As the weather turned colder, we asked on this blog and on TRMS what shape the Occupy protests would start to take, particularly in cold-weather cities. Having many of their outdoor encampments uprooted and destroyed by police since then has changed the physical aspect of the movement, combining with the cold to push Occupy Wall Street and many other protests to take shelter elsewhere. But where Occupiers are may not be as important as what they're doing. Next week, their plan is all about the roof over one's head.
As Justin Elliott reports, the next big action day for Occupy will be next Tuesday:
Occupy Wall Street is promising a “big day of action” Dec. 6 that will focus on the foreclosure crisis and protest “fraudulent lending practices,” “corrupt securitization,” and illegal evictions by banks.The day will mark the beginning of an Occupy Our Homes campaign that organizers hope will energize the movement as it moves indoors as well as bring the injustices of the economic crisis into sharp relief. Many of the details aren’t yet public, but protesters in 20 cities are expected to take part in the day of action next Tuesday...The backdrop for all this is a new study suggesting the foreclosure crisis is only half over, with 4 million homes in some stage of foreclosure. Meanwhile, reports of illegal or questionable behavior by banks and mortgage lenders continue to stream in.
Even before the organized national campaign, local occupations were taking this issue on. Last month in Rochester, New York, a family fought an eviction successfully last month with help from Occupy Rochester and Occupy Buffalo. The family won a 30-day extension. Guess which law firm was trying to evict them? Buffalo-area attorney Steven J. Baum's "foreclosure mill" firm, whose employees found it funny a year ago to mock the homeless for Halloween -- and which recently announced that it's shutting down in February.
More on the show tonight, with special guest Scott Olsen.
(Photo/report: New America Media)