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<font size=3><br><br>
</font><font size=1><b>4917 Third Street, San Francisco, California
94124<br>
Phone: (415) 671-0789 Fax: (415) 671-0316<br>
Email:
<a href="mailto:editor@sfbayview.com">editor@sfbayview.com</a>
Website:
<a href="http://www.sfbayview.com">www.sfbayview.com</a><br><br>
<br>
</font><font size=4>A Call for Solidarity: </b> <br>
<b>Friends of the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper<br>
</b></font><font size=3> <br>
You've probably heard the sobering news … the San Francisco Bay View
Newspaper was forced to stop printing a weekly paper due to financial
strain. The last printed copy went out on July 2nd, marking the 697th
issue the Ratcliffs have printed since starting the paper back up in
1992. <br><br>
We know that the Black press has been among our most powerful tools of
liberation throughout history — in the first phases of what we now know
to be ongoing work toward Abolition, Reconstruction, Civil Rights and
Black Power. Today is no different. The Bay View paper had been carrying
the torch of that legacy through incredibly challenging times. <br><br>
It's hard to imagine a worse time to lose our ability to print the paper.
As trouble brews for our comrades in international struggles, police
repression and brutality escalate at home with millions of Black and
other oppressed people forced into concentration camps (federal, state
and private), the Bay View Newspaper struggles to maintain its national
significance as a megaphone for resistance.<br><br>
In California, where Black and Brown people's alliances are setting the
stage for confrontation with the U.S. government's "free trade"
and immigration policies, the establishment is desperately swiping back.
<br><br>
• San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has unleashed a
citywide ethnic cleansing plan to privatize affordable housing;<br><br>
• Regional, federal, state and local police agencies
are consolidating tactics to brutalize opposition to capitalist
exploitation;<br><br>
• Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has forced through the
largest prison expansion project in U.S. history. <br><br>
"At this time, our communities are faced with important questions
like, 'Who else in the 'progressive press' and in the Black press is
going to consistently cover Haiti, Colombia, Brazil, El Salvador, France
and Zimbabwe as well as East Oakland, Hunters Point, Hurricane Amerikkka,
Chicago and New York?" POCC Minister of Information JR
asks.<br><br>
One of the only Black-owned radical publications in the U.S., the Bay
View newspaper has consistently provided a public platform for
communication and solidarity among U.S., African, Latin American and
Caribbean activists and incarcerated people who are challenging
imperialism throughout the world and from inside the U.S. prison
industrial complex.<br><br>
At its last run, the paper was printed and delivered to thousands of
homes in Bayview Hunters Point, hundreds of locally owned businesses,
community centers, libraries and churches in San Francisco and Oakland,
and hundreds of people in captivity. We receive at least 60 letters every
week from prisoners, including pen pal requests, reports of torture and
abuse, requests for legal support, and submissions of news and views from
prisons throughout the U.S.<br><br>
The Bay View has maintained itself as an individually-funded FREE paper
through a trickle of advertising revenue, national prisoner and resident
subscriptions and a small pool of donors, which has included the staff
itself. Its printed format is key to bridging the 'digital divide' in
more ways than one, as many of its readers have no or very little access
to the internet and few sources of trusted, current, community and
activist-oriented news.<br><br>
This is an urgent appeal to radical activists, individuals, and
organizations to support the Bay View financially. <br>
Our goal is to resume printing a monthly paper. You can make this
possible.<br><br>
</font><font size=2><b>Will your organization commit to buying ad space
at a rate of $50-$100 per month or more? </b></font><font size=3>You can
advertise for political campaigns, meetings, conferences, events, jobs,
updates, and petition or fundraising drives. You can post calls to
action, announcements, or even something as simple as your logo, mission
statement and contact information. <br><br>
We already know the paper is an important resource for prisoners, people
of color, and working class communities. With your contribution, it can
be an important resource for people to hook into the work of grassroots
organizing and activism. But we need YOU to make this happen.<br><br>
Immediately, we're in urgent need of a low-cost, experienced web designer
to post articles, updates, an events calendar and useful advertisements
daily. Once we're reasonably assured that we can sustain a monthly
printed publication at $5,000 per month, we'll get that print wheel
spinning again!<br><br>
We're in the fight for you. Will you fight for the Bay View?<br><br>
Checks can be mailed to SF Bay View; 4917 Third St., San Francisco, CA
94124 <br><br>
Tax deductible donations can be sent to the same address and written to
HRIN (Hurricane Relief Information Network). Or you can give online
@ <a href="http://sfbayview.com">sfbayview.com</a><br><br>
<b>We thank you in advance for your continued support and contributions
to the Bay View Newspaper.<br><br>
<br>
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