The authors will be in Oakland on Saturday April 5 (venue TBD), co-hosting an event with Critical Resistance in order to foster conversations about how groups in the East Bay who focus their work around immigration policing/detention/reform and groups primarily focusing on policing/jails/prisons can support each others work.  On Sunday, April 6th at 6pm, they will give a book reading and presentation at Modern Times as part of the ongoing Occupy U series.

Police tase a young man in downtown Oakland during the May Day General Strike May 1, 2012. – Photo: Michael Short, special to SF Chronicle

This month, SFPAW/HAVOQ joined a broad coalition of community groups opposing the acquisition and use of tasers by the SFPD.  (Read some powerful words from the Coalition on Homelessness here and from Poor Magazine here) Tasers are a deadly weapon and do not make our communities safer.

SFPAW/HAVOQ opposes tasers because they contribute to and exacerbate the violence and racism endemic to policing.   Recent study found that deaths due to police shootings more than DOUBLED in the first year of taser implementation.  Sudden deaths in police custody increased almost SIXFOLD.  Tasers are particularly deadly when used on people with a history of mental illness and addiction, the very communities that this technology is purported to help.

We know that the majority of violence that trans women of color face is at the hands of the police. We know that in San Francisco, 40% of homeless youth are queer and are therefore more likely to come into contact with the police. We know that queer communities have high rates of drug abuse and addiction. Queer and trans folks, particularly people of color, immigrants, youth, and poor and homeless folks are going to be disproportionately targeted by tasers as these communities have been systematically denied access to affordable and competent mental health care.  But we don’t only oppose this move because it affects members of our community, we oppose any action that criminalizes and marginalizes survival strategies and results in the incarceration of so many of us seen as undesirable in a racist and classist system.

But we don’t need statistics to know that tasers are not de-escalatory or less than lethal.  While the police say they need tasers to deescalate mental health crises, we know it is ridiculous to suggest that de-escalation can be facilitated through the use of violent force.  The police are not trained in crisis intervention and are not the people we trust in a crisis.

We saw this when Johannes Mehserle murdered Oscar Grant while supposedly trying to reach for his taser.  If the police are not trained to recognize the difference between a gun and taser, they certainly cannot discern when taser use would be appropriate.  We saw this during the uprising surrounding Occupy Oakland.  We saw rubber bullets, flash bang grenades, tear gas, and other “than than lethal” weapons send our friends to the hospital, some with life changing injuries.  As we continue to take to the streets to demand justice, and as many continue to be queer and black and brown and poor, we are reminded once again of the dangers of an increasingly militarized and always racist police force.

Policing doesn’t make our communities safer and a better armed police force certainly doesn’t make us safer.  Just as hate crimes legislation fails to keep queer communities safe and instead functions to prop up a racist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, and ableist prison industrial complex, policing is not a redeemable form of care.  Communities that have borne the brunt of police violence are not fooled by this friendlier face that calls police tactics de-escalation, that calls police units community outreach teams, and that calls tasers less than lethal.

We support moves to disarm cops, not to add a weapon to their arsenal. No tasers for the SFPD.

Lessons Include:  Introduction to Border Militarization; Border Repression and Human Rights; Free Trade, Labor and Forced Migration; When the Border Crosses a Family; Border Militarization as Occupation; The Border as Marshall Law;  Splitting the Land in Two:  Ecological Effects of Border Militarization;  Border Culture versus the Culture of Fear; Faith and the Border; The Border is Everywhere; The United States Has a Drug Problem; The Northern Frontier:  US Militarization of the Americas  Epilogue:  How Do We Resist?

Undoing Borders: a Queer Manifesto, the zine released in 2011 by HAVOQs Migrant Justice workgroup, is included in the lesson titled “Border Repression and Human Rights.”

If you’ve never made it out on one of our Wed night Prison Mail Evenings, or if you just can’t get enough of it, please join us for this one-off Sunday afternoon. We are massively behind, which means lots of folks are waiting longer than we’d like them to wait for the resources and responses they need.

Sunday, February 17, 2013   :   1:00pm until 6:00pm   

On facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/events/407192042705558/
Increase your legal support skills and your knowledge about resources and current situations facing queer/trans prisoners.

Training and food provided!

Plus really great company with great people.

