Bloomington (USA): No justice, only fire

By: sisulscz - December 17th, 2013  Filed under: News

Ian Stark, a 24 year old man experiencing homelessness, froze to death Tuesday night in Bloomington, IN. In response, 50-70 people took the streets on Friday night with torches, banners, spray paint and fireworks to express rage over Ian’s death. The unruly mob, mostly masked up, was comprised of anarchists, anti-prison activists, students, homeless folks, social workers, and others who knew Ian.

The march held the streets for nearly two hours, covering almost all of downtown. Participants in the march disabled several dozen parking meters, wrote graffiti, paint-bombed banks, popped tires, and distributed hundreds of fliers about Ian’s death, homelessness, and policing in Bloomington. Participants also took the opportunity to run into several yuppie restaurants and rain fliers on the passive diners.
[Read More]

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Oakland (USA): Stay Away Squat evicted

By: Rosa - August 22nd, 2013  Filed under: News
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The StayAway squat in Oakland was evicted by a paramilitary camo-clad SWAT team with assault rifles. A long-time rent paying resident was also evicted and left homeless, all for the profit of REO Homes.

At around 10am, four heavily armored black SWAT trucks turned heads as they rolled down Vallecito Place in Highland. Deterred by the barricades that had been built in front of the StayAway over the previous month of eviction defense, the camo-clad SWAT team packing AR-15s went up 28th street and entered an adjoining property. This maneuver appears to have been pre-planned, as the neighbor said that while the Sheriff did not gain her consent to pass through her yard, she was addressed by name upon stepping outside. Entering through the backyard with no warning, StayAway residents confronted by this paramilitary squad were forced at gunpoint to abandon their possessions and leave their home with nothing but the clothes on their bodies. Two comrades were arrested and at the time of this writing their charges are unknown, although we know they were taken to Santa Rita County Jail. [Read More]

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San Francisco (California): Three Arrested as SFPD Raid Squat “The Crows’ Nest”

By: xxx - August 6th, 2013  Filed under: News

Sunday August 4, 2013; morning
426 Capitol Avenue, San Francisco, CA

Three politically active people were arrested this morning at a squatted home in the Ocean View district of San Francisco at 426 Capitol Avenue. The house had been squatted for three months as a home for activists and people in need of housing.

This raid and arrest happens during the so called Eviction Free Summer, a campaign of actions to keep people in their homes in response to the foreclosure crisis. The foreclosure crisis is being perpetuated by some of the biggest banks in the United States, who have been accused of predatory lending practices and other illegal actions against homeowners. Since 2007, the foreclosure crisis has displaced at least 10 million people from more than four million homes across the country. [Read More]

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Oakland (USA): Squat defense for the Stay Away Squat

By: fawda - August 6th, 2013  Filed under: News
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We are the squat collective at Stay Away in East Oakland. Tuesday, August 6th makes two full weeks we have been living behind the barricades in order to defend and save our home, a radical space, and one of the lasting vestiges of the Occupy Oakland movement. We are still struggling. We are asking the community of the Bay Area; fellow squatters, fellow radicals, our comrades to come out and help us in the event of an attempted forcible removal by the Sheriff’s Department. Oakland has lost too many of its radical spaces. We are facing the same evil corporation, REO Homes LLC, that evicted the G-Spot–another radical space–and the state and corporate forces are trying to quash our movement to live free.

This house has a two year history that rose directly out of Occupy Oakland, and has gone through many changes with many members, but it has remained, and will remain, an activist house. Members of this collective work or have worked with various groups from Food Not Bombs to Cop Watch as well as founding the Park Gardens and many other activist groups. We are a diverse group or individuals working together collectively to provide a space that is liberated from corporate control of our lives, and to be an example of how we can live free of the chains of capitalism. [Read More]

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Oakland: All Out To Support The Stay Away Squat!

By: sisulscz - July 26th, 2013  Filed under: News

Last week, residents at the Stay Away received an eviction notice from the Alameda County Sherriff, ordering them to vacate by this Tuesday, July 23rd. The Stay Away is a squatted four-unit apartment building that was started in November of 2011 in the midst of the events surrounding Occupy Oakland. It has housed numerous people since it began and provided free rent for those who needed it. Now it is threatened with destruction at the hands of REO Homes LLC, a predatory entity that has bought hundreds of foreclosed houses in the City of Oakland (especially West Oakland).
[Read More]

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Santa Cruz, USA : ‘Black Bloc’ Action at Gov. Center Calls Attention to Police Seizure of Homeless Property

By: Rosa - July 15th, 2013  Filed under: News

Activist Says Property Seizure is Designed To Harass Homeless Out of Santa Cruz.

On July 3, an activist served representatives of the Santa Cruz County government with a written notice stating that the Sheriff department’s policy of seizing the property of pre-trial homeless detainees violates federal code and the United States Constitution. The notice was accepted, and the activist believes that if a lawsuit is brought against the county, the authorities can not assert that they were unaware of the dangers they subject the homeless to. The activist served the notice wearing a face mask, believing strongly that individuals have the right to serve branches of the government with legal papers anonymously.
[Read More]

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USA: We’re suing Uncle Sam for HOUSING – here are the photos and press coverage!

By: Rosa - July 12th, 2013  Filed under: News

The Federal Government is obligated by law to invest money in the National Housing Trust Fund, which should go inro housing for folks hit hard by the financial crisis – as well as folks hit hard by centuries of institutional racism and oppression!

