Being homeless in America

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Structures erected by GSA to keep homeless from sleeping Socialist Action holds first national convention in S.F.

SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 1984 ACTiON Like the pavement dwellers in the streets of Calcutta, the homeless are an enduring part of America's cities. So enduring that Federal Judge Mary Johnson Lowe ruled in New York City on Oct. 9 that homelessness should not bar a citizen's right to vote. Subsequently, over 400 homeless who gave such addresses as a park bench, the post office steps, or the warm air grating on the 400 block of 3rd Avenue were added to the voters' rolls for the last election.

In introducing a two-volume study of the homeless in New York state, Governor Mario Cuomo declared, "The homeless are a permanent institutionalized part of our population."

Denying that the average homeless person is a misfit or alcoholic, Cuomo declared, "Homelessness is overwhelmingly caused by poverty, not pathology. Our main conclusion is that homelessness is by its nature a crisis of housing."

It is estimated that over 20,000 people sleep in the streets, on park benches, or in bus terminals in New York City every night.

The U.S. Army is riding to the rescue of the homeless. Under a Pentagon "Shelters for the Homeless Program,, unused barracks are being renovated at bases around the country to house the homeless. Denver, Boston, San Diego, and Orange County, Calif., are among a growing number of communities that are using army facilities for emergency housing. Other cities have rejected the bases because they don't want "that class of people" in their neighborhoods.

Among the bases being renovated for the homeless is Camp Parks in Alameda County, Calif: A contract was signed several months ago with the Salvation Army to run the shelter. Now the Salvation Army has abruptly pulled out of the project. They said they were not aware that the base had been used for nuclear experiments after World War II. Costs for decontamination could run up to $250,000.

If the officers of the Salvation Army have only now learned about the radiation problem at Parks they have not been reading the right paper. Socialist SAN FRANCISCO—On Nov. 22-25 Socialist Action held its first national convention here with over 140 members and guests in attendance from 20 states across the country.

The convention marked the tremendous growth and development of Socialist Action in its brief one year existence and charted the course for the organization in the period ahead. Fifty delegates hotly debated counterposed political resolutions that had been under discussion in the branches of Socialist Action for the past three months. Following a fully democratic discussion and vote, a new national committee was elected on the basis of the documents adopted by the majority of the delegates at the convention.

The convention decided that a major priority for Socialist Action in the coming months is to help build a broad, mass-action movement against U.S. intervention in Central America. The April national antiwar demonstrations were seen as a major opportunity to FIRST, MY FOOD STAMPS..

THEN MY DISABILITY BENEFITS...

THEN MY BED.. on heating grates in Washington, D.C. - News item Action reported on the nuclear pollution problem at the base in its March 1984 issue-eight months ago.

A literal life-or-death battle has been waged with the administration on behalf of Washington's homeless. Mitch Snyder, a leader of the Community for Creative Non-Violence, has been running a shelter for the people on the street not far from the White House. The homeless are camped in a squalid abandoned federal building.

For months Snyder pleaded mobilize hundreds of thousands of working people in the streets in opposition to the U.S. war moves against the Nicaraguan revolution.

Convention delegates also stressed the need to deepen our participation in the labor struggles and to advance a program of independent political action—a labor party based on the unions—in the period ahead. Over the past year, members of Socialist Action have played a key role in five major labor battles-either through direct participation or by helping to build labor solidarity.

The first national convention also reaffirmed the organization's status as a public faction of the Socialist Workers Party. While functioning in all other respects as a party (newspaper, forums, active involvement in the mass movement), this means Socialist Action members would accept their reintegration into the SWP with their full democratic rights and the immediate opening of a discussion of the political differences which led to their expulsion from the SWP. Socialist Action believes it is necuni.... Li R 7961:214100 for funds to make the building habitable. On Sept. 15 he started a hunger strike to force action by the Reagan administration. They let Snyder waste away without food for 51 days without offering a single penny.

Suddenly the White House yielded, offering to renovate the building if Snyder would end his fast. The White House hotly denied that the change of heart was due to the impending election or the appearance of Snyder and his cause before millions of voters on the '60 Minutes" television show.

00000000000000000 essary-and still possible-to reverse the revisionist course imposed on the party by the current SWP leadership.

The revolutionary continuity of Socialist Action was underscored by the composition of the participants at the convention. Eleven founding members of the SWP were present (six of them were full delegates); two others could not attend for health reasons. Of those in attendance 37% were union members, 14% were students, and 83% had been in the SWP (their average time in the SWP was 15.5 years).

Four international guests were present at the gathering, including a representative from the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. Greetings were heard from the newly formed Alliance for Socialist Action in Canada, as well as the Mexican Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT), and the Fourth Internationalist Tendency (USA).

The convention hailed the one-year anniversary of Socialist Action newspaper and voted to take the measures necessary to increase the circulation of the Some residents of a California town have expressed their dislike of the homeless by vigilante action. Gangs of young males in Santa Cruz have cornered transients and beaten them up, yelling "Off the streets, trolls!" They nickname the homeless "trolls" because they are often found sleeping under bridges.

A local store printed a T-shirt with the slogan "Troll Busters" and a picture of a seedy-looking transient. Three thousand were sold in three weeks. It was an expression of the town's attitude toward the homeless, said one resident.

Attacks on transients started in December 1983 when three high school students attacked a taxi driver with a homemade bazooka. They said they were out "troll hunting."

They described trolls as "long-haired hippies, commies, and transients."

Since then there have been intermittent attacks on the homeless. Nineteen were reported injured in July 1984, including one who was thrown over a cliff. Many other attacks were not reported.

The police have made no arrests. They deny that there is a transient-bashing campaign. However, Sgt. Bill Aluffi, who has investigated the assaults, declared, "I have been here 17 years and have never seen anything like this."

There are two socialists on the Santa Cruz City Council, but they have not been able to stop the assaults on the homeless. The Council has voted to join the local branch of the University of California in a study of the problem of transients.

Some of the homeless, among them several Vietnam veterans, are preparing to defend themselves. They say the troll busters could find themseives in a "nasty little war."

Behind the troll busters are the big property owners who want to make Santa Cruz a resort for the rich. People sleeping under bridges spoil the image of carefree affluence they want to create. They believe the troll-busting campaign will drive the unwelcome homeless out of the city.

Socialist Action/May May Gong press. A modest goal of 150 new subscriptions in the next two months was approved by the delegates.

Finally, the convention noted that 116 new members had joined Socialist Action since our founding conference last October. Enthusiastic about the prospects of rebuilding a dynamic revolutionary Marxist organization in the tradition of James P. Cannon, the founder of the Trotskyist movement in this country, a number of the guests at the first convention asked to join Socialist Action.

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