inevitably grow worse. student unions etc. crisis was not solved. Property speculators waxed fat, the banks and ins urance companies grew richer, the building companies raked in the cash. and the big owners of land enjoyed u bonanza. The slums festered, rents rocketed and the numbers of the homeless continued to grow Now, in a period of decline for capitalism, the housing situation must The working class is faced with a stark choice. Either it can patiently wait until Labour has helped British capitalism to perform its 'miracle of recovery'. In the meantime homelessness will increase, property will fall apart, and the slums will spread like a cancer.
Alternatively, the working class can reject the 'solutions" of capitalism and fight for its own solution to the housing problem.
In the localities strong tenants' associations must he formed which seek to get affiliations from the trade union movement, women's groups.
Where evictions are threatened the example of Elgin Avenue should be followed and anti-eviction patrols set up. At every stage, attempts must be made to get trade union action to support housing struggles and physically resist evictions - including mass strikes.
In the ureas Housing Committees should be formed consisting of all the local tenants" associations, squatters' groups, trade union bodies, etc. These Committees must organise occupations of all empty private propMAD CARLAMIN, ENO DOWNI Italan workers have been in struggle almost continually for five yours now and housing has been on of the In response to increased rents. tenants have formed their own commitrees on the estates. democratically elected by mass meetings These committees have organised their own rent collection - instead of paying the latest increases, the committees collect rent on the basis of 10 per cent of the tenants' incomes and then pay the whole lot in.
Such a struggle is particularly important in Italy, where many like these ut Esat in Turin, for example - live in property owned by the Fiat employers, It foils a reg ular tactic of the employers, which i to jack up rents immediately following a successtol wages struggle, In Britain, there has tended to be a sharp dividing line beiween rent strikers and squatters. But in Italy, mass squats, or 'occupations". have often been organised by the same estate committees, with close ties to factory workers nearby.
In 1973. in Taranto, 182 farnilies oceupied council flats. The police came to throw them out, but were forced in leave when hundreds of workers from Italider, the nearby steel plant, joined the squatters.
Many of these struggles have been organised to cosure that as many people as possible are involved. Rent strikos have been organised block by block, and landing by landing, with regular mass meetings. newsletters, leaflets and demonstrAnti-eviction squads have been "There's nothing we can do - you can't fight town hall'. That's the re action of many tenants to suggestions that they should light buck ay ainst the rotten housing they have been saddled with.
But in 1915 the working class ten ants of Clydeside did fight back, not just against town hall". but apainst Parliament as well - and they won hands down.
By.1915 the slaughter of the European treaches had provided Br itish capitalisin with a booming coonny. More and more workers were pouring into areas like Scotland's Clydeside to join the mushrooming war industries.
Accommodation was scarce and the landlords tried to take advantinue ol the situation to inck up rents In May 1915 a body called the Women's Housing Associution responded by calling for a rent strike ag ainst rent increases. This movement had its strongest support among the working class areas around the ship yards, and by June it had forced the withdrawal of rent increases in the Govan area of Glasgow.
The movement then spread throu ghout the city.
Rent collectors found themselves being regularly plastered with flour. and physically ejected from tenem ents. Altogether some 20,000 tenales took part in the rent strikes A network of committees, and regular mass meetings in tenements back courts and the streets kept the strikers solid and prevented eviccion threats being carried out In October a mass demonstration against the rises was held it the city centre. By this time rent strikes had broken out in Northasopton, Birm ingham, and areas of London - incl uding a thousand tenants in Edmon The Clydeside lundlords replied by launching a legal offensive to have rent arrears deducted from workers wages, On 17 November 18 ammunitions workers were hauled up in court for rent arrears. But they didn't have to sit in the dock and face the majesty of the law alone-thacy were joined by 10,000 fellow workers, who walked off the job and demonstrated our side the court house.
Ender the chairnanship of the great Scottish revolutionary. John MacLean the workers held a mass meeting und unanimously resolved: That this meeting of Clyde munitions worker request the Government to definitely state not later than Saturday first, that it forbids any increase of rent during the per jod of war and that, this failing, a general strike wid be declared on Monday first, 22 Noversber?
The Government didn't quite meet the Clyde workers deadlineit took them until 25 November to satroduce a bill into Parliament. But the combinacion of a militant and solid rent strike, backed up by mass industrial solidaticy action, forced from the Government a law which lruze renls across the country at their pre-war leve The Clyde workers had thus wo an important rictory for the work ess of the entire country.
formed and workers in nearby factories alerted to thwart the Intentions of the rent-collector and bailiff. Women played a partscularly important role, guarding the estates with their kids during the day.
during one series of occupations, the tenants launched a demonstiation of over 30.000 In the battles to come this winter, the links forged between tenants and the organised workers' JUSERIENT - and the action they have taken - will be invaluable in forging a united movement of the whole working class
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* The houses belong to us - the whole city belongs to us
Sucle strugeles are not waged by just a handful of people. In Milan,