Freeze City and School Debts! Organize Now to Block Evictions! No Foreclosures!
An estimated 3500 Buffalo-area families face foreclosures on their homes in the coming weeks. The City, in what it claims is a measure to “crack-down” on residents, is foreclosing on anyone only a year behind in taxes or user (garbage) fees or water bills. The homes are to be auctioned October 24-26.
The government is also organizing to make it difficult for those who wish to pay to do so. According to the City tax office, as of September, only full payment is accepted and no arrangements will be made for partial or monthly payments.
The City claims these foreclosures are “necessary” to secure funds to balance the budgets imposed by the Buffalo Control Board. City financial officials have gone so far as to say that a proposal to allow all taxpayers to make partial payments and have two years for payments instead of one, would “be a devastating economic blow” to the City. Evicting people from their homes is evidently not so devastating.
Buffalo Forum has already begun receiving calls from families involved in these foreclosures, many of them African American, some elderly, and many long-term homeowners. One older woman, for example, explained that her family, including herself, son and daughter, has three homes. They have had them since the 1980s (once since 1971) and are only behind on their water and user fees. Two family members, who normally work full-time, have suffered illnesses. The lack of decent healthcare and increased medical costs, combined with little income, increased heating, gas and other costs, has made it impossible for them to keep up. Yet the City plans to foreclose.
Another family also faces foreclosure for being behind on user fees. They have lived in the two-family home for 25 years, with a senior living in the second apartment. One family member was among those laid off in April and faces difficulties as a result. They have tried to get assistance from the City and been told by everyone that there is “no money” for social services to assist those in need. These families alongside many others are angry about the situation and are joining in efforts to organize community meetings and to block any evictions planned.
Buffalo Forum urges all concerned to call us – 602-8077 — to join in organizing against all foreclosures and to demand instead that the City freeze the debt! Funds can readily be secured through freezing City and School Board debt (which alone has increased 250% since the Control Board took power). There is money when it comes to paying the rich. We say Stop Paying the Rich! Freeze the Debt! No Foreclosures!
We will be going door-to-door on some of the streets where nearly every house is up for foreclosure. We are organizing to ensure no one stands alone and no evictions are carried out. We demand a freeze on all foreclosures and that the city covers its financial problems by freezing the debt.
Here is a sampling of the houses on several streets, where it is clear that whole blocks will be impacted. While some addresses are already vacant lots, most are single, two or three-family houses. Some of the people in the areas targeted think the foreclosures are connected with efforts to force people out in order to expand the medical campus, for example.
Houses on the foreclosure list on:
• Grape: 55, 79, 81, 46, 50, 62, 68, 130, 178
• Orange: 37, 71, 112, 165, 225, 231, 233, 245
• Peach: 63, 69, 167, 225, 227, 241, 212, 236
• Fox: 45, 51, 53, 77, 85, 93, 105, 169, 179, 247, 253, 261, 263, 267, 269, 275, 337
• Loepere: 33, 38, 44, 49, 57, 63, 69, 80, 99, 103, 105, 140, 143, 145, 149, 157, 166, 200, 202, 206, 241, 245, 248, 255, 256, 278, 283, 282
• Sweet: 178, 188, 192, 217, 223, 234, 236, 240, 297, 373, 416, 445, 447, 450, 453, 463, 482,487, 490 (mostly vacant lots)
• Fillmore: 458, 474, 475,487, 498, 501, 503, 506, 539, 541, 571, 574, 587, 628, 641, 690, 752, 771, 779, 783, 785, 788, 807, 809, 872, 984, 1006, 1235, 1247, 1365, 1342, 1385, 1392, 1484, 1520, 1538, 1598, 1679, 1681
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The government is also organizing to make it difficult for those who wish to pay to do so. According to the City tax office, as of September, only full payment is accepted and no arrangements will be made for partial or monthly payments.
The City claims these foreclosures are “necessary” to secure funds to balance the budgets imposed by the Buffalo Control Board. City financial officials have gone so far as to say that a proposal to allow all taxpayers to make partial payments and have two years for payments instead of one, would “be a devastating economic blow” to the City. Evicting people from their homes is evidently not so devastating.
