On Feb. 13 hundreds of people from multiple cities across California converged on the state capitol building in Sacramento to demonstrate for renters’ rights. The Renters’ Day of Action was organized by Tenants Together, a statewide organization leading the fight for housing rights. Joining the renters in the fight were activists from organizations and unions like UNITE HERE, the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), and the Sacramento Immigration Alliance. According to Tenants Together, the action was the “first mass mobilization of tenants in Sacramento in decades.”
The demonstration had three specific demands. The first demand was an immediate stop to Ellis Act evictions by real estate speculators. The Ellis act was adopted in 1986 in order to allow owners of rental properties to close down (and usually sell off) any properties they pleased. This act has been used as a tool in the gentrification of our communities. The second demand was to pass SB 391, which would build affordable rental housing. Finally, protesters demanded the reinstatement of the renters’ rebate for low-income, senior and disabled renters.
Housing in capitalist U.S. is not a right. Housing in the U.S. is not determined by the need of the people but instead by the wants of the property owning class of the wealthy elite. There are over 18 million vacant homes in the United States, but 842,000 people are homeless on any given week. Rents continue to rise each year while wages are frozen or are in decline. In U.S. cities and towns foreclosures, gentrification and slumlords are destroying lives.
Along with this horrible situation, the Democrat and Republican capitalist parties don’t have the will or ability to deal with the problems. Republicans pass legislation like the Ellis act at the direction of corporate lobbyists, while the Democrats make empty promises to protect the “middle-class.” Yet the Democrat politicians take campaign donations from, and are loyal to, the very same banks that caused the housing market crash which destroyed the economy and created millions of foreclosures.
As revolutionaries we must be clear: housing is a human right. All people can and should have decent housing. Foreclosures and tools of gentrification are criminal acts on behalf of the corrupt ruling class and must be opposed. We must create organization and build a mass movement of workers and renters who can effectively fight for housing justice. We must continue the struggle until we can create a socialist society where housing is free and the landlord is a thing of the past.
