'Get Up Stay Up' Festival Brings Out Youth in West Modesto

On Saturday, June 23rd, between 50-75 people gathered throughout the day in Cesar Chavez park to celebrate hip-hop and spray paint art at the 'Get Up Stay Up' Graffiti Festival. Close to 20 boards were painted on (up from the 10 of the first festival in 2010) and MC Lovelle from Oakland performed live anarchist hip-hop for the crowd. Local battle MCs involved with 'Cypher in the Park' also battled each other. This year, many more youth were also in attendance, as well as female writers, and people with their kids. A group of break-dancers also performed their skills while the the music played. Expect more pictures and a video to come soon, but until now, enjoy these pictures.

Upcoming Events at Firehouse 51

'Who Runs Downtown?: A Discussion on Homelessness, Policing, and the Criminalization of Poverty in Modesto'
Saturday, June 30th, 7pm, Firehouse 51, 410 James Street

On Saturday, June 30th, Modesto Anarcho will host a presentation and open discussion on the ongoing attacks on homelessness and the criminalization of poverty in the downtown and greater Modesto area and how it is connected with development and gentrification. The event is totally free and the space as always, is kid friendly. This event comes hot on the heals of a recent decision by the city council to make outdoor camping a misdemeanor. Click on flyer image to enlarge and print.

Add yourself to the Facebook event here.

'Anarchism, Crisis, and Resistance: with Barry Pateman'
Saturday, July 14th, 7pm, Firehouse 51, 410 James Street

How do poor and working people organize themselves against a system which exploits and impoverishes them? How do we fight against a system which imprisons and arms an ever increasing military like police force? Speaker Barry Pateman draws from decades of anarchist organizing to discuss the ways that ordinary people organize themselves, fight back, and make the impossible - possible.

Barry Pateman is a longtime anarchist. Involved from an early age in a variety of struggles, he has spoke to packed halls in squatted buildings, worked in solidarity with comrades imprisoned by the state, fought fascists and racists on the streets, and seen his fair share of strikes, riots, and occupations, Pateman lives and breathes anarchy and the belief that working class people can change the world.

Event is free and kid friendly. Free food and revolutionary literature. Check out the videos posted below to see Barry speaking and come out to hear him on the 14th of July!

Add yourself to the Facebook event here.

Police Write Ordinance for City Council that Criminalizes Homeless Camps and Occupy Movement

Pitch a tent and now get
a misdemeanor.

On Tuesday, June 5th, in a 6-1 vote, the City Council passed an ordinance that would make forms of illegal camping a misdemeanor within Modesto. Despite an over-whelming majority of the crowd coming out to shout down the ordinance, calling it a "war on the poor," and claiming that it was leading Modesto into "a police state," everyone on the Council voted in favor of the move except the new Mayor, Garrad Marsh. But Marsh's nay vote didn't come out of his love for the homeless or freedom itself, he was simply concerned that it didn't contain language that would allow parents with homes to allow their children to camp outside. As for those with children and without homes, perhaps if they couldn't eat cake, they could eat whatever the Mission was serving that night...

The decision for the camping criminalization ordinance came when a subcommittee of the City Council allowed members of the Modesto Police Department to write up and create the ordinance. But the criminalization of camping is not just aimed at stamping out the homeless. According to the Modesto Bee:

City officials said the camping ordinance will give police a tool to deal with makeshift camps that increasingly are appearing in Modesto. It also will give police the authority to break up any camps tied to the Occupy movement and prohibit residential property owners from charging rent to campers.

Under the ordinance, anyone who stores personal property, including camping paraphernalia, on public or private property without consent of the owner can be cited on a misdemeanor. Those convicted could be sentenced to jail and probation. 

Council members claim that the push for the ordinance came after businesses began complaining of homeless people living in the back of parking lots along McHenry Ave. as well as from people who have complained that they "can't walk their dogs" along the canal on Briggsmore Ave., due to homeless encampments.

'You are too poor to use the park!'

