Autorentext

Tracy Rosenthal is a writer and co-founder of the L.A. Tenants Union. Their work has been published in The New Republic, The Nation and The LA Times among others. They serve on the advisory board of Housing the Third Reconstruction with UCLA's Institute on Inequality and Democracy. They are now on rent strike in New York City.

Leonardo Vilchis has been organizing tenants in Boyle Heights for more than thirty years. Trained in liberation theology, he co-founded Union de Vecinos in 1996 to stop the demolition of the Pico Aliso public housing projects, winning the right of return for two hundred and fifty families. In 2015, he co-founded the L.A. Tenants Union to organize tenant power at a citywide scale. Merging with LATU in 2019 to form the Union de Vecinos Eastside Local, Union de Vecinos has maintained a leadership role defending the long-term community against gentrification and displacement. Vilchis was activist-in-residence at the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy in 2020 and now serves on the advisory board of its Housing the Third Reconstruction research endeavor. He lives in Los Angeles.

Klappentext

Abolir la renta ataca de raíz uno de los principales motores de la desigualdad y la injusticia.

La renta empuja a millones de personas a la deuda, la desesperación y la indigencia. El costo social de la renta es inaceptablemente alto.

Escrito para quienes están hartos de la crisis de vivienda permanente, los políticos cómplices y la avaricia del sector inmobiliario, Abolir la renta disecciona nuestro sistema de vivienda desde la perspectiva de quienes lo sufren. A través de un análisis implacable y conmovedoras historias de resistencia, nos muestra cómo los inquilinos, mediante la organización y la acción colectiva, pueden ejercer su poder y conquistar la vivienda que merecen.

De la mano de dos cofundadores del sindicato de inquilinos más grande del país, este relato exhaustivo sobre el resurgimiento del movimiento inquilino se centra en las personas pobres y de clase trabajadora que luchan, resisten y, en el proceso, transforman la ciudad. Los autores Tracy Rosenthal y Leonardo Vilchis nos llevan a reuniones estratégicas trilingües, marchas multitudinarias contra la gentrificación y valientes acciones para evitar desalojos, donde los inmigrantes arriesgan sus vidas. Estas son las semillas del movimiento revolucionario que necesitamos para que nuestras viviendas, nuestras ciudades y el mundo entero sean nuestro hogar.

Abolish Rent takes aim at one of the foremost engines of inequality and injustice.**
**

Rent drives millions into debt, despair, and onto the streets. The social cost of rent is too damn high. Written for anyone fed up with the permanent housing crisis, complicit politicians, and real estate greed, Abolish Rent dissects our housing system from the perspective of those it immiserates. Through unsparing analysis and striking stories of resistance, it shows us how tenants can, through organizing and collective action, harness our power and win the housing we deserve.

From two co-founders of the largest tenants union in the country, this deeply reported account of the resurgent tenant movement centers poor and working-class people who are fighting back, staying put, and remaking the city in the process. Authors Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis take us to trilingual strategy meetings, raucous marches against gentrification, and daring eviction defenses where immigrants put their lives on the line. These are the seeds of the revolutionary movement we need to make our housing, our cities, and the world our home.

Inhalt

Introduction

Chapter 1: Rent is the Crisis

Chapter 2: The Return of the Rent Strike

Chapter 3: La Lucha Educa

Chapter 4: From Housing Struggle to Land Struggle