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International Socialism, Spring 1965

 

Hilary Rose

Defend the Tenant

 

From International Socialism (1st series), No.20, Spring 1965, p.30.
Thanks to Ted Crawford & the late Will Fancy.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.

 

Tenants in Danger
Audrey Harvey
Penguin Special, 3s.

Anyone who has canvassed in an urban area has met the elderly tenant who was pressured by the landlord to give up a ground-floor room for a top-floor room and incidentally lost her protection as a controlled tenant – or has met some other equally shabby variant of current landlord-tenant relations.

Of course on any long-term analysis decent human relations demand decent human conditions, and housing is an essential factor. Yet building the urgently needed houses takes time, and tenants are threatened and pressured today. Audrey Harvey, writing with the fiercely informed criticism, first met in Casualties of the Welfare State, has documented the manner of these threats and sets out the principles of a holding operation. Despite recent eviction legislation which should help provide a check, holding operations will still be necessary against the pressures from landlords. During the inevitable and all too long time between now and the adequate provision of housing Mrs. Harvey’s book stands as an indispensable aid to critique, and most importantly, to defensive action.

 
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