At Least the Bullets Are Free: Ricky Miranda Shot Dead as Cops Found Not Guilty

Ricky Miranda, R.I.P. 

Modesto Police are investigating the shooting death of a man killed by an off-duty CHP officer in an track-home neighborhood off of east-Briggsmore. The victim was 19-year old Ricky Miranda, a wrestler and student at CSU Stanislaus. Miranda was admitted to the Doctors Behavioral Health Center in Modesto after he became distraught and threatened to hurt himself. He later escaped, crossing a canal and evaded police. According to witnesses, Miranda attempted to enter several homes and in one instance, broke a window. At this point Miranda took a piece of glass from the broken window and began to cut his own throat. During this time, an off-duty CHP officer, according to the Modesto Bee: "[C]ontacted the man. The officer shot the man, who was taken to a hospital where he died of his injuries."

For many this is an all too familiar tale. In it, we have a distraught person armed with a weapon and intent on hurting themselves shot dead by police. Like in other instances, the person did not attempt to hurt other people, only themselves, but was still killed by an officer. Also, as in other such shootings, it is unclear as to what the police actually attempted to do in order to help Ricky, or if they did anything at all. Instead, as in all of these tragedies, we are fed a line that the lives of the police were in danger and that death was the only way to stop an officer from being attacked.

However, this is rarely the case. In the last days of 2010, Modesto police critically shot Brian Reed not that far from where Ricky Miranda was later shot and killed, when they responded to a call that Reed was threatening to kill himself. When Reed refused to stop pointing a knife at his chest, police opened fire, almost killing him. In September of 2010, Modesto police responding to another house call, shot and killed Francisco Moran. Police claimed that Moran came at them with a knife; later it was revealed that Moran was armed only with a spatula. Also in September of 2010, an off-duty Sheriff, Kari Abby, shot and killed Rita Elias in West-Modesto. The Sheriff's Department would later claim that Rita pulled out a realistic looking fake hand-gun and Abby shot in self-defense. Witnesses and neighbors deny this claim, stating that Abby murdered Rita in cold-blood.

Elizabeth Kropp.

We should also remember the ongoing murderous results of police interactions with those suffering from mental trauma. In 2009, Elizabeth Kropp was killed after coming onto school grounds and cutting herself with a meat cleaver. Clearly suffering from an episode, the police did the only thing they could think of - they shot and killed her. Also in 2009, police shot and killed Richie Robles after he was found downtown with a sword. It is also important to mention the similarities of the Kropp and Miranda encounter. In Kropp's case, all children at the elementary school were already inside their classrooms, yet still the police portrayed Kropp as a lethal danger to kids and themselves. Likewise in Miranda's situation, he was in the middle of cutting his own throat when the CHP officer came upon him. What danger did he pose to anyone but himself?

Currently, the Modesto Police Department is investigating the death of Ricky and the CHP refuses to release the name of the off-duty officer who was involved in the shooting, claiming that they are waiting for "things to cool down."

If people still hold any illusions to the possibility of police investigations of other police killing people resulting in reprimand much less jail time, we need only look at recent events. In the past month, the District Attorney cleared both the police and the Sheriff's Department of any wrong doing in both the deaths of Francisco Moran and Rita Elias. This means that charges will not be brought on the officers by the same people who sign their checks - no surprise here. The DA also cleared the Sheriff's Department in the death of Craig Prescott, who was murdered by guards inside the Stanislaus County Jail. Some claim that Chip Huskey, a dirty cop inside the jail at the same time as Prescott, who was found guilty of raping and molesting his own step-daughter, was given a lighter sentence in exchange for testifying for the Sheriff's Department. Sure enough, Huskey only did a year in jail and did not have to register as a sex-offender.

Protest for Luis Gutierrez.

Many will claim that these are simply examples of corrupt police departments - that we cannot expect the police to police themselves, or expect the District Attorney which works hand in glove with the police to indict them on charges. While this is true, Federal Investigations, often promoted as more impartial, follow the same pattern. In February of 2011, the Feds ended a several year long investigation into the shooting death of Luis Gutierrez, who was shot and killed while fleeing a group of undercover Gang-Unit officers while leaving the DMV. Upon closing the investigation, the Department of Justice concluded that the police acted accordingly and Luis's "civil-rights were not violated."

As the saying goes, there ain't no justice - just us. We cannot expect "justice" from the systems of policing, surveillance, and imprisonment when these institutions are designed to repress us. We cannot expect the system to hold it's guards accountable when it gives them the power to abuse and murder in the first place. Thus, "accountability" and community control are completely opposed to each other. We are not interested in legally holding the police "accountable;" this has shown itself to historically be a failure in ending police abuse, and also diverts energy away from actual struggle against the police and into one of "getting the system to work right." Instead, we are interested in creating power over our own communities and taking it out of the hands of the police. Furthermore, we want modes of organizing that stop police violence and harassment now, not later.

