Purim, Progressives and City Life

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Purim, Progressives and City Life

On March 21 young radical Jewish friends from Workmen's Circle, Kavod House, and the community threw City Life a Radical Purim Party sponsored by Workmen's Circle, and held at SEIU Local 615 Union Hall. Progressive Jews reclaim Purim as a celebration of speaking truth to power in all its forms and the theme of housing justice, specifically the issue of foreclosures and evictions, was woven into the traditional staged Purim spiel performed that night. About 200 supporters celebrated and it was fantastic to see youth so committed to a vision of justice. Proceeds from the party will support City Life's Campaign to Halt Post-Foreclosure Evictions!

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AnonymousApril 23, 2009 at 11:40 AM
On March 21 young radical Jewish friends from Workmen's Circle, Kavod House, and the community threw City Life a Radical Purim Party sponsored by Workmen's Circle, and held at SEIU Local 615 Union Hall. Progressive Jews reclaim Purim as a celebration of speaking truth to power in all its forms and the theme of housing justice, specifically the issue of foreclosures and evictions, was woven into the traditional staged Purim spiel performed that night. About 200 supporters celebrated and it was fantastic to see youth so committed to a vision of justice. Proceeds from the party will support City Life's Campaign to Halt Post-Foreclosure Evictions!
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Bank Tenant Association-- A Strategy to Stop the Tide of Evictions

Boston experienced 1200+ foreclosures last year. That’s about 2400 households, or 4-5000 people, faced with forcible eviction from their homes after foreclosure. Such a number of people losing their homes would elicit international sympathy if caused by a natural disaster. This disaster, however, is human-made and should elicit our outrage.

The richest and most powerful institutions in the country used their control of the market to try to get even richer at the expense of the majority. They didn’t just offer millions of individual bad loans, especially directed at communities of color. They created a speculative real estate bubble. Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy and Research has noted that real estate values historically tracked incomes until about 10 years ago. The financial institutions fueled a bubble upon which their profits depended. This forced people to pay inflated prices, by definition too high for their real income.

For us to point out the profound inequalities of class, race and gender that characterize this crisis, for us to refer to it as “an attack,” is simply to state the obvious.

The Bank Tenant Association is composed of occupants of foreclosed buildings, both former owners and tenants. We stress that, after foreclosure, everyone is a tenant of the bank. It also includes some people not yet foreclosed who feel that foreclosure is imminent.

Working with Legal Services folks, City Life organized the Bank Tenant Association in the summer of 2007 to organize against foreclosure evictions. Since then we have stopped 95% of the evictions that have come to us. We are working with hundreds of households. Large move-out settlements have been won. Banks have backed down and accepted rent.

In increasing numbers of cases, banks are even selling properties to occupants at the real appraised value, perhaps half the old loan value. This “cramdown” of principle is almost unachievable by normal loan modification efforts. It has been made possible by a committed and growing movement of Bank tenants, willing to engage in dramatic protests, including civil disobedience, alongside more standard legal defense.

Values

City Life/Vida Urbana identifies and fights the root causes of the injustices in our society which often stem from the contradictions between corporate control of the economy and human needs, human rights and community. Because we work with the strong conviction that people should come before corporate profit we promote the principles of radical organizing and radical empowerment. We are building a democratically run organization that is multiracial, multicultural, multilingual and welcoming sexual diversity.

City Life/ Vida Urbana - People before Profit

Sunday, March 29, 2009