Week of 6.19.09
Another Perspective: More Help for "Working People" and The Poor
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Abayomi Azikiwe, spokesperson for Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions, talks about what he feels is irresponsible action by the government and corporations in regard to American employment and the poor. Moratorium NOW! held a protest rally—called "The People's Summit"—outside The National Summit, a conference of business CEOs and leaders which took place in Detroit June 15-17.
Over four million people have lost their jobs in the United States since December 2007 and more than two million people have lost their jobs since the beginning of this year. But neither the corporate community nor the American government have been able to respond to the deepening economic crisis by creating jobs for the unemployed and underemployed.
There are numerous factors involved in this apparent inability by multi-national corporations and the government to create jobs and provide other assistance to families suffering from home foreclosures, evictions, lack of health care and the evaporation of their savings and pension funds. Current policy imperatives of the ruling elites in this country favor the profit-making capacity of the financial sector and the most wealthy business people based in America and abroad. This is to the detriment of the interests of most working people and the poor.
The assumption is that if these banks and firms prosper, the benefits will flow downward to the workers in the form of lucrative employment and social benefits. However, this theory has been totally discredited through the lowering of real wages, the rise in joblessness, underemployment and the widening income gap between working people and the rich.
Many corporations have decided to go to areas of the country and the world where they can more freely exploit workers and consequently reap higher profits. When this system faced collapse during the fall of 2008, U.S. taxpayers were forced to bailout the very same financiers, insurance providers and automotive companies who had engineered the crisis. The collapse resulted in the worst loss of financial wealth since the Great Depression.
There must be a restructuring of national priorities in the United States. The $10 trillion in public funds and Federal Reserve-induced liquidity that was utilized to ostensibly prevent a full economic meltdown in 2008 could have easily been invested in government programs to create millions of jobs in the U.S. There could have been a national moratorium on foreclosures that could have allowed people to remain in their homes pending the outcome of the current crisis.
"Those who have guided the economic policy of the country must yield to the needs of the people who are the engine of any real program of reconstruction and renewal."
At the same time, the $700 billion annual defense budget—including the continuing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan—is draining the resources of the country in wars that have no end and that could not possibly be won by a western industrialized nation against peoples of the developing world. These Pentagon resources could be re-allocated to build mass transit systems throughout the country, reopen closed schools, and rehire laid-off educators. There could be a genuine effort to repair the national infrastructure. All of these initiatives could result in the creation of millions of jobs.
What is most important in any plans to create jobs and stimulate economic growth is the empowerment of working people and the poor. This is something that receives a hostile response from the corporate community and the federal government. Nonetheless, if people feel they have no influence in the actual operations of the state and capital, their productivity and general outlook will be severely affected.
If there is no rapid reversal of the massive job losses in the U.S., the long-term implications will be catastrophic. With the need for 25 million jobs for the unemployed and underemployed this year, consumer spending will further decline and more businesses could slide into bankruptcy, resulting in even more unemployment.
Consequently, the epidemic of job losses and home foreclosures will contribute substantially to the erosion of living standards and social stability. Those who have guided the economic policy of the country must yield to the needs of the people who are the engine of any real program of reconstruction and renewal.
Showing posts with label in the news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label in the news. Show all posts
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
All out for People’s Summit in Detroit
Activists to convene at economic ‘ground zero’
All out for People’s Summit in Detroit
By Workers World Detroit bureau
Published Apr 30, 2009 7:28 PM
Organizing for the June 14-17 People’s Summit and Tent City in Detroit is building fast. A planning meeting April 25 was attended by representatives from a broad base of progressive organizations. They included the Autoworkers Caravan, which has been in the forefront of challenging the massive attacks on auto workers’ wages and benefits; the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions; disabled activists from Warriors on Wheels; Call ’Em Out; the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization; the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality; and the National Lawyers Guild. Two UAW members from Toledo, Ohio, also attended.
The People’s Summit in Grand Circus Park will be an opportunity to link the struggles challenging the war on poor and working people, and to put forward a program for jobs, universal health care and a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions, as well as full rights for oppressed nationalities, immigrants, people with disabilities, women and the lesbian/gay/bi and trans communities.
Segments of the summit will be devoted to demonstrations targeting specific struggles such as the massive threats on auto workers. There will be a moratorium on evictions during the People’s Summit as organizers will participate in flying squadrons to aid individuals facing the hated dumpsters and bailiff evictions.
The People’s Summit is a direct challenge to the convening of big-business representatives at the National Business Summit scheduled for June 15-17. That event has been moved from Ford Field to the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center due to lower than expected registrations. More than 40 executives have agreed to speak at this gathering, which is to be co-chaired by Ford Motor Company executive head Bill Ford and Dow Chemical chief executive Andrew Liveris. Other participants will include corporate representatives from Conoco-Phillips, General Motors, Chrysler, Humana, Inc., and the presidents of the National Council of Competitiveness, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers.
Exciting developments were announced at the April 25 meeting, including the posting of a new video promoting the People’s Summit on YouTube. Participants discussed logistics and other components of making the four-day event a success. Organizers are out leafleting progressive events leading up to the summit, including May Day activities in Detroit.
