[COMM-ORG] foreclosure organizing and others

Tue Oct 4 13:25:54 CDT 2011

From: Peter Dreier <dreier at oxy.edu>

Friends and Colleagues:

Rose Gudiel, her neighbors, and other supporters are waiting for the LA
County Sheriff deputies to show up at her La Puerte house and try to
evict her after Fannie Mae foreclosed her home. They they intend to lock
arms in front of the doorway, risking arrest, to stop the law
enforcement officials from evicting Gudiel, her brother, and her elderly
parents. The 35-year old Gudiel, who juggles two jobs, has become the
public face of a burgeoning movement, led by community groups and labor
unions, to defend homeowners from unfair foreclosures and evictions. I
describe this movement in my article, “California Homeowners Mount a
Growing Protest Movement Against Foreclosures,” in today’s Huffington
Post, which you can link here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/california-foreclosures-_b_986244.html

Another good piece in historian Michael Kazin article in last Sunday’s
New York Times, “Whatever Happened to the American Left?” linked here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/whatever-happened-to-the-american-left.html?pagewanted=1&ref=opinion.
Kazin offers a longer and fascinating answer to this question in his new
book, American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation.
I also recommend Sally Kohn’s column in the Washington Post, “President
Obama Shouldn’t Be Afraid of a Little Class Warfare,” which you can read
here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/president-obama-shouldnt-be-afraid-of-a-little-class-warfare/2011/09/21/gIQAmsBjqK_story.html?hpid=z2

Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor, consumer advocate,
and now a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, came up with
one of the greatest quotes of all time. This is worth posting on your
bulletin board for a constant reminder about what’s wrong with
conservatives’ anti-government rhetoric:

”There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You
built a factory out there—good for you! But I want to be clear. You
moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You
hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your
factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us
paid for. You didn’t have to worry that maurauding bands would come and
seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against
this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a
factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea—God
bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract
is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes
along.”
You can watch her say it on this video:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20110042-503544.html
Finally: It is worth remembering that way back in the 1990s, Los
Angeles’ business leaders and its Republican Mayor Richard Riordan
warned against the city adopting a living wage law. They painted
pictures of economic destruction marked by massive job loss that would
not only hurt business but the very workers that the supposedly naive
living wage supporters were trying to help.

Well, guess what? They were Crying Wolf! The Armageddon never came.
Indeed, as LAANE executive director Madeline Janis wrote in an op-ed
column last week in the Los Angeles Times, there was a virtual feeding
frenzy for food concession contracts at LAX covered by the living wage -
which is now considerably higher than before. Read her article, “L.A.'s
living wage ordinance isn't a job killer” here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-janis-living-wage-airport-20110921,0,3997663.story.
And keep this in mind whenever you hear the same kind of dire
predictions by certain business leaders and politicians – including some
running for President, who oppose any efforts to raise standards that
protect workers, consumers, and the environment. They'll cry wolf, but
those who know their history will tune them out.

Peter
_______________________

Peter Dreier

E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics

Chair, Urban & Environmental Policy Department

Occidental College

1600 Campus Road

Los Angeles, CA 90041

Phone: (323) 259-2913

Website: http://employees.oxy.edu/dreier

"The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis
remain neutral" - Dante