The Warsaw Tenants Association (WSL) is a tenant-run union founded in 2007 in order to defend the interests of public housing tenants. Initially, WSL organized against mass rent increases and evictions caused by (re)privatisation. Last winter, WSL launched a campaign against the high costs of heating in the city's South Praga district. In March 2011, Jola Brzeska, a founding member of WSL and one of its leaders was kidnapped from her house and mudered. Her case remains unsolved. Kinderbetreuung vor Ort.

Over 70 percent of public tenements in Warsaw have no central heating. Around 50,000 families must use the most expensive method of heating: electricity. Unable to afford the cost of rent, the cost of heating and the cost of basic necessities like food, many tenants must choose among these and take out loans.

In November 2017, the Warsaw Tenants’ Association (WSL) initiated a campaign against the high costs of heating. The most eager response came from women tenants in the South Praga district of the city. Many of these women are single mothers who struggle to make ends meet while working at home and for wages in low-paid jobs. Over the past year, these women have put great effort into organizing protests in their district, hanging banners on their buildings, distributing flyers to neighbors, and entering neighboorhood councils. They also formed a coalition, called the Women's Social Congress, with women workers from the syndicalist union Worker's Initiative (IP) in order to fight exploitation both at the level of rents, as well as wages.

WSL demands that all public tenements have access to central heating. Until this is done, the city must 1) cease collecting rent from tenants living in public housing without central heating, 2) subsidize their electricity bills, 3) cancel their debts on rent, and 4) stop evictions.

Der Workshop findet in englischer Sprache statt und wird von Warsaw Tenants' Association (Warschau) geleitet.

Information on the campaign on Facebook
WSL Website

Gesellschaftlicher Wandel passiert nicht von selbst und die Stadt für alle wird gemacht: In Wohnprojekten, Genossenschaften und Syndikaten, Food-Coops und der solidarischen Landwirtschaft, Sprach-Cafes, Nachbarschafts-, Rad-, Raum-, Mieten-, Klima- und Grünraum-Initiativen. Immer mehr Menschen organisieren sich selbst, für eine offene, demokratische Gesellschaft und das Recht auf Stadt. Mit dem Workshop-Nachmittag HOW TO … CHANGE! lädt urbanize! zu Austausch, Vernetzung und Wissensaufbau für eine mündige und widerständige Zivilgesellschaft: Mit dreistündigen Praxis-Workshops zu konkrekten WERKZEUGEN für Aktivismus und gesellschaftlichem Engagement. Und mit zweistündigen Learning from … Austausch-Formaten zu STRATEGIEN und TAKTIKEN erfolgreicher internationaler und lokaler Initiativen.

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