We find this recent criminalization of both the homeless and the Occupy Movement in Modesto to not be at all surprising, although it shows the direction in which local elites are heading; giving themselves the legal tools to lock-up, displace, and fine those which threaten downtown development and those who would seek to possibly organize against it. We do not find this latest move surprising because over the past year, City Council members, either through the general council or through subcommittees, have helped produce a variety of ordinances all aimed at removing the homeless from the downtown area through criminalization. These include a ban on dumpster-diving, which further criminalized the act of digging through the garbage and threatens the would be trash expropriator with fines and up to six months in jail. The ordinance was pushed by both the La Loma Association, a notoriously anti-homeless group and the Modesto Police Department. There was also the shutting down of a public park, Paperboy Park, or Rose Garden Park, in 2010, which was located across from the Library. Joe Muratore, a city council member who is also involved in the La Loma Association, helped back the ordinance. He claimed that homeless people were ruining the park and making non-homeless people afraid to use it. Paperboy Park became the first park in Modesto that went from public to only being available to those who paid a user fee. Muratore wanted to continue this work even further with the creation of a private park police force that would harass the homeless, youth, and others in local parks and enforce various municipal codes.

There is also the looming question of where homeless people will go? The answer from the police, the City Council, and the business interests is quite clear: either into institutions, or hopefully out of Modesto for good. In a recent expose, the Modesto Bee discussed how the local jail is filling up with homeless people who are incarcerated because it is the only place where they can receive medical treatment and also because it is the only place where they can be 'treated' for mental illness. With homelessness on the rise in the local area, compounded and made worse by the economy, increased evictions, and the foreclosure crisis, as well as continued repression of the homeless community, we will only see an increase in the amount of homeless people incarcerated, locked up, and thrown in mental facilities simply for the crime of not having a place to live.

Students at MJC camped out as part
of 'Occupy MJC' to protest rising fees.
Now, they could face jail time for such
an act.

While many will point out that there has not been any sizable Occupy protests and encampments in Modesto, this new ordinance was in part crafted with the understanding that the police could use it in the event that ever such a movement did develop and protesters needed to be scared with possible jail time. Occupy encampments have appeared in other Valley cities such as Sacramento, Merced, Fresno, and Stockton, so it is not far fetched to believe that if the movement was to expand again that camps could spring up here. Furthermore, such anti-camping laws could also be used against Central Valley activists attempting to occupy foreclosed buildings. If police could claim that those inside foreclosed homes are 'camping,' instead of 'squatting' or 'refusing to leave their homes,' then they could easily threaten occupants with misdemeanor charges.

According to City Councilman Dave Geer, police will use their "discretion," and only target "problem" camps and will not use the law to "harass" the homeless. But of course, this is the same police department that shoots people claiming they have guns which turn out to be spatulas. These are the same police that shoot out a deaf man's back windows' because he's too busy screaming "I'm deaf," to respond to their commands.

Marsh: "If you're poor, you're screwed!"

What is clear is that such an ordinance has nothing to do with improving the quality of life for most people in the city, and instead, bending to business interests and controlling a population of people seen as outside of the law. It is also an attempt to stop Occupy protests before they become larger in the Modesto area - strategic thinking on the part of the police and the elites in the City Council.

The City Council is made up largely business owners and property developers types who stand to gain from the removal of the poor in the downtown and the coming in of new capital investments. In a recent forum hosted by Marsh, which featured annoying bourgie local muckie muck Chris Richie (X-Fest, etc), Pete Janopaul (who plans to turn the former downtown post office into upscale lofts), developer John Giver, as well as a presentation by developer supa-star Joe Minicozzi, who works with a "for profit real-estate company." Joe argues that city governments can increase their revenue by concentrating urban development in their cores with mixed zoning: having lofts and upscale apartments next to fine dining and nice hair saloons. From Minicozzi's presentation:

Per-acre, our downtowns have the potential to generate so much more public wealth than low-density subdivisions or massive malls by the highway. And for all that revenue they bring in, downtowns cost considerably less to maintain in public services and infrastructure.

There's more than one way to
skin a fat cat!

For developers turned politicos like Muratore, this of course is a wet dream. The city can increase tax revenue by fixing up and re-developing old buildings that are vacant (which surprise, surprise, is exactly that kind of business that Muratore is in!), and making the downtown into a concentrated money making focal point and a play ground for the wealthy and upscale consumers. It's this same kind of 'good old boy' system, in which politician businessmen swinging back room deals with their other businessmen friends that got Muratore in hot water last year, when the SCAP scandal hit and some of Muratore's businesses were involved. Who cares if the communities of Airport, West-Side, South-Side, Prescott, and working class neighborhoods throughout the city have major problems and in many cases, lack basic services such as sidewalks? For the city elites, what's important is that revenues coming into the city coffers continue to increase and the town continues to look more white, more upper-class, and less like it is now.

