Public Program, 7 – 9 p.m. May 15th, Quaker Meeting House in Santa Cruz

Did you know that just in the month of April over 53,000 California homes are scheduled for auction? That is 2,500 homes on the auction block every single weekday! And the overwhelming majority of them are actually “fraudclosures”, the result of illegal & fraudulent actions by the big banks.

In Santa Cruz there are 192 scheduled auctions just for the month of May. Multiply that by 12 months and you get about 2,300 for the year. Each one entails hardship, stress & expense for families, neigborhoods, counties and State.

What can we do to stop these devastating foreclosures? There is a lot we can, and must, do. Our local WILPF and Occupy Working Group are co-planning strategies & actions we can take to stop fraudulent foreclosures in our County. At our May program local activists will share effective ways we can get involved to stop this injustice.

The featured speaker of the evening is CJ Holmes, creator of the nonprofit Homeowners For Justice. Ms. Holmes is leading a nationwide effort to stop foreclosures and keep people in their homes. (Learn more at her website www.hofj.org)

As CJ Holmes writes: “The rampant and systematic foreclosures of our family homes is deliberate, and is destroying the very fabric of our society, including persistent unemployment, loss of social services, and decreased money for our children’s education.”  It is also cheating our cities, counties & states out of millions of dollars from unpaid recording fees and 30% lower home values. Also, every foreclosure actually costs the local economy about $20,000.

“With 8,000-homes in this country already foreclosed, and another 11,000 in the pipeline, much of our country may not belong to citizens by the time it’s over unless we stop the foreclosure machine”. (That comes to 19 million homes; if each home housed 4 people, that comes to 76 million people facing foreclosure and that means Every Fourth Person In This Country!) “Cash from anywhere in the world can buy our real estate at unbelievably low prices, but right now over 80,000 families in the 11 Bay Area Counties cannot get a loan to buy a home regardless of income, credit score or cash reserves since they lost a home to foreclosure or short sale in the last 3 years.”

CJ Holmes is a licensed broker with an extensive background in real estate investing, client representation, and market analysis, who accurately predicted this current home value meltdown in late 2008. Her talk will include detailed information about foreclosures, their affect in our area and how we can get involved to stop “fraudclosures” in a variety of effective ways.

Please join us for this important program. Co-sponsored by Santa Cruz WILPF and OccupySC StopForeclosure Working Group.

WILPF Public Program, 7 – 9 p.m. May 15th, Quaker Meeting House in Santa Cruz.. Free, donations welcomed!  For information, chair@wilpf.got.net or call 457-6797.

OCCUPY WELLS FARGO!

MONDAY, APRIL 23

CALIFORNIA @MONTGOMEREY ST. (MONTGOMERGY BART) SF

4 P.M. – MIDNIGHT

SPEAK OUTS BY THE 99%, TEACH-IN, FOOD, MUSIC, ART

4-5 p.m.: Outreach to Financial District workers and other 99%ers

5-8 p.m: 99% SPEAK OUT:

Come hear the stories and struggles of people on the front lines of the communities and movements of the 99% — impacted by and fighting Wells Fargo, big banks and Wall St.:

5-5:30 Foreclosure Fighters

5:30-6 Labor

6-6:30 Immigrant rights/prisons/detention centers

6:30-7 Feminists

7-7:30 Students

7:30-8 Environmental Sustainability

AND MORE:

6-9 p.m.: Nonviolent Direct Action Training:

Prepare for the take over of the Shareholder Meeting the next day. Hands-on skills and info about how to engage in effective direct action and occupation, tools for de-escalation (and escalation) and dealing with arrest and legal consequences.

8-9 p.m.: Outdoor Film Screenings by Occupy SF Media:

A series of short documentaries on Foreclosure Fighter Victories, Bank Occupations, and Subervtisements.

9-Midnight: Silent Movies & Music and Wells Fargo Teach-In:

by the Occupy SF Ideological Liberation Work Group

Mortgage Mess: How Wells Fargo defrauds the public with mortgages every step of the way: from origination to securitization to foreclosure.

Predatory Lending: How Wells Fargo uses payday loans, student loans, and interest rate swaps to keep customers, students, and local governments trapped in a vicious debt cycle.

Too Big To Exist: How Wells Fargo abuses its powers as a large bank, from exorbitant bailouts and abusing the FED discount window, colluding with other banks to restrict any semblance of a free market.

Let’s show our solidarity

and Monday

start the heat on Wells Fargo!!!

Wednesday, April 4th, Occupy Santa Cruz viewed the film “V for Vendetta” on the west side of the county courthouse. There were about 20 in attendance for our movie. I personally didn’t know what to expect for a turn out and was very pleased with the numbers that did show. Mithrell and I have decided to make a weekly event of showing a movie, next week will be the 1980′s classic “Wall Street” starring Charlie Sheen and Micheal Douglas. Again it will be shown on the west side of the courthouse, weather permitting, at 7:30ish next Wednesday. If you have a movie suggestion please feel free to ask at http://occupychop.tumblr.com/ask.

[[Ed Note: The showing of Wall Street last night (Wed 11Apr2012) was cancelled due to the wet weather. It has been re-scheduled for Wed 18Apr2012. -GX]]

[[Ed Note: Occupy Chop announced on Facebook that due to a lack of equipment the showing has now been re-scheduled for Wed 25Apr2012. -GX Tue17Apr2012]]

Protest Income Inequality. Monterey Conference Center, 1 Portola Plaza, Monterey (near corner of Alvarado and Del Monte).

This rally will be held prior to the Panetta Institute Lecture (Discussing the economy will be Robert Reich, professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, author, advisor to presidents and former Secretary of Labor and Alan Simpson, former U.S. Senator and co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Ron Insana, senior analyst, CNBC and MSNBC, and financial industry expert will moderate.), with the intention of spreading awareness to the arriving attendees and the community.

Dress up as a 1%er (your interpretation) and bring a sign expressing your desire to be taxed. “Close Tax Loopholes”, “Raise the Capital Gains Tax”, “I Love Estate Tax”, etc.

Who: Me, You, and all of our friends

What: An exhibition of art from Occupy Santa Cruz. Some art, music, poetry, and snacks!

When: April 6th, 7pm

Where: Resource Center for Non-Violence, 612 Ocean Street, Santa Cruz, CA

Why: Because art is our great communicator, and with it we just might understand each other someday, but mostly because we don’t need a reason.