rent strike Archives

May 25, 2020

Building tenants’ power in the Bronx: interview with Manny Pardilla

As of May 7th, at least 33.5 million people are unemployed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The poor response by the state and employers is pushing working class people into tension with the pressures of everyday struggles. Healthcare workers are demanding greater protection, housing activists are calling for mass rent strikes, unemployment claims are expected to grow – this crisis will continue to expand. The push by capitalists to re-open the economy, and the state’s unwillingness to face the deadly realities of the pandemic will mean that Covid-19 is generating the conditions for mass struggle in the United States.

The organized labor movement’s timid efforts to push the Federal Government has been uninspiring and with huge swaths of working people disorganized, the descent into further barbarism stands over us all. The tasks faced by the new socialist movement in overcoming this divide stands over it like a mountain. But there are militants on the ground who are doing what they can to organize the people around them and build independent organizations.

March 30, 2020

by Justin Akers Chacón

How to win a rent strike

This communique is specific to the current conditions facing tenants in San Diego, California, but applicable to renters everywhere. There are specific reasons why tenants go on a rent strike, and there are ways to win. Just like workers in labor unions, tenants use the rent strike as a method to apply pressure and gain leverage in negotiations versus ownership/management. Tenants typically use rent strikes to demand repairs, negotiate better contracts (i.e., lower rent increases), and to protest against abusive management.
Rent Strikes can be effective when they are well-coordinated and based on a sound argument. Uninhabitable living conditions, requesting repairs that have gone unaddressed for over sixty days, gouging rent increases, threatening/bullying/abusive management and landlords could all be valid reasons for conducting a rent strike.

November 24, 2019

by Puntorojo Editorial Collective

Luchadores para el control de rentas

La Union de inquilinos surge a traves de la necesidad de evitar mayor desplazamiento en comunidades de bajos recursos Personalmente como organizadora comuniaria por mas de 15 anos en City Heigts en 2003 trabaje arduamete organizando a mas 300 padres de familia por una major educacion incluyendo respeto a nuestra lengua maternal; debido a que City Heigths es una comunidad con una diversidad multicultural, esto nos llevo a enfocarnos en la problematica de vivienda como un derecho humano y de salud que estaba altamente conectado a la desercion escolar, donde los estudiantes se sentian inseguros al sentir que cada 6meses o cada ano se tenian que ir a vivir a otro barrio e incluso a otro Estado.

Entonces iniciamos un proyecto al cual llamamos PCS (Proyecto de Casas Saludables) el cual fue patrocinado por California Endowment, esto nos dio la oportunidad de evaluar 300 viviendas en CH de las cuales mas del 80% resultaron con problemas realmente graves de humedad e infestaciones de ratas,cucarachas, chinches y otros graves problemas que iban desde tuberias rotas hasta techos rotos, ante este grave problema

October 20, 2019

by Justin Akers Chacón

Rent control rebels

The Tenant’s Union arose from the need to avoid further displacement in low-income communities. I have been a community organizer for more than 15 years in City Heights (a community in San Diego). City Heights is a predominantly immigrant, multicultural, and low-income community. I began organizing alongside 300 other parents to improve the schools for our children, including providing access to bilingual education. Through this work, I learned that there were a lot of problems with housing, and we began to focus on this issue as well as living conditions are highly connected to school dropout.