NEW YORK CITY, January 21—“Whose streets? Our streets! Whose city? Our city!” On Martin Luther King Day, these fierce chants set the icy streets ablaze as a multiracial and multi-generational battalion of nearly three hundred workers marching against working-class displacement. This rally exposed that under capitalism, housing is a commodity, not a basic necessity.
The march was a result of the anger of workers across the city, and the tireless anti-displacement organizing the Coalition to Protect Chinatown, and the City Wide Alliance against Displacement. Workers poured in from Staten Island to Philly to protest the city’s racist capitulating to real estate developers—pricing out mainly Black and Latin workers from their homes. A contingent from the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joined the march, and was inspired by the militant show of multiracial unity, and working-class women leadership. In spite of this being on record as one of the coldest days in January, the working class in NYC was unstoppable on this day.
Capitalism puts profits over workers’ needs
Since his 2013 election, liberal de Blasio has bent over backwards for developers—the same ones who funded his 2017 reelection campaign—granting them sweetheart tax abatements to build giant skyscrapers. In turn, they’re supposed to must set aside some units as “affordable” housing.
The reality is that when the bosses determine what is affordable, these apartments aren’t actually affordable for many working-class people. Under capitalism, housing isn’t a human right. Rather, it’s a commodity, one the ruling class has a tight grip on, and heavily regulates, choosing profit over workers’ lives. We see this playing out in NYCHA  (New York City Housing Authority) with residents living in deplorable conditions such as decrepit apartments, toxic lead in their water, no heat. Similarly, there are more homeless youth in the city than people living in Albany (NY Times 10/18).
A mayor for the bosses
Yet our “progressive” mayor has time to offer Amazon a $3 billion tax break to expand its global empire by building their headquarters in Long Island City, another clear testament to the fact that de Blasio is merely a servant to ruling class interests Some progressive! Workers know better, as reflected in one sign with a photo of de Blasio and Trump side by side boldly reading “De Blasio and Trump two sides of the same coin.” Those contradictions quelled up the anger in our bodies, warming us as we headed downtown. Truly, this system has nothing for us to look forward to, except to smash it!
City Planning Commission; stooges for the bosses
In December, the City Planning Commission approved four luxury towers for the Lower East Side area, which initially triggered the march. The commission ignored standing zoning laws forbidding such developments in the area—ones that will interfere with local privacy, sunlight, and traffic. Not so coincidentally, many CPC members receive money from real estate interests, just like their ringleader. Members at the mass organization are realizing how spineless and sniveling these politicians and planners are, and that they only see the dollar signs.
One Latin worker mentioned how we were standing directly under the Extell tower, another ugly glass box, with a “poor door”(a seperate entrance for low-income workers). She laid out clearly another key demand: “No towers! No compromise!” She emphasized that de Blasio and Trump are two sides of the same capitalist coin by saying that while Trump wants to build a wall to keep workers from Latin America out, de Blasio wants to build towers to force workers out of their homes and neighborhood. The young comrade went on to chant this slogan that while Immigration and Customs Enforcement deports workers, de Blasio displaces workers in this so called “sanctuary city.”
Later, a young Asian worker delivered a rousing speech about the lawsuit the community filed to stop the illegal towers, and how it would serve as the ultimate push for the Chinatown Working Group Plan (CWG). The CWG plan, once dismissed by the mayor as too ambitious, was a plan created by workers in the Lower East Side and Chinatown that would create protections against rezoning, and would allow working people in their community to control what gets built, and for whom.
De Blasio, kkkops try to shut us down
Days before the march, the City tried shutting us down by saying we could only use the sidewalk because we would be blocking bus lanes. That only increased our determination. De Blasio’s goons in blue, the NYPD, were out in aggressive full force, trying to intimidate us and saying being off the street is for our safety. These kkkops pretend they care for our well being, yet they’re going into our neighborhoods, murdering Black youth with impunity. They threatened to arrest some of us for inciting a riot, yet the only ones being violent were the cops. We eventually outflanked them and briefly took the streets to spread our message! Police are an essential part of the city’s displacement agenda. While de Blasio passes policy, his thugs are out here enforcing it.
One year anniversary of Bowery’ tenants struggle
The march came around a year to the day that the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development unjustly evicted over 70 Asian tenants at 80-85 Bowery, all because their slumlord needed to make repairs he’d lagged on for years. It was a blatant effort to transform their homes into luxury condos. The Coalition united with these workers against the racist slumlord and the City, beating both back with mass actions and class struggle, until they were able to return to their homes last August. It is clear these efforts to displace us are connected. And they won’t stop until we end them permanently. Though a reform struggle, it enables us workers to push back against the ruling class, showing us what we are capable of accomplishing, sharpening us to become vehicles for class struggle. We have a lot more work to do, and a world to win! Our working class brothers and sisters leading the way towards communist revolution.