This poster was developed in collaboration with the Stop The Injunctions Coalition.
“One of the coalition’s central demands is for community self-determination. Community self-determination means that a community works together to envision their future, to decide what situations need to be resolved and what steps need to be taken to bring the entire collective community to this envisioned future. It is not a hierarchical model that allows external or oppressive systems to determine what “problems” exist and what “tools” must be used to “eradicate the problem.”
“Our Oakland, Our Solutions” means that we as a city– as people who live in, grow up in, work in and have ties to Oakland– must decide what are the best solutions to take care of each other. As a city-wide community, we demand that every person in this community has an important role to play; no one should be denied access to a future here, no one should be denied access to their culture, to their neighborhood, to being a vital part of building a space where we can all thrive: safer, healthier, together. To quote Youth Justice Coalition, our allies in Los Angeles, “We are working to transform a system that has ensured the massive lock-up of people of color, widespread police violence, corruption and distrust between police and communities, violation of youth and communities’ Constitutional rights, and the build-up of the world’s largest prison system.”
Gang injunctions and other police/prison/judicial-oriented policies are not community-based solutions. They do not create capacity for redressing community harm so that cycles of inequality or violence don’t repeat themselves. “Our Solutions” comes out of working together to dismantle systems that recreate and perpetuate oppression; “Our Solutions” highlights the excellent work that is already happening here in Oakland as people build real alternatives for safer, healthier communities that do not rely on systems of oppression or political hierarchies to do the work that we must do together, for and with each other.
Public spaces, community programs and projects are imperative to develop healthy and vibrant neighborhood relationships, to facilitate intra-generational dialogue and to model community leadership and values.”
https://stoptheinjunction.wordpress.com
