(en) Canada,Common Cause - Linchpin - Roma Tenants Organize Against Slumlord

On August 15, Roma tenants living in three low rise apartment buildings in Mimico, a 
neighbourhood in west-end Toronto, decided to take matters into their own hands, and 
occupied the law offices of their landlord, lawyer Leroy Bleta. After weeks of their phone 
calls and complaints being ignored, the tenants decided to bring their demands directly to 
the landlord's place of business. They were joined by supporters including members of 
Common Cause and IWW Toronto, as well as workers from a local legal clinic. ---- ?We 
decided to take on the landlord because of the behaviour of the building superintendent,? 
explained Krisztina, one of the tenants involved in organizing the action, ?I asked him to 
fix the door to my apartment which was broken when I moved in, but he refused. He said 
'all you people do is complain'.?

Like thousands of other Hungarian Roma people who have arrived here in recent years, 
Krisztina came to Toronto as a refugee three years ago, fleeing paramilitary violence by 
groups associated with the neo-nazi Jobbik party, and systemic discrimination from the 
Hungarian State. Refugee claim success rates amongst Roma claimants is very low; Canada 
considers Hungary a Designated Country of Origin which respects human rights and offers 
state protection to persecuted groups. Krisztina's family continues to face anti-Roma 
racism in Canada. ?He [the superintendent] harasses my son and has hit children playing 
outside the building. He tells us to our faces that he hates Hungarians (Roma).?

While Bleta himself was out of the office at the time of the tenants' visit, they made 
their demands clear to the other lawyers and support staff present. Demands included 
firing the building superintendent for his abusive and racist behaviour toward tenants and 
their children, as well as a number of repairs including fixing faulty plumbing, broken 
windows, and water damage caused by frequent flooding.

When it was clear to Bleta's staff that the delegation had no intention of leaving 
voluntarily without first meeting with the landlord himself, they called the police. Upon 
the cops' arrival, the tenants repeated their demands. The cops then cleared the tenants 
and their supporters out of the office. Next, at the insistence of the delegation, the 
cops called Bleta, who they reported was still unwilling to meet with his tenants but 
would agree to a meeting with a representative the next day. At the meeting the following 
day Bleta was served with a letter detailing the tenants' demands and instructing him to 
remedy the situation immediately, or else face further action against him.

The tenants' occupation succeeded in making their demands definitively known to the 
landlord. Bleta can no longer pretend he is unaware of the violent racism perpetrated by 
his own agent against the people he exploits. He has been served notice that his tenants 
and their supporters find this situation unacceptable and are prepared to take further 
action should their demands not be met. Regarding the action's impact Krisztina said, ?we 
have their attention now. They started to clean the building for once.? Plans are in the 
works to escalate action until the tenants' demands are met.

This small action shows that Roma people, some of the most oppressed people in our 
society, are willing to engage in effective direct action, despite their extremely 
precarious immigration status. It also shows they are open to support from radicals who 
understand that the fight against white supremacy - which upholds our racist immigration 
system and promotes racist violence against oppressed groups like the Roma - is central to 
class struggle. Anarchists must refuse to allow landlords, bosses, and the institutions of 
the state divide members of our class through the strategic enforcement of xenophobia, 
racism, and white skin privilege. More than this, we must strategically take up fights 
which attack this system of domination directly and unite working people across racial 
divisions. We see the struggle of Krisztina and her neighbours in Mimico as one such 
fight; a fight that can be won through direct action and solidarity between working class 
people.

Thanks to Orsi for translating the article into Hungarian, and to Szilvi for interpreting 
the interview with Krisztina