AJLPP Update

Oct. 21, 2008

Angry Protests at S.F. Mortgage Bankers Conf Say: “Housing Is A Right—Stop Foreclosures & Evictions— Jail ‘Em, Don’t Bail ‘Em”

The annual national conference of the Mortgage Bankers Association was greeted by angry protests outside the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco on October 19-20. The demonstrations initiated by the ANSWER Coalition received extensive coverage from nearly all mainstream Bay Area media.

A rally during the opening of the convention on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 19 was followed by a militant picket line at 8 a.m. Monday morning, when the heads of the notorious Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage giants spoke. While being bailed out to the tune of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, Freddie Mac rented S.F. City Hall for a lavish reception on Sunday evening.

Speakers at the rally and picket line demanded that mortgage bankers responsible for fraudulent lending that helped create the housing and financial crisis be tried and jailed for their crimes. The central theme and chant of the protest was “No Evictions—No Foreclosures, Housing is a Right!”

Congress has caved in to the Bush administration and provided .5 trillion in total in money and loan guarantees to the bankers. Meanwhile, more than 2 million families have either been driven from their homes because of foreclosure, or are seriously behind in their payments and risking foreclosure. When the people can't pay the interest on their mortgages, bankers drive them from their homes. But when the richest bankers can't meet their debts, the government bails them out with taxpayers' money.

Among the co-sponsors and participants in the protests were the Cindy Sheehan for Congress Campaign, West (Contra Costa) County Toxics Coalition, Alliance for Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines, Gloria La Riva/Eugene Puryear Party for Socialism and Liberation Presidential Campaign, Peace & Freedom Party, Freedom Socialist Party, Nathalie Hrizi for Congress Campaign, Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, Code Pink, Justice for Filipino American Veterans, the People’s Bank, ImpeachBush.org, VoteNoBailout.org and others.

Among the co-sponsors and participants in the protests were the Cindy Sheehan for Congress Campaign, West (Contra Costa) County Toxics Coalition, Alliance for Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines, Gloria La Riva/Eugene Puryear Party for Socialism and Liberation Presidential Campaign, Peace & Freedom Party, Freedom Socialist Party, Nathalie Hrizi for Congress Campaign, Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, Code Pink, Justice for Filipino American Veterans, the People’s Bank, ImpeachBush.org, VoteNoBailout.org and others.