Newark, NJ – The People’s Organization for Progress held a march here, Feb. 26, to commemorate the second anniversary of the murder of Trayvon Martin. Martin was murdered in Sanford, Florida. The state of Florida refused to convict his killer, George Zimmerman.

Dozens of people came out in the freezing cold for the protest. The acquittal of Michael Dunn for the murder of Jordan Davis, also in Florida, gave even greater impact to the march.

POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm told the gathering, “Never forget – because forgetting is the first step toward having it happen again. Violence has been used against us since the first slave ships tore families apart. More states are actually passing ‘stand your ground’ laws, but they all have to be repealed.”

#NewarkNJ #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #TrayvonMartin #GeorgeZimmerman #InjusticeSystem

Newark, NJ – The struggle to get justice for Trayvon Martin continued here, July 20. Over 500 people turned out at the Federal Building to demand a federal civil rights investigation of his murder by George Zimmerman. The rally was called by the National Action Network (NAN.) Speaker after speaker denounced the Zimmerman verdict and contrasted it with the 20-year sentence given Marissa Alexander in the same state of Florida for firing a warning shot in her own defense that harmed no one.

Another common point was to build the Aug. 24 march in Washington, D.C. in observance of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic March on Washington. Goals of thousands of buses from New Jersey alone and over a million in attendance were projected.

Bashir Akinyele of the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition (NAVC), urged four points for action: a federal investigation of civil rights violations by Zimmerman; the repeal of 'stand your ground' laws in all states that have them; a boycott of consumer products made by companies owned by the infamous Koch brothers, who financed Zimmerman’s defense; and a United Nations declaration of the national identity of African-American people.

He said we need a united front of struggle—NAN, NAVC, NAACP, People’s Organization for Progress (POP), Bloods, Crips, unions, teachers, everybody.

The main address of the day was given by Lawrence Hamm of the People’s Organization for Progress. He introduced Earl Williams, father of Earl Faison, killed in 1999 by police in Orange, New Jersey, to the crowd.

Earl Faison was just 27 when his life was taken. The police told his father he had died an “accidental death” – that he had fallen off a chair. What Earl Williams saw was that his son had been beaten so badly that boot marks were visible on his body. One eye was hanging out of its socket.

As in the case of Trayvon Martin, the police destroyed evidence and tried to cover up the crime, Hamm said. They didn’t count on the determination of the people. POP and the family of Earl Faison stayed out in front of the police station, with protest after protest. They marched for justice in 13 different cities. Eventually five police were found guilty on federal charges of civil rights violations. It took five years of fighting through all kinds of official delays and evasions before the perpetrators were finally sentenced.

“We have to be in it for the long term,” Hamm said, “even if we have to come back here a thousand times!” The gathering roared its agreement.

He noted that the NAACP had already been working on the murder of Emmett Till when the Montgomery bus boycott was being planned. “The struggle for Trayvon Martin will be the forerunner of many other struggles for justice, just as was the struggle for Emmett Till.

“We stand here today 150 years after the Civil War,” he said. “Our ancestors gave their lives so that we would no longer be seen as chattels. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and Fannie Lou Hamer rose up to put Jim Crow in the garbage can.

“Since then we have been electing senators, representatives and governors. We even have a man in the White House. We even have an attorney general. Those officials can’t just sit there. If we can’t send this racist to jail, our ancestors will look down on us!

“Attorney General Holder has a representative here,” he said. “We demand that Federal Attorney for New Jersey Paul J. Fishman meet with leaders of our community to discuss our demand for a civil rights violations investigation of Zimmerman.

“Tell Obama dialogue is good but justice would be better. . . A voice calls from beyond the grave,” he said, urging attendance on Aug. 24 in Washington.

POP meets every Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, 224 W. Kinney Street in Newark.

#NewarkNJ #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #TrayvonMartin #GeorgeZimmerman #NationalActionNetwork

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from People's Organization For Progress (POP) chair Lawrence Hamm, from a May 10 Newark, New Jersey press conference.

Newark, NJ – The People's Organization For Progress (POP) calls upon the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to remove Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard) from its ‘Most Wanted Terrorists List.’ She does not belong on the list because Ms. Shakur was never charged nor convicted of an act of domestic or international terrorism.

To place her on such a list is fundamentally unjust. It is a perversion of justice and involves the ex post facto application of terrorist laws and definitions of terrorism that were not in existence or applied to her case at the time of her arrest and conviction.

Furthermore, she did not commit the crime she was accused of. She was placed on the list because her conviction connected her to the murder of a police officer. However, evidence in her case shows that she could not have shot and killed that officer. She became a fugitive because given the circumstances of her case, the atmosphere of repression, and the racism of the criminal justice system she could not get justice in this country and to remain here may have cost her life.

The move to place her on the list and the doubling of her bounty to $2 million has little to do with justice and everything to do with politics. It is an opportunistic attempt to use the criminal justice system to score political points in this highly charged post Boston bombing environment.

Placing Assata Shakur on the terrorists list when she was not convicted of a “terrorist act” is in essence falsely accusing her of a crime that she did not commit. It is the abandonment of the law in the name of enforcing the law.

Like the war in Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, preemptive strikes, and the abandonment of international law, it is the establishment of a false premise as a rationale for violent action, which has no legal basis but for which political support may be imagined or conjured up. Placing Assata Shakur on the terrorists list sets a dangerous precedent.

With the false premise established what will be next? Will Cuba be given the ultimatum to give up Shakur like the Afghanistan government was told to give up Osama Bin Laden before the U.S. invasion of that country? Will there be a drone strike of Shakur's supposed residence in Cuba? Will Navy Seal Team “7” be sent on a covert mission to assassinate Assata Shakur who is an American citizen?

By identifying Shakur as a terrorist the FBI is taking the terrorists list and making it a “political enemies” list, which is an instrument of state terror. And why not? This fits in perfectly with unjust and illegal trillion dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, extraordinary renditions, black site secret prisons in foreign lands, torture, assassination of U.S. citizens, military courts, secret trials, Guantanamo, elimination of habeas corpus, indefinite detention, government domestic spying, arbitrary arrests, police brutality, racial profiling, stop and frisk, mass incarceration, school to prison pipeline, suppression of dissent, COINTELPRO type operations, ignoring the Constitution, trashing the Bill of rights, and trampling upon our civil liberties.

And let's look at her accusers. Who is calling her a terrorist? The FBI who spied on Dr. Martin Luther King. The FBI whose Director J. Edgar Hoover made it his mission to destroy Dr. King. The FBI who engaged in acts of state terror that included assassination against people and organizations in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements.

And the New Jersey State Police who shot up Newark and killed innocent people during the rebellion. The New Jersey State Police who for years engaged in the worst forms of racial profiling. The New Jersey State Police, a department so rife with racism that the federal government had to put it under a “master” to force it to reform its racist ways.

With this precedent the rights of all Americans are placed in greater jeopardy. Now, anyone can be deemed a terrorist, not because this was proven in a court of law but by fiat, proclamation or declaration by the President, U.S. Attorney General, FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, or some other agency of the federal government.

And this can be done not just for transgressions of the present. It can be done retroactively for sins of the past, ten, twenty, thirty, and forty years ago. If the government doesn't like someone just put them on the terrorist list.

