Joe Stringer of ACCE, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment talks about why he is going to Washington, DC to risk arrest at the Department of Justice.

Stringer,in Los Angeles talks about how the foreclosure crisis has decimated his neighborhood in Watts.

It's time for bankers to go to jail!

This may be President Obama's last chance to get justice for the millions of homeowners, taxpayers, and retirees whose homes, savings, pensions and livelihoods were stolen by Wall Street bankers.

Tell President Obama:

1. Prosecute Wall Street bankers for stealing our homes, savings and livelihoods.

2. Keep people in their homes by resetting their mortgages.

3. Make Wall Street pay us back.

Sign the petition here.

While Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf and his fellow banksters met in Salt Lake City, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) members mourned the damage they bank has caused the Bay Area with a protest at their Headquarters.

On Tuesday, April 23rd homeowners, tenants, faith leaders, and students from around the Bay Area demonstrated at Wells Fargo headquarters in solidarity with those at annual shareholder meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. The memorial service in San Francisco focused on three themes: mourning lost homes, dreams, and lives as a result Well Fargo's predatory lending practices; standing in fellowship with protestors at the shareholder's meeting; calling for action and justice for homeowners, students, and all currently in the struggle against crushing debt.

While protesters gathered outside the San Francisco headquarters of Wells Fargo, other Californians went to Salt Lake City to protest at the company’s annual shareholders meeting.

Via:

“We recognize that there are a lot of predatory loan practices and racial loan practices,” said ACCE spokesman Melvin Willis. “They are making record profits while people are just struggling to have the 'American dream' — to live in a house and raise a family.”

He said foreclosures are still harming families, particularly in minority communities nationwide.

“That is unacceptable and that is why we are here today,” Willis said.

Thursday's event was part of a broader campaign of ACCE and the Home Defenders League to push Wells Fargo to change their practices in order to reduce foreclosures. The groups are calling on Wells Fargo to:

• Make principal reduction a core front-end strategy when considering loan modifications;
• Release data on race & income of the homeowners they foreclose on, evict or assist.
• Stop all foreclosures and evictions stop until these steps are put into place.

Protesters also called on Wells Fargo to end practices that profit from community losses, including foreclosure, payday-type lending and investment in private prisons.

Hold Wall Street Accountable! Occupy Our Homes Week of Action, May 18-25

Via OccupyOurHomes.org and OccupyWallSt.org:

Over the last few years, homeowners and residents around the country have taken a stand against the banks and fought foreclosures and evictions. The growing network of Occupy Our Homes supporters have signed petitions, made phone calls, and showed up to events to help families stay in their homes. Dozens of homeowners around the country have won their fights, but the crisis is far from over.

Communities have been destroyed as millions of families have already lost their homes to foreclosure, while millions more are underwater on their mortgages. The big banks are bigger and more powerful than ever. To date, no high level Wall Street executives have been prosecuted for their crimes, such as mortgage fraud and predatory lending. US attorney general, Eric Holder even admitted recently that in the administration's eyes, the banks are not only ‘too big to fail,’ they're now ‘too big to jail.’

As a new housing bubble fueled by Wall Street speculation is forming, it's clear that the financial industry didn't learn their lesson from the last mess. It's more important than ever for us to take action to demand meaningful relief for homeowners and prosecutions for the criminals at the top. Only through the power of thousands of organized homeowners taking action in the streets can we make the Attorney General and the President listen. Occupy Our Homes, the Home Defenders League, and others are joining fed-up homeowners who are ready to demand action-- join us the week of May 20th.

Over the next two months, Home Defenders from across the country will have an opportunity to tell their stories and fight back. Some will travel to Washington, DC the week of May 20th to make their voice heard directly at the Department of Justice. Join the fight! Sign up now to fight in your city. Scholarships will be available to attend the Department of Justice Action in Washington DC.

Click here to sign up

The Occupy Sandy website, http://occupysandy.net, has been revamped to help us all better engage in mutual aid with the survivors of the SuperStorm.

In whatever manner you have taken part, it’s important to recognize and remember that the crisis isn't over. Not by a long shot.

Areas hit by Sandy still need volunteers. Please join us.

-- from the ‘Your Inbox: Occupied’ team

Occupy in the News

The Revolution Will Be Augmented: OWS Should Embrace Google Glass

Silicon Angle

Already Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and other protesters have visited the idea of activism and citizen journalism on the front lines of large scale protests by using smartphones and live streaming–but it’s nothing compared to the surveillance capabilities of law enforcement agencies. (ht OWS News Coverage blast: subscribe here).

