9:30am - 9:45am Pacific
10:30am - 10:45am Mountain
11:30am - 11:45am Central
12:30pm - 12:45pm Eastern

9:45am - 11:15am Pacific
10:45am - 12:15pm Mountain
11:45am - 1:15pm Central
12:45pm - 2:15pm Eastern

Crown Heights Tenant Union - Brooklyn, N.Y.

How can we facilitate a process of reflection and action in our unions? Popular education is a practice of people reflecting on lived experiences in order to empower themselves to take action to transform the world. Popular education differs from traditional education methods in that it is democratic and strives to eliminate the power differences between teachers and students. In this skills share, CHTU members Zara and Khunsa will share principles of popular education and introduce a facilitation framework that we can practice in the union and in our communities. All tenants welcome!

11:25am - 12:50pm Pacific
12:25pm - 1:50pm Mountain
1:25pm - 2:50pm Central
2:25pm - 3:50pm Eastern

Brooklyn Eviction Defense Tenant Union - Brooklyn, N.Y.

The parochial service-model of tenant advocacy, led by non-profit housing organizations, whose funders are often housing providers (landlords) themselves, dominates our cities. The non-profit model of “case work” atomizes tenants and tenant associations making those tenants wholly dependent on the resources, knowledge, skills, and often legislative inclinations, of a few experts — who are not their neighbors in their buildings TA — and paid staff. This model seeps into even our independent tenant unions, being spurred on by liberal identity-politics.

In contrast, we have the Protagonism model. Taking some inspiration from Chavismo and the Communard Movement in Venezuela but also the history of independent Tenant Unionism in New York City dating back to 1904, Brooklyn Eviction Defense Tenant Union is taking the ideas of popular democracy, sovereignty, collectivization of skills, institutional permanency, and democratic centralization of stewardship. Instead of a dependency on and deference to experts, we are moving to empower our members to depend on the collective insights and solidarity that are contained in the Union — TA to TA, member to member. Moreover, our General Assemblies are our highest decision-making body and all working groups and assemblies are subordinated to the general membership.

We will discuss the differences (and deficiencies) between the two models using the history and trajectory of our Union from a more case-work cadre organization that started during the eviction moratorium to a democratic and protagonistic mass membership organization after the moratorium’s end. From there we will ask: which model will lead to the abolition of rent and full democratic worker-tenant control of where and how we live?

1pm - 2:30pm Pacific
2pm - 3:30pm Mountain
3pm - 4:30pm Central
4pm - 5:30pm Eastern

Cargill Tenants Union - Putnam, CT
Science for the People - New Haven, CT

The Cargill Tenants Union was founded one year ago in Putnam, Connecticut after a toddler was severely lead-poisoned. As tenants received inspection results, it became clear there was widespread toxic conditions in this recently-renovated mill, which was only opened to residents in 2020. Almost all residential units - including those with pregnant women and children under six - and common areas tested positive for lead dust or defective lead paint. Many tenants suffer from upper respiratory illnesses related to chronic moisture and mold, another hazard in centuries-old mills. Due to the extreme health risks, and the lack of local enforcement, the Cargill Tenants Union began a wildcat rent strike outside of the Putnam housing court.

The historic Cargill Falls Mill is one of many “public-private partnership” redevelopments focusing on subsidizing the redevelopment of Brownfield industrial sites into mixed-use, mixed-income residential properties. With major gaps in the regional public health infrastructure exposed by our emergency, the tenant union turned to the New Haven chapter of Science for the People (SftP). Organizers with SftP have been analyzing inspection results and synthesizing literature that politicizes otherwise obscure public health information. This work is immediately aimed at the mobilization of tenants and seeding of tenant unions in renovated mills, but also stands to profoundly impact how we view the efficacy of certain tactics and the horizon for our political demands. Our work makes clear the need to prevent the state-subsidized transfer of hazardous, dilapidated infrastructure to private entities that will seek to maximize profits, no matter the cost to tenants in search of safe, sustainable, and healthy homes.

2:40pm - 4:10pm Pacific
3:40pm - 5:10pm Mountain
4:40pm - 6:10pm Central
5:40pm - 7:10pm Eastern

Tucson Tenants Union - Tucson, AZ
The Tucson Tenants Union has focused efforts on Amphi neighborhood, where community organizers have made an effort to both struggle for creation of TAs building by building while also trying to get tenant dominance in the City-recognized neighborhood association, in order to get preference and center tenant issues for City funding and resources. TTU has experimented with our relationship to Amphi Neighborhood Association, allowing their entire NA to join the union as long as they maintain a majority of tenants as members of the association. From this relationship has begun the Amphi Panteras Tenant Empowerment Program, which utilizes funding from a number of non-profit organizations like community services, legal advocacy organizations, City programs, and schools and faith-based groups to provide funding and resources (space for meetings, food and clothing for distribution, money for dedicated participants, legal and cultural trainings, and tenant case support).

The Panteras are recruited from the people most impacted (evicted, unhoused, in struggle with management, etc.) and offered a stipend biweekly for canvassing buildings, facilitating tenant meetings, continuing tenant education, and Panteras program planning. They have joined as members of the Tucson Tenants Union and participated in other union events like eviction defense and court support rallies, tenant clinics, general assemblies, and popular education and cultural events. They will carry on to train new Union members on the ground. This model may be different from that of many members of the Autonomous Tenants Union Network, but this is what has been working for us currently and we would like to share and receive any feedback from our fellow unionists.

4:15pm - 4:30pm Pacific
5:15pm - 5:30pm Mountain
6:15pm - 6:30pm Central
7:15pm - 7:30pm Eastern