Of course, this exercise of twenty-first century U.S. democracy would not be complete unless accompanied by the economic incentive that American capitalism can provide. In this age of robber billionaires a $1 million dollar bounty on the head of Assata Shakur was not enough. It has been doubled to $2 million.

Who are the $2 million pieces of silver for? Are they for enterprising U.S. citizens? No. Assata Shakur has been given political asylum in Cuba. This pot of gold is to entice elements within Cuban Society to violate the laws and policies of the Cuban government.

The FBI and company hope that in Cuba there are corrupt persons within the police, or criminal elements, or people opposed to the government who will take the bait and do this bit of subcontracting work and keep some of the heat off the bosses in the US.

They hope that there are Hamid Kharzais in Cuba who would like to have bags of money delivered to them on a monthly basis. “Bring Assata Shakur to us and you to can be a millionaire.” Dead or alive has not been specified.

The placing of Assata Shakur on the terrorist list while portrayed as a noble act in the attempt to get justice for a slain police officer is in fact a shameful act of revenge, opportunism, political manipulation, and authoritarianism. It is part and parcel of a corrosive trend eating away at the democratic processes and institutions in our country for half a century and which has accelerated since 9/11.

Assata Shakur should not be on the terrorist list. She should be removed from that list just as Nelson Mandela was removed from that list several years ago. When the threat of terrorism and the terrorist label is misused in this manner the victims of real acts of terror are dishonored.

#NewarkNJ #Newark #InJusticeSystem #Cuba #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #PoliticalRepression #AssataShakur

Newark, NJ – The People’s Organization for Progress (POP) put a Hands off Social Security picket line in front of the Essex County Social Security building, April 16. Hundreds of drivers blew horns. Passersby stop to talk and show solidarity. Other participating organizations included the International Action Center, One People One Nation, Veterans for Peace and the Coalition to Save Our Homes.

The protest was in response the Obama administration’s proposed cuts in cost of living adjustments for Social Security. A new “chained Consumer Price Index” would replace the established CPI with a lower percentage. The expectation is that Social Security outlays would be reduced by several hundred billion dollars over the next ten years. It is another proposal to support Wall Street profit demands by plundering the living standards of the masses.

That a Democratic administration would propose such a thing has caused widespread shock. The impact would be far broader than senior citizens, since families and dependents are also supported by Social Security. The protest showed that neither POP nor the other organizations nor the masses will have any of it. Wall Street’s attack on Social Security must be stopped.

#NewarkNewJersey #NewarkNJ #POP #SocialSecurity #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress

“POP demands that criminal investigations of bank misconduct in the mortgage bubble be undertaken and federal and state levels. The first priority must be to find out what happened to the supposedly ‘missing’ mortgage notes. The investigations must also look into the actions of the banks in the overpricing of homes, selling them for much more than they were worth. Finding of both civil and criminal wrongdoing must be prosecuted.”

POP and C2SOH scheduled a Nov. 1 protest rally in Trenton, the New Jersey state capital, to demand an investigation. Other demands are that Governor Chris Christie release $300 million in federal funds for distressed homeowners that has been held up, and that mortgage principals be reduced to reflect the true market value of overpriced homes.

“Every government program to supposedly help distressed homeowners has turned out to be a bank bailout in disguise,” said a spokesperson for the campaign. The Home Affordable Mortgage Program as a case in point. Millions of homeowners have been strung along for months by banks, having to file extensive applications time after time only to be denied and then saddled with charges and fines by the banks for the delay!

Bank criminality in abusive loans that were designed to fail and the Three-card Monte games they played with mortgage notes were criminal violations. There has not been a single criminal prosecution for any of it.

POP and C2SOH are reaching out to other organizations and people in a petition addressed to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Already it has met with an eager response. Work is under way for a coordinated effort. Everyone wants this to happen.

#NewarkNJ #HousingStruggles #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #AttorneyGeneralEricHolder #CoalitionToSaveOurHomes #HomeForeclosures

Newark, NJ – A protest against predatory lending took place here, Sept. 15, at the Broad Street branch of Wells Fargo Bank. It was the joint effort of the People’s Organization for Progress (POP) and the Coalition to Save Our Homes (C2SOH).

Demands included immediate mortgage reduction, an end to foreclosure by banks that do not own the mortgage, and a five-year moratorium on foreclosures. The overall demand was to end Wall Street’s lawless reign of financial terror and make banks obey the law.

Many speakers, including distressed homeowners, took turns on the bullhorn to denounce predatory lending. The Newark area is hard hit by the depression. There are many issues. Foreclosure and homelessness are epidemic. Community violence claims lives every few days. The public schools are being closed and privatized in the areas where black people live. Mayor Cory Booker, a ‘rising star’ of the Democratic Party, is trying to sell off and privatize the city water system against intense community resistance.

Many protesters spoke on the bullhorn. Housing is a human right! There should be no poverty at all in the United States. Everyone should have a nice place to live. No one should ever have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. The problem is that capital’s need for profit eats up every human need.The government must take action against predatory lenders.

Protesters mingled with passersby throughout the event. A couple of people took POP and C2SOH literature and passed it out. Several distressed homeowners were given self-help information and were told about C2SOH. People raised their hands in solidarity. It became clear that everybody hates Wall Street, homeowner or not.

A key demand that was voiced at the protest is that special prosecutors be appointed at federal and state levels to investigate civil and criminal wrongdoing by financial corporations. There has been vast financial misconduct, much of it criminal, as well as predatory lending. The economy is in depression. Financial chaos is everywhere. Yet no one has been investigated, no one has been prosecuted and no one has gone to jail for all the harm that has been done. Regulators do nothing, Congress does nothing.

It is time to appoint special prosecutors to get the job done. It is important to clear up what happened to those millions of ‘missing’ mortgage promissory notes. We do not believe the usual excuses about ‘slicing and dicing’ in financial trading. The banks are hiding something. Let prosecutors investigate and find out. Let the chips fall where they may. As protesters chanted, the banks are “Not too big to fail, not too big to jail.”

#NewarkNJ #WallStreet #HousingStruggles #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #CoalitionToSaveOurHomes #HomeForeclosures

Irvington, NJ – A march and rally against foreclosures was held here on July 21. It was sponsored by the Coalition to Save Our Homes and the People’s Organization for Progress (POP). The event tied the suffering of homeowners directly to the predation of Wall Street. The demands were: end robo-signing; reduce mortgage principals to current value; prosecute banksters; make banks obey the rule of law.

Speakers denounced the banks for causing the mortgage crisis. Sharon Hand of POP and Carol Gay of the Solidarity Singers condemned lenders for issuing mortgages that they knew homeowners could not repay. They said the banks’ actions were violations of human rights. The affected homeowners must take action to prevent foreclosure, including demands on public officials to meet their responsibilities to citizens.

Another speaker said all issues of people’s economic justice trace directly to Wall Street. The main way the financial sector makes money now is by fraud, theft, embezzlement and gambling. JPMorgan Chase dropped $7 billion at the tables of the Wall Street big casino and nearly triggered another 2008-style financial collapse. Meanwhile young people in the cities are killing each other in the streets because they don’t have jobs and are desperate. They need to stop fighting each other and fight their real enemies.