But that money is MIA.

In fact, over $380 million is missing from the trust fund.

That’s why we’re suing the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

And that’s why we had this press conference yesterday.

All of our photos from the lawsuit-announcement press release are here.

A terrific article in the Wall Street Journal goes deep into the background of the suit. [Read More]

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Oakland, USA : National Lawyers Guild Wins Settlement for Occupy Oakland Injuries in Campbell vs Oakland

By: Rosa - July 9th, 2013  Filed under: News

Twelve people injured by the Oakland police department during Occupy Oakland demonstrations have settled a federal civil rights lawsuit with the city of Oakland for a total of $1.17 million. The physical injuries came as a result of OPD’s violent response to Occupy Oakland on October 25 and November 2, 2011. Plaintiffs to receive compensation for injuries include David Morse, a long-time member of the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center (Indybay).

The settlement in the Campbell vs. City of Oakland case comes on the heals of another $1 million settlement still pending final approval, Spalding vs. City of Oakland. As a result of both cases, OPD has agreed to allow the federal court to enforce OPD’s compliance with its own crowd control policy and to negotiate with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) before making any changes to the policy. The control policy prohibits police from shooting “less lethal” impact munitions or tossing explosive teargas grenades into crowds, and prohibits mass arrests without warning or opportunity to disperse.

[Read More]

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San Francisco Tenants protest at Rick Holman’s Home as part of ‘Eviction Free Summer’

By: Rosa - July 9th, 2013  Filed under: News

Tenants facing eviction from the historic 17 Reasons building by developer and landlord Rick Holman protested outside of his home in South Park in San Francisco this Tuesday. Since the start of the eviction process, Holman has used a variety of tactics such as illegal lockouts of tenants, harassment from security guards, as well as a web of surveillance systems against those paying rent at the building that he wants gone. During a recent block party against gentrification in the Mission District, Holman also worked closely with the police to ensure that the building would not be “occupied” by protestors, and also issued an ‘unlawful detainer’ to residents inside on the day of the event. How many times have we all had landlords come to our homes, walk around, issue demands, and threaten us? Landlords hold great power over our lives and also take massive amounts of money out of our hands that we make by our labors and put it into their pockets. Thus, it’s great to see people taking the fight to their doorsteps and raising a ruckus in their bourgie neighborhoods. Often, most people are too afraid to stand up to the cops, the landlords, and the developers, but we need only keep in mind that are all united in our experiences and our desire to live freely. Hopefully, this is just the start!

[Read More]

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ACT UP/San Francisco Protests Evictions: Housing=Healthcare And Eviction=Death

By: Rosa - April 28th, 2013  Filed under: News

In celebration of their one year anniversary, the direct action group ACT UP/San Francisco staged a lively, 50 person demonstration last Saturday, April 20th. The event was aimed at drawing attention to the impact of increasing evictions and rental price increases in San Francisco on people living with HIV/AIDS. The group, and a coalition of supporting LGBT and housing rights organizations, began at 16th and Mission Street and worked their way up to Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro. The marchers, who took to the streets chanting ‘Housing is a right, housing is a right, ACT UP!’ and ‘Housing equals healthcare and eviction equals death!’, made multiple stops along the way. Though perhaps small in size, the demonstration made a strong and colorful stand, one that hammered in the point that the increasing rents and waves of evictions hitting San Francisco hurt people living with HIV/AIDS and their supporters. Despite the inclusion of lavish street theater and brightly painted signs, the protest was not all noise. Imbedded in their style, ACT UP offered a pointed critique of San Francisco’s City government, especially District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, a gay man who the group feels has turned a blind eye to evictions in his neighborhood.

[Read More]

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New York City, USA: Shelters Not So Sweet: A Letter to the Editor of the New York Post

By: Rosa - April 11th, 2013  Filed under: News

For the last two weeks, the New York Post has been running a bunch of really inflammatory articles about how shifty homeless people are coming to this city for supposedly luxurious free shelter accommodations. Obviously, this is totally ridiculous – anyone who has ever stepped foot inside a shelter knows they’re awful. But the Post doesn’t care about the truth; they just want to scare & stir up conservative readers who already think homeless people are a public menace.

So PTH member Maria Walles wrote a letter to the editor, saying “If you think homeless people are living it up in the shelters, you can take my spot there.”

Surprise, surprise, the Post didn’t run it. But we don’t need them. WE ARE THE MEDIA. Here’s Maria’s letter.

[Read More]

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Memphis (USA): Native squatter refuses to cooperate in court after mansion eviction

By: dolph-l - March 11th, 2013  Filed under: News

Abka Re Bey (aka Tabith Gentry) was arrested early Friday morning (8th March) outside of 600 S. Shady Grove Road in East Memphis, an empty mansion worth more than $3 million that sits on nearly four acres, that she and her family had squatted. She faces charges of aggravated burglary, criminal trespass and theft of property $6,000 or more and was in court Monday morning. Her bond was set at $2 million.

She took the building last week and drew a red flag with green star in the middle on a poster board, while erecting another sign claiming Moorish American National Republic rights and included statements “pertaining to sovereign citizen rhetoric and beliefs,” according to a police report. Moorish American’s are descendants of ancient Moabites in Africa and are the original inhabitants of North America who were enslaved by European colonists. [Read More]

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