Buffalo Forum has already begun receiving calls from families involved in these foreclosures, many of them African American, some elderly, and many long-term homeowners. One older woman, for example, explained that her family, including herself, son and daughter, has three homes. They have had them since the 1980s (once since 1971) and are only behind on their water and user fees. Two family members, who normally work full-time, have suffered illnesses. The lack of decent healthcare and increased medical costs, combined with little income, increased heating, gas and other costs, has made it impossible for them to keep up. Yet the City plans to foreclose.
Another family also faces foreclosure for being behind on user fees. They have lived in the two-family home for 25 years, with a senior living in the second apartment. One family member was among those laid off in April and faces difficulties as a result. They have tried to get assistance from the City and been told by everyone that there is “no money” for social services to assist those in need. These families alongside many others are angry about the situation and are joining in efforts to organize community meetings and to block any evictions planned.
Buffalo Forum urges all concerned to call us – 602-8077 — to join in organizing against all foreclosures and to demand instead that the City freeze the debt! Funds can readily be secured through freezing City and School Board debt (which alone has increased 250% since the Control Board took power). There is money when it comes to paying the rich. We say Stop Paying the Rich! Freeze the Debt! No Foreclosures!
We will be going door-to-door on some of the streets where nearly every house is up for foreclosure. We are organizing to ensure no one stands alone and no evictions are carried out. We demand a freeze on all foreclosures and that the city covers its financial problems by freezing the debt.
Here is a sampling of the houses on several streets, where it is clear that whole blocks will be impacted. While some addresses are already vacant lots, most are single, two or three-family houses. Some of the people in the areas targeted think the foreclosures are connected with efforts to force people out in order to expand the medical campus, for example.
Houses on the foreclosure list on:
• Grape: 55, 79, 81, 46, 50, 62, 68, 130, 178
• Orange: 37, 71, 112, 165, 225, 231, 233, 245
• Peach: 63, 69, 167, 225, 227, 241, 212, 236
• Fox: 45, 51, 53, 77, 85, 93, 105, 169, 179, 247, 253, 261, 263, 267, 269, 275, 337
• Loepere: 33, 38, 44, 49, 57, 63, 69, 80, 99, 103, 105, 140, 143, 145, 149, 157, 166, 200, 202, 206, 241, 245, 248, 255, 256, 278, 283, 282
• Sweet: 178, 188, 192, 217, 223, 234, 236, 240, 297, 373, 416, 445, 447, 450, 453, 463, 482,487, 490 (mostly vacant lots)
• Fillmore: 458, 474, 475,487, 498, 501, 503, 506, 539, 541, 571, 574, 587, 628, 641, 690, 752, 771, 779, 783, 785, 788, 807, 809, 872, 984, 1006, 1235, 1247, 1365, 1342, 1385, 1392, 1484, 1520, 1538, 1598, 1679, 1681
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BTF Meeting Opposes Concessions: Teachers Stand Firm For Rights
Hundreds of teachers took part in a general membership meeting of the Buffalo Teachers Federation (BTF) on Thursday, September 8. Teachers enthusiastically stood behind the union and made their united stand clear to all. Two resolutions were unanimously passed, first by union delegates and then by the general membership. One resolution informed the Buffalo School Board that BTF remains ready to negotiate for a single provider health care package as part of contract negotiations.
Superintendent James A. Williams, representing the Buffalo Control Board’s demands, has been insisting that the teachers accept the single provider outside contract negotiation and without any contract language to guarantee the benefits will remain the same. He claims his promise, and that of BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) to “work with the union” is enough. The teachers said no, negotiate a contract now! Their stand in defense of the right of all workers to a contract, and one that carries the weight of a legal agreement is of benefit to all.
The teachers also rejected other concessions being demanded by the School Board and Superintendent. These include putting into the contract the four-year wage freeze (2004-2008) already imposed by the Control Board. The teachers and other city workers are challenging the freeze in court. This demand to put it in the contract is the Boards’ way of getting around such challenges. The fact that both the School and Control Board are concerned about losing the court case can also be seen in their demand that the teachers drop all litigation and grievances concerning the wage freeze and the healthcare issues.
The School Board is also demanding an increase in the work day to 7 hours 20 minutes, an increase in the length of the school year, a decrease in personal and sick days and elimination of early retirement incentives.