Please rsvp here or to janetta@tgijp.org or flyingoverwalls@gmail.com if you can make it. And if you can’t make it out on 2/17, but are interested in joining on Wed evenings, or another time, you can also be in touch for more info.

http://www.tgijp.org/prison-mail-evenings.html

As we have expressed before in our Undoing Borders project, and our support of the implementation of a San Francisco Municipal ID, we know that many people are unable to document their identities through the state for different reasons – whether it was because people don’t have a social security number or because their gender expression doesn’t match up with their sex-assigned at birth.  Regardless of the reasons,  the impact of not having access to an ID ranges from not being able to open a bank account, get access to the library, or simply go to a social event at a bar or a club without experiencing a high-level of stress.

Municipal IDs have been implemented in some bay area cities and in New Jersey, DC, and New Haven CT, and are being considered in Los Angeles.  We know that these programs do not address the myriad ways that the state is involved in policing our bodies and identities, but we see the struggle around these IDs as one way to highlight what is wrong with a system where the government, through documentation, the government holds the power to legitimize our genders, relationships or presence in the country.

We are in favor of actions that better recognize undocumented, trans and homeless people as full members of our communities.  We want to make it clear that Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s  stated goal of using the IDs to encouraging residents to report crime is NOT something we support.  Mayor Quan said, “We’ve found that many people in the city, who are either victims of crime or witnesses to crime, that they’re reluctant to come forward—and one of the reasons they are reluctant is because of police policy to ask them for their ID,” but we know that the reasons people are hesitant to talk to the police go well beyond having to show ID.

Data collected on programs like Stop & Frisk show that racial profiling dominates police action.  Last year in New York City, there were more reported stops of African American males between the ages of 14 to 24 than the total number of 14-24 year old black men in the city.  Many men reported being stopped dozens of times.  Queer people also know by experience that police don’t make us safe.  In 2000, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects released a report revealing that half of all reported incidents of hate violence against transgender people were carried out by police.

So we support municipal IDs and sanctuary policies that work to end local collaboration with federal immigration authorities, without affirming the role of police in ensuring public safety.  Thank you to the Oakland City ID Card Coalition for your work in passing this legislation.

RSVP on Facebook

Every month we will gather and begin the night with a short political education discussion of current issues within the criminalization system/prison industrial complex. This month, CCWP joins us to discuss realignment and the upcoming demonstration being planned in Chowchilla in response to the women’s prison closure and resultant massive overcrowding.

We’ll then review guidelines for being a penpal and spend the rest of the time looking through the letters of potential penpals, writing letters &/or decorating birthday cards to political prisoners. And if you missed last month, there is still time to send holiday cards!

6:15-6:45, facilitated discussion about current topics/issues around queer criminalization
6:45-8, find/write to your personal penpal &/or make birthday cards for political prisoners &/or make holiday cards for your penpal or folks on the Black & Pink list

*** We’ll check our PO Box a few days before the event, so join/stay tuned to our facebook event page or join our googlegroup by emailing flyingoverwalls [at] gmail [dot] com in order to be notified if we have received letters addressed to you and to hear about other work we’re doing!

There will be a memorial on January 6 at ILWU Local 34 (next to AT&T Park) from 2 to 4 p.m. Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers and other major figures will remember Mr. Wallace and his contributions to LGBT, labor, elder, and health care rights.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the following organizations at Mr. Wallace’s request: NAACP; ACLU, Northern CA chapter; Pride at Work; KPFA; Senior Action Network; and the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club. Please note “in memory of Howard Wallace.”

Find articles about Howard’s life in the press section of this website:  SF Bay Guardian;  Frontier LA;  The Advocate; Queerty; the Bay Area Reporter

http://lgbtpov.frontiersla.com/2012/11/15/lgbt-and-labor-movement-activist-howard-wallace-has-died/#more-45097

Just as LGBT politicos have started talking post-election about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and pushing federal contractors to adopt job protection policies for LGBT workers, Pride at Work announced that one of labor’s leading lights, P@W’s President Emeritus Howard Wallace, 76, died on Wednesday in a San Francisco hospice after having struggled with Alzheimer’s for several years.  Wallace was particularly known for his organizing work around the Coors boycott, as detailed at the Queerest Library Ever which features the photo above.

“Yesterday, we lost a champion who paved the way for the work and the victories we see today,” said Shane Larson (CWA), Co-President of national Pride at Work. “Times are changing today because of the work of those who came before us.”

Openly gay Los Angeles-based Sal Rosselli, president, National Union of Healthcare Workers who Wallace a mentor, sent this note to gay friends in the labor movement:

Friends – so sorry to report Howard passed away this morning after a year long struggle.  Howard was a former staff leader of Local 250, many of us got to work with him in that capacity.  However, he has been a leader of the LGBT and Labor Movement since the 1960s. He was most instrumental in bringing the labor and gay movements together in common cause including directing the Coors Boycott and opposing the infamous Briggs Initiative.  He mentored countless leaders in our movement including me and worked tirelessly in countless campaigns.  We will help organize a celebration of his life after the first of the year.  I look forward to helping you and others know who this great man was. Sal

(Pride at Work co-chair Sally Buchmann and Pride at Work founder Howard Wallace. Photo from Left in SF.)

