Sir Real

2y

Reposting OTUs Facebook post here. We went public today and the union has been announced the landlord has been served with our demands:

“Omaha Tenants United is excited to announce a historic development in our long fight against landlords in the greater Omaha area: On July 13th, 2024, the tenants of Fontenelle Hills Apartments in Bellevue, owned by Elevate Living, voted to formally unionize — becoming the first Tenants Union in Nebraska history.

Today, the Fontenelle Hills Tenants Union (FHTU) delivered its list of collective demands and announced the formation of the union to Elevate Living. This represents a significant advance in the local class-struggle, and OTU salutes the tenants of Fontenelle Hills for having the courage to get organized and fight for the homes they deserve.

OTU first began working with the tenants of Fontenelle Hills in June, when a tenant reached out and brought a number of long-standing issues to our attention. Elevate Living had entirely neglected the property over the past several months, leaving it in disrepair and creating conditions that were a threat to the tenants’ health and safety. Given the extent and far reaching impacts of the problems, OTU and the tenant decided that the best step forward was to pursue collective action The following week, OTU and two tenants from Fontenelle Hills went around the complex and worked with tenants to develop a series of collective demands. For the next month, the tenants and OTU spent time canvassing each of the 31 buildings on the property to collect signatures in support of the demands, which included addressing the large number of pressing maintenance requests, repairing the pothole-ridden pavement of the parking lot and driveways, reinstating trash services and nighttime security which had been unexpectedly terminated, establishing a system for addressing the long list of repairs which Elevate has ignored for months, and corresponding rent reductions for each demand that Elevate fails to meet. Nearly every tenant we spoke to was enthusiastic about the demands, and after hours of door knocking, we were able to amass over 130 signatures in support of the collective demand letter, representing over 50% of the large complex.

In order to coordinate the delivery of the demand letter and discuss possible next steps, it was decided to call a mass tenants meeting. A date was agreed to, and we began advertising the meeting.

A couple days before the meeting, OTU received a letter from Elevate Living’s attorney, Rodney C. Dahlquist, Esq., of Dornan Law Team. Mr. Dahlquist attempted to assert that we were not allowed to hold a meeting on Elevate’s property and we would be prohibited from doing so! Frankly, we were confused and shocked by the threats he made towards our union and members. Does Mr. Dahlquist believe that tenants should not be allowed to invite people to their apartment? Or does Mr. Dahlquist not believe that the First Amendment rights of assembly and speech apply to tenants? One would have thought that his very expensive degree would have taught him a few of these basic legal statutes, or at the very least equipped him to avoid the very embarrassing spelling mistakes he made in his letter. It’s more likely that Mr. Dahlquist and Elevate Living cynically assumed that both OTU and the tenants of Fontenelle Hills are completely ignorant of our basic rights, and thought their dubious letter would intimidate us into canceling the meeting. This should provide a good example of the low level of regard and respect to which landlords hold their tenants.

We were not only undeterred, but emboldened.
After discussing the letter from the lawyer with the lead tenants, we agreed that if they were going on the offensive, so must we. Originally, the main point of the meeting was to simply determine how the letter would be delivered, and hopefully plant the seeds for the formation of a tenants union at a later date. After this brazen attempt at intimidating us, we agreed we could no longer afford to wait, and we would pose the question of whether to form a tenants union at the meeting.

With the threat of repression looming, we were prepared for Elevate’s representatives and their cronies to attempt to disrupt the meeting. But they did not show, and the meeting proceeded uninterrupted. Being the cowardly paper tigers they are, Elevate thought their shoddy letter would be enough to put a stop to things. Instead, the three dozen tenants that showed up voted overwhelmingly to form Nebraska’s first ever tenants union. Tenant Captains from each building represented were established, and the TCs have already hit the ground running, putting in work and acting as leaders of the newly founded tenants union. This is a powerful example of how quickly we can all start reclaiming our dignity and organizing our neighbors.

