Occupation of Monroe Park

Dedicated activists are currently occupying Monroe Park in protest of the gentrification plans, increasing tuition, and criminalization of the homeless. On Monday night, over 20 people showed up for the night to show support. Tuesday night the number was smaller, but new people still showed up and the main organizers were also present.

The police are keeping a close eye on the protesters, even making them remove a tent last night.

Concerned citizens of all shades, working poor, homeless, and dedicated activists (many associated with the anarchist movement) are present. They are displaying two banners, one that speaks out against the tuition increases and one against the criminalization of homelessness and the gentrification of the park. Currently anarchist and squatter’s rights flags are being flown at the camp.

The activists associate VCU’s interest in extending its influence over Monroe Park to be one of the reasons why tuition at the university increased. The renovation plans for the park, as proposed by Charles R. Samuels of City Council, would cost over $6 million dollars with much of it coming from a more-than-willing VCU. The Richmond Spark finds this association to be correct. Tuition would not have to rise if VCU would stop trying to consume parts of Richmond that nobody wants it in.

The Monroe Park squatters/occupiers are also doing this out of protest to the renovation plans which criminalize the homeless. They plan to occupy the park for as long as possible, and encourage others to join them, if only for a few minutes. Spending some of your free time in Monroe Park would show the city that the park is being used and doesn’t need renovations. The Richmond Spark encourages its readers to visit Monroe Park as often as possible, if only for a few minutes, to let the world know the park is being used and is liked.

The renovation plans would put a fence around the entire park for a year or more, dispersing the poor who spend their days in the park out among a hostile world. From there, they will be arrested and sent to Richmond City Jail, where inmates frequently die due to official negligence and the fact that the jail holds double its maximum capacity. The ACLU has called the conditions of the jail “unconstitutionally harsh.” Once the renovations are finished, the poor will not be allowed back because the plans call for the use of a private security force to remove “homeless appearing” people from the area. This is gentrification.

For background information on the Monroe Park gentrification issue, visit:

http://monroecampaign.wordpress.com/

http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/news/gentrification-of-monroe-park.html

http://www.iww.org/en/node/5261

To learn more about the occupation, visit:

http://wingnutrva.org/2011/03/07/occupy-monroe-park/

 

Upcoming Events

Upcoming events in Richmond and messages from their organizers.

May Day Planning Meeting:

February 20th at 7PM

506 S. Pine St. (also known as the Flying Brick Library)

We have been brainstorming and networking with national organizers who are striving to organize a day of action on May 1st that eclipses that of 5 years ago.

In Richmond, we need thousands in the streets. In order for this to happen we need a dedicated group of organizers (yes you!) who can get the word out far and wide, who can reach out to other organizations, and help make sure that people of color and the immigrant populat…ions are well represented at this years events.

Sadly, we have had a very low turn out at meetings thus far, and the bulk of outreach is being done by only a few, but dedicated people. Yes we did get an early start, as you have to do for a day such as May Day, but now it is February and we have less than three months to get a lot of work done, that we can’t do alone.

We need your help, your skills, your passions, and we need you to put them to work for the betterment of the workers in our city and the world!

Can you organize a benefit show? Art show? Reach out to your neighbors? Distribute fliers? Design a flier? Organize a workshop? Handle press? Build Puppets? Make Signs and Flags, Banners? Etc. Etc. Etc.!?!?!?

Please come out to this meeting to share your ideas and get more involved!

If you can not make the meeting but want to help, write maydayrva@gmail.com

Taken from: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=151311568257876

LGBTQ Rights Rally, March, and Lobby

February 14th at 11:00 AM

VCU Commons Plaza

“If discrimination was still a problem, there’d be a line out the door” – Del. Todd Gilbert (R, Woodstock) – The VA General Assembly, when he killed the employment nondiscrimination bill.

Do you think your professors can be fired for being Gay? THEY CAN!

Do you think anyone can attend VCU? THEY CAN’T!

RALLY on the Commons plaza this Valentine’s Day!

MARCH to the capitol afterwards, and we will lobby our legislators for the remainder of the afternoon (or as much as you can join us for!)

Annual Marriage Witness event with long-term couples as they are denied marriage licenses at 12:15 at the Richmond Courthouse.

Last Year Ken Cuccinelli, Attorney General of Va, told VCU they had to discriminate against LGBT employees. We RALLIED and MARCHED and Gov. Bob McDonnell announced a directive, with no legal weight. SB 747 would add LGBT nondiscrimination for state employees to the LAW, if we help it.

This year, the General Assembly might also pass a bill that would prevent many non-citizens access to public higher education (even if they are here legally!), help us stop HB 1465 !

