Category General

The cost of renting (or buying) a home is skyrocketing across the USA, and most definitely in and around Portland, Oregon.  Corporations like Blackrock and the Randall Group are leading the charge in making housing unaffordable for more and more people across this country, in order to further line the pockets of the billionaires.

Given that they have made sure this is now a nationwide trend, there is increasingly nowhere left to run to, no inexpensive parts of the country left to move to.  Many of us living in Portland have already been displaced from many other cities because of housing becoming unaffordable in them.  If the fightback against hedge fund landlordism is going to start in earnest somewhere in the USA, it might as well be here.

In the 1930’s, when an eviction was being attempted by police, large numbers of people would quickly mobilize to prevent it from happening.  Employing this militant tactic, evictions were banned in some cities, and many rights for renters were won.  This tactic was successfully employed long before the invention of the text mob!

That was a long time ago, and those rights have been massively eroded since then.  Now we face a crisis of gargantuan proportions, which requires an appropriately massive response.  When and where it starts is anyone’s guess, but let’s talk about it, and strategize.

There will be live music from David Rovics, who will also play open mic host for anyone who has a song to sing or words to say.  There will be finger food, and folks are welcome to bring more (completely optional).

There’s no need to buy tickets, but all funds raised at the event will go towards building Portland Emergency Eviction Response.

Please be encouraged to download that graphic up there and share it far and wide.

The tenants rights movement, when it’s functioning well, is an inclusive movement that invites anyone to be involved who believes in the cause of tenants rights, rent control, organizing a fightback against the skyrocketing profits of the corporate landlords and the ever-declining standard of living for renters in America.

To join a protest, a gathering, or an eviction defense action, there is no vetting process to determine whether someone has the correct political analysis of everything, or anything.

Having said that, all the individuals who got this network started are outraged by the ongoing war against all the people in Gaza, and the destruction of most of the buildings in this long-besieged strip of land.  Whether someone “owns” or “rents” is a completely irrelevant point these days in Gaza.

Artists for Rent Control Minister of Staple Guns, David Rovics, has been actively writing songs about the ongoing genocide, and performing them locally in the Portland area and around the world.

More participants wanted — musicians or other kinds of artists, and anybody else — for the Sing Out for Gaza event in downtown Portland on May 25th!