TENANT HORIZON ISSUE #6
- Valley Tenants Union
- Jul 8
- 17 min read
Tenant Horizon is back with our July Issue! In June, we witnessed cities across the nation rise up against the military siege. Fascism is in the streets in full force, and yet the working people are fighting back and defending neighborhoods, blocking deportations, lighting Waymos on fire and facing down la migra in all its new covered and uncovered faces. We are heartened and inspired by the tenants, workers, students and everyday people doing anything and everything they can to protect immigrants in an outpouring of rage, love and solidarity.
What we have learned and witnessed from Tonatierra and the Comites de Defensa Del Barrio, is that organization is necessary from the ground up. Organized jornaleros, barrio defense committees and affected families were at the forefront of resisting Sheriff Joe Arpaio for eight years and fighting against ‘anti-illegal alien bills’ of the late 2000’s. It’s imperative that we return to building and activating neighborhood defense committees and organize at all working sites most affected by this nationwide attack on immigrants. Our union is committed to building this foundation and network of organized, democratic communities – from the refugee tenants in a West Phoenix apartment, the historic Grant Park neighborhood fighting gentrification and other alienated, poor-working class tenants within the city — to defend themselves, instead of parachuting in activists and nonprofit entities that provide their limited acts of service. We are emboldened by understanding the history of anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona during the enactment of SB1070, the forces at play then and now, to encourage the people to organize and not freeze in fear. This is a nationwide and global attack on immigrants and we are not alone in this fight! Solo el Pueblo salva al Pueblo!
Interested in contributing? Reach out to any Research and Analysis Committee member or email us at ValleyTenants@proton.me.
Updates
A/C Summer Program
NO MORE HEAT DEATHS! For our June meeting, we reflected on the state of the organizing we started as a project at a building we found had historical A/C issues. While it's in early stages, we have found interested tenants and widespread issues even beyond air conditioning. Responding to some questions that the outreach has prompted, we considered the role of this project, how to avoid spreading ourselves too thin, and more.
While we have a list of other apartments with newsworthy A/C issues, we didn't want to start more outreach ourselves. The program would prefer to take an auxiliary support role, providing educational materials and outward politicization over replicating the wider union's functions (outreach and organizing) in a smaller form. Still, our list can be used for outreach options in the future, like in the East Valley for example. We also talked about our meeting with ACTA/People's Cooling Army in Chicago (who set on a similar strategy as us instead of further window unit provision) and collecting testimonials about A/C breakdowns from the wider union.
Instead of another business meeting, we want to get together for an art build at 6:30pm on the 3rd Thursday (7/17) at Coronado Park. We'll take time to work on agitprop, banners, etc. We're going to have some special guests, so make some art with us!
Eviction Defense Working Group
"The theater itself is not revolutionary: it is a rehearsal for the revolution" - Augusto Boal
During this June’s VTU General Meeting, Eviction Defense tried its hand at rehearsing for the revolution (and having some fun in the process). We performed our latest org-wide proposal, Solidarity Casework, in front of the 30-40 comrades that attended the June General Meeting. It allowed us to laugh, shed some insecurities, and likely confuse our comrades! No matter! We are convinced we're working toward building an organizational culture that can use performance and rehearsal to help break ourselves out of Capitalism's alienation into meaningful relationships with each other. Relationships that mean when a tenant (member or otherwise) comes to us in crisis, we use our collective power to support that member with what they need wherever they're at.
We feel strongly that Solidarity Casework can turn all VTU members into experts in the terrain of housing, tenancy, and eviction defense in The Valley.
We all have misgivings about 'casework' and how it can be wrapped up with exploitative social work, non-profit activism, and lend itself to the maintenance of the status quo. At the same time, like Union de Vecinos organizer Kenia Alcocer, we accept that casework is 'a necessary nuisance' and if we're smart about it, casework can allow us opportunities to politicize and confront the failed bureaucracy of the state.
