Monday, December 01, 2008

AP Story on Take Back the Land

Greetings:

Below is a link to an Associated Press (AP) story on Take Back the Land and the Take Back the Housing campaign, as it appears on the NPR website.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97660799

As a result of the crises of gentrification, housing and now foreclosures, Take Back the Land has been liberating public and foreclosed land and homes since 2006.

Each community has the right to control the land upon which people live, work, play, learn and worship. Take Back the Land is, therefore, asserting the right of the Black community to control the land in our community and use it for the benefit of our community, including, but not limited to, providing housing for our members in need. We urge every community to exercise the same right.

Take Back the Land further asserts it is immoral to maintain vacant homes for the purpose of profits in the future, while human beings are forced to live on the street today. The madness of such a policy is only compounded when one considers the owners of these vacant homes are not other people, but banks, the same banks receiving billions of dollars in bailouts without having to trade in the foreclosed homes for use by some of the people financing the bailouts. Additional government resources, including police and other government agencies, should not be used to evict low income people from homes in order to maintain vacant structures for bailed out banks to profit from some time in the future.

We call on communities to follow the lead of organizations like City Life/Vida Urbana in Boston and others, and defend families against foreclosures and evictions. For more information and to support the work work of Take Back the Land, please visit our website at www.takebacktheland.org.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97660799


forward,

Max Rameau
takebacktheland@gmail.com
takebacktheland.org
takebacktheland.blogspot.com