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On December 11, 2003 several Peace and Freedom Party members, including Margie Hinds, Ron Dorsey and Nancy Lawrence, participated in a rally organized by the Los Angeles Community Action Network/Downtown Women's Action Coalition (L.A. CAN/DWAC) in support of the homeless. It took place at the intersection of San Julian and 6th St. in the heart of "Skid Row."
Here capital has dumped the poorest of the poor: the desperate, the addicted, the mentally ill, the lost and abandoned souls for whom it has no further use. Predominately people of color, people scratch out a meager existence with little hope and less chance of anything ever getting better.
Some few still hold jobs, but cannot afford rent. Others have been in prison and can find none to hire them. The mentally ill have long since been abandoned, with mental health hospitals and clinics shut down in the interest of more tax cuts for the wealthy.
Now real estate developers and bankers have discovered the enormous housing potential of former factories and warehouses in this economically abandoned district, though of course not for the homeless. Suddenly 'lofts' and 'apartments' carved from these former industrial facilities are valued at half a million dollars and up. Needless to say these property values must be protected and to hell with moral values.
So the street cleaning begins, not of filth and poverty, but of human beings. Cops sweep through homeless encampments, arbitrarily confiscating and destroying the meager belongings of people who have nothing to begin with save perhaps a blanket or a bedroll.
Los Angeles city officials leapt to act in this emergency, passing new laws to support the attempt to clear the downtown area of the poor, apparently deliberately pushing them towards East L.A.
Taking a leading role in this assault, 8th district City Council member Jan Perry recently introduced an anti-urination ordinance, which the City Council promptly passed, providing only token measures for homeless residents to take care of such needs legally.
Despite the efforts of L.A. CAN/DWAC and others to negotiate placement and care of public sanitation facilities, the City of L.A. has placed only a handful of porta-potties in the skid row area, all at a single location. They are poorly maintained and cleaned.
The homeless now face further attacks in "anti-camping" and anti-feeding laws. One Peace and Freedom letter to the City Council pointed out that while the homeless were unable to provide the large campaign donations to be expected from real estate interests, in our democracy surely it would be just as illegal for the rich to urinate on the side of a million dollar apartment building or sleep on its sidewalk as for the poor. The simple fact is this is merely another attempt to continue the criminalization of poverty.
L.A. CAN/DWAC organized the December rally and letter and email campaigns to highlight the contradictions of this attack on the poor, calling for permanent public toilets similar to those seen in San Francisco to be placed strategically around the area, and hiring of area residents as maintenance staff to clean and maintain the facilities.
The marchers engaged in spirited chants and listened to several speakers. There was also some great street theater put on by members of L.A. CAN/DWAC. It was cold but spirit was good. Let's hope this is the start of something bigger. We must bring a conscience to this city.
Speaking at this event Peace and Freedom Party member and L.A. CAN/DWAC staff person Bilal Mafundi Ali said, "We see these current attacks on those who are living on the precipice of existence in the form of draconian anti-poor people laws as an example of the failure of capitalism."
If you are interested in getting involved with this movement and L.A. CAN/DWAC, please contact Bilal at (213) 629-2128 or come to one of the Resident Organizing Committee meetings. They are held at 10:00 a.m. on the first and third Friday of each month at the L.A. CAN/DWAC offices at 456 S. Main St. in downtown Los Angeles.
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