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Homeless Organize, Stand Together and Win

July 1, 2009 by TheRedPill

On Monday June 29th, the City of Grand Junction tried to pass two emergency ordinances outlawing "soliciting," also known as flying a sign or spanging. What stopped the city from moving forward with these laws was a strong, large, and loud group of homeless people and younger radicals.

No one came to support the law, and over a hundred people came to oppose it. Solidarity Not Charity (our FNB out here in GJ) provided food and water serving on the city halls lawn. Live tunes were provided by, local band Fast Food Kings, and out-of-towners Chicken Little, who were hell a cool about relocating from the infoshop to city hall to play.

The city voted unanimously against one statue and 5-to-2 in favor of the other one, but since they were trying to pass these laws without the usual democratic process they need to pass unanimously. The city will now begin the process of bringing these ordinances through the proper process.

While people ate food and listened to the music outside of city hall, and others were speaking to the council a banner appeared on an adjacent building that read "We are Everywhere."

Those in opposition held signs during the meeting saying things like "Homelessness is not illegal. God Bless." and "Will Work For Free Speech." and "Asking For Help is Free Speech." They also booed and cheered and were according to the GJPD Sergent 'relatively civil.'

While stopping the emergency ordinances is a small victory, and the fight will continue. The big victory was that many people starting to feel empowered and starting to see some hope. It showed a lot of people on the street what is really possible if we stand together.

Little did the city know was that a coalition of radicals and homeless people had been forming quietly for months and were about to start publicly organizing and agitating for necessary reforms. Basically the city threw gasoline right where we were going start a fire. Next week Housing First! No More Deaths! will have its first mass meeting. Grand Junction Rising.

Housing First!
No More Deaths!
A Call to Action

The situation is critical in Grand Junction for those of us on the streets. Between constant police harassment, and unconcerned and uncaring city hall, more and more people on the streets, a severe shortage of shelter beds and transitional housing, a lack of quality healthcare, and the tightest job market in generations, there is very little hope for those of us without housing. Something needs to change, and nobody is going to do it for us. We must act on our own. We must act together - shoulder to shoulder - to demand our rights as citizens and humans.

This last winter we lost a lot of friends on the streets. This upcoming winter we will lose even more of our friends, unless we do something about it. To save our friends' lives and our own we must be willing to act. We must organize. We must take risks. We must put unused buildings to good use, keeping our friends and family warm. We must be able to stand together and demand, "No More Deaths on the Streets of Grand Junction," and we must mean it.

The city and the police have essentially made being homeless illegal. It's illegal to sleep anywhere if you're not lucky enough to get into the shelter. It's illegal to camp. It's illegal to smoke in the park. When the public bathrooms are closed there is nowhere to legally go to the restroom, and not to mention selective enforcement of petty laws against us. How are any of us going to get off the streets with piles of petty tickets and fines to pay off? Haw are "Smoking in the Park" tickets serving the community? One or two of us on our own could never hope to confront this unjust 'justice system,' but all of us together can. We can picket the city or PD and put them on notice and back them off from being overly aggressive. We must demand a legal place for us to camp, without fear of a trespassing ticket or the city taking our stuff. The current situation must change, and only all of us standing together as one and speaking with one vice will ever hope to change the situation.

We are pretty used to getting the short end of the stick from employers, the media, police, banks, hospitals, judges, and government etc. But it doesn't have to be this way. There are times when 'we the people' have taken just about enough crap from the powers that be, where we can start to organize and stand up. If we work together with courage, strength and love in our hearts we can begin to push back against a system that has for a long time been waging war against us. Is it going to be easy? no, but it's not impossible. And right now those seem to be pretty good odds. No more deaths!

General Meeting
everyone welcome
Whitman Park
Tuesday, July 7th
10:00am
Housing First!
No More Deaths!

Our Demands:
* No More Deaths!
* Housing First! Housing Now!
* Homelessness is not Illegal
* Food, Water, Healthcare, and Housing are basic human rights

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Comments

housing-

July 1, 2009 by Anonymous, 18 weeks 2 days ago
Comment id: 3616

my girlfriend and i were considering purchasing land in or around durango, hopefully closer to durango than pagosa. however, we would like to maybe get a DIY venue going and open up the surrounding space for free camping. more info soon but let me know what everyone thinks. obviously its going to take some time and consideration and possibly more funds but hopefully itll work out alright and we could set up some free living spaces.

liqour store whore wanting more malt liquor

July 3, 2009 by Anonymous, 18 weeks 14 hours ago
Comment id: 3620

funny how they rise up to gurantee getting in peoples faces yet most dont riseup against exploitated corruption...stop helping the drunks gurantee the right to get drunk shaking others down for hard earned money.....

article is not about drunks or drunkenness

July 4, 2009 by tina braxton, 17 weeks 6 days ago
Comment id: 3623

There are plenty of drunks who have a roof over their heads, because they have the money to pay for it, and plenty of homeless who don't get drunk. These are two different issues.

