District 9 Debate Wrap-Up-Victoria Theater

Truth-in-ranting disclaimer. I’m supporting Eric Quezada, always have. Since all of the candidates went to so much trouble to talk about how much they respect each other, I’ll try to infuse this post with all feel good mutual respect our allegedly post-partisan era requires. I’ll try to say something nice about everyone. Although I believe that Mark Sanchez is an excellent second choice and that David Campos isn’t the stealth machine politician I once thought he was, certain things are worth arguing about. I have friends working on all three of the front-runner’s campaigns, but it ain’t about personal warm feelings I have for each.

Last night at the Victoria Theater, seven community members all vying to replace Supervisor Tom Ammiano as District 9 Supervisor squared off in what might have been the most civil and too the point debate in San Francisco history. Seven candidates might seem a crowded field, but is mild by San Francisco standards. In 1999, the District 6 candidates, all eighteen of them squared off in the Saint Anthony’s Dining room, entertaining such brilliant public policy initiatives as hiring homeless people to build homes in a subterranean tunnel underneath Golden Gate park. Don’t forget four years ago in District Five with fifteen candidates, and mysterious, anonymous leaflets cropping up around the Western Addition alleging that then-candidate Mirkarimi and his supporters were nothing but closeted homophobes.

Ah, San Francisco.

So back to last night’s debate. First of all, as a lefty, I gotta implore other lefties to cut out that hissing bullshit in public forums. Did someone order self-righteous and annoying from Central Casting? That constant ssssss sound makes lunatic outbursts seem preferable. Perfect the King Louie-The-Snake-From Jungle-Book imitation at home.

Eva Royale. I would expect that someone who has Delores Huerta’s endorsement would have some concrete positions, but she seemed more than content to offer jabs and stabs at other candidates with the occasional distortion her opponent’s record thrown in for good measure. Quezada fended off her half-baked Home Depot line of attack like a pro, pointing out that Home Depot had pulled out of San Francisco and that the project would have killed small businesses throughout the City. She’s perfected the “your-so-stupid” eyeroll, the “I-implore-the-gods-to-kill-you” evil eye, comparable to Sarah Palin’s insidious wink.

Eric Storey Move to the Marina motherfucker. His comments about low-income housing were basically just racist rehashes of myths of affordable housing creating crime. Bet this guy can’t wait to one day arrive at Reagan’s “shining white city on a hill” which thanks to folks like him, San Francisco is almost. The John McCain of District 9.

Tom Vatlin An honest, sincere liberal. He had the candor, but not the understanding of the issue, around the Sanctuary Ordinance. When he says he would support limits on Sanctuary, he’s voicing something that some of the other candidates believe, but dare not say. Choked up a bit when trying to say the words “People of Color”, but was spot-on when pointing out that the traditional environmental groups have been largely AWOL when it comes to the air poor communities have to breathe. There’s probably a City commission that would be well served by his presence on it.

David Campos Rhetorically, Campos was strong. Answered almost every question well. Tried to stick it to Sanchez about policing being absent from his crime prevention strategy, but attack fell flat. A Supervisor couldn’t keep the cops out of the mix if they wanted to. Just like Prostitution and politics, the police ain’t going anywhere. There’s lots to like here, especially his stand of immigration but: Why the hell did the SF Bay Guardian give their number one endorsement to a lawyer who worked so closely with former Superintendent Ackerman and her extortion and shakedown of the San Francisco Unified School District?

Mark Sanchez I have always liked Mark a lot as a person, but couldn’t believe how someone who says he is in support of holistic services for homeless people could support the Community Justice Center. The CJC, an alternative court just for quality of life crimes has plenty of good ideas like alternative sentencing that could simply be incorporated into existing alternative sentencing procedures. That way it wouldn’t drain much-needed money from existing effective programs, like Tenderloin Health, which I assume Sanchez supports. (The premiere HIV services program, TH is cutting its hours thanks to budget cuts). I’ll give Sanchez props though, he has a whole host of respectable positions that make his CJC stand all the more bizarre. He was also very willing, to talk with me directly about it afterwords.

Also, in the spirit of respect, I’ll hand it to Sanchez that his principled stand on Proposition V (anti-JROTC in schools) has front-loaded plenty of right-wing money against him in this race. Whether you agree with him or not, the choice wasn’t a clear cut political win for him. Also, it was interesting it watch Mark try to pin down Royale and Campos on their picks for the very-important slot of Board President. Neither one of them bit.

