Fireworks issue 1 web by Shades O'Silence

MAY 2013 ISSUE 1

TIMELINE OF 2013 ANTAGONISMS POSTER PAGE 6

a Bay Area anarchist news magazine

OPERATION CEASEFIRE

PEOPLE’S COMMUNITY MEDICS

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PAGE 10

RCA & HOT MESS

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PAGE 12

SURVEILLANCE & DRONES IN THE BAY AREA

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AGAINST HIRED GUNS

ART ON FIRE

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WELCOME TO ISSUE 1

NOTES NEXT PAGE

CHECK US OUT ONLINE AT

FROM THE PEN

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FireWorksBayArea.com

W ELC OM E TO

FireWorks

BY T H E EDITORS

Our goal is to use this newspaper as a tool to help create a broader social project that works against the insularity of radical circles and towards the sharing of ideas and information among those who are not satisfied with the status quo. FireWorks is a Bay Area anarchist newspaper that aims to cultivate revolutionary solidarity and communication in the Bay among full-fledged rebels, closet antagonists, oldschool revolutionaries and budding insurgents. What you will find in these pages is a concoction of the efforts and contributions of a broad array of radicals in the Bay Area. It is directed at anyone who opposes capital-

ism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. We aim to create a forum in which people can continue to strengthen their affinities with each other, as well as their hostilities towards a system that has exploited and dominated every aspect of their lives. We want the content we publish to facilitate critical and inspiring conversation and action; we believe the only way this can occur is if the

project attempts to avoid the restraints of financial, bureaucratic, and powerful political interests. Many of our public news sources of information are tailored to the interests of investors, developers, corporations, politicians, and the upper-middle class. Having alternative sources for information and critique is one step towards resisting capitalism’s total dominion over our lives.

FireWorks is dedicated to anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-capitalist principles. We live on Native land that was stolen by Spanish conquistadors; this legacy of colonization continues today through rampant gentrification and the constant occupation of our neighborhoods by the police. In starting a newspaper that is relevant to social struggles in the Bay Area, we place this history of colonization at the center of our analysis. This project also begins with a critical engagement with race, gender, class

and sexuality, without privileging one aspect of experience over another. We reject liberal delusions of progress. Despite having a black man as President, an Asian woman as the Mayor of Oakland, and diverse crowds of yuppies in hip downtown bars, this world is as racist, classist, and gendered as ever. Politicians tell us that they can remedy these injustices, but the deep-seeded inequalities of society cannot be remedied

by the very systems that created them. The state and capitalism secure the prosperity and safety of a privileged few while ensuring the failure of the rest of us. The police and prisons do not keep us safe, but function to maintain the gross inequities already engrained in society. We are dedicated to a persistent antagonism against these systems that protect the future of the rich and powerful while obliterating our own.

FireWorks is built on a commitment to collective and autonomous self-organization. The contributors and editors of this paper, are not a fixed group of people. We don’t agree on everything, but we agree on a few things and we think that’s what matters. We aren’t concerned with Anarchism and Com-

munism as much as we are concerned with anarchy and the commune. The contributors came together in recent years through a wide range of shared experiences and struggles. We understand surviving in this world is vi-

olent but necessary, and we are not content with the bleak future of mere survival. In this urban landscape we struggle to survive while also conjuring the possibility of a future where our dreams and desires can run wild.

For this to truly be a social project, print will be the most effective publishing form. In the digital age, technology mediates our personal interactions and masks the alienation of everyday life. When we never raise our eyes from the screen of our cell phones or never have a moment to look up from our work, we’re unlikely to see all of the people around us, let alone talk to them. Were we to

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look up more often, we might find that the strangers around us are not always our enemies. Make this newspaper an assault on the digital age by having face-to-face conversations with people. Give copies to your friends and comrades. Give a copy to your family, your neighbors, to the grocer, to the

guy at the corner store, to the librarian, to your parents’ weird friends who were revolutionaries, panthers and draft dodgers in the 60’s, to your teachers, to your students, to your grandma, to the person at the coffee shop, to the stranger on the bus.

beyond the

an interview with

flash points: against

hired guns

Q: What are some key lessons you have drawn from the successes and failures of recent anti-police organizing in Oakland?

Jesse: There is often not enough of a connection drawn between flash point organizing around people who get killed by cops and the ongoing effects of policing everyday for people in poor and particularly black and brown communities in Oakland. Cat: We started to call it ambulance chasing. Each time someone is killed, everyone is in the streets and then they all go home. We are not building a sustainable campaign against policing. Also, and this is a more controversial thing to say, but we need to seriously question whether it makes sense to thrust family members whose loved one was murdered into the forefront as leaders of a movement that is about something much bigger than just that individual case. Q: What are the important questions that those engaged in anti-policing work need to ask themselves at this moment?

BY S . VID RA

The Against Hired Guns project was initiated earlier this year

to provide context and analysis around information being released by a cop with the Oakland Unified School District Police looking to rat out his department in their ‘mishandling’ of the killing of Raheim Brown Jr. Those who worked on the project began organizing together during the Oscar Grant rebellions and come from a range of political tendencies. We sat down in Oscar Grant Plaza with Cat, the co-chair of Onyx Organizing Committee, and Jesse, an anti-policing organizer from Oakland, to have a candid discussion about the questions they have been grappling with and the important ideas that have come out of this project.

Cat: It can be really difficult to walk into a West or East Oakland neighborhood, when folks are dealing with whoever got shot on the block or whoever got raped, and say “get rid of all the police” if we don’t have a conversation about what we can replace them with. How do we build community led models where we as the people keep our own folks safe? OPD is on a campaign right now to improve their image. While they are murdering people in the streets, they are simultaneously out there in the community. They got sisters with dreadlocks knocking on doors and tackling campaigns that people are going to resonate with emotionally. Jesse: How do we counter that without looking like we support this kind of violence? Anti-policing does not mean pro-violence in these communities. Policing is a system in our society that is supposedly built in order to suppress violence. The US is caging more people than any other industrialized nation in the world. If we could arrest our way out of violence then we would be fucking safe. That’s obviously not the case. Cat: A concrete example of this was during the big response to Bratton coming into Oakland. That was exactly the frame they used. If you were anti-Bratton, then you

were pro-violence, or you didn’t care about eradicating violence in these neighborhoods. I actually believe that message won in the general public debate. Q: What do you think are the biggest barriers towards building a real powerful antipolice movement in Oakland?

