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During the late 1980s and early 1990s the city of San Francisco waged a war against the homeless. Over 1,000 arrests and citations where handed out by the police to activists for simply distributing free food in public parks. Why would a liberal city arrest activists helping the homeless? In exploring this question, the book treats the conflict between the city and activists as a unique opportunity to examine the contested nature of homelessness and public space while developing an anarchist alternative to liberal urban politics that is rooted in mutual aid, solidarity, and anti-capitalism. In addition to exploring theoretical and political issues related to gentrification, broken-windows policing, and anti-homeless laws, this book provides activists, students and scholars, examples of how anarchist homeless activists in San Francisco resisted these processes.
List of contents
1 Turning statistics into people: From sick talk to the politics of solidarity
2 What dumpstered soup tells us about violence, charity, and politics
3 Parks, permits, and riot police: Understanding the politics of public space occupations and negotiated management policing between the city of San Francisco and Food Not Bombs
4 The war against the homeless: Frank Jordan, broken windows, and anti-homeless politics in San Francisco
5 The Homeless fight back: The politics of homeless resistance
6 Bolt cutters and the politics of expropriation: Homes Not Jails, urban squatting, and gentrification
7 Towards an anarchist "Right to the City"
Coda: Theses on homelessness, public space, and urban resistance
Bibliography
About the author
Sean Parsons is Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Northern Arizona University
Summary
During the late 1980s and early 1990s the city of San Francisco waged a war against the homeless. This book treats the conflict between the city and activists as a unique opportunity to examine the contested nature of homelessness and public space while developing an anarchist alternative to liberal urban politics that is rooted in mutual aid, solidarity and anti-capitalism. -- .