Panther power.

So how can we do this? One historical example is that of the patrols of the police that were organized by the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in the late 1960's in the bay area. During that time, the Oakland and other police departments recruited heavily from the south, bringing many violent and racist police into contract with poor and working-class black communities. Having had enough with deaths in police custody and rampant harassment and racist intimidation, the Panthers armed themselves with shotguns and began patrols of the streets of Oakland and Berkeley. The armed patrols would end up costing the lives of several Panthers in later police attacks, but after a short period of time, deaths of black people at the hands of the police and in police custody fell drastically. The Panthers did not wait for the system to hold the police "accountable," they organized themselves and their community to stop the police from abusing and murdering them.

In the wake of the Panther patrols, the California government passed a law banning the open-carry of legal firearms in an effort to stop black revolutionaries from organizing against police terror. Copwatching as a means to stop police brutality however, still lives on. In 2006, residents in Ceres organized a Copwatch group in their neighborhood after police began harassing residents, raiding their homes, and threatening their children in the wake of the Andres Raya shootings. Armed with video cameras and recoding equipment, the group documented police interactions in the area for months, leading to a fall of police incursions and an end to much of the abuses.

The creation of power within our communities and on our streets and "accountability" within government are drastically opposed to each other. One puts faith in the system that oppresses us to "work properly" while the other fights for better conditions in the here and now while building for a more liberated world tomorrow.

Upcoming Event: CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective Presents: Fighting in the New Terrain

What are the anti-capitalist strategies of the 21st Century? Tremendous economic and technological shifts have occurred since the end of the 20th century, but many anarchists are still pursuing strategies developed for that time. In this discussion we'll consider the ways many anarchist formats have been absorbed into the structures we are fighting, and propose new points of departure for resistance.

To read the CrimethInc. essay of the same name, go here.

Click here to download a flyer to print out. Event takes place on Monday, April 4th, 7pm, Firehouse 51.  

Upcoming Event: Speakers Discuss Ongoing Anarchist Rebellion in Greece

Writers and researchers from the UK based website Occupied London will be coming to Modesto as part of a tour promoting the release of their new book Between a Present Yet to Go and a Future Yet to Come: Revolt and Crisis in Greece. Since the Greek Insurrection of December 2008 the OL blog has been an important source of English language updates from the streets of Athens, Thessaloniki and other cities across the country.

Taking some of the themes emerging from the book’s twenty chapters as a starting point, they will be discussing trajectories of struggle and resistance in recent years, the current economic reality in Greece defined by austerity, ways in which people are affected on an everyday level, and emergent potentialities for struggle.

The event will be free although donations for the presenters are strongly encouraged. Please also be sure to pick up a copy of the book if you are interested. Food will be on hand as well as free copies of Modesto Anarcho, Revolutionary Hip-Hop Report, and other exciting titles. Bring a friend and/or co-worker and come out!  The event takes place at Firehouse 51, Tuesday, April 12th, and starts at 7pm. Below is flyer for printing. 

Modesto Anarcho #16!

The wait is over! The new issue of Modesto Anarcho is out now and is even bigger than before! Included within are in-depth articles on local, regional, and national issues and events such as immigration, gentrification in the downtown, police brutality, the current crisis in education, and much more. Also inside are action and repression news, prisoner letters, and original artwork.

Download your copy here.

Write to us if you are interested in hard copies.

La Loma Association Fights Anti-Addiction Program

Homeless men ticketed for camping;
the LLN called for punishment:
"To the fullest extent of the law."

Recently, the La Loma Association, (now named, the 'La Loma Neighborhood'), has lost it's non-profit status for funneling campaign money towards one of its members, Joe Muratore. This week however, the group has announced it's opposition to a proposed extension of the Modesto Gospel Mission, a collection of religious services which provides programs and some shelter for homeless people in Modesto. According to the Modesto Bee, the Gospel Mission wishes to:

[E]xpand a residential program that helps people break their addictions and get their lives on track. But the proposal to expand the mission's Exodus Shelter for men from 10 to 20 beds has run into resistance from a neighborhood group that has grappled with homeless issues. The group said the city hasn't put enough conditions on the project to ensure it's compatible with the neighborhood.

This move by the La Loma Neighborhood group has brought tensions to the surface between Mike Moradian, President of the La Loma Neighborhood group and Brad Wilson of the Gospel Mission. Both of them serve on Joe Muratore's 'Blue Ribbon Commission on Homeless,' which was organized by Muratore to 'address the issues of homelessness.' The Commission however includes no-one who is actually homeless, and includes Moradian, the chief Deputy District Attorney, businessmen, and several people involved in religious organizations. Muratore has stated that his goal with the commission is shutting down DIY homeless services in various parks, and centralizing homeless resources. This would have several effects such as the removal of homeless from the parks, the ability of the police to ticket people sharing food in the parks, and the moving of homeless people to an area away from affluent neighborhoods.  