Jesse: I think our biggest assets also present us with our strongest challenges. The Oscar Grant rebellions and Occupy created a sense of excitement locally about insurrectionary politics. In a certain sense, those politics are by definition focused on flash points and immediate events. That loses an understanding of what policing really means in Oakland beyond Oscar Grant getting shot on the Fruitvale BART platform or beyond Alan Blueford getting shot in the back. It loses focus on the daily systems of control and policing in black and brown communities in Oakland. Cat: I think we have some real serious work to do around our race and class issues in this city, real serious. The more people start to come here for the movement, it almost feels like it gets harder and harder to have that conversation. Speaking from Onyx’s perspective, until the people most impacted by policing are at the helm of that movement, we are not having a real conversation about eradicating police violence. Our analysis of what justice is will trip us up every time. Not being able to define justice outside the system that makes these monsters that are killing people is gonna keep tripping us up. Jesse: I would even avoid the language that the system uses. Rather than calling for “justice,” we need to think outside that box. What are we really struggling for? Q: What lessons can we draw from Oakland’s recent experience that can be useful for those in other places who are dealing with similar situations, such as the recent anti-police rebellions in Brooklyn and Atlanta or in Anaheim last year? Cat: Use flashpoint organizing as much as you can to build a larger sustainable movement. Don’t ask for permission to take the streets. Don’t put families in the forefront of leading a movement. Have those race and class conversations up front from the beginning. Grow your movement beyond just the radicals who have had this analysis forever. ISSUE 1

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operation ceasefire a tool to further contain the ghetto As more money flows into the Bay, the Mayor of Oakland and OPD must find ways to contain the violence of Oakland. Framed as a network of faith, non-profit, and government, Operation Ceasefire is an ultimatum to the youth of Oakland: “Follow our vision and structure or OPD will accelerate the warehousing of young black and brown youth to jail and prison.” BY RO B IN B A NKS

n 2012, there were 131 homicides in Oakland. The first homicide of 2013 was the shooting of 17-year-old Tyronta Mickens at the corner of 73rd and Hamilton in East Oakland. On January 11, there were 4 more homicides across Oakland in one night; and on February 1, 18-year-old Kiante Campbell was fatally shot at First Friday/Art Murmur. These were some of the homicides that received news coverage this year, but they are amongst many other homicides and shootings that didn’t receive media attention. The homicides that receive media attention are often the most sensational cases as well as those impacting ‘public safety.’ However, in the aftermath of violent crimes the measures taken by the city and police vary greatly depending on who the victims or potential victims are.

members of society who make up ‘the public’ while continuing to wage war against the poor and therefore ‘criminal’ classes. Recently, even the wealthy are feeling threatened by crime in Oakland. When the victims of violent crime are black and brown youth in Oakland, the media blurs the line between victim and criminal; but when the wealthy are involved, victimhood becomes very clear-cut. The Oakmore neighborhood, nestled in the wealthy Oakland hills just blocks from Mayor Jean Quan’s own home, recently hired private security to roam the neighborhood and deter burglars. Residents were shaken by a recent daytime burglary, and due to the failure of police to allocate more resources to burglary response, they decided to take matters into their own hands. Utility poles around the area are

connected to the East Oakland “Case Gang” were arrested. One month prior to the raid, police made 33 felony arrests. All of these operations were part of Operation Ceasefire, an anti-violence strategy enacted in Oakland through the collaboration of law enforcement with faith and community leaders. Unlike traditional policing strategies, the idea of the Ceasefire strategy is to give gang members an opportunity via a “call-in” meeting to turn their lives around, but only if they and their respective gangs stop the shooting and killing. This call-in relies on the assumption that most of the violence in Oakland is due to a relatively small number of people involved in rival gangs. Religious and community organizations offer one part of the of the bargain: if the violence stops, there will be support ser-

When the victims of violent crime are black and brown youth in Oakland, the media blurs the line between victim and criminal; but when the wealthy are involved, victimhood becomes very clear-cut. When it comes to public safety, we are provided with a simple narrative: the city serves the public, the police protect the public, and the criminals and crooks threaten the public. In this scheme, these criminals and crooks are explicitly outside of the public. The crime rhetoric spouted by both the city and police is based on exclusionary principles that separate the innocent from the criminal. The innocent are often described as ‘the public,’ ‘society,’ or ‘innocent citizens.’ Despite their guise of inclusivity, these vague social bodies are determined by their systematic exclusion of certain individuals. With this in mind, we can see how the actions of the city government and police work to further protect the productive

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splashed with photographs of home intruders caught on residential security cameras, ensuring that anyone fitting the vague physical stereotype of the imaged individuals is deemed suspicious. A resident stated, “[with these patrols] someone is walking by your home every 5-7 minutes or driving by your home every 5-7 minutes.” Meanwhile, on the other side of town, youth in Oakland face a very different set of numbers: students have a 58.9% graduation rate, 33% of children live in poverty, and incarcerated adults in Alameda County face a 62.9% recidivism rate. On March 8 of this year, OPD worked with more than 160 federal agents to conduct a series of raids in which 16 people allegedly

vices and job trainings for the individuals who comply. The police add a catch, as always: if the violence doesn’t stop, there will be major crackdowns by law enforcement, and prosecutors will “relentlessly” try to dismantle the gangs. This offer was put on the table in October of 2012, where those present included police as well as religious and community leaders. Though there was a 10-day period

even the wealthy are feeling threatened by crime in Oakland

making the police a benevolent force in communities underlies OPERATION Ceasefire following the meeting where no shootings occurred in East Oakland, the non-violence was short lived. A major prong of the Ceasefire program is the notion of community policing, in which local beat officers conduct “night walks” consistently in one particular area. The purpose of this is to try to “take the ‘cops vs. the community’ mentality and make it ‘the police and community vs. crime’ approach.” This notion of making the police a benevolent force in communities underlies the entire Ceasefire operation. The strategy falls short in a myriad of ways, but there are two particular aspects to focus on. First, the police are racist and work in conjunction with the state apparatus and prison industrial complex to ensure the mass incarceration of people of color. It is highly unlikely that this historical precedent

