At the end of this year’s march in Dublin to mark International Worker’s Day, on the stage in front of a sea of trade union banners, Aisling Hedderman addressed the crowd as a CATU member, council housing tenant, and mother:
“I ask you, are we divided? Are we going to turn on each other? We reject that division. It doesn’t matter if your landlord is a faceless fund abroad or a local council—the result is the same. You’re kept insecure. You’re kept quiet. Your costs go up while your home gets worse. This is the new kind of poor-law. Every rent increase takes from your table. Every energy bill takes a price hike. Every so-called market rise is part of the same pressure on ordinary people. They call it a “cost-of-living crisis”, like it just happened. But we know better. It’s a cost-of-greed crisis.”
This is the message and the driving force behind CATU (Community Action Tenant Union) that brings together 2,300 members from across the entire island of Ireland. Their two national campaigns demanding universally accessible public housing, and a union-in-first approach to areas vulnerable to division by authoritarian and far-right actors, take an active, community-organising based approach to fight for the right to safe, secure housing for the country as a whole. These campaigns were built locally, borne of serious systemic issues their own members face every day. Meanwhile, local branches continue to develop new strategies to fight against the tide of greed and exploitation. Dublin city’s own council has a long history of neglecting repairs, creating unsafe conditions in it’s own council-run housing, while simultaneously passing a motion to raise rents on tenants. The Dublin CATU members have mobilised members and local residents for several protests on the steps of the city council, with the movement rapidly growing into regular community meetings. CATU Kerry have been fighting against the international corporate landlord LRC to stop the mass eviction of 14 families in Killarney. They recently won the unanimous support of a council motion that tasks the local government to pressure the department of housing to protect their citizens from facing traumatic evictions. These are just two examples of the systemic issues that has put Ireland on the top of the list of Europe’s most unaffordable places to live.
What Ireland is experiencing may be extreme, but it is not unique in Europe or the USA. CATU is part of a much wider, international movement for tenant’s rights and they are working hand-in-hand with other grassroots organisations and community organisers through networks like ECON, Tenant’s International, and the European Action Coalition to share research and deliver educational training. Recently, they launched the publication ‘Homes Not Hazards’, created in collaboration between the residents of Cromcastle Court and Emmet Buildings and the Just Housing research project. The launch event