For us 'Solidarity Casework' goes beyond mere casework and into building the knowledge and relationships necessary to confidently use our collective power (and bodies) to confront the landlords and the state (and its lackeys) when tenants are getting evicted.
Solidarity Casework proposes that we continuously check-in with our members to understand their capacity and comfort for direct action in the context of eviction defense.
Solidarity Casework proposes a structured and shared approach for responding to and supporting tenants when they come to VTU in crisis.
Solidarity Casework proposes assembling and codifying our shared lived experiences of eviction and eviction defense as knowledge for use in building our collective power.
We're going to keep rehearsing, re-enacting, and practicing until the revolution is here!
Join us at our next meeting on July 9th 7-8:30PM.
Grant Park Project
Grant Park Project: Uniting in our Struggles!
How often do you see your landlord or property manager? Tenants in Grant Park are faced with slow responses to maintenance requests, making some living conditions dangerous and uncomfortable. With the summer heat increasing every day, A/C units break down, electricals overheat, and tenants need the assurance that their housing issues will be solved on a timely basis. When properties switch management often and leases get lost, the livelihood of tenants are at risk. We are encouraging neighbors to locate their leases, know their landlords, and keep written documentation of every maintenance request.
We are working with tenants in Grant Park to learn more about issues the neighborhood is determined to solve. Neighbors want better housing opportunities for unsheltered and low income folks, to kick out predatory housing developers, more activities for kids and accessible transportation, and to make sure landlords fix issues as quickly as they ask for rent.
We will be planning a community event in a local apartment complex and will be doorknocking in surrounding areas to call attention to similar issues tenants face, but most times feel they experience alone. We are stronger together!
West Valley Project
Throughout June, we’ve been dedicating most of our time to building a tenant association at a member’s subsidized complex. We kicked off the month hosting a “Know your Tenant Rights! Family Fun Day!” and it was extremely energizing. There were activities for the youth, including basketball, dodgeball, bubbles, chalk and creating a mural. We met many neighbors through that gathering, shared tenants’ rights and decided to continue hosting meetings every Wednesday evening. What we learned from our comrades in the Los Angeles Tenants Union is that consistency is key!
The neighbors initially met to discuss everyone’s experience at the apartments and what they would like to see changed. We learned about an elderly neighbor who has been suffering from injuries and discussed their rights to an in-home caregiver, according to the American with Disabilities Act and Fair Housing Laws. During this month, the tenants experienced multiple inspection notices from the management and HUD housing which was frustrating because they left many waiting around for inspectors who never came. Each Wednesday between 6-20 neighbors came out to work on a letter that will announce their tenant association and bring up the concerns with management. The writing has been collaborative; undergoing many drafts to get everyone’s input and translation into five different languages. By the end of the next meeting, the hope is to discuss what will happen after the letter is sent and further actions the tenant association can take!
Other lessons learned this month:
3 Contacts (doorknocking 2 in-person, 1 via phone) has been helpful in getting turnout at meetings.
Having multilingual meetings is very possible with the help of neighbors.
Being on time and ending on time is important.
Involving the youth of the neighborhood, whether that be participating in the meeting, flyering or producing artwork.
Working at everyone’s pace and taking time to talk things out.
Showing up every Wednesday and committing to neighbors that have been showing up regularly.
Music and chants uplift the spirits.
Challenges:
Community agreements and making sure that we lay the foundation for collective action.
Having focus at meetings rather than sharing new issues.
Working through fears of retaliation from the management or landlord
Update on laundromat: we have decided to focus on the tenant association organizing at this apartment and will begin the laundromat operations in the fall! Once again, if you live between 35th Ave-43rd Ave and Van Buren-Thomas and want to organize with your neighbors to address shared issues, reach out to us via text or phone call: 602-726-9849!
