The Power of a Rent Strike

We don't have proof that our landlords sent men disguised as ICE agents to oust previous tenants—recent immigrants—from their apartment before we moved in, but we're pretty sure it happened. What we do know is that they cut off heat to our neighbors for two consecutive winters, attempting to freeze them out of their rent-stabilized apartments, in some cases, the places they had lived since childhood. We also know that going on a rent strike—and suing them in the New York State Supreme Court, and protesting outside their Williamsburg offices, and picketing various city agencies—helped get the heat turned back on. What our landlords didn't realize is that screwing all of us over bred solidarity. Gentrification is a little like climate change: it's a massive and existential problem, the scope and pace of which seems almost unfathomable. And in the case of both, a little collective action can go a long way. Pictured in this Last Page are tenants and supporters rallying outside of 80 New York Avenue, Brooklyn, February 27, 2017.