Mad Marxian Methodology

Ever since joining the Occupy movement, I have been homeless. This is very much a conscious and tactile decision based both on my motives, necessities, and the lessening of my means due to my schedule of traveling as opposed to working. I am not unhappy with the situation (aside from the difficulty to shower regularly), but I have certainly come to better understand a very American concept.

There is a form of segregation in this country that is certainly alive and healthy. What I am referring to is the process of gentrification where by through the actions of the wealthy and the legislators (who are generally also wealthy), a city’s poor are pushed out into other areas. This comes through land acquisition, but also through the changing of funding and laws which created the inconvenience of having the poor around.

One prime example of gentrification is Long Beach, California. In Long Beach, the city has for the past two years been taking major steps to push the growing homeless population into other areas of Los Angeles county. They have specifically requested the Federal government cut its funding to homeless assistance to the “decreasing” problem of homelessness in the city. They have issued new ordinances making it more difficult for the homeless to sleep. They have knocked down old rentals and installed new, high priced rentals to ensure that the poor cannot afford them (even though much of those downtown rentals have only a fourth of their homes filled). Being homeless or poor in Long Beach is growing increasingly difficult and those who are poor are pushed over into certain areas of Long Beach where roads are never paved, sidewalks are always broken, and crime rate is left unchecked.

Long Beach is a not the sole example. Currently, I am in Santa Barbara where they disallow the “Hot Meals” program which everywhere else in California enjoys. It is a program which allows the disabled, homeless, or elderly to purchase meals with Cal Fresh (formerly known as Food Stamps). This makes it so that only a very select few places such as the Ralphs or Vons accept Cal Fresh. In Venice, a new city ordinance prevents the homeless from sleeping along the long beach as they have done for years and a ghetto is being created along 3rd street where they try and force everyone too at night through police harassment.

The poor and especially the homeless are suffering in this nation as the cities try and corral them into spaces. If you cannot provide well for the hungry, capitalist machine then you serve no purpose. This is what the actions of city officials and their stooges the police are saying to us all. While we have made many strides in segregation over the past hundred years, the process of segregating the poor is at an all time high.

After all, there is more poor than ever before so you need to work harder to keep them out.