Free Health Care & Spirited Activism Transform NYC Public Spaces Saturday

Washington Square Public Blog

Occupy Town Square, Strike Debt, and other Occupy Wall Street groups, gathered together Saturday, March 23rd for “Medical Emergency: Life or Debt” with Washington Square Park as the hub.

Cyprus: What Every Occupier Needs to Know

OccupyWallStreet.net

Nicholas Levis from the Alternative Banking Working Group weighs in on the crisis in Cyprus after they rejected a proposed 10 billion European Union bank bailout. Cyprus constitutes “an experiment in total exercise of class power, to see how far a people can be pushed and what might be learned for future cases.”

Mortgage Protesters Occupy Bank in Barcelona

NBC News Photoblog

Members of Mortgage Victims' Platform (PAH), occupy a bank branch during a protest to support neighbors who are facing evictions processes in Barcelona, Spain, on March 19.

Let Me Ascertain You: The Civilians Podcast

By the Civilians

Let Me Ascertain You, from award-winning investigative theater company The Civilians, is a weekly podcast series of performances crafted from interviews with real people about current and controversial topics, including Occupy Wall Street, Atlantic Yards, the adult entertainment industry, Evangelical Christianity, and more. Last week they aired their finale from a 5 part Occupy #S17 series.

Occupy Wall Street and Strike Debt Stand in Solidarity With the Community of East Flatbush and the Family of Kimani Gray

OccupyWallSt.org

“Predatory debt, public austerity, emergency restructuring, climate crisis: the disasters of Wall Street hit black and brown people the hardest”. Prior to a solidarity march this Sunday, the following was published - providing details on the rationale of so many occupiers who are supporting the #BrooklynProtest, in a manner that will help provide mutual understanding for solidarity with this neighborhood-led local effort.

Featured Occu-Project of the Week

For over a year now, Occu-Evolve has been holding weekly assemblies and actions focused on "race, class, gender, identity, cultural and structural and direction of the movement.” It was formed out of an ardent commitment to providing outreach to the 99%, particularly people of color, the working class and neighborhood assemblies.

Occu-Evolve’s efforts at this time couldn’t be more timely in light of the tragedy of Kimani Gray and the #BrooklynProtest it has inspired. Check out their Occupy For Kimani (and all victims of police injustice) page for details on “positive, clear, organized and coordinated actions, communication and planning for Justice for Kimani Gray, as well as other victims of unjust and deadly police actions and encounters.”

Continue reading »

Without reading the final settlement, it's difficult to say, but it seems that this might replace the Independent Foreclosure Review, and provide some real relief for homeowners and families who suffered foreclosures. But, as Lynn Drysdale, a lawyer at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and a former co-chairwoman of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, said: “It’s certainly a victory for consumers and could help entire neighborhoods. But the devil, as they say, is in the details, and for those people who have had to totally uproot their lives because of eviction it may still not be enough.”

NYT:

Banking regulators are close to a $10 billion settlement with 14 banks that would end the government’s efforts to hold lenders responsible for foreclosure abuses like faulty paperwork and excessive fees that may have led to evictions, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Under the settlement, a significant amount of the money, $3.75 billion, would go to people who have already lost their homes, making it potentially more generous to former homeowners than a broad-reaching pact in February between state attorneys general and five large banks. That set aside $1.5 billion in cash relief for Americans.

Most of the relief in both agreements is meant for people who are struggling to stay in their homes and need the banks to reduce their payments or lower the amount of principal they owe.

The $10 billion pact would be the latest in a series of settlements that regulators and law enforcement officials have reached with banks to hold them accountable for their role in the 2008 financial crisis that sent the housing market into the deepest slump since the Great Depression. As of early 2012, four million Americans had been foreclosed upon since the beginning of 2007, and a huge amount of abandoned homes swamped many states, including California, Florida and Arizona.

The five largest banks involved in the $26 billion settlement with the Justice Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development -- JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial -- are included in the current negotiations.

Moments before Ameia Egana, aged 53, was to be evicted from her fourth floor apartment, she clambered over the balcony railing and jumped to her death. Police at the scene said she died on impact. It is the second suicide in Spain in a matter of weeks; a man facing eviction in Grenada was found hanging in his home. A local judge called to the scene said the law on evictions must be changed. Al Jazeera's Peter Sharp reports.

