This April, millions won’t be able to afford their bills even if they want to pay them. Like the pandemic, this is the inevitable consequence of a system that wasn’t designed to keep us safe in the first place.
On April 1st, while corporate retailers skip on payments and homeowners are allowed to wave mortgages, millions of renters will be expected
What Is A Rent Strike?
A rent strike is a collective refusal by tenants of a building, housing project, or dwelling to pay rent to their landlord. Often, groups of tenants have set demands that they want addressed, such as: unfair rents, unmade repairs, or an end to harassment by management.
Throughout history, rent strikes have been a tactic utilized by renters to combat slumlords, racism and attacks on civil rights, high rents, and also secure and defend housing for poor and working people in times of crisis, pandemic, and economic depression.
In recent years in the face of the growing housing crisis, rent strikes have grow in popularity in larger cities as a tactic utilized by renters to fight back against predatory landlords. Organizations such as the LA Tenants Union and Parkdale Organize have mobilized to back massive rent strikes which have resulted in key victories for tenants. Occupations of vacant housing, such as the recent occupation organized by Moms 4 Housing in Oakland, CA, have also resulted in victories.
Who Is Calling For The Strike?
There are a wide variety of autonomous groups, organizations, networks, and individuals who are pushing for the rent strike. This includes:
A network of autonomous anti-capitalist groups and organizations across the country.
The group Rent Strike 2020, which has been pushing petitions signed by tens of thousands of people.
Groups of renters, such as the anarchist housing collective, Station 40, located in the Mission District of San Francisco, who have publicly declared that they will go on rent strike starting April 1st.
Seasoned tenant organizations such as Parkdale Organize.
Hasn’t The Government Called Off Evictions?
In short, the government is some areas has placed a moratorium on evictions. This means simply that for a set amount of time, they agree to not evict anyone who can’t pay their rent, but they still expect you to pay it at a later date and in a timely manner. This means more debt and more payment of money you don’t have.
As 5 Demands, an online rent strike hub, wrote:
Current moratoriums on evictions and utility shut offs protect you from immediate threat of losing your home or having your utilities shut off, as long as those moratoriums are in place. Your landlord can’t file for eviction for non-payment during the moratorium and the utility companies can’t turn off your water or electricity. You can use the money you’ve kept on the immediate things you need, like medicine and food. The moratoriums alone don’t prevent you from owing back-payment once they lifted, though. That’s why we are pushing for a rent and debt cancellation, so millions of people are not facing insurmountable debt on the other end of this crisis.
We also know that millions of people organized and united in refusing to pay will overwhelm court and eviction symptoms, which have a finite capacity.
Won’t A Rent Strike Hurt Landlords?
Simply put, for middle-class landlords who rent out extra property, there are simply more protections from foreclosure than there are for renters. Homeowners across the US are getting federal mortgage relief and HUD has also called for a halt on foreclosures. According to NPR, homeowners can also have their “mortgage payments reduced or suspended for up to 12 months.” In cities like New York, there is currently a moratorium on mortgages for 90 days, while in California, those paying a mortgage will be given a grace period.
Corporations like Subway, the Cheesecake Factory, and Adidas have already declared that they won’t pay rent in April. There's mortgage relief for the middle class, but none for renters. They want the poorest to foot the bill.
It should also be noted that many corporate retail stores are also not able to pay rent and are currently working with landlords to pay reduced or restructured rent – or in some cases even given grace periods.
For renters, these protections do not exist – our only way forward is through collective action. As Parkdale Organize wrote:
Landlords’ resources will allow them to withstand the COVID-19 pandemic better than most, while tenants are more and more concerned with our daily survival. The government has already announced financial support and mortgage suspensions for businesses and landlords. By keeping our rent we will have more money for groceries, medicine, disinfectant supplies, and other basic necessities. Our landlords will be fine without our rent. We may not be.
How Can I Plug Into The Rent Strike?