St8 posted.

The La Loma Neighborhood group, as regular readers of this blog know, has a long  history of backing anti-homeless initiatives such as the anti-dumpster-diving ordinance, pushing for surveillance cameras in parks, and calling for stiff penalties for homeless people sleeping along Dry Creek.  


In short, those within the LLN believe that with a larger facility at the Gospel Mission and more services, there will be increased homeless traffic between the Airport District and Downtown Modesto, two places in which many resources that the homeless use are based. In blocking this project, the LLN hopes to keep the volume of homeless from passing through 'their' neighborhood, to a minimum. Or at least, stop it from increasing. Many also cloak their desire to rid the homeless from the area by stating that an increased homeless population will hurt the Airport District - as if these people ever gave a damn about people living in the actual Airport District.

Mike Moradian

Decades ago, the Airport District was awash in manufacturing, construction, and industrial jobs. The factories that dot the area next to the Airport meant solid and generally decent paying employment for working class people. As the economy went into crisis after crisis and production was shifted away from the United States into countries with weaker labor and environmental laws, the Airport District slowly become the ghetto that it is today; rife with poverty and drugs. Furthermore, the economic conditions that give rise to homelessness and help to create chronic homelessness (and are only being further exasperated by the current economic crisis) will only create more homeless people. Those within the LLN aren't interested in ending homelessness - they simply just want to live in a neighborhood where they don't have to come into contact with those people. Furthermore, by denying the ability of poor communities to try and address these problems, they only help to make them worse. Those within the LLN could care less about communities that struggle with homelessness and drug addiction and any attempt by them to state that their opposition to homeless services is because of a desire to 'help the community,' should be seen as the complete lie that it is.


And, while the actions of the LLN might seem as extreme to many working class renters and homeowners in Modesto, many feel the problems of homelessness can only be address through force and coercion. Recently, residents in the College neighborhood have pushed for an armed security force to patrol their streets, mainly in response to complaints of homeless people using the parks in the area. 

Modesto Gospel Mission.

As the saying goes, "shit rolls downhill." We are always willing to point the finger at those even farther bellow us than upwards towards those in power or the wealthy. We complain that there are needles left in the parks or on the street, yet the Board of Supervisors, the Sheriff's Department, and 'civil rights activist' Robert Stanford have helped shut down a needle exchange program in the Airport District which took dirty needles off the streets. Some are angered at the homeless passing through their neighborhoods, yet what about the banks which foreclose and evict so many families, threatening even them with homelessness? We complain about 'tweakers,' yet who is it that shuts down mental-health clinics and facilities and stops the expansion of drug treatment programs? Furthermore, what about the attacks that developers and city councilmen like Joe Muratore have launched against all poor and working people, such as the shutting down of Paperboy Park

The logic of the LLN is the same as the police. If you are homeless, you must have done something wrong. If you can't move along to somewhere else, there's a place for you: prison. Can we expect anything else from an association of upper-class home-owners that include politicians, business people, and the District Attorney? It is important for all of us to note that these groups have a lot power within the city. They work with the police and affect legal policy, they even have the ability to help shut down public spaces which many of us enjoy. These groups are organized around class lines (albeit the upper class!) and fight for the class interests of those involved. If we want to fight back against these attacks, we must start doing the same; getting organized around our interests, and start taking action.

Interesting Reads : Local governments will do well to implement addictions treatment programs and various policies that will help make life more bearable for homeless persons within their jurisdiction.

New Videos

Our first video documents the walkout that happened recently at Modesto Junior College in March of 2011, against budget cuts and fee hikes. Missing is footage of the march by students into downtown Modesto streets, but captures the tail-end of the Central Valley mayor's rally that students disrupted.



The second is footage from the Modesto Police accreditation meeting that was disrupted in December of 2010.



The third video documents the heated protests that took place in West Modesto less than a week after Rita Elias was shot and killed by and off-duty Stanislaus County Sheriff outside her home. Protesters also were outraged over the death of Francisco Moran, who was killed by Modesto Police less than 20 days before.



The last video is footage from last years PRIDE celebration, in which Christian bigots were again confronted and forced out of Graceada Park.

Be sure to check out other videos here.

Modesto Junior College Passes Massive Cuts as Madison's Capitol is Retaken

Adam Golub, student rep on Board.
Voted "yes" to budget cuts.

