Getting Organized

February 23, 2018 8:36 AM

“Marie Miranda cooked potato salad, pastelillos and rice for a group of 30 socialists and Emerald Equity tenants gathered in Alex’s apartment for the DSA Housing Working Group meeting. The socialists came to hear the tenants’ experiences, and tenants came to give powerful testimony of landlord abuse. There was standing room only as people crowded into the living room and leaned in from the kitchen to hear the tenants speak.

One by one, in Spanish, the tenants gave harrowing accounts of abuses spanning decades, including the death of one tenant’s father due to management’s negligence...” Rats In The Hallway (Indypendant) how a group of working class women and the NYC DSA teamed up to fight hostile landlords pushing out rent stabilized tenants. (Article in Spanish, Ratas en el Pasillo)
posted by The Whelk (4 comments total)

This is the way you build a viable third party - from the bottom up. It looks like the DSA is filling a valuable and vacant niche in advocating for tenants. I wish them success, and I hope they catch on in every city.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 11:38 AM on February 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

Interesting part was how hard it can be for white allies to be effective. And how important it is to let POC leaders continue to lead.
posted by emjaybee at 7:31 AM on February 24, 2018

This is all very true, I remember when I was living in a family member’s rent controlled apartment, and I put my hand through a wall that was as soft as cheese. The landlords absolutely try to kick people out through not making repairs, while bending over backwards to repair the apartments with a higher rent.

That said, I’m not sure if I agree with the promises of security for undocumented people in the union. From my own recent experience union organizing, union busters look for the most vulnerable people to try to pressure. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did call ICE on a meeting.
posted by corb at 11:18 AM on February 24, 2018

Jackson Heights finds itself in developer's targets
posted by The Whelk at 2:13 AM on March 17, 2018