There was nothing in the article about any "right to get drunk."

homeless issue

July 8, 2009 by Anonymous, 17 weeks 2 days ago
Comment id: 3636

Not about drinking? They were actually drinking during the public hearing. They were passing the bottle around during the meeting. And one woman passed out twice, and each time she came to, she got up and spoke again...repeating herself. Many of the people who solicit money are able bodied and some are not even homeless. The people protesting were not the hardworking people with families who are down on their luck and staying at the shelter while working and trying to find a place to live.

But The Issue Is

July 5, 2009 by Anonymous, 17 weeks 5 days ago
Comment id: 3626

90 % of the bums out there are drunks. I deal with them nearly daily. Although it is not PC to talk about it, all the liberal pukes who give them money are doing is supporting habits. They think they are buying their way into heaven by "giving to the poor". If they wouldn't try to wash away their sins by giving these people money, the people would stop begging.

Actually, the article isn't about bums; it's about homeless

July 6, 2009 by tina braxton, 17 weeks 4 days ago
Comment id: 3633

I know a lot of people who don't believe in Heaven and Hell, but they give money away, when they can. Their motivation must be something else--perhaps compassion?

You claim to deal with bums and drunks "almost daily," and you claim there is a 90% overlap between the two groups. I'm led to wonder what sort of life you live that brings you into contact with 90% of drunks and/or bums.

Bums and the homeless are not all there by choice

July 7, 2009 by phil, 17 weeks 3 days ago
Comment id: 3635

You sir lack more then just compassion. I do not know you but I know this; it is for the grace of god and dumb luck that you are not one of them ! I know several so called bums--people who while they had health insurance and a job got sick and watched a family member die only to loose it all. Others who had both bad luck and made poor choices. You think it could never be you. Don't be so sure and don't be so quick to judge. You are WRONG!! Not all are drug addicts or drunks and even those that are have a disease that is treatable. Yet we as a society in our puritan piety seem to feel they should suffer rather then get help. I loath the kind of christian that thinks like that!

Greek translation

July 5, 2009 by Anonymous, 17 weeks 5 days ago
Comment id: 3627

The above article was translated to Greek by a comrade: httpx://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1054034

congratulations

July 6, 2009 by Anonymous, 17 weeks 4 days ago
Comment id: 3630

from greece

RE: Tuesdays Meeting

July 8, 2009 by TheRedPill, 17 weeks 2 days ago
Comment id: 3640

First off nobody was drinking at the city hearing. Thats BS. Secondly there are a lot of people on the streets with addiction issues, but its more of a chicken and the egg scenario. Being evicted/fired and then after hundreds of apps with out a call back (how do they call the homeless?) can lead to increased drug and alcohol use. Secondly should people that are suffering from alcoholism or addiction be left to freeze on the streets of our cities and towns?
Lastly this group is not about handouts but organizing our own solutions to the problems with homelessness, and its been amaing how far a little hope and empowerment can go.

Tuesdays mass meeting had more than eighty people there housed and non-housed, right and left, young and old. we got really decent coverage from the mainstream, and have a lot of people ready to work together to better their lot.

Homeless means just that and nothing else

July 8, 2009 by tina braxton, 17 weeks 2 days ago
Comment id: 3641

I think there is too much emphasis on substance abuse among homeless people. Substance abuse is a health issue that affects all kinds of people--including people who live in mansions and people who live in tents. Homelessness is a separate issue.

I have been homeless on and off for several years. From what I've seen, there is an expectation that homeless people must all have addiction problems, and that if the addiction problem is overcome, a house will magically materialize around the person. This is just as ridiculous as it sounds.

Homeless people are actually quite diverse, in terms of race, ethnicity, age, religion, politics, level of education, and lifestyle. There are plenty of us who do not drink or use drugs and some who do. The same is true of people with housing. As homeless people, we have exactly one thing in common--insufficient income to pay for housing.