On Monday, Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos promised that no needy family will go homeless over mortgage arrears, responding to public fury over Egana's suicide as she was being evicted.

Via Reuters:

Facing accusations that politicians and banks are complicit in de facto "murder", Spain's banking association said its members would suspend eviction orders for two years for those borrowers worst hit by economic crisis and record unemployment.

Banks have repossessed close to 400,000 homes in Spain since a property bubble burst in 2008 and the nation subsequently sank into recession, throwing millions out of work and unable to keep up mortgage payments to the banks.

Nearly one million homes now sit vacant in Spain. A citizens' movement called "Stop Evictions" asked the banks earlier this year to forgive mortgage debt for properties worth less than 200,000 euros, and where all family members are unemployed. Currently under Spanish law, even when borrowers turn their home over to the banks, they must still pay the entire amount of the mortgage.

Police unions have agreed to support officers who refuse to participate in eviction proceedings. But until government finalizes reforms to eviction laws, there are those who will still face eviction and homelessness. Meanwhile, the banks are set to receive part of an up to 100 billion euro European bailout to offset their financial hardships as so many are unable to pay their mortgage debts.

In this video, a flashback to 2011, Occupy the Boardroom:

"We brought 99 red balloons down to the headquarters for Goldman Sachs where we hoisted up messages from the 99%. Our balloons totally got their attention — I could see people in offices and board rooms waving and snapping photos with their iphones. So strange. We didn’t quite reach the penthouse, but we did manage to carry them up to the 20th floor. Quite a feat!"

"We also had a couple of signs: “Goldman Sachs -you’ve got mail!” “Can you hear me now?”; “Goldman Sachs - we need to talk.”'

Now the latest from Occupy the Boardroom:

"We are honored and humbled to announce that, because of the power of the stories that everyone has submitted since we created this space, the non-profit publishing house N+1 has agreed to publish a book made up of your letters to the 1 percent!

This isn’t their book and it isn’t our book. It’s your book, drawn from the thousands of stories submitted to Occupy the Board Room since we launched in October of 2011. These are stories from Democrats and Republicans, property-owners and struggling families, business people and retirees, immigrants and Mayflower descendants, religious leaders and fervent capitalists, and a lot of bank employees past and present.

You’ve been polite, funny, outraged, moving, instructive, and inspiring.

And that’s why we are putting your words in print – so that you can inspire the creation of an America that works for all of us."

I had the great privilege of being able to help in a small way on this project, and it was amazing to see so many poignant letters pour in from all across the country. There used to be a great stigma attached to having financial problems, and especially for families who were going through having their home foreclosed on -- they suffered in silence, and felt ashamed. Occupy the Boardroom ended that silent suffering as people began to realize that they weren't alone.

This book, "The Trouble is the Banks: Letters to Wall Street" is a piece of history that documents the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, and it's told through the letters written by Americans, in their own words. You can order a copy at Occupy the Boardroom's website now.

Wells Fargo, the nation's largest mortgage lender, agreed to settle with the Justice Department Thursday to resolve allegations that it steered blacks and Hispanic borrowers into subprime loans when similarly qualified white borrowers received mortgages with lower rates.

The settlement, which must be approved by a judge, requires Wells Fargo to provide $125 million to borrowers, $50 million in down-payment assistance in hard-hit regions where Justice found evidence of discrimination, and additional compensation to blacks and Hispanics who were wrongly placed into subprime loans.

[Via]

DemocracyNow!:

The Coalition for the Homeless reports the number of people living in New York City homeless shelters has reached an all-time high of 43,000. Critics attribute the spike in homelessness to the Bloomberg administration’s alleged failure to help move homeless families into permanent affordable housing. Housing advocates say the problem was exacerbated by the city’s cancellation of the "Advantage" apartment rental subsidy, with as many as 8,000 former aid recipients now facing eviction. We get a report from Democracy Now!’s Chantal Berman, who interviewed several aid recipients who could soon lose their homes, and speak to Patrick Markee, senior policy analyst at Coalition for the Homeless in New York City

Full transcript below the fold...

Continue reading »

From the director of "No End In Sight" comes a documentary on the financial meltdown of 2008 and the ways in which it could have been avoided.

"Inside Job" provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. It was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.

Academy Award winner Matt Damon narrates this unflinching look at the deep-rooted corruption that has left millions of middle-class Americans jobless and homeless as the major corporations get bailed out while paying millions in bonuses.

[Length: 1 hour 48 minutes]