February 50/50 Newsletter

Justice, Defense, and Assembly. These are the things that make up Community Safety. All of our newsletters will highlight struggles and strategies of Justice, Defense, and Assembly. Not only is this how we are going to organize the information we share through the 50/50 newsletters, but it is also how we are going to organize the work we do as 50/50 the collective. It is important for us to think of our work this way because it connects with the Community Safety work that other communities are engaged in all over the Bay Area and Beyond.

Justice, in this newsletter, will celebrate our communities’ accomplishments and victories that make wrongs into rights. These are moments when we, as a community in struggle, take control of how our communities deal with issues that affects us. Justice work highlighted in this newsletter is the struggle of Oxnard communities organizing to stop violence in their community, and the struggle against fast food corporations like Jack in the Box who poison our communities with unhealthy foods.

Defense is when we stand up to protect our family, friends, and community from all types of violence that hurts us. When we Cop Watch we are doing Defense. When we speak up in class because the teacher just mistreated a student, that is Defense. Defense work highlighted in this newsletter is a testimonial of a cop watching incident that took place on Santa Clara Street (downtown San Jose), a petition organized by SJSU students against corruption and a poem written by a migrant worker expressing the need for change.

Assembly is not like a school assembly or town hall meeting. It is when we are able to get together and make decisions about how we are going to do the work necessary to make our communities the place we want to live in. Assembly work highlighted in this newsletter is an international assembly where migrants and refugees came together to share strategies that are necessary to strengthen migrant movement work.

We would like to thank all those who contributed to this newsletter. We are excited about all the Community Safety work that is taking place in the Bay Area, in Oxnard and in New York. Community Safety is about defending the people we love, making decisions about how we handle our issues, and getting shit done! Thankyou.

Each 50/50 newsletter will be dedicated with a different theme and image representing a constant movement, always pushing towards justice and never staying stagnant. All articles are contributions from 50/50 and community members or groups whom with their actions, declare “Ya Basta! (Enough!)” We hope the pieces in this newsletter inspire action to everyone from all walks of life and all continue to push towards a dignified future. -50/50

How and why we Teacher Watch? Check this out!

WHAT IS TEACHER WATCH & WHY?

Teacher watch is tool develop by 5050 crew to document the abuse of power by authorities, teachers, and even police officers in schools. Teacher watch is a procress where students write down and document the injustices around campus. For example, anyone any students can document the an unfair suspension, an illegal search, or any abuse by an adult on campus on a student. Our hope is to share Teacher Watch so people can document the injustices in schools.

-Why? One of the reasons why we developed teacher watch is because the stories of students on campus were are not being told. In addition, there are hundreds of reasons why youth are resisting the schooling process that only seeks to create at best “good” workers or soldiers by constantly disrespected by school systems such as East Side Union. When a young person resist any form of disrespect, teachers have the power to suspend, kick out or call police. The Students are often suspended or disciplined for minor things and many of these suspensions and discipline practices result in arrests, citations, and expulsions. These practices push more and more youth out of schools, the military and even into prisons. While, youth are punished while the abusive conditions youth face in schools are ignored by those in power. Teacher watch is a way for young people to defend themselves and ultimately hold schools and teachers accountable. Teacher Watch is a way to resist without resisting by documenting the evidence we need to support our believe ” we are not criminals we are youth in resistant…”

Click on this link for an example of Teacher Abuse <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV4_aR2Kzuo&feature=youtu.be” title=”Teacher Watch Story” target=”_blank”>

How does teacher watch happen and Who can Teacher Watch?
In essence, anyone who believes in justice and dignity can teacher watch. We hope that his tool is useful for youth, students, parents and even teachers who are fed up with a punitive system.
When can you teacher watch: Mainly during school day or anytime on campus. However, if you see an adult who works at your school doing something shady outside of school hours/campus we encourage you do document this event also.

How do you teacher watch:
Step 1: observe and try to write down, record, or remember the following information.You can provide your information to the student impacted so they can have evidence on their side in case they want to fight it even further.

Step 2: Gather basic info: Teacher’s name, students involved, where did the incident happened?, what happened?, date and time, people involved, try to get student’s contact information, and it is very important to document the results- meaning did the student get suspended? detention? other? and also document what disciplinary actions where placed on the teacher…

Step 3: Write it down and submit it through our 5050 facebook or Teacher Watch link below:

Families Organizing against Police Terror

In April we took a trip to Oxnard to meet up with families organizing for justice and community safety in Oxnard. Many of these families have been impacted by police terror or police murders and are organizing for Justice. We wont forget nor give up. An injustice to one is an injustice to all!

Check out some of the pictures below:

5050 Crew On Radio Autonomia!

Big thanks to our comrades up in Oakland for the work they do in keeping the airwaves free and for the people! And also for opening their studio to our crew. Keep up the great work!

Our Vision

We envision a world where communities
are self-determined, where many worlds
and cultures flourish, and where we look
after the well being of ALL forms of life.
A world where our lives are liberated
from oppression and domination and
where the people we love do not have to
die in order to live.

The world we envision is created by
nurturing our relationships and our
commons. This means we build
community and keep it alive through our
lands, the wisdom and culture of our
elder generations, and sharing our
knowledge using our languages and
voices.

It is created through trust, respect, and
caring which will heal, nurture, and
strengthen our spirits and our work. And
also created by walking with our
struggles together ready to fight while
using the power of our dignity to create
change.

Our role as 50/50 crew is to engage with
youth and families in the South Bay to
reclaim commons and build spaces of
cultural practice, learning and action.
We engage some of this work through
workshops, talking circles, encounters,
learning to be well, and political action.
We believe that our humble
contributions will help manifest the world
we envision.

We came together as 50/50 Crew
because we saw a need for change in
our community. Each one of us has a
purpose and a desire to transform our
dreams/vision into a reality. We can no
longer wait for change to come. We
have to resist and fight to create change
now. It is not only the duty of 50/50 to
work towards the world that we envision,
but it is a vision that wish to share with
future generations.