Eric Quezada I’m backing Eric because he has the knowledge around land-use and education that his district needs. he also truly understands that his candidacy is just a part of a larger movement for housing and human rights in the globalized cit. His best moments came when he took the gloves off called it like he saw it. Some moments were teeth-grinders, I was hoping that he would get those gloves off a little sooner. His record of building and preserving affordable housing speaks for itself.

About the only thing I can find wrong with Eric is that his victory will take a very talented and dedicated Community Organizer out of the mix. In a city where so many folks describe what they do as Community Organizing, it is always a pleasure to have someone out here who isn’t afraid of a old-fashioned door knocking and listening to the people. However, I suspect that if elected, Eric will reinvent and reorganize the office of the Supervisor itself.

Avanti Popolo!

September 1, 2008

Italian-American Authors and Poets Take on the Columbus Myth in Powerful New Collection of Writing

Avanti Popolo: Italian-American Writers Sail Beyond Columbus
(Paperback, 80 Pages, Manic D Press, October 1, 2008, ISBN-13: 978-1933149288)
by The Italian-American Political Solidarity Club

Italian American writers celebrate their hidden history in a literary tribute to fighting social injustice. With the current anti-immigrant sentiments filling up newspaper front pages, these writers respond with thought-provoking works that focus on breaking from mainstream tradition. On Columbus Day, instead of celebrating conquest, these poets and writers acknowledge those who stood up for justice and have fought for the rights of all. The book contains two sections: Avanti a set of poems with overtly political themes, and Popolo, whose poems celebrate Italian-American history and identity beyond stereotypes and whitewash.New Writing From:

Kim Addonizio
Gabriella Belfiglio
Giancarlo Campagna
Giovanna Capone
Rosemary Cappello
Michael Carosone
Thomas Centolella
Michael Cirelli
Leonard Cirino
Ed Coletti
Diane Di Prima
Lawrence DiStasi
Bliss Esposito
Gil Fagiani
Maria Fama
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Edvidge Giunta
George Guida
Annie Rachele Lanzilotto
Maria Lisella
Mary Ann Mannino
Nick Matros
Tommi Avicolli-Mecca
Cameron McHenry
Kim Nicolini
Michael Parenti
Jim Pignetti
Jim Provenzano
Linda Simone
Al Tacconelli
Tad Tuleja
James Tracy
James Vescovi
Angelo Zeolla

BOOK RELEASE PARTIES ON BOTH COASTS OCTOBER 13TH!

Philadelphia
Robin’s Bookstore
108 S. 13th Street, Philadelphia, 19107
Rosemary Cappello, Tad Tuleja, Maria Fama, Al Tacconelli, Dr. Mary Ann Mannino

New York
Brecht Forum
451 West Street
(between Bank & Bethune Streets, New York, NY 10014
Phone: (212) 242-4201
Gil Fagiani, Maria Lisella, Jim Pignetti, Linda Simone, Nick Matros, Angelo Zeolla, Jim Vescovi

San Francisco
City Lights Bookstore
261 Columbus, San Francisco, CA
Phone: (415) 362-8193

Diane Di Prima, Kim Nicolini, Cameron Mc Henry, Giovanna Capone, Ed Coletti
MCS: Tommi Avicolli Mecca and James Tracy

##

Dispatches Against Displacement

:

From the Global Economy to the Eviction Notice
Edited by Guadalupe Arreola, Alicia Schwartz,
James Tracy and Tom Wetzel
To be published by AK Press, 2009

Summary
In nearly every major U.S. city, the displacement epidemic is destroying communities and reshaping the urban landscape into zones of exclusion and elitism. An avalanche of eviction notices and redevelopment efforts fractures working class neighborhoods, particularly those of color. The causes lie far beyond bad landlords and poor public policies. Twenty-first century displacement is intricately tied to shifts in the global economy, where de-industrialized cities must continually re-invent themselves as high-end construction temporarily replaces the vanished factory, and forced migration and displacement intensifies.

Within this, politicians and policy makers also rely on displacement as a method of policing, thinning, and managing low-income people and the surplus population. Yet every action has its reaction, and people’s organizations challenge and confront the real estate industry. Together, these campaigns call into question exactly who has the “right to the city” and suggest an alternative urban life rooted in economic and racial justice.

Dispatches Against Displacement examines the struggles for the city and asks how they might be combined, strengthened, and critically examined in order to forge an agenda for land-reform within the United States.

RIP-Michael Griffen

I’m only five months late here.

Back in January, Michael Griffith of Bellingham Washington DC died. Michael was a violinist and noise-maker of the finest caliber-performing with the improv duo Noggin and the hardcore band Behead the Prophet No Lord Can Live.