On Wednesday night, the Board of Trustees of the YCCD system passed unanimously, (not even the 'student representative' voted no), sweeping budget cuts which will lay-off staff, gut departments, and shut down entire programs. At one point a veteran in full military garb, angry that the board had reduced the speaking time to one minute stated, "If you want to get me to shut up, you're going to have to fucking shoot me." About a minute later several security guards and Modesto Police officers escorted the man outside. After close to a 5 hour meeting, the board finally came to their decision and the crowd dispersed. There were enough angry people in the room that night to do anything; but it seemed some could only express that rage when there was someone they were angry at, listening to them.

Around the same time that people we trickling out of the MJC auditorium, hundreds of people were streaming into the Madison capitol in Wisconsin, as Governor Walker had passed the bill that would strip government workers of collective bargaining rights. Forcing their way past police, people again occupied the capital building, as chants of "Occupy!" and "General Strike!" filled the air. By Thursday police had managed to clear the capitol once again, but the battle appears far from over.

The Wisconsin Capitol has been
re-occupied.

For weeks, some of those within the MJC student movement have been calling for "civil discussion" and "informed dissent" against the MJC President's plan to gut the college. In a sad irony, the Board of Trustees thanked those in attendance for keeping most of their attempts at dialog with them "civil," right before they sealed the nail in the coffin for so many students. It's ironic, because it's just want the self-appointed leaders of the student movement asked of people. "Keep it civil, don't make us look stupid." They worried about people passing out pictures of the President with devil horns, and if a student with two kids and three jobs had bothered to read the entire budget proposal. Being civil got people nothing. It did however, give those in power a tool in order to keep us in place and from acting up.

People in Madison.

On all sides we're faced with a sickening paternalism. From the student 'leaders,' we are told and directed to act in a certain way in order to 'not offend' the BOT and the administration; the very people we are fighting. On the other hand, the BOT tells us that if we become angry and act out of turn, we are hurting our chances of making our voices heard. (And, if they get really tired of us, they always have the police on their side. Ah yes, the cops. Students would do well to remember that it was the police who were eager and waiting to drag students away at the request of the BOT while students had their voices silenced. The police work for power; they are not a neutral force out to 'make us safe.') It's important for people to see how these two sides re-enforce each other. Those in power need an oppositional leadership to work with that will make sure that the people they are 'representing' stay in line - that their calls for reform don't become calls for revolt.  

Thus, many frame this battle, as well as the struggle in Madison, in 'democratic' terms. "We've just got to make them listen to us," they tell us. If they're bad, we 'vote' them out. If we bug them enough, they'll listen. And when has this worked? Did it work in stopping the war in Iraq? Did it work in stopping the war in Afghanistan? Did it get Guantanamo closed down? Did it get funding for prisons reduced and more money for education? No, the only way to stop these things is through struggle. Besides, it seems that every time "the people" elect someone to represent their interests, they end up screwing us. Obama has failed to do any of the things that he promised when he came in, and has only extended and continued many of the policies that made people want to vote the Republicans out in the first place. Brown may have been elected Governor because people didn't want Whitman in office, but his attacks on poor and working people are just as brutal.

We can look towards the BOT for a moment of clarity. "We listened to you for four hours," they told the crowd gathered at MJC on Wednesday night. The BOT understands one thing to be very true. There were two groups in the room that night: the students and faculty - and them. The struggle that we are faced with is above all, a class struggle. What happened at MJC that night, as well as the passing of the anti-union bill in Madison is not a travesty of democracy, but democracy working as it always has. A small group of elites deciding how to manage and control the effects of the economy on us. We have to move our struggle from being one simply about being against the budget cuts, to being a movement against capitalism itself. And, we have to move our struggle from being a push to influence those in power to being a struggle between two classes who have completely different interests.

As the Crimethinc collective wrote recently:

There’s another way to say this: capitalism has reached its limits and can only produce one crisis after another—war, recession, bailouts, austerity measures. Politicians are being honest when they say they see no other way, but only because they’re not willing to consider the possibility that the system itself is the problem. It’s up to us to point the way to another social system that could distribute wealth and power more sensibly. 

[T]he [Madison] bill was passed by democratic process, the same way countless other bills are passed. Those who protest against it are essentially proclaiming that representative democracy has failed them: they are asserting that there is more legitimacy in angry people occupying the capitol building than there is in Senators doing what they were elected to do. As anarchists, we wholeheartedly agree–workers deserve access to the resources currently being hoarded by capitalists regardless of what goes on in voting booths or politicians’ offices. The question is whether the movement will adopt this position outright, or remain mired in the contradictions of claiming to pose a democratic opposition to the democratic process. [...T]his is not simply a question of politicians being mean: from the capitalist perspective, these austerity measures really are unavoidable. 

But when people talk about there not being any money in the budget, we're literally talking about our money. We're talking about money that comes into the state through taxes, either sales, property, or otherwise. With the economy in a slump, there's less of it coming in. At the same time, corporations are recording record profits, the government is issuing bailouts to banks, and the rich are getting tax-cuts. So, there isn't a lack of money, we simply have very little of it, and the rich aren't will to share theirs.

