Bail out the people!

WW photo: Kris Hamel

“People are going to have to mobilize and organize around the foreclosure issue and demand that the state and the federal government do what’s necessary to fix the problem. It doesn’t appear that anything is really in place now to truly help people. The only thing I can see as a solution is a moratorium—that people band together as one major force to call for a moratorium. That’s the only alternative.”

Sandra Hines, leader, Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions in Michigan. Hines was evicted in December 2007 from her family’s Detroit home of 37 years after it went into foreclosure.

WW photo: John Catalinotto

Green Party presidential and vice-presidential candidates, Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente, respectively, have put forth a 14-point economic platform which includes enactment of a foreclosure moratorium now before the next phase of ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) interest rate increases take effect; full funding for initiatives that eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in home ownership; and recognition of shelter as a right according to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, to which the U.S. is a signatory, so that no one sleeps on U.S. streets. Go to votetruth08.com for more information.

WW photo

I remember the hardships faced by many people in the Black community, as a child growing up in the Rust Belt in the eighties during deindustrialization—the poverty, the rise in crime and drug addiction, all in the wake of the decline of the great social upheaval of the 60s and 70s.

The hard times have come again, in the middle of two imperialist wars, neoliberal expansion and the growth of anti-imperialist leftist movements that have come to power from Latin America to Nepal—this as capital crosses borders, putting workers in the so-called Third World in competition with those in the imperialist nations more than in any other period in history.

But from this, the movement for a better world will grow, in understanding and in size. And through struggle we can topple this brutal system.

Larry Hales, Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST) national organizer

WW photo: Liz Green

“Calling for ‘concern not panic,’ the governor of Massachusetts just announced $1-billion social service cuts and 1,000 layoffs—The Women’s Fightback Network is outraged. We are clear that women and children, youth, the elderly, disabled, lesbian, gay, bi and trans people, and communities of color will especially bear the brunt of these program cuts. So we are fighting back! The WFN is on the streets to demand that an Economic State of Emergency be declared. As women we can unite and take the lead in building a movement to ‘Fund Human Needs, Not War and Wall Street!’”

—Nan Genger, Women’s Fightback Network leader, Boston

WW photo: Sharon Black

“Every little thing that you have, the corporations and the government want. And now they are using the economy as an excuse to take even more. At my husband’s job they use the excuse of the economy to lay off one worker so they can make another worker work twice as hard and save more money. They’re attacking immigrants more during this crisis and blaming the housing crisis on them for not reading the contract. The fact is they were lied to and tricked, especially if they didn’t speak English because they were too busy working to survive to take English classes.

“Every two or three blocks I see a house being possessed by the banks. People are afraid to spend money because they’re worried about losing their job. The same thing is happening all over California, especially in Latin@ and Black neighborhoods.

“And even though the bailout is only helping Wall Street and bankers, people are getting help from others—the actions that we do are helping people feel less isolated. That’s why we’re working to build unity between the unions and community organizations.”

Martha Rojas, Co-coordinator, Labor-Community Coalition to Stop Foreclosures & Evictions, Los Angeles