The daily worker., 1929-06-03
THOUSANDS HAIL
MASS PROTEST OF
HARLEM TENANTS
Resolution Passed at
Big Demonstration

This organization should be car
ried out on the basis of the forma-
tion of house committees in every
tenement, they said.
How the bourgeois Negro press
of Harlem sabotaged the parade of
the tenants and attempted to defend
the landlords and real estate men
against the protest of the working
class tenants was told by Solomon
Harper, Negro member of the Com
munist Party and of the Harlem
Tenants League. He told how the
Taller, sensational society tabloid,
had gone to the extent of holding
the landlords up as "heroes" for edo
ing away with race lines" In reality
they accentuated the exploiters busi-
ness of prejudice by using schemes,
based on color, for raising rents. He
also explained how these papers
were supported and financed, chiefly
by means of advertisements, by the
landlords of Harlem.
Communist Party Support.
Harold Williams, district Negro
organizer of the Communist Party,
outlined the demands of the Party
on the housing issue and exposed
the maneuvers of the white and Ne
gro politicians of Harlem-many of
whom are vicious landlords them
selves, in an attempt to gain the Ne
gro vote. He expressed the full sup
port of the Harlem Tenants League
by the Communist Party and it's pro-
gram of the solidarity of Negro and
white workers against he exploit
ing class.
"It is only by voting for the Com
munist candidates in the city cleo
tions, joining the Communist Party
and participating in its work as the
leader of the toiling masses, that all
of us can, together, do away with
this system of landlordism and capi-
talism, one of the products of which
is segregation and discrimination
against Negro workers, and the ter
rible housing conditions against
which we are protesting now," he
said.
There were also speakers for the
United Council of Working Class
Women and the American Negro
Labor Congress, organizations which
are giving full support in the fight
against landlordism. Williana Bur-
roughs, of the Teachers Union, also
spoke, as we'll as other Negro and
white workers.
A resolution adopted at the close
of the protest meeting at Brooks
Square summed up the demands of
the tenants. The resolution follows:
Resolution Adopted.
"The Harlem Tenants League,
working class organization formed
for the protection of the tenants
of Harlem against landlord exploita-
ton, adopts the following resolution
and makes the following demands:
Whereas, the Harlem tenants are
faced with a housing situation that
becomes increasingly worse, and
overcrowding is the common prac-
tice, which, together with the evil
of segregation, makes for condi-
ton where real estate agents and
landlords can squeeze from so to
100 per cent more rent for flats than
is paid by tenants in any other sec
ton of the city: and
"Whereas, many of the Negro ten
ants are unemployed and many 9TH
ers are working for wages ranging
from $12 to SIS week and are un-
able to pay the excessive rents
charged; and
Whereas, even. the meager and
inadequate protection provided by
the Emergency Rent Laws, passed
five years ago, has today expired,
and the landlords are now planning
to tal;e advantage of defenseless
tenants whom they will ruthlessly
exploit because of the situation, the
Harlem Tenants League makes the
following demands:
Low Rents.
81. The fixing Of rents of wage
earners upon basis commensurate
with their wages; such rents to be
fixed by a Board of Labor Repre-
sentatives.
"2. No discrimination on the
basis of race in the renting or sale
of houses.
"3. No cvictions of unemployed
workers.
Right of Organization.
"a. Immediate establishment of
q real Sanitary Code and rigid en-
forcement Of all sanitary regula-
tions.
80. And, above all. the Harlem
Tenants League upholds the right
of tenants to organize themselver
and refuse to pay oppressive and un-
justified rent increases, and that
where such increases are demanded,
cvictions shall not be permitted.
"6. We demand that the state
and city construct homes for work
crs, to be rented to them without
Profit"