WORLD WORLDWIDE BELGIUM BRUSSELS News Journal Update - (en) Bruxel, UCL - The Sonacotra rent strike: an example of autonomous struggle and self-organization (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Article written and published by the Brussels Solidarity Network on its website.

This Network is defined as follows: "We are a totally voluntary mutual support
network, open to tenants, with or without housing and to workers with or without
work, active or retired. We use direct class action to fight employers and
landlords who exploit us, pocket our wages, deny us repairs, steal our rental
guarantees, mislead us, and/or otherwise abuse us." More information here . ----
 From 1975 to 1980, in France, immigrant workers in shelters run by the National
Society for the Construction of Workers' Housing (Sonacotra) led a rent strike,
which remains one of the biggest struggles for housing in Europe. Sonacotra was
created in 1956 to house Algerian workers and, in the context of the Algerian
war, it became an instrument of control over these immigrant workers. The
dwellings were buildings in highly industrialized peri-urban areas, far from the
general population and commerce. Each household was headed by a director, often a
retired soldier, who applied particularly repressive internal rules.

In the early 1970s, Sonacotra multiplied rent increases to meet its rising costs,
and when the strike broke out, rents were so high that most residents were at the
limit of their means. In 1973, the two houses in Bobigny went on strike, followed
by Aulnay-sous-Bois in 1974. Other strikes affected the houses in Gennevilliers,
La Courneuve, Montreuil and Saint-Denis. Until 1975, these movements were
relatively isolated, but the demands converge: lowering of excessively high
rents, questioning of internal regulations, recognition of neighborhood
committees and, in many cases, removal of racist directors. The "rental strike"
spread in 1976 to the entire Paris region, then to other regions of France,
mobilizing 20,000 to 30,000 strikers. The strikers were protesting against
widespread rent increases, which they considered indecent compared to the quality
of life these units offer. They also denounced the initial state of deterioration
of the structures and the methods of repression used against their movement.

Faced with these claims, the response has been the intervention of the police in
the homes, the eviction of the neighbors through the courts and wage garnishment
procedures. The rental strike lasted several years, mobilizing thousands of
workers of 25 nationalities and implementing original forms of struggle that
managed to maintain their autonomy.

The Sonacotra housing rent strike is a unique example of a far-reaching and
long-lasting struggle in the field of housing. The unions have adopted a very
reserved attitude towards this movement due to mistrust towards its innovative
character and the autonomous organization that it has been able to develop: the
Sonacotra casa en lucha coordinating committee. However, the form of housing
developed with these shelters is directly linked to the exploitative conditions
of immigrant workers. In fact, the very conception of households is linked to
their general situation in France: they occupy low-skilled jobs and, therefore,
are poorly paid, they are pushed to the outskirts of cities, isolated from the
rest of the population and separated from their families. because the home does
not allow them to bring their relatives.

The demands were finally partially met, with rent reductions, recognition of
neighborhood committees, and changes in administrative personnel. The Sonacotra
rent strike has become an exemplary movement in the history of immigrant workers'
struggles in France, denouncing the segregation of foreign workers and generating
a force for self-organization and resistance.

Sources:

https://www.lesamisdegeneriques.org/Actualites/p14/Les-sonacos-ou-la-greve-des-loyers-des-residents-des-foyers-Sonacotra
https://www.gisti.org/doc/plein-droit/53-54/lutte.html

https://bxl.communisteslibertaires.org/2023/06/15/la-greve-des-loyers-de-la-sonacotra-un-exemple-de-lutte-autonome-et-dauto-organisation/
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