Merseyside Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation
Submitted by Combat Bedroom Tax on May 19 2013 09:22
Merseyside anti-bedroom tax groups get organised
It’s been a slog but, after months of meetings and discussion, anti-bedroom tax groups across Merseyside met, on Sat 18th May, to conclusively set in place the Merseyside Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation.
Direct action, Occupy Wallstreet, and the future of housing justice: an interview with Noam Chomsky
Submitted by Eviction Free Zone on Apr 17 2013 22:45
Check out this interview with Noam Chomsky about the growing housing justice movement, the future of Occupy, and how direct action can play into all of this.
As a commentator, educator, public intellectual, and one of the best-known anarchist voices in the U.S., Noam Chomsky has become a defining perspective as social movements develop. His analysis of the shift in global capitalism, and our own role in its flux, has seen a recharge of importance as we entered the “new normal” of the post-2008 economy.
This time it’s personal. Mortgage fraud, faux-democracy and escrache in Spain
Submitted by yaiza on Apr 11 2013 21:22
The escrache protests in Spain organised by the Platform of Mortgage Victims are quickly getting to the rotten core of a technical government in all but name. Despite the Popular Party's attempts to demonise them in the press they continue to gather support, pointing the way for the rest of Europe.
As David Cameron prepares to promote yet another housing boom in Britain, we would do well to pay some notice to our neighbours in Spain, who are currently suffering the dire consequences of a bursting bubble releasing its slime all over their lives. When all else fails (and it’s hard to think of much that’s not failing under Osborne) a housing bubble can do wonders for a dismal government.
Housing Associations scabbing off tenants hit by bedroom tax
Submitted by Combat Bedroom Tax on Mar 1 2013 16:24
Housing associations are no better than scabs. In fact, they are scabs
As tenants are catapulted towards the chaos of the bedroom tax, one question must be asked again and again of housing associations: Whose side are you on?
Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH), despite their ‘don’t blame us’ campaign, have made their position very clear: They don’t give a shit about tenants.
How to combat the bedroom tax with a tape measure
Submitted by Combat Bedroom Tax on Feb 20 2013 11:18
One - but only one way - to combat the bedroom tax
One – but only one – of the challenges to the bedroom tax is the minimum size of your smallest bedroom.
Many of the smallest rooms in social housing are less than 70 sq/ft and thus a boxroom rather than a bedroom.
A single bedroom has to be 70 sq/ft or 6.5 sq/m to be classed as a full (1.0) bedroom. If it is 9ft x 7ft then it is 63 sq/ft and just 0.9 of a bedroom.
Rent - an injustice (1984)
I. R. Ybarra's fierce and unapologetic tirade against rent and landlordism. This pamphlet was first published by the anarchist quarterly The Match! in August, 1984 in Tucson, Arizona.
Renting, the collection of rents, and the relation of landlords and tenants are, respectively, among the most humiliating, vicious and deplorable interactions that the human race, to its sorrow, has devised. Landlordism provokes unhappiness everywhere, and yet this shameful abuse pervades society unabated.
The tenant movement in New York City, 1904-1984
Submitted by wojtek on Feb 11 2013 13:19
Ronald Lawson's history of New York City's rich tradition of tenant mobilization during the 20th century.
Edited by Ronald Lawson with the assistance of Mark Naison.
This document including all associated files, may not be published, re-transmitted or otherwise reprinted without the prior written permission of Ronald Lawson. For such permission, contact Mr. Lawson by email at either rlawson@cloud9.net or law$ubst@qc1.qc.edu.
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Liverpool housing association occupied
Submitted by Combat Bedroom Tax on Feb 7 2013 16:26
An account of Liverpool housing association demonstration and occupation
40-50 people turned out today for Combat the Bedroom Tax’s warning shot to the largest Housing Association in Liverpool, Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH), who we argue are complicit in the implementation of this latest attack on the working class.
Towards a new neighbourhood: Building something new in the shell of the old
Submitted by Eviction Free Zone on Jan 31 2013 21:04
When thinking about what kind of housing model we really want for the future, we can see the new structures sprouting in the very acts of resistance we have today.
Resistance, in the political and social sphere, is both the means and the ends.
Combating the bedroom tax
Submitted by Combat Bedroom Tax on Jan 24 2013 19:48
An account of the resistance building against the Bedroom Tax in the UK.
It’s been 12 days since a public meeting was held in Liverpool to decide what to do about the Bedroom Tax. The overwhelming response from the packed out tenants meeting was one of militant resistance. Since then, tenant meetings have been set up across Liverpool to network social housing tenants against a shocking attack on the welfare of the working class.
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