During the late 1980s and early 1990s the city of San Francisco waged a war against the homeless. This book treats the conflict between the city and activists as a unique opportunity to examine the contested nature of homelessness and public space while developing an anarchist alternative to liberal urban politics that is rooted in mutual aid, solidarity and anti-capitalism.

On Labor Day in 1988, two-hundred hungry and homeless people went to Golden Gate Park in search of a hot meal. There, fifty-four activists from Food Not Bombs, surrounded by riot police, lined up to serve them food. The following arrests proceeded like an assembly line; an activist would scoop a bowl of food and hand it to a hungry homeless person, a police officer would handcuff and arrest that activist, immediately the next activist in line would take up the ladle, scoop and be promptly arrested. By the end of the day all fifty-four activists had been arrested for ‘providing food without a permit.’ These arrests were not an aberration but part of a multi-year campaign by the City of San Francisco against radical homeless activists in an attempt to remake the city.

These actions beg the question: why would a liberal city arrest activists helping the homeless? In exploring the answers, the book uses the conflict between the city and activists as a unique opportunity to examine the contested nature of urban politics, homelessness and public space while developing an anarchist alternative to liberal urban politics that is rooted in mutual aid, solidarity and anti-capitalism.

In addition to exploring theoretical and political issues related to gentrification, broken-windows policing and anti-homeless laws, this book provides both activists, students and scholars, examples of how anarchist homeless activists in San Francisco resisted these process.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s the city of San Francisco waged a war against the homeless. Over 1,000 arrests and citations where handed out by the police to activists for simply distributing free food in public parks. Why would a liberal city arrest activists helping the homeless? In exploring this question, the book treats the conflict between the city and activists as a unique opportunity to examine the contested nature of homelessness and public space while developing an anarchist alternative to liberal urban politics that is rooted in mutual aid, solidarity, and anti-capitalism. In addition to exploring theoretical and political issues related to gentrification, broken-windows policing, and anti-homeless laws, this book provides activists, students and scholars, examples of how anarchist homeless activists in San Francisco resisted these processes.
This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero hunger.