Last Monday afternoon, protestors shouted down Melvin Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, from an event hosted at Harvard Law School.
As Watt began to speak, the protestors stood up and began to complain loudly of malfeasance from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the FHFA oversees. With chants of “Mel Watt you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side,” the protestors drove Watt and Professor Hal Scott, who introduced Watt, from the room. The protestors were affiliated with City Life/Vida Urbana, a non-profit that HLS supports through the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and Project No One Leaves.
While protestors filled much of the room, there were only a few students at the event, which was sponsored by the Program on International Financial Systems and Fidelity Investments.
However, some of the students who were there were impressed by what they saw.
“I thought it was really cool,” said 2L Joshua Friedmann. “We don’t get the chance to see really organic community organizing. We’re pretty used to our walls being closed off.”