Washington protest to target robber bankers

The newly formed Ad Hoc National Network to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions is hoping that its planned protest against the Mortgage Bankers Association’s policy conference in Washington, D.C., on April 16 will be pivotal to launching a massive national campaign for an emergency moratorium on home foreclosures.

On April 16, buses, cars and vans from more than 20 states will be bringing people in to the capital for a 3 p.m. rally and demonstration in front of the MBA’s two-day conference at the Washington Court Hotel, located at 525 New Jersey Ave. NW.

The Network, which has been joined by housing and social justice activists and groups across the country, is planning for the April 16 protest to be followed by locally coordinated demonstrations demanding that an immediate moratorium on all foreclosures and evictions be enacted by the government, at the state level and by Congress.

Several hundred mortgage bankers representing all of the major banks—including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Bear Stearns, and JPMorgan Chase—will be attending the bankers conference.

The MBA’s call to their Washington conference states: “It’s time for Congress to hear from the real estate finance industry. Join your peers in Washington for the 2008 National Policy Conference, and speak to members of Congress about issues that directly affect your business.”

In response to the bankers’ call the Network to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions has launched a campaign directed at Congress, demanding that members of Congress refuse to meet with delegations of mortgage bankers that will be descending on Capitol Hill during their conference to lobby against any government action that would in any way stop the foreclosure epidemic. More than 50,000 messages have been sent to members of the banking and finance committees of the Senate and the House telling them to refuse to meet with bankers until the MBA formally endorses a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions.

Commenting on mortgage related measures that Congress is debating, April 16 protest organizer Sharon Black stated: “The mortgage relief measures that the U.S Senate is considering amount to half-measures that will not stop or even slow down the rate of roughly 8,000 home foreclosures each day. So far, congressional action to save homes is reminiscent of the kind of political posturing and cynical neglect that characterized the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago.”

Ms. Black said, “The major features of the so-called mortgage rescue package coming out of Congress involve providing counseling to workers who have lost their homes, along with tax breaks that appear to help bankers more than workers.”

Jerome Goldberg, a Network organizer in Detroit, said: “Detroit is almost ground zero for the national housing depression. Entire neighborhoods have been destroyed by home foreclosures.”

Mr. Goldberg added, “The Federal Reserve Bank promised bankers that it would do whatever was necessary to avoid bank failures, so we demand that government do whatever is necessary to stop home foreclosures; and that means, at a minimum, declaring a moratorium.”