The best way to is link up with a group that already exists or one closest to you.
You can also call this hotline and talk to organizers who will help you find local initiatives and resources for your strike:
this wont work unless you get other people that your landlord rents to on board. talk to other people in your building or on your property about it. If only one person doesn’t pay rent, it’s not a strike. You’ll just get in trouble for not paying rent. If nobody pays rent, it is a strike.
So recently I came across a fellow artist who was struggling to find a free art program, and considering dropping the large amount of money for a Photoshop license. I know not everyone can afford such an expensive program, so I’ve compiled a list of programs with no cost to download and use.
Keep in mind all computers are different, so not all will work for everyone. Also, I’ve only ever used Windows, so for the most part, I’m not sure if everything will work for Mac. if in doubt check the website linked.
Photoshop CS2 - (Windows, not sure about Mac.)
FireAlpaca - (Windows and Mac)
Sketchbook Copic Edition - (Windows and Mac)
GIMP - (Windows) (Mac)
Paint tool SAI [cracked] - (Windows) (Mac)
Paint tool SAI 2 beta - (tumblr post on said program)
iPaint - (Mac)
Paintbrush - (Mac)
Pencil - (Windows, Mac)
Paint.NET - (Windows)
Seashore [still in development, ver 0.5] - (Mac)
ChocoFlop - (Mac)
Inkscape - (Mac and Windows)
ArtRage [Demo] - (Mac and Windows)
OpenCanvas 1.1[must pay for 2.0] - (Windows, not sure about Mac.)
MyPaint - (Windows)
Krita - (Windows)
Vectorian [Supports Animation] - (Windows)
Pixia[Japanese, some English versions] - (Windows)
Asperite - (Windows)
Chasys Draw IES - (Windows)
SmoothDraw - (Windows)
TwistedBrush Open Studio - (Windows)
BOUNS - CTRL+Paint [Great for teaching all kinds of stuff, like how to use digital programs.]
If you know more free programs, please add onto this!
beauty standards are all bad but one that sticks out to me is the idea that women should be free of body hair, because literally no-one has naturally no body hair like what are we trying to emulate here?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - No. Fashion trends historically are nearly all about showing off how much time and money you have. Shaving off hair takes time and that means you have less time to work which means you must have the money available not to work (or so goes the theory). Only people who are ‘poor’ ‘dirty’ and therefore ‘busy’ but also ‘lazy’ because those get thrown around too - are the ones who cant. (I dont agree with this attitude but this is what its about.)
Being overweight used to be fashionable because it meant you could afford excess and never have to exercise - now being thin is fashionable because a healthy diet is expensive and exercising around long work days is difficult. Less and less jobs are physically taxing and more often we have to make a physical effort to keep weight down or lose it.
Among white people, being pale used to be fashionable because it meant you were wealthy enough not to be in the sun, now a tan is because it means you have enough money to go to other countries or tanning rooms or whatever. Long nails hinder work, shaving beards take time, long hair requires more care.
Fashion and wealth go hand in hand, and its rarely trying to emulate anything other than “look how much money I have.” Nobody thought a bustle was a real butt - but they did think you needed an extra couple of meters of that expensive fabric to cover it. Then stuff because unfashionable because it becomes “common” and “Dated” and as it becomes cheap because everyone can afford it, it goes out of fashion.
this may sound like a shitpost but in the 19th century green carnations were a sign of being gay AND in ancient rome, yellowish-green clothing was a sign that a man was effeminate and therefore probably gay, so green is a gay color and only gay people can wear it now
the fourth of july is a stupid and colonized holiday. did you know that indigenous americans weren’t considered american citizens until 1924? did you know that indigenous americans couldn’t VOTE until 1965? white people of america celebrate this false independence in a country that was never theirs in the first place. indigenous people were uprooted from their homes and their ideals and forced into a system that didn’t even recognize them as people until about 58 years ago.
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turnnoffyourmind