Susan Newton of POP, who has worked as a mortgage underwriter, gave practical advice. She said if you need credit, always talk to several lenders. Remember the banks are not interested in your needs; instead they are looking out for ways to make money from you.

The Solidarity Singers performed several songs during the program, including Tom Bias’s anthem, Foreclosure Song. Bias also related how the banks had worked him and his family over in their struggle to avoid foreclosure.

The Black Orchid Drummers performed at the end of the rally. The gathering headed off to march through Irvington’s business district. The town authorities had denied a permit to march in the street, first on one pretext, then on another. We marched on the sidewalks anyway and it worked to our advantage. Passersby raised fists, shook hands and called out in agreement, and took informational fliers. Some defied the permit denial and marched in the street.

The protest proceeded to the local branch of Wells Fargo to “pay a visit.” The marchers chanted “You can’t rob the bank, but the bank can rob you!” and “Banksters: Not too big to fail, not too big to jail!” The Black Orchid Drummers played throughout the march, pulling people out of shops and stores. The community was with us.

Marchers headed back down to Civic Square and heard from POP Chairmen Lawrence Hamm. He said that the way banks raised mortgage payments amounts to stealing. Monthly payments are increased by thousands of dollars per month and homeowners simply cannot pay that much. He emphasized that Black people lost more personal wealth in the mortgage collapse than at any time since the Civil War. Bankers never think about the suffering they cause because the problems never affect them that way. He congratulated all the participants for holding a great event, and said we will continue to build a powerful movement against foreclosure.

To conclude the day, it was said that we will continue the local struggle and the focus on distressed homeowners. The longer term strategy is to look closely into the millions of ‘missing’ mortgage promissory notes that give rise to the robo-signing abuses. There was massive financial wrongdoing by the banks in the issuance of mortgage based securities. When we know what happened to all those notes we will know will where the bodies are buried in the mortgage mess. Then we will be able to lay the struggle of the homeowner right at the doorstep of Wall Street.

#IrvingtonNJ #WallStreet #Foreclosures #HousingStruggles #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #CoalitionToSaveOurHome

Newark, NJ – The People’s Organization for Progress (POP) marched and held a speaking program Jan.15 in observance of the 83rd anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. An excellent turnout of 150 people representing many different organizations marched from the Lincoln Monument through the downtown area. The gathering marked the 204th day of POP’s Daily Picket for Jobs, Peace, Equality and Justice.

For the second year, the program was held in the chambers of the Newark Municipal Council. Councilpersons Mildred Crump and Ras Baraka spoke, as did representatives of the NAACP, the New Black Panther Party and others.

Veteran activist Amiri Baraka recounted a visit from Dr. King. Baraka was at home in the city’s South Ward, when he saw police cars drive past and heard helicopters overhead. A little later the doorbell rang. Baraka opened the door. Martin Luther King was standing there. “Hello, LeRoi,” he said. He wanted to talk about a united front within the Black Liberation Movement. King had recently met with Elijah Muhammad.

A few days later, Dr. King went to Memphis, Tennessee to support the strike of the city’s sanitation workers.

#NewarkNJ #AfricanAmerican #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #DrMartinLutherKingJr

Newark, NJ – On May 15, 2009, Basire Farrell, 30, was mercilessly beaten to death on the street at 2:00 a.m. by five Newark cops. He was dead, murdered, at the scene. Nothing has happened since to the killers because they are cops.

“He was calling out to everyone to come help him,” said his aunt, Sharonda Smalls. “He was calling out, Mommy, Rhonda, come help me. When he died he had a look on his face like he was in pain. He wanted justice.”

She was speaking to a May 15 protest to commemorate the second anniversary of the murder, called by the family of the victim and the People’s Organization for Progress. The family of Dawoo Culver, 16, killed by a Newark policeman on April 2 of this year, also spoke. With extraordinary courage, Cynthia Johnson told of being raped by a Newark police officer, only to be treated as a criminal when she sought justice.

“This makes two years,” said Sharonda Smalls. “We need to fight back. They want us to give up. They want us to live in fear. Don’t give up because that’s what they want.”

The rally then marched to Newark’s infamous Fifth Precinct station house. Cynthia Johnson told of the assault on her by a police officer. “I feel sick to my stomach to stand in front of a police station knowing my rapist is free,” she said. She told of going to Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Councilman Ronald C. Rice, who represents the ward where the assault took place. She went to Internal Affairs, the police agency responsible to look into police misconduct. Nothing came of any of it, she said.

She was herself charged with resisting arrest and other charges. She had to hire an attorney to get the charges dismissed. Courts would not listen her complaints. “I have PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder],” she said. “It’s easy to say I’m crazy.” She vowed to “put on my big yellow POP shirt” and continue the struggle. During the day other victims said they were only able to survive and continue the struggle because of the support of POP.

“Once we rise up and take charge of our community we will not have another Basire Farrell or Cynthia Johnson,” said Bertha Smalls, who raised Basire Farrell. “We got to hold Obama accountable,” she said. “We put him in there but he hasn’t done a damn thing for us.”

Fuquan Culver told of the killing in the West Ward of his nephew, Dawoo Culver, 16, on April 2 by a Newark cop. He said no other people are brutalized by police the way Black people are brutalized. “Our leaders when they get to a certain level get pacified,” he said. “We’re headed in the right direction now, but we need to get more people,” he said. He announced a protest march around the killing of his nephew for May 20.

POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm said the Department of Justice needs to come in and investigate the Newark Police Department, noting that the ACLU has filed a case for an investigation. He said the development of modern police forces parallels the experience of black people after emancipation. They were based on state militias that existed to protect against slave rebellions in southern states. “That’s why it’s so hard to break police brutality, that’s why we need to keep up the fight,” he said. “This wicked system is held in place by the most naked brutal force imaginable. We need a revolution. There’s a time for thunder and lightning in the United States of America in the struggle for justice, and the time is now.”

#NewarkNJ #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #BasireFarrell

Newark, NJ – A joint labor-community rally held here April 26 marked a significant step in unity. The Newark Anti-Violence Coalition, the People's Organization for Progress and many of the city's veteran activists spoke and turned out among the crowd of more than 200. Newark is one of the richest cities in the United States in traditions of people's struggle, and it showed.

On the labor side, a large contingent from the America Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) turned out. The Reverend Al Sharpton, who is working on a Newark chapter of his National Action Network, also spoke, as did Ras Baraka and Mildred Crump, two members of the Newark Municipal Council.

Common themes were opposition to human services cutbacks, threats to bargaining rights of labor and threats to pension funds. Bank bailouts and tax cuts to the rich while the masses suffer were condemned. Newark Mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were the foremost targets of the people's defiance.

The call for unity between labor and the community was heard constantly. “We're like crabs in a barrel,” said Rev. Sharpton. “We need to get out of the barrel and go after the people who put us there in the first place.” Hetty Rosenstein, New Jersey Director of AFSCME, blasted the idea that “there is nothing we can do.” The crowd took up the chant, “We are one.”

POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm denounced the attack by the right wing. “They are trying to take us back before 1960 on voting rights,” he said. “They are trying to take us back before 1930 and the right to form unions, back before 1920 and women's right to vote, back before 1900 and the eight-hour day.” He called for advancing a broad people's agenda that would include housing, jobs, health care and other concerns. He warned the crowd that even the achievement of a human needs program would not end the struggle, pointing out the need for fundamental social transformation.

“We need to have demonstrations every day for 385 days,” he said, commemorating the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56. “We have to be out here every day until our voices are heard, we have to be able to shut it down,” Hamm added. The people roared their approval.

The reason some unions are turning to community support is because of the systematic attack on public workers’ bargaining rights. Gov. Christie is one of the worst offenders. The state botched its handling of its public employee pension fund from the middle of the 1990s until now. As a result the fund is around $60 billion dollars short of its obligations. If the unions can be destroyed Christie can rob the workers of their pensions with relative ease. Also the unions are tightly aligned with the Democrats. The old reliance on the Democrats will not do, however. Organized labor needs to fight and it needs other mass forces.

Organized labor has to do a lot better overall. The difference must come from the rank-and-file, in terms of militant class struggle unionism. It is a hard fight, as shown by the experiences of Teamsters Local 743 in Illinois. In January of this year its principled elected leadership was removed by Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. on a rotten little administrative pretext. Broad rank-and-file militancy is the only antidote to misleaders like Jimmy Hoffa, Jr.

Events in Newark show the way forward. Unity of organized labor and community forces, unity of the working class and the oppressed peoples will grow in a mighty wave in response to the capitalist crisis.

#NewarkNJ #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #NewarkAntiViolenceCoalition #AmericaFederationOfStateCountyAndMunicipalEmployeesAFSCME

Newark, NJ – A joint labor-community rally held here April 26 marked a significant step in unity. The Newark Anti-Violence Coalition, the People's Organization for Progress and many of the city's veteran activists spoke and turned out among the crowd of more than 200. Newark is one of the richest cities in the United States in traditions of people's struggle, and it showed.

On the labor side, a large contingent from the America Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) turned out. The Reverend Al Sharpton, who is working on a Newark chapter of his National Action Network, also spoke, as did Ras Baraka and Mildred Crump, two members of the Newark Municipal Council.

Common themes were opposition to human services cutbacks, threats to bargaining rights of labor and threats to pension funds. Bank bailouts and tax cuts to the rich while the masses suffer were condemned. Newark Mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were the foremost targets of the people's defiance.

The call for unity between labor and the community was heard constantly. “We're like crabs in a barrel,” said Rev. Sharpton. “We need to get out of the barrel and go after the people who put us there in the first place.” Hetty Rosenstein, New Jersey Director of AFSCME, blasted the idea that “there is nothing we can do.” The crowd took up the chant, “We are one.”

POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm denounced the attack by the right wing. “They are trying to take us back before 1960 on voting rights,” he said. “They are trying to take us back before 1930 and the right to form unions, back before 1920 and women's right to vote, back before 1900 and the eight-hour day.” He called for advancing a broad people's agenda that would include housing, jobs, health care and other concerns. He warned the crowd that even the achievement of a human needs program would not end the struggle, pointing out the need for fundamental social transformation.

“We need to have demonstrations every day for 385 days,” he said, commemorating the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56. “We have to be out here every day until our voices are heard, we have to be able to shut it down,” Hamm added. The people roared their approval.

The reason some unions are turning to community support is because of the systematic attack on public workers’ bargaining rights. Gov. Christie is one of the worst offenders. The state botched its handling of its public employee pension fund from the middle of the 1990s until now. As a result the fund is around $60 billion dollars short of its obligations. If the unions can be destroyed Christie can rob the workers of their pensions with relative ease. Also the unions are tightly aligned with the Democrats. The old reliance on the Democrats will not do, however. Organized labor needs to fight and it needs other mass forces.

Organized labor has to do a lot better overall. The difference must come from the rank-and-file, in terms of militant class struggle unionism. It is a hard fight, as shown by the experiences of Teamsters Local 743 in Illinois. In January of this year its principled elected leadership was removed by Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. on a rotten little administrative pretext. Broad rank-and-file militancy is the only antidote to misleaders like Jimmy Hoffa, Jr.

Events in Newark show the way forward. Unity of organized labor and community forces, unity of the working class and the oppressed peoples will grow in a mighty wave in response to the capitalist crisis.

#NewarkNJ #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #NewarkAntiViolenceCoalition #AmericaFederationOfStateCountyAndMunicipalEmployeesAFSCME

Newark, NJ – The People's Organization for Progress held a protest at the busy Bergen Street and South Orange Avenue intersection, April 16. The call for the demo was “Gas Prices Are too Damn High!” It was a small rally but one of the noisiest ever. “If you think gas prices are too high,” said POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm over the bullhorn, “honk your horn!” Beep! Beep! Be-beep!

#NewarkNJ #US #PeoplesStruggles #Protest #gasPrices #economy #peoplesOrganizationForProgress

Newark, NJ – Around 600 people turned out on here April 4 for a March for Jobs, Peace, Equality and Justice initiated by the People’s Organization for Progress. The date marked the 1968 assassination of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. A speaking program followed at Essex Community College.

Dozens of organizations joined in support of the march. The Communications Workers of American turned out hundreds of its members. The themes of the event were workers’ rights, civil rights, the need to end the wars and meet human needs at home. Speaker after speaker noted that Dr. King’s life was taken as he was engaged in support of the efforts of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee to unionize and gain a better life.

The turnout was a strong show of working class unity in the face of acute crisis in the capitalist system.

#NewarkNJ #AntiwarMovement #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #DrMartinLutherKingJr

Trenton, NJ – People gathered here to rally and hold a press conference, March 29, on the need for uncompensated write-down of overpriced mortgages contracted during the housing bubble, the period after 1997. The event marked a court hearing aimed at elimination of ‘robo-signing,’ foreclosures undertaken by banks that cannot prove ownership of the mortgage.

Participating organizations included the People's Organization for Progress (POP), the Irvington Branch of the NAACP, the Newark Teachers' Association, New Jersey Citizen Action (NJCA) and the Fair Share Housing Center.

Robo-signing is a terrible abuse. Rally participants all said it must be ended. But the end of robo-signing will prevent no one from being foreclosed. In fact the stated aim of the court hearing was to make the foreclosure process in New Jersey more efficient.

In the hearing a court-appointed attorney presented an agreement he had worked out with six of the largest mortgage lenders. The essential point is the banks agreed to proceed only in foreclosures based on “personal knowledge and accurate business records.” Several homeowner advocates objected that the agreement was vague or that it was procedurally inadequate to protect homeowners. Judge Mary C. Jacobson found in favor of the agreement. Whether or not it eliminates robo-signing will have to be seen from experience.

The people's forces said at their press conference that what really has to happen is enforced write-down of overpriced mortgages to the level of true market value at the time they were contracted. A POP statement was read by Debby Strong. It said the banks had harmed millions of people. They didn't care at all about the terrible risks into which they dragged home buyers. Lenders lured borrowers into mortgages they knew full well the borrowers could not pay. They did things like sell a house for $300,000 when it was only worth $180,000. The banks have been rewarded for it and the victims have been left without help.

