with City Life/Vida Urbana, Chelsea Collaborative, Occupy Wall Street, and Mass Uniting.
Monday, January 30, NOON to 1:30 pm
Meet at JP Morgan Chase (50 Rowes Wharf), continue past Fannie Mae, and end at Bank of America (100 Federal Place)
BRING YOUR SWIMWEAR! Participants are encouraged to bring flippers, goggles, swimsuits, snorkels — or just wear something blue! Details at http://www.facebook.com/events/317533048289164/
25% of mortgages nationally are underwater. This means that the amount owed on the mortgage exceeds the value of the house. In this situation a homeowner can make years of payments without ever owning anything. Wall Street Banks profited off of (and promoted) a housing bubble that left millions with underwater loans, then received trillions in taxpayer bailouts. Still they want to keep homeowners on the hook for wildly inflated prices and evict families who can actually afford their homes at real value.
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Other anti-foreclosure actions this weekend
Saturday, January 28, 10-2 p.m.
Anti-foreclosure Canvassing in Revere
145 Broadway, Revere, MA 21510
This weekend Occupy Boston will team up with the North Side Bank Tenants Association for an outreach canvass in Revere, going door-to-door to homes facing foreclosure to connect residents with a wider network of people in Boston fighting to keep their homes. Please join us! We have a long list, and need all the help we can get! IF YOU NEED A RIDE OR CAN PROVIDE ONE, email
katie@occupyboston.org, or call 410-967-5207. to RSVP, go to http://www.facebook.com/events/194607813971825/
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Sunday, January 29, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Organizer Training with City Life / Vida Urbana
284 Amory Street, 1st Floor, Jamaica PlainOver the past four years, City Life / Vida Urbana and the Northside BTA has launched a successful anti-foreclosure campaign in Boston, combining direct action, legal assistance and alternative financing to pressure banks to accept rent from former homeowners and renegotiate underwater loans down to their real market value. This Sunday, there will be an open meeting with OB and OWS to discuss organizing within home defense campaigns – an informal gathering to talk about tactics and strategies, basebulding, and how to reach out to the wider community,.
We will also be making puppets and props in preparation for Monday’s rally! All are welcome – we hope you can make it out! Training is at 1 p.m. – puppets and props will kick off around 2 p.m. RSVPs are appreciated but not required – email
katie@occupyboston.org for more details, or visit http://on.fb.me/xWiAAk
4 Responses to “January 30: March against Underwater Mortgages!”
Nobody held a gun to these people’s heads and made them buy a house. Caveat emptor.
Occupy’s greatest friend on TV and the web is the newly returned Bill Moyers show. Here’s a link to the website: http://billmoyers.com/
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Watch these first three episodes and tell me if you think that, beyond raising awareness, the Occupy movements have done anything to change the status-quo on Wall Street or in Washington. Demonstrations, marches, t-shirts, whatever, that’s all good, but it doesn’t give the voice of the angry and marginalized any real influence on Capitol Hill.
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Scenes like the one in California this weekend only alienate people and even the stated goal of that SNAFU wasn’t really meaningful.
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Here’s a suggestion: Organize a national meeting of the far flung Occupy movements and develop a national coalition. Then, instead of soliciting donations to get T passes for folks, etc, etc, solicit donations on a National level to hire professional lobbyists to get our voice in front of politicians, in their offices, every day, just like the financial industry does.
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Ooh, that’s too icky to get involved in? Well, if you think that change is going to be accomplished outside of the political process, as smelly as it is, you’re wrong. The banking industry has weakened Dodd-Frank, it has all but neutered the Consumer Protection Bureau, and it is mandating that the same kind of abuses that led to 2008 continue to operate today. We’re not that far from another crisis. Next time, It’ll break the countrys’ – and maybe the worlds’ – back. I think we aint’ seen nothin’ yet.
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The reason it’s happening is because we – the ones who are getting it up the rear end while financial sharks are taking their air in the Hamptons – don’t have strong voices where it really counts. On K Street and on The Hill.
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It’s time for the local demonstrations to evolve into something greater. It’s time for the police baiting and all that stupidity to stop. It’s time to move into the national arena in a FOCUSED way, and the GOP primaries are a perfect time to do it.
on January 30th, 2012 at 7:13 pm #
[…] Mortgages Action: https://www.occupyboston.org/2012/01/27/january-30-march-underwater-mortgages/ Tumblr: http://owsbus.tumblr.com/ Facebook: […]
on January 31st, 2012 at 8:35 am #
[…] que realizan una gira por el noreste del país, están en Boston. Hoy, junto con Ocupa Boston, llevaron a cabo una marcha contra las hipotecas “bajo el agua”, o sea, cuando el valor de la propiedad es menor a lo que […]