Taken from: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=199385086743933

Industrial Workers of the World General Membership Branch Meeting:

February 9th at 7PM

506 S. Pine St. (Flying Brick Library)

It’s time again for the monthly Richmond IWW meeting! Come join us and find out more about the Union for all workers! Everyone is welcome, only members can vote on Union matters, but all opinions and comments welcome!

Taken from: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=108010499275048

ACLU Files FOIA Request Regarding VDOT Policies on Homeless, Litigation a Possibility

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the VA Department of Transportation (VDOT). The ACLU wants information regarding the policies of handling and destroying the possessions of homeless people who live on the land owned by VDOT.

Last month a company contracted by the Virginia Department of Transportation demolished a homeless encampment near Interstate 81 at Exit 315 near Winchester. At least four homeless men were using the property for months when the contracted company destroyed their camp and belongings.

The men lost tents, sleeping bags, clothes, food, medication, and other camping gear. One of the homeless men lost his wallet which contained his Social Security Card and birth certificate. No advance notice about the removal of their possessions was given.

In the past, the courts have stated that the constitutional rights of homeless people still applies while they are on state property.

“Federal courts have consistently ruled that homeless persons have an expectation of privacy that includes the right to be notified before their property can be seized or destroyed,” said Kent Willis, Executive Director of the ACLU of Virginia.

Willis said that litigation is a possibility, and that the goal of the ACLU is to make VDOT compensate the men for the loss of their things and ensure it will never happen again.

A federal court ruled in the Pottinger v. City of Miami case of 1992 that homeless people have a right to privacy under the Fourth Amendment, including the right to not have their possessions illegally seized from public places. A court in Alaska recently decided that five days notice before the seizure of homeless people’s possessions is too short of a period.

This is a result of a system that values housing as a commodity and a privilege instead of a human right, a system that dehumanizes the poor, and that system is capitalism.

Bradley Manning faces new abuse in VA prison

The following article was taken from the website of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (pslweb.org)

Bradley Manning, accused of leaking classified materials to Wikileaks, continues to suffer under deplorable conditions at the Quantico military base in Virginia, where he is imprisoned. Although he passed psychiatric evaluations, Manning was recently placed on suicide watch for two days, meaning that he was confined to his cell for 23 hours a day without receiving visitors.

Manning faces this new abuse in retaliation for the critical role he allegedly played in exposing some of the criminal actions of U.S. imperialism. He stands accused of leaking the famous “collateral murder” video of an aerial massacre of civilians and reporters by U.S. forces in Iraq as well as 250,000 state department communications.

Manning has not committed any crime. If he indeed shed light on the secrets of the U.S. government, he has made a major contribution to the struggle of oppressed people around the world and inside the United States. Progressives and revolutionaries should stand in solidarity with Bradley Manning and demand his immediate release.

Equality Virginia Lobbies for Gay Rights

Around 75 members of Equality Virginia, a gay rights organization, assembled in the Library of Virginia on Wednesday for their annual Lobby Day.

Homosexual, transgendered, bisexual, and even heterosexual people from all over Virginia showed up to try to get delegates and senators to support legislation advocated by their organization.

“Our goal is to have all 140 seats visited by at least one of our members today,” said Equality Virginia executive director James Parrish.

Around a dozen bills were lobbied for.

House Bill 2046, sponsored by Delegate Adam Ebbin (D-Arlington), House Bill 1509 by Delegate Jim Scott (D-Merrifield, and Senate Bill 747 by Senator A. Donald McEachin (D-Richmond). All of these bills are for non-discrimination in public jobs.

State employment benefits were also lobbied for, including Senate Bill 1121 sponsored byMcEachin and Mark Herring (D-Leesburg). McEachin’s SB 1122 was also covered.

Bills supporting the expansion of the Virginia Human Rights Act to ban discrimination of the basis of sexual orientation was pushed for. SB 797 by Senator Mamie Locke (D-Hampton) and HB 1755 by Delegate Kenneth Plum (D-Reston) were those bills.

HB 1575 by Delegate David Englin (D-Alexandria) and HB 1576 by Ebbin, HB 1748 by Plum, and House Joint Resolution 625  by Delegate Robert Bell (R-Charlottesville), all of these being anti-bullying bills, were lobbied in favor of.

Equality Virginia members also fought for the repeal of the VA state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. That is House Joint Resolution 638 by Englin.