POP announced that it will launch a mass campaign to enlist victims of the housing bubble to demand that New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow prosecute mortgage lenders for manipulation of the housing market. Penalty upon conviction will be write-down of mortgage principals to reflect true market value by an objective and uniform standard.

Kathleen Witcher of the Irvington NAACP gave a vivid picture of the suffering caused by the housing bubble. She said that 40% of the houses in Irvington have been foreclosed and the rate may go as high as 80%. Drastic rates in property taxes have resulted. Many homeowners cannot pay the higher taxes, which creates another risk of loss of homes.

Phyllis Salowe-Kaye of NJCA noted that all 50 state attorneys general have submitted an “Accountability Proposal” to resolve the ‘robogate’ problem, but without any requirement for principal write-downs in programs like the Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP.) The AGs set no specific goals or quotas for write-downs. They need to institute mandatory measures for loan servicers. 60% of homeowners could remain in their homes if the mortgage was reduced to the actual market value. “Allowing significant principle modifications would stem the flow of foreclosures and reduce the uncertainty about the housing market and mortgage securities, giving more time to devise approaches to the messy problem of clouded titles and faulty loan conveyances,” she said.

A basis for legal action in existing law and practice was given by people’s attorney Bennet Zurofsky. He said, “The lenders and investors were the ones in the best position to know that they were profiting from a bubble that they themselves were inflating. The law calls this unjust enrichment and the New Jersey Attorney General has the power to do something about it by bringing a lawsuit against the lenders and the investors on behalf of the people of New Jersey to return the riches they have unjustly obtained from the people of New Jersey.” He noted that actions have been brought against persons who benefited from the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme on the basis of unjust enrichment.

A POP member said that there is a power that can act effectively against entities as powerful as big banks. It is the power of the people! Not even the administration of reactionary New Jersey Governor Christopher Christie can ignore the will of the people who have been harmed by the housing bubble, once they are aware and united. It was also noted that the total overvaluation of the housing market was about $2 trillion, and that no recovery from the depression is possible until this burden in removed.

Cries of “power to the people!” and “mortgage write-down now!” rang out. It is clear that the people of New Jersey can make write-down their issue and their demand and create a powerful mass movement for it.

#TrentonNJ #POP #Foreclosures #HousingStruggles #mortgageCrisis #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #housingBubble

Irvington, NJ – Essex County, New Jersey is the scene of intense struggle of the African-American community against police brutality and violence. On Nov. 24 police attacked a rally for community peace sponsored by the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition (NAVC) here. Three days later the people’s forces showed preparedness when they went back on the offensive at a long-scheduled rally against police brutality led by the People’s Organization for Progress.

The anti-violence rally had been called to bring attention to a triple murder in Irvington on Nov. 17. One victim, Saleena Baynes, was six months pregnant. The atrocious crime drew barely a blip of attention in the media.

NAVC Chairman Bashir Akenyele states he blamed Irvington Police Chief Michael Chase for the attack on the rally. The NAVC met with Chase and a police captain immediately after the murders to obtain permits. The Coalition wanted a peace rally that would be entirely in order. The police authorities went over the arrangements for the rally, which was to take place in a street intersection near the crime scene.

Chief Chase advised the Coalition of the types of permits needed and the procedures to obtain them. All requirements were met and the permit for the rally, in the intersection, was approved on Oct. 19. Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith and Councilwoman Sandra Jones telephoned Mr. Akinyele to tell him they would attend.

Participants at the rally gathered promptly at 5:00 p.m., since the time for the permit was 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.. “We didn’t see any police, none,” said Bashir Akinyele. They went into the intersection for the rally, as permitted. A first-arriving policeman asked to discuss the permit but the attack came before that could be done.

A member of POP who came about 5:30 told Fight Back! what he saw. He heard chants of, “Stop the violence,” as he came close. “Police cars converged from all sides,” he said. “They knocked women and children on the ground,” he said. “I saw a baby girl knocked down so hard she lost a tooth.”

Six were arrested. One was charged with ‘incitement to riot.’ It’s hard to see why, when it was the cops who rioted. The only thing the police could claim in their defense that they were trying to make participants move to the sidewalk.

Three days later, on Nov. 27, people assembled at Broad and Market Streets in Newark for the People’s Organization for Progress’ scheduled march and rally. Several had been in the Irvington rally. Cameras and video equipment were everywhere. Broadcast and media reporters were present.

The march of more than 80 people proceeded in the street down Broad, Newark’s main drag, and turned off for the rally at the headquarters of the Newark Police Department. There were no incidents.

POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm denounced the long list of police killings of African-Americans in Newark and surrounding communities. He said these things never happen in white communities. “They kill us every day and go back to work,” he said. Speaking of Basire Farrel, beaten to death last year at the age of 30 by Newark police as he was on his way home at night, he said the police “can capture bears and bring them in alive but a black man can’t even get to the jail, he can’t even get to the police car alive.”

He supported a recent filing by the American Civil Liberties Union for the appointment of a federal monitor to watch over the Newark Police Department. Speaking of the police he said, “You can make arrests but your job is not punishment. That’s why we are calling for the Justice Department to come in here.”

Of the Irvington rally he said, “They were having a prayer circle when the police charged in and threw a mother and her baby to the ground. They used pepper spray. We’ve had rallies for years and nobody every used pepper spray. I would be ashamed to live in a town where police attack a prayer circle and punch a woman in the face and she had to be sent to the hospital to see if she had a concussion.”

Tawanna Graham spoke about the killing last year of her son Jacqui several days after he had been taken into custody by the East Orange Police on a charge of public intoxication. When she came in to view the body she saw marks of severe beating. “He had an asthma attack,” she said. “He could not breathe. They sat there and watched while he died.” It took her 21 days to recover her son’s body. He had been beaten beyond recognition. The only was she could tell it was him was markings on his feet. No one has faced any penalties for his death.

POP Vice-Chairwoman Mary Weaver talked about her son Randy, shot to death several years ago by East Orange Police. He had been riding in a stolen car. The police had been watching the vehicle and gave chase when it started to move. When the car stopped they fired six shots into it. Three shots struck Randy.

“He was bleeding and begged for help,” Mary Weaver said. “Anyone would beg for help. There are all kinds of ways they let our children die. They watched him bleed to death. He was 21 years old.” She urged listeners to join an organization, stand up and fight. “My only child is gone. They take our heart away. They take our soul away.”

The struggle continues with several demands of the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition. It demands that all charges in the Nov. 24 incident be dropped in the interests of justice. It further demands that Mayor Smith and the City Council convene a town hall meeting on the incident and declare community violence a public health emergency. They demand the incident be investigated by the New Jersey Attorney General’s office. They want local law enforcement leadership to be severely disciplined for its role in the incident. Irvington Township must also empanel its Civilian Complaint Police Review Board, which is on the books but has never been set up.

#Newark #NewarkNJ #PoliceBrutality #AfricanAmerican #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress

Newark, NJ – A People’s Hearing against Foreclosure and Homelessness took place here, Oct. 26. Many people, many issues and many ideas were heard. Sponsors included the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), the National Organization for Women-NJ and the Newark Teachers’ Association (NTA). A People’s Bailout Program emerged as a concrete and realistic vehicle of people’s struggle.

