[rohrpost] USA: TECH COMPANIES ATTACK CULTURES & STEAL HOUSING

[Matze Schmidt <matze.schmidt@n0name.de>]

-> http://www.indymedia.org/

USA: TECH COMPANIES ATTACK CULTURES & STEAL HOUSING
Mar 29 2001

Organizing Against Displacement
Created by Tech Companies in San
Francisco
This week in San Francisco, protesters and media
activists are teaming up to challenge community and
cultural destruction by technology companies.
Following a direct action, there will be a week of film/video at the
Whose City? and Bulldozed! festivals.

The dot-com economy has created a class of newly-rich people who
were in the right place at the right time. For everyone else, there are
the devastating effects of this increasing gap between rich and poor.
In San Francisco, ground zero for this new phenomenon of the
global economy, dot-com companies and their employees have
decided that their young and radical corporate image is best served
by locating in the Mission District, an area which is largely Latino,
and home to artist co-ops, collectives and non-profits. Capitalizing
on the Mission's diverse and subversive history, technology
companies are waging cultural warfare against residents and driving
rent prices sky-high, displacing thousands of working class people,
Latino families and non-corporate organizations. Aside from
economic pressure, dot-com companies in the Mission, like
Zing.com, are renting housing that has been zoned for live-work
residence (fought for by artists and community organizations) and
illegally converting them to commercial office space. Community
opposition in San Francisco is fighting forced displacement
electorally and through direct action. Protesters blockaded the
entrances/exits to Zing.com for hours as employees watched from
the roof. Zephyr Real Estate, called the worst slumlord in San
Francisco, was vandalized with smashed windows and spray paint.

The displacement of regular people by the rich is happening
everywhere in the San Francisco, Oakland, the Bay Area, and
throughout the United States. As the momentum against
globalization grows, people worldwide are bringing the energy home
to fight the corporation-state as it affects their everyday lives and
communities.

View the trailer for "BOOM!," an upcoming video about gentrification
in San Francisco's Mission, by Whispered Media.


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