Brooke, Founding Member of the Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Defense Group, Talks about OOFDG, Race Class and Housing.

Categories: Front Page, Open Mic

nobody-put-out-jpThe Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Defense Group was formed in late January / early February of 2012, just about four years ago now.

It was able to undertake a number of campaigns, some very successful, some less so, to stop foreclosures and keep people in their houses.  Numerous articles about the group’s activities can be found on this website (e.g., here, or here)

jodie-defense-day3Its most intensive campaign was to keep Morgan Stanley from foreclosing on Jodie Randolph (pictured on her porch, 2nd from right, with oofdg members). She was a woman with cancer living in Alameda, and the battle went on for almost some six months, from November, 2012 until May, 2013. The house was saved from foreclosure but, in a tragedy, Jodie Randolph died from that cancer just as the the deal was being finalized.

In an extensive Q&A essay on Fireworks, Brooke, one of the principal founding members of OOFDG, talks about the work that was done, the philosophy behind it, the background that brought him to that work, and current high-profile issues such as gentrification and race.

Here is the introduction:

Occupy Oakland is now over 4 years old, but looking at many of the groups and projects that came out of it can shine light on times when radical and anarchist ideas of working-class self-defense, mutual aid, and solidarity were given life in a real way and revolutionary ideas exploded out of a subculture and into a movement. What follows is an interview with Brooke, a participant in Occupy Oakland and the Foreclosure Defense Group (FDG), which used direct action to fight to keep people inside their foreclosed homes in the East Bay Area. Beyond just being a history of the group, Brooke discusses the rise and fall of movements, the nature of white supremacy, the importance of looking at class, lessons for current housing and anti-gentrification struggles, and the often repeated shortcomings of the radical milieu.

Read the whole piece here.

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