Category Archives: activism

Slave Culture

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Sterling Stuckey’s Notes on Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America is an impressive survey of the roots of African-American nationalism from the earliest slave period until the mid-twentieth century. The book weaves accounts of African rituals, customs, and spirituality into historical accounts of events in the United States. By drawing on the lives of Simon Brown, Denmark Vesey, David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, Alexander Crummell, William Hamilton, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Paul Robeson, the book provides access and perspective on the ongoing debate within African-American communities about integration versus nationalism. The author masterfully documents and explains the connections between African and African-American culture, both slave and free, and how they drive the political awareness and action of African-Americans and, to some extent, Africans everywhere.

Memory Lane: Arrests at Yale University Conference

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After barely graduating in 1985 with a degree in Writing and Computer Science from MIT due to my activism there, I hightailed it back to the San Francisco Bay Area where I was hired at Sun Microsystems as a technical writer. The guy who hired me was an anarchist and one of the reasons I got hired was because of my nonviolent anarchist philosophy and activism.

I led a dual life as a well-compensated corporate worker and as an activist for a variety of causes. After the release of a computer called the SPARCstation 1, for which I had worked outrageous hours producing a new set of manuals that made it possible for non-technical users to use the machine, management rewarded me by proposing a paid leave of absence so I could relax and recuperate. When they mentioned the possibility to me, I was overjoyed and requested a year’s sabbatical to travel around the world. When I told my manager this, she gulped and said she’d check to see if it was possible. After checking with her boss, she came back and told me that if I insisted — which I had by telling them I was planning to leave the company if they didn’t grant me the time away — then they would give me a few months paid leave and would try to rehire me upon my return if a position was available.

So, off I went. My first stop on the trip was in October 1989 at Yale University for the Third Gay and Lesbian Studies Conference, organized primarily by a Yale history professor and department head known as John Boswell, author of Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality and of Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe.

The conference was rather unique in that quite a few activists — queer activists — attended, including myself. It was the heyday of Queer Nation and its in-your-face direct action tactics for queer activism.

At at the conference, I met the likes of John Boswell, Vito Russo, Larry Kramer, Jonathan Katz (well, I already knew him from activist circles in San Francisco), and a host of others.

The conference was well-run and had the excitement of a groundbreaking moment in history. The sessions were well-attended and provoked fascinating dialogues that lasted long into the night.

At one plenary session, someone ran into the room and yelled that the Yale police were arresting one of the conference attendees. Naturally, this shocked the crowd. The surprising reaction of the crowd was to relocate en masse to the scene of the arrest. Apparently, the Yale police were upset with an activist from a group called Arms Akimbo who was posting somewhat provocative flyers around the university campus.

They were quite surprised when a crowd of dozens of conference attendees arrived at the scene. Once it became clear what had happened, the crowd surrounded the police vehicle and requested the release of the activist in police custody. The police refused, and in the ensuing melee, a half-dozen more activists were arrested for lying down in front of the police car to block its progress. I was one of those arrested. We were taken in a police wagon to the jail in New Haven and I remember being excited and not at all scared. (Even previously on my first of many arrests for civil disobedience, the rush of it all kept me from being truly frightened.) We talked amongst ourselves, reassured each other, and developed a sense of solidarity that we would not budge until all of us were released. Not anticipating an arrest, most of us had identification on us, so it was not a question of whether we would be identified.

Meanwhile, John Boswell had contacted the president of Yale University and was negotiating for our release. Apparently the president of Yale got on the horn with the chief of New Haven police. I can only speculate that he applied pressure to avoid the embarrassment of the conference arrests becoming widely publicized by urging the chief to release us rapidly. Somehow, we were processed within hours and released with orders to appear in court on a later date. If my memory is correct, they released us without us signing any promise to appear, although I may have that part wrong. The reason I think that is that I was scheduled to continue on my trip around the world. So I wrote a letter to the judge, which I left with one of my fellow arrestees. In the letter, I explained that my pressing responsibilities for this trip prevented me from making a court appearance what I consider to be a spurious arrest that compromised the free-speech rights of the conference participant. I went merrily on my way with my travels and, to this day, I’m not sure how my case was resolved in the court. My memory is that the others had their cases dropped with no further penalty. But who knows, I may still have an outstanding warrant for my arrest in New Haven.

