And now a word from the counter revolutionaries:
The Ugliness of SafeGround
SafeGround began in Sacramento from an effort by SHOC called "Homeless Leadership Project" Homeless people were recruited, ego-stroked and indoctrinated with a philosophy that calls for a revolution in America that would (1) put an end to capitalism; (2) guarantee jobs for all; and (3) stop advancements in technology. I attended a couple of the meetings.
Hardcopy issues of People's Tribune, a newspaper published by the League of Revolutionaries for a New America were passed out at SHOC / SafeGround meetings. LRNA’s other newspaper, btw, is Rally, Comrades! While being careful not to deploy "the C word," the fantasy of an egalitarian utopia was offered as a vision of a new world homeless people could hope to play a part in creating. At one of the meetings I attended, Cathleen Williams read and was enthusiastic about an article in PT's August issue, "Revolutionaries Must Rally the People to a Vision of a New World." [It is my understanding that that article is posted on the wall at the SafeGround office in Loaves & Fishes' Friendship Park, to this day.]
Cathleen Williams, of SHOC (unofficially) and the Mark Merin law firm, has been front and center in the recruitment and indoctrination of homeless people in Sacramento. You will find that she is the author of many articles in People's Tribune, including "Homeless People are Not Alone" in the February, 2010, issue.
At a day-long "Homeless Power Forum" held at Loaves & Fishes' Delany Center last year, Ethel Long-Scot, from the League's bureau, Speakers for a New America, was a co-keynote speaker. Paul Boden of WRAP, Western Regional Advocacy Project, was the other speaker. Both advanced the supposed ideal of a revolution in America to end capitalism, guarantee jobs for all and stop technological advancement.
Last winter, while most homeless people struggled to stay warm during the night, SafeGround's core of a couple dozen homeless people, who drank the communism Koolaid, spent a part of, or all+, of the extended winter at Hawthorn Suites Hotel, even though the organization had rejected getting involved in the winter-shelter effort. While SG's core homeless members were at their hotel -- drinking and frolicking, many of them -- at least one homeless person died downtown when night temperatures dipped to 27° in early December. SafeGround does some serious (and lethal) HURTING of homeless people when it results in depletion of services to others that go for luxuries for work-averse SGers. [It’s Orwellian: Some homeless people are more equal than others.]
A large contingent from SafeGround marched in San Francisco on January 20 to protest the Obama Administration and demand housing. John Kraintz, SG's putative leader, spoke during a rally, castigating government workers and demanding an array of supposed rights homeless people should have.
Beginning on June 22, SafeGrounders went to the five-day US Social Forum in Detroit to confab with other radicals about tent communities and communist politics. The Communist Party USA was there. And a group called the People's Movement Assemblies was the central organizer of the convention. In the "Vision Statement at their website, the PMA has this honeyed-sounding, and fully-communist, agitprop:
We believe that we can create a new economic system that is not based on individual, corporate or private ownership and does not exploit people, the planet, natural resources or living beings but instead is based on principles of collectivity and sustains our communities. We must move aside old systems that have failed and create new ones that serve and are accountable to all peoples and all living beings.Enough! Homeless World Sacramento has been captured in great part by a looney-tunes, fringy and frightening political movement. Please, please do not support SafeGround; it’s sponsor, Loaves & Fishes or SHOC. Support, instead, the majority of homeless people who don't want to live the rest of their lives on the dole (and without freedom and democracy). The League of Revolutionaries, and the People's Movement Assemblies ARE NOT liberal or progressive organizations; they are totalitarian. SafeGround, by word and deed, is not liberal nor progressive, either. SafeGround's national goals, and its whinning and hate-mongering in seeking a too-broad list of supposed homeless people's civil rights efforts ARE NOT supported by the great majority of homeless people.
We must link arms with our sisters and brothers globally ...
PLEASE VISIT SACRAMENTO HOMELESS BLOG,
sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com
and hit the button "Ugliness of SafeGround Flier" in the colored bar at the top of the page
TO VIEW THIS FLIER WITH THE UNDERLINED PHRASES LINKING
TO EVIDENCE THAT PROVES THE ASSERTIONS THAT ARE HERE MADE.
TO EVIDENCE THAT PROVES THE ASSERTIONS THAT ARE HERE MADE.
- Signed: Tom Armstrong, writer/administrator of Sacramento Homeless blog