Aimco Corporation -- the for-profit comapny that owns Rogers Park's Northpoint apartments and many other properties around the country -- wants to evict Rosetta Bledsoe's grandchildren. Aimco claims that, because Rosetta died and their new guardian, their Aunt Erica Bledsoe, wasn't previously on the lease, that the orphaned children will be evicted from their home of many years.
Click Here to help stop this eviction.
Action for Justice is part of the ad hoc Bledsoe support committee, helped with a rally on July and is asking people to tell HUD to step in and stop the eviction. HUD provides the funding to Aimco/Northpoint. And is supposed to help alleviate the affordable housing crisis.
Volunteers are also collecting support postcards at Triangle Park on Sept 26 and Oct 3.
For more background on the story, see Chicago Now and the Tribune.
-------
Update:
Ad Hoc Bledsoe Support Committee has been formed and is online here.
September 24, 2009
September 22, 2009
Support workers on strike over health care
NA4J members joined Norma Trinidad and 20 of her co-workers in front of the Sears store on
“They took away our health care,” Norma told people as they entered the store.
On August 25, the workers struck because Claude Fuger, the wealthy French businessman that owns SK Handtools, had stopped paying their health insurance premiums – in violation of their contract. To put additional pressure on Fuger, workers are asking for help from shoppers at Sears, which is the largest purchaser of SK and Craftsman brands made at the SK factory on 47th Strteet.
The workers plan to go to Oak Brook mall on Saturday. The Sears store there is having a sale on hand tools.
Supporters can call the CEO of SK Hand Tools at 800-752-7263 (tell them everyone needs health care and restore the coverage workers are owed), or call Sears at 847-286-2500 to protest their sale of SK products.
As part of its striker support, NA4J brought several cases of produce for the people on strike.
Job loss = evictions = high vacancy = deeper crisis
The economic crisis and loss of jobs add to high vacancy in rental housing. Until recently, high health
A study by Depaul University shows that with unemployment hitting blue collar workers more, low and moderate income neighborhoods are hit much harder by vacancies, which add blight to communities.
The report indicates that the unemployment and the slow economy have lowered incomes and have caused many families to "double up" or move in with another family resulting in a stagnant rental market and higher vacancies.
The Chicago Rehab Network has a summary of the nearly 7,000 foreclosures in Chicago in just the first 3 months of 2009 -- and the main "corporate criminals" responsible for these evictions.
Health care crises and job loss (which often means loss of health insurance) are leading causes of foreclosures and bankruptcies.
September 16, 2009
Protest the Bailout Bandits
Protest the
"Bailout Bandits"
Thursday, September 24
12 Noon
Wells Fargo
(Monroe & Franklin)
"Bailout Bandits"
Thursday, September 24
12 Noon
Wells Fargo
(Monroe & Franklin)
As part of a national week of actions for economic recovery, NA4J part of a community-labor coalition that will put Wells Fargo and the other bailout bandits on trial for their corporate crimes.
The "too big to fail" banks took billions in bailouts -- both through the $700 Billion TARP and far more through Federal reserve -- supposedly to save the economy by offering credit to keep people working through the recession. Instead they made money from gambling with our money, paid themselves bonuses and continue to force people out of jobs and out of homes.
If you're fed up with Congress being owned by the banks, tired of the bailout bandits taking our money and using it to fight any reforms and block a recovery for the rest of us, if you agree that we need good jobs and affordable housing for everyone ...
Join us September 24
(and again October 27)
September 14, 2009
Bailed Out CEOs pocket cash, sell out workers
Since Jan. 1, 2008, the top 20 financial industry recipients of bailout aid have together laid off more than 160,000 employees.
In 2008, the 20 CEOs at these firms each averaged $13.8 million in compensation, for a collective total of over $250 million. As obscene as CEO salaries are generally, these 'bailout bandit' CEOs made out with 37% more than the average CEO of the S&P 500.
In other words, the banksters that wrecked their companies and the economy, directly laid off 160,000 workers, forced hundreds of thousands of others out of jobs by refusing to extend credit to companies like Quad Cities Die Casting, Republic Windows and Doors, Qimondo actually made more money than average top CEOs of the biggest corporations.
Another reason to go to the protest Sept 24 at Wells Fargo.
In 2008, the 20 CEOs at these firms each averaged $13.8 million in compensation, for a collective total of over $250 million. As obscene as CEO salaries are generally, these 'bailout bandit' CEOs made out with 37% more than the average CEO of the S&P 500.
In other words, the banksters that wrecked their companies and the economy, directly laid off 160,000 workers, forced hundreds of thousands of others out of jobs by refusing to extend credit to companies like Quad Cities Die Casting, Republic Windows and Doors, Qimondo actually made more money than average top CEOs of the biggest corporations.
Another reason to go to the protest Sept 24 at Wells Fargo.
September 13, 2009
Income drop is biggest in decades
New Census figures show that median household and family incomes went down from 2007 to 2008. It was the biggest decline in decades.
Both the number and percentage of households in poverty increased.
This while the gap between rich and everyone else is the greatest it's been since the great depression. No wonder. A recent analysis shows that 1/3 of all pay goes to highly paid executives, while the bailed out banks living on taxpayer money lobby against a recovery for the rest of us.
Yes, There Oughta Be A Law.
Both the number and percentage of households in poverty increased.