These demands for even more concessions are piled on top of the years of wrecking of the public school system. More than 1 in 5 teachers have already been laid off, along with numerous cuts to staff, book funds, art and so forth.
In the most recent layoffs imposed, librarians, councilors, foreign language and music teachers and attendance teachers were targeted. In some schools there is no librarian, in many others the librarians have been cut to part time.
Clearly experience shows concessions are not solutions, yet that is what the Boards are demanding. The teachers have rightly stood against concessions and for working conditions that enable them to teach and youth to learn.
The teachers also overwhelmingly passed a “no confidence” resolution, expressing their lack of confidence in Superintendent Williams and the School Board. They expressed “dismay over the Superintendent’s actions,” including his efforts to blackmail teachers into opposing the union and his verbal attacks on the BTF leadership, recognized as an attack on all teachers. The resolution called on the Superintendent and Board to “engage in intense negotiations in a less hostile and more civil, productive atmosphere.” It also affirmed that BTF will “take appropriate action” to achieve a contract consistent with the needs of teachers and students.
Actions being considered are a demonstration at City Hall together with other unions currently in negotiations, continued litigation and efforts to inform the public on the issues.
Teachers attending the meeting expressed their determination to continue to fight for their rights and to reject efforts by the Superintendent, School Board, Control Board and media to smear their union and their leadership and blame teachers for problems they did not cause. After the meeting, one teacher said, “This is a great turnout. There were close to twenty teachers from my school alone. The Control Board is behind all of these outrageous demands for concessions. Since its inception two summers ago, the Control Board has been nothing but a wrecking force on the city. It forced the School Board to increase its debt payments to the banks and Wall Street hooligans by 250 percent. It’s no wonder that we are facing even more attacks and cuts. And they have the nerve to claim that there is no money. Make no mistake, there’s plenty of money, it’s just being stolen from us.”
More than 650 copies of Buffalo Forum were distributed and warmly received by the teachers.
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Superintendent James A. Williams, representing the Buffalo Control Board’s demands, has been insisting that the teachers accept the single provider outside contract negotiation and without any contract language to guarantee the benefits will remain the same. He claims his promise, and that of BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) to “work with the union” is enough. The teachers said no, negotiate a contract now! Their stand in defense of the right of all workers to a contract, and one that carries the weight of a legal agreement is of benefit to all.
The teachers also rejected other concessions being demanded by the School Board and Superintendent. These include putting into the contract the four-year wage freeze (2004-2008) already imposed by the Control Board. The teachers and other city workers are challenging the freeze in court. This demand to put it in the contract is the Boards’ way of getting around such challenges. The fact that both the School and Control Board are concerned about losing the court case can also be seen in their demand that the teachers drop all litigation and grievances concerning the wage freeze and the healthcare issues.
The School Board is also demanding an increase in the work day to 7 hours 20 minutes, an increase in the length of the school year, a decrease in personal and sick days and elimination of early retirement incentives.
These demands for even more concessions are piled on top of the years of wrecking of the public school system. More than 1 in 5 teachers have already been laid off, along with numerous cuts to staff, book funds, art and so forth.
In the most recent layoffs imposed, librarians, councilors, foreign language and music teachers and attendance teachers were targeted. In some schools there is no librarian, in many others the librarians have been cut to part time.
Clearly experience shows concessions are not solutions, yet that is what the Boards are demanding. The teachers have rightly stood against concessions and for working conditions that enable them to teach and youth to learn.
The teachers also overwhelmingly passed a “no confidence” resolution, expressing their lack of confidence in Superintendent Williams and the School Board. They expressed “dismay over the Superintendent’s actions,” including his efforts to blackmail teachers into opposing the union and his verbal attacks on the BTF leadership, recognized as an attack on all teachers. The resolution called on the Superintendent and Board to “engage in intense negotiations in a less hostile and more civil, productive atmosphere.” It also affirmed that BTF will “take appropriate action” to achieve a contract consistent with the needs of teachers and students.
Actions being considered are a demonstration at City Hall together with other unions currently in negotiations, continued litigation and efforts to inform the public on the issues.