November 4 Election: Any Mayor But Newsom

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It’s time to vote again this Tuesday, November 4. My slatecard for your delectation below.

Once again, check your polling place because it may have changed. They managed to avoid implementing instant runoff voting so that they can make it more likely that Newsom will win in a later runoff election. We have to prove them wrong by bringing out the voters in greater numbers if the runoff occurs.

As always, I’d love to hear your opinion about why you agree or disagree with my recommendations below.

That’s what democracy looks like!

Peace,

Will
——-
Will’s November 4 Election Slatecard

[* by the important ones]

* Mayor -> Tom Ammiano
[but most important is to vote for anyone but Newsom to keep him from getting 50%+ of the vote so that the left can unite for the runoff election to defeat Newsom, info on Newsom’s record at http://www.gruesomenewsom.org/]

* District Attorney -> Terence Hallinan

Sheriff -> Michael Hennessey

Props A – F -> I don’t feel strongly, but probably yes
Prop G -> Yes
* Prop H -> Yes [this one is important for police accountability]
Prop I -> Yes
Prop J -> Yes
Prop K -> Yes
* Prop L -> Yes [reasonable minimum wage]
* Prop M -> NO!
Prop N -> Don’t know

New Friends or More?

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On Thursday evening, I met Nate. We were supposed to have dinner together on Friday, but both of us had dates Thursday evening and had agreed we would rather be meeting each other than our dates. Our dates were as expected and so we got together rather late in the evening after our parting with the dates. Nate came to my place and we talked about lots of wonderful things as we had previously on the phone. Only this time, we also made out. Perhaps not so wisely, we went to bed together as well. We made love while tired and it wasn’t as mind-blowing as he had hoped I think. I’m really interested in him still. He decided to go home rather than spending the night at my place… apparently he has only slept the night with about seven people in his whole life! When he got home, his temporary roommate had moved out in a huff leaving junk strewn around his house and the front door wide open. He was angry until he realized she may be really losing it, then started to worry about her.

Nate has a great father and had a great mother who passed away due to cancer. He has two brothers who are harder to get along with. He went to school at University of Chicago in the Grey City. He has a cat and owns his home in the East Bay. He’s starting his own business, but considering contract work as well.

Today, I met with Echo, a guy from Gay Shame who I’d met at the Harvey’s boycott action. We talked for hours. He’s an activist and an intellectual so I felt a good rapport withhim even though he isn’t boyfriend material for me. We talked about lots of topics from Foucault to Starhawk and others, as well as about systems theory, relationships, local politics, and a broad mix of other topics.

Republicans Take Over California Governor Seat

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With the victory of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republicans will soon take over the California Governor seat. Although California’s legislature still has a Democratic majority, there will be a fight to maintain even that at the next elections.

Here in San Francisco, we voted 80% against the recall and would have elected Bustamante by a large margin. Time to secede! See http://www.freestateofsf.org/

Thank the goddess that Proposition 54 went down in flames, the only good news of the election.

“Any Mayor But Newsom” Smart Mob at Castro Street Fair

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Join us for an “Any Mayor But Newsom” smart mob on Sunday, October 5, at the Castro Street Fair. (Forward this to friends!)

We’ll gather between 11:00am and 1:00pm at the corner of 18th and Castro, then have a renaming ritual at 1:00pm at Harvey’s (since Harvey Milk would be rolling in his grave at the Newsom signs affixed to a business named in his honor).

Need the scoop on why Newsom shouldn’t be mayor? Check this out:

Sup. Gavin Newsom’s record on the Board of Supervisors is that of a corporate, downtown developer, and landlord puppet. Nearly every neighborhood or tenant group which appears before the Board of Supervisors can count on Newsom voting against them and with his corporate and real estate donors and handlers every time. Newsom’s votes have clearly reflected a Supervisor out of touch with neighborhood interests and strongly supportive of the Residential Builder’s Association (RBA), developers, landlords and corporate interests of every kind. Newsom himself is a developer of “live/work” units and a landlord who has evicted tenants for no-fault reasons.

