So, through this swift and unpredictable seizure of the tactical initiative, the Strike won a series of heartening little moral victories. Oscar had arranged this situation deliberately, in order to build community self-confidence. The rent strike seemed very dramatic, but a rent strike was an unbeatable gambit. There was no internal competition for the rents in the Collaboratory. If the strikers were somehow thrown out of their lodgings, the buildings would simply stay empty.