Free & Open to the Public.

TUESDAY, MAY 22nd

6:30pm – 8:30pm

Eric Quezada Center:  518 Valencia Street, SF

*Wheelchair and BART accessible

Food, video presentation, speakers, and more!
Through community mobilization and broad based support, San Francisco is standing up for civil rights as the 2nd city in
the nation to take control of the city’s relationship with the FBI!

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE THIS CIVIL RIGHTS WIN!

Join Coalition for a Safe SF for a Community Appreciation & Celebration!

RSVP here on facebook

The Safe San Francisco Civil Rights Ordinance seeks to prevent local officials from collaborating with  FBI surveillance, particularly of Arab and Muslim communities.    For more information, visit http://www.safesf.org/

MAY 1, 2012;   by Tommi Avicolli Mecca

Bob Filner, a San Diego congressman of the Democratic persuasion, wants the U.S. Secretary of the Navy to name the next Navy ship after Harvey Milk. As in the famous gay activist and San Francisco’s first openly gay elected official turned Hollywood star.

By: Molly Roy & Neil Nag | May 1, 2012 – 1:51 pm

http://missionlocal.org/2012/05/protesters-march-for-immigrants-right/?utm_source=todaysmission&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_campaign=house_tmsidebar

This year, we are celebrating with a number of other small collectives in the city– some groups we’ve been organizing with for years and some that we’ve wanted to get to know better.  We all saw Mayday as a great opportunity to collaborate, deepen our relationships, and learn from each other.  We are HAVOQ/ SF Pride at Work, Young Workers United, CUAV, El/la programa para translatinas, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, and la Colectiva.

For months now, we’ve been meeting as a group to talk about what Mayday means to us and what a queer & feminist contingent might look like if we made it together (you can see photos of the Cafecitos here or here).  This is what we came up with:

Today, we’ll be marching from 24th and Mission to 16th and Mission to debut our teatro (street-theater) piece.  You can see pictures of us building it here, but nothing beats seeing this bilingual, elaborate, and fun thing in person!  Also, it involves piñatas!

At noon, we’ll be joining the People’s Street Festival and doing our teatro again.  Then we’ll be off to Oakland to join the 3pm march begining in Fruitvale.  We hope to see you in the streets!

Look for the purple banner, pink flags, and giant puppets to find us in the streets!

But this time, we’re getting a little more personal. We’re going to “create relationships of friendship, support, and solidarity between inside and outside folks and help break isolation for incarcerated members of our communities.” (MPCP)

Join us at Modern Times Bookstore for a choose your own adventure..

Adventure 1 – Choose a FOR REAL pen-pal. This is for those of you who want to start building relationships with folks behind bars. You can make it as personal or as political as you want, but it’s about learning the names and faces of real members of our queer family who are locked up inside the system – and being the kind of pen-pal that’s gonna stay in touch with them.

Adventure 2 – Send some ONE-TIME love. This is for those of you who want to send a semi-anonymous but sincere or artistic or inspiring message as a sign of support – but without the ongoing commitment. It will still be a reminder to them and everyone else on their block that they have support and have not been forgotten.

Whichever adventure you choose, we’ll have some basic supplies, but feel free to bring pens, markers, paper, envelopes, watercolors, pencils, stamps and a few bucks to cover postage for your letter(s). Please do NOT bring any stickers, glues, glitters or adhesives. These will get your letter returned to you.

****Please arrive on time, if possible, so we can introduce ourselves, review the basic guidelines together and answer any questions.****

We’ll have names from Black & Pink’s Prison Penpal list and from the Montreal Prisoner Correspondence Project in order to support the work of these two amazing organizations. We’ll also have some readings and resources available.

24TH ST. AND MISSION ST.

9:30 AM –> GATHER (BREAKFAST!!!!) / REUNIÓN (DESAYUNO!!)
10 AM –> MARCH… TAKE BACK THE STREETS / MANIFESTACIÓN… RETOMEMOS LAS CALLES

16TH & MISSION

11 AM –> STREET THEATER/ TEATRO CALLEJERO

MONTGOMERY & MARKET

12pm –> THE PEOPLE’S STREET FESTIVAL/ FESTIVAL DE CALLE DEL PUEBLO

- • – • - •- • – • - •- • – • - •- • – • - •- • – • - • – •-

We strike together because/ Hacemos huelga juntas/os porque:

WE ARE NOT ALONE. TOGETHER WE ARE POWERFUL. //  NO ESTAMOS SOL@S, JUNT@S SOMOS PODEROS@S

MAY DAY IS A DAY TO CELEBRATE AND REMEMBER.   //  EL 1 DE MAYO ES UN DIA PARA CELEBRAR Y RECORDAR.

