Unemployed Workers Committee launched to stop evictions and utility shutoffs

The Peoples Power Assembly is launching an Unemployed Workers Committee to Stop Evictions, Foreclosures and Utility Shutoffs. Its slogan is, “Through solidarity we can protect each other against capitalism and injustice.”

Here is the list of seven things the group plans to do:

1. Stop evictions and foreclosures through mass action, by forming a human shield to physically prevent evictions;
2. Advocate for governments and sheriffs’ departments to extend no eviction and foreclosure orders until people are safely back to work and able to pay; 
3. Hold the big landlords and banks responsible during this crisis, which includes demanding no rent increases, evictions or foreclosures, and housing fit for human beings;
4. Work to ensure unemployment rights and guaranteed income for all jobless workers;
5. Protect unemployed workers, the homeless and also small landlords who are at the mercy of the big banks, and whose foreclosures will impact their tenants;
6. Demand safe working conditions and hazard pay for all workers to ensure that they do not get sick or spread infection to their families and friends; 
7. Defend the community from utility shutoffs; heat, water and light are a right!

Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly organizer Steven Ceci said: “This is a long-term project aimed at uniting workers in the community for our self-defense through solidarity. Our goal is to be able to declare eviction-free and foreclosure-free zones.”

The Rev. Annie Chambers, a PPA organizer and housing advocate at Douglas Homes Housing Project, stated: “If we can’t work, then how can we pay? We are demanding no evictions, foreclosures and utility shut-offs until this crisis is over.”  

Chambers, along with the Ujima People’s Progress Party and the Peoples Power Assembly, distribute free food as part of the Food Is A Right Campaign from Monday to Friday at Douglas Homes in East Baltimore.

Ceci added: “Those most impacted are Black, Latinx and poor workers. In fact, it was the 2008 subprime mortgage scandal in combination with deindustrialisation and the loss of union jobs that stripped wealth from Black and Latinx families.” 

The PPA sees the launch of this mutual aid group as a continuation of its protests against racism and police terror. It invites all groups and individuals to join and pledges to unite with all groups that want to stop evictions and defend workers and the poor.  

If you would like to join the Unemployed Workers Committee, please sign up here. 

For more information, visit PeoplesPowerAssembly.org or call (410) 218-4835. Follow on Facebook @PeoplesPowerAssembly or Twitter @BaltoPPA.