Chance Lunningreports on a struggle in Minneapolis to prevent an eviction.
July 5, 2013
Activists from Occupy Homes MN rally to defend Sergio Ceballos from eviction (Chance Lunning | SW)
SERGIO CEBALLOS, a homeowner in Minneapolis, is facing imminent eviction due to the predatory practices employed by his bank,JPMorgan Chase.
In response, neighbors and community members, together with Occupy Homes MN, have launched a 24/7 eviction defense, including nonviolent direct action, to prevent any eviction from taking place and to demand that the bank work with Ceballos to keep his family in their home.
When Ceballos first began to work with Occupy Homes MN, it seemed as though his case was unlikely to come to the point of eviction. The bank had agreed to review Ceballos' loan in order to begin the process of a loan modification that would have allowed Ceballos and his family to stay in their home.
However, despite seeming to be working with Ceballos, the bank continued to move forward with the eviction process, using an illegal tactic known as dual tracking.
"We aren't looking for a free house," said Ceballos to the over 100 supporters rallying outside his home on July 1 to launch the eviction defense, "just a modification."
This is the first eviction defense that Occupy Homes MN has organized since its defense of the Cruz family home last year, which resulted in the arrests of 39 supporters. Speaking at the July 1 rally, David Cruz said, "I'm glad to see people ready to face the police, the banks (again), and the city."
WHAT YOU CAN DO
If you are in the Twin Cities area, text @OccupyHomes to 23559 to receive emergency eviction defense alerts from Occupy Homes MN. Visit the Occupy Homes MNwebsite for more information.
The Ceballos home is located in Minneapolis's Eviction-Free Zone, which Occupy Homes MN established late last year. Encompassing the Central and Powderhorn neighborhoods of Minneapolis, the Eviction-Free Zone is an attempt to move beyond merely organizing around one home, bringing neighbors behind the fight to stop all evictions and foreclosures in their neighborhood.
As the crowd outside the Ceballos home rallied to show their support, they were informed that, inside the house, the bank was on the phone. "Whose house?" the crowd began to chant, "Sergio's house!" A short time later, an organizer for Occupy Homes MN informed the crowd that their chanting had been effective--the bank said they were considering calling off the eviction.
The fight to save the Ceballos home is far from over, but the bank's wavering shows the power of the struggle of people from below. Evictions can be stopped, but only when we get organized and fight back.
Watching fireworks from a rooftop in Chicago, I saw thousands of fireworks going off in scores, maybe hundreds of communities-- each with hundreds or thousands of people watching. And I woke up thinking how these people, going through the motions of celebrating Independence Day, and perhaps, more, the delusions of American Exceptionalism, could be taking back the power of the people, as the people in Egypt, Turkey and Brazil have been doing.
i wasn't in Chicago when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, but heard about it from friends and saw on TV how the streets were filled. There were estimates that two million people poured out into the streets-- about the same number that filled Tahrir Square in Cairo Egypt-- the same number that took down the presidency and voided the constitution.
Then, I was in Chicago last night, on July fourth. I watched the fireworks fron the roof of a twelve story building-- not even considered a high-rise in Chicago, where the really high buildings have over 60 stories and are literally in the clouds. But I was high enough to look out and see, all around me, fireworks going off, as far as the eye could see. They weren't up close, overhead, but they filled a 360 degree perimiter, like nothing I'd ever seen before.
Fireworks in Chicago by rob kall
Here's a video I took from the roof.
My point is that people come out by the tens, perhaps even hundreds of millions in the USA-- but for spectacles and sports. July 4th, Independence Day, is a day for patriotism. But what do we have to celebrate nowadays? The Mainstream media and the duopolist corporatist party Democrats and Republicans still sell American exceptionalism-- that we are better than the rest of the world. That is becoming more and more of a joke, more and more a symptom of how incredibly stupid Americans are to continue to believe such lies.
Okay, we have a bigger military, and we have more people in prison But as far as positives--education, science, health, lifespan, quality of life-- we are woefully behind most of the world-- unless you are a plutocrat-- among the one percent or point one percent.
That leaves 99.9% of Americans the dupes, the fools, the idiots who the corporations, run by the one percent, are getting over on.
We need to wake up from their stupors the drugged American fools in the American poppy fields-- the ones where Dorothy and the Lion and the straw man and the tin men all fell asleep.
We are seeing a resurgence of the Arab Spring in the summer of 2013. There is every reason to hope, no, to choose to be a part of an American Awakening, an American summer or autumn, where millions of people go out into the streets, not to celebrate some sports team, not to mindlessly go through the motion of celebrating an independence that has been stolen by corporations and the criminals who they've elected with a thoroughly corrupted electoral system.