The premise of the event was “Hold the Bankers Accountable.” The CEO’s of the five largest banks were invited by mail to attend, listen to the people’s concerns and proposals and respond. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke were also invited. Chairs for the invitees with large signs bearing their names were prominently placed at the front of the room. Unsurprisingly, the chairs were empty.

Several responses had been received by POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm. It was clear from the responses that the invitations had been seen at high levels and the message had gotten through: The people see those in charge of the banks and the economy as neither remote nor mysterious and we hold them accountable.

The warm-up band for the event was New Jersey’s Solidarity Singers, a veteran support group for labor and other people’s struggles. Moderator Lisa Davis gave a picture of the way predatory subprime mortgage loans had particularly been concentrated on African-American communities. As a result, Essex County, Newark’s location, suffers one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. The number of homeless children has risen by 84% since the crisis began.

The next presentation was about the causes of the housing bubble, financial collapse and depression. They were attributed to excess capital in the U.S. economy. So much money floods U.S. capital markets that profitable investment for all of it cannot be found. The excess cannot be used to meet the crying human needs of U.S. society because it is capital and must be used to find profits. It is forced into speculation and swindling.

Over the period of the housing bubble, 1999-2008, mortgagees in the total U.S. economy were bamboozled into taking mortgages in almost $2 trillion in excess of true market value of the properties purchased. The mortgage principals must be written down to fully reflect true market value.

The POP People’s Bailout Program was presented:

• Write-down of overvalued housing bubble mortgage principals to true market value;
• Moratorium on foreclosures;
• Rollback of bank rates, fees and charges to 2007 levels;
• Divestment of public accounts from banks that refuse to write mortgages down, and other penalties;
• No foreclosure without proof of ownership of title to the property;
• Abolish the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) that allows banks to conceal ownership of title and defraud owners.

Phyllis Salowe-Kaye of New Jersey Citizen Action referred to “robogate,” the scandal in which thousands of homeowners are losing their homes without proper documentation of lender ownership of title. Her agency is pressing to require attorneys to swear in court that lender documentation is real.

James Harris, Chairman of the New Jersey Conference of the NAACP, pointed out that as a group African-Americans have the lowest home ownership rate and are the least employed. The NAACP has sued major banks for the racism of their focus of predatory lending practices on black people. The city of Camden removed a tent city of the homeless instead of helping them. There is a move on to do away with measures in New Jersey to provide affordable housing. He said, “The right combination is in this room, we can get progressive forces together to move in an electoral thrust.”

“Times in Newark have always been rough,” said Newark Teachers’ Association President Annette Alston. According to her, children eat every bit of school breakfast and lunch they can get and now things are even worse. Teachers go into their own pockets to cover school expenses. But we live in a mean-spirited time when New Jersey Governor Christie doesn’t even care and is more interested in breaking the New Jersey Education Association than he is in helping children. Newark lost hundreds of teachers due to Christie’s budget cuts and classroom sizes are going above 30. Newark teachers would shine in any setting, but when a child is worried about being homeless in a few weeks or moves two or three times a year education is impossible. Nobody wants to look at poverty and homelessness but schools need resources.

Barbara Foley on NOW-NJ cited statistics showing that single mothers suffer disproportionately from unemployment and subprime mortgages. Black women are five times as likely as white men to be forced into subprime mortgages and women generally are 32% more likely to have subprime mortgages. The Tea Party puts out notions like blaming “irresponsible borrowers” for the economic collapse. We must take up the ideological contest against racism and sexism.

“Ten times a week someone calls my office to say they are in foreclosure and asks ‘what can I do?’” said Newark Councilwoman Mildred Crump. She offered helpful information, such as not to use the same lawyer in foreclosure as was used to close the sale. She said there is often complicity with the lenders. She asked how many people don’t open the letters from the banks and a number of people raised their hands. “Don’t hide your head in the sand, read the notice,” she said. She was asked to support people’s initiatives like divestment from banks that won’t write mortgages down, and agreed. People generally took the line that elected officials must support their initiatives, rather than looking to the Democratic Party for answers.

Lawrence Hamm of POP said we are living in one of the most reactionary periods of the last 50 years. Most black people have their wealth tied up in their homes, and more black people have lost their homes in the last two years than ever in the history of the U.S. The Obama administration has opposed a moratorium on foreclosure. We must press for the elected officials to say the same things as the people.

We need to build a broad coalition that will include labor, churches, the homeless and tenant organizations. We need to have a ten-million person march for economic justice, like the people’s struggle in France. POP will look at the possibility of bringing a class action suit against the banks, divestiture and other measures to mobilize the masses along lines of daily concerns.

Problems like sharp increases in local property taxes were raised in the question-and-answer section of the hearing. A teacher who has been unemployed for three years said that she cannot even get consideration for hiring in suburban school districts. She is African-American and administrators take one look at her and don’t want to hire. She said unemployment is deliberately being concentrated on African-American people.

An atmosphere of struggle and optimism emerged among the audience as it became clear that everyone is in the same boat and can struggle together. Most of the audience of 80 stuck out the two and a half hour program to the end, showing their willingness to struggle when presented with a program of concrete and workable demands for economic justice in the face of Great Depression II.

#NewarkNJ #HousingStruggles #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #Foreclosure

East Orange, NJ – On July 6, 2009 Jacqui Graham, 21, was found dead in a cell in the police headquarters here. His body was naked and badly bruised. He had been arrested for public intoxication a few days before. It is evident he was beaten to death while in police custody. The victim was African-American.

A protest in front of the headquarters was held this July 6, the first anniversary of his death. The family of the victim called the protest, which was supported by friends of the victim, the People’s Organization for Progress and the New Black Panther Party. Demonstrators braved heat of more than 100 degrees to demand justice.

Najay, who said she was personally involved with Jacqui, said, “You can’t even go to jail and come home. You never know if you will make it out alive. We still have no answer for what happened. We want justice and we will get it.”

The mother of the victim, Tawanna Graham, said he had been falsely arrested. She repeatedly accused authorities of lying. “The autopsy report said there were no bruises,” she said. “The first thing I saw on his body was a humongous big knot on his head. I say to the East Orange police, what goes around come around. I’m going to make sure you pay for what you did to my son. He was beaten to death.”

Graham added, “They lied to me [that] he was in custody when they already knew he was dead,” she said. “It took three weeks to get the police report. You tell me the system is not corrupt. I saw a police report that said he scuffled with police on Sept. 5 when he died on July 6. Nobody should have to go through what I have in the last year. The mayor has not even apologized. Justice will be served if it takes the last ounce of my blood.”

Zaid Muhammad of the New Black Panther Party said, “This is only happening to our people. Injustices have an obvious racial content, as obvious as our beautiful thick lips and hair. What happened to that long litany of people who have lost their lives doesn’t happen in Livingston, in Millburn, or in Morristown. It happens because of this system we are living under.”

“They put nice words on it, ‘quality of life policing,’ and go heavy in black and brown communities. It means a young man ends up dead in a cell with his head bashed in,” he said. “We are going to demand zero tolerance. When police brutality is determined the persons responsible should be dismissed and prosecuted. If [Mayor] Bowser’s job was on the line they’d find him [the perpetrator] tomorrow. In a democracy the majority is supposed to rule.”

