People's Assembly on Housing
We are coming together to build a People's Assembly on housing. This Assembly serves as a forum for local tenants to share our experiences and as a platform to fight for an end to the housing crisis.
This assembly is for those of us who have seen our incomes siphoned away by rent payments, who have seen homeownership fall farther away, and who live every day with the threat of eviction hanging over our heads.
As ordinary working people, we need to build a movement. The People's Assembly can serve as a starting point in building that movement against commodified housing. We need to strike at the root causes of this exploitative and immoral system.It's time to stop waiting around for elected politicians and established parties to fail us again. We must build tenant power, building by building and block by block. The People's Assembly can serve to help build the capacity to support tenants getting organized, to fight for control over their housing and to link up with other struggles against exploitation. Reach out if you want to connect with other tenants to take action!
The commodification that has caused the housing crisis is not a flaw within the current system, but is one of its key features. The ruling class has turned human beings' need for shelter into profit. This form of profiteering, whether through mortgage-based financial speculation, property development, or rent exploitation by landlords, has come to play a central role in Canada's unjust economic system.
Politicians have continued to prop up the system of financial exploitation, prioritizing the profits of wealthy capitalists over ordinary people’s access to shelter. While we continue to struggle, the government helps the rich get richer.
The ruling class has engineered the housing crisis, and working people are feeling the consequences. The powerful will not go against their own interests. It is time for us to take action.