A weekend topic starting with the Brooklyn Rail. "Reaching out to and organizing these dispersed tenants is a daunting task, but a devoted core forms to coordinate the effort, and eventually begins to organize into neighborhoods and city blocks to manage the complexity. A third East Bay tenant council faces a much smaller landlord, but one who is unrepentant about union-busting. The council issues demands to write off missed rent for those unable to pay and reduce it for the rest, but receive only silence in return. To escalate and let the landlord know they are serious, they orchestrate a massive car parade to her two mansions in an affluent white neighborhood, supported by their union, Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC)."

"A train of cars worms its way through the neighborhood, all honking incessantly, blasting 'Bitch Better Have My Money' and 'Let’s Lynch the Landlord,' causing a stir amongst neighbors; this ends in a rally in front of her mansion, demanding she do right by her tenants, leafleting the demands on her lawn and draping a red flag over her front door."

"The next evening, all her tenants receive an unhinged screed via an email sent at 3:00 a.m., talking in self-pitying circles about how she tries to be a good landlord and decrying the 'Marxist' tenants at the source of all this mess. She has not yet moved on the demands but is cracking. Another tenant, a runaway queer youth, faces an attempted illegal eviction in Oakland’s Chinatown. TANC members and affiliates take shifts across a 24-hour window in front of their building, ready to confront the landlord, and canvass people in the neighborhood as they walk by. The landlord never shows, forestalling any confirmation about the efficacy of this formation. None of the other tenants in the building participate in this eviction defense."

"These are all excerpts from real situations, all currently ongoing and unresolved, that tenant council affiliates and individual members of TANC are experiencing and using a union model of organizing to resolve. Though anecdotal, drawn from first-hand experience, they express a variety of lessons about both the potential and the immaturity of the current state of the organized tenant movement. Though autonomous tenant unions have sprung up in many cities, many are quite new and have not built many councils yet."

"Unions from 30 North American cities have formed the Autonomous Tenant Union Network, to begin the challenging work of strategically coordinating. Such unions are best understood as a hub, linking disparate efforts for the facilitation of tenants organizing themselves, who democratically control the unions. Experienced organizers attach themselves to campaigns and provide guidance, logistical support, and strategy for tenants to reach out to each other and form a council."

"Many of these experienced organizers came from their own tenant councils, learning in the trenches of their own situation. Such cross pollination is the explicit goal of this model of organizing, which seeks to fill every neighborhood with capable, self-assured organizers nodally supporting a culture of combativity. What is important is that such a model can be adopted by any group of tenants who develop a strategy to organize beyond the level of a single landlord."

"Though this infrastructure is still new and skeletal, it is based on a straightforward, mobile, and repeatable model, designed to pool leverage, one that is propagating more quickly than ever. Amassing the requisite forces to push across the threshold, particular to each landlord, that will allow tenants to extract concessions and weaken the landlord’s grip, in a reliably repeatable fashion, is an art and science that proletarians in the US are only starting to grapple with at any significant scale. But it will be fluency and overwhelming force that the coming crisis requires."

The Los Angeles Times. "Early in the spring, before the coronavirus shutdowns, Los Angeles County Health Director Barbara Ferrer met with an influential group of philanthropic and civic leaders to foretell the coming crisis. Members of the group, called the Civic Alliance, saw dire implications for the 'low income and marginalized communities of color' that are the focus of their work, said Fred Ali, president and chief executive of the Weingart Foundation."

"'Our suspicion was that the impact we were going to see from this crisis was going to be disproportionate on those communities we most care about,' Ali said."

"'Going back to the Los Angeles of the past is not progress,' they declare in a report. 'We propose dismantling those structures and prioritizing how resources will be directed in order to achieve a more accountable Los Angeles driven by outcomes centered on racial equity.' That warning precipitated months of Friday Zoom sessions involving representatives from major nonprofits, public officials and academics from UCLA and USC. Launched with a focus on COVID recovery, their examination grew to embrace everything that ails Los Angeles seen through the lens of racism."

