reposted from Newsletter #11 10/19/23 (bed-isms are bi-weekly explorations into some words, phrases, concepts, and dreams that our Union has cultivated for a few years.) Worker-Tenant The worker-tenant is both the Tenant Union’s unit of analysis and its historical protagonist. A worker-tenant is a worker who is a tenant and a tenant who is a worker. Most workers are tenants and most tenants are workers. A worker, here, is not only one who labors for a wage but also the unemployed, the underemployed, the wageless worker, the uncompensated, the super-exploited; importantly a worker is not a boss ..read more

Dear Comrades and fellow tenants, We are sharing this message to announce a temporary pause of our Intake Program.  For the past three years (it’s really been three years!) we in Brooklyn Eviction Defense have constantly operated an intake system run by our organizers. We are all worker-tenants who have voluntarily done this labor, barely missing a single day. As we are a revolutionary socialist organization BED is not a non-profit, charity, or NGO: none of us are paid to do this work. During this time we have launched campaigns and organizing projects alongside hundreds of tenants across ..read more

170 New York TA (Brooklyn Eviction Defense Tenant Union – Local #44) held a rally to celebrate their 3 months long rent strike against their slumlord Hager Management. Tenant leaders, young and old, new and lifelong, spoke of how they came together, how they decided to rent strike, and what the vision for the future looks like. After months of organizing for better conditions and more control over where and how they live, a fire in an illegal basement unit lead to displacement and damage throughout the building. For three months tenants have been living without heat, gas and sometimes lig ..read more

Brooklyn Eviction Defense denounces the state-sanctioned eviction of the peoples’ market. And we demand an end to the harassment and policing of the Plaza and the communities that make it bloom every Sunday. Plaza Tonatiuh is a site of community and principled resistance, a place where the values many on the left promote and give lip-service to–collectivism, collaboration, community, revolution–are actually practiced! Bourgeois authorities rightfully see the Plaza as a threat. This makes its defense and maintenence all the more important. Our struggle to build tenant power and to end the evict ..read more

On Monday May 1st, Jordan Neely was choked to death on a F train by a former Marine with the assistance of two men and passive complacency of multiple train goers. Neely, as many knew him, was a popular Michael Jackson impersonator and an unhoused tenant. His skill was well regarded and joy filled the platforms he performed in.  The violent public lynching unfolded after Neely was screaming out in anguish as he suffered from a complex of oppressions. He was hungry, thirsty, tired, mentally ill, over-exploited, unhoused, failed by our state, and unseen by many as a fellow suffering worker ..read more

281 Crown TA, part of the Hager Tenant Council, BED Tenant Union Local #42, has been investigating massive overcharges in their rent stabilized units. We had an inspiring rent history/overcharge workshop last month; the super came into the lobby, picked up some of the materials we distributed, and left. The next day, the landlord independently called two of the most active tenants and told them management “accidentally” overcharged them and they just happened to notice now. When the tenants said they wouldn’t be able to come into the office, management sent them checks and letters explain ..read more

This ten-session study group (starting My 21st) looks at three foundational materialist studies of capitalist development–all written by revolutionaries. In the previous study group, where we read Marx’s Capital over the series of eleven sessions, we covered the fundamental laws of motion of the capitalist mode of production, inseparable as they are from the mode of production’s historical development. In this study group we see Marx’s method of historical materialism applied to the world-system as it develops roughshod through the 20th century. Each study session’s direction and substance wil ..read more

Last night the tenant/shareholders of the Harry Silver Housing Complex convened for the first meeting of the re-awoken Co-op Association! As you can see the meeting took place outside, in the complex’s courtyard, and not in the complex’s 300-person community room. We applied to use the community room, per co-op guidelines and were promptly rejected (see slide 5). The community room is just one of the amenities of the complex that have been locked away from the residents. A beautiful playground–built by residents!– is now nearly-permanently locked. The walkway through the six buildings used to ..read more

The tenants of 2121 Beekman TA are fighting for decades overdue repairs. They are reclaiming their common areas that have been overrun with refuse and unfriendly non-tenants. We are struggling to make this building into a beautiful beacon of community and care. 2121 Beekman tenants are getting organized! The landlord is getting scared. After a week of trying to pressure tenants to allow him to attend the meetings, he had the cops called on us. The cops left after the tenants asserted their right to organize in public common spaces. But the landlord was not done. He calleda super to act as his ..read more

The evictions have got to stop. The families, and community, of tenants have had enough. The board of directors are operating as petty tyrants. They are not doing regular election, they are not meeting quorum for their meetings. Because of this tenants are disempowered, left in the dark and, worst of all, being evicted. Since 2017, 280 formal “legal” eviction have been filed against so-called shareholder tenants. We doorknocked the building and saw a dozen marshall notices on doors. Alternatively, the board is also taking eviction into their own hands. Denying repairs, ticketing tenants for st ..read more