Citing solidarity, evicted S. Africans refuse new homes

Boston-Bay State Banner
December 18, 2008

After months of often violent protests, five families belonging to the Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign (AEC) received keys earlier this month to their new houses in Delft 7-9, a recently constructed residential development on the outskirts of Cape Town.

Accompanied by an entourage of 80 campaign members sporting red T-shirts bearing the slogan “No Land! No House! No Vote!”, the families found their way through a maze of nearly identical and unnumbered one- and two-story buildings.

After several false starts and wrong turns, the crowd soon found each family’s home. With wide smiles and shouts of excitement, each family christened their new home with water and a silent prayer.

“I’m glad that I received a house for the sake of my children,” said Ethel Abbels. “I’ve been on the waiting list for 17 years. I pray that everybody will get a house very soon.”

Roughly 10 months ago, these families were among thousands who illegally occupied unfinished houses belonging to a government-run N2 Gateway housing project in another part of Delft, a township on the edge of Cape Town. Alleging that they had been given permission to occupy the homes by their local councilor, these families also claimed that their actions reflected their desperate need for housing.

Like Abbels, nearly all the families that occupied the new project’s homes had been on the city of Cape Town’s waiting list for housing, many for more than a decade. While they waited, many rented makeshift shacks in the backyards of residents’ properties.

After two months of protests, court cases and mass meetings, Cape Town’s High Court authorized the eviction of the roughly 1,600 unlawful occupants of the N2 Gateway homes. Beginning at dawn on Feb. 19, police and private security moved from door to door, removing each family.

The scene quickly turned violent, as police began shooting into the gathering crowd of residents, pursuing them as they ran for cover and leaving 20 people wounded. Television cameras and news photographers captured the confrontation, with images reminiscent of the battles between police and anti-apartheid activists.

With their belongings confiscated by a police eviction team, residents were left on the sidewalk along Symphony Way, a main thoroughfare. Rather than dispersing, residents constructed housing for themselves and continued to demand that the city meet their housing needs. Protestors even blocked the road to emphasize their demands.

After a particularly cold and wet winter and a prolonged negotiations process, the first group of Symphony Way residents was able to get their keys. Part of the South African government’s “Breaking New Ground” housing policy, each low-income house was built using a government subsidy provided to each qualifying family.

While acknowledging the happiness of the moment, the recipients of the new houses remained critical of the government’s failure to provide homes for all 127 families still living on Symphony Way. Some have even, in a show of solidarity, refused to accept their new houses, citing the agreement they made after their mass eviction to move into their new homes as a community.

“I am very happy, as I have finally received a house,” said Alfred Arnolds. “But on the other hand, for all the time I am waiting, I am not going to stay in this house until everyone on Symphony Way [receives] their houses. This is how I feel due to the mandate we undertook to move together.”

Jolene Ardense isn’t moving in yet, either.

“The reason why I’m not moving into the house is because of the mandate that we took in the beginning of our struggle that everyone will move together,” she said.

The official statement of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, the Cape Town-based social movement that has helped to organize the residents of Symphony Way and other squatter camps, echoed these concerns.

“Despite this small victory, each of the five families remain unsatisfied,” the statement reads. “They want their own house, but they do not want their own house if all their brothers and sisters on Symphony Way do not get their own houses as well.

“… As a result, each family has decided that they will not abandon their community on Symphony Way,” the statement continues. “Instead, they have undertaken to hang their keys up in the community office and make a commitment to not leave Symphony Way until every single family on the road is allocated a house.”

Organizers say the sense of solidarity grew out of personal relationships and various community programs developed in the wake of the mass evictions. Residents have had to rely on each other for essentials like building materials, child care and firewood.

While they wait for homes, Symphony Way residents continue to face police harassment. Five officers from the Delft police station last Wednesday threatened a local community organizer and assaulted two visiting Americans, then returned an hour later to arrest a Symphony Way resident for swearing at a police officer and malicious destruction to property.