Lawrence Hamm of the People’s Organization for Progress said, “All over the country people are marching against police brutality. This is an international problem. You know it. I know it. Even the police know it.”

Hamm continured, “In Detroit police threw an incendiary device into an apartment where Ayanna Jones, a little 7-year-old girl lived, set her on fire. Then they fired into the apartment indiscriminately and shot her to death. This didn’t happen 50 years ago in Alabama or Mississippi, it happened a few weeks ago in Detroit, Michigan. Right here Jacqui Graham never made it to the courtroom alive. He was never charged, never arraigned.

“In New Orleans right now police are on trial for the murder of Henry Glover,” he said. “After Hurricane Katrina he asked some police for help. Instead they beat him up. A Good Samaritan came along, put him in his car, took him to the police station. What did the police do? They put him in a police car to bleed to death. The Good Samaritan protested. They beat him up. They took the body to a hidden place and set the car on fire. The Good Samaritan told the story, now the cops are on trial.”

He said the only way people can get justice is to demand it. In Oakland in 2009 Oscar Grant was killed by transit cop Johannes Mehserle, who shot him in the back while he was handcuffed and lying on the ground. A transit train was nearby and people took cell phone videos of the killing. Mesehrle is on trial only because people demanded it.

He said that in Chicago a former police captain has been found guilty of conspiracy. People were tortured and beaten into false confessions and went to prison for long terms. Finally the victims got together and brought a class action suit.

“We are determined to get justice for all victims,” he said. “As the police tell it, Jacqui Graham killed himself. Earl Faison killed himself. It was Amadou Diallo’s own fault he was shot 41 times. The media slant the stories. They tell you someone was a ‘former felon’ to make you think the police were justified. There is a long line of cases right here in East Orange,” he said, citing many.

“The authorities don’t count on grass-roots organizations. We will not let this case be swept under the rug,” he said. “We will not tolerate it and our ancestors did not. We are human beings, we are citizens and we demand to be treated that way. It won’t stop until citizens stand up and demand it stop. The system of racism could not exist without the police to keep it in place. They used to let mobs into the jails to commit lynching because the cops were in the Klan. It was the same mentality that led to the death of Earl Faison. Five police went to jail for that but they should have gone to jail for murder.”

He charged that the country is headed for a police state. “They can charge you with being a terrorist and disappear you, keep you indefinitely, put you in front of a military court,” he said. He concluded with a call for heightened people’s action to stop police brutality.

#EastOrangeNJ #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #LawrenceHamm #EarlFaison #JacquiGraham

Newark, NJ – The Community Coalition against Foreclosure and Homelessness rallied here, May 22, to demand that effective measures be taken by government to help victims of the housing bubble. Coalition members include the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), the Newark Teachers’ Association (NTA) and New Jersey Citizen Action (NJCA). In all there were 12 organizational sponsors.

Essex County, Newark’s location, is one of the most badly hit areas anywhere. Debby Strong, the moderator for the day, read a People’s Program that was developed during preparation for the event.

Darrell Graham of POP said, “People are being used for their own self-destruction. Poverty leads to survival being seen in terms of guns, drugs and mayhem. It’s being used for gentrification. One side of the street pays no rent,” he said, meaning the office towers surrounding the site, “while the other side is being evicted.”

Cynthia Mosley of the Parent Advisory and Service Academy told the gathering ,“There are 5000 homeless children in the Newark Public Schools, automatically depriving them of education. Homelessness leads to gangs for survival with guns and violence. We have to come together as a community to do something about it.”

Lisa Davis of the Coalition spoke of plans to present a People’s Hearing. “We’re going to get the Fed in here and the bank CEOs and face the problems our community is having. We will seek our own agenda. We need to come together and stick together.”

New Jersey’s veteran labor-oriented singing group, the Solidarity Singers, mocked the capitalists’ habit of blaming their own victims with the song, Hallelujah I’m a Bum!

The gathering marched to Newark’s main crossing at Broad and Market to the accompaniment of a group of African drummers. It paused at a branch of Bank America. Solidarity Singer’s Ben Zurofsky offered remarks about the impact of service budget cuts and hospital closings. “The banks are made of marble, with a guard at every door,” they sang, and the march proceeded to the Essex County Courthouse under the gaze of a statue of Abe Lincoln.

Brenda Roberson, who was driven onto the streets in the 1990s by housing speculation backed by City Hall, told the rally of her experiences and said that everyone must work together to end these abuses. Leila Amirzadeh of NJCA talked about the housing scams that have sprung up in the wake of the housing bubble and how to avoid them.

Protest organizer David Hungerford provided some analysis: “The housing bubble was a period of time, from 1999 to 2007, when houses were sold for more than they were worth. The root cause was capitalism. It is a chaotic social system. A factory worker creates $10 or $11 or $12 of value for every dollar of wages. The masses don’t have enough money to buy back all the stuff they create. Inventories pile up and frequent crises result.”

“But the capitalists also accumulate so much money in the process they can’t put enough of it back into capital, given the narrow limits of the capitalist market system. Speculative bubbles are the result. The housing bubble was the largest bubble and the largest swindle in history, so big it brought the entire US financial system down.”

“The capitalists forced somewhere between $1.5 and $2 trillion of excess capital into the mortgage market. Young people kill each other in the streets to survive, school buildings are literally falling down, there are 40 million people in the United States who don’t even get enough to eat, and the capitalists can do nothing better with all that money than create the biggest swindle in history. It will always be like that until the people overthrow capitalism and abolish it,” Hungerford concluded.

Jimmie White, a college student, pointed out the need of jobs for youth. He grew up seeing violence in the street and police violence and people need to put pressure on politicians to do something to help the people to end these problems.

Larry Adams of POP and the Bail Out the People movement talked about the history of struggle against foreclosures in the Great Depression, when hundreds of thousands of families were evicted. In response, the Unemployed Councils, set up by the communists, who he called “real heroes and sheroes of the people,” moved 77,000 families back into their homes. We need to bring the struggle back to that level.

Willa Cofield compared the campaigns of lies of the banks telling people houses were worth more than they were to the campaign of lies against Saddam Hussein to set up the invasion of Iraq, “His real crime was to nationalize Iraq’s oil in 1972, and to be the strongest voice for the Palestinian people among the Arab governments. Just as the government supplied huge amounts of money to bail out the banks, the war in Iraq has cost $900 billion. We think it is bad that the U.S. has lost 5000 lives, but 600,000 people have died in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan is lost. The U.S. has no right to invade other countries just because it doesn’t like their leaders. The U.S. must leave Iraq and Afghanistan immediately and without conditions.”

Jakada Khalfani, age nine, said “They teach us all this misinformation.” He said New Jersey Governor Christie is doing all these budget cuts while all the money goes to wars and other things that are not even necessary. He said that money comes from the people and it needs to be taken to places where people are homeless and need education.

POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm, arriving late from a labor rally, said 35,000 people had rallied in Trenton, the state capital, to protest budget cuts by Governor Christie. Unions, civil rights groups and community groups had come together to protest the anti-worker, anti-poor and anti-people budget cuts, imposed even as Christie refused to raise taxes on the rich. He said that the foreclosure crisis was the worst loss of wealth for black people since emancipation. Of two million homes lost in the foreclosure crisis, a million belonged to black people, who tend to have most of their wealth tied up in their houses. Poverty leads to crime, which leads to involvement with the police, which leads to police brutality.