Civic Space Reading Group
At Civic Space Park we have kicked off our SUMMER OF STUDY by continuing through the “Homeless Industrial Complex Reader” and reading some selections from Downtown Blues: A Skid Row Reader (tinyurl.com/skidrowreader) published in 2011. On Sunday June 1st, we read Christina Heatherton’s introductory “ALL EYES ON SKID ROW” and “GROUND ZERO” by Robin D.G. Kelley. Instead of further stigmatizing the well known LA neighborhood and its many houseless tenants, they uplifted their own perspectives and struggles in an area marked by racism, disinvestment, and class war at its most violent.
The works highlighted LA’s Safer Cities Initiative (SCI), marked by state violence against poor and unhoused Skid Row residents with the objective of displacement. Like in other cities, LA’s ruling class sought to wage war on the poor in order to transform the area into luxury apartments and business districts. They didn’t expect that those they treat like “human refuse” would organize themselves to fight back. In particular, we learned about the grassroots organization Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), which 25 Skid Row residents formed in 1999. They’ve run healthy food programs, legal clinics, community watch initiatives, and more as part of what they describe as an “ongoing racialized class struggle over land and resources”.
We read “SKID ROW: A WALKING TOUR” on Sunday June 22nd, with first-person narration from Skid Row resident and organizer General Dogon about the impacts of SCI on unhoused people. This included increased policing for resting and “loitering” in public, theft of personal property by police, armed private security forces displacing people from the business districts, and 19,000 SCI-related arrests over two years. The huge encampment sweeps merely spread tenants out away from their mutually supportive networks and into neighborhoods with even fewer resources, much like we’ve seen locally.
Readers of our Police Protect Property, Not Tenants zine (valleytenants.org/post/police-protect-property) will recall the same tactics weaponized by police and developers in Louisville's Vision Russell initiative, with aggressive enforcement of “nuisance” violations to displace poor residents in order to clear areas for redevelopment. Louisville’s war on the poor resulted in the murder of Breonna Taylor. Her ex-boyfriend had been suspected by police of selling drugs and previously pressured to leave his home; officers’ purported justification for the no-knock raid and murder of Breonna Taylor was the false and dubious assumption that her apartment could have evidence. Who stood to benefit from her murder and her ex-boyfriend’s displacement? The same as those who stood to benefit from LA’s SCI and the thousands of brutal arrests in Skid Row: greedy capitalists—mayors, community developers, luxury apartment landlords, homeowners, wealthy transplants, and business owners. Never poor and working class tenants!
In our reading group, we link these patterns to the conditions people see and experience here in the Valley. This month, our readings have led us to broadly discussing:
The prison industrial complex and its parallels to slavery
The state’s vested material interest in the drug economy, making millions pocketing money and capital from busted drug dealers to then exploit their labor in private prisons
Police waking people up at 4:30am and asking them to move for the day
City funds for constant security presence on public transit but no public restrooms, benches, and shade available at many transit centers or bus stops
Redevelopment plans attracting more violent policing and business owner hostilities against tenants, like with the McDowell Revitalization Project
Shelters evicting people for bringing in perishable food items
Abuses in single room occupancy (SRO) hotels and other transitional housing
Relationships continue to grow out of the reading group. We are in the process of interviewing some unhoused tenants about their experiences with shelters, SROs, and heat relief centers in the valley. Keep an eye out for subsequent issues of Tenant Horizon to read their perspectives!
Union de Vecinos Organizing School 2025
Beginning
Our delegation attended the first Union de Vecinos (UdV) School from May 19th through the 24th. The union chose four members involved in different projects, tasked these members to share the challenges we faced and learn from a revolutionary and militant tenants union. We had questions that started from the macro: how do you build a winning movement, forge international ties, organize towards a communist horizon, to the micro: day-to-day organizing among neighbors, unhoused solidarity, building tenant associations and locals.