This while the gap between rich and everyone else is the greatest it's been since the great depression. No wonder. A recent analysis shows that 1/3 of all pay goes to highly paid executives, while the bailed out banks living on taxpayer money lobby against a recovery for the rest of us.
Yes, There Oughta Be A Law.
September 12, 2009
Too Big to Fail vs. Too Small To Notice?
Go ahead; I dare you.
Name me 3 of the 16 Illinois banks that collapsed in 2009 and have been taken over by the government [no fair googling!]. Or how about a few of the 91 banks taken over across the country so far this year? That's right, 91.
Today's news has a piece about Corus Bank being taken over by the government. It caught our attention because it was in the news as the 4th largest failure in the country so far this year.
A $7 Billion institution is nothing to sneeze at. But what seems most important to note is that not a single insured depositor will lose a dime, and all the bank branches will be open (under MB Financial) on the next regular business day. Practically the only thing that most people would notice is the new name on the buildings. Business as usual.
That's how the federal regulatory system is supposed to work, and in most cases, the way it does work. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) takes over banks that were run into the ground by executives/boards, makes sure the regular folks are OK and keeps the overall system running. Even in the biggest bank take-overs, it only takes a few days for the shop to reopen under a new structure. But the investors and owners, the ones that made all the profits when the casino was going their way, get wiped out. As they should.
But what about CitiBank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase and the rest of the "bailout bandits"?
Oh ... they were 'too big to fail.'
So big (which really means they are so politically powerful that Congress and the Administration caved in to their demands) that they got Congress to free them up to gamble with other people's money, allowing their executives got to pocket tens of millions of dollars in (false) profits during the heyday of the destructive housing and speculation bubble, a frenzy that drove the economy to ruin.
So big that, rather than taking their lumps for their recklessness, they got bailed out to the tune of over $4 Trillion (yes, with a 'T', far more than the $700 Billion in the TARP) and now many of these same bad actors are making money cleaning up the mess they made money on in the first place.
They were "Too Big to Fail". Most bank failures are too small to notice. And "too big to fail" is simply too big.
To be clear, taking over Citicorp and the other 'zombie' banks would not be simple. Since when is cleaning up a crime scene ever tidy? But it was and is very doable.
It is long past time to break up the banks, re-establish meaningful regulation and create publicly-controlled alternatives, ranging from a publicly owned national community investment bank to community development credit unions.
If you want to see an end to the corporate crimes of these financial giants, come to the protest at Wells Fargo, Thursday, September 24, 12 noon at Monroe & Franklin.
Action for Justice members will be there, helping other groups in the Chicago Jobs with Justice coalition put Wells Fargo on trial for its corporate crimes, and calling for jobs and housing.
And next month, we'll be back to give some hell to the American Bankers Association annual convention, downtown from October 25-27.
PS: To keep up on the list of bank failures, visit here.
Name me 3 of the 16 Illinois banks that collapsed in 2009 and have been taken over by the government [no fair googling!]. Or how about a few of the 91 banks taken over across the country so far this year? That's right, 91.
Today's news has a piece about Corus Bank being taken over by the government. It caught our attention because it was in the news as the 4th largest failure in the country so far this year.
A $7 Billion institution is nothing to sneeze at. But what seems most important to note is that not a single insured depositor will lose a dime, and all the bank branches will be open (under MB Financial) on the next regular business day. Practically the only thing that most people would notice is the new name on the buildings. Business as usual.
That's how the federal regulatory system is supposed to work, and in most cases, the way it does work. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) takes over banks that were run into the ground by executives/boards, makes sure the regular folks are OK and keeps the overall system running. Even in the biggest bank take-overs, it only takes a few days for the shop to reopen under a new structure. But the investors and owners, the ones that made all the profits when the casino was going their way, get wiped out. As they should.
But what about CitiBank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase and the rest of the "bailout bandits"?
Oh ... they were 'too big to fail.'
So big (which really means they are so politically powerful that Congress and the Administration caved in to their demands) that they got Congress to free them up to gamble with other people's money, allowing their executives got to pocket tens of millions of dollars in (false) profits during the heyday of the destructive housing and speculation bubble, a frenzy that drove the economy to ruin.
So big that, rather than taking their lumps for their recklessness, they got bailed out to the tune of over $4 Trillion (yes, with a 'T', far more than the $700 Billion in the TARP) and now many of these same bad actors are making money cleaning up the mess they made money on in the first place.
They were "Too Big to Fail". Most bank failures are too small to notice. And "too big to fail" is simply too big.
To be clear, taking over Citicorp and the other 'zombie' banks would not be simple. Since when is cleaning up a crime scene ever tidy? But it was and is very doable.
It is long past time to break up the banks, re-establish meaningful regulation and create publicly-controlled alternatives, ranging from a publicly owned national community investment bank to community development credit unions.
If you want to see an end to the corporate crimes of these financial giants, come to the protest at Wells Fargo, Thursday, September 24, 12 noon at Monroe & Franklin.
Action for Justice members will be there, helping other groups in the Chicago Jobs with Justice coalition put Wells Fargo on trial for its corporate crimes, and calling for jobs and housing.
And next month, we'll be back to give some hell to the American Bankers Association annual convention, downtown from October 25-27.
PS: To keep up on the list of bank failures, visit here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