WE EXIST AND WE RESIST.  // EXISTIMOS Y RESISTIMOS. 

Estamos siendo expulsadas y expulsados de nuestros barrios, fuera de San Francisco. Nos estan quitando nuestras casas, nuestras comunidades estan siendo desplazadas a la fuerza. Nos reunimos como trabajadoras/es, immigrantes, personas de sexo y género diverso (queer), rebeldes, trabajadoras/es del sexo, criminales, artistas y amigas/os porque somos conscientes de nuestras luchas comunes.

Estamos cansadas/os de ser invisibilizadas/os, devaluadas/os y brutalizadas/os por la policía, arrendatarias/os y jefes.

Sabemos que podemos construir el mundo que queremos ver. Ya lo estamos haciendo!

We are being pushed out of our neighborhoods, out of San Francisco. Our homes are being taken from us, our communities forcibly displaced. We came together as workers, immigrants, queers, rebels, sex workers, criminals, artists, and friends because we are aware of our shared struggles.

We are tired of being invisibilized, devalued, and brutalized by the police, prisons, landlords, and bosses.

We know that we can build the world we want to see. We already are!

(HAVOQ/ SF Pride at Work, Young Workers United, CUAV, El/la programa para translatinas, Mujeres Activas y Unidas y la Colectiva.)

AIDS activists throw the ashes of ACT UP/San Francisco member Stephen Fish, who died in 1991 and wished his ashes to be used for a political purpose, onto the steps of Mission Dolores Basilica on Good Friday in a demonstration to mark the 25th anniversary of ACT UP, the direct action AIDS group. (Photo: Rick Gerharter)

A dead gay man’s ashes were thrown over barricades at a Catholic Church in San Francisco on Good Friday, as activists staged a 25th anniversary march commemorating ACT UP.

The protest went from the Mission to the Castro and touched on issues such as gentrification and the lack of affordable housing as well as the Catholic Church’s anti-gay teachings.

Organizers estimated that 200-250 people participated in the April 6 march.

The group began its protest outside a Mission district Wells Fargo branch. The bank was a target of Occupy activists last fall. The march then continued to the steps of Mission Dolores Basilica.

ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, began in New York in 1987, and has regularly targeted the Catholic Church. In December 1989, thousands of ACT UP protesters disrupted Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York over the archdiocese’s position against the distribution of condoms and its opposition to abortion – themes echoed during the anniversary protest. Active ACT UP chapters are still present in New York and a few other cities; the San Francisco chapters dissolved several years ago.

ACT UP is credited with speeding up the time it takes for the government to approve new drugs and its direct actions called out the slow pace of the federal government in the early years of the epidemic.

Protesters had said they planned to arrive at the church at 5:30 p.m. But by 5 o’clock there were already at least 15 San Francisco police officers standing in front of Mission Dolores Basilica and the Old Mission, which is immediately adjacent to the south. Police had put up crowd control barriers in the gutters and the barricades prevented the demonstrators from their stated aim: to place the ashes of a man who died from AIDS on the church stairs.

“The Catholic Church [has a] continued role of condemning people to die of AIDS globally and repression of sexual freedom and health here at home by blocking access to condoms, and restricting access to reproductive health and abortion,” said a statement about the anniversary march on Pride at Work’s website.

Waiyde Palmer, who helped organize the march, said the church’s regulations on sexuality, contraception, and a woman’s right to choose “are mirror images of its attitude and policies toward HIV/AIDS.”

“If you oppose contraception on every level beyond the rhythm method, as they do, then HIV is going to spread and unwanted and unplanned pregnancies will occur,” Palmer wrote in an email. “Both can be avoided if one has adequate access to health care that isn’t shrouded in shame or religious doctrine.”

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence led the anniversary protest. The Sisters, who have drawn the ire of Catholic leaders throughout their long and colorful history, offered their standard list of grievances against the church: opposition to abortion and contraception, opposition to same-sex marriage and adoption, and the child abuse scandal.

The Sisters present at the protest declined to speak with the Bay Area Reporter. But other marchers offered their views.

“I’m disgusted by the [Catholic] church and their beliefs about our community,” said Patrick Dissek. “I’m tired of having them try to impose their beliefs.”