produced by the police and the media, these criminal figures become responsible for all of the crime and ills of society. The historical roots of gangs are intricately woven into a web of structural violences that the state has consistently carried out against marginalized communities. Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, the prison population in the U.S. was overwhelmingly white; in the period that followed the Proclamation, the percentage of black inmates in prisons grew rapidly and the percentage of white inmates fell. The incarceration of people of color was furthered by legislation such as the Vagrancy Statutes and the Black Codes that were instituted after the Civil War, and yet again with the CIA operations in the early 80’s which brought

day) does not put a stop to violence; it only takes people away from their families and communities and makes it even more difficult for their loved ones to survive within the limits of the law. Offering job training and support services for gang members is hollow when in reality they will continue to be subjected to structural inequalities, racism, and violence at the hands of the police. The Ceasefire strategy is essentially offering a band-aid for an infected gaping wound. In Ceasefire’s attempt to reduce violence without looking at the daily realities of the people it targets, it fails to address the larger systemic injustices that lead people to a life of crime to begin with.

How could the police have the interests of a community at heart when they have consistently put members of that community in prison? will be reversed. Second, gangs are complex formations that aren’t simply dismantled by (a) excessive force or (b) social services and job training. Gangs are kinship formations that have long been entrenched in communities of color, migrant communities, and other disenfranchised groups. They are portrayed in the media as inherently ruthless and depraved organizations whose express purpose is to wreak havoc among themselves and on the lives of “innocent” people. Gangs are denied any complexity, and gang members are similarly imagined as faceless figures (faceless, but always racialized). Because of these gross simplifications re-

tons of crack cocaine into Black communities, and furthered gang violence well into the 90’s. Considering the high incarceration and recidivism rates that we see in Oakland today, there is no reason to believe that this historical cycle of disenfranchisement and incarceration is coming to an end. A strategy resting on the police working with the community is in itself a contradiction. How could the police have the interests of a community at heart when they have consistently put members of that community in prison? Incarcerating gang members (or people who look like gang members, or might be gang members some-

Looking to the police for solutions will never make sense. The police have consistently shown that they are out to protect only the privileged few who they deem worthy of protection. By understanding police and state violence not as exceptions to the rule, but as practices deeply fortified in the social and political economy, we can begin to unlearn the simple narratives with which the state provides us. Instead of blindly presuming the police are there to protect all of us, we can look at the concrete realities of crime, incarceration, recidivism, and police violence and figure out for ourselves what it is exactly that the police do.

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Drones in the sky, Cameras on the wall BY AN ONYMOUS

f you’ve taken BART in the past few months, you may have noticed the new cameras installed inside and around the BART system. It’s no coincidence that this fresh wave of cameras are being introduced to the San Francisco Bay, now several years into a second tech boom. The ascent of social and web technologies here heralds a boom in surveillance, control, and hi-tech weapons of war. Armed UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), known as Predator Drones and Reaper Drones, are pilotless air crafts operated by remote control from CIA and military facilities. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates between 2,500 and 3,580 people were killed in drone strikes on Pakistan between 2004 and 2012, with several hundred deaths reported in Yemen and Somalia as well. When it was revealed earlier this year that The New York Times and The Washington Post had kept hush on the existence of a drone base in Saudi Arabia for over two years, corporate media outlets went into something of a dull uproar, their complicity with the state shamefully apparent. Obama’s leftist supporters have dutifully assumed the role of “Loyal Opposition”, re-

THE state and its apologists say that drones ARE URGENTLY NEEDED TO “FIGHT CRIME” AND “ASSIST IN INVESTIGATIONS,” BUT WE WON’T USE SUCH SYMPATHETIC LANGUAGE: THEY WANT MORE CONTROL AND EXPANDED POWER.

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sponding to the grim reality of the bloody drone wars to predictable effect. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party demands accountability and transparency, while at the same time embracing the imperialist position of a US right to conduct robot death strikes to ensure our “safety.” The US media, for its part, props up various critics who challenge parts of the drone program but stop short of recognizing these military operations for what they are: an Endless Global War, a “War on Terror” with no end and no goal except the continuation of war. The Stanford Research Institute (SRI) is dedicated to researching and developing new methods of human control. Their website states that SRI is “501(c)(3) Nonprofit,” though they have conducted more than $4 billion in client-sponsored R&D. Based in Menlo Park in nearby San Mateo County, SRI supplies the US government with technologies for both military drone operations and domestic surveillance and spying. [The “Products and Services” listed on their website include Tracking Humans in Crowds and VerifIR Video Surveillance Cameras.] The ominous white globe cameras popping up around BART in the bay area are part and parcel of life in the age of the drone wars. The state has poured billions into the development of surveillance technologies and pilotless aircraft. Refined and tested in clandestine warfare abroad, drones have now been introduced at home, and are already in use along US Borders and by some police forces. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Department is currently attempting to introduce drones here - the first county in California to do so. No doubt others will soon follow, as plenty of Police Departments are eager to expand their paramilitary arsenals and surveillance capabilities. The State and its apologists say that the drones are urgently needed

to “fight crime” and “assist in investigations,” but we won’t use such sympathetic language: they want more control and expanded power.

CAMOVER On January 8th 2013, comrades from Berlin announced a new game to be played against the surveillance state: CAMOVER. “The idea of the game is to destroy as many CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) cameras as possible”, their website states, adding, “If you have pictures, videos, or other evidence for the destroyed cameras, you get extra credit.” [Please educate yourself on internet security culture before transmitting sensitive files over the internet.] Troublemakers from around the world have announced their participation in CAMOVER, including comrades in Finland, Germany, and Greece. In the US, a team calling themselves “The Barefoot Bandit Brigade” claimed their participation on pugetsoundanarchists.org. Their communique read: “In the opening weeks of February 2013, we have removed and destroyed 17 Security cameras throughout the Puget Sound Region. This act is concrete sabotage against the system of surveillance and control.” The post was accompanied by two photographs showing a range of disabled cameras laid out on a table.

Contribute! Submit!