These assaults fit a pattern of police abuse following the initial mass evictions. Since Feb. 19 of this year, there have been more than 10 such incidents, including the pepper-spraying of this reporter on June 29, 2008.

Chicago workers claim victory in factory occupation

Boston-Bay State Banner
December 18, 2008

CHICAGO — Laid-off workers at recently shuttered Republic Windows and Doors ended their six-day factory occupation late last Wednesday night, claiming victory in negotiations with their employers and its bank creditors.

Some 250 members of Local 1110 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) unanimously accepted a tentative agreement with the owners of the abruptly-closed factory that they said addressed workers’ demands.

Following the vote, the workers and their supporters streamed out of the factory, chanting “We did it” and “Yes we can” in both English and Spanish.

The settlement proved that “you can do anything when you have the support of every one of your co-workers,” said Local President Armando Robles. “This is not a victory just for us. It is a victory for every worker in the country.”

Totaling $1.75 million, the agreement will provide ousted workers with eight weeks of wages owed to them by the company under the 1988 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, as well as pay for unused vacation time and two months of continued health coverage.

UE Director of Operations Bob Kingsley described the historic settlement as “a win for all working men and women who face uncertainty, unfairness and job loss in a troubled economy.”

The workers’ actions within the factory on this city’s Near North Side, which for years had assembled high-quality sliding doors and vinyl windows, attracted national attention last week.

The occupation began on Friday, Dec. 5. Union members unanimously voted to stage a sit-in at the workplace after Republic’s owners had provided only three days’ notice that the factory would be closing and the company would be financially unable to meet its severance obligations to all those laid off.

The following day, over 200 Chicago-area labor activists and religious leaders attended a spirited rally outside the Republic factory. With placards reading “You got bailed out, We got sold out” and “Don’t Steal Christmas,” speakers expressed frustration not only with their employer, but also the company’s primary creditor, Bank of America, arguing that the bank’s refusal to extend Republic a line of credit had caused the company to suddenly close the factory.

The protestors were particularly chafed that the bank would take such a position after receiving $25 billion from the U.S. Department of the Treasury as part of the federal bank bailout.

After the rally, several workers spoke candidly about not only their frustration and surprise at their employer, but also their fears about how to make ends meet as they face the prospect of being jobless.

“This is such a surprise,” said Lalo Munez, an employee with 34 years’ experience on the factory line. “It’s like they just want to throw us away and get new people with low salaries and no benefits.”

Not going to happen, said Silvia Mazon, a mother of two and a screen worker with 17 years of line experience.

“We are here and we are not going anywhere,” said Mazon. “We are fighting to get what we deserve, what is fair and what is ours … Hopefully we will inspire others to fight so that they don’t get stepped on.”

In the days that followed, the Republic occupiers received an outpouring of support from across the city with donations of money and food. Members of various labor federations mobilized support, viewing the occupation as a tangible expression of the anger that many working people have felt in response to the federal bailout and job losses.

Republic workers also received high-profile support from a number of local politicians and activists. On Sunday, Dec. 7, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Operation PUSH delivered a truckload of food for the workers.

“These workers are to this struggle perhaps what Rosa Parks was to social justice 50 years ago,” Jackson said. “This, in many ways, is the beginning of a larger movement for mass action to resist economic violence.

“We’re going to have a self-induced depression because we are trying to change our economy from the top down,” Jackson added. “It must be changed from the bottom up.”

Later that day, President-elect Barack Obama addressed the Republic dispute during a press conference.

“The workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have earned, I think they’re absolutely right and understand that what’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy,” Obama said. “I think that these workers, if they have earned their benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments.”

By the fourth day of the occupation, more elected politicians offered support. Chicago aldermen moved to suspend the city’s business with Bank of America to pressure the company. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich ordered state agencies to stop doing business with the bank until it used some of its federal bailout money to keep the factory open.