The People’s Summit is receiving a solid response nationally from activist organizers who see Detroit as “ground zero” or the “Katrina” of the economic collapse. The call for the summit is posted on numerous progressive list serves and Web sites. The national Bail Out the People Movement and the National Poor People’s Economic and Human Rights Campaign are among a growing list of endorsers.
Donations for the People’s Summit are being solicited. Checks or money orders payable to the Moratorium NOW! Coalition/People’s Summit can be sent to 5920 Second Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202. The next organizing meeting will be held on May 9 at 2 p.m. at 2727 Second Ave. in Detroit. Call 313-887-4344 or visit www.moratorium-mi.org for more information.
Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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Email: ww@workers.org
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All out for People’s Summit in Detroit
By Workers World Detroit bureau
Published Apr 30, 2009 7:28 PM
Organizing for the June 14-17 People’s Summit and Tent City in Detroit is building fast. A planning meeting April 25 was attended by representatives from a broad base of progressive organizations. They included the Autoworkers Caravan, which has been in the forefront of challenging the massive attacks on auto workers’ wages and benefits; the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions; disabled activists from Warriors on Wheels; Call ’Em Out; the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization; the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality; and the National Lawyers Guild. Two UAW members from Toledo, Ohio, also attended.
The People’s Summit in Grand Circus Park will be an opportunity to link the struggles challenging the war on poor and working people, and to put forward a program for jobs, universal health care and a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions, as well as full rights for oppressed nationalities, immigrants, people with disabilities, women and the lesbian/gay/bi and trans communities.
Segments of the summit will be devoted to demonstrations targeting specific struggles such as the massive threats on auto workers. There will be a moratorium on evictions during the People’s Summit as organizers will participate in flying squadrons to aid individuals facing the hated dumpsters and bailiff evictions.
The People’s Summit is a direct challenge to the convening of big-business representatives at the National Business Summit scheduled for June 15-17. That event has been moved from Ford Field to the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center due to lower than expected registrations. More than 40 executives have agreed to speak at this gathering, which is to be co-chaired by Ford Motor Company executive head Bill Ford and Dow Chemical chief executive Andrew Liveris. Other participants will include corporate representatives from Conoco-Phillips, General Motors, Chrysler, Humana, Inc., and the presidents of the National Council of Competitiveness, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers.
Exciting developments were announced at the April 25 meeting, including the posting of a new video promoting the People’s Summit on YouTube. Participants discussed logistics and other components of making the four-day event a success. Organizers are out leafleting progressive events leading up to the summit, including May Day activities in Detroit.
The People’s Summit is receiving a solid response nationally from activist organizers who see Detroit as “ground zero” or the “Katrina” of the economic collapse. The call for the summit is posted on numerous progressive list serves and Web sites. The national Bail Out the People Movement and the National Poor People’s Economic and Human Rights Campaign are among a growing list of endorsers.
Donations for the People’s Summit are being solicited. Checks or money orders payable to the Moratorium NOW! Coalition/People’s Summit can be sent to 5920 Second Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202. The next organizing meeting will be held on May 9 at 2 p.m. at 2727 Second Ave. in Detroit. Call 313-887-4344 or visit www.moratorium-mi.org for more information.
Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php
Page printed from:
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Sunday, April 12, 2009
Hitting the Pause on Foreclosures
By Valeria Fernández
from Color Lines
Before she was evicted from her own home, Kendra Washington took a walk around her Detroit neighborhood. She found an empty home and decided to squat with her two children. “I refused to get my kids put out on the street,” said the single mother who moved into a vacant Housing and Urban Development house.
After government officials came knocking at Washington’s door, attorney Jerry Goldberg, a long-time civil rights activist, persuaded them in court that it was in the government’s interest to let Washington and her children stay. He argued that Washington had made improvements to the house and so maintained its value. Without her efforts, he explained, the house would have been vandalized.
Washington got to stay.
“In the 30s, there were organized committees all over the country, block by block. The sheriff would come and evict a family. After he left, they moved people back in. The moratorium was won on the streets.”
In the last year, Goldberg and his staff at Moratorium NOW!, a coalition of activists and union and religious leaders, have brought at least 50 cases to courts in Detroit on behalf of homeowners. They have been fighting to save homes literally one house at a time through picketing at the banks and legal action. Some of the people impacted are senior citizens with fixed incomes and also with medical conditions that have drained their savings. The houses have belonged to them for more than 20 years.
“We believe they have a right to a home and we defend their right to stay,” Goldberg said.
Some politicians agree. A new bill introduced in Michigan’s state legislature would create a two-year moratorium—making it the lengthiest moratorium in the nation.
According to Goldberg, in many of his cases, people have been able to stay in their homes because he showed that the foreclosure was violating federal law like the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA), which was approved last July. The law requires financial institutions to modify default mortgages when this will result in a greater recovery of their value than a foreclosure.
“We argued that the loan modification would add a greater value to the property than the foreclosure will,” he said.
In the cases of low-income homes insured by the Federal Housing Administration, Goldberg and his team have shown in court that the government hasn’t played by its own rules.
