Occupy Homes lauds a radical new phase for the movement

The drive to stop foreclosures and squat bank property marks a radical shift from the occupation of public space to the public repossession of private property.

 

The Occupy movement is racketing up the resistance. Inspired by the Spanish indignados, this Tuesday activists all over the United States will be taking the struggle indoors: to the homes of poor families who are under threat of being evicted by large and powerful Wall Street banks. The move from occupying public space to reclaiming private property marks a radical escalation of civil disobedience, striking the capitalist system right at its institutional heart.

On December 6,  during a national day of action, the Occupy movement will mobilize activists in over 25 cities to “protest fraudulent lending practices, corrupt securitization, and illegal evictions by banks,” by physically halting the attempt to evict families from their homes and by occupying vacant bank-owned homes and donating them to those in need. As Occupy Wall St. reported, “the day of action marks a national kick-off for a new frontier for the movement.”

The action is partly inspired by the 15-M movement in Spain, which — through the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hypoteca, or the platform of those affected by their mortgage — has stopped hundreds of evictions in Spain and has occupied numerous large vacant buildings and offered them to people who had been kicked out of their homes by their banks. Locally, the action also builds on the groundbreaking activism of Take Back the Land.

(Source: occupywallstreet)