It is a simple issue. When you attempt to rent an apartment or buy a house, what kind of questions will you be asked? Does anyone ask whether you drink? No. They want to know if you have sufficient income to pay the rent or mortgage payment. It is strictly an economic matter.

The ridiculous 1920's-vintage notion that poverty is caused by moral failure has morphed into this idea that homelessness is caused by addiction. It distracts from the real issues, which are economic. Jobs need to pay enough for a person to live on--an average person, presumably an adult with a family. Businesses and industry need to create jobs--not eliminate them through automation or offshoring. Housing needs to be affordable and plentiful.

You are exactly on Point Tina

July 9, 2009 by phil, 17 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 3642

Tina

You, as usual, are exactly on point with this comment.

research and observations on housing

July 9, 2009 by tina braxton, 17 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 3643

This discussion made me curious about historical trends in housing size. Here is what I found.

According to the 1950 census, the average single family home in the U.S. was 983 square feet. By 2000, the average new house size had increased to over 2000 square feet. Yet, during this time, family size has substantially decreased. And since 1970, real wages have been stagnant, though, with the average worker now older and more experienced, the expectation would normally have been higher wages.

Meanwhile, housing for poor people has been largely eliminated from the market. Marginal housing, such as single occupancy hotel rooms, used to be plentiful. When I was young, I usually lived in small rooms, with just a bed and dresser. The bathroom was down the hall. Utilities were included in the rent and clean linens were furnished weekly. A lot of these places were really substandard, but some, for about the same rents, were at least clean and pest-free. In those days, almost nobody in the U.S. was homeless, no matter how poor.

These small housing units have largely disappeared. They have been consolidated into larger apartments and condos. The trend used to be the opposite-- larger apartments in declining neighborhoods were subdivided into small sleeping rooms.

So the trend has been a decrease in small, affordable living spaces, and an increase in large, expensive homes, at a time when household size and income have decreased. This has to be an important factor in the rise of homelessness.

fuckn (A)

July 9, 2009 by Anonymous, 17 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 3645

u guys fuckn rock my sox
glad the meeting went well
wish i could have been there
lottsa love from eugene

Housing is a right?! WTF?

July 12, 2009 by Anonymous, 16 weeks 5 days ago
Comment id: 3656

Whoa, Communist garbage on the IMC site? You don't say... When you say they have a "right" to food, housing, etc., what you're saying is that you want others to fulfill this "right." Put your money where your mouth is and house them yourself.

Did you not read the call to action

July 14, 2009 by Anonymous, 16 weeks 3 days ago
Comment id: 3664

Thats whats being planned.

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Open Newswire

Nov. 20-22 Mass Mobilization to Close the SOA
11 hours 26 min ago
Anonymous

November 20-22, 2009: Vigil and Nonviolent Direct ActionConverge on Fort Benning, Georgia
Join the Mass Mobilization to Close the School of the Americas and to Change U.S. Foreign Policy

In less than 2 weeks, thousands will converge on Fort Benning, Georgia to say no to military coups, military violence and the training of repressive forces at the School of the Americas. Join union workers, students, religious communities and grassroots activists from across the Americas from November 20-22, 2009 at the gates of Fort Benning to commemorate the martyrs and to take a stand for justice. It is up to us to change oppressive U.S. foreign policy since we can only hope for as much as we are willing to work for.
Click here to visit the new November Vigil Rideboard. (see links to transportation, hotel & other logistical information on the bottom of this posting.)

Speakers and MusiciansAmong the many featured performers on the stage at the gates of Fort Benning and in the Columbus Convention Center will be the Indigo Girls, the Hip Hop groups Rebel Diaz and Kuumba Lynx, Emma's Revolution, Candy Garcia, the lead vocalist of the Salvadoran folk band Grupo Musical Horizontes and many more.

The high-profile line up of speakers includes Bernardo Vivas of the Cacraica Community for Self-Determination, Life, and Dignity (CAVIDA) from Colombia, South Bronx community organizers and immigrant rights activists Victor Toro and Nieves Aires, Catholic Worker and Plowshares activist Liz McAllister, Bertha Oliva, the coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras and others who are active in the resistance against the SOA graduate-led military coup.