The school itself was hosted out of their Boyle Heights office, a bright orange building, decorated with beautiful murals, shady trees and DIY-benches. Inside, we were inspired by the walls covered with symbols representing international land struggles: flags from Landless Workers' Movement (MST), Palestine, Potere al Popolo and agitational posters from Apache Stronghold and other revolutionaries.
On the first day, we shared challenges and what we hoped to learn as we introduced our organizations: Brooklyn Eviction Defense, Comite 403 (Altadena), Kairos Center, Los Angeles Tenants Union, National Union of the Homeless, National Day Laborers Organizing Network (NDLON), Nonviolent Medicaid Army, Put People First Pennsylvania, Richmond Housing and Human Rights Coalition, Party for Socialism and Liberation (Los Angeles Chapter), Vancouver Tenants Union and University of the Poor.
Each group took on diverse organizing issues: from the Nonviolent Medicaid Army fighting for free, accessible healthcare to the National Union of the Homeless, organizing tenants in shelters. We all shared an understanding that building power among the poor and dispossessed is necessary to bring the revolutionary transformation needed for this world. Each organization was asked to bring a symbol for an altar commemorating the school. We brought our newsletter, others brought pins, literature, fans and other art.
We formed ‘base groups’ to study through the school with 3-4 members from different organizations, each with a name and their own chant. Each group was tasked to clean the office at the end of the day, representing the collective culture of UdV. We were each given a binder full of readings.
We started every morning with mistica, inspired by the MST, rooted in spirituality to make the unknown known or, as Leonardo Sr. says, ‘keeping things in our memory and our collective purview’. This included chants from each base group, singing songs, analyzing pictures and sharing stories from our interrelated struggles.
Day by day: Monday
We learned about the formation of UdV and heard from women who built it fighting displacement from Boyle Heights, where they met Leonardo Vilchis through their neighborhood church. There, the deeply faith-based community hosted evening assemblies to discuss issues they faced. Prior to forming UdV, the community addressed issues of gang violence by building relationships with members, offering meals and welcoming them to events (drive.google.com/file/d/1yJ2FtyjiqO_bXMJydN5ZslVuF-Vicx-Q). To prevent drive-bys, the mothers walked around at night near active hotspots and prevented shootings. Elizabeth, a UdV cofounder, shared how they halted public housing demolition through their fight against displacement of tenants at Pico Aliso Gardens (knock-la.com/union-de-vecinos-25-years-los-angeles-tenants-movement/). This battle cleaved them from the church, as their pastor blessed the demolition alongside city officials. We walked through the neighborhood to visit sites of struggle and heard stories of how the women organized and overcame fear. Sitting in front of an empty studio, we heard how neighbors halted a gentrifying ‘arts district’ project (southwarknotes.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/bhaaad-pamphlet.pdf). “We don’t need art galleries to express our culture”, it was demonstrated in their gardens, murals painted along alleys, and their rich neighborhood history. The night ended at Comite de Esperanza, a long-time neighborhood association where tenants shared how they look out for each other and took up space in their community. They’ve kicked out cops, cleaned the alleys, organized swap meets, hosted parties across buildings, and more.
Tuesday
In the morning, we distributed food with neighbors from the 2nd Street tenants association (TA). They do so twice a week with donations from a food bank. While it started with more support from outside volunteers, it’s now collectively run within the TA, which helped them meet their specific needs better. We learned from Leticia about the ongoing fight with their landlord and that they’ve been resisting for more than 5 years. After, the theme of the day covered building organization and the role of an organizer. We discussed readings on the South African shack dwellers movement (Abahlali baseMjondolo) (thetricontinental.org/dossier-10-the-homemade-politics-of-abahlali-basemjondolo-south-africas-shack-dweller-movement/) and Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) (thetricontinental.org/dossier-75-landless-workers-movement-brazil/). The discussion was centered on what we learned from these movements and how they apply to our organizing. We then debated the differences of ‘Activists’ and ‘Organizers’ and came to a shared understanding of their roles. This conversation framed the rest of the day; organizers were dedicated to the long haul work of bringing people together, forming leadership and building popular democracy.