In the early nineties I had it in my head that I would either make it as a rock-star or a show promoter. Michael’s bands would tour often and I would book them around the SF Bay Area.  Audiences were always amazed by watching this senior citizen running around like a maniac performing with young punkers less than one-third is age. When I brought my bands (Family Home Evening and Space Masons) to the Northwest his door was always open to us. Mike’s house in Bellingham had the most amazing music room I’ve ever seen–dozens of instruments, many homemade.  In that room his love of fun, improvisation, chaos and collaboration seemed to create a timewarp. He could switch gears from frentic noise terrorist to mellow philosopher. I believe he was the one who introduced me to the writings of Freire and bell hooks.

I last saw him years ago at a show at the Cyclone in San Francisco. There’s not a whole lot else to say except that in a world where few understand the true value of play and joy, Michael got it and passed it on.

Those People Are Defiling Marriage!

Some thoughts on the Gay Marriage thing….

Godamn right, those people are defiling the institution of marriage!

Or maybe I should say, those straight people…us straight folks?

Two days ago, the California Supreme Court ruled that a right offered to some must be offered to all. That means that this is going to be the summer of love for hundreds of thousands of people who deserve the right to express their love in whatever way they see fit.

The right-wing talk shows were a buzz. You couldn’t turn on the television without hearing the phrase “defiling marriage,” (or similar) every few minutes.

The terrible secret is that the institution of marriage has been defiled for quite sometime now. A normal heterosexual marriage is one of the easiest places to uncover horrible acts of incest, adultery, violence, and good old fashioned dishonesty and unhapiness.

So to the GLBT community—if you can make something more of this failed institution, great! Maybe only those who have been systematically shut out can really appreciate it, reinvent it, nurture it. Heteros have handed you such a damaged, beaten and bruised prize that none of us are qualified to criticize.

I remember when my favorite Aunt and her partner had to move three hours outside of San Francisco due to an eviction. They truly had a love that did not need to be bound by church and state. However, the difference between the rights and respect granted to them in San Francisco County was virtually non-existent in Lake County. This was especially evident when her partner fell ill and needed the “system” to recognize her most loved one’s judgment and place in her life.

In the end, the gay marriage decision will make a big difference in a lot of individual’s lives, and the simple expansion of the freedom of choice is reason to celebrate. The fact that a bunch of people who have built careers on hatred and intolerance (some of them closeted gays anyhow) are reeling in their big dfeat is gratifying in and of itself.

And, as long as we’re living in a system where all human relationships get boiled down to the market place, I’d say…the smart money is on Pottery Barn stock this summer.

The War is at Home, Already

It was the day after Christmas, and President Bush signed a budget bill, handed to him by Democratic Party-led Congress, that only the Grinch could love—a budget bill that provides another 70 billion for war.  Democratic Presidential candidates have learned to talk tough on the horrors of the Iraq occupation that has claimed 1,165, 204 human lives—yet ignore the collaboration that their own party has in the ongoing carnage. So jumping up on your high-horse and criticizing the Republicans for scuttle-butting an expansion of health-care for children means very little when your party has just signed off on war-spending that could have achieved the unthinkable—insuring not just the children, but their parents as well!

 

Have you ever wondered exactly what the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost your community? Thanks to the National Priorities Project (www.nationalprioritiesproject.org) you don’t have to spend hours pouring through the federal budget to figure it out. For those of us who were products of the post Proposition 13 California Public Schools, the help with the arithmetic of tragedy is appreciated.

 

Based on what each city has paid for the war up until now, lets take a look at what this war is taking from my home, the San Francisco Bay Area:

 

San Francisco

• 632,683 People with Health Care OR
• 2,744,841 Homes with Renewable Electricity OR
• 28,661 Public Safety Officers OR
• 22,972 Music and Arts Teachers OR
• 236,568 Scholarships for University Students OR
• 117 New Elementary Schools OR
• 4,611 Affordable Housing Units OR
• 574,609 Children with Health Care OR
• 182,819 Head Start Places for Children OR
• 23,240 Elementary School Teachers OR
• 20,592 Port Container Inspectors

 

Oakland

236,029 People with Health Care OR

 1,023,994 Homes with Renewable Electricity OR

 10,692 Public Safety Officers OR

 8,570 Music and Arts Teachers OR

 88,254 Scholarships for University Students OR

 44 New Elementary Schools OR

 1,720 Affordable Housing Units OR

 214,364 Children with Health Care OR

 68,203 Head Start Places for Children OR

 8,670 Elementary School Teachers OR

7,682 Port Container Inspectors

A Tale of Two Movements Part I

This beginning of this week marked the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. The end of this week marked the 3,233^rd death of an American soldier and the deaths of at least 59,408 Iraqis. In San Francisco, the anti-war movement marked the occasion in much the same manner it did the invasion—a series of non-violent civil disobediences (“die-ins”) that shut down key intersections of the financial district.