"The report, a novel-length and heavily footnoted volume called 'No Going Back,' is part academic treatise and part manifesto, painting a dark picture of racial and economic inequity and recommending a sweeping overhaul of the systems that it holds responsible."

From The Denver Channel. "Denver police were overseeing the cleanup near 29th and Glenarm when protesters began gathering. One of those protesters was Denver City Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca. The footage shows CdeBaca and others chastising the officers who were protecting other city employees as they dispersed a homeless encampment from the area. In the video, CdeBaca can be heard criticizing officers, at one point calling police officers 'dogs.'"

"'They don’t know s--, they do what they're told. They’re f---ing guard dogs. They’re f---ing guard dogs. They’re just animals like pit bulls, they’re f---ing guard dogs,' CdeBaca is heard saying to the officers. During the incident, one of the officers’ body cameras was knocked off. That camera was found by a protester and brought to CdeBaca’s attention. She can be heard telling protesters to hang on to the camera. 'There might be footage on there that we need,' she says. 'But I don’t know how to access it. We could give it to the attorney.'"

The Colorado Sun. "The Sheraton Denver Downtown hotel, nearing the completion of its $80 million renovation, is operating at about a quarter of its usual capacity. It’s not just that the conventions and conferences aren’t happening these days. Here is what else is bad for business: Guests are reporting that they’re scared of the downtown area, that the 16th Street Mall — once one of the city’s prime tourist attractions — is now filled with too many panhandlers and people sleeping outdoors."

"The Sheraton’s situation is not unlike what’s happening nationwide, especially in urban areas that normally attract commerce, conventions and business travelers with expense accounts. And the hotel’s problem is one shared by businesses throughout downtown Denver, which is now nearly devoid of the office workers who used to fill the streets during the day and stood in long lines for fancy salads over the lunch hour."

"'I challenge anyone to walk a single block on the 16th Mall, the heart of downtown, and not see, smell or step in all of the five P’s — pee, poop, puke, pot and panhandlers,' Mark Cutright, manager of RTA Petroleum, wrote in a letter to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s office."

The Epoch Times. "In another troubling sign of the pandemic’s effect on the U.S. economy, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and her staff found more than 330 vacant storefronts along New York City’s iconic Broadway, a 78 percent increase from 2017, according to a report. 'One thing is clear: returning to the pre-COVID-19 status quo is not an option. We are at a crossroads,' wrote Natasha Avanessians and Kathryn Wylde, the authors of the study, which was produced with input from 14 top global consulting firms."

"'The virus seems under control, but fears of a resurgence remain. More than 1.5 million residents of the metropolitan region are currently out of work; tens of thousands of small businesses are at risk,' they wrote. 'As many as a third of the 230,000 small businesses that populate neighborhood commercial corridors may never reopen,' they said, noting that the unemployment rate in the NYC metro area has skyrocketed to 18.3 percent, with as many as a million households struggling to feed their families and pay rent."

"'It will be far more difficult to restart and repair the economy than it was to shut it down,' they said."

From CBS New York. "Empty storefronts, 'for lease' signs, roll cages down and posted letters announcing permanent closure — that is the landscape residents take in as they walk up and down the street. 'Broadway – it has become a ghost town,' said Dimitrios Katechis of Metro Diner. 'About two months ago, most of the businesses that couldn’t handle it, they just didn’t come – they closed,' said Amazon Locksmith owner Sasi Yehudiel."

"Amazon Locksmith is surrounded by closed businesses. 'Basically, all Manhattan is like this. It’s very sad to see what’s going on over here, very sad. Especially now,' said Yehudiel. There are 105 vacancies between 14th and 59th Streets. Those blocks include the heart of Midtown – Times Square – an area with businesses which rely on visitors to stay open. But without tourism, many have been forced to close."

"'It’s just a sign of the time, because of the pandemic and the expenses of New York, the high rent and the changes. A lot of people are leaving,' resident Tanyah Armbrister added. 'At the end of the day, it’s just deteriorating. The quality of life is going down.'"