Homeowners in danger of being evicted are supposed to get the chance to stay in the house through a lease agreement. But many homeowners are finding their requests to stay in the home denied, said Goldberg. Instead, the Federal Housing Administration has been paying the mortgage companies the full value of the house after it foreclosed, he added.
They don’t always win in court though.
“When we don’t have good luck through the courts, we have good luck through the streets,” said Goldberg.
On at least six occasions, the coalition has picketed outside homes or banks just before people were about to be evicted. This is often the last resource when the actions can’t be fought in court because there’s no legal basis, Goldberg said.
On one occasion, a 78-year-old woman was able to get a new loan to stay in her home after the group picketed outside the bank Countrywide. The new loan allows her to stay in her home of 42 years.
•••
Washington made payments on her home of a decade for as long as she could after a foot surgery caused her to lose her $40,000 a year job. The lender wasn’t willing to lower her payment on the $150,000 mortgage. As her savings ran out, Washington watched homes in the neighborhood being sold for as little as $500.
Michigan has been hit by a severe economic downturn for the last decade. It has lost half a million, mostly union, industrial jobs in the last five years. The crisis struck Detroit before it did the rest of the nation, and the sub-prime market of predatory lending completed the job. In Detroit, the average medium sales price for a home these days is $6,237, according to data from Multiple Listing Services. One in every 137 homes in Michigan is facing foreclosure.
“Our business is to sell foreclosed homes,” said Carl Williams, chief executive of the Saturn Group. His real state company has sold at least five houses for $1 with buyers paying the realtor’s commission.
“When the properties get evicted, the homes are immediately stripped and vandalized, losing all their value, tearing down the fabric of the community,” said Goldberg.
more
.
from Color Lines
Before she was evicted from her own home, Kendra Washington took a walk around her Detroit neighborhood. She found an empty home and decided to squat with her two children. “I refused to get my kids put out on the street,” said the single mother who moved into a vacant Housing and Urban Development house.
After government officials came knocking at Washington’s door, attorney Jerry Goldberg, a long-time civil rights activist, persuaded them in court that it was in the government’s interest to let Washington and her children stay. He argued that Washington had made improvements to the house and so maintained its value. Without her efforts, he explained, the house would have been vandalized.
Washington got to stay.
“In the 30s, there were organized committees all over the country, block by block. The sheriff would come and evict a family. After he left, they moved people back in. The moratorium was won on the streets.”
In the last year, Goldberg and his staff at Moratorium NOW!, a coalition of activists and union and religious leaders, have brought at least 50 cases to courts in Detroit on behalf of homeowners. They have been fighting to save homes literally one house at a time through picketing at the banks and legal action. Some of the people impacted are senior citizens with fixed incomes and also with medical conditions that have drained their savings. The houses have belonged to them for more than 20 years.
“We believe they have a right to a home and we defend their right to stay,” Goldberg said.
Some politicians agree. A new bill introduced in Michigan’s state legislature would create a two-year moratorium—making it the lengthiest moratorium in the nation.
According to Goldberg, in many of his cases, people have been able to stay in their homes because he showed that the foreclosure was violating federal law like the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA), which was approved last July. The law requires financial institutions to modify default mortgages when this will result in a greater recovery of their value than a foreclosure.
“We argued that the loan modification would add a greater value to the property than the foreclosure will,” he said.
In the cases of low-income homes insured by the Federal Housing Administration, Goldberg and his team have shown in court that the government hasn’t played by its own rules.
Homeowners in danger of being evicted are supposed to get the chance to stay in the house through a lease agreement. But many homeowners are finding their requests to stay in the home denied, said Goldberg. Instead, the Federal Housing Administration has been paying the mortgage companies the full value of the house after it foreclosed, he added.
They don’t always win in court though.
“When we don’t have good luck through the courts, we have good luck through the streets,” said Goldberg.
On at least six occasions, the coalition has picketed outside homes or banks just before people were about to be evicted. This is often the last resource when the actions can’t be fought in court because there’s no legal basis, Goldberg said.
On one occasion, a 78-year-old woman was able to get a new loan to stay in her home after the group picketed outside the bank Countrywide. The new loan allows her to stay in her home of 42 years.
•••
Washington made payments on her home of a decade for as long as she could after a foot surgery caused her to lose her $40,000 a year job. The lender wasn’t willing to lower her payment on the $150,000 mortgage. As her savings ran out, Washington watched homes in the neighborhood being sold for as little as $500.
Michigan has been hit by a severe economic downturn for the last decade. It has lost half a million, mostly union, industrial jobs in the last five years. The crisis struck Detroit before it did the rest of the nation, and the sub-prime market of predatory lending completed the job. In Detroit, the average medium sales price for a home these days is $6,237, according to data from Multiple Listing Services. One in every 137 homes in Michigan is facing foreclosure.
“Our business is to sell foreclosed homes,” said Carl Williams, chief executive of the Saturn Group. His real state company has sold at least five houses for $1 with buyers paying the realtor’s commission.
“When the properties get evicted, the homes are immediately stripped and vandalized, losing all their value, tearing down the fabric of the community,” said Goldberg.
more
.
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