Evicted homeowner and others re-enter home at ACORN protest

Oakland CA July 31, 09

About 150 Acorn members and others turned up in support of Tosha Alberty who was recently evicted from her home in West Oakland California. There had been previous gatherings at Tosha’s home in anticipation of a visit from the sheriff’s
department but this time there would be an attempt to re-occupy it after the sheriffs evicted her.
Initially, the police outnumbered supporters by about three to one as they turned up with cars and vans in order to defend the right of the moneylenders to keep the home shuttered and its former occupants out. But slowly people started to arrive and the small house on the corner was quickly surrounded by people in ACORN’s familiar red tee shirts as well as supporters, including five of us from Labor’s Militant Voice/Facts For Working people.

There were signs in Spanish and English and the Brass Liberation Orchestra entertained the crowd providing backing for the various chants with some fine music. People called for taking the home back and for moratorium now and attacked the bankers.

The police were very friendly as long as the protest actually accomplished nothing and remained a protest. But as the crowd grew, FFWP supporters ventured out in to the intersection and started circling it. At first a few people went along in a line, holding on to each other and singing. The numbers grew amid the chants of “The people united, will never be defeated.” The police were not quite sure what to do as all four entrances to the intersection were blocked as the group had become large enough to encircle the intersection and keep moving.

One woman who has already lost her home and is an ACORN member went to one of the supporters of FFWP and suggested we not do this as the police said we shouldn’t. “We’ll do it until they tell us not to and deal with it then” was the friendly but firm reply. The older woman, who was a little cautious initially ended up, along with others, dancing in the center of the circle as the gathering grew. The police did not intervene.

We understood that ACORN had planned to re-enter the property with the displaced occupant and offered to join them but they declined. It is their strategy to strictly enter with only an organized and “trained” group and have a symbolic arrest. I had to leave before they did this and I was told that that some nine people were arrested, put in to a wagon but not taken to jail.

This part of town is overwhelmingly working class and predominantly African American although there are Asians, Latinos and some white folks. There has also been a consistent gentrification which looks to me like it has been slowed somewhat due to the economic crisis. The event had a lot of support from local residents, some joined us and others clapped their hands or danced on the fringes; many of them were youth.

I think ACORN has shifted it strategy and notched things up a bit by re-occupying property which is a good thing, but more needs to be done. I talked to some of the locals that lived a few houses away and they asked me what was going on; they didn’t know. I am not an ACORN member but it would appear that there is not really an attempt to organize Hands off Our Homes Committees on each block or every few blocks; or something along these lines which would draw the community in to the struggle against the landlords and police that protect them. The City of Oakland's unemployment rate for June 2009 was 17.0% and it is probably much higher than that, especially among black youth, so linking up the loss of parent’s homes with the need for jobs and increased public spending would go a long way to building a more generalized mass movement. In this way there could be permanent mass occupations of homes.

ACORN is more tied in to the established political process and the labor officialdom which influences its strategy and tactics but the composition of the crowd Friday was overwhelmingly working class; it is important to attend these events and support them.

If you live in the LA, Chicago or East Bay area, are facing foreclosure and are interested in building wider support and using direct action to attain these goals contact us at: http://hands_off_our_homes@yahoo.com