#and send it out into the world without any fucka

[freedomartspress]

LA Tenants Union May Day Motorcade speech — Bee Coleman

Delivered 5/1/2020 at LA Tenants Union May Day Motorcade against capitalism and police violence

“What’s good people? I’m Bee, my pronouns are they/she/he, I’ve lived in South LA for the last 4 years and in Los Angeles since 2010. Today is a holy day for activists and it’s lit and makes perfect sense that workers and tenants would come together today, since we are often one in the same, to make damn sure that WE are seen and heard and CARED for - not bailed out or sent back to work without protections and proper pay or way before it’s actually SAFE!

I’m here today representing the Altar Haus, a collective of 6 black and latinx queer and trans folks in South Central. Every one of us has had our income impacted, if not completely erased, and we can not pay rent, so we won’t pay - and we did not in April and we will not until our work returns when it is SAFE - so we are rent striking. We don’t believe landlords or corporations deserve to make income from people who can’t, especially during a global health crisis. We do believe Housing is a basic need and a human right, so really landlords and banks should never make a profit from exploiting people’s needs in the first fucking place. That is the curse of capitalism and that is why we must divest from that shit and support regenerative economics, invest in farming, housing and worker cooperatives so workers and tenants can own the means to meet our own needs. So we can build strong, trusting relationships and communities who connect and support each other, towards a world where we don’t need or want the police because we practice transformative justice, not criminal justice, and we have everything we need. This is a world we’re starting to see with mutual aid networks popping up and tenants and worker unions sprouting up everywhere and we can push this momentum.

Today we have a chance to make demands! To let it be known, the poor and working class, who are largely black and brown, will not martyr ourselves for this economy, our ancestors already did that! Tenants across the country today stand in solidarity with workers striking from Instacart, Walmart, Whole Foods, Amazon, Target, and more! We demand rents and mortgages canceled TODAY! We demand healthcare for all! We demand housing for all! We demand all prisoners and ice detainees freed! We demand debt relief from bills and utilities so we can stay safely home and let these billion dollar profit corporations pay to save this economy, NOT US! Y’all lil President trying to make a buck off a malaria drug made by a French company he invested in and telling doctors they didn’t have to treat trans people; local governments rushing to send people out to make and spend money so they won’t have to keep funding people’s ability to live; forcing meat processing plants to stay open when the virus is spreading among their workers; demanding the post office increase their rates or lose funding; ongoing ice raids and police still protecting and serving property owners and the state, terrorizing and murdering our neighbors without recourse; continued real estate speculation and construction on these stadiums and developments steady decimating low income communities, while we’re supposed to stay at home, but we can’t work and still none of these politicians have canceled rent or mortgages, all this shows you what’s up - these “leaders” all got their priorities fucked up! And people in black and brown communities been knowing these mutha fuckas never loved us, they’re trying to kill us! We know by now COVID is killing more black and brown people than any other group: because, thanks to white supremacy, we’re the most likely to have underlying health conditions, created by our environments, insert food deserts + environmental racism; from being more likely to work in low paying service jobs where we interact with high volumes of people; which we get thanks to shitty education in our neighborhoods, funded based on property taxes, do you see where i’m going with this? Basically all COVID did was highlight and exploit these social determinants of health, by making everyone vulnerable and making it impossible to ignore the most impacted.   So, with the sun moving into Taurus, it is time that we see this moment for what it is and get clear, grounded and bullish about what we will and won’t accept from a government, a society, an economy that are supposed to serve and sustain the people. What’s happening now is what you get when corporations buy your government and profit is prioritized over everything, including people’s lives and well-being, let alone nonhuman life on earth and the well-being planet itself. People are dying now, but people have been dying and so has this planet, so while this crisis is crazy tragic, it is disruptive and transformative for the necessary end to a way of living and being that couldn’t be sustained, it’s like the planet saving itself from us. So in a way I thank COVID for making the world stop and forcing us to remember that we are all connected, that we are all human, that what we do individually, impacts everyone collectively. So I want you to remember, if nothing else, that everything is energy - if you ask scientists and spiritualists they’ll say the same thing. So that means you are more than a worker or a tenant, you are energy and you have the ability to create a life that you see fit - THAT is what makes you valuable, not your labor and ability to make someone rich. So let’s collectively focus on canceling rent - We have a bill to cancel rent and mortgages in congress right now thanks to Ilhan Omar of Minn. So I encourage you to go to homesguarantee.org/cancelrent to demand our state representative support H.R 6515, which also creates financial relief for landlords’ lost income and a mechanism to help community land trusts buy properties that end up being sold. This would be a major win, and, like Assata said, it is our duty to fight for our freedom, it is our duty to win! We must love and protect one another. We have nothing to lose but our chains! Thank you for being here today! I know we will win!”

[Above Top: Graphic from LA Tenants Union differentiating between housing vouchers/rent assistance/rent relief and cancel rent; below: graphic from the LA Tenants Union’s Rent Forgiveness Guide]

[Below: Photo from a Mother’s Day die-in at the mayor’s house]

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Follow Bee on Instagram @beetheeshiftshaper_ and the L.A. Tenants Union @latenants to keep up with some of the organizing being done on the West Coast.