley.
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Brown’s Budget Cuts Devastate the Poor and Disabled
Gov. Brown’s cutbacks will cause suffering from the cradle to the grave. They will fall with devastating force on the poor, disabled, elderly, students and families with young children.
Good Friday Protest at Livermore Laboratory
The Good Friday protest at Livermore Laboratory on April 3 has the theme: "Beyond Nuclear Weapons, Beyond Empire, Beyond Racism." We will remember Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech. David Hartsough will lead the service, followed by the Stations of the Cross. Some will commit nonviolent civil disobedience.
Lawsuit Filed Over ‘Stay-Away’ Law in Santa Cruz
Homeless people in Santa Cruz have precious little voice at City Hall, and much less in the court system. They have been pushed around and forced out of public spaces. It’s time to push back. That is why advocates have filed a lawsuit to challenge the city’s “stay away order.”
The Genesis of Street Spirit in a Berkeley Seminary
We blocked the roads into Livermore laboratory for hours until the police pulled up with giant earth-moving machinery. Father Bill O’Donnell, a priest who had joined with Spirit on many acts of resistance, warned the driver, “We are chained to this missile. If you use that machine, you will crush us.”
They Left Him to Die Like a Tramp on the Street
Skid Row was an oppressive place where thousands were locked in merciless, grinding poverty. Every day, the Catholic Workers served meals to countless destitute people on Skid Row. And every day, they sang. I never got over that — the songs they sang in the midst of terrible hardships.
Food Not Bombs Sues for Right to Share Food in Florida
Fort Lauderdale faces a lawsuit by Food Not Bombs for criminalizing food sharing. Laws to criminalize homelessness are “a response to the visibility of homelessness in public spaces,” said Kirsten Clanton of Southern Legal Counsel. “It’s business interests. It’s an effort to sanitize public space, often for tourism and tourist dollars.”
An SRO Hotel Is Hardly a Home in San Francisco
An eye-opening film by a UCB student exposes the degrading conditions and overcrowding in SRO hotels in San Francisco. Many low-income families are caught in slum conditions and live in cramped, unsanitary and dangerous rooms. They endure drug-dealing in hallways and managers who threaten tenants and their visitors.
Berkeley City Council Takes Action on Police Abuse—Finally
In response to beatings and the indiscriminate use of CS gas and projectiles shot directly into crowds by the Berkeley police during the December protests of police killings, the City Council votes for a moratorium on CS gas, wooden and rubber projectiles and over-the-shoulder baton strikes.
The Sense of Loss When a Community Is Erased
Andy Kreamer asked people to call out the names of Albany Bulb residents who had been lost. The amount of loss that has been suffered in the past year is overwhelming. The residents have lost more than their homes. They’ve lost their safety, their friends, their peace of mind.
Home Is Where the Heart Is
It is heartbreaking to go out to the Albany Bulb and see what has been done to our former home. Those of us who still live on the streets are under constant persecution due to the inhumane laws that criminalize our very existence.
California Vagrancy Laws Violate Human Rights
“Anti-homeless laws today and the vagrancy laws of prior eras — restrictions like anti-Okie laws, the Sundown Towns and Ugly Laws that explicitly discriminated against migrants, people of color and people with physical disabilities — have come back with a vengeance.”