He criticized full page ads in newspapers that made scapegoats of teachers for the salaries they are paid. “Personally,” he said, “I want my children in the hands of people who are well paid. I am comfortable with that. Let’s put the salaries of the corporate executives on the front pages!”

He said we have to get to the point where we can stand in front of the doors of people who are being evicted and prevent it. “‘Foreclosure’ does not convey what is happening,” he said, “what we are talking about is people being thrown out in the street.” He called for further work from the POP Committee against Foreclosure and Homelessness to develop this issue.

Earlier in the rally, Elizabeth ‘Bonnie’ Moore had told the rally of the murder of her son, Rasheed Fuquan Moore, at the hands of the Newark Police Department. With an air of controlled anger she related the appalling details of her son’s death, being shot 17 times as he sat in his car. She demanded the criminal prosecution of her son’s killers and of other police murderers by the State of New Jersey. “I’m going to see those cops go to jail if it’s the last thing I ever do,” she said.

Later she told Fight Back! that several people told her they were surprised that she did not cry while describing her son’s death. “Usually when I talk about him I get all choked up,” she said. “I didn’t even read anything off my paper, it all just came out.”

Asked why this time it was different, at first she said she did not know. Then she added, “Being there with other people and their problems had a lot to do with it.”

#NewarkNJ #CapitalismAndEconomy #PoorPeoplesMovements #HousingStruggles #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #CommunityCoalitionAgainstForeclosureAndHomelessness

Protesters circled in front of the bank and spread out to surrounding corners to distribute fliers and talk to passersby. They chanted “No foreclosures! No evictions,” “You can’t rob the bank but the bank can rob you,” and the classic “No justice, no peace!”

An open letter of demands to John Stumpf, the CEO of Wells Fargo, and signed by POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm was given to the branch manager. The letter said the housing bubble was entirely caused by lending institutions. They must bear the costs of its consequences.

The letter said lenders manipulated the mortgage market to sell houses for more than their true market value. Therefore housing values must be written down to what the houses are actually worth. Bank have also hiked credit card rates and fees and charges of many kinds to pay for their losses in the housing bubble; therefore these rate hikes, charges and other abuses must be ended.

Chairman Hamm said Congress takes months to pass any measure that helps the people (like extension of unemployment benefits) and then needs a 900-page document to do it. When Congress bailed out the banks with a $700 billion line of credit under TARP, on the other hand, it took three days and a twelve-page document. He charges Wachovia and Wells Fargo with having particular responsibility for having entrapped African-American and Latino borrowers in subprime mortgages that started off with low interest rates but soon rose as high as 15%, causing huge numbers of foreclosures.

POP members handed out hundreds of fliers to notify people of the upcoming May 22 march against foreclosure and homelessness in nearby Newark. The struggle continues!

#IrvingtonNJ #CapitalismAndEconomy #HousingStruggles #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress

Within the last few years Newark, New Jersey and nearby communities have been devastated as thousands of homes have been foreclosed and tens of thousands made homeless. An Oct. 24 protest at Bank of America here, sponsored by the People's Organization for Progress, charged Bank of America and other banks are responsible for these calamities.

“We have come to hold Bank of America, Chase, Wachovia and other banks responsible,” People's Organization for Progress Chairman Lawrence Hamm told the rally. “Bank of America got a $45 billion bailout but what have they done? They have foreclosed homeowners, put elderly people in the streets, little kids, foreclosed small landlords with two or three tenants and put the tenants in the streets. They have raised credit card rates, late fees and finance charges.

“Workers, the working poor, the middle class, all are hurting,” he said. “And what did the bankers do? They went out and had a party,” referring to the lavish party the management of AIG threw for themselves after their massive government bailout.

Sweeping demands for Bank of America to repair the damage it has caused were presented to the branch manager in the form of an open letter to Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis. Protest signs demanded “Stop foreclosure,” and “Stop eviction.” One sign simply displayed the Bank of America logo above the huge word, “greedy.” Protesters chanted, “Help the needy, not the greedy” and “Bail out the homeless, the hungry, the jobless.” Literature was passed out that described the People's Mortgage Rescue Plan, a concrete proposal for a government bailout of homeowners.

Though the day was overcast and rainy the protest drew excellent attendance. The direct and militant confrontation with monopoly capitalism lent a meaning to the event felt by all. One passerby told protest organizers he did not want to hear anything but an attack on capitalism. He wound up staying through the whole protest. Several people spontaneously joined the protest and carried signs.

“A day of reckoning is coming,” Chairman Hamm said. “This is a problem not of just one wicked person but of a wicked system, the system of capitalism.” He said the protest is only the first and promised Chase, Wachovia and other banks that they too would get visits from People’s Organization for Progress.

Open Letter

People's Organization for Progress

PO Box 22505, Newark, NJ 07101

973-801-0001

24 October, 2009

Mr. Kenneth D. Lewis

Chief Executive Officer

Bank of America

Dear Mr. Lewis:

The People's Organization for Progress is a civil and human rights organization with chapters in New Jersey and New York. We are greatly concerned with the mortgage and foreclosure crises that have gripped our area and the entire country.

Bank of America and other lending institutions share responsibility for these crises. It is our understanding for example that Countrywide Finance, since acquired by Bank of America, was the largest originator of subprime mortgages in Newark.

We hold that during the housing bubble of 1999-2008 lending institutions used their great financial powers to drive residential price increases to levels that bore no relation to increases for any other goods or services. For instance the Consumer Price Index rose by only 22.1% from 1999 to 2006. Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Housing Price Index, however, rose by 134.7% in the New York extended region in the same period, more than six times as much!

We accept no excuses for the housing bubble. The financial institutions caused it. They must shoulder the burdens of its consequences particularly in light of the huge public bailouts they have received, including Bank of America’s $45 billion. We will present the following measures to other banks as well.

Mortgage amounts were driven to artificially high levels. Therefore the principals must be written down to true market values. The human disaster of foreclosure must be met with a moratorium on foreclosure until adequate measures of general recovery are taken.

These are painful solutions for lending institutions and will require extensive reform and reorganization. The economy requires it for overall recovery, however. We demand that lending institutions including Bank of America undertake substantive initiatives toward these ends. Either we preserve the United States in its present form but not the banks in their present form, or else we rescue the banks but not the country.

Banks, including Bank of America, should reciprocate the bailout given them by the public with measures to bailout mortgage-holders. In view of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s mortgage-holders in danger of falling into delinquency should be given a 6-month exemption from mortgage payments.

The recent explosion of credit card fees and interest rates damages the consumer economy and makes recovery harder. Reductions in credit limits should be cancelled, and customers in good standing should not be terminated. Banks should look for other means to invest in local communities in the interests of general recovery.

We request a meeting with representatives of Bank of America to discuss these measures. We look forward to your early response. Otherwise we will be forced to continue our protests.

Sincerely,

Lawrence Hamm

Chairman

People's Organization for Progress

#NewarkNJ #EconomicCrisis #Foreclosures #HousingStruggles #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #BankOfAmerica