Foreclosures provoke coast-to-coast fightback

If you read just the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, or just watch CNBC, you would think the unfolding debt crisis is something just happening on Wall Street, despite the occasional “human interest” stories about home foreclosures and their impact on renters and homeowners.

The real story of the foreclosure epidemic, however, is being written on the streets in eviction blockades and community struggles. The real actors in this drama are not high-powered brokers or hedge fund managers, but working-class families—African American, Latin@ and white—who are fighting back by organizing neighborhood committees and joining rallies and demonstrations.

One leader in the struggle is Paula Taylor, whose home in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood was foreclosed by Bank of America on Sept. 5 as 75 multinational protestors surrounded her house in Boston’s eighth eviction blockade this year.

The constable and a squad of 16 Boston police officers had to arrest four people in the two-hour standoff. Protesters chained themselves to Taylor’s back door after the police were deterred from going in the front door. Jim Brooks, an African-American organizer from Boston’s City Life tenant rights group, had chained his wheelchair to the front porch. As soon as the police left, a contingent of protesters, under City Life’s lead, marched to the local Bank of America branch where they picketed.

Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner joined the blockade, which included supporters from City Life/Vida Urbana, Four Corners Neighborhood Association, Service Employees union, Alternative for Community and Environment (ACE), T Riders Union, Women’s Fightback Network, the Boston chapters of F.I.S.T. (Fight Imperialism, Stand Together) and the International Action Center.

Three major demonstrations focusing on foreclosures will be taking place around the U.S. On Sept. 17, protesters in Michigan will gather at the state Capitol in Lansing starting at 11 a.m. for a mass action called by the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions. They will demand passage of a two-year foreclosure moratorium introduced in the state legislature there. To sign an online petition supporting the moratorium, go to www.moratorium-mi.org.

A demonstration on Sept. 17 will also occur in downtown Los Angeles at the Federal Building starting at noon, sponsored by the Los Angeles Labor/Community Coalition, which includes Service Employees Local 721. Protesters will demand a national moratorium on all foreclosures. And on Sept. 20 in Boston, activists will gather at noon outside Countrywide Bank at 811 Mass Avenue at Albany Street in a protest being organized by the Boston Women’s Fightback Network. The Boston demonstration is part of an ongoing petition campaign demanding that the Governor of Massachusetts use his constitutional powers to declare an Economic State of Emergency in the state and issue executive orders to stop utility shutoffs, stop foreclosures and evictions, and roll back food and fuel prices. For more information and to download the flyer and petition, go to www.iacboston.org/wfn.

The Ad-Hoc National Network to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions sent an emergency letter Sept. 16 to members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs demanding a national moratorium on all foreclosures.

Under federal law, a mandatory 90-day moratorium on foreclosures is imposed during a government-declared state of emergency. The letter points out that the recent federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a de facto declaration of a state of emergency, and that the government should obey its own laws by implementing a mandatory moratorium on mortgages owned or insured by these institutions.

The Network also launched an online petition campaign directed at the new conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, the treasury secretary, and the House and Senate Banking and Finance Committees demanding an immediate Federal Moratorium on Foreclosures and Evictions. To sign on, go to www.stopforeclosuresandevictions.org.