Any other candidate would be much better than Newsom.

Newsom does not support rent control and will work to repeal it! He gets a lot of good press (especially on Channel 2 because Ross McGowan is an investor in Newsom’s businesses), spends a lot of money, looks good and has good corporate and political handlers. But the bottom line is that he votes against the average person, neighborhood interests, renters, and voters of San Francisco nearly every opportunity he gets and in favor of the corporate development, business and real estate interests.
NEWSOM’S ANTI-NEIGHBORHOOD AND ANTI-TENANT VOTES

* July 22, 2003: Voted against proposal to strengthen rent control by giving tenants more seats on the SF Rent Board.

* November, 2002: One of 2 Supervisors (Hall) to support massive condominium conversion and rent control repeal measure (Prop R) on the November 2002 ballot.

* October 7, 2002: One of 3 Supervisors (Hall, Maxwell) to rubber-stamp all of Willie Brown’s nominations to the Planning Commission and Board of Permit Appeals.

* March, 2002: Prohibited from voting on limits to new “live/work” units because he is a developer of “live/work” units.

* April 15, 2002: Voted against controls on “big box” projects, like Ikea or Home Depot. Specifically voted against neighborhood notice and approval requirements.

* March 18, 2002: Opposed requiring developers to include affordable housing in their developments (Inclusionary Housing Ordinance).

* February 11, 2002: One of 2 Supervisors (Hall) to vote against additional protections for tenants, especially senior tenants, from evictions and pass-through of capital improvements.

* August 20, 2001: Again voted against requiring developers to include more affordable housing. (He and Hall opposed resolution to Planning Commission).

* July 23, 2001: Voted against public power. He and Hall voted to prevent the voters from deciding on the ballot whether or not we should have public power.

* July 9, 2001: Voted against limiting evictions for condo conversions. One of 3 Supervisors (Hall, Yee) to vote in support of the Mayor’s veto of Tenant protection Legislation.

* April 2, 2001: Voted to allow evictions of seniors under the Ellis Act. One of 3 Supervisors (Hall, Yee) voting against a resolution urging the State Legislature to amend the Ellis Act to prevent the eviction of senior tenants under Ellis.

* February 20, 2001: Voted against a temporary ban on rent increases for capital improvements.

SOME EARLIER NEWSOM VOTES (Compared to Bay Guardian Positions)

(Prior To 2001, Newsom — a landlord — was prohibited from voting on most landlord/tenant measures. In 2001, the conflict of interest law was changed, allowing him to vote. During this time he could not vote on a measure to limit OMI evictions of senior, disabled and terminally ill tenants, but indicated if he could he would vote against those protections.
Measure Date Newsom’s Vote Bay Guardian Recommendation

* Strengthen Campaign Finance Reform 4/24/00 NO YES

* Delay Living Wage 6/1/99 YES NO

* Support War On Iraq 10/7/02 YES NO

* Limiting ATM Fees 2/17/99 NO YES

* Lower Fines For Slumlords 10/31/97 YES NO (Tenants Union NO)

* Deny Eviction Defense Funds 7/24/00 YES NO (Tenants Union NO)

* Allow More Condo Conversions Fall 00 YES NO (Tenants Union NO)

* Ban Capital Improvement Rent Hikes Fall 00 NO YES (Tenants Union YES)

This event organized by a random group of individuals who support
all different mayoral candidates.

Urinetown

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Jack and I went to see a production by the American Conservatory Theatre of the play “Urinetown” which was quite good. The scene of the play is an allegorical town called Urinetown where a private company owns the rights to the public amenities, i.e. the bathrooms, of the town. The law prohibits relieving oneself anywhere except at one of these public amenities, so when the charges for using the facilities become onerous, a revolutionary movement takes hold.

Our tickets for the production benefited an organization called Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH), which struggles to prevent water system privatization. We joined the CPATH staff for dinner beforehand at a pleasant Indian restaurant with an indoor fountain called Mela Tandoori Kitchen.