This column is the first of a recurring feature on drones, spying, and surveillance. If you have writing, photographs, art, information, sources, or investigative leads relevant to these topics please email us at smashsurveillance@riseup.net. We would also like to continue reprinting and reporting on claims of action against the surveillance state.

more info: camover.noblogs.org

a LETTER from

the RECENT OHIO

PRISON UPRISINGS

At East Bay Prisoner Support we correspond with people in prison, sending in radical literature, sharing stories of rebellion on the outside, and hearing stories of rebellion on the inside. One of the most inspiring correspondences we’ve had recently has been with the accused members of the Army of 12 Monkeys at Mansfield Correctional in Ohio. Sean Swain, James Dzelajlija, and Leslie Dillon wrote to us:

oward the end of last summer, flyers and booklets started circulating around the compound that were put out by a prisoner resistance group calling itself the Army of 12 Monkeys (A12M). The booklets were instructional manuals on orchestrating guerrilla warfare against the prison industrial complex from the inside. They included hundreds of tactics, from jamming locks with staples to cutting staff phone/ computer cords with nail clippers to organizing institution-wide work stoppages and riots. These things were EVERYWHERE. Numerous copies were distributed to all 16 pods on the compound. They called for all prisoners to resist- whether individually or as a group- the administration that’s keeping us all in cages and away from our loved ones. It was truly a beautiful and exciting time, because people responded! Graffiti’d “12’s” started appearing on walls. The locksmith was seen daily changing locks and doorknobs all over the prison. Computers were getting fried by having salt water squirted into their motherboards.The

biggest thing I saw was the kitchen/ chow hall being flooded by guys who jammed potatoes into the water drains under the traps on the floor. Of course the slave masters didn’t think so. Can’t have us chattel running around, fucking up the plantation and all that. Staff cracked down pretty hard. Lockdowns. Cell searches. Gauntlet shakedowns. Pepper spray loaded paintball guns. Bean Bag launchers. Lots of violent assaults on prisoners. It was crazy. Then the 3 of us were carted off to the hole.* We’ve been here for 131 days and counting. Recently 3 others were apprehended for A12M activity. Shawn Marshall and two others whose names I don’t know. Information gets back here from time to time. The A12M is still creating havoc for the Mansfied C.I. staff, Just today we discovered that 40 inmates from the Lake Erie Correctional Institution, 2 hours away in Cinneaut, Ohio, will be emergency transferred here to the Mansfield C.I. SMU for a riot caused by the A12M there. The Army of

THE BOOKLETS CALLED FOR ALL PRISONERS TO RESIST – WHETHER INDIVIDUALLY OR AS A GROUP... 12 Monkeys is spreading. The urge to resist and gain freedom is becoming infectious within the Ohio Prison System! Swain, Dillon, and I are waiting on 5B Supermaximum Security placement hearings… Information about this A12M stuff can be found at seanswain.org and anarchist news.org. Check it out. Not much else to report on that I know of, other than that being in the hole* sucks. I’m cold, I’m hungry, and I’m bored. I could really use a pen pal. Someone who a) isn’t my family and b) is down for revolution. -Blackjack

After we received this letter from Blackjack we got word that Leslie Dillon admits to being the head of the Army of 12 Monkeys at Mansfield Correctional. He says he knows there were no other members at the prison and in particular that James Dzelajlija and Sean Swain were not members of the group. It is yet to be seen whether this statement will successfully stave off further prosecution of Dzelajlija and Swain as members of the Army of 12 Monkeys.

JAMES DZELAJLIJA #A530144 MANCI PO Box 788 Mansfield, OH 44901 SEAN SWAIN #243205 MANCI PO Box 788 Mansfield, OH 44901 LESLIE DILLON #A416607 MANCI PO Box 788 Mansfield, OH 44901 SHAWN MARSHALL #A461448 MANCI PO Box 788 Mansfield, OH 44901 *The hole, also known as the SHU (Security Housing Unit or Special Housing Unit) or the SMU (Special Management Unit) is solitary confinement. In the hole, prisoners are only allowed outside their cells for 1-1/2 hours a day, and even then are kept alone. They are fed through small doors in their cells. There are generally no windows and only metal and cement furniture if any. They are under constant video surveillance. Because the prisoners are unable to file grievances, the guards are entirely unchecked and violently abuse those inside to a much greater degree than in lower security units. In California there are Security Housing Units in Atwater (between Turlock and Merced), Corcoran (between Fresno and Bakersfield), Tehachapi (outside Bakersfield), and at Pelican Bay in Crescent City in the northwest corner of the state.

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timeline of 2013

January - April

FEBR

antagonisms

New Years Eve

January 9 SAN FRANCISCO: Rebels vandalized the Greek consulate in solidarity with anarchist comrades who’s squats (occupied spaces in which people live in and do not pay for), were evicted by police.

January 10 OAKLAND: Several hundred people gathered at Oscar Grant Plaza (14th and Broadway), and took to the streets to make some noise for those locked away at the Alameda County jail. People vandalized the building as well as the Oakland Police Department headquarters while inmates inside responded by turning on and off their lights as the marchers drew close. Several FireWorks were shot off. No arrests were made.

January 1 OAKLAND: Gathering at Fruitvale BART station to remember Oscar Grant’s life and murder by BART police.

January 8

BERKELEY: Picket by Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) at the Ecology Center against attacks on wages, benefits, and workplace safety for recycle workers.

January 14 ALAMEDA: Successful occupation of a foreclosed house since the beginning of November leads to Morgan Stanley renegotiating another predatory loan.

January 11 SAN FRANCISCO: A march in the Mission against attempted rape of a young woman. Anarchists living in the neighborhood marched, carrying a banner: “For Gender Self-Determination! Against Violence and Policing.”

January 15

January 21

SAN F strate a ACAC rades a

EMERYVILLE: Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. son of slain revolutionary Fred Hampton Sr. of the Black Panther Party was detained at gun point and intimidated by OPD and Emeryville Police during his visit to Oakland.

January 22 OAKLAND: Oakland city council approves the hiring of Bratton after a second night of anti-police protests and counter protests called for by the Tribune and councilmember Kernighan at City Hall.

FEBRUARY 3 BERKELEY: Drug dealers in People’s Park admitted that Berkeley Police have asked them to assault local cop-watchers. The dealers explained that the police have made a deal to look the other way provided they would keep cop-watchers out of People’s Park and off of Telegraph.

february

OAKLAN squatted c vorable rul and won q that lasted

FEBRUARY 4 OAKLAND: The Alameda Courthouse briefly turned into a battle ground when Jack, arrested January 7, 2012 during an FTP march in downtown Oakland, was sentenced to six months in Santa Rita. The judge ordered people arrested after chants and screams filled the air. Scuffles with deputies ensued leading to four arrests.