Organizers in the Unión de Vecinos en Acción (UVA) TA and the Downtown Local shared how they remain committed to the tenant struggle. They stressed the importance of being clear on the role of an organizer as cadre and how they support organic leadership within the neighborhood. We heard their 4 C’s for cadre/leadership: clarity, connectedness, commitment, and competence (universityofthepoor.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/MohammedtheMountain-4.25.21.pdf). They discussed the changes in their structure over the decades, always adapting to new conditions, and some reflected on their personal transformations. There was an interesting debate around ‘Case Management’ within their union, the pros and cons of service-oriented casework within the tenant movement. Kenia, a cofounder, described tenant casework as a ‘necessary nuisance’, whereas others suggested being selective with cases to politicize and build collective power in buildings. It was clear that out of principle, UdV has built a space where members can debate openly, offering critique and strengthening their organizing.
Wednesday
Wednesday focused on UdV/LATU’s methodology and building permanency. Shin, a newer organizer, shared about building a local over three years starting with a TA. Initially, it struggled to develop beyond a small group of organizers covering a large area. They deepened their relationships with a few of the stillborn TA’s tenants, realized they should focus on a smaller subset of the neighborhood, then launched an extensive ‘organizing drive’ outreach there. It was inspiring to learn how they overcame language barriers by being direct in asking neighbors for help and being persistent with tenants even after what prompted their organizing ended. Now, they have three TAs in their local. We also learned more about housed and unhoused tenant solidarity from Annie with the Downtown LA Local. Her introduction to UdV started with realizing the mutual aid in Street Watch LA was insufficient, so she helped homeless tenants organize themselves (see the Echo Park Rise Up part of Abolish Rent). Now, she’s organizing in Single Room Occupancy hotels (currently the Rosslyn) where residents are treated as ‘guests’ with less legal protections. It’s been up to the residents to make and enforce their rights, demanding permanency and dignity! She discussed how LATU banded together to help support the TA in various ways, like collecting toilet paper when the nonprofit landlord refused to provide it.
Afterwards, we walked to Mariachi Plaza and learned about the historic Mariachi rent strike (thelandmag.com/mariachi-plaza-rent-strike-defend-boyle-heights/), a victory that showed the power of withholding rent. Overlooking the plaza was a banner that proudly read, “Alto a la gentrificacion, un boyle heights, por boyle heights, para boyle heights”. We traveled to the UVA tenants association in a deteriorating 1,000+ unit “garden apartment” complex. Tenants made speeches about the indignities of capitalism as well as their shared unity and faith in community. Together, we shared a meal and stories about our shared struggles in different cities. Finishing the night, we attended the Downtown Local meeting hosted inside an art gallery. It reminded us of our meetings: sitting in a circle, sharing issues, discussing solutions, and ending with mistica of course!
Thursday
We discussed the national question, political education and internationalism. Starting with the national question: What is the national network necessary for this moment? How do we build a national network that is deeply ingrained in the local base building movement? What does it look like? What challenges are there to building this? There was agreement that a network should exist (what form? remains open). This network would have connected grassroots movements, organizing around different issues. Its importance would be to politicize every aspect of our conditions and forge connections between ‘isolated tragedies’. A way of getting there was to have strong organizing in different regions; uneven development will leave the network weaker.
We then discussed: What is political education? How do we practice it? What are the aims and goals? Why is it important?”. Leonardo Vilchis emphasized that political education is similar to taking the initiative to learn about how science or physics works. Political education is the vital information that shows how the world works and ways to analyze our conditions. A member from the Kairos Center said political education “meets people where they are at but we don’t leave them there.” Others described political education as wielding the history of prior struggles to help inform our current ones. In LATU, they recently hosted escuelitas at TAs and brought neighbors into study. Within their union, they use political education to link revolutionary theory with their practice. They started a Communist Caucus to facilitate the educational process within cadre and into their base.