From the P@W press release:

Howard Wallace served as founding Co-President of Pride at Work, the national constituency group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers and allies. Together with President Emerita Nancy Wohlforth, they launched Pride at Work, organizing until it was officially recognized as a formal constituency group affiliated with the AFL-CIO in 1997. Nancy continues to serve on the Pride at Work (P@W) National Executive Board on behalf of the Office & Professional Employees Union (OPEIU.)

“We are grateful that Howard is at peace after his long struggle,” said P@W national Co-President Lori Pelletier (IAM), who also serves as Secretary-Treasurer of the CT AFL-CIO. “Howard Wallace fought the fight for justice and equality with courage and vision. The opportunities we have today are thanks to the groundwork from pioneers like Howard Wallace.”

Organizing since the 1960’s, Howard was known throughout the movement for his pioneering work bringing together the LGBT community and labor movement. He was a former staff leader of SEIU Local 250 and also dedicated to anti-war efforts.

Howard was particularly known for his work with Harvey Milk and Allan Baird on the Coors Boycott and opposing the Briggs Initiative.  The “Briggs Initiative” ballot measure (1978) was designed to ban gays and lesbians from working in California public schools. It was successfully defeated 58.4% to 41.6%.

In the 1970′s, Coors was accused of firing gay and lesbian employees and demanding that workers take lie detector tests including questions about their sexual orientation. The boycott received national labor support in 1977 when nearly 1,500 workers walked off their jobs in protest.   Along with the LGBT community, the AFL-CIO and unions across the movement organized tirelessly for the boycott. After a ten-year movement-wide struggle, the boycott effort was finally won in 1987.

“We are diminished,” said P@W Co-Vice President Gabriel Haaland (SEIU, San Francisco.)   “Howard was a fearless warrior for justice in the LGBT and Labor communities, and he was an inspiration and mentor to me and many others. May he rest in power.”

ILWU Local 34 has graciously offered their building next to Giants Park for a Memorial meeting, expected to be scheduled after the first of the year. Details will be announced. Please visit the Pride at Work Facebook page if you would like to leave remembrances and reflections.

A short biography on the Matt & Andrej Koymasky historical website indicates that Wallace’s impulse for social justice was strongly influenced by his sexual orientation:

Wallace, who started working in political groups as a high school student in Denver, says his activism was influenced by his sexuality – even before he came out. “I was aware of being gay in the second grade,” he says. “It gave me a strong empathy with other underdogs that stuck with me all my life.”

As a student activist, he learned that his principles had a price. Halfway through his first year at the University of Denver, he was forced to choose between his education and his political work.

“I left some United World Federalists stuff on the dining-room table,” Wallace says. “My dad saw it and said, ‘What is this communist shit?’ ” His father insisted he give up politics. “He put a couple of checks on the dining-room table – the checks for next year’s tuition – and said, ‘Get out [of activism] and you can have those checks.’ I tore them up in his face, and that was the end of my college education.”

Wallace and his father have since reconciled, but “it’s been a rocky road,” he says. “He’s one of my earliest authoritarian figures, and he made me an antiauthoritarian.”

When he left college and took a series of blue-collar jobs, Wallace’s antiauthoritarianism led him to become active in unions – most importantly the Teamsters. And when he moved to San Francisco in 1967, he began working to unite the labor movement with the leftist causes that were close to his heart. The hard work of Wallace and other progressive labor activists paid off when northern California’s labor councils were the first in the country to officially oppose the Vietnam War.

In 1974 he found a cause that could bring together labor and the nascent gay-liberation movement. Teamster delivery drivers had organized a boycott of Coors beer to gain leverage in a long-standing dispute over union representation. One of the Coors practices they objected to was a lie-detector test for employees – and one of the questions asked on the test was ‘are you homosexual?’

Wallace helped bring Harvey Milk and other gay community leaders on board, and soon the bars lining Castro Street had stopped serving Coors.

The campaign served to out Wallace in his workplace. After a TV appearance backing the boycott, he says, “somebody at work just said ‘saw you on TV last night,’ and that was that. Two weeks after coming out, I was elected shop steward at Planters Peanuts.”

That, the website bio reports, helped build a working relationship between the unions and the growing LGBT political movement.