“We hope that this kind of leverage and pressure will encourage the Bank of America to do the right thing for this business,” said Blagojevich, one day prior to his arrest on federal corruption charges. “Take some of that federal tax money that they’ve received and invest it by providing the necessary credit to this company so these workers can keep their jobs.”

Activists continued to target Bank of America, picketing outside bank offices in Chicago and in other cities across the country. Though they were in negotiations with the company, UE organizers also called for a rally outside of Bank of America headquarters in Chicago’s Financial District.

Shouting a “victory for one is a victory for all,” more than 500 people from various religious groups, labor organizations and immigrant rights organizations wrapped around the Bank of America building.

“If we stop fighting, business as usual will continue,” shouted the Rev. Gregory Livingston, national field director of Operation PUSH. “But we will not stop fighting and we will prevail. The Republic workers will get Christmas, the Republic workers will get what is owed to them.”

Republic employee Raul Flores thanked all those who came out in support of the workers’ efforts.

“If it wasn’t for you, none of this could have happened,” exclaimed Flores. “It’s not just for Republic workers, it’s for all of us. We are the country; we are the ones who deserve the money. We are united. We are America.”

After the agreement was reached, UE’s Kingsley also announced the creation of a new effort to reopen the Republic factory. Building on the flood of donations to the union local’s solidarity fund and seed money from the UE national union, officials announced the creation of the Window of Opportunity Fund, dedicated to reopening the plant.

Western Mass. organizers hit D.C. grassroots forum

Boston-Bay State Banner
December 11, 2008

More than 80 members of the Springfield, Mass.-based Alliance to Develop Power (ADP) traveled to Washington, D.C., last Thursday to take part in a forum that brought community leaders from across the country together with Beltway insiders.

“Realizing the Promise: A Forum on Community, Faith and Democracy” gave the crowd — consisting of about 2,000 grassroots leaders and community members, as well as senior advisors to President-elect Barack Obama and a number of congressman — the opportunity to sit down and discuss issues facing the nation, as well as practical solutions.

“It’s very important that everyday people be heard during the transition period and the first 100 days, so that the president can begin to address their concerns from day one,” said ADP Executive Director Caroline Murray. “There’s much work to be done in easing the country’s problems; having the transition team’s ear is a good start.”

Among the president-elect’s advisors participating in the discussions were Valerie Jarrett, who was recently appointed senior advisor and assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison, and Melody Barnes, the incoming director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House.

“Realizing the Promise” was an extension of the Heartland Presidential Forum, held on Dec. 1, 2007, during which then-Sen. Obama pledged that grassroots leaders would help shape his agenda as president.

At the Heartland Presidential Forum, ADP leader Dedra Lewis and her daughter Alexsiana appeared on stage with Obama. Dedra Lewis talked about the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and pushed Obama to guarantee health care for all.

“A year ago, then-Sen. Obama promised he would have members of his transition team meet with grassroots leaders,” said Dedra Lewis, who also spoke at a Dec. 4 immigration reform rally with U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill. “Well, he fulfilled that promise.”

Last week’s forum also built on the work begun at ADP’s Community Convention, held on Oct. 28, 2008, at which more than 500 community leaders met with Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., and other political leaders to call for an America that works for all citizens.

In addition to the meetings between grassroots leaders and political advisors, “Realizing the Promise” featured two roundtable discussions moderated by Juan Williams, a journalist, author and news analyst for National Public Radio. The discussions provided a setting for dialogue between community and faith leaders, members of Congress and representatives of the incoming Obama administration about a variety of issues facing Americans, including the flagging economy, rising unemployment, increasing health care costs, the immigration debate, environmental dangers and more.

Operating in three Western Massachusetts counties, ADP has worked to transform 1,450 units of deteriorated housing to tenant-owned permanently affordable co-ops, and created worker-controlled businesses and food cooperatives that distribute 200,000 pounds of food each year, among other community-based initiatives.