I was one of about five dozen people who were arrested for refusing to move out of the intersection of fifth and Powell when told to do so by the police. At 850 Bryant (SF’s southern police station), protesters were placed into small corrals made out of police barricades and never even saw the inside of the station. All were promptly cited and released by officers who were by the most part, very restrained, professional, and polite.

Non-violent civil disobedience seemed to me the least we could do, at least to send a message that somebody in San Francisco wasn’t waiting for the Democrats to swing low a sweet chariot. The organizers of the event pulled off a disciplined, creative action that momentarily injected some political clarity into the evening news.

Yet I left the police station with a cloud of dissatisfaction over my bald head. I was emotionally prepared to commit a symbolic act of defiance, in hopes that the symbol could give rise to substance. It took me an entire day to fully comprehend what had bothered me so deeply.

That realization hit me on lunch hour the next day. I attended a press conference for the People’s Budget Campaign, at City Hall. The People’s Budget is an ambitious project in which dozens of community groups from all over San Francisco draft a “shadow city budget” based on human needs and unite for a budget that actually increases spending on healthcare, housing, and community safety. The groups represented here are the ones I have worked and struggled with for the past decade and a half. These are the people who fight the good right everyday because their very survival depends on it. (eg PODER, Coalition On Homelessness, SF Organizing Project, CLAER).

Suffice to say that the $410,825,804,723 spent on just the Iraq war could fund every item of the People’s Budget; in fact thousands of People’s Budgets in every city. Very clearly, the cost of US imperialism is exacted both here and abroad. Yet in a time when large populist movements must be built; the word “fractured” doesn’t even begin to describe what it going on.

More like segregated.

Yes, segregation. We have separate movements. One has to find ways just to survive, squeezing little drops of sanity from a municipal budget. The people at this rally represented the rainbow of the urban working-class. There were a quite a few allies, but it was obvious that the People’s Budget was deeply rooted in the neighborhoods. On the other side of the colorline, the classline and the generation line was the anti-war movement. If you think it is possible for one group to stop a war, or to transform a city, then I guess this is no big deal.

I bring this up not to guilt-trip or to point fingers.I would gladly be arrested again and again in the company of these brave people if it could end the war a minute earlier. However, how effective can a “movement” be with this many degrees of separation?

In the next post I’m going to explore tangible ways to bring the domestic fight against empire together with the international fight against empire. I’m interested in hearing your ideas.

 __________________________________________________________

On my reading list this week:

Left Turn Magazine #24

“The War at Home” by Francis Fox Piven

“The Cost of Privilege: Taking On the System of White Supremacy and Racism” by Chip Smith

Governing Under the Influence of…

San Francisco is a city that enjoys booze and sex. We enjoy both in every conceivable variety and mixture. This joie de vivre is responsible for attracting folks from all over the globe to live here, brave the high rents, and ignore the fact that the City only really enjoys 1.5 changes of season. Mayor Gavin Newsom’s troubles raise a lot of questions, but with the very critical exception of the possibility of sexual harassment in city employment, none of it is anybody else’s business.

I write this as someone whose “Matt for Mayor” sticker only recently fell off his bike.

I’m not writing to defend the Mayor, rather the basic principles of privacy which dictate that we treat sex, and sexual indiscretions, as solely the business of the of those having it or directly harmed by it. That excludes just about everyone, except for three people.  Once the decency police are unleashed, they rarely relent. Then no one’s bedroom is safe. As for the booze, you can’t throw a rock in this town without hitting someone who is high on something. As the great prophet Marilyn Manson said “We’re all stars in the dope show.” That means that if you aren’t a star, you are probably a supporting character. We on the left are the first to call for Harm Reduction, and compassionate approaches to the illness of addiction. That said we can only sincerely wish the Mayor a speedy and meaningful recovery.

However, there is one form of governing under the influence that always needs scrutiny-the influence of corporations, big money, crooked lobbyists and the real estate industry.

So ultimately Gavin Newsom will be judged not by the influence of alcohol and women in his life.

Rather, when the true history of the Newsom years are written, the following questions will need to be answered:

Did the Mayor preside over a redevelopment of the Bayview District which revitalized the neighborhood for the exisiting community or one that decimated one of the last African-American communities in San Francisco? Did he truly deal with the homeless epidemic or did his programs pit various populations of poor people against each other for the same small scraps of housing? Did this administration manage to stem the tide of street violence without turning San Francisco into a surveilance state? Did San Francisco stand by while the Inland Boatmen’s Union was busted by the Hornblower Corporation? Will San Francisco be developed in a way that preserves the brilliant diversity of our city, or turn Baghdad-by-the-Bay into Disneyland of the North? Will our city find a way to build more truly affordable family housing, or will the city become a sick version of Logan’s Run, where no one over thirty is welcome?