It's only in looking at the ultimate goal of 'downtown revitalization' and 'development' that we can begin to see a strategy for local elites becoming clear. It makes sense for political, police, and business interests to come together to support each other in a push for greater repression of the poor and the suppression of grassroots organizing. That question as always, is that if they are organized around their interests, why aren't we? 

Our Solidarity Is Outside of Their Jurisdiction

Stockton, Modesto, and Oakland - ONE FIST

On Thursday, May 31st, over a 150 supporters and friends of James Rivera, Jr., Luther "Champ" Brown, Jr., and James Cooke, all from Stockton, and all killed recently by the Stockton Police and County Sheriffs, again marched in Stockton, shutting down streets, banks, and faced off against police. Although with fewer numbers than April 10th, (which happened a full 4 four days after Champ was killed by SPD and almost escalated into a near riot), the demonstration was still very militant and very angry. Many supporters and comrades made the trek from Oakland to participate, and at around 3pm, the group started marching against traffic on El Dorado St., holding banners reading, "Slave Patrols Then, Police Forces Now," and "Fuck the Police."

Chanting, "All Cops Are Bastards, A, C, A, B!," the crowd quickly blocked off the major street and proceeded to attempt to shut down several banks along the way. Demonstrators chanted in front of the buildings, beat on doors, and held the space in front of the banks until they closed. This was done with the intention of showing the connection between a system of exploitation and a police force which serves that exploitation. Members of Occupy Stockton also announced information about an ongoing campaign to support a homeowner who is resisting eviction and foreclosure, coming hot on the heals of a recent home occupation in Woodland the occupation of a foreclosed home/office of a group of Native Miwok peoples in Stockton in 2010.

Next the crowd headed to the DA's office several blocks away. Several within the crowd urged those in attendance to be "peaceful" and tone down their anger. A majority of the crowd rejected this. One man, after stating that he rejected a "peaceful solution," began singing the words to Dead Prez's song, "I Have a Dream Too," declaring:

"Backseat of the 'lac, big gat in my lap
Ready for combat, feelin' like Geronimo Pratt
We had the windows cracked, headed up the strip
Black rag in my hand, don't want no prints on the clip
Hollow tips 'cause we thugs with this shit, my nigga
This ain't no game, we bang for yo hood, my nigga
I take a left at the light, turn off the headlights and ride real slow
Now holla at me when you see the five 0
Alright Dirty, y'all boys ready?
'Bout to turn drive-bys revolutionary
Yeah, motherfucker yeah"

Outside of the Stockton DA's Office. 

The San Joaquin DA's office has lead many people to believe that a 'peaceful' solution to the murders of unarmed young black men will never come from the very system which financed their deaths in the first place. James Rivera will killed in the summer of 2010, and the DA and the coroner have yet to release their reports regarding the killing.

Several months ago, demonstrations like this in the Central Valley would not have been possible. Such fighting spirit comes not only from solidarity and inspiration from comrades in the bay area involved with Occupy Oakland and ongoing actions there, but also from continued resistance by people in Manteca, Modesto, and Stockton themselves.

After facing off against a line of riot police who ended up marching right back into their paddy wagon, demonstrators at around 5pm headed to a local park to share BBQ food, watch live musicians perform, and speak on the struggle against police terror.

Taking the street and holding it. 

In the following days, local media played up heavily the participation of Occupy Oakland demonstrators, and downplayed the involvement of Central Valley participants. This spitting on the ongoing fire and rage coming out of the streets of Stockton is truly disgusting - but not at all surprising. The media will never be a tool to tell our story, and it will always help sell the lies of the cops and those that hold their leashes. Stockton and Oakland are linked. Many black people pushed out of Oakland either by gentrification, gang violence, or police violence, have moved to Stockton. Furthermore, the very real and tangible connections of solidarity that are sprung up as we support each other's struggles for freedom will always be seen as terrifying to those in power, while to us, they will always be a weapon.

VENGEANCE FOR COOKE!
KEEP IT LIT FOR CHAMP!
RIDE FOR JAMES!