Building tenants’ power in the Bronx: interview with Manny Pardilla
As of May 7th, at least 33.5 million people are unemployed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The poor response by the state and employers is pushing working class people into tension with the pressures of everyday struggles. Healthcare workers are demanding greater protection, housing activists are calling for mass rent strikes, unemployment claims are expected to grow – this crisis will continue to expand. The push by capitalists to re-open the economy, and the state’s unwillingness to face the deadly realities of the pandemic will mean that Covid-19 is generating the conditions for mass struggle in the United States.
The organized labor movement’s timid efforts to push the Federal Government has been uninspiring and with huge swaths of working people disorganized, the descent into further barbarism stands over us all. The tasks faced by the new socialist movement in overcoming this divide stands over it like a mountain. But there are militants on the ground who are doing what they can to organize the people around them and build independent organizations.
