Santa Cruz Industrial Workers of the World P.O. Box 534 Santa Cruz, CA 95061 (U.S.A.) sciww@fido.wps.com 25 August 1994 Revolutionary Greetings! The Santa Cruz branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) invites everyone concerned about the criminalization of poverty to join us on Labor Day weekend in a Solidarity Sleep-Out September 3 & 4 to protest the city of Santa Cruz municipal camping ban, SCMC 6.36.020, which makes sleeping or intending to sleep outside of a shelter, motel, or privately-owned house a crime. Santa Cruz is a place where the combination of very low wages, a 15% unemployment rate and the second-highest rents in the country, has resulted in a large number of insecurely-housed and homeless people. Nonetheless, the city continues to enforce the camping ban as a cruel way of trying to drive the un-housed out of town. Though a recent state superior court ruling struck down a similar ordinance in Santa Ana, the Santa Cruz Police Dept. continues to enforce the "no public sleeping" policy. The fine for a first sleeping violation stands at $168. After a second ticket within 48 hours the charge increases to a misdemeanor subject to a higher fine and a possible jail term. In this way the law targets people remaining in Santa Cruz without a house for more than a day. Since most people cited under this law cannot pay the fine, the city is fully authorized to further harass the un-housed with warrants, arrest, and jail time. The effects of the SC camping ban and other laws of this sort are not limited to homeless populations. For law-waged service industry and agricultural workers in Santa Cruz, the ability to pay rent is never guaranteed. While homelessness is certainly undesirable enough as it is, the *criminalization of the condition of being unable to pay rent* makes the struggle to maintain legal housing paramount for every waged worker. The camping ban eliminates the option to temporarily or transitionally utilize a public beach or park space rather than pay half or more of one's wages directly to rent. Thus the camping ban helps insure that workers remain dependent and ever-grateful for their current employment regardless working conditions or pay. When we consider that soaring unemployment rates and an increasing level of poverty have occured alongside a steady decline of unionism it is clear that homelessness *is a labor issue.* As you may already be aware, the Santa Cruz Wobblies and Food Not Bombs have recently challenged several new city ordinances regulating "conduct on public property," passed by the Santa Cruz City Council. These new ordinances were created in response to a series of "World Peace Vigils," encampments in downtown retail areas to protest the camping ban. These new ordinances are designed to criminalize the non-camping elements of such vigils; for example, one of the new ordinances prohibits displays between sunset and sunrise. Through recent direct action efforts, one of these ordinances, outlawing sitting on any city sidewalk, was declared unconstitutional. Possibly the most blatantly preposterous, the sitting ordinance was only one of six new laws created *in addition* to the long standing camping ban. With this recent direct action victory the S.C. I.W.W. and Food Not Bombs intend to get back to the struggle which the conduct ordinances were meant to derail: the struggle for the abolition of the Santa Cruz Camping Ban. [Enclosed with this letter were copies of flyers for the sleep-out action, and a Wobbly music show on Sep. 3 entitled "A United Front: A Benefit to Help Overturn the Santa Cruz Camping Ban" featuring politically-oriented music from area musicians as well as a "special guest." Also included was a flyer for the Milk Crate Protest in San Francisco on Sep. 19th as part of ongoing solidarity with San Francisco Food Not Bombs.] The foregoing Solidarity Sleep-Out action and show are integral parts of this year's annual international IWW General Assembly, to be held this year in Santa Cruz during the days of Sep. 3 & 4. A solidarity rally after the action is planned for Labor Day. If you have any questions about these upcoming events, or would like to purchase tickets for the show, please contact us by calling (408) 427-4597 and leaving a message so we can get back to you, or by sending us e-mail at SEE YOU SOON! Crys-Vad Hyphus, Branch Secretary Maile Pickett, Branch Treasurer Taiette Miller, Delegate Santa Cruz Industrial Workers of the World