From The Oregonian. "A new poll shows a majority of Portland voters support a November ballot measure to create a new community-driven police oversight system, believe there is a systemic problem in the city’s policing system and have an 'unfavorable' impression of Mayor Ted Wheeler and the police union that represents the majority of city officers. Two months ahead of the Nov. 3 election, Wheeler drew an unfavorable rating of 63%, with 26% rating him favorably."

"The survey of 435 voters deemed by pollsters likely to vote this fall found that 59% of them feel Portland is heading in the wrong direction. Most of them also support the Black Lives Matter movement and more of them name homelessness as an 'extremely important' problem facing the city than any other issue. Support for Black Lives Matter was particularly strong, with 76% of poll respondents saying they view it favorably and 22% saying the opposite."

"The poll was commissioned and paid for by Yes for Real Community Oversight of Police, a political action committee set up to advocate for the ballot measure, and conducted by California-based FM3 Research."

From Crosscut. "President Donald Trump raged on Twitter against 'the anarchists takeover' of Seattle, saying 'terrorists burn and pillage our cities' Blaming the city’s 'Liberal Dems,' he promised to 'end this Seattle takeover now!' Not long after that, Seattle’s police union president went on Fox News to claim that proposed budget cuts would ensure 'Seattle will be a lawless wasteland.'"

"This narrative wasn’t just crafted by Republicans, though. The portrayal of Seattle as a place of mayhem, poverty and fear has been cultivated for decades by resident moderate Democrats and local media — and now it’s being laundered into a larger racist, classist attack on progressive cities nationwide. 'What is happening to Seattle?' asked a headline in The Seattle Times last year, followed by a letter from a former resident who lamented a city he 'did not recognize' due to 'human waste' and homeless people."

The Wall Street Journal. "La Estrella Supermarket, the neighborhood grocery. Uptown Beauty, the mom-and-pop supply shop. Uptown Restaurant, the locally-owned eatery. They have stood side-by-side on 22nd Avenue for years, serving Kenosha’s diverse Uptown neighborhood even as other storefronts closed or were lured toward high-traffic areas near the interstate. The businesses—threatened in recent months by the coronavirus pandemic—took a harsh blow in late August, as civil unrest swept Kenosha following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man left partially paralyzed by the encounter."

"Daytime protesters challenged city officials during mostly peaceful gatherings, but at night angry crowds clashed with riot-gear-clad police armed with pepper spray and tear gas. Looting followed, then arson, beginning near the county courthouse downtown, then moving west to 22nd Avenue in Uptown, a low-income neighborhood."

"Local business officials have already tallied at least 56 businesses that were damaged or destroyed by looting and fire in two of Kenosha’s business districts: its downtown, where government buildings are located, and the Uptown neighborhood, where a main thoroughfare lined with businesses is surrounded by a residential neighborhood. City officials have said they believe the damage was largely the work of outsiders traveling into Kenosha. Damage is estimated at around at least $50 million."

"The destruction has left shop owners in one of Kenosha’s oldest business districts grappling with why their businesses became casualties of the destruction that has followed protests against racism and police brutality, and whether they will have the money to rebuild and stay in the neighborhood."

"'I always think that people have the right to protest—to peacefully protest—but this goes beyond that,' said Mr. Alejo, who was born in Michoacán, Mexico, and has run La Estrella for more than five years. 'They were destroying the neighborhoods that they want to protect.'"

From Revolver News. "This is a Guest Post. Guest Posts do not necessarily represent the official editorial position of Revolver News. Kenosha, Wisconsin has been ravaged. Minneapolis has been burned. Black Lives Matter and Antifa continue to tear the heart out of once-great cities like Portland. A siege of the White House is being planned. Nationwide, violence has moved into suburban areas and residential neighborhoods. Groups of extremists are specifically targeting the residences of mayors, chiefs of police and other political enemies."

"The establishment press continues to peddle the notion that what we are seeing across the nation is nothing more than 'peaceful protest' designed to achieve change within the existing system. No doubt, even many people in the streets believe this. They think they are marching for more 'humane' police forces, or reduced incarceration, or a few new social programs. They believe that, when the protests and riots are over, they will still live in the United States that they knew before, but it will just be a slightly better nation."

