People have the Power!....FDR Did NOT Do it Alone!!

[Capt_John]

I have been watching Howard Zinn's The People Speak, with famous actors reading quotes from the history of America.

What struck me the most was the amazing Americans that fought so hard for what we take for granted now.

So many people blame Obama for what he isn't doing....but what is it that we aren't doing?

People have compared Obama with FDR...well maybe he could be the next FDR if we started acting as a united people making real demands for change. We need to force Obama and all the politicians to listen to us and act in our behalf.

These awesome Americans in the 30's NEVER would have just sat and watched as the bankers stole homes from millions of Americans. NEVER!


What they did do when rent prices went through the roof was a coordinated effort. As the people increasingly could not pay rent and were thrown out, they would pack up their stuff and move right back in. They would break and change the locks and go back in their homes. EVERYONE did this so that the landlords were overwhelmed having to go through the whole proceedings again. When these brave Americans continued to fight and would not give up, the government was forced to begin rent control.

just found the quote:
(the entire article is awesome!! http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/chernin1930sbronx.html)

From Rose Chernin "On Organizing the Unemployed in the Bronx in the 1930s"


"We, meanwhile, were standing out on the balcony. I would address the crowd gathered in the street below: "People, fellow workers. We are the wives of unemployed men and the police are evicting us. Today we are being evicted. Tomorrow it will be you. So stand by and watch. What is happening to us will happen to you. We have no jobs. We can't afford food. Our rents are too high. The marshal has brought the police to carry out our furniture. Are you going to let it happen?"

Or sometimes we would address the workers who had been brought to take the furniture: "We are talking to you, you men who have come here to throw out the furniture of unemployed workers. Who are you? You, too, are unemployed men who have had to take this job in order to eat. We don't blame you. You are one of us. We represent the Unemployed Council and last night we made a collection among the unemployed. We have enough money to pay you off. How much are you going to get for evicting an unemployed worker? Five dollars? Six dollars? We have the money for you. Come up here without the police and without the marshal and we will pay you off. Look at the marshal standing there. Is he working? Let him do the work."

And so we would harangue. We could see the men hesitating. We would continue: "We women are standing here with the furniture that is to be evicted. The water is hot in our kettles. The doors are locked. We're not letting you in."

Often, the hired men would come up anyway. Our doors were locked but they would break them in. We were behind those doors, with our kettles. They would grab a piece of furniture on one side and we would grab it on the other. And both would start pulling. Meanwhile we would say: "Here, here is the money. Leave the furniture."

Some would take the money and go. Sometimes we poured the hot water on the men. Sometimes they would hit us. And then we would run out onto the fire escape, grab the bullhorn, and shout to the crowd: "They're hitting us. They're big men and they're hitting us. But we're not going to let them move the furniture. They can't overcome us. We shall win."

Sometimes, they'd get so disgusted with all this fighting and hollering they'd take the furniture from the apartment but leave it on the landing. That was a victory. We'd stay there and wait for the husbands to return and then we'd put the furniture back into the apartment. We'd put a new lock on the door and the landlord would have to get a new eviction notice. He'd call the marshal and the whole thing would start all over again.

Our fight was successful. The rents came down, the evicted families returned to their apartments, the landlord would stop fighting us. Sometimes we failed and the furniture was carried into the street. Immediately we would cover it with a tarpaulin so it wouldn't get spoiled, and then we'd hold a mass meeting on the furniture, using it as a platform. We were only waiting for the police to leave. As soon as they were gone, the people standing around would pick up the furniture and carry it right back into the building. We'd break the lock, put back the furniture, install a new lock, and the landlord would have to go through the whole procedure another time.

Within two years we had rent control in the Bronx. That's the way it was in those days."



I could not find the video of Kathleen Chalfant reading Rose Chernin, but this part with Marisa Tomei is also very powerful!

http://www.fancast.com/tv/The-People-Speak/104329/1354724071/The-People-Speak%3A-Marisa-Tomei/videos



How I see this manifesting now...we have
2.5 Million Homeless and 18.9 Million Empty Homes -- an American Travesty
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-skip-bronson/post_733_b_692546.html

There are millions of homeless children, struggling to go to school meanwhile not knowing where they will sleep or what they will eat. This is unacceptable. Meanwhile, millions of homes have been stolen from people with illegal practices by the bankers. Many of these homes were bundled and sold to China and others so that no one even knows who owns what and frequently the paperwork is missing entirely.

The solution is obvious. Americans need to take back the houses...in mass...with such great numbers that the authorities are overwhelmed. Being foreclosed on-don't leave! Need a home- Find a nice foreclosed home and squat. Know a family in need, help them squat.

This situation is bullshit. Rich assholes are making everyone suffer for no reason whatsoever. Enough already.
We need to make our great American ancestors proud. They worked so hard, many suffered and died in the struggle and for what? We need to make ourselves deserving of this great nation we inherited from the people, by the people and for the people!

[Capt_John]

1. thanks for the recs

:hi:

[jwirr]

2. And thank you for the history lesson. Here on DU we are trying to

make them do it.

[pnorman]

3. Thanks for that Zinn link!

Although I've occasionally referred to myself on DU as a "lapsed anarchist for Obama", Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky are still my major sources of inspiration.

[felix_numinous]

4. Peaceful resistance

is the way out of these times, if we do not have enough legal representation. I wish people would refuse to leave their homes and do this, neighborhoods looking out for each other. Being put on the street by white collar thieves has to be stopped on the grass roots level.