*How the Union of Pinnacle Tenants Became a Citywide Union*|

TODAY at 4pm Pacific / 7pm Eastern we have a town hall on Zoom with reps from the Union of Pinnacle Tenants.

Join us: bit.ly/UPT-feb22

RENT STRIKE WIN

Yesterday, four months into their rent strike– the first in Raytown, MO history– Bowen Tower Tenant Union signed an agreement with their landlord. The agreement satisfies key demands and allows the union to de-escalate the strike by Feb 1.

Mayor Mamdani in a Pinnacle building with the Pinnacle Tenants Union

In his first post-inauguration appearance, Mayor Mamdani is standing with the Pinnacle Tenants Union in their fight for the future of their buildings.

93 Pinnacle rent-stabilized buildings up for auction in bankruptcy and tenants want a say in the future of their homes

Zohran Mamdani’s First Big Housing Test Is Already Here The mayor-elect is about to inherit a messy bankruptcy affecting thousands of rent-stabilized New Yorkers. He’s also inheriting a growing tenants’ movement ready to fight back.

"This is New York’s first portfolio-wide union in recent memory, and surely the first to be built at such dizzying scale: In a matter of months, 40 Pinnacle buildings across 3 boroughs have formed tenant associations and joined the union to coordinate their demands."

newrepublic.com/article/2042...

As Tenants Organize, Landlords Embrace Old-School Union-Busting Tenant union members say they’ve faced threats, surveillance and retaliation from their private equity landlord, which has retained a notorious “union avoidance” firm.

Since Aug the Tenant Union Federation has organized 9 unions in 6 states, repping 1500+ tenants Capital Realty Group properties. This is the most significant portfolio organizing ever. CRG has responded by ripping pages out of the labor union-busting playbook...
inthesetimes.com/article/tena...

As Tenants Organize, Landlords Embrace Old-School Union-Busting Tenant union members say they’ve faced threats, surveillance and retaliation from their private equity landlord, which has retained a notorious “union avoidance” firm.

Tenants are forming unions to fight mold, retaliation and rising rents — and their private-equity landlord is responding with classic union-busting tactics, even hiring a “union avoidance” firm.

@rebeccaburns.bsky.social & @thomasbirm.bsky.social report on the threats, surveillance and retaliation.

10,000 Rent Stabilized Tenants Deserve a Say Over Their Homes The homes of more than 10,000 New Yorkers are now at stake. One of NYC's most notorious landlords, Pinnacle Group, has sent 93 buildings -- 5,000 rent-stabilized apartments -- to a bankruptcy auction....

Support the Union of Pinnacle Tenants!
actionnetwork.org/petitions/10...

All They Want Is a Landlord Who Doesn't Suck And more news for your Wednesday.

Morning Spew for Night Owls—A ceiling collapse is the latest sign of neglect inside buildings owned by billionaire Joel Wiener’s Pinnacle Group. Now, tenants are intensifying their calls to halt the current bankruptcy auction of 93 rent-stabilized Pinnacle buildings.

The Eviction Kings One of Israel’s biggest companies is taking over huge swaths of US real estate—and tenants are paying the price.

Today's must-read by @thomasbirm.bsky.social: a major corporate landlord is fueling homelessness across the U.S. *and* the mass displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank.

The Israeli company owns tens of thousands of apartments in the South, filing evictions at nine times the national average.

Rent Strikes Since the nineteenth century, working-class families have predominantly relied on tenements for housing, with rents often consuming a large portion of their household budgets. There is a long and cont...

Just published!

Rent Strikes: A history of collective tenant actions across the world, the book I edited with @hannesrolf.bsky.social, is out now from @uclpress.bsky.social

It's OPEN ACCESS, part of the "Work Around the World" series by @iisg-amsterdam.bsky.social

uclpress.co.uk/book/rent-st...

LA Tenants Union and All-Chicago Tenant Alliance are both demanding eviction moratoria in response to ICE's attacks on their cities
@latenantsunion.bsky.social

Tenants are organizing against RUBS across the country in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Richmond, Seattle, and New Jersey 🎉

Register now for the early bird ticket price at socialismconference.org !

We have a panel, "You Cannot Evict a Movement: Tenant Fights that Catalyze, Mobilize, and Win" with members of Crown Heights Tenant Union, Brooklyn Eviction Defense TU, Puget Sound TU, and Madison Tenant Power

Interested in starting a new tenant organization in your neighborhood or city?
Organizers from @vancouvertenants.bsky.social, Puget Sound Tenants Union, and @latenantsunion.bsky.social will present & lead a discussion.
Sunday April 13, 4:30 / 7:30
Register at bit.ly/ATUN-april13

Convivir, a Synonym for Commune? – Spectre Journal Drawing on Rosenthal and Vilchis's Abolish Rent and Ross's The Commune Form, Julian Francis Park argues that communism must traverse the rural/urban divide.

The tenants and the defenders of the earth (often peasants), fighting to sustain their lives against landed, state, and capitalist exploitation, violence, "making our community by defending it," and in so doing they convivir, they commune spectrejournal.com/convivir-a-s...

Most of the first paragraph of the essay linked in the next post, with the quote "in twenty years..." highlighted

In "Convivir, a Synonym for Commune?" my latest on @journalspectre.bsky.social I wrote about @city.bsky.social & Leonardo Vilchis's Abolish Rent & Kristin Ross's The Commune Form, starting from a revived communist theme via @tenantpower.bsky.social—the abolition of the separation of town and country

We disrupted their meeting in January, we pushed for a month, today we waited six hours to give public comment, and then finally WE WON eviction protections for all tenants in LA County who were economically affected by the fires!

Each month we host a session for tenant organizers who are trying to strengthen their unions. It's best when people commit to coming over months and participate as they experiment in their groups - not intended for people who haven't yet started organizing. Join us on Sunday, March 2!
bit.ly/ATUN-kt

Register at bit.ly/ATUN-feb17

How Tenants in Kingston NY Won a Rent REDUCTION

Event hosted by the Autonomous Tenants Union Network on Monday February 17 at 5pm PT / 8pm ET

Register at bit.ly/ATUN-feb17