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SAN FRANCISCO: Kevin Clark was brutality SFPD pigs at the 24th and Mission BART stat dent was caught on video. At a rally three days tack attended by over 200 people, Kevin stated this problem of police brutality and make the str people won’t have to worry about the police hara OAKLAND: Hundreds swarm City Hall to oppose the hiring of Bill Bratton, the “supercop” architect of stop and frisk tactics, as a consultant for OPD.

RUARY 8

April 22

MARCH 12

UNION CITY: Vigil held in Union City by friends and family for 26-year-old Amos G. Smith. Smith was murdered by the Union City Police Department on March 2 when he was shot in the back of the head 8 times during a routine traffic stop.

April 10

FRANCISCO: Over 100 Demonat the courthouse in solidarity with the 19, anti-colonial, anti-capitalist comarrested Columbus Day weekend.

BERKELEY: 100 militant queers gathered at People’s Park to march against the recent murder of Kayla Moore, killed by Berkeley Police on February 12.

FEBRUARY 9

february 10

AND: The RCA/Hot Mess compound had an unfaing overturned in court quiet title after a battle d over six months.

y attacked by tion. The incis after the atd, “We can fix eets safer, so assing them.”

MARCH 13

march 5

VALLEJO: Rally in Vallejo against recent police murders and brutality called for by Vallejo Copwatch.

OAKLAND: Jerry Brown announced plans to develop the 5th Ave Marina. The Brooklyn Basin, a $1.5 billion project, funded by Chinese investors, will be made up of multiple skyscrapers of residential and commercial space that will have a drastic impact on the landscape of Oakland.

OAKLAND: Dozens gather at Oscar Grant plaza for Tristan Anderson, Oakland anarchist, shot in the head and injured in Palestine by the Israeli army on the four year anniversary of the attack.

OAKLAND: Following a Justice for Alan Blueford event, Michael Walker, aka Ghetto Prophet, from the ONYX organizing committee was arrested by CHP for a parole violation despite being off of parole since August 2012. His supporters see this as a political attack in retaliation for his fierce criticisms of the police.

MARCH 15 OAKLAND: Rebels took to the streets in Downtown Oakland on the annual day of action against police brutality. Marchers attacked numerous banks and painted anti-police messages on buildings.

MARCH 1 OAKLAND: “Less than 24 hours before First Friday, a property management office that promotes gentrification along the KONO corridor was attacked by breaking the windows, setting off a fire extinguisher and shooting paint into the office. [This] was done to show these rich bastards that Oakland will not be gentrified without a fight.” communiqué on indybay.org

APRIl 3 OAKLAND: Police looking for a robbery suspect open fire on a group of black teenagers in downtown and shoot an unarmed teen in the face, grazing him. He is later cleared of any connection to the robbery.

FEBRUARY 21 APRIl 15 OAKLAND: Two Lanesplitters workers walked off the job receiving support from customers in protest of working conditions, treatment from management, bad pay, and lack of access to benefits. Several days later, supporters and workers fliered outside of several stores, encouraging people to boycott the pizza chain until their demands were met.

SAN FRANCISCO: Over 100 students at San Francisco City College occupied the school administration building for a day and a night against rising fees and other cut-backs.

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ART ON FIRE, PLEASE. AN ONGOING COLUMN ABOUT THE WAR OVER ART AND PUBLIC SPACE IN A GENTRIFYING CITY

BY CAT GRA P H

housands can recall moments of either occupying or fighting the police at 19th and Telegraph. The reinforced fencing that is now there used to stand alone, and throughout Occupy Oakland it was torn down countless times as part of the war for public space (also referred to as the “commons”). Along with Oscar Grant Plaza, 19th and Telegraph holds an abundant history of recent social struggle.

all of this sanctioned art works with, not against, the war on poor, black and brown people Nestled in the middle of a major condo complex and just a block north of the Fox Theater, the undeveloped space at 19th and Telegraph is now home to a new sculpture series by Burning Man’s Black Rock Arts Foundation. It’s the first of many art installations dubbed the “Outdoor ArtPark.” With full backing from the City and a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, one might think the artist communities of Oakland have landed a serious achievement. Or not. While the City brutally demonstrates how innovative and sophisticated their war on crime can be, artists are pondering how to best flaunt the certainty

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that deep-pocketed foundations, investors and even the city government will validate their creative endeavors. Illegal street artists have watched for decades as major cities across the country develop special laws, prosecution teams and task forces to attack those who do not conspire with politicians and gentrifying business districts to determine what kind of “art” is acceptable and what isn’t. Graffiti is alive and well in Oakland for many reasons. Resources are limited to catch and prosecute street artists, leading the city to enforce a new ordinance increasing fines on property owners for not removing graffiti. It will also make graffiti an automatic misdemeanor offense, whereas prior to the ordinance it was possible to receive only an infraction for some kinds of vandalism. Although the fines have gone into effect at struggling BBQ joints and corner stores - soon to be replaced by the cafes and boutiques of “Beautified West Oakland” - it may be a while before illegal street artists start to feel the effects of this ordinance. However, art like the 9-piece Burning Man installation makes that day feel much closer. Oakland maintains a perverted rate of gentrification, meanwhile the private security guards of Downtown, Uptown and KONO empower snitches to report arbitrary crimes like drinking in public, selling weed, prostitution or whatever else might get under the skin of the gallery owners on Telegraph. Much like the beautified power boxes and trash cans lining Telegraph Avenue, all of this sanctioned art works with,

not against, the war on poor, black and brown people. Families are being driven away from their homes and neighborhoods. Young people are sent into jails and prisons. Children are shuffled in and out of CPS, and worse. This is not an isolated look at ‘sell-outs’ vs. ‘street artists.’ This process of gentrification and policing is war. When local artists are willingly recuperated into the ranks of those facilitating this process, they become complicit in this war. For the state to succeed in capitalist development and social control over space, it requires subversive artistic energy to be absorbed into privatized spaces and managed for the benefit of business interests while creative rebels who refuse to assimilate are attacked. A suggestion to those who seek inspiration at the expense of the misery of this city and its many boring facades: Go ahead and make art. But do not ask for permission and do not conspire with the enemy to do so. Make war on recuperated art as you would with any other facet of gentrification. Vandalism can be the most beautiful gesture of solidarity to our friends in jails, those out of work or struggling to keep their children from CPS. Finally, a word of advice to the burners: refer to the long-standing tradition of your parties in the desert and set your art on fire. Another good read about illegal street art and the war for public space: The Art of Private Property Desecration by Shades of Silence: shadesofsilence206.wordpress.com

