Anti-Eviction Workshop (2022)

This two-part anti-eviction workshop brought together activists, researchers and artists to discuss how we might share knowledge of effective anti-eviction strategies in creative ways and which have meaningful community value. It was funded by the University of Glasgow.

The first meeting was on Zoom, 20th July 2022, with presentations from Siri Black, Living Rent, Elizabeth Blaney, Union de Vecinos, LA, Joanna Kusiak Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen, Berlin, and Mari Pueyo, Sindicat de Llogateres, Barcelona. They reflected upon the key eviction/housing pressures where they are and shared an example of a successful campaign, what made it effective and what some limitations were. We discussed the links between issues as well as strategies deployed. Policy campaigning and fighting for legislative change was a common thread.

This was followed by a hybrid event on 23^rd of July 2022, at The Deep End, which discussed the issues raised at the previous meeting, along with the following topics:

– how to build and share campaign and strategy knowledge amongst different tenant unions

– where future pressure points and campaign priorities are

– what future knowledge exchange activities would be useful

– which formats can we use to create enduring public resources (where and for whom)

– what creative/artistic outputs could be effective (locally and internationally)

– what research/evidence/analysis is needed.

This event also included a film screening of Jack Guariento’s ‘Marjorie’s Story’.

In the discussion the following themes and questions emerged:

• How do we make the invisible visible in eviction processes? That related to two layers 1) evictions themselves (information before they happen and info on where people go) as well as 2) those who benefit (landlords and corporations and politicians) – in what ways could these processes be made visible and how could you contribute/what might be useful means of developing this?
• How to tell and listen to eviction stories (and emphasising the wins as well as the injuries/harm) – in what ways might we do this and where could we share these?

This event became the seedbed for the later collaboration project Tools for Tenant Power, funded by University of Glasgow Knowledge Exchange Fund which took these insights on campaigns and archived them online as a shared resource that could be used by tenant groups. This project became the catalyst growing the collective at Glasgow Housing Struggle Archive, in terms of forming a constituted community group but also a wider collective of volunteer collaborators.

Funded by the University of Glasgow Community Development Fund.

Speakers: Siri Black, Living Rent, Elizabeth Blaney, Union de Vecinos, LA, and Joanna Kusiak Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen, Berlin, Mari Pueyo, Sindicat de Llogateres, Barcelona.

Participants: Kirsteen Paton (University of Glasgow) Kirsten Lloyd (University of Edinburgh), Joey Simons (Living Rent), Meg Bishop (University of Edinburgh/ Living Rent ) Ruth Gilbert (Living Rent), Winnie Herbstein, Vickie Cooper (OU) Frances Lingard, Cloudberry McLean (Arika) Jack Guariento.