July 13th, 2024 not only represents the founding of FHTU and the formation of Nebraska’s first tenants union, but the raising of a new weapon for all working class tenants in Nebraska to wield in our bitter class-struggle against our oppressors. OTU and FHTU encourage any and all tenants to follow our lead and begin talking to their neighbors about forming a tenants union in their complex, and to reach out to OTU for support and advice. While this is a significant victory, we recognize that this is only the beginning, and now the really hard work begins. Landlords will try to illegally and violently repress the growing tenants movement in Omaha.

This repression will be futile in the face of mass collective action. Rent is constantly rising while landlords do less and less to hold up their end of the bargain. The City of Omaha sits idly by, allowing landlords to run rampant. Our quality of living is pushed lower and lower while they extract greater and greater superprofits for generating nothing of value.

The only alternative to this dictatorship of the landlord and capitalist class is the tenant union. The only way to force all landlords to give us dignity, respect, and safe homes is the tenant union. We need tenant unions to form everywhere possible and to have these tenant unions link up to form a city wide union that represents all tenants of Omaha and acts as an independent organ of political power representing working class tenants against our class enemies. Anyone can do this - we talked about every single step we took above. The tenants of Fontenelle Hills are striking one - and they will educate one hundred! Reach out to OTU today if you want to bring your neighbors together and fight.

TODAY OUR HOMES, TOMORROW THE WORLD

DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN”

Sir Real

2y

Reposting OTUs Facebook post here. We went public today and the union has been announced the landlord has been served with our demands:

“Omaha Tenants United is excited to announce a historic development in our long fight against landlords in the greater Omaha area: On July 13th, 2024, the tenants of Fontenelle Hills Apartments in Bellevue, owned by Elevate Living, voted to formally unionize — becoming the first Tenants Union in Nebraska history.

Today, the Fontenelle Hills Tenants Union (FHTU) delivered its list of collective demands and announced the formation of the union to Elevate Living. This represents a significant advance in the local class-struggle, and OTU salutes the tenants of Fontenelle Hills for having the courage to get organized and fight for the homes they deserve.

OTU first began working with the tenants of Fontenelle Hills in June, when a tenant reached out and brought a number of long-standing issues to our attention. Elevate Living had entirely neglected the property over the past several months, leaving it in disrepair and creating conditions that were a threat to the tenants’ health and safety. Given the extent and far reaching impacts of the problems, OTU and the tenant decided that the best step forward was to pursue collective action The following week, OTU and two tenants from Fontenelle Hills went around the complex and worked with tenants to develop a series of collective demands. For the next month, the tenants and OTU spent time canvassing each of the 31 buildings on the property to collect signatures in support of the demands, which included addressing the large number of pressing maintenance requests, repairing the pothole-ridden pavement of the parking lot and driveways, reinstating trash services and nighttime security which had been unexpectedly terminated, establishing a system for addressing the long list of repairs which Elevate has ignored for months, and corresponding rent reductions for each demand that Elevate fails to meet. Nearly every tenant we spoke to was enthusiastic about the demands, and after hours of door knocking, we were able to amass over 130 signatures in support of the collective demand letter, representing over 50% of the large complex.

In order to coordinate the delivery of the demand letter and discuss possible next steps, it was decided to call a mass tenants meeting. A date was agreed to, and we began advertising the meeting.

A couple days before the meeting, OTU received a letter from Elevate Living’s attorney, Rodney C. Dahlquist, Esq., of Dornan Law Team. Mr. Dahlquist attempted to assert that we were not allowed to hold a meeting on Elevate’s property and we would be prohibited from doing so! Frankly, we were confused and shocked by the threats he made towards our union and members. Does Mr. Dahlquist believe that tenants should not be allowed to invite people to their apartment? Or does Mr. Dahlquist not believe that the First Amendment rights of assembly and speech apply to tenants? One would have thought that his very expensive degree would have taught him a few of these basic legal statutes, or at the very least equipped him to avoid the very embarrassing spelling mistakes he made in his letter. It’s more likely that Mr. Dahlquist and Elevate Living cynically assumed that both OTU and the tenants of Fontenelle Hills are completely ignorant of our basic rights, and thought their dubious letter would intimidate us into canceling the meeting. This should provide a good example of the low level of regard and respect to which landlords hold their tenants.

