Where: Meet at the Buckhead MARTA Station in Atlanta, Georgia When: Tomorrow at 10:30am RSVP on Facebook
On September 10, 2012, HUNDREDS of people from all over the southeast will converge on Fannie Mae's regional headquarters in Atlanta to demand an end to their abusive practices and to declare housing as a human right.
BUSES ARE SET TO COME IN FROM CHATTANOOGA, MIAMI, CHARLOTTE, AND ORLANDO.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac control over 60% of the mortgages in the US. After gambling with people's money, and buying up subprime mortgages during the housing bubble, they were placed under conservatorship of the US government in 2008, receiving billions of taxpayers dollars. Now, 4 years later, they continue to put people out of their homes, and are the biggest obstacle to fixing the housing crisis. Edward DeMarco, who currently oversees both Fannie and Freddie through the FHFA, refuses to offer principle reduction to help over 16 million underwater homeowners find relief and stay in their homes. They are more cruel than even the big banks when it comes to evictions, and post foreclosure options, and to top it all off, have begun selling off foreclosed properties in bulk to the same investors and hedge-funds that crashed the economy in the first place.
Its time to put a stop to this, and to demand the wealth that was stolen from our communities be restored. Thousands of people are fed up are ready to fight back, and are coordinating actions across the country against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to occur in the same week.
Our demands include:
Principal Reduction for all underwater homeowners to real market value
an end to Fannie and Freddie Evictions, and the right to rent after foreclosure
the sale of foreclosed properties to occupants and non-profits at the same discounted rate they are offering to shady investors
that they turn over vacant and abandoned properties to community controlled entities to provide long term affordable housing
Chicago teachers are likely to strike tomorrow, Monday, September 10th. Please join MORE (Movement of Rank-and-File Educators) and Occupy Wall Street to stand with them in solidarity!
When: Monday, September 10th at 5pm Where: Meet at the south side of Union Square (14th Street)
Teachers in Chicago are striking for increased resources and quality programs for students and fair working conditions for teachers.
MORE sees the Chicago teachers’ fight as part of a growing national resistance movement against corporate-backed education reformers who bash teachers, push high stakes testing, and promote school privatization as solutions to the problems in our public education system. The destructive “reforms” being pushed in Chicago are the same as those we see here in New York.
Come early at 4:30 to make signs. We’ll have some supplies, but folks are strongly encouraged to bring extra poster board and markers. After a rally with speeches from several union activists, we’ll march at 5:30 to the New York office of Democrats for Education reform, a PAC made up of hedge fund managers seeking to profit from school privatization schemes. DFER has sponsored anti-CTU ads and petitions in Chicago and supports pro-charter, pro-reform candidates and policies here in New York. The DFER office is at 928 Broadway between 21st and 22nd Streets.
This is a reminder to join us TODAY for Strike Debt's inaugural action!
Come with your bills, debt notices, city budgets, and other symbols of debt to burn.
Life After Debt: A Gathering of Refusal
Sunday, September 9th, 4-6pm
East River State Park. 90 Kent Ave at N.8th Street. facebook invite
Debt is a way of life; it is the bedrock of a rotten system. From birth, we're told that in order to achieve success, we have to get into debt. This happens to individuals, towns, cities and countries alike. It affects us all, whether we actually have debt or not. Some of us take out huge mortgages and student loans under the assumption that doing so will allow us to achieve the elusive dream of success. We buy things we can't afford and work jobs we don't want, striving towards promises of success that seem to be getting emptier by the day. Despite our best efforts, we struggle to find meaningful work, secure housing, and accessible healthcare. We've been buying into the system, but getting very little in return. Meanwhile, banks and credit card companies get rich off our debts and the debts of our communities. Our labor props up a system based on illusory rewards, and we find that we have less and less time for our lives and each other.
It's time to turn our backs on this system of debt and create something new in its place. In a gesture echoing the draft card burnings of the 1960's, we will be burning symbols of debt to express our refusal to be conscripted into a life of exploitative work and empty consumerism.
Being in debt can make us feel alone, trapped and inadequate, hopeless in the face of endless bills and service cuts. But debt can also bring us together. We believe we can be free if we invest in one another, rather than in a system that seeks only to take from us. Burning our debts is a celebration of that possibility.
Join us on Sunday, September 9th, at 4pm in East River State Park as we burn our debts and share our stories and hopes for the future. Together, we can step out of the shadows and light the way towards something better.
Let's imagine life after debt.
Wear your Sunday best. Refreshments will be served.
About Strike Debt:
Strike Debt is a network of students, artists, academics, and organizers who are sparking conversations about how debt affects us all and what we can do about it. Through militant research, direct action, and mutual support, we are exploring ways that we can break the chains of debt and create new bonds of solidarity.