Anti-Militarization Convergence: Panels, Workshops, Film Screening and Benefit Concerts

The Shortwave Report 11/06/09 Listen Globally
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 Dear Radio Friend,
The latest Shortwave Report (November 6) is up at the website
http://www.outfarpress.com/outfa... in both broadcast quality (13.3MB) and quickdownload or streaming form (4.9MB) (28:59)
(NEW! If you have access to Audioport.org there is a higher quality version posted up there {26.7MB} http://www.audioport.org/index.p...)

War Criminals and their agent control 344 Members of Congress.
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War Criminals and their agent control 344 Members of Congress.

The War Criminals [Israeli government] have ordered that Congress vote against Goldstone’s report on their War Crimes in Gaza.

344 obeyed.

The names of the 344 Members of Congress who take their orders from War Criminals are listed below.

If one of them is your representative – report him or her to the local FBI as a victim of blackmail by the AIPAC and/or a receiver of corrupt monies from AIPAC.

Names of corrupted Congress Members:

Zhibin Gu: Chinese multinationals vs global financial crisis: finance, trade, politics and management
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Anonymous

Get onground knowledge and analysis from business and investment guide book: China’s Global Reach
Borderless Business, National Competition, Politics, and Globalization (book excerpts)

by George Zhibin Gu

Afterword
China, United States and Global Development
by Andre Gunder Frank

Part III

China’s New International Experiences

SUMMARY

(1). China, India and many other later developers have rather limited strengths to compete in a highly competitive world market dominated by a few well-developed nations today. Their best strengths come from a low-paid labor as well as hard work. Even so, they are able to provide massive low-priced goods and services. It turns out that this price gap is nothing less than survival.

(2). Gaining competitive advantages through low-pricing tags has been common throughout history. One example is the British competitiveness following the industrial revolution. For long, the British dominated the world commerce through their massively produced, highly competitive textile, steel, and consumer products, among others. China, India and other underdeveloped nations could not compete at all. This naturally changed the world production map in favor to Europe.

By early 20th century, the center of economic gravity moved to the US, as the nation was able to produce the biggest, cheapest volume of products and hence gained world economic leadership. For example, Ford was able to produce the cheapest cars in biggest volume. Through such mass production, the US has become the biggest economic power over some 100 years.

Again, Japan Inc. suddenly rolled its products all over the globe, which began in 1960s. In fact, made-in-Japan products had a low pricing advantage. For example, in 1970s, all the US TV manufacturers went bankrupt, even if the Japanese TV makers had no technological advantage over their US counterparts back then.

Reject Corporate Options for Health Care
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Fourteen Reasons to Reject Corporate Options for Health Care

If a Critical Mass of the public actually knew what the Health Care Brouhaha involved, Liberals and Conservatives would unite in opposing current and planned policies. Imagine....

1) Private insurers are businesses that must grow. Their inclusion in any national program guarantees endless cuts in service, and endless hikes in costs to the public.

2) Private insurers, being businesses, have motive and duty to provide as little service as possible at the highest price possible. This is an adversarial situation with the public.

3) A significant chunk of what was ostensibly customers’ health care money goes to contributions to political candidates that many may not care to support. Mandatory purchase of private insurance would have our government---our sworn and paid representatives---compelling citizens to provide revenues to candidates preferred by private insurers. There is no Public Interest health-related justification for mandating this part of an insurance policy.

4) Significant revenues supplied by insurance customers go to lobbying for legislation that favors the private insurance interests rather than the interests of the public. Again, no health-related public interest exists in this part of an insurance policy.

5) Large percent of the cost of a policy goes to other non-health-related things such as advertising, CEO bonuses, corporate jets, business conventions, and corporate headquarters upkeep. No health-related justification exists for mandating that citizens pay for that along with the actual health benefits.

Venezuela: The error of being Lusbi Portillo
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Anonymous


* The latest demonstration of political criminalization of autonomous social movements by the Venezuelan government is exposed by Rafael Uzcategui, a member of the anarchist collective El Libertario.

As this text is written, Lusbi Portillo, professor at Zulia University (in Maracaibo) and environmental activist in solidarity with the indigenous movement is in hiding to protect his life and physical integrity. During the events of October 13 in the Sierra de Perijá two yukpas were killed and five more wounded in a conflict arising from the demarcation of indigenous land. The regional police announced that an arrest warrant against the professor for “drug possession” was imminent. This is not the first time the professor is criminalized for his active solidarity with the demands of the original peoples, but because the way the events are evolving – an investigation of the events has been decreed “national security” by the authorities – he decided to take preventive measures by going into hiding.

