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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John M Faber endorsed
“Everything is changing in the government needs to step up now to do right by the people and not the corporations”
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Vanessa Garcia endorsed
“It's only right for Americans mental health many Americans like me are stressed about how to make rent payments when i do get back to work because alot of people live pay check to pay chdck and that money will need to go for that months rent dont know how I'm supposed to pay back pay rent”
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Michelle White endorsed
“Im still getting to work,but other people in my home got layered off and it isnhard to do it all with one check. Alot of the bills are behind.the oand lord is call me for money.jut teying to keep our heads above water.? and with 3 kids it is bery hard.”
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Amberly Caldwell endorsed
“This is the true "For the people”
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Wyatt L Harris endorsed
“Its the right thing to do”
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Jonathan Mcnabb endorsed
“No one should be evicted while the world has stopped but rent hasn't.”
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Nisha Elizabeth endorsed
“The cost of living is already high in CO and to add on the pandemic crisis it has hit us like a ton of bricks. No income! Or minimal income! If you care about us as citizens then helping would be to suspend April and May rent! $1200 didn’t help much when rent is well over that; plus food; plus car; utilities- how??? How can we be expected to give what we don’t have.”
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Krista Henderson endorsed
“There are millions of people who can't afford rent right now and without jobs, won't get approved for another. Families will be on the street and children are already struggling to keep up with their education with closed schools. Do they deserve to have their homes taken away to?”
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Doug Frosh endorsed
“My young adult children are struggling to subsist, having lost jobs in the service industries and collecting inadequate unemployment compensation. I support ALL those in similar situations.”
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Caleb Anderson endorsed
“I endorse rent strike 2020 because even though I may be employed as an "essential employee" I still can't make enough money to pay my rent.”
Campaign created!
Show your support for this campaign by endorsing it and sharing why!
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Asa Reneé endorsed
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Stephanie Hart endorsed
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John M Faber endorsed
“Everything is changing in the government needs to step up now to do right by the people and not the corporations”
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jaylin endorsed
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Vanessa Garcia endorsed
“It's only right for Americans mental health many Americans like me are stressed about how to make rent payments when i do get back to work because alot of people live pay check to pay chdck and that money will need to go for that months rent dont know how I'm supposed to pay back pay rent”
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Michelle White endorsed
“Im still getting to work,but other people in my home got layered off and it isnhard to do it all with one check. Alot of the bills are behind.the oand lord is call me for money.jut teying to keep our heads above water.? and with 3 kids it is bery hard.”
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Nathan endorsed
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Amberly Caldwell endorsed
“This is the true "For the people”
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Wyatt L Harris endorsed
“Its the right thing to do”
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Michelle Siraco, RCCS endorsed
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Jonathan Mcnabb endorsed
“No one should be evicted while the world has stopped but rent hasn't.”
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Jose Balza endorsed
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Mar'Laina Yashine Garland endorsed
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christina endorsed
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Roxanne Deniz endorsed
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sheila endorsed
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Alicia Giangiacomo endorsed
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Nisha Elizabeth endorsed
“The cost of living is already high in CO and to add on the pandemic crisis it has hit us like a ton of bricks. No income! Or minimal income! If you care about us as citizens then helping would be to suspend April and May rent! $1200 didn’t help much when rent is well over that; plus food; plus car; utilities- how??? How can we be expected to give what we don’t have.”
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James D Barnes endorsed
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Krista Henderson endorsed
“There are millions of people who can't afford rent right now and without jobs, won't get approved for another. Families will be on the street and children are already struggling to keep up with their education with closed schools. Do they deserve to have their homes taken away to?”
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Betty Martinez endorsed
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Dionne Smith endorsed
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Doug Frosh endorsed
“My young adult children are struggling to subsist, having lost jobs in the service industries and collecting inadequate unemployment compensation. I support ALL those in similar situations.”
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Melba Williams endorsed
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Donna Martinez endorsed
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Julianna Pence endorsed
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Taylor Pierce endorsed
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Caleb Anderson endorsed
“I endorse rent strike 2020 because even though I may be employed as an "essential employee" I still can't make enough money to pay my rent.”
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Tara Veltz endorsed
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Peter S endorsed
“Grotesque provocations by the so-called elites must be opposed and rolled back. Obscene.”