"Of course, people harbored the same delusions in 1959 Cuba and 1917 Russia. Even the foot soldiers of those revolutions likely believed they would still have the countries they grew up in, just with a brighter, more democratic future. They discovered far too late that at the heart of the movement in which they were caught up were hard men with very different ideas about the future."

"We are not experiencing a wave of social unrest generated by injustice or police brutality. We are watching an insurrection in progress, one which uses police violence as a pretext, but which has as its goal the destruction of the existing social, economic and political order in the United States. Refuse Fascism is one of the primary umbrella organizations supporting Antifa demonstrations nationwide. Refuse Fascism is a creation of the Revolutionary Communist Party of the United States. If you watch footage of the chaos in our streets, you will quickly see signs linked to both groups."

"The leader of the so-called RevComs is Bob Avakian. Avakian is a lifelong revoutionary, who spent his youth with Students for a Democratic Society, a domestic extremist group active in the 1960’s and 1970’s. In 2016 Avakian’s RevComs and other leftist groups formed Refuse Fascism. Avakian is remarkably direct about about the goals of this movement. 'Let’s get down to basics. We need a revolution. Anything else, in the final analysis, is bullshit,' he said recently."

"Avakian’s party is no less direct. It has published a proposed constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, which it hopes to establish. Some excerpts from it read as follows: 'The New Socialist Republic in North America is…a form of dictatorship – the dictatorship of the proletariat…' 'In accordance with this, the governing bodies and processes of this socialist state, at all levels, must be vehicles for the furtherance of the communist revolution…'"

"'The armed forces, militia and other organs of public defense and security shall be under a system of overall leadership combining the central Executive Council and the Revolutionary Communist Party, with the Party having the ultimate leadership responsibility and role.' 'The responsibility for the enforcement of the laws and the defense of the Constitution by the organs of public security resides with the Executive Council, with the overall and ultimate leadership of the Revolutionary Communist Party.'"

"Behind the RevComs, Refuse Fascism and their allied organizations is a fundraising and financing apparatus that has been building inside this nation for decades. For instance, Refuse Fascism is partially funded by an organization called the Alliance for Global Justice. The Alliance for Global Justice originated in an organization called the Nicaragua Network, a group created to support the Marxist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. The founders of the Alliance are both veterans of that effort and have strong ties to the Sandinistas. One of them, Chuck Kaufman, was also one of the founders of a group called A.N.S.W.E.R., an organization focused on ending U.S. 'threats' against North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba and an end to the 'colonial-style occupation in Palestine and in Haiti.'"

"The Alliance for Global Justice, in turn, receives funding from a wide range of organizations. One of them is the Tides Foundation. You may have never heard the group, but its power is vast: It annual spending is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Tides is generally credited with having pioneered anonymous 'Dark Money' transactions for leftist organizations. 'Structural racism' is a common theme in many Tides Foundation projects, as is the concept of 'white privilege.'"

"Other financiers of The Alliance for Global Justice include George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, the Arca Foundation (which also backs the Communist regime in Cuba), the New World Foundation (which sponsors radical leftists movements in El Salvador), and the Foundation for Deep Ecology, an extreme environmental group that sees humans as a plague on the Earth’s surface."

"More connections could easily be drawn, but the point is not the individual links. What matters is the big picture: The mobs wrecking our cities and terrorizing the public are not spontaneously organizing or self-funding. They are the manifestation of years of preparation, organization, and sponsorship from a vast network of foundations and front organizations."

"The groups sponsoring the 2020 rioters are hostile to the United States of America as it currently exists. They have long since made common cause with some of our most dangerous enemies. Now, what they want is not reform. Phrases like 'Black Lives Matter' are a deliberate obfuscation, a time-honored tactic of radical left groups, used to make themselves and their goals seem less threatening."

"What these extremist groups really want is something much more profound. It is, as one leftist speaker recently put it, the 'abolition' of the United States as we know it and its replacement with a Marxist state. This is not about reform. It is about revolution, and revolutions don’t care about elections."