ACORN Initates Civil Disobedience to Stop Foreclosures

As resistance to foreclosure evictions grows among homeowners, community leaders and some law enforcement officials, a broad civil disobedience campaign is starting in New York and other cities to support families who refuse orders to vacate their homes.

The community organizing group Acorn unveiled the campaign with a spirited rally on Friday at a Brooklyn church and will roll it out in at least 22 other cities in the coming weeks. Through phone trees, Web pages and text-messaging networks, the effort will connect families facing eviction with volunteers who will stand at their side as officers arrive, even if it means risking arrest.

“You want to haul us out to jail? Fine. Let the world see how government has been ineffective,” Bertha Lewis, Acorn’s chief organizer, said in an interview. “Politicians have helped banks, but they haven’t helped families in the way that it’s needed, and these families are now saying, enough is enough.”

At the onset of the foreclosure crisis, the problem was regarded by some as one of a homeowner’s own making, the result of irresponsible decisions made by families who chose to live beyond their means. But as foreclosures spread across the country, devastating even solidly middle-class communities, the blame has slowly shifted to the financial companies that made questionable loans and have received billions of dollars in federal aid to stave off collapse.

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Bail Out the People Movement

Bail Out the People Movement
FIGHTBACK CONFERENCE
Draft Working Paper

Realizing the Fightback – Some Perspective and Plans

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The following was adopted at the Jan. 17 Fightback Conference in NYC. It is a work in progress.

 

In many ways, the U.S.-financed genocidal siege of Gaza that many of us have been demonstrating against in recent weeks is a harbinger of the widening war against the workers and oppressed peoples of the planet that is sure to intensify this year. In 2009, more and more lives are going to be devastated by the biggest global economic crisis since the depression of the 1930s.

 

This crisis is the challenge of a lifetime for those of us who have made a commitment to fighting for the rights of people. What we do or fail to do will prove decisive in the coming battle over whose interests in society shall prevail.

 

The election of the first African-American president, Barack Obama, realizes a measure of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream. But depression-level joblessness, evictions and foreclosures made worse by cutbacks, war, bigotry and racism are not a dream but a nightmare. This is a time of many contradictions. Many people feel that the new president will bring progressive change but at the same time, there are Black youth being summarily executed by police; Proposition 8; new attacks on reproductive justice; one of the biggest bigots presiding over the inauguration ceremony, the prospects of a widening war in Afghanistan and much more.

 

Part of the legacy of Dr. King is the understanding that no election or president--however historical and inspiring--can be a substitute for a mass movement in the struggle against war or for social and economic rights. There are signs that the workers understand this.

This past December the bankers and bosses got hit with a one-two punch. The workers at the Republic Windows and Doors Factory in Chicago occupied their plant to win some measure of their rights. One day after the workers victory in Chicago, the Smithfield meat processing workers in Tar Heel, North Carolina finally won their right to a union after a long and bitter struggle. These battles are part of the first chapter of the Fightback that must and will grow. How can we help the development of the Fightback?

 

There can be no honest discussion about fighting without posing the inevitable question--Is it not time to terminate the capitalist system that appears only capable of trapping the people of the world in a nightmare of endless chaos, violence, misery, suffering, inequality, oppression, environmental destruction and other crises all in the interests of the super rich? How can this question not become the burning question as the absurd rules of capitalism mandate that no effort can be spared to bailout the barons of capitalist finance even while much of the population is pushed into life-threatening poverty? No doubt this unavoidable question will be an essential and welcome part of our discussion during the conference. Even if the question is not openly addressed, it will be the subtext of our deliberations.

 

However, though its direction is most definitely radical, it is not the intention of this document to unite conference participants around a comprehensive ideological position. Nor does it attempt to analyze the capitalist crisis, or address many issues of importance to all of us. This document is a framework for planning action. read more

 

 

Stop Foreclosures and Evictions!

Bail Out the People Movement

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Helping America's Homeless People

2008 Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader answers a question from the audience regarding his views on helping the homeless. From the University of Vermont in Burlington, October 5, 2008...



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How I lost my home: 3 stories

**Personal note...I know what it feels like to lose everything.
Approximately 8 years ago, my ex went crazy, my child was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD, we went through a bankruptcy, I got depressed, we sold our house (where my son had been raised for the past 10 years), the ex got more and more abusive and finally, we got divorced. We had been together for over 20 years and married for 16 of them.

It sucks to be poor again. But, I'm grateful that my son is doing alot better. That we are safe, have a roof over our heads, and usually have enough food to eat. I've remarried. We've been married for a year last October 16th. We struggle financially. It really sucks to be poor. But, it's the worse when you are afraid for child's safety and making sure he has food to eat. Yet,
no one pays attention. I hope that all those that are just beginning this roller coaster ride that we call life, make it out with a lot less bruising than me.
Peace,
soul1383

"Think it can't happen to you? Consider these tales from real people who faced serious problems -- job loss, illness, divorce --that turned their lives upside down."

By Christopher Solomon-"Everybody knows about the American dream of home ownership, but what about the flip side: the nightmare of losing your home?"

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uncomfortably numb |

Here's a link to my attempt at a website. I'm under construction, right now. Actually, I'm a pack rat with too many links & graphics stuffed into my sluggish computer. So, I'm setting up this site for my ever growing list of blogs, sites, and links. You'll find alot of stuff on politics, graphics, news and feeds. Oh yeah, a lot of quotes too! Peace

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