Women of Color in GWS statement in support of those arrested at Occupy Oakland actions

We are Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike and we put forward the needs and concerns, and make visible the contributions of women of color. From Haiti to Guyana, Peru, Venezuela, India, China, England, LA, SF, and Philadelphia we come together to support each others’ local demands. We are homeless people, people threatened with homelessness, single mothers, lesbian women, including African, Asian and Latina descent. We accept all support but we are independent of political parties and NGOs.

We are part of the movement of the 99%, refusing to be made homeless or be exploited in any way for the profit of the 1% and their thieving friends. We have always worked hard to survive but now we are being pushed to the wall.

There are a few reasons why we don’t have homes. Because the money goes to the military for their obscene wars. Because banks like Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase and others are foreclosing on us while investing in private prisons and detention centers, their idea of housing for Black and Latino folks and poor people of all colors. Many of us have homes but we have been booted out by the county Sheriff and are being kept from returning. Those of us who are renting are forced to move as foreclosures happen and face the prospect of homelessness.

As an international network of women we are keenly aware of what it takes to do the survival work we do to keep families together. Housing and homelessness is a family issue and therefore a women’s issue. The fastest growing population of homeless people are women and children. When our homes are threatened the health and wellbeing of our family is threatened. And there is no safety net. Our right to welfare was taken away and made into a forced work program where we can be forced to take jobs where we receive no wage at all. Women keep families together despite not having a house to do it in.

We are writing in support of those arrested during police raids at an Occupy Oakland encampment on Wed 12/28 and then at the 1415/17 10th St home on 12/29. We demand that the raids end and that all charges against those arrested be dropped. We are finished with being homeless while houses sit empty. There are more people living with disabilities who are homeless than the number of people who are living in poverty held there by shamefully low income payments of $6,048 to a person on SSI, while the poverty rate for a single-person household is $10,830. Over 30% of the male homeless population are veterans.

Just this past Saturday during the J28 move in which Occupy Oakland planned to take back a vacant building and put it to use as housing and a community center, we again witnessed mass arrests, peaceful protestors kettled, that is surrounded on all sides, beaten, teargassed and fired upon with rubber bullets. Occupy Oakland participants are being attacked by the police for the crime of being poor and homeless or threatened with homelessness and refusing to accept that without question. Who decides? Who benefits and who pays?

We are outraged at the ongoing malicious and often brutal attacks on peaceful protestors. We support our right to defend ourselves against the excesses of the 1%. Further we are demanding an immediate end to the harassment and that the resources used to attack Occupy for doing what is needed to take care of their basic needs be instead devoted to helping them meet those needs. We demand to know how much money is being spent on these raids, money that instead could go for the care of people and our communities.

Why did the police arrest those 24 people as well as the more than 300 Saturday night and which totals to now more than 1000 when they should be arresting the billionaires and the bankers who rob us poor? As was said by Occupy Oakland, every grievance against this system deserves a collective response so we are adding our voices and calling on others to take the lead from this movement. Join with your families, neighbors & friends to keep your home, buyers and renters alike. Those of us who still have jobs: it’s time to take action on our jobs in their and our own defense because if any one of us can be attacked for being homeless then we are all vulnerable to the greed.