| Activists with the Workers Assembly Against Racism will be gathering Dec 26—the day after Christmas, the first day of Kwanzaa and the date that unemployment benefits were due to expire—to call this “stimulus” package out for what it is: an inadequate measure that only gives the green light for evictions on January 31.
The assembly begins Saturday, in Brooklyn on Dec. 26 at 1 PM outside the Atlantic Terminal Mall, on the Flatbush side.
Even before the pandemic, Brooklyn was the site of rampant racist gentrification and evictions.
The $600 so-called “stimulus” check doesn’t even cover one month’s rent in New York City—much less the average of $5,850 in back rent and utilities renters nationwide will owe by January.
Meanwhile, Congress gave the rich $130 billion in tax breaks. State and local governments were left out, signaling a wave of disastrous budget cuts, service cuts and layoffs. Jobless claims during the week ending Dec. 12 unexpectedly jumped to a three-month high; the extension of unemployment insurance to March 14 is nowhere near enough.
The little that is being given is being denied to millions of excluded workers, migrants and students.
“It is Black and Brown families who have been hit the hardest by the COVID pandemic and the economic fallout,” said Terrea Mitchell with the Workers Assembly Against Racism. “To restart the months-late, halfway funding bill not only during the holidays but on the first day of Kwanzaa is another example of the racism of this so-called stimulus.”
“It is also a green light to landlords that they can throw people out on the street starting January 31,” she continued.
The moratorium which now expires at the end of January was enacted by Trump’s CDC—whose website assures landlords that they are not prohibited by the moratorium from beginning eviction proceedings.
“We’re not waiting for Biden’s administration to end evictions,” said Mitchell. “We are taking to the streets now and supporting every stoop defense initiative to stop landlords from evicting tenants. |
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