We then dove into internationalism, starting with a couple readings about the El Panal Commune in Venezuela (venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15629/) and a panel of members who shared experiences of brigades to Cuba, Brazil and Venezuela. These organizers were humbled as they realized how backwards the U.S. Left was in comparison. They saw participatory democracy firsthand and socialized production being built from the ground up. Prior to attending, they asked their TAs what questions they should ask and to report back with their findings. These discussions with the TAs about internationalism were a form of political education, working through anti-communism by sharing photos and stories about what they experienced. In one instance, Annakaren (AK) shocked her TA by sharing a picture of housing in Cuba compared with slum housing in the USA, asking them to determine which one was which. Soon, they hope to have their base talk with other base communities across the world through video calls.
Friday
We started our morning with a vigil dedicated to UdV and LATU members, Gustavo Otzoy and Yolando Gallo. We sang songs (www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9-P2_YtD9c), read their stories, lit candles and shared encouragement to continue their legacy. We also learned about how they incorporate mistica in their union, the meaning of it and how they practice each time they gather. Spirituality and religion plays a big role in relating to their base. Kenia shares how she learned Catholic practices after being estranged from the church through helping families plan posadas tied directly to ongoing struggles. UdV strongly urged us not to dismiss the role of religion in our base, where it can be a spiritual/social center and a battlefield. We ended the day with the arts. After deciding on a design, we collectively painted a mural at the office’s entrance. The Comite de Esperanza hosted us again for dinner, we celebrated one of the neighbor’s birthdays, and the base groups performed skits we came up with over the past few days.
Lessons Learned & Closing out thoughts
Overall, we are truly grateful to have attended this school. UdV and LATU have shown us the possibilities of what can be done! The questions we individually brought to help aid our committees and outreach groups are answered. We have new strategies to try and fresh ideas to tackle issues in our union. We’re thinking of how to incorporate our own mistica and emphasize the social aspect in creating art for the movement. We hope to redefine and make our own autonomy where we live and to know the terrain deeply, as they do in Boyle Heights. Their union has shown us what commitment, clarity, connectedness and competence looks like in building tenant power. We can’t copy and paste everything, but we can apply these lessons to local conditions. In the upcoming month, at the union social, within our committees, and at the general meeting our group will be reporting back and integrating what we’ve learned. SOLO EL PUEBLO SALVA AL PUEBLO!
List of Suggestions for VTU
ARTS AND CULTURE) 1. Mística, 2. We need more art / T-shirt’s / of our communities and organizations. Funding for it - how to do it?, 3. Social /cultural events - alley clean up collectively and make it fun, housed/unhoused. Religious-based events!!, 4. Reclaiming space, reserved space, with clean-ups.
DOORKNOCKING, ALL HANDS ON DECK) 1. Two committed organizers per project, 2. Consistent door knocking/talking to neighbors, Everyone should door knock, 3. 3 touches - get in contact with people three times (door knock, face to face reminder of commitment, a call the day before/day of), 4. Eviction Defense - training new generation of caseworkers
STRATEGY) 1. Not a numbers game - Don’t give up, keep building relationships., 2. Intentional Delegating, 3. Be explicit - be fearless about intentions in organizing, 4. Real Talk - Walk the Talk, 5. be mindful / strategic with where meetings are happening, 6. Knowing the terrain and how to press buttons - city council/ state - submit complaints, 7. Identifying leadership - identifying organizers, 8. Activist vs Organizer Activity, 9. Committed member’s phone numbers on project flyers, 10. Database - to help mobilize people and be strategic for actions, pass around a clipboard to get contact form., 11. Renewing popular education - knowing people and moving our education and tailoring it to that., 12. Translation - People shouldn’t get paid for it. We should want to translate so people can understand each other. Not just one person translating, switching off 15-20 mins.