We were not only undeterred, but emboldened.
After discussing the letter from the lawyer with the lead tenants, we agreed that if they were going on the offensive, so must we. Originally, the main point of the meeting was to simply determine how the letter would be delivered, and hopefully plant the seeds for the formation of a tenants union at a later date. After this brazen attempt at intimidating us, we agreed we could no longer afford to wait, and we would pose the question of whether to form a tenants union at the meeting.

With the threat of repression looming, we were prepared for Elevate’s representatives and their cronies to attempt to disrupt the meeting. But they did not show, and the meeting proceeded uninterrupted. Being the cowardly paper tigers they are, Elevate thought their shoddy letter would be enough to put a stop to things. Instead, the three dozen tenants that showed up voted overwhelmingly to form Nebraska’s first ever tenants union. Tenant Captains from each building represented were established, and the TCs have already hit the ground running, putting in work and acting as leaders of the newly founded tenants union. This is a powerful example of how quickly we can all start reclaiming our dignity and organizing our neighbors.

July 13th, 2024 not only represents the founding of FHTU and the formation of Nebraska’s first tenants union, but the raising of a new weapon for all working class tenants in Nebraska to wield in our bitter class-struggle against our oppressors. OTU and FHTU encourage any and all tenants to follow our lead and begin talking to their neighbors about forming a tenants union in their complex, and to reach out to OTU for support and advice. While this is a significant victory, we recognize that this is only the beginning, and now the really hard work begins. Landlords will try to illegally and violently repress the growing tenants movement in Omaha.

This repression will be futile in the face of mass collective action. Rent is constantly rising while landlords do less and less to hold up their end of the bargain. The City of Omaha sits idly by, allowing landlords to run rampant. Our quality of living is pushed lower and lower while they extract greater and greater superprofits for generating nothing of value.

The only alternative to this dictatorship of the landlord and capitalist class is the tenant union. The only way to force all landlords to give us dignity, respect, and safe homes is the tenant union. We need tenant unions to form everywhere possible and to have these tenant unions link up to form a city wide union that represents all tenants of Omaha and acts as an independent organ of political power representing working class tenants against our class enemies. Anyone can do this - we talked about every single step we took above. The tenants of Fontenelle Hills are striking one - and they will educate one hundred! Reach out to OTU today if you want to bring your neighbors together and fight.

TODAY OUR HOMES, TOMORROW THE WORLD

DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN”

the reds

2y

I want to read Nietzsche, do you guys know any Robin Tucker style "Collection of Works" book?

snowboyrari

2y

what do you wanna read nietzsche for? he's of limited use to communists unless youre attempting to study the ideology of the bourgeoisie at a very specific point in history.

the reds

2y

A conversation i had made me interested in his ideas, I dont care if get any political use of out them but I'll make my own judgements

snowboyrari

2y

what do you wanna read nietzsche for? he's of limited use to communists unless youre attempting to study the ideology of the bourgeoisie at a very specific point in history.

Choking

2y

he has immense influence over everyone (including socialists) look at basically any latin america thinker during the early 20th century ur guaranteed to see Nietzsche and Marx like mariategui who would end up influencing Maoist movements like the PCP. Other marxist influenced by him like Fanon and young Mao who had a brush with him

the reds

2y

I want to read Nietzsche, do you guys know any Robin Tucker style "Collection of Works" book?

Nessy

2y

how much of a fed operation is that new american communist party

Sir Real

2y

have you read Capital? If not then don’t waste time reading crap like Nietzsche

Choking

2y

@NewYorkCity

xxxkiraxxx

2y

@frolein alt right rising in canada?

Lein

2y

The rise in anti-immigrant racism, especially against south Asians, has been horrifying. But it hasn't fully hit our politics the way it has in America or Europe.

Vert1600

2y

What yall think about The GNU Manifesto ?
@Snowboy @WRU @americana

WRU

2y

open source and free information aesthetic is just another larp for people unable to exercise their political power (ie all of us) except this time in the it sector. one of my friends is deep into this, its alllll vibes and repurposing of mostly available information that maybe takes less steps to find but doesnt move the needle past that