Record profits for Wall-Street.

So, let's look at how those above us have been doing, shall we? The rich tell us we have to tighten our belts, while theirs keeps getting looser and looser. The extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, enacted by a Democratic-controlled Congress in December with the approval of the Obama administration, pumps $700 billion over the next ten years into the pockets of the rich. Simply in taking the money that banks received for the bailout, the Wall Street recipients could bail out the states out of their own pockets. Combined profits for all American corporations rocketed upwards in 2010, hitting an annual rate of $1.66 trillion in the third quarter. The 400 richest individuals in the United States dispose of a staggering $1.37 trillion in assets, an average of nearly $3.5 billion apiece. US corporations are currently sitting on $2 trillion in cash, refusing to hire workers despite collecting tax cuts that are supposed to be incentives to do so. Hedge funds assets rose to $1.92 trillion in 2010, the highest ever, up from $1.18 trillion at the beginning of the year, and hedge fund bosses stood to collect roughly $186 billion in personal income. The more we are immiserated, the more they can profit.

Some will claim that the next step for the struggle at MJC, or others like it, it to take the right to Sacramento. There, we are fed the same line as we were for attending the BOT at MJC on Wednesday night. If we get enough people together with the "right" message, and act "civil," they'll listen to us. But those in Sacramento aren't looking to give us any of our money that they've already spent. Nor are they interested in taking money away from the elites. In recognizing this fight as a class struggle, we can begin to take sides. We can begin to get organized. We can begin to see that trying to work within this democracy gets us nothing. It is time for us to start playing by our own rules and start taking what we need, when we need it. 

Hundreds of MJC Students Walkout and March Through Streets; Disrupt Mayor's Event

This morning, several hundred Modesto Junior College students responded to a call for a walkout against budget cuts that would result in the gutting of various departments and the laying off of faculty. Students rallied in the quad in front of the Morris (administration) building for over half an hour, giving impromptu speeches on how the cuts and layoffs would affect them. Security guards attempted to stop various students with mega-phones encouraging other students to join the rally from disrupting classes, but generally stood off to the side and took pictures of protesters. According to several students that were interviewed today, administrators with Modesto Junior College again called police and warned security that members of Modesto Anarcho would be on the campus, 'stiring up trouble.' Also speaking at the rally were several faculty members who expressed solidarity with the students for standing with them.

After rallying, students marched around the campus chanting, "No Cuts, No Fees, Education Should Be Free," and "They Say Cut Backs, We Say Fight Back!" After marching around the outside of the campus, the march then snaked through Pirates Village, drawing more students into the march and causing staff to come outside and voice their support for the several hundred protesters. Students then marched through the student center and straight towards the Morris Building, home to the school administration. After finding the doors in the front locked, students moved to the back and security quickly locked the doors for fear of students entering the building.

Students then moved to the Art Department, where the director of the gallery addressed the crowd. The students then decided to move downtown. Upon leaving the campus, students took to the street. At one point, someone in the march slowly drove their car into the crowd, and several people began ghostriding. A block before J Street, two police arrived on motorcycles and attempted to move the crowd onto the sidewalk. Students refused and held the street, moving up J Street and on to 10th Street Place. Unknown to the students, the Mayor of Modesto was also hosting a 'protest' at the time, attended by various city bureaucrats, head police, and various local Mayors, protesting Governor Brown taking away of funds for city redevelopment. In Modesto, we have seen as this 're-development' means more surveillance, more police sub-stations, and the shutting down of our parks. On the very same day, it was announced that Modesto City Schools would lay-off 32 teachers, while administrators continue to make salaries in the hundreds of thousands.



Looking stunned, the few people speaking at the event and in the audience wrapped up their event (not being able to be heard over the large group of students) and disappeared. Students expressed their outrage towards those in suits. Students began chanting, "Save Teachers, Cut Admins;" several speeches were made linking the Modesto Police to the MJC Security, both of which sought to stop students and workers from resisting the crisis, as well as the local politicians to those passing austerity measures at MJC. Student then headed back to the college, still chanting, with police and then campus security following close by.

Today was an important day for many reasons. Hundreds of students at Modesto Junior College walked out of class and rallied and marched for hours. Many faculty and staff were directly supportive of the walkout, allowing students to attend the event, promoting the event in class, and some faculty even shut their classes down so students could attend. The messages of solidarity that were expressed at the rally in front of the Morris building also did much to further the bonds between students and workers. The lack of fear that students expressed in the face of harassment by security and the administration who spent the last week intimidating students from joining the walkout, was inspiring. Students were also not afraid to hold the streets even as the police attempted to remove them. Nor were they afraid to stand up to the Mayor, Brand Hawn, and all the other city bureaucrats who slinked back into their rat holes in the face of a crowd of angry students.