We have an opportunity here to catch the wave of awakening, the wave of resistance to the powers that have been-- to get a chain reaction going that can throw out the criminals, the liars and the traitors to democracy and to America.
We can start with the outright liars, like James Clapper, who broke the law and lied outright to a senate committee hearing about spying.
We can go in the streets with people whose homes have been stolen from them by criminalbanksters. And we can demand that the justice department people who failed to do their jobs over and over again be not only ousted, but also jailed, for their collusion in a system that is so broken.
In Egypt, they're jailing the Muslim Brotherhood leaders who used the election of now former president Morsi to consolidate their power, at the price of Egypt's interests.
The Egyptian people did not do it with 50% plus one, in a vote. They did it with a petition signed by 22 million people-- less than fifth of the population. They did it with two million people in Tahrir square and smaller gatherings in smaller towns.
They did it with the police and army holding back, not aggressively attacking peaceful protesters-- as Obama and Homeland Security Head Janet Napolitano coordinated and ordered, even considering murdering Occupy leaders.
I don't know if it's possible for peaceful protests with peaceful observance by police and military-- in a police state that the Patriot act and Homeland Security have created-- now-- five years of that done and worsened under a Democrat in the White House.
But seeing a sea of fireworks, in every community of Chicago, seeing skies filled with bright colorful lights, all representing thousands outside, supposedly celebrating the anniversary of our liberation from the British-- that was a sight that exceeded my imagination. It showed how connected we all are in so many ways-- and it gave me hope that just as the Arab Spring inspired an American Occupy rising, that this 2013 Arab Summer could also inspire Americans to get off their lazy, sedentary asses and wake up, even for a few moments, from their TV and Netflix and video game digitally drugged state, that they get out in the streets, even once, to protest SOMETHING-- Clappers Lies, the despicable refusal of Obama's Justice Department, led by eunuch, corpo-prostitute Eric Holder, to prosecute corporate criminals. In efffect, the DOJ has become the protection operation for corporate criminals.
We have a lot of reasons to get out in the streets in the same kinds of numbers as sporting events and fireworks bring people out. Let's ride the wave of energy and true democratic passion that the Arab Summer has created and start taking back the America that used to exist that people go through the motions of celebrating on July fourth.
Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and website architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), and publisher of Storycon.org, President ofFuturehealth, Inc, and an inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com Listen to over 150 of Rob's Podcast interviews here. Mediate ranks Rob Kall among the top 180 print/online columnists, often ahead of NY Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post columnists.
With his experience as architect and founder of a technorati top 100 blog, he is also a new media / social media consultant and trainer for corporations, non-profits, entrepreneurs and authors.
Rob is a frequent Speaker on the bottom up revolution, politics, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey and Positive Psychology. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates, and optimizing tapping the power of new media. Watch me speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.
See more Rob Kall articles here and, older ones, here.
To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out
To watch me on youtube, having a lively conversation with John Conyers, former Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here Now, wouldn't you like to see me on the political news shows, representing progressives. If so, tell your favorite shows to bring me on and refer them to this youtube video.
Rob's radio show, The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show, runs 9-10 PM EST Wednesday evenings, on AM 1360, WNJC and is archived at www.opednews.com/podcasts Or listen to it streaming, live at www.wnjc1360.com
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Margarita Windisch at the protest against the banks on June 29. Photo: Rocco Lay.
Australia's four biggest banks — the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, NAB and Westpac — dubbed the "banksters", were condemned for crimes against people and the environment during a protest in Melbourne on June 29.
Protesters marched to each bank, cordoned of the entrance to create a symbolic crime scene and read out a charge sheet.
The action was called by the Socialist Alliance. Margarita Windisch, the Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Wills, argued the big banks, mines and energy companies should be nationalised and put under community control.
Windisch said: "Australia's big four banks are together the most concentrated and profitable set of banks in the world. The big four banks make a whopping $71 million profit every single day of the week – how is that possible? Most ordinary people are lucky to earn $1 million during a life-time of hard work. “
Windisch said this amount of criminal wealth accumulation was only possible because the banks were ripping off home loan borrowers, gouging customers with fees, and sacking workers while paying their executives huge salaries and bonuses.
“This rip off has to stop and we need to take this wealth back into public hands”
Simon Ross, a Greenpeace volunteer, condemned the big four banks’ involvement in funding climate change. In the past decade, these banks have invested over $5 billion in mining and transportation of coal, coal ports and coal fired power stations, threatening the survival of the Great Barrier Reef and increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
From GLW issue 971
- See more at: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/54417#sthash.SwMn50Xq.dpuf
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