Burmese sex workers speak against police control disguised as protection

Burmese sex workers speak against police control disguised as protection

Video of Occupy Oakland Patriarchy Barbecue and Speakout, April 15

Video of Occupy Oakland Patriarchy Barbecue and Speakout, April 15, featuring Mystic and outspoken women from Oakland.

photo: Mayday occupy patriarchy action vs Child Protective Services

Our CPS Brochure – in case you didn’t get one on MayDay!

Download PDF HERE: Final final draft of CPS brochure

If you still aren’t sure why we targeted CPS, take a read…

TONIGHT: EMERGENCY VIGIL FOR BRANDY – TRANS WOMAN MURDERED IN DOWNTOWN OAKLAND LAST NIGHT

TRANSPHOBIC MURDER LAST NIGHT at 13th and Franklin in Downtown Oakland – COME TO EMERGENCY VIGIL at 8pm tonight (Sunday) at same location !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! REPOST PLEASE! — Brandi, a transwoman, was murdered last night, shot at 12th and Franklin in Downtown Oakland after an altercation with a man who became enraged and shot her when he realized she was trans. An amazing #oo comrade tried to keep her alive with training learned from the People’s Community Medics, but the cops walked away and the ambulance came too late. FUCK THIS SHIT > COME OUT AT 8PM

Blatantly Political Use of CPS: From a CPS worker of 12 years in Hawaii

      My name is Ray Catania, I’m a Child Protective Services worker of nearly 12 years with the State of Hawaii Department of Human Services/Child Protection Services on the island of Kauai.  In late August of 2007, over 1,500 people on the island concerned about a private fleet of ships called the “Superferry”… blockaded this 400 foot boat touted to transport Honolulu vacationers and their cars between islands. We didn’t want our island turning into the urban mess that is Honolulu and Oahu.

     But the boat was also being fitted to transport Stryker Brigade tanks, the types that were used to bulldoze and roll over houses in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Over 20% of the Archipelago’s land base is controlled by the U.S. Military. The Pentagon was planning to use these tanks on Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii for their training purposes to be later used for whatever war the U.S. starts in the Pacific.

For two days we blockaded the pier and Nawiliwili harbor where the ship was to land. Surfers, swimmers, kayak and canoe paddlers jumped directly into the ship’s path with some of them getting arrested by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Kauai Police Department when they later reached shore. Native Hawaiian and environmental activists blocked vehicles transporting passengers onshore. Linda Lingle, Hawaii’s Republican Govenor at the time, put together a “Unified Command” comprised of the Honolulu and Kauai Police Departments, the Coast Guard, the Navy, Homeland Security Swat teams, the FBI, and supporters from Chamber of Commerce.  A fortified perimeter backed up by guns, concrete barriers, chain link fences  snipers and helicopters were to be set up if anymore ships intended to return to Kauai.  The Coast Guard was to set up floating pontoons in Nawiliwili Harbour to keep any protestors out of the ship’s path.  Protestors who crossed their barriers would be charged with acts of terrorism and possibly spend 10 years in jail.

     Anyone who got arrested in later protest actions with children under 18 years old were to have their kids taken away and put into foster care.  When some of the Kauai CPS workers found out about this plan they said that they would refuse to take part in this action, the State of Hawaii then said they would send Honolulu workers to process the children and families that the State attacks.  In a meeting called by the Govenor’s Unified Command, over a thousand people showed up to voice their opinions and shout down the Govenor. I got up as a CPS worker and exposed their plan, saying that they were using a state organization that prevents child abuse to support the schemes of a corporation involved in developing military technology and the Pentagon. Social Workers should not be used to do the dirty work of private business and the military. If anything, if children are taken into custody the offices of the government officials and the agencies sanctioning this action should be picketed and occupied as well. The Superferry never returned to Kauai.

Real Stories of CPS: Account#2

My coworkers [at a group home] were all women, many single moms, mostly women of
color. On my first shift, I was reprimanded by my coworkers for holding a
crying baby–because they couldn’t give all the babies physical
comfort–they didn’t want them to expect it.

I made a dollar over minimum wage, had no experience caring for abused
children, and worked long hours. We were not made aware of the
circumstances that led the children to be in CPS custody or of any special
needs they had. All we knew of the children, we learned from their
stories, rumors, or sneaking peaks at the forbidden files.

Two children who were healthy, happy and well cared for, were in the group
home for a month–children can’t be placed back home or otherwise without
a judges order–they were removed because both parents where intoxicated
when the cops arrived. The police were called by a neighbor–apparently
the parents were outside arguing.

Children with behavior challenges were often mistreated as a result of
overworked, unsupported staff; who are unequipped to deal with extreme
behavior–being in challenging situations with out any tools to deal. I
think, for the children, this further enforces harmful ideas of being
damaged, broken and unlovable.

The food was unhealthy, and no attention was paid to food allergies unless
they where too severe to ignore. There was no awareness of cultural beliefs
practices and customs and no special care for sick children. Kids who had
never been in an abusive situation were often abused by children who had
suffered from physical, psychological and sexual trauma.