At each of these points, tough decisions will have to be made.

While some of them might require a stiff whisky, none should be made under the influence of the kind of money that would steal your mother’s pacemaker if it means a higher return on a Tenancy in Common.

The answers to these questions are, everyone’s business.

Hegemony Circus: Breaking Down Fox’s 24

This month, Fox’s greatest piece of propaganda, “24″ returns, and by all accounts is going to be a hurricane of yellow menace stereotypes. For this review I managed to sit through an entire season of nationalistic, racist and unintentionally hillarious episides. Where else can you watch a story unfold that actually blames a terrorist attack on Arabs, Chinese and Queers all at the same time? Guess without Russia to blame it on anymore, Hollywood has to go the extra mile in the scapegoating game. Anybody remember Red Dawn?

The television show “24,” is a fast paced roller coaster of a spy series scripted so that every screen minute is corresponds to an actual minute-and each episode represents an hour in a day. The show made its debut shortly after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. As a melodrama, the show has held a mirror up to the mood of a nation at once deeply paranoid but also confident that it has the bad guys in the crosshairs.

The Original Rainbow Coalition: An Interview With Bobby Lee

Bobby Lee moved to Chicago in the late 1960s as a VISTA volunteer, and joined the Black Panther Party. He was instrumental in bringing together the first Rainbow Coalition—a teaming of the Puerto Rican Young Lords and the white Young Patriots Organization. This is a short excerpt of a longer interview with Lee, for an upcoming book I’m working on about white working class New Left groups. It was originally published in Area Magazine, one of my favorite new periodicals. http://www.areachicago.net

JT: In Chicago, you formed the first Rainbow Coalition with the Young Lords and the Young Patriots Organization. Was this controversial in the Black Panther Party? I don’t think it could have been easy for Black Radicals to accept working with whites who wore the Confederate Flag on their uniforms.

BL: First of all, the Patriots’ leader William “Preacherman” Fesperman was one of the best human beings I have ever met. He was originally from North Carolina before he moved to Chicago. However, many of the Panthers left the group when we built alliances. Some didn’t like the Patriots, some just didn’t like white people in general. They were heavy into nationalism. To tell the truth, it was a necessary purging, except for these niggers took themselves out of the organization. The Rainbow Coalition was just a code word for class struggle.

Preacherman would have stopped a bullet for me, and nearly tried. Once, I was in a meeting up in Uptown, and I decided to leave by myself. I immediately determined that the police were following me. I made the mistake of leaving alone. The cop called out “You know what to do,” and I put my hands up against the wall. Preacherman came outside and saw what was going on, and in the cold of winter brought the men, women and the children outside. The cops put me in the car and they totally surrounded it, demanding my release. The cop called someone and they must have told him to let me go. I’ll never forget looking at all those brave motherfuckers standing in the light of the police car, but staring in the face of death.

JT: Looking back, was there enough basis for unity?

BL: Hell, yeah! When I went to Uptown Chicago, I saw some of the worst slums imaginable. Horrible slums, and poor white people lived there. However, two organizations prepared the way for the Rainbow Coalition, without them there wouldn’t have been a chance of forming one. Rising Up Angry (rua) and JOIN Community Union. The uptown neighborhood was prime recruiting zone for white supremacists. Most of the cats who were in the Patriots also had at least one family member in the Klan. Cats like Mike James and Jewnbug, and Tappis worked hard to fight that mentality. Mike James and RUA drove a wedge in that bullshit, that white supremacist bullshit, their groundwork was just amazing, out of this world.

JT: When did you first meet the Young Patriots?

BL: It was at the Church of the Three Crosses. There was a meeting, and it was the one recorded in the movie American Revolution II. After the crowd left, the Patriots were still there. We asked the Minister if he could let us have his office. We asked the Patriots if they could work with the Panthers and they said yes. I didn’t even tell Fred for the first three weeks of meeting with these cats. It wasn’t easy to build an alliance. I advised them on how to set up “serve the people” programs—free breakfasts, people’s health clinics, all that. I had to run with those cats, break bread with them, hang out at the pool hall. I had to lay down on their couch, in their neighborhood. Then I had to invite them into mine. That was how the Rainbow Coalition was built, real slow. Then I contacted Cha Cha Jimenez from the Young Lords.