4 Theses on The Public School

BY A FRIEND OF T H E PUB LIC S CHOOL

Since the summer of 2012, the Bay Area Public School (bayareapublicschool.org) has been working throughout Oakland and San Francisco to build a free, anti-capitalist, horizontally structured experiment in alternative education. Formed in the wake of Occupy Oakland, its core members are activists and intellectuals who

conceive of the School’s project as explicitly political. I’m one of those members, and though I don’t claim to speak for the collective or any of its other members, I’m excited to share with FireWorks’ readers some of the reasons I think the Public School is an important attempt to extend what activism looks like in Oakland.

1. Gathering is radical One thing we all learned at Oscar Grant Plaza is that we need to come together and meet each other. After Occupy, we still need to come up with ways to gather, to meet our allies and also to involve new people in our conversations and activities. In my work with the school, I’ve been inspired to see the gatherings that have happened around, say, a study of technology in Marx’s Capital, or a talk by Silvia Federici. Studying with so many people over the past year has been a powerful experience.

2. New terrain calls for new tactics Another thing we learned from Occupy was the limit of the forms of struggle that took place. If we’re to work to collectively develop new means of struggle, it’s crucial to cultivate spaces in which we can discuss our recent history and also study the revolutionary histories that help us understand our own moment. I’m super-proud to have been a part of developing classes and lectures through the Public School, which have covered Marx’s Capital, the Paris Commune, and the history of the First International. All these studies create a continuum of radical knowledge that we can use to understand the present terrain, and to think through what’s next.

3. In down times build networks, build solidarity, build new institutions We all know the depression that sets in after a period of political excitement. In that aftermath, it often seems like nothing is happening and there isn’t anything to do. It’s important to remember there is something to do: the work that prepares for the next moment of mobilization. One aspect of this work is the development of networks of solidarity and institutions of support. Through the Public School I have not only met dozens, if not hundreds of people, but I have also seen many people meet who I was surprised had never met before. Projects like the Public School get us to shake one another’s hands and know one another’s names – so we’ll recognize each other as allies when we meet again. Likewise, the development of institutions of material support for radical projects (including spaces like the Public School’s spot at 2141 Broadway in downtown Oakland) will doubtlessly turn out to have unforeseen uses in future moments of political excitement.

4. We need to imagine a future Endless wars, massive exploitation of workers, the contemptuous destruction of the natural world -- it’s clear that this form of society has no ability to imagine any future beyond next quarter’s profits. Capitalism’s whole ethos can be summed up simply: Fuck it. Take the money and run. Those of us who are on the side of life rather than death, know that this must be opposed with all the tools at our disposal. The true crisis is exactly that there will be a future, and that we must all struggle over what it will look like. In order to engage in that struggle, we need a picture of what it might look like, of what it is we’re looking for, working for. There’s a world that wants to be born, a world that is better and more just than this disaster we’re all living through. When we get together and talk about what it might look like — that humble moment is when we commence to lay that world’s foundation. Come check out the Public School. We need your help to build the world.

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oakland community medics speak out against patient abuse an interview with people’s community medics BY GA NS ET T

he People’s Community Medics (PCM) were formed in the summer of 2011, in the aftermath of investigations into Oscar Grant’s murder. FireWorks sat down with two of the PCM’s founders, Sharena Thomas (CNA, MA) and Lesley Phillips, both First Aid/CPR certified and trained in Wilderness First Aid, for an extensive interview about their project and the work still to be done. In 2011, Lesley and Sharena met with Sean Gillis, a paramedic investigator of the Oakland Fire Department who met with the Oscar Grant Committee to Stop Police Brutality when his whistleblowing investigation was suppressed by the Police and Fire Department in 2011. His findings validated what the committee members already knew firsthand: the OPD routinely delay and prevent ambulances and first-responders from treating people of color. Now, the PCMs are a community fixture, providing free workshops for “Gunshot wounds, seizures, and know your rights trainings”. Coupling first-response education with a strong stance against police racism and violence, the PCM are an important voice in the movement against gentrification and violence in the Bay Area. While seeking justice for Oscar Grant, Sharena and Lesley tackle a long history of racism in the healthcare industry and in the Oakland Police Department. Lesley grades the existing health care system as “Getting an F. It’s in a bad state,” she said. People who do not have health insurance end up being filtered down to the dregs of the healthcare system and when that fails, their primary care is 911 emergency service. “It wastes the resources of the ambulance workers,” said Lesley, “when they could be attending to a legitimate emergency as opposed to helping some body who needed to be seen by a healthcare provider in a clinic setting.”

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The healthcare system prioritizes patients who are of the class to pay for expensive treatments and getting any medicine at all, “They failed a lot when it comes to putting a price tag on who lives and who dies,” said Sharena, who is currently fighting an arduous battle to achieve proper healthcare for her uninsured mother, who has cancer. Some patients may consider themselves lucky to arrive at a hospital before bleeding out on the streets of Oakland while the OPD stand idly by. Alameda County Paramedics have strong response times of 5-7 minutes to emergency scenes. However, the OPD “scene safety” policy, according to Lesley, states that when an ambulance is called to the scene of a gunshot or a stabbing, the OPD must declare the scene to be safe before a paid ambulance crew can treat the patient. OPD consistently shows up late, 3045 minutes after a 911 call has been made, discarding the urgency of the golden hour of survival after a gun shot wound. Sharena describes the OPD extending this policy to ‘nonviolent’ situations, “I’ve seen somebody have a seizure and the police deemed it ‘not safe to enter’, at a college,” says Sharena. Police abusing power and arbitrary behavior is nothing new, but the PCM delve into a history of the OPD intentionally recruiting officers who have served many tours of duty in the military. They even call Oakland “Baby Baghdad- so that when they come out on the streets they’re coming out to do warfare. They are not coming out on the streets to protect and serve the people,” said Lesley. With a mindset of heading into war every time an OPD officer clocks in, they are far from prioritizing proper patient care over excess violence. Lesley continues, “In my opinion it’s because the Oakland Police Department, as an unwritten, unspoken policy despises the people of Oakland, they have no love for the people.”