The environmental activist increased his activities in the indigenous struggle as a reaction to the government’s announcement, by the President of the Republic on November 13 2003 to triple coal exploitation in the Zulia region to 36 million metric tons per year. Lusbi Portillo’s first “error”, from the point of view of the immobilizing polarization that controls the nation’s political scene, was to uphold his values and demands in spite of the official discourse that promised to satisfy them some time in the future. Regardless of his expectations and personal sympathies, Portillo did not sell out nor agreed to lower his priorities, preserving his autonomous social character, thus keeping his ability to organize for the solution to the problems in spite of the electoral situation.

FERNANDO LUGO SE ALINEA CON ALVARO URIBE
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Anonymous

Contradiciendo a su propaganda, divulgada hasta el hartazgo por la prensa mediática, Fernando Lugo autorizó secretamente el ingreso de tropas norteamericanas al Paraguay. El hecho demuestra una vez más la inconsecuencia del obispo-presidente, quien llegó al poder en ancas del respaldo mediático de ultraderechas y ONGs vinculadas a la embajada norteamericana. Ver:

http://www.diariosigloxxi.com/te...

http://www.viejoblues.com/Bitaco...

http://www.aporrea.org/tiburon/a...

http://www.cubanuestra.nu/web/ar...

 

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Anonymous

(Commentaries on Science, Religion, Spiritualism, Politics and The Resource Based Economy)

Many are well acquainted with “The Modern Scientific Method”, it's the dominant norm of all discovery. It is the underpinning of all Western Philosophy from the end of the days of Monarchs to the modern days of Oligarchs. Of course this wasn't always the case, before the Modern Scientific Method existed a more Associative Method of both reasoning and discovery based on religion. The Scientific Method arose as a reaction to the Associative Method, which dominated before. The Scientific Method was more flexible and fluid then the old Religious Associative Method. Since all things discovered or concluded by science were open to change and progress it certainly trumped the non-changing religious conclusions. The Modern Scientific Method had many advantages over the old associative method... of declaring truths followed by creating chains of association to go along with those truths, then they were later linked back to their starting point, ie: original declared truth. The Modern Scientific Method still differed from the original or “Ancient Scientific Method” in a few ways. In this work we will compare and contrast the Scientific Method used by The Ancients; such as The Greeks, Chinese, Indians, etc. and compare it with the Modern Scientific Method to see the differences. We will show how the Observation and Intuition were used in conjunction with each other by ancient people's. While in contrast to todays world where Modern Science simply writes off Intuition as Mysticism and lumps it together with the Associative Method expounded by Nicean, as well as other Dogmatic and Orthodox Abrahamic Faiths.

CUBANUESTRA.FERNANDO LUGO, DEL FASCISMO AL CHONGUISMO‏
4 days 22 hours ago
Anonymous

El poder tiende a corromper, el poder absoluto corrompe absolutamente.

Lord Acton, historiador inglés

 

No sin razón se ha dicho que en Paraguay, alcanzar el poder es antes que nada, empezar a asistir a reuniones donde nadie tiene opinión diferente a la de uno mismo, además de renovar guardarropa y cambiar de mujer, domicilio y vehículo. De esta manera, el mandón de turno demuestra la capacidad de pocos de hacerles creer a muchos lo poco que importan.

El obispo Fernando Lugo y sus secuaces han confirmado la regla con su alegre conducta, al punto que muchos han logrado escandalizar a los mismos inventores de la corrupción, sus antecesores colorados, quienes gobernaron con un estilo fascistoide por seis décadas al Paraguay. La realidad del “proceso de cambios” es innegable: todos los nuevos funcionarios han cambiado el tren de vida miserable por la opulencia.

La actual coyuntura recuerda aquello que con certeza expresó Abraham Lincoln: Casi todos podemos soportar la adversidad, pero si queréis probar el carácter de un hombre, dadle poder.

 

EL CHONGUISMO

 

De acuerdo al diccionario Latinoamericano, Chongo en Argentina es una palabra empleada exclusivamente en el mundillo homosexual. “Se emplea para designar a cualquier otro varón atractivo. Emplease también para indicar al joven que mantiene un alto porcentaje de relaciones heterosexuales, muy apreciado por conservar sus dotes masculinas y ejercer el rol de activo durante un contacto sexual”. Ver:

 

http://www.asihablamos.com/?word...

 

The Untold Story of the Cuban 5
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Anonymous

The Untold Story of the Cuban Five
Part 1: Forbidden Heroes

AdaptiveThemes