This resistance is only a sign of things to come as the crisis gets worse and working people must stand up and defend themselves. We welcome it. What happened today at MJC sets of precedent. Students came together and disrupted 'business as usual' at their school. They took action en mass at their college and in the streets. They did not back down in the face of the police or the administration. The struggle is far from over, but at least people have begun.







View a video from the Bee here.
View a video from Channel 10 News.

Walkouts: A Tool of Students in Struggle

In the face of mounting pressure and criticism, MJC President Gaither Loewenstein has taken popular anthropology teacher James Todd off of a list of proposed faculty to be cut from the junior college. However, according to the Modesto Bee: 

The proposed list of cuts includes 11 full-time faculty, at least 30 part-time instructors and 37 support staff to close half of an expected $8 million budget gap for 2011-12. The rest is made up of expected savings through attrition and unspent funds from this year. Vocational programs, including industrial technology, dental assisting, culinary arts and printing, would be cut, as well as engineering, architecture, French, German and Italian. The department of mass communications would close, ending film, television, radio, recording arts and journalism courses. The west campus library would be shut. Library classes and hours would be cut on the east campus as well, librarian Kathleen Ennis said. Disability services would be slashed and campus outreach to disadvantaged students eliminated, speakers said.

CSU Stanislaus students walkout.

Most affected will be students trying to get job skills, disabled students, students who's majors will be gutted, low-come and working students unable to pay for higher fees, and students with young children who depend on the free childcare provided through the school which is also threatened with closure. Like the administration at CSU Stanislaus, Loewenstein claims that he will replace these programs with a more streamlined school; meaning one that runs like an assembly line, where students are pumped in and profits are pumped out. Sadly, it appears that for many of the poor and working students which attend (or want to attend) MJC, it's a factory that Loewenstein and his ilk envision without us.

In recent weeks, Modesto Junior College students have a launched a variety of attempts at dialogging with the President and the Board of Trustees. At this point, the Board is set to vote on the proposed budget on March 9th. Some students have also organized and promoted the idea of a walkout. The logic of a walkout is the same to that of the strike. Just as the greatest power of workers in a workplace comes from the refusing of ones labor and the shutting down of a business, so is the same for students who disrupt the power of a school to operate as such.

Westside walk it out!

We must also ensure that our struggles do not remain isolated; locked inside a student ghetto. What is happening in public education is caused by the same forces which are threatening everyone's livelihood. And, when we do choose to act on campus, we must seek to include staff such as janitors and cafeteria workers; faculty and professors. Acting in solidarity with each other we are more powerful. When the entirety of those who work at a school decide to strike, we have a greater ability to brings things to a halt. We need to also recognize that other segments within society are under the knife as well; not just students. Whole sections of unionized workers are facing attacks across the country. Migrant workers face an onslaught of racist legislation and possible mass deportations. Poor and working people in general are being assaulted continuously with higher prices, cuts to services, and slashes to wages. Generalized misery should be met with generalized resistance.

The situation at MJC is not unique. As we speak 32 teachers in just the Modesto City Schools District alone face layoffs. As one teacher said, "It's all teachers, people who touch kids, and not administrators." Stanislaus County workers also face layoffs as well. Students would be wise to reach out to these other workers with similar struggles, creating networks and organizations which can fight shared conditions. 

There is a lengthy history of walkouts being used by students and workers in the Central Valley. The most massive and successful were those centered around May Day of 2006 in response to proposed anti-immigrant legislation. These actions, organized mainly by young high school age students, were aimed at toppling HR-4437, which would further criminalize migrant workers and their families. These walkouts were self-organized and autonomous from any formal group; organized primarily through social networking sites like Myspace (foreshadowing Egypt by 5 years). In Modesto, (as well as Ceres, Fresno, Patterson, and many other cities), groups of middle and high school age students would storm out of school, in some cases hopping fences and defying police, to march on other schools to gain more numbers. These actions culminated on May 1st, 2006, when over 10,000 striking workers and students brought downtown Modesto to a standstill. Much the legislation was later struck down, for fear of further revolt.

Fresno students walkout.

Students at CSU Stanislaus in the fall of 2009 and the spring of 2010 also organized walkouts which brought together hundreds of students and faculty in opposition to CSUS President Shirvani's plan to gut the university. At these rallies, the student government was publicly denounced by both students and staff for cooperating with the school administration. In part the walkouts were successful when they by-passed the bureaucracy of the faculty union, and concentrated more on the organizing of student-faculty solidarity, all aimed at resisting the budget cuts and lay-offs of teachers together. In 2010 however, when a second walkout was attempted, the faculty union and various student groups moved in to stop another large walkout, and instead promoted "educational events" which shied away from disrupting the university.

