The fight against parasitical landlords for a decent place to live has been a constant of the workers’ struggle. Even before the Great Depression the Harlem Tenants League was organized to address to particularly atrocious housing imposed on New York’s Black workers. Here, a march of the League to Brooks Square in 1929.

‘Fight on Landlordism in Harlem Grows’ from the Daily Worker. Vol. 6 No. 74. June 3, 1929.

Thousands Hail Mass Protest of Harlem Tenants–Parade, Slogans Are Cheered During March Thru Center–“Mass Organization” Resolution Passed at Big Demonstration

In a parade which made its way thru the center of Harlem, witnessed and cheered by tens of thousands of Negro workers, and in a mass demonstration at the end of the line of march in Brooks Square, white and Negro tenants of Harlem, in a mass voice demanded an end of rent robbery and expressed their determination to continue the organization of tenants, under the leadership of the working class Harlem Tenants League, which by its mass power will be able to refuse to pay rent raises and procure wholesome living conditions for workers.

In this first of tenants’ parades in Harlem, which is but the beginning of a series, could be seen the growing power of the Harlem Tenants’ League, and the growing response to the Communist Party housing slogans which have been advanced for the municipal elections.

Negro Workers Join In.

“Down with Rent Slavery!” “Down with Greedy Landlord Oppression!” “Down with Segregation and Discrimination against Negro Tenants!” “No Evictions Against Workers!” “Defend the Soviet Union!” “The Communist Party supports the Harlem Tenants’ League!” were some of the banners carried by the paraders, in their march starting from 126th St. and Fifth Avenue, and awakening enthusiastic response all along the line especially in the worst housing sections. The parade was greeted with cheers, and all along the line of march many Negro workers joined in.

Especially along Fifth Avenue, where are to be found some of the most inhabitable tenements in Harlem, was the parade swelled in answer to the large banner carried in front, which read: “Protest Parade Against High Rents and Bad Housing Conditions. Fall in Line. Harlem Tenants’ League!”

This organization should be carried out on the basis of the formation 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 Communist Party and of the Harlem Tenants’ League. He told how the Tatler, sensational society tabloid, had gone to the extent of holding the landlords up as “heroes” for “doing away with race lines.” In reality they accentuated the exploiters business 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 Negro politicians of Harlem, many of whom are vicious landlords themselves, in an attempt to gain the Negro vote. He expressed the full support of the Harlem Tenants’ League by the Communist Party and its program of the solidarity of Negro and white workers against the exploiting class.

“It is only by voting for the Communist candidates in the city elections, 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 capitalism, one of the products of which is segregation and discrimination against Negro workers, and the terrible 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 Burroughs, of the Teachers’ Union, also spoke, as well 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, a working class organization formed for the protection of the tenants of Harlem against landlord exploitation, 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 practice, which, together with the evil of segregation, makes for a condition where real estate agents and landlords can squeeze from 50 to 100 per cent more rent for flats than is paid by tenants in any other section of the city; and

“Whereas, many of the Negro tenants are unemployed and many others are working for wages ranging from $12 to $18 a week and are unable to pay the excessive rents charged; and

“Whereas, ever, 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 take advantage of defenseless tenants whom they will ruthlessly exploit because of the situation, the Harlem Tenants League makes the following demands:

Low Rents.

“1. The fixing of rents of wage-earners upon a basis commensurate with their wages; such rents to be fixed by a Board of Labor Representatives.

“2. No discrimination on the basis of race in the renting or sale of houses.

“3. No evictions of unemployed workers.

Right of Organization.

“4. Immediate establishment of a real Sanitary Code and a rigid enforcement of all sanitary regulations.

“5. And, above all, the Harlem Tenants League upholds the right of tenants to organize themselves and refuse to pay oppressive and unjustified rent increases, and that where such increases are demanded, evictions shall not be permitted.

“6. We demand that the state and city construct homes for workers, to be rented to them without profit.”

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n074-NY-jun-03-1929-DW-LOC.pdf