Teachers attending the meeting expressed their determination to continue to fight for their rights and to reject efforts by the Superintendent, School Board, Control Board and media to smear their union and their leadership and blame teachers for problems they did not cause. After the meeting, one teacher said, “This is a great turnout. There were close to twenty teachers from my school alone. The Control Board is behind all of these outrageous demands for concessions. Since its inception two summers ago, the Control Board has been nothing but a wrecking force on the city. It forced the School Board to increase its debt payments to the banks and Wall Street hooligans by 250 percent. It’s no wonder that we are facing even more attacks and cuts. And they have the nerve to claim that there is no money. Make no mistake, there’s plenty of money, it’s just being stolen from us.”
More than 650 copies of Buffalo Forum were distributed and warmly received by the teachers.
Read the complete article
City of Buffalo to Evict 3500 Families: No Foreclosures on Homes! Freeze the Debt!
On October 24-26, the City of Buffalo is planning to auction off more than 3,500 homes, all seized through City foreclosure proceedings. Many of these homes are on the City’s African-American East Side, many belong to seniors, all are family homes. 3500 families to be put on the streets in November! This is unconscionable and criminal. Buffalo Forum urges all those facing foreclosure and all those concerned to immediately call us at 602-8077 so we can organize to defend everyone. Our stand is Let All Stand Together So None Stand Alone!
People of Buffalo, already witness to the government brutality, racism and failure in Louisiana, cannot help but be outraged by this attack by City government. The City is implementing what it calls a “get tough” policy on all homeowners. Anyone one year behind on city taxes, user fees (for garbage pick up) or water fees is target for foreclosure. While some have been able to make arrangements to keep their homes, those currently on the list have to either come up with the full amount or lose their homes.
This year, when people have faced massive layoffs, cuts in services, huge heating and water bill increases , is the first time the City is including not only city taxes, but also user fees and water fees. It is well-known that water rates have sky-rocketed over the past two years. It is also known that many people have refused to pay the user fee, protesting its implementation as unjust and unfair. Previously garbage service was included as part of city taxes and many taxpayers saw the fee as a backdoor increase in taxes without the politicians having to say so. They also see adding these fees as a calculated move to force more people into foreclosure.
The City is taking this brutal action against thousands of families in the name of “balancing the budget,” a budget demanded by the Buffalo Control Board. It is much like the military claim that it could not deliver food and water to people dying in Louisiana because conditions were “too dangerous.” Both are not only lies, they are government refusals to take up its social responsibility and provide for the people.
There are many means to provide a budget that favors the people, just as there are many means to deliver food and water, dangerous or not. The refusal by government to meet people’s needs, whether here or Louisiana, and instead render them homeless and jobless, shows their complete failure to meet their duty to society. What we see instead is government organized to pay the rich and protect their private property.
We say housing is a right and homes must be provided for all. We reject government that steadily increases its debt payments to the banks, then claims it is so broke it must evict seniors, women and children!
We appeal to the Buffalo public to rally against this outrage.
No Foreclosures! Freeze the Debt!
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Oppose Control Board Dictate on Healthcare: Defend Teachers Right to a Contract
It is a fact that the Buffalo teachers currently do not have a contract and have not had one for a year. It is also a fact that the teachers’ union, the Buffalo Teachers Federation (BTF) and its President, Philip Rumore, have called for negotiations and are prepared to negotiate. The readiness to negotiate includes the union’s willingness to consider the demand by the Buffalo Control Board and School Board for teachers to accept a single-provider health plan from Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS).
It is also a fact that the teachers are not standing in the way of contract negotiations on healthcare or anything else. What the BTF is doing is demanding that changes to the existing contract, which provides for three providers, and any healthcare provisions for the new contract, be negotiated as part of contract negotiations. They are defending their right to a contract and also defending the right of all workers facing Control Board dictate to a contract. Firefighters did the same. They overwhelmingly rejected the demand for a single healthcare provider, also insisting on negotiations, and the Control Board imposed it anyway.
Teachers are refusing to have contract issues like healthcare decided outside negotiations and resisting Control Board efforts to eliminate negotiations, as they did with the firefighters. These are the facts the Control Board and School Board want to hide. To do so, an orchestrated smear campaign has been organized, not only to blame teachers but to create an atmosphere where political discourse about problems and how to solve them is being eliminated.