Although The Spark wishes the best for the LGBTQ community of the world, and hopes Equality Virginia gets these bills put into effect, we must realize that it is the current governmental system of the United States that has done so much wrong to the LGBTQ community at home and abroad. The current system is based around one party of the bourgeoisie coming into office and attempting to destroy the work of the previous bourgeois party. With this in mind, it is possible that Virginia’s LGBTQ community could be equal on paper one day and back to being abused the next if the right-wing decides they want to take away your rights.

Equality should not have to be lobbied for, it should not be up for dispute. We need a government that will establish equality and maintain it without compromise to the religious right-wing and other prejudiced elements of society. Only socialism can provide that.

The Nepali government, mainly in the hands of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), passed a law recognizing transgendered people on the census, and the Maoists have done much work for gay rights. Under Lenin, almost one hundred years ago, gay marriage was legal in the Soviet Union. Rebels with the communist New People’s Army in the Philippines have been known to give weddings to their homosexual members.

Bradley Manning Protest in Quantico

Hundreds of protesters gathered at the US Marine base in Quantico, Virginia to protest the cruel and unusual punishment (pre-trial isolation) of Bradley Manning. A former soldier, Manning is accused of leaking information on US war crimes.

Author and activist David Swanson was there recording a video of the protest when the Quantico Marine police tried to pull him onto their base so they would have the authority to arrest him. Swanson did nothing wrong, all he did was try to ask questions to the guards. This goes to show what kind of people the soldiers and police really are. Amazingly, Swanson was pulled away from the base and guards by other protesters. The same thing was done for another person.

Party in Monroe Park

The Monroe Park Campaign held what seemed to be a victory party in Monroe Park on Saturday. The celebration was over the thousandth signature to their petition to limit the class-prejudiced renovations of Monroe Park.

There was live music from local bands and musicians such as the No BS Brass Band, Alison Self, Dave Watkins, Pedals on Our Pirate Ship, Diamond Center, Gull, Julie Karr, Lobo Marino, Better Not Makeouts, Gandhi’s Gunmen, Just Plain Hip Hop Collective, the Cmilk and Reeverb Collective, and more. Free food was provided by Crossroads, the Lamplighter, and Cafe Gutenberg.

The Richmond Spark arrived on the scene at 12PM when the party was just beginning. I was there to help the local Industrial Workers of the World group collect donations and distribute literature. I also gave out some copies of Liberation newspaper (from the Party for Socialism and Liberation). Those two groups aren’t affiliated, for those who are wondering.

The IWW collected a fair amount of donations to support it’s literature and I collected a similar amount for the Monroe Park Campaign.

Other people who were tabling included WRIR radio and local artists.

I was tabling at Stage 3 where Alison Self, Lobo Marino, and Dave Watkins were performing. They were all great! Though I must apologize for any noise I made. I wasn’t the one who decided to put the table  at Stage 3.

I was told by several people that the VCU police were going around harassing people who were tabling. They said that the tables needed to be on the outer edges of Monroe Park, but nobody moved. We just claimed that nobody in particular was in charge, and therefore nobody had the authority to move their tables. This event was basically a family event, but this pointless harassment by the police goes to show where the cops’ priorities are.

There was also a small parade through the park with puppets from All The Saints Theater Company. At the end they did a little play that spoke out against City Councilman Charles Samuels and VCU, who want to kick anyone out of the park who even looks poor. A humorous and sarcastic impersonation of Samuels was done in which, at one point, the fake Samuels suggested new bathroom signs for the Park. One sign read “whites” and the other read “homeless.”

Serious speeches were also given, and new petition signatures were collected.

Other than that, there was a lot of hula hooping.

Check back soon for more details and possibly video footage.

Richmond Police Give Tactical Guides to Anarchists on Accident

The Richmond Copwatch recently filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Richmond Police Department. They originally requested police training documents, but ended up receiving more than just that. Crowd control and Homeland Security guides were also included.

Copwatch member Mo Karn was the individual who filed to receive the documents because one address and name was required.

However, some of the documents received were secret. The person who sent them out, according to the police, did so on accident and didn’t have permission to do so. In response, the police filed an emergency court order to prohibit Karn from distributing the materials.

A package with information on a possible legal case was hand delivered to Karn’s residence at The Wingnut collective.

“The Chief of Police Bryan Norwood and The City of Richmond v. Mo Karn” is apparently in the works.

“If the RPD feels they shouldn’t have sent out these documents, maybe they shouldn’t have done so,” The Wingnuts stated on their blog. “The idea that they can sue anybody for having information that they gave us is utterly ridiculous.”

The copwatch was alerted that certain tactical information wasn’t subject to the Freedom of Information Act before receiving it, so Karn requested the “secret” parts be blacked out of the documents.  The police didn’t do this and sent the entire documents “on accident.”

