A Just Harvest

Tag: Nonviolent Direct Action

  • Northside P.O.W.E.R. serenades Chase Bank Director

    North Side Residents Serenade James S. Crown
    at Gold Coast Block Party &
    Call for Chase Donation of Vacant, Bank-Owned Properties

    Fifty members of Northside P.O.W.E.R. and our allies publicly called on James S. Crown, a director of JP Morgan Chase & Co., to return vacant, Chase-owned properties to the communities of Rogers Park, Albany Park, Evanston and Skokie at the “Evening on Astor: The World’s Most Elegant Block Party”.  The annual block party, sponsored by Gold Coast Neighbors, is just around the corner from James S. Crown’s home.

    Northside P.O.W.E.R. members used a portable audio system to serenade Mr. Crown with original lyrics to the tune of “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music*.  Others members passed out postcards addressed to Mr. Crown and invited his neighbors to drop them off at his home.

    The postcards explained that during the housing boom, thousands of units of affordable rental housing were lost to condo conversions in these north side communities. Now many of these homes have become bank-owned through the foreclosure process and sit vacant.  Northside P.O.W.E.R. is requesting a Chase Bank donation of vacant housing units (both single family and multi-unit dwellings) back to the Rogers Park, Albany Park, Evanston and Skokie communities so that these unites can once again become affordable and occupied.

    “Banks like Chase created the housing bubble, and when it burst, we taxpayers bailed them out. Rather than returning the favor by extending a helping hand to the large number of newly unemployed people who could no longer make their mortgage payments, banks began foreclosing on homeowners in record numbers,” said Rev. Marilyn Pagán-Banks, Executive Director of A Just Harvest.  “It it time for Chase Bank to ‘Give It Back’ to our communities.”

    Northside P.O.W.E.R. is the community organizing arm of A Just Harvest, a 29-year old anti-hunger organization on Chicago’s far north side.  A Just Harvest serves a nightly meal and distributes surplus food to anyone in need. The numbers of people A Just Harvest serves has increased steadily over the years and spiked during the recession.  In 2011, the organization served more than 58,000 meals and distributed 101,000 pounds of food.  A Just Harvest started Northside P.O.W.E.R. with the goal fighting rising poverty rates and increasing income inequality.  For more information visit www.northsidepower.org.

    *Lyrics to “Give It Back!” (to the tune of “My Favorite Things”)

    Kids with full bellies and schools with good learning

    Mortgages that match what homes should be earning

    Living wages jobs make our neighborhoods swing

    These are a few of our favorite things

     

    Banks like Chase tell us to go chase what matters

    Neighborhoods rot while their coffers get fatter

    Friends you may wonder why is it we sing

    Affordable homes are our favorite thing

     

    Banks got bailed out

    We got sold out

    And we still ain’t seen jack

    On your way home tell your neighbor James Crown

    TO GIVE IT BACK!!

     

    Chase Bank owns homes that are vacant and needed

    We’ve reached out to Chase but our calls go unheeded

    Friends we need you to join us in our fight

    Help us make Chase & James Crown do what’s right!

     

    Banks got bailed out

    We got sold out

    Get our city on track

    On your way home tell your neighbor James Crown

    TO GIVE IT BACK!!

  • There’s Still Room on the Bus!

    SOUL and Northside P.O.W.E.R. Leaders in Action Together

    by Cindy Bush, Director of Organizing for Northside P.O.W.E.R.

    I was reminded of a famous Ken Kesey quote from the 1960s when IIRON leaders boarded buses Sunday, June 24 to go into action together: “you’re either on the bus or off the bus”.

    (Northside P.O.W.E.R. & SOUL at the home of James Crown, President of Risk Management at Chase, demanding that Chase give back vacant foreclosed homes to the community.)

    While the context of the quote is different in our time, the metaphor is instructive-these leaders understand that their destinies are intertwined and that any effective action must be collective action.

    Two buses, one from the north side of Chicago and one from the south side, loaded up and carried leaders into action together-one action challenged the outrageous behavior of Chase Bank in gambling with our economy and destroying our homes and neighborhoods; the second action challenged the failure of the Governor of IL to release money already appropriated to create green jobs in urban neighborhoods struggling with the highest unemployment rates.

    IIRON leaders experience the continuing effects of the Wall Street corporate greed that crashed our economy in many different forms: underwater mortgages, Medicaid cuts, distressed schools, and unemployment.  The list is unfortunately very long.

    But we have a clear understanding that we are all suffering from unrestrained corporate power and greed, and that we all need the same relief.  Our elected officials must act in the interest of the working people, not in the interests of that corporate greed.

    And it’s not just in Chicago that we get this, regular working people everywhere are joining the most recent call for a Robin Hood Tax-a tax on Wall Street that could transform Main Street.  http://robinhoodtax.org/

    If you are not already involved in the fight to save our economy, you are welcome, come on and join us.  Get on the bus!

A Just Harvest