LENNOX, CA, March 7—Working class tenants in an apartment complex in Los Angeles (LA) County have lit a fire under their profit-hungry slumlord! One-third of the tenants in these apartments have come together to demand immediate and necessary repairs, and to deduct future rent money to pay for the materials and labor cost of those repairs if the landlord continues to refuse to make them. The unity of Latin workers in the face of their racist landlord attempting to divide them, intimidate them, or buy them off bodes well for this struggle. It also reflects the growing numbers of workers who are fighting back against landlord abuses and evictions, and are also beginning to see the bigger picture of racist gentrification, homelessness, and the capitalist system that is behind these plagues on the working class.
Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members remain active in these battles. We have given CHALLENGE to a number of tenants. We have been open with them about the need for a revolutionary war by the working class to take down the capitalist system that enables these parasitic landlords. We have a great opportunity to explain why this deadly system that turns human needs like housing into commodities to be bought, sold, and made a profit from has to be destroyed and replaced with a communist system that distributes essentials based on need.
Under communism, with the elimination of the wage and money system, housing will be organized based on need. No more hotels and mansions sitting empty while workers live on the streets, shanty towns, tent cities, or dilapitated apartments. Repairs and improvements will be done collectively. No one will be without safe, adequate housing for themselves or their families.
As CHALLENGE readers will recall, PL’ers have been actively involved in the Lennox-Inglewood Tenants’ Union (LITU). LITU organizers have engaged in a door-to-door campaign to bring workers together and get them involved. These efforts have not gone unnoticed by the property manager, who reported back to landlord Nick Murillo. In a vain attempt to stem LITU’s organizing, slumlord Murillo told at least one tenant that he would be happy to make repairs if they would stop attending on-site meetings organized by LITU. That worker refused Murillo’s sleazy offer!
Murillo, who owns numerous other buildings in LA County, has a history of half-ass fix-ups. This do-nothing attitude dovetails with his goal of squeezing as much profit as possible from his investments. Mold is painted over, not removed. Workers are told they must just deal with carpets infested with bed bugs and roaches. Leaky ceilings are patched up shoddily, making it only a matter of time before the water starts dripping again.
DO-nothing politicians
Calls to the LA County “Public Health” Department are worse than useless. Several tenants were able to get pictures of mice freely roaming their apartments. The inspector, who appeared with Murillo, was confronted with the recent date-stamped cell phone pictures of the mice. Her insulting response was, “Those pictures aren’t evidence.” The only evidence she would accept was an actual mouse sitting while she was present or rodent droppings! That same inspector, when shown a cracked front door that swells up after it rains and at times can’t be opened from the inside, said nothing could be done about that safety risk!
One of the tenants and several LITU members attended a community meeting sponsored by LA County Board of Supervisors “progressive” Holly Mitchell. Mitchell’s tactic is to make it appear she is responsive to resident complaints by having administrators from various county departments present to whom she can hand off responsibility. Then the particular administrator assigned the complaint either never gets back to the resident or tells the complaining resident there is nothing that can be done.
Tenants' leadership shows working class potential
Some workers have taken leadership, boldly asking the other tenants to post LITU signs in their apartment windows and by going door-to-door after each meeting to make sure everyone knows about the plans moving forward. LITU plans to encourage these tenants to set up a local leadership group that can build an ongoing tenants’ association.
PLP will stay on this long road with the tenants, continuing to point out along the way all the roadblocks that the capitalist system inevitably throws up to discourage and deter class struggle.
The development of international class consciousness can unlock the untapped power of the working class, including working class tenants, to change the world. Revolutionary communist ideas combined with the lessons learned in these struggles and the growth of PLP can bring that enormous energy to fruition.