-Anonymous

Real Stories of CPS: Account#1

My mom was very neglectful and physically and emotionally abusive throughout my childhood, I can see that now.  Her m.o. was that we would move every time people started questioning what was happening in our family, so my sisters and I never really developed strong friendships or relationships with other family members.  We were always isolated, so when we’d end up in the school office or in family counseling after our teachers would report our situation, we would refuse to talk or deny the allegations against my mother.  Why did we lie to CPS?  We were afraid of being separated, we had learned that we would just move again and we’d be punished more harshly by our mother.  Sometimes I think we should have spoken up, but when the truth finally got out, all our worst nightmares were realized.  The situation had gotten so bad that one of my sisters tried to commit suicide after being punished by my mother.  A huge custody battled ensued and my sisters and I ended up in foster care til the end of the case, which coincided with my high school graduation.  It was terribly traumatizing to testify against your own mother as a graduation gift.  I was court ordered to go straight to the state college I had been admitted to and attend summer session, but was not emancipated, so as a result I was under my mother’s power when it came to loans.  She refused to fill out documents and I had to work full time to go to school.  My sister who had attempted suicide entered my father’s custody, and ended up in months of rehab and eventually was kicked out as a minor by my stepmother.  She came to live with me, but slipped into heavy drug use and worked in the sex industry for years to support her habit.  My second sister remained in my mother’s custody, but then she was isolated with my mom’s violence.  She literally spent years in psych wards and rehab before the state took her from my mother and she entered a group home.  She dropped out of high school and ended up joining the navy because she thought she had no way out.  Now I am a public school teacher and I see the bias in CPS protection, I see how weak it is, and I know that my case is hardly unique.  CPS and the state failed my family, CPS continues to fail the families I serve.  We could do so much better by children.

-Anyonymous

OCCUPY CPS new flyers and posters

Posters and flyers — each have a version with profanity (‘fuck’) and without. 😉

CPSposterwhut

CPSposterfuck

CPSflyerwhut

CPSflyerfuck

Occupy Child Protective Services on MAY 1st GENERAL STRIKE

Join OOP and OCCUPY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES during the MAY 1st GENERAL STRIKE!

Come out on May Day to SHUT DOWN this horribly oppressive  institution that doesn’t give a fuck about  children or parents!

We cannot only block capital in spaces of waged labor, but also in the capitalist, racist, patriarchal reproduction of social life! STRIKE EVERYWHERE!

When: May 1st 8:30 AM
Where: CPS 401 Broadway — near Jack London Square.

See you there.

.. why occupy CPS?

Despite the good intentions of some workers in the agency, Child Protective Services (CPS) is not what it claims. It does not do us a service, it does not protect our children, it does not create healthy environments for them. CPS is designed to enforce a so-called “normal” model of the family, actively punishing those of us who do not comply with the capitalist, patriarchal, racist, white supremacist ideal of what a family should look like. CPS is used to scare and punish people who threaten or fight the system.

CPS targets the poor, people of color, single mothers, queer, and non-gender-conforming parents and kids

• CPS is notorious for targeting poor single mothers.
• When children are removed from their homes, they are taken into group homes, where underpaid, over worked and under trained “care” providers are responsible for them; in ratios of about 10 to 1. Children who have never before experienced abuse are often abused by other children who have; or by overworked employees and have no way back to there families, or into foster care until a judge decides there fate–often months later. Those who are eventually placed into foster care are often  are often physically or sexually exploited by selfish fucks just trying to get some extra money out of the situation.
• Also, the mere fact of being a queer, trans* or gender-nonconforming parents can get child services called on a family — if, for example, a homophobic or transphobic school counselor gets wind, CPS can be called.
• Children are also more likely to be displaced if they are queer or trans*, and the truth is CPS is NOT likely to place children in foster care with queer or trans* parents! This reinforces the homophobic ciscentric idea of the family, and endangers queer and trans* youth.
• Finally, the mere fact of being black or brown, poor, and a parent, will result in heightened scrutiny and policing from CPS — CPS is a racist institution and enforces its violent rules primarily on people of color. A middle class white mother, and even a queer white middle class couple, will not be treated the same by CPS as a poor African American single parent, period, and this is how institutional racism is reproduced.

Occupy Patriarchy will fight back

Feminists, queers, and trans* people who have been organizing within the Occupy movement since the beginning started Oakland Occupy Patriarchy to support each other as we organize against racism and patriarchy and gender oppression, both within our movement and within the greater capitalist society. We recognize that capitalism, patriarchy and racism are mutually dependent and we want to end them all in favor of a better world for all of us. Our action against Child Protective Services on May Day is part of our struggle.

Many of us at Occupy Patriarchy have direct experience of CPS’ oppression. We are fed up with CPS and are determined to expose its repressive actions and to continue to build a community to fight it. On May 1st, The day of a new GENERAL STRIKE, we will occupy CPS. We will gather at the CPS office on 4th and Broadway in downtown Oakland at 8:30. We invite and call in all who share our critique, our anger, our oppressions, our experiences, and our revolutionary spirit to join us.