Eviction blockaders fight back

By Gerry Scoppettuolo

Oct 2, 2008

Foreclosure fighters took on Deutsche Bank Sept 25 in Boston, in the latest eviction blockade organized by the City Life Tenant Organizing Program and its supporters. Four protesters were arrested, including this writer, while trying to prevent the Boston police and a constable from evicting the Esquival family in Boston’s Roslindale neighborhood. While eviction blockaders were detained by the police here once before, this was the first time activists were arrested, booked and arraigned by the District Attorney.

photos: Stevan Kirschbaum

The family proudly maintained its dignified stance while supporters stood around them on the street. Three television stations and the Boston Globe recorded the obscene actions of the police, the banks and Mayor Thomas Menino, who allowed the police to occupy the Esquivals’ property before the arrival of the constable—a first in 10 eviction blockades this year. At the time, the Esquivals were still the legal tenants and the family was in Boston Housing Court seeking a restraining order against the eviction. This escalation of tactics by the city of Boston signals a hardening of bourgeois opposition in the face of City Life’s mostly successful strategy of using militant eviction blockades to force banks to negotiate foreclosures.

As the government’s Wall Street bailout neared passage, it became clear that soon the new owners of the Esquivals’ mortgage would likely be the federal government, as it restores credit to wealthy banks like Deutsche Bank while families like the Esquivals get thrown out. Stockholders in these bailed-out banks stand to see the value of their holdings increase. Recent reports about the government bailout disclose that there will be no real help for foreclosed homeowners, just letters from the Federal Reserve to banks “encouraging” them to loosen their lending terms (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 29).

Three days after the eviction, Boston’s International Action Center and the Women’s Fightback Network pushed ahead with its State of Emergency Petition Campaign, demanding that Gov. Deval Patrick issue an emergency order halting further evictions and foreclosures and rolling back and freezing food and fuel prices. Activists handed out flyers and gathered signatures on the campaign at a “Food and Fuel Summit” sponsored by the mayor at Madison Park High School, in the oppressed community of Roxbury. Those coming for assistance against skyrocketing food and fuel prices eagerly signed the petition, agreeing the government should bail out the people rather than the banks. The action was coordinated with actions in many cities

For more information on the WFN and IAC Economic State of Emergency Campaign, go to www.iacboston.org, or contact gerry@iacboston.org or frankneisser@gmail.com.