“One of the policies that the OPD has is called ‘death enforcement.’ They will allow a person to bleed out before they will let an ambulance worker attend to the person.” A clear example of OPD’s mindset is simple: all officers are required to have first aid/CPR training, and all police cars carry a first aid aid kit in the back, but they do not use it “unless they shoot themselves,” said Sharena. On top of unwritten violent and racist policies, the PCM has been investigating OPD’s intentional patient negligence that adds to the death count of patients that could have survived if they had been allowed proper healthcare. The most striking policy of which is the OPD’s death enforcement policy. According to PCM’s conversation with an Alameda County Paramedic, “One of the policies that the OPD has is called “death enforcement.” They will allow a person to bleed out before they will let an ambulance worker attend to the person.” Alameda County paramedics are working towards getting OPD to rescind the “death enforcement” policy, but according to Lesley, “it’s a real uphill battle.” The PCM draw the clear distinction that negligent and violent patient care on the streets of Oakland is a police brutality issue. “Our problem is not with the EMTs, our problem is with the police department,” said Lesley.

caution

N cautio caution caution caution caution caution caution caution understaffed not ’re ” caution “opd: they ’re overviolent they FireWorks: How do the police typically treat patients? Lesley: We’ve seen all different kind of cops behave towards all different kind of people with a lot ofSharena: Anger. Even to the victims parents and family and children. L: Disrespect- they treat the people in a very undignified manner. S: So when somebody shot, you don’t have a right to cry, they don’t deserve to have a hand held, they don’t deserve to be talked toAnd they’re dying! A lot of times [the police] pick somebody off the streets just to say they solved a crime. There’s a lot of our people locked up around the world for crimes that they didn’t commit, spending half of their life in jail trying to prove their innocence. My brother is locked up for a crime that he didn’t commit by faulty police- his name is Antoine Thomas out of Fairfield. The gentrifying makes it worse for the people. Gentrification is bringing more police on to our people. Because the people that gentrify here are scared of the people in our communities so of course they’re going to call the police for everything that goes on here, because they’re not used to it. They don’t belong. [People] that haven’t been in our communities call the police on people who have been in the community for generationsL: For generations!

S: And move here in our communities and [are] appalled that we’re having a gathering, call the police, and turn us into target practice. That’s the problem. And the police are going to respond because the gentrifiers act like they’re being targeted and mistreated when they have targeted and come to our communities! People should be careful about moving into our community because the people in the community are not going anywhere. We’re going to be here we going to stay where we are, we’re going to keep our places.

“Our problem is not with the EMTs, our problem is with the police department,” said Lesley. FW: How do police treat patients in protest situations? L: How do they treat patients? They make patients in protests. (laughter) Some protests there was no violence, but they came violent and hurtful to the people. Even on the peaceful protest they make it out to be the worst thing ever. Tear gassing and dispersing things in the air- They come with

it! We’re trying to tell you, it’s the police against the people. it’s gonna be more things to come, you gonna see it. People are getting tired all the way around of the police doing this. I’ve seen agents of police getting shot at this week and last week. For the last few months it’s been cracking. People been killing the police and things of that nature. When the police get murdered, it makes me sad. The [thought] on my mind is, my goodness, what did they do? They had the power and they sent so many people to jail and had done so much wrong...and you’re saying ‘Wow, they must have really did something bad to somebody.” Lied on the stand. It’s just sickening. FW: The system being made of money. S: Made of money, that’s exactly what it is. It’s a dollar sign. It’s a dollar sign for all of it. If you lock somebody up that’s innocent, they are slaved in a jailhouse for how long? On top of being a slave in there, the prosecutors and D.A.’s make money off the person and they don’t even give them the services that they are due to have. Public defenders don’t even fight for people’s cases and get checks once a month as if they represent them and don’t. [The Courts] send innocent people to jail because it’s just money to them.

to read the full interview please visit FireWorksBayArea.com HOW TO TREAT A GUNSHOT WOUND Disclaimer These are just beginning steps for immediate treatment! The Goal: Find and close the Entrance and Exit Wounds. Time Constraints: The Golden Hour of Gunshot Wounds - treatment within 60 minutes is crucial for survival. The Strategy: Wear gloves or use a barrier, apply firm, direct pressure to the entrance and exit wounds, wrap gauze around wounds to create a pressure dressing. Continue adding to pressure dressing until bleeding stops. Go to an ER with trauma abilities ASAP.

Learn more about People’s Community Medics: www.peoplescommunitymedics.org 11

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Liberate Space the hot mess/rca compound: squatting, eviction, and social struggle BY ANO NY MOUS

he RCA and the Hotmess are squats — which is to say they are a set of buildings left to die before being illegally transformed into a living home, a place where people can rest their heads, and an experiment in developing relationships that challenge the logic of property. About two years ago the project of transforming these adjacent vacant buildings began. The squats are positioned along a section of W MacArthur Blvd in West Oakland that is facing future development. Developers call this section of town the “MacArthur

Corridor.” Others prefer to call it home. If taken from the squatters, the RCA/Hotmess would have likely been slated for demolition and “developed” into condominiums for Oakland’s “up and coming”. Today’s world is principally defined by separation. The locks and fences that were once used to keep people out (and bank ownership in) have been replaced by barricades that are sloganed with “Communes not Condos”, “Developers Fuck Off ”, and messages of solidarity with other squats around the world. As a social center: the RCA/Hotmess hosts

