Activism
‘Life Over Rent’ Rally Speakers Urge Tenants to Organize, Prepare next Steps
About 175 tenants gathered on the steps of Alameda County’s Superior Courthouse for a rally called Life Over Rent/Nuestrxs Vidas Si Renta No last Saturday.
A Facebook invitation for the rally claimed “Our needs come before our landlord’s profits” and showed that five different tenants’ unions organized the event: Tenants and Neighborhood Councils (TANC), SMC Tenants Council, Lonay Tenants Council, Village Residents Association at UC Berkeley Family Housing and JDW Tenants Union.
The invite also listed three goals: canceling rent during the pandemic, recognition and negotiation from landlords of collectively organized tenants, and prohibiting all evictions and expanding unemployment and food stamps for those hit hardest by the pandemic.
Although the day was hot with temperatures in the upper 80s and 90s, the courthouse provided shade where tenants sat in as they listened to about a dozen speakers representing different local grassroots tenant, labor, and housing justice groups.
A march was planned, but it was canceled as smoke increasingly blew into the area. Tenants held signs, mostly in red, some of which read “EVICTIONS = POLICE VIOLENCE,” “BLACK LIVES MATTER, BLACK TENANTS MATTER,” “HOMES FOR ALL, WE WON’T WAIT” and “LANDLORDS MUST NEGOTIATE.”
Gerald Smith, a former Black Panther who’s currently a member of the Oscar Grant Organizing Committee spoke first and encouraged people to join in the fight to release people from San Quentin State Prison, where currently 26 people have died from COVID-19. Then Smith spoke of lessons he learned participating in The Harlem Rent Strikes in the mid-1960s and highlighted the importance of organized leadership and planning beyond small wins against landlords. After some landlords abandoned buildings during the Harlem strike, Smith said many renters weren’t organized or prepared on how to respond.
“We figured if you beat them, things are going to be all right,” Smith said. “But it’s not going to be all right. As long as capitalism exists it’s not going to be all right. You have to prepare people for the next step.”
Judy Greenspan, a local teacher and member of the Oakland Education Association spoke next and pointed out that COVID-19 could cause massive privatization of schools in addition to evictions if people do not organize well.
ILWU Local 34 president Keith Shanklin spoke against the Howard Terminal Project, which plans to place an Oakland A’s ballpark and market-rate condos in The Port of Oakland, and said it would destroy union longshoreman jobs.
Members of several local tenants’ unions including JDW Tenants Union, SMC Tenants Council and Alice Street Dunsmuir Tenant Union spoke of the need to connect and organize with other tenants, particularly ones who rent from the same landlord.
Jourdan Sales of JDW Tenants Union said her landlord, Justin Douglas Wallway, found a loophole he tried to use to remove rent control from more than 30 of the households he rented to in 2017. But through tenants organizing and collaborating with Centro Legal De La Raza, they were able to close the loophole.
“We actually changed housing legislation,” they said. “This battle took two years before it was won. This isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight. These things that we want to take time.”
Kieryn Darkwater and Casey Busher of Alice Street Dunsmuir Tenant Union spoke of how they have fought to stop their landlord from charging them for utilities they claim they are not legally obligated to pay. As their fight has been hung up in the Rent Adjustment Program and court, they have expanded and worked with the Ivy Hills Tenant Union.
Their landlord has refused to negotiate with them. Together, both groups have 25 units currently on rent strike. They’ve also started meeting regularly and have a bulletin board in their shared laundry room where they lend out tools and help each other with pet sitting.
“We have become our landlord’s worst nightmare,” said Darkwater.
Dayton Andrews of The United Front Against Displacement spoke of unifying unhoused and housed people together, dismantling distinctions between different struggles including housing, immigration, and queer rights.
“We have to come together as a class to oppose the enemies of the people,” said Andrews.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024
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Activism
Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024
To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.
Activism
Oakland Schools Honor Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties
Every Jan. 30, OUSD commemorates the legacy of Fred Korematsu, an Oakland native, a Castlemont High School graduate, and a national symbol of resistance, resilience, and justice. His defiant stand against racial injustice and his unwavering commitment to civil rights continue to inspire the local community and the nation. Tuesday was “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” in the state of California and a growing number of states across the country.
By Post Staff
Every Jan. 30, OUSD commemorates the legacy of Fred Korematsu, an Oakland native, a Castlemont High School graduate, and a national symbol of resistance, resilience, and justice.
His defiant stand against racial injustice and his unwavering commitment to civil rights continue to inspire the local community and the nation. Tuesday was “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” in the state of California and a growing number of states across the country.
One OUSD school is named in his honor: Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy (KDA) elementary in East Oakland.
Several years ago, founding KDA Principal Charles Wilson, in a video interview with anti-hate organization “Not In Our Town,” said, “We chose the name Fred Korematsu because we really felt like the attributes that he showed in his work are things that the children need to learn … that common people can stand up and make differences in a large number of people’s lives.”
Fred Korematsu was born in Oakland on Jan. 30, 1919. His parents ran a floral nursery business, and his upbringing in Oakland shaped his worldview. His belief in the importance of standing up for your rights and the rights of others, regardless of race or background, was the foundation for his activism against racial prejudice and for the rights of Japanese Americans during World War II.
At the start of the war, Korematsu was turned away from enlisting in the National Guard and the Coast Guard because of his race. He trained as a welder, working at the docks in Oakland, but was fired after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Fear and prejudice led to federal Executive Order 9066, which forced more than 120,000 Japanese Americans out of their homes and neighborhoods and into remote internment camps.
The 23-year-old Korematsu resisted the order. He underwent cosmetic surgery and assumed a false identity, choosing freedom over unjust imprisonment. His later arrest and conviction sparked a legal battle that would challenge the foundation of civil liberties in America.
Korematsu’s fight culminated in the Supreme Court’s initial ruling against him in 1944. He spent years in a Utah internment camp with his family, followed by time living in Salt Lake City where he was dogged by racism.
In 1976, President Gerald Ford overturned Executive Order 9066. Seven years later, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco vacated Korematsu’s conviction. He said in court, “I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color.”
Korematsu’s dedication and determination established him as a national icon of civil rights and social justice. He advocated for justice with Rosa Parks. In 1998, President Bill Clinton gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom saying, “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls … To that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.”
After Sept. 11, 2001, Korematsu spoke out against hatred and discrimination, saying what happened to Japanese Americans should not happen to people of Middle Eastern descent.
Korematsu’s roots in Oakland and his education in OUSD are a source of great pride for the city, according to the school district. His most famous quote, which is on the Korematsu elementary school mural, is as relevant now as ever, “If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don’t be afraid to speak up.”
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