George Wesolek, director of public policy for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, was there to observe the event. He said that it was interesting that the activists should have chosen the Mission Basilica for this particular action. Wesolek said that during the trip of Blessed John Paul II to San Francisco in 1987 he had visited the Mission Basilica.

“It was the Mission Basilica where the Holy Father gave his special blessing to 62 people suffering from AIDS,” said Wesolek.

In a statement, Wesolek said, “At that time many people treated AIDS patients like lepers. People thought it was something you could catch easily … John Paul’s show of compassion opened up the arms of compassion of the world.”

When asked to respond to Wesolek’s statement, protester Mark Riley said, “Just because one person did one nice thing many years ago, doesn’t take away from the fact that they have been completely off target since then.”

Mission Dolores was founded on June 29, 1776, and is the oldest Catholic Church in the archdiocese, and the oldest building in San Francisco. In addition, the mission is “the oldest original intact mission in California,” according to the church’s website.

The demonstrators had planned to spread the ashes of ACT UP/San Francisco member Stephen Fish on the steps of the church, but their ultimate plans were derailed. Fish, who died in 1991, had wished that his ashes be used for a political purpose. Instead, the ACT UP anniversary marchers threw the ashes over the police barriers, toward the stairs of the Mission Basilica; San Francisco’s typical wind immediately dispersed them in all directions.

Marcher Amanda Ream said that she took part to honor the way that “our community fought and changed the way health care is delivered in this country.”

“The legacy is that a community of really committed people can fight the government, homophobia, and the church and win.”

Ream said that the anniversary march “was very powerful.”

“We scattered the ashes of Stephen Fish … on the steps of Mission Dolores,” Ream wrote in an email. “Many people were in tears as a cloud of ash mixed with glitter filled the air to shouts of ‘we will never be silent again. Act up.’”

The march then continued to Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro where the group gathered in a commemoration of ACT UP and the many lives lost to HIV/AIDS. There was a reading of the names of local activists who died during the epidemic in the Bay Area.

]]> http://www.sfprideatwork.org/press/act-up-tosses-ashes-at-sf-church/feed/ 0 http://www.sfprideatwork.org/news-and-updates/today-aids-is-not-over-the-resurrection-march-of-act-up/ http://www.sfprideatwork.org/news-and-updates/today-aids-is-not-over-the-resurrection-march-of-act-up/#comments Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:46:19 +0000 molly http://www.sfprideatwork.org/?p=1172 4:00 PM Gather and Start of March   4:30 PM Wells Fargo at 16th and Mission  5:00 PM SFPolice at 17th and Valencia  5:30 PM Ashes action at SF Archdiocese/Mission Dolores Church  6:30 PM Memorial and Commemoration of ACT UP at Harvey Milk Plaza  

To mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and commemorate the lives of almost 20,000 San Franciscans who have died since the epidemic began, people with HIV/AIDS and the AIDS activist community will gather on Friday, April 6– Good Friday, for a march from the Mission to the Castro. 

The march will link the issues of gentrification and lack of affordable housing faced by people with HIV/AIDS and our communities today by starting at Wells Fargo, a major profiteer of the housing crisis. The march will continue to the steps of Mission Dolores Church, marking Good Friday and protesting the Catholic Church’s continued role of condemning people to die of AIDS globally and repression of sexual freedom and health here at home– by blocking access to condoms, and restricting access to reproductive health and abortion. Ashes of those who died during the epidemic in SF will be placed on the steps of Dolores Church. 

“San Franciscans died of AIDS. 20,000 of us. Almost 16,000 of us are living with HIV today. ACT UP was founded to take on the powers of economic violence and sexual repression that interfere to this very day in efforts to save lives,” said a member of ACT UP, “Wells Fargo has made billions which people with HIV/AIDS struggle to survive and stay in this city. Its 25 years since we started ACT UP and the Catholic Church is still to blame. This Good Friday we will mourn our dead and fight like hell for the living here in San Francisco and around the world.” 

The 25th anniversary of ACT UP is commemorated by today’s activists and the Occupy movement. ACT UP was known for a confrontational and effective style of direct action that has been widely influential to organizer in today’s movements– Occupy SF and Occupy Oakland. Wells Fargo is at the center of protest for affordable housing and an end to private prison profiteering– issues of major importance to people with AIDS and the queer community.  The march will end at Harvey Milk Plaza in a commemoration of ACT UP and the many lives lost to HIV/AIDS, featuring a reading of the names of activists in our community who died during the epidemic in the Bay Area. All are welcome to attend.