Democracy Ateneo Announcement 1-18-14

Compañer@s,

We will convene the Universidad de la Tierra Califas' Democracy Ateneo, Saturday, January 18, from 2 - 5 p.m. at Casa de Vicky (792 E. Julian St., San Jose <http://www.casavicky.com/>) to resume our regularly scheduled reflection and action space and to explore some of the questions and struggles mentioned below.

On December 20, 2013 Yerba Buena High School students from the 180 Degrees class organized a "Free Market" on the corner of Senter and Keyes. Determined not to follow the well worn path of charity organizations and non-profits, the young people convened a strategic space to redistribute food, clothing, blankets, and other essentials to the hundreds of houseless community members currently occupying San Jose's "jungle" (located along the Guadalupe River), a site said to be among "the biggest homeless encampments in the nation." (see, Valencia, "High School Students Organize to Support San Jose's Homeless ," De-Bug <http://www.siliconvalleydebug.org/articles/2013/12/27/high-school-students-organize-support-san-joses-homeless>) The event gathered numerous members of the community including volunteers from other prominent organizations who helped distribute the donated materials to those who could use them most. The project was so successful it will resume on Sunday, January 26th, 2014 from 9.00 to 2.00 p.m. (For information see, <https://www.facebook.com/events/471557399622025/>)

The success of the "Free Market" and its ability to re-distribute badly needed items to weather the winter cold and the harsh conditions that result when a community fails to provide shelter for all its members recalls a similar effort executed in Humboldt County. Beginning in the summer of 2007 and continuing through until early 2009 folks gathered at the corner of Wabash and Union in Eureka to provide tarps, sleeping gear, clothes, and food as well as small household items to local denizens, some with homes and others without, on a regular basis (see, "Grub-n-Grabs are NO HOAX" <http://peopleproject.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/236/>

). In addition to providing useful supplies, the Eureka Grub-n-Grabs were outfitted with a kiosk that screened videos usually of movement documentaries. What started as regular "Grub-n-Grabs" on a  Eureka corner quickly morphed into the Safe Sleeping Space. For thirty three consecutive nights local folks concerned about the well-being of their neighbors gathered to make available shelter and supplies. Similar to San Jose's recent Free Market, the Safe Sleeping Space occupied the Eureka City Hall each evening after working hours only to disappear each morning by 7.00 a.m. and the start of business. The Safe Sleeping Space provided shelter, dinner, and medical aid beneath a tent made of PVC tubes that accommodated a good number of people.

Not limited to our actual physical needs, autonomous, self-organized spaces can address our thirst for knowledge as well. We are reminded of the recent success of the Biblioteca Popular Victor Martínez in Oakland's Fruitvale District (see, <http://radioautonomia.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/report-from-the-victor-martinez-popular-library-in-oakland/>). Opened on August 13, the Victor Martinez People’s Library reclaimed a building that at one time housed the Emiliano Zapata Street Academy <http://www.oaklandstreetacademy.org>. The effort to convert the abandoned space into a people's library and community garden generated enthusiastic support from the local residents and a backlash from city officials leading to it eventually being shut down by dozens of Oakland Police who raided the building, removed protestors, and locked the doors and gates.

These three moments are what Raúl Zibechi calls "fleeting insurrectionary moments --when the unfeasible becomes visible for a moment, like lightning illuminating the night sky." All three instances of self-activity are together an opportunity to reflect on the necessity and possibilities of such insurrectionary moments. More than just moments of autonomy, these instances of action are radically democratic --they are as Douglas Lummis reminds us instances when we recall our own power. "Even a people that has lost its political memory --that has been terrorized or mystified into believing that the power of the government is a personal characteristic of the Prince, a punishment from God, an inheritance from the Founders, the direct command of History, an inescapable scientific law, a commodity one can buy, or something that grows out of the barrel of a gun--  may still make the discovery that the real source of power is themselves." (see, Lummis, Radical Democracy, p. 26) We will take up these and other questions at our next ateneo. Please join us.

South Bay Crew

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