BBQ’s, punk/hip-hop/dance parties, political speakers and presentations and acts as a material resource in ongoing social struggle. We sat with Esperanza and Tramp of the RCA/Hotmess on April 5th and had a lively discussion on a range of topics, including race relations, the origins of Hotmess as a queer-trans house (a house that seeks a refusal of gender as a fixed identity), and their experience fighting eviction in 2012 and early 2013. Here’s an excerpt; for the full interview please visit FireWorksBayArea.com

an excerpt from the interview with tramp and esperanza of the rca/hot mess: FW: We saw in the wake of occupy foreclosure defense initiatives that used squatter’s tactics to keep people in their homes. In LA there’s been a series of barricaded foreclosure defenses for families of color. Are there intersections with our struggles? T: In the past folks here have helped “in home” foreclosure defense within our neighborhood by trying to defend their space and organized on the basis of homeowner desires. We have some house mates here who were living just down the street who got foreclosed on, and I think that’s a good way squats can support. Historically there’s been a lot of power between squatters and folks who are either rent striking

or going against home foreclosures. Especially in NYC, Chicago, some of those big eastern hubs and down in LA back in the day… That’s an ideal I wish would proliferate. Private property is a sham!: it taxes people out of their wages. If the squats can be a place where people see private property isn’t concrete but can be brushed aside… if we can see that we need to be helping people in our neighborhood from getting excommunicated(sic), from where they’ve grown roots for many, many generations, or for me no matter what or who you are… we need to take this culture of land lording on, take it out and take it down. FW: During Occupy a lot of people were

getting radicalized, but it seems like there is a difference between a banner that reads, “Please Re-Modify Our Loan” and “Developers Fuck Off” (seen hanging at the RCA for several weeks). E: Maybe it’s like hey you know you’re getting fucked over by the banks but do you know how fucked over you really are going to be? I think the foreclosure process in itself can be radicalizing. It’s just a matter of people realizing that they have options and that they can be supported. I think a lot of people going through foreclosure can see it’s very shaming to lose your house. It stigmatizes you as not having it together, not working hard enough, of being poor.

Squatting is not an uncommon or new activity. We humans need a roof over our heads and squatting can be a practical way to fulfill that need. Public squats can address the ongoing conflict between the banks, police, developers, politicians (large and small), and those who seek real community, freedom, homes, and kinship. This conflict builds solidarity between the squats of West Oakland and other squats around the world, such as Villa Amalias, an anarchist squat/social center in Athens, Greece, that has also resisted eviction. FIREWORKS

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bay area projects & resources

reading rainbow

Reading Rainbow is a book lending project for young children and their adult loved ones on Saturday mornings in the Holdout at 2313 San Pablo Ave. in Oakland. Come down starting at 10am to enjoy breakfast, read alouds, activities, and borrow a bag of books to take home for the week!

in the works

“In The Works (ITW) is an anarchist events space at 3265 17th St/ Mission. We are currently under attack and facing eviction. Rick Holman (tinyurl.com/cfe4ch5) finances and buys the properties, and his wife, Toby Levy (www.levydesignpartners.com/), designs the new yuppie condos to replace the harassed and evicted spaces. Solidarity actions and mutual aid are needed to show ITW will not be fucked with.” http://intheworkssf.wordpress.com/

oakland free herbal clinic

“Is a no-cost project dedicated to challenging issues of inaccessibility to herbal medicine. We are in the process of buying an RV. We expect to see us hit the streets in our mobile clinic late Spring.” http://oaklandfreeclinic.com/

the holdout

scream queens radio

“Our mission is to create a non-hierarchical & anti-authoritarian Tune into 104.1 on stream live from berkeleyliberationradio.com space where people from various communities can come together on Wednesday nights from 10PM to 12AM! Darkwave, electroclash, to organize, participate in mutual aid, and make personal connecpunk, post-punk, noise, & more by lady-fronted and queer-fronted tions for the purpose of creating social relations free of oppression.” artists & bands. screamqueensradio.tumblr.com theholdout.org

anti-repression committee

Anti Repression Committee is a group that came together during Occupy Oakland and continues to help organize jail and court support for those arrested in political actions in and around Oakland. We also do educational work for political activists about how to minimize and deal with repression as part of the organizing process. Check out our website, oaklandantirepression.wordpress.com, to donate to our bail fund and learn more about how to support your comrades in jail or in court battles with the state. Don’t forget to read our new zine, “Repress This,” to learn how to integrate anti-repression into your organizing!

upcoming events

may 5

anti-gentrification block party mission & 16th, SF, 1pm

This Cinco de Mayo, (May 5th), join with Mission residents to speak out and gather to build a culture of resistance against gentrification in San Francisco and beyond.

may 5

offensive feminist

voices from jeju Island

A free weekly collaborative self defense and fitness workshop for trans eastside arts alliance, oakland, 2-4pm people, queers, & women. Sundays at the Holdout at 2:30PM. Jeong Young-Hee, a woman villager & tangerine farmer, will share the experiences of Gangjeong Village residents who have been struggling to stop the construction of a US-ROK naval base in Jeju Island.

write to prisoners

may 10

words of resistance

California Men’s Colony East Cell #52555 Marcel Johnson, #AM1002 PO Box 8103 San Luis Obispo, CA 93409-8103

Kali

the holdout, oakland, 8-10pm

Radical poetry show & fundraisers for political prisoners. Every second Friday at the Holdout.

Facing 4-5 years, has been denied meds in prison and faced isolation. In & out of jail his whole life and a loved one of many during Occupy Oakland. Herman Burton #KU1265, PO Box 200 Camp Hill, Pennsylvania 17001-0200 Serving 25-50 for murdering a john and setting his hotel room on fire. In and out of solitary and faces transphobic violence in prison. (Make sure to address envelopes to Herman Burton, but letters to Niara or Peaches)

may 17~18

scream queens fest

rca & jellybean warehouse, all day

niara

A two day event showcasing queer/lady-fronted bands & artists from the bay area. Bands, tablers, mixtape swap, clothing swap, zine swap. A benefit for Berkeley Liberation Radio.

letter writing night to prisoners station 40: 5/28, 5PM

(The last Tuesday of each month)

The Holdout: 5/11 & 5/31, 5-7PM

(The 2nd Saturday and last Friday of each month)

Send your listings - events, resources, projects, prisoner addresses to FireWorks@riseup.net. 13

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FIREWORKS@RISEUP.NET We aim to create a forum in which people can continue to strengthen their affinities with each other, as well as their hostilities towards a system that has exploited and dominated every aspect of their lives. We want the content we publish to facilItate critical and inspiring conversation and action.

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