Did we mention the ridiculous reason they want their documents back? It’s because Mo Karn is a known anarchist. Had Karn been some anti-government right-wing militia wacko, the police probably wouldn’t be complaining. But Karn is a vegan and not a militia member. Oh the horror!

Richmond’s Deputy Assistant Attorney Brian Telfair, who warned the local government of Karn’s ideological allegiance, never mentioned any threats of violence or property damage. So why are the cops so worried?

What the police don’t want you to see is that they have begun demonizing legal protests by labeling them under the category of “civil disturbances.” The Richmond police are also afraid of the protesters because they have become “more proficient in the methods of assembly.”

Unfortunately for the police, The Wingnut already made most of the documents public.

You can visit The Wingnut’s website for more information. It is linked to on the right side of this website.

Gentrification of park threatens homeless and poor people

The following article was taken from the website of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (click here), and was written by a Richmond/Henrico activist.

The homeless and working poor of Richmond, Va., may soon find themselves further relegated to the bottom of society. Poor people in Richmond often gather in Monroe Park, a public park, to receive free meals from various church and social justice groups. Members of the city government and nearby Virginia Commonwealth University, however, plan to end this by renovating Monroe Park in a manner that would force the homeless into further despair.

The renovation plans involve closing the entire park via a large fence for 9 to 18 months. During the $6.2 million renovation process, a café and fancy walkways, among other things, will be installed. This will privatize the park. Once finished, a private security force will be hired to remove “homeless appearing” people. The poor and the feeding programs would then be relocated to Richmond’s Conrad Center. The staunchest supporter of this plan is city councilman Charles R. Samuels, who previously drew controversy by co-sponsoring a noise ordinance that was declared unconstitutional.

The groups that feed the poor in the park have argued that relocating to the Conrad Center is not an option, because it is isolated. Located in a valley with steep hills, miles away from temporary employment agencies and reliable public transportation, the Conrad Center is almost impossible to access for people with physical disabilities. It is also ominously overlooked by a jail and is on arsenic-poisoned ground.

Groups that advocate for the homeless have contended that closing the entire park would force the homeless into the hostile VCU community, where they are more likely to be arrested for “trespassing” by unsympathetic campus police. With an incarceration rate well above the national average and a city jail with conditions declared “unconstitutionally harsh” by the ACLU, they have argued that the petty charges from the cops would risk the lives and health of the homeless. It is also worth noting that an inmate died over the summer due to negligence on the part of the jail.

The Monroe Park Campaign, a coalition of social justice and religious groups, has worked hard to limit the renovation plans.

“We do not oppose the renovations,” said Kendall, a Monroe Park Campaign activist. “We just believe that it should be done in two or more stages to accommodate the people and services already using it.”

“We would just like to see the renovations done in stages, leaving at least 25% of the park open at all times,” said campaign member Nathan Stickel. “We also oppose private management of the park.”

The Campaign also opposes the installation of private security and demands that feeding programs remain allowed in Monroe Park.

Councilman Samuels held a public forum last month to make the feeding groups find an alternative area, but the attendees all concluded there was no alternative to Monroe Park.
“It is central and easy to access, with much less police harassment than the surrounding neighborhoods,” said Stickel.

Samuels has so far refused to take the demands of the Campaign into consideration.

The park renovation plans reflect the priorities of the capitalist system expressed on a local level. Under capitalism, the interests of private business take precedence over meeting the needs of the poor. Under socialism, people would not need to go to a public park to get a free meal, affordable housing would be a right, and parks would be there to serve the recreational needs of all the people.

Protest at Jim Webb’s Office

Around 16 protesters stood outside of Senator Jim Webb’s Richmond office on Friday.

Last weekend, Webb voted against the extension of unemployment benefits and tax cuts for the workers and middle class.

The protesters, assembled by the Virginia Organizing Project, claimed that Webb and the government have betrayed the working and middle classes, putting people’s lives and health at risk. They feel that extending tax cuts to the super-rich, which Webb has supported, would increase the deficit spending, and that the rich are getting more tax cuts than regular people.

“It’s dirty pool, plain and simple,” said Andrew Ragland, a worker who was recently laid off. “You do not hold one group hostage for the benefit of another.”

Some members of Congress are refusing to vote in favor of unemployment benefits and tax cuts for the average people until taxes are lowered for the rich, which is what Ragland was referring to.

Webb’s antics have shown that the Democratic Party should never be trusted. Only a socialist party is capable of representing the regular, hard-working people of Virginia.

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