1932년 1월 26일. 뉴욕 브롱스, 주민 (대다수는 유태인) 4천명이 '월세 파업'에 돌입. 온린빌 동네 주민들이 17명 월세자들을 강제로 퇴거시키려는 경찰들과 맞서 싸웠다.
시위 주동자는 여성들. 그들은 지붕 위에 올라가 확성기를 들고 시위를 주도. "노동자들의 투쟁이 개시되었다"는 구호를 외치며, 주민들이 경찰서를 향해 돌같은 것들을 막 던졌다.
"The Worker 노동자" 라는 신문이 주민들의 투쟁을 보도한 후, "집 주인들은 아파트 방 2개짜리 월세는 예전 가격에서 2달러 깎아주고, 방 3개짜리는 2.5달러, 4개 짜리는 3달러씩 깎아 주었다" 월세자들이 한달 2달러, 2.5달러, 4달러씩 절약하게 된 셈이다.
On this day, 26 January 1932, 4,000 mostly Jewish tenants in New York City attacked police reserve forces who were trying to evict 17 tenants. The tenants had been on rent strike at 2802 Olinville Avenue in the Bronx, demanding improvements from their landlord. The mob was led by women poised on rooftops who directed the action with megaphones and hurled missiles at police, shouting that "the workers' struggle has commenced".
The Worker newspaper subsequently reported that after the battle, "the landlord was forced to reduce the rent on 2 room apartments by $2, on a 3-room apartment by $2.50, and on four-room apartments by $3".
관련 기사.
2020.4.17 뉴욕
On this day, 26 January 1932, 4,000 mostly Jewish tenants in New York City attacked police reserve forces who were trying to evict 17 tenants.
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17/04/2020 06:00pm BST
New York Activists Announce ‘Massive Wave’ Of Rent Strikes Starting May 1
The effort aims to pressure Gov. Andrew Cuomo to cancel rent for the duration of the coronavirus crisis, which has decimated the state’s economy.
Christopher Mathias
Women picket during a rent strike for reductions of rent in the Bronx, New York, in 1932.
Women picket during a rent strike for reductions of rent in the Bronx, New York, in 1932.New York Daily News Archive via Getty Images
NEW YORK — Working-class New Yorkers are organizing a “massive wave” of rent strikes starting May 1, a coalition of tenant groups and housing advocates announced Thursday, the most aggressive step yet in pressuring a resistant Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to cancel rent for the duration of the coronavirus crisis as millions here find themselves without a job or a paycheck.
In a statement Thursday, groups including New York Communities for Change and Housing Justice for All announced plans to get one million New Yorkers to withhold rent starting next month.
“With so many New Yorkers unable to pay rent for the foreseeable future, the current crisis is unsustainable and demands action,” the groups said in a statement. “Many tenants have no ability to pay rent, and landlords can’t collect rent from tenants who are broke.”
Although Cuomo has already frozen evictions for the next three months, the housing advocates say that measure is woefully inadequate, and will only result in a surge of evictions once the pandemic ends and tenants will suddenly owe months of back rent. The governor has also so far declined to support a bipartisan bill in Albany that would cancel rent payments and offer some relief to landlords.
The rent strike organizers are making three demands of the governor, according to an online pledge launched Thursday.
The rent strike, they say, will continue until Cuomo cancels rent across the state for four months, or for however long the pandemic lasts; freezes rent prices; and houses the 92,000 homeless people across the state, for whom stay-at-home orders are “cruel and meaningless.”
“The COVID-19 crisis is making clear what many tenants have known for a long time: we are all just one life event — the loss of a job, a medical emergency — away from losing our homes,” the pledge states. “Today, millions of New Yorkers are out of work. That means millions of us will be unable to pay the rent on May 1st. So if we can’t pay, let’s not pay, together!”
Housing activists in New York call for a rent strike starting May 1 to pressure the governor to cancel rent during the coronavirus crisis.Courtesy Housing Justice for All
News of the strike comes amid dire predictions for the economy in New York, which has emerged as the epicenter of the pandemic sweeping the globe. Over 1 million people in the state have already applied for unemployment benefits.
And a recent study from the New School estimates the coronavirus crisis will mean the loss of 1.2 million jobs in New York City alone. The study predicted the unemployment rate reaching 30% in the city.
For 77% of renters across the U.S., the federal stimulus checks that went out this week will only cover a month of housing costs. Moreover, undocumented immigrants, who make up a large part of New York City’s population, aren’t eligible for those checks.
“People that that are undocumented in my neighborhood, they’re not waiting for a stimulus check,” New York City activist Lena Melendez said in a virtual press conference Thursday. “They’re not gonna get unemployment, they’re not going to get a social security check, they don’t know they can’t apply for welfare, they’re not getting anything, and they can’t work, because there’s nobody outside to buy their goods or services.”
“Those people are in peril,” she said.
Melendez and her fellow rent strike activists hope to organize tenants living under rich landlords across the city and the state, primarily landlords with large portfolios of dozens of buildings or more, and especially those with ties to Cuomo, who has received millions of dollars in campaign donations from the real estate industry.
According to the activists’ statement Thursday, participants in the rent strikes will include those financially unable to pay rent May 1, “and those who have organized entire apartment buildings to withhold rent, including tenants who will refuse rent payments as an act of solidarity.”
