This Is America #159: Building Tenant Power in the PNW and Prisoner Hunger Strikes in the Bay Area

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Welcome, to This Is America, February 2nd, 2022.

Ice, snow, & rainfall + slumlord management = Constant ceiling leaks.

Tenants at Tecton-managed buildings in King County sent us these videos. Completely unacceptable. To add insult to injury, the tenants got ignored or yelled at when calling the emergency hotline. So useless! pic.twitter.com/fZ1sLeCWXL

— Puget Sound Tenants Union (@soundtenants) January 3, 2022

On this episode, first we speak with two organizers from the Puget Sound Tenant’s Union. We talk about how the group formed, organizing around issues of mold and against slumlords, and how a fight in one building over repairs, spread quickly into another one.

A BIG THANK YOU GOING OUT
❤ ✊ ✊ ✊ ❤
to all who helped with Friday's 💥phonezap💥 for the Santa Rita hungerstrike against price gouging and crap food. pic.twitter.com/PBasBRm9MZ

— Oakland Abolition & Solidarity (@OaklandAboSol) January 31, 2022

We then speak with Brooke from Oakland Liberation and Solidarity about the recent hunger strike at the Santa Rita jail in Dublin, California, the potential power of hunger strikes, and how they do (or don’t) show collective prisoner power.

This illustrates the limitations of trying to analyze systems of domination simply as “capitalists do this to make a profit,” bc much of the time the State will take actions that do not neatly fit into a profit-motive, bc the ultimate function of the State is to build power. https://t.co/D5oG1ldbVU

— Your Friendly Butch Anarchist (@butchanarchy) January 30, 2022

We then turn towards our discussion, where we are joined by a special guest, @butchanarchy, who runs a Twitter account presenting anarchist perspectives and theory to a mass audience. We talk about recent polls that show mass dissatisfaction with both political parties, how Biden has built upon his legacy of mass incarceration and neoliberalism, what this means for the midterms, and what anarchists should do in this rapidly shifting political terrain.

It’s Going Down

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