ORGANIZE!
SVTU is here to organize: we unite Sacramento tenants in active solidarity with our neighbors to build power as tenants and fight back against landlords and their parasitic market control of our housing.

If you need support with an urgent landlord problem, visit the Get Help page for info.

If you want to volunteer with the union to help organize Sacramento tenants, come to one of our meetings or fill out our volunteer interest form.

GET SUPPORT TO ORGANIZE:

• SVTU events calendar

• Organizing guides

• Legal guides

• Sample letters

• Zine library

• Lending library

• SVTU membership signup

• SVTU volunteer signup

Organizing takes many forms:

1. Door knocking: We canvass in pairs to ask tenants about the housing conditions they face and to encourage them to organize.

2. Local meetings: We gather in neighborhood meetings to face housing problems as a group.

3. Tenant associations: We form groups of tenants with a common landlord to exert collective power to win demands.

4. Collective demands: We build a consensus on the most widely felt and urgent demands and establish those in writing to set the terms of the struggle.

5. Public protests: We name and shame our enemies——criminal landlords, lying politicians, complicit bureaucrats——exerting public leverage to win demands.

6. Pressure campaigns: We strategize and plan collective actions with escalating pressure in order to build momentum, forge unity, and maximize leverage.

7. Direct actions: We confront and obstruct the unfair terms set by landlords, such as by rent strike or sit in.

8. Social gatherings: we come together simply to enjoy time together as neighbors, building bonds of trust and care.

9. Communications: We create flyers, posters, newsletters, zines, and more to offer vision, guidance, and encouragement to tenants.

10. Mutual aid: We help each other with potlucks, carpools, court accompaniment, form filing, and other neighborly support.

ORGANIZING BLOCK BY BLOCK

The three pillars of building tenant power

THE TENANTS UNION

Citywide, member-led association of tenants

  • General meetings monthly

  • Working committees report back

  • Strategy and reflection

  • Open to all tenants

Tenant Locals

Neighborhood-based mutual aid and support networks

  • Arden, Del Paso, South Sac
  • Tenant support meetings
  • Community canvassing
  • Hub for neighborhood connection

Tenants Associations

Neighbors uniting to take on their common landlord

  • Building-based associations
  • Direct action against landlords
  • At site of social reproduction
  • Solidarity among neighbors

SVTU CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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