In March of 2010, high school students in the Modesto City Schools district launched a series of walkouts at their schools, protesting teacher lay-offs and the possibility of larger class room sizes. These actions involved hundreds of students at multiple schools, and also involved roving marches and the disruption of school board meetings.

Recently across the country, students and young people in general have used walkouts as tools to combat legislation aimed at enacting further anti-migrant laws such as SB-1070 in Arizona, attacks on unions, wages, and health care in the Mid-West, and increases in student fees and cuts to classes across the country.

Walkouts aren't an end all solution to the world's problems - but they have, time and again, been a tool for students and workers in struggle. It is one more tactic that instead of begging and asking those in power to change, shows our collective strength to shut down institutions that exploit and control us.

Johansen students walkout.

It is the possibility of walkouts at Modesto Junior College which have scared so many in positions of authority, including the student government. At a recent student meeting about the budget cuts at MJC, Modesto Police were called to the campus and security also followed and took pictures of a group of people who were having a discussion outside. According to various sources such as students and staff, we have learned that police were called to the meeting because it was believed that "anarchists" would attend and "promote violence."

Attempts by those in power to demonize anarchists, and Modesto Anarcho in particular, are intended to have several affects. They are intended to scare students away from taking any sort of action outside of letter writing and passive sign holding which is promoted by those in charge.

Thus, in the last few days we've talked to many students who have been fed a line that the walkout at MJC on the 8th is organized by anarchists, "who just want to break windows." This isn't just a rumor that's spread because people are misinformed, it is a lie promoted by individuals who want to stop people from organizing direct action. It is the same reason that security guards at MJC have followed people handing out political flyers and why they have taken pictures of them. Not to "keep us safe," but because they serve an institution which wants people to stop resisting the things which immiserate their lives.

Modesto Anarcho is not, and does not desire to be a 'hidden leadership' in this struggle. As a group of friends, we include both former and current MJC students. As working class people, we understand the attack on education and the austerity measures brought on by the budget cuts to be part of a generalized attack on broke and working people across the world. The current economic crisis has made us pay for more while getting less; brought on by a boom and bust cycle of speculative spending and banking. The system is bankrupt; it refuses to meet even the most basic needs of those who do the majority of the work within it. Those that oppress us are organized, and as always, are more interested in preserving their status above us than threating their positions within society. We believe that our class should be organized as well.

Student walkout at CSU Fresno in 09.

We are not the organizers of the walkout on the 8th; that title belongs gloriously to all those who have promoted it, made flyers, handed them out, and talked to their friends, co-workers, and professors. The fact that students are finally coming together at MJC and just talking about resisting the budget cuts (after years and years of cuts and rising fees) is a massive step forward. Now we are talking about moving into actual resistance. Here, in the heart of the economic crisis in one of the poorest places in the state. They don't want it to start here. If we go, the whole thing could go...Hopefully the students fighting at MJC will also make connections with high school kids walking out over their fired teachers, migrant workers walking out over racist laws, and public sector workers walking out and taking over state capitols - if they haven't already.

Some students have asked: what will a walkout accomplish? We hope that in the very least, the walkout shows the administration of the school and the YCCD system, that students are no longer passive. That they are will to act en mass and disrupt the governance of the college if the cuts continue. We hope that in acting, we can come together in ways that facebook does not allow, bridging the gaps between not only students, but between teachers and staff as well. We hope that these actions leave people feeling more powerful than before, discovering a sense of togetherness and collectivity between each other that is manifested in action. We must be sure that the walkout is not seen as the 'be-all end-all' action, but simply another tactic that we can use in a struggle that is far from over.

There are those that say that the President of MJC and even the Board of Trustees are just working with what has been given to them. However, why is it that 'our' chancellor is getting over $200,000 a year while our fees go up? Why is she up for the possibility of an $80,000 raise soon? In recent years, many of us have been evicted and foreclosed on. When that happened, when the bank took back your house or you couldn't pay the rent, who came to your homes? It was the Sheriff. Armed with a gun and sanctioned by the government to hurt you if needed. It was the the enforcer of the right of private property to rule over your life. He was just following orders. He was just 'working with what he had.' The administrators are the same. They may not make ALL the rules, but they enforce them. If we are going to resist the way things are, we're going to have to resist the administration as well.

Modesto student during walkout.

Furthermore, some students have stated that things like a walkout should only be attempted after all other avenues have been exhausted. We disagree. Fees have been rising at all public colleges and universities since  they opened. Classes have continued to be cut, and teachers have continued to be laid off. The school has drifted away more and more from a resource for poor and working students towards a business model. How much longer can we dialog? What do people need to happen to understand that the people that run these institutions simply do not care about us? Their job is to manage, control, and also layoff people. They aren't acting out of turn - they are doing exactly what they have been trained to do. Lastly, if dialog is the best solution, then the administration will only come to the table when we have created a situation which is out of their control. At this point, they hold all the cards.