It is important to put the current healthcare issues in context. The Buffalo Control Board has systematically decimated the Buffalo Public Schools, demanding budgets that even school officials said were insufficient to provide a minimum level of education. No one has forgotten the “bare bones” budget imposed and its consequences to youth and teachers alike. No one supports the continuing cuts and layoffs. Yet, according to the media and School Superintendent James A. Williams, the Control Board is not to be held responsible for harming the children. Superintendent Williams repeats endlessly that the Control Board has every concern for the children, teachers, librarians, and public schools in general. The fact is the Control Board has none.
The teachers, like firefighters and all city workers, have also had a wage freeze unilaterally imposed against their contracts until 2009. What is taking place is outright tyranny against the workers. The teachers are standing to resist this and are to be applauded for doing so. Instead, they are being demonized and branded as “not caring” about the youth.
Most recently, the Control Board, using the Superintendent as their mouthpiece, have resorted to calls for use of force. At a closed meeting with school administrators and union heads, Williams said that he would like to take Rumore “outside and kick his ---.” He then reported the statement to the press. In this manner political discourse about solving problems is to be reduced to gang-like threats. As teachers say, a student would be suspended for using similar language and making such a threat.
It is important to examine why this incident is being promoted, while the brutal attacks of the Control Board all down the line are not targeted. Why the pitting of an African American superintendent against a white union president? Why open threats of violence? Are we to again hear they claim that “adult supervision” is needed and only the Control Board can provide it?
It is clear that the stage, once again, is being set to justify even more concessions from the workers and to impose the tyranny of yet more attacks on our schools, libraries, our whole city and county. Elected government, and unions, are to be targeted, while Control Board tyranny is given as a solution.
We urge all workers and residents to defend the teachers in this fight and not be taken in by the disinformation of the Control Board.
Read the complete article
It is also a fact that the teachers are not standing in the way of contract negotiations on healthcare or anything else. What the BTF is doing is demanding that changes to the existing contract, which provides for three providers, and any healthcare provisions for the new contract, be negotiated as part of contract negotiations. They are defending their right to a contract and also defending the right of all workers facing Control Board dictate to a contract. Firefighters did the same. They overwhelmingly rejected the demand for a single healthcare provider, also insisting on negotiations, and the Control Board imposed it anyway.
Teachers are refusing to have contract issues like healthcare decided outside negotiations and resisting Control Board efforts to eliminate negotiations, as they did with the firefighters. These are the facts the Control Board and School Board want to hide. To do so, an orchestrated smear campaign has been organized, not only to blame teachers but to create an atmosphere where political discourse about problems and how to solve them is being eliminated.
It is important to put the current healthcare issues in context. The Buffalo Control Board has systematically decimated the Buffalo Public Schools, demanding budgets that even school officials said were insufficient to provide a minimum level of education. No one has forgotten the “bare bones” budget imposed and its consequences to youth and teachers alike. No one supports the continuing cuts and layoffs. Yet, according to the media and School Superintendent James A. Williams, the Control Board is not to be held responsible for harming the children. Superintendent Williams repeats endlessly that the Control Board has every concern for the children, teachers, librarians, and public schools in general. The fact is the Control Board has none.
The teachers, like firefighters and all city workers, have also had a wage freeze unilaterally imposed against their contracts until 2009. What is taking place is outright tyranny against the workers. The teachers are standing to resist this and are to be applauded for doing so. Instead, they are being demonized and branded as “not caring” about the youth.
Most recently, the Control Board, using the Superintendent as their mouthpiece, have resorted to calls for use of force. At a closed meeting with school administrators and union heads, Williams said that he would like to take Rumore “outside and kick his ---.” He then reported the statement to the press. In this manner political discourse about solving problems is to be reduced to gang-like threats. As teachers say, a student would be suspended for using similar language and making such a threat.
It is important to examine why this incident is being promoted, while the brutal attacks of the Control Board all down the line are not targeted. Why the pitting of an African American superintendent against a white union president? Why open threats of violence? Are we to again hear they claim that “adult supervision” is needed and only the Control Board can provide it?
It is clear that the stage, once again, is being set to justify even more concessions from the workers and to impose the tyranny of yet more attacks on our schools, libraries, our whole city and county. Elected government, and unions, are to be targeted, while Control Board tyranny is given as a solution.
We urge all workers and residents to defend the teachers in this fight and not be taken in by the disinformation of the Control Board.
Read the complete article
