Milwaukee activists say: 'Banks, politicians created this mess!'

Members of the Occupy Coalition in Milwaukee are participating in efforts in various neighborhoods to fight back against the racist banks and corporations and the foreclosed and abandoned properties they are responsible for creating.

Neighborhood clean-up in Milwaukee. WW photo: Bryan G. Pfeifer

The coalition includes Occupy Milwaukee, Occupy Riverwest and Occupy The Hood, an African-American group based in Milwaukee’s North Side. Individual members of this coalition include union workers from the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, students from universities, technical colleges and high schools, and unemployed workers.

On Jan. 9, members of the coalition visited the neighborhood in and around 20th Street and Meinecke Avenue, an African-American neighborhood in Milwaukee decimated by anti-union attacks, plant and school closings, foreclosures, police brutality, and other criminal acts by the banks and corporations.

Occupy members cleaned up trash with neighborhood residents, knocked on doors and distributed literature demanding a moratorium on foreclosures, living-wage jobs and affordable, quality housing.

In just over an hour, Occupy activists and area residents picked up more than 40 bags of trash in just a few blocks. They piled this trash in front of an abandoned house and tacked a banner on it that read, “Banks and Politicians Created This Mess.”

On Jan. 14, the Occupy members returned to the North Side to conduct a similar cleanup with neighborhood residents. They also did banner drops. Occupy The Hood, in tandem with this aspect of the campaign, is also supporting Muhammad Mahdi as candidate for 5th District county supervisor. Mahdi is participating in all of the Occupy events in Milwaukee.

Moratorium on foreclosures and evictions

In tandem with the neighborhood cleanups, the Occupy Coalition is planning a series of actions for the winter and spring. These actions will have a main focus of fighting the foreclosures and evictions which are devastating neighborhoods throughout the entire Milwaukee metropolitan region, with the worst effects in Black and Latino/a communities.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s “Data On Demand” database, there have been more than 20,000 foreclosures in Milwaukee scheduled for sheriff’s sale since 2007. The highest number of foreclosures to ever take place in Wisconsin occurred in September 2011, just four months ago.

Thousands more homeowners in the state are in peril of losing their homes and thousands of renters face being evicted. The loss of property taxes from these homes comes at the same time massive budget cuts and public sector union busting, along with other attacks on poor and working people, are underway in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement, one of the organizations participating in Occupy Coalition activities in Milwaukee, is sponsoring a community organizing meeting on Feb. 25 called “Join the Fight to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions & ‘Debt Service’ to the Banks.”

Jerry Goldberg of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition in Detroit will speak at this meeting and describe the group’s work in defense of people facing foreclosure and eviction. He will address the urgent need for a federal moratorium or halt on foreclosures and evictions, as well as the need for a federal jobs program. The role of the banks in the ongoing crisis and how to fight back against them will be part of the discussion.

WI BOPM activists are speaking at several events about the moratorium demand, including at a Jan. 16 Occupy Appleton Community Foreclosure Defense meeting and on Jan. 28 at an Occupy Green Bay people’s organizing meeting. For more information on these events and more, contact [email protected] or visit www.wibailoutpeople.org.