To our detractors, we do not wish to see walkouts at MJC happen just so people can break windows or be violent. At the very least, collective acts of resistance put us in a position of being able to make demands of our enemies. To show that there are consequences for them attacking and hurting our lives. At their most powerful, by striking and taking over space, we can negate the power of the economy and the political system to manipulate and control our lives. In their stead, we can start to create the kinds of relationships that exist without bosses and bossed, of rich and poor, of police and policed.

If history is any indicator, walkouts will continue to happen in Modesto and across the world, with or without Modesto Anarcho. Harass and decry us all you want, but resistance is still going to happen. The question is, are we going to allow the nay sayers to get us to stop before we've even begun?

Interview with Bay Area Rapper Eddie Falcon

The following interview comes from the Revolutionary Hip Hop Report (RHHR), a local revolutionary hip hop magazine covering hip hop, politics, and culture in the Central Valley. They have a new issue out which includes an interview with Eddie Falcon, a Veteran and organizer with Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). He was also a performer at the Get Up Stay Up Graffiti Festival in 2010. Check out RHHR and the interview!

Introduce yourself…

My name is Eddie Falcon but I call my rap project 40 Thieves.

Where you from, where you reppin now?

I’m from Southern Cali, I was born in West Covina in the San Gabriel Valley but I live in the Mission District in San Francisco, now.

How long have you been rapping?

I’ve been free styling since I was like 13. I always thought that was some raw shit. Then, I started wanting to record and it just made more sense to start writing.

Do you make your beats?

Yes, I produce all my own shit. I record with a Roland MV-8000. I play piano and studied theory at city-college. I also have been incorporating some bass guitar. I also like to sample shit; all kinds of shit. I sample everything from lowrider oldies to dark ambient.

Bust a couple of lines from one of your favorite raps you wrote…

I was born in ’83, West Covina to La Puente/Same city murdered on my sista with a cuete/Yo my gente is brown, roll around in Low Riders/Bumpin’ Brenton Wood, in the hood, we survivors/Of the poverty and prisons, crooked cops, crooked system/Deportations, home invasions, yet we still kickin’/Kickin’ it live, ain’t no 9 to 5, 25 to life 3 strikes /wit’ 3 white dudes/In blue suits/beatin’ on yo hide, West fuckin’ side, ‘til the day I die/I’m a raise up hell and stay well by stayin’ high/You go and try, but just know that I/Got nothing to lose /the M9 millimeter is the method I use/So you can go and choose/Join the cause muthafucka, or suffer the fall/We go and see how many real muthafuckas heed the call/Afghanistan Veteran I’m better than you, when it comes to the shootin’ /LA Mexican, when it comes down the lootin’/I’m recruitin’ like Huey Newton/When I die, bullets fly, 21 guns Salutin’!

You work with Iraq veterans against the war, what does that entail?

Squatting and drinking beers. I’m mostly kidding. For real though, personally I try to talk to youth about my experiences in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve spoke at Mission High and I should be speaking at Hayward High soon. I feel these kids are thinking about this stuff like I was back then. I want to tell them what it’s really gonna be like. Most recruiters haven’t been to war. They aren’t gonna tell you any valuable information about it. We are at war now and it’s gonna continue so I hope these kids can make better decisions on what they are gonna do with their life even if that includes the military. I went in to get out of the Barrio environment and away from drugs to have an opportunity to go to school. Organizationally, we try to create actions and campaigns to stop the war, support other vets, and find reparations for Iraqis and Afghanis.

How has having been in the military and now doing anti-military work played into your rhymes and style and made you unique?

I definitely do talk about it in my rhymes. I don’t feel like it’s in the fore front of my raps, though. What being a veteran does is give you a platform to speak from. I am basically someone who did hella dirty work for the state and I am here telling you that something is wrong with the society that we live in. everything from my youth, to the military, to shit goin’ on right now in the world.

You got an official album out, any new stuff on the way?

No official album no labels. I have a demo that I’ve been getting a lot of good feedback about. I’m gonna be starting to do work with other revolutionary rappers like Testament and Illogik. We’re throwing ideas around right now and should begin a rap collective soon. I’m looking forward to it. Some of my beats are also on the “Occupation Has No Future” film. Some friends and I made it from our trip to Palestine documenting the struggle there. Check it out.

How do new fans find out more and listen to your music?

I have a myspace called fortythievessf that has some cool tracks. I play benefit shows in the Bay Area. Watch out for that new anarcho hip hop collective!

Anything else we should know about Eddie Falcon?

I really don’t like the police.