Workers’ conference plans fightback on foreclosures, utility shutoffs

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions hosted a workers’ and poor peoples’ conference on the capitalist crisis on Dec. 6. Anger, determination, compassion and solidarity emanated from the more than 80 participants gathered at Central United Methodist Church in downtown Detroit.

Protest in front of Belva Davis’ house, Dec. 6. WW photo: Alan Pollock

The pervasive economic crisis, especially in the banking and auto sectors, was examined from the perspective of fighting further attacks on working people. Discussion centered on the struggle for a moratorium to stop all foreclosures and evictions, utility shutoffs and plant closings, and to bail out the people, not the banks.

Rev. Ed Rowe, pastor of Central United Methodist Church, welcomed the conference goers. He stated he was proud that the Moratorium NOW! Coalition has its office in the church, and that Central Methodist continues to be a place where many struggles are carried out daily.

Coalition leader Abayomi Azikiwe gave a keynote talk on the work of the foreclosure moratorium campaign in Michigan. “This conference is taking place at an historic time—the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. But we are fighting back,” said Azikiwe. “Today we salute the union workers who are occupying the Republic Doors and Windows factory in Chicago in their fight against the bosses and Bank of America.”

Azikiwe described the collapse of the capitalist economic system and its impact on poor and working people. The high level of political discussion which followed flowed from the participants’ own struggles to survive and their involvement in the peoples’ movement.

Lorene Parker is fighting Bank of America’s attempt to evict her from her home. She told how she tried contacting the bank to work out a payment plan after she underwent a heart and liver double transplant and fell behind on her mortgage. The bank’s response to Parker’s plight was to move ahead with her foreclosure and eviction.

The conference attendees unanimously called for an action outside Bank of America in downtown Detroit on Dec. 10 to demand an immediate loan modification for Parker and to stop the sheriff’s sale of her home scheduled for Dec. 11. The demonstration will also be in solidarity with the UE workers occupying the plant in Chicago, where because Bank of America withdrew its loan, the company announced it was closing and would not pay workers their vacation and severance required under federal law.

A letter to Bank of America officials was signed by everyone at the conference and will be delivered during the Dec. 10 demonstration. Bail Out the People activists in North Carolina will also hand-deliver the letter to the bank president when they demonstrate outside Bank of America’s headquarters in Charlotte on Dec. 8.

Belva Davis from Detroit’s East English Village received her eviction notice from a Wall Street trust company earlier that morning. After the conference, the participants formed a car caravan to Davis’ eastside neighborhood for a militant rally in front of her house. Several neighbors, including a steelworker who just got laid off from his job, came out to support her.

State Sen. Hansen Clarke, sponsor of SB 1306, pledged to keep the struggle alive in the state legislature: “If you are willing to keep fighting, I will keep on fighting. One of my first acts in January, when the legislature reconvenes, will be to reintroduce a bill for a two-year moratorium on foreclosures and evictions.”

Labor activist Frank Hammer, former president of United Auto Workers Local 909, spoke about the caravan of auto workers that will leave Detroit Dec. 7 for Washington, D.C., to intervene on behalf of union workers at the Capitol Hill auto industry hearings. Retired Local 909 president, Al Benchich, also spoke.

Coalition leader Sandra Hines motivated the audience to keep struggling. Hines, who faced foreclosure and eviction one year ago from her family’s home of 37 years, is now facing another eviction because her landlord has not paid the mortgage.

Mint farmer Linette Crosby of rural St. Johns, Mich., told of her family’s struggle to save their historic farm from foreclosure. Farmer Diane Zechmeister of Oakland, Mich., told how she just sold her horses in order to make a mortgage payment to Washington Mutual, now owned by JPMorgan Chase. Her interest-only payments are $2,500 per month.

Dave Segraves is also being foreclosed on by Chase Bank. He held up his Dec. 8 eviction notice. Other speakers included renters’ rights activists Julia Wallace and Arturo Valasquez of Los Angeles, Maureen Taylor of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, people’s attorney Vanessa Fluker and coalition activist Debbie Johnson.

Many action proposals were adopted, including a demonstration outside DTE Energy in Detroit to demand a moratorium on utility shutoffs and a protest at the Capitol in Lansing when Gov. Jennifer Granholm delivers her state of the state address in early 2009.

The week prior to the conference, coalition organizer and people’s attorney Jerry Goldberg represented Mary Eady, a senior on a fixed income, in court proceedings to stop her eviction from her home of 47 years by Wells Fargo Bank. Goldberg argued forcefully that the bank, which received $25 billion in taxpayer money in the recent federal bailout, has a duty under federal law to renegotiate the terms of borrowers’ loans. The judge adjourned the proceedings for one month pending her decision.

Coalition activists were joined by organizers from Call ‘Em Out at the Detroit home of Marvin and Louise Morris for a candlelight vigil and neighborhood march on Dec. 4. The Morrises have been victims of constant abuse by the loan servicer HomEq and are being threatened with eviction by Barclays Bank.