BOSTON/State House - For months, economic democracy activists have been demanding that banks and other lenders take a more humane approach towards people having problems paying their home mortgages. Many of the protests have been directed at giant multinational corporations Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. Now, as the economy worsens for most people, groups with varying social, political, and economic agendas are collaborating on ways to promote their alternative solutions more widely.

BOSTON/Roxbury - Concerned about a rising tide of economic and social ills, over 100 local activists and advocates filled the hall at the First Church of Roxbury in John Eliot Square on Tuesday evening to watch representatives of grassroots organizations and labor unions testify to a panel of community leaders about the need for corporate landowners to do more to help Boston's neighborhoods thrive.