SIR! NO SIR! at Santa Cruz GDI Sunday (8/12) : Indybay

In our on-going efforts to turn the tide of the downtown police state, Guerilla Drive-In is helping with an innovative protest in support of homeless rights. The culmination of six weeks of organizing for a federal lawsuit against the Sleeping Ban will feature a Know Your Rights training on the Sidewalk in front of Bookshop Santa Cruz, followed by songs, stories, and celebrity speakers at City Hall, food and a Guerilla Drive-In showing. All followed by a sleep-in and a game of "Meet the Mayor" on Monday morning. Come on down!

Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In and HUFF Present

Sir! No Sir!

Filmmaker and activist David Zeiger's documentary chronicles the largely forgotten anti-war activities of American GIs and other members of the military during the Vietnam era. Powerful and surprising, this look back at a little-investigated chapter of history weaves together the stories of veterans who participated in the opposition movement, an effort that, by the early 1970s, found widespread support from civilians and troops alike.

Sunday Aug 12th, 8pm
Santa Cruz City Hall, 809 Center Street
(across from the main branch of the library)
Always Free!

PLUS an intermission, challenging ideas of public space, an enchanting downtown location, and great company.

BRING blankets, sleeping bags, pillows, friends, food & drink to share.

MORE INFO AND A RANT: Like something out of the most dystopian GDI sci-fi feature, the message is loud and clear, if you are not part of the system, you are a criminal. In this sleepy little liberal town, sleeping outside is a crime. Anyone who falls off of the treadmill of earn-and spend (by accident or choice) -- anyone who can't afford five, six, seven hundred dollar rents in Santa Cruz -- might well find themselves in jail. Beyond just an issue of boring old poverty (yes, we should do something about that, shouldn't we?), there is a fundamental issue at stake: the basic freedom to exist on this planet without taking part in it's destruction.

After six weeks of tabling, picketing, and partying outside Vice-Mayor Ryan Coonerty's Bookshop Santa Cruz, Coonerty remains mum on the basic issue: The judicially-established fact that nighttime sleeping bans violate the federal and state Constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.

More than 16 months ago, such a ban was overturned in Los Angeles in Skid Row. A year ago, Richmond changed its law to comport with this ruling (the Jones decision). This spring San Diego settled with its homeless community, agreeing not to enforce laws against sleeping and camping at night.

Come down and sleep out with the homeless to help end the Sleeping Ban. Housed supporters will be setting up tents and shelters for homeless people on the "Mayor's front lawn" to urge Mayor Reilly to abide by the Jones decision and stop ticketing homeless people for sleeping and covering up with blankets at night.

http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/06/18439222.php

SANTA CRUZ GUERILLA DRIVE-IN is an outdoor movie theater under the stars that springs up unexpectedly in the fields and industrial wastelands. Beyond showing great movies and bringing a broad community together, part of our mission is helping reclaim public space and transforming our urban environment into the joyful playground it should be.

HUFF SANTA CRUZ is Santa Cruz's oldest and most stubbornly persistent grassroots homeless advocacy group. We make trouble for the powers that be and fight institutional human rights abuses such as the "blanket ban": a Santa Cruz City Council law prohibiting homeless mothers and children from covering up with a blanket between the hours of 11 p.m. and 8:30 a.m.

URBAN WASTELAND LOCATION: Center Street across from the main branch of the library.

BREAKING NEWS, updated summer schedule, discussion, do-it-yourself, email list, the works: www.guerilladrivein.org

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SIR! NO SIR! at Santa Cruz GDI Sunday (8/12)

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