Beginning on April 1st, 2020, many Americans will be unable to pay their rent, mortgage, loans, or utility bills in the context of the pandemic and global recession. The president has so far spent $2.5 trillion in bailing out the stock market and large corporations, and nothing to bail out the working class.
Without a massive stimulus package, freeze on rent, utilities, and mortgage collection, millions of people will lose their jobs and homes. Unemployment could reach 30% according to some projections. We have to start organizing right now, turn our collective desperation to collective power, and force our government to enact a bailout for regular people, not Wall Street.
Our DemandsRent Strike 2020 started when a simple petition to freeze rent, utilities and mortgage payments has collected over 2 million signatures within 48 hours. The creators of the petition (Joshua Collins, and Rose Caucus) realized that this is a revolutionary moment and immediately passed it off to organizers who could build this into a movement that will be able to deliver a win for regular people.
We have put together a comprehensive set of immediate demands that we are calling the People’s Bailout. Our goal is to win these demands for the working class by building a mass movement. We hope to partner with local tenants unions, labor unions, immigrant groups, prison reform and abolition groups, and left and socialist elected officials who share our movement strategy and vision. Following are our initial set of of demands:
Freeze all rent, mortgage, utility payments or we will carry out a rent strike!
Freeze all student, medical, car and consumer debt and interest during the ongoing pandemic and recession. Cancel student debt!
Tax big business and the rich, not regular people, to pay for the crisis.
House all unsheltered people to protect their health and safety, and public health at-large.
Suspend all Farm Service Agency payments to ensure that we have an uninterrupted food supply.
Provide free mass testing and treatment! Authorize the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services to cover all out of pocket expenses so people can get tested and treated without worrying about going bankrupt.
Medicare for All! Immediately nationalize pharma, healthcare, medical instruments and all providers for an emergency response like Spain did to swiftly respond to the health crisis.
Give democratic powers to Committees of workers and scientists over the response to the crisis in essential industries – including healthcare, transportation, logistics, grocery.
Nationalize any industry threatening layoffs that hasn't been bailed out under democratic workers' control.
End the mass incarceration system & immediately release all immigrants from detention centers to stop the spread of COVID-19 between prisoners and guards.
Show your support for this campaign by endorsing it and sharing why!
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Kelli endorsed
“We need more of a break on these bills and taxes while we try to recover from the government's screw up.”
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angela c endorsed
“Not fair for the people to pay for government fuck ups..!”
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tealiah mcclain endorsed
“It’s hard right now for everyone even with the stimulus check ! What about next month ?”
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Rosa clay endorsed
“I lost both my jobs an one of them fired me left my family high an dry after working there 5 years with the company.”
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Christy Green endorsed
“Because I have been furloughed since March and because my landlords are going to file a eviction on a single mom who lost all income”
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charee t endorsed
“This pandemic has put a huge financial strain on everyone. We cannot afford to pay.”
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Margaret Cundiff Gatherum endorsed
“I endorse a rent strike because I lost my job due to the virus and am really struggling.”
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tori endorsed
“How can we be expected to pay rent while essentially having no work to make money to pay that rent?”
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EDWARD CARLSON endorsed
“my state still has not paid unemployment and I still did not receive a stimulus. The only reason I can not pay my rent is because government shut down my business.”
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cshoes company endorsed
“I don’t have a job , the store is being closed since March already 3 Months . Thank you”
Campaign created!
Show your support for this campaign by endorsing it and sharing why!
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Lisa Barrett endorsed
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Kelli endorsed
“We need more of a break on these bills and taxes while we try to recover from the government's screw up.”
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malissa white endorsed
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angela c endorsed
“Not fair for the people to pay for government fuck ups..!”
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Jessica Mynk endorsed
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Melissa endorsed
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tealiah mcclain endorsed
“It’s hard right now for everyone even with the stimulus check ! What about next month ?”
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Valyrie Walker endorsed
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Erika Morgan endorsed
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Rosa clay endorsed
“I lost both my jobs an one of them fired me left my family high an dry after working there 5 years with the company.”
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Christy Green endorsed
“Because I have been furloughed since March and because my landlords are going to file a eviction on a single mom who lost all income”
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charee t endorsed
“This pandemic has put a huge financial strain on everyone. We cannot afford to pay.”
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Jason endorsed
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Joaquin Bello endorsed
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Davida James endorsed
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Margaret Cundiff Gatherum endorsed
“I endorse a rent strike because I lost my job due to the virus and am really struggling.”
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tori endorsed
“How can we be expected to pay rent while essentially having no work to make money to pay that rent?”
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EDWARD CARLSON endorsed
“my state still has not paid unemployment and I still did not receive a stimulus. The only reason I can not pay my rent is because government shut down my business.”
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cshoes company endorsed
“I don’t have a job , the store is being closed since March already 3 Months . Thank you”
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Nicolette Williams endorsed
“Because we need to! Most renters aren't having any consideration to circumstances during this time! Some of us who got a stimulus check. its gone as it helped with rent and bills. Some of us aren't grossing unemployment checks and making more than we ever have with $900 ish a week!”
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Evii Salinas endorsed
“Housing is not a luxury, it's a necessity that most of us cannot afford with or without losing a job due to the virus. They are the few and we are the many!”
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ari vald endorsed
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Rande H endorsed
“I was about to complete an intensive 2 week training at my new (dream) job with an amazing restaurant when COVID-19 took control of daily life in American. The very day I was to take my exams and certify for Front of House service, all hourly employees were furloughed without a definitive return. The process of starting with a new company meant not bringing in fluid income for almost 4 weeks. Compounded with moving to a new area of the city and almost 4 weeks of waiting for State UI benefits decimated my finances to almost nothing. As the company has to take measures in order to survive and has done everything they can to help its staff, we must do the same to move forward with our lives amidst this global pandemic; often without sound Government leadership. I have bills which I am unable to define a payment schedule as I am allocating Federal funding to catching up. It's overwhelming. On a personal level, I feel "lost" and exhausted from the stress and uncertainty that comes with it. Thank you for creating this initiative and you have my full support. This platform can serve as a foundation to getting all (of us) back on track; especially now where we need to take care of one another more than ever.”
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Vanessa Hickson endorsed
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helen endorsed
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Mike Sanatkar endorsed
“We need to!”
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carmen Kitts endorsed
“I am a sole proprietor and have poured my entire soul into The medical aesthetics practice for the last 12 years. It will take a long time until we Are Able to re open. And at that time, it’s difficult to do skin care at 6 feet away. There’s been no loan help, no unemployment, and forced to close. Which I agree with. But the uncertainty of how to start again with huge bills already hanging over your head. XX”
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Sydney Jones endorsed
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Randa Baramki endorsed
“Stimulus package by the 1% to the 1% in the worst health and economic crisis the world has ever seen! Stop using our hard earned taxes to save the corporations headed by white men that have been robbing us dry for centuries!!! Enough! Basta! Kafi! Cancellation of rents and small mortgages for a year after the lifting of the state of emergency!!!”
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mary Duplisea endorsed
“Money coming into my home has been cut in half. I take care of my elderly father, whom is 83. I'm having to choose what to pay while making sure to keep a roof over his head and food on the table. There's also the light bill, car payment and car Inc. Which we have to have so one of us can go to work. Rent relief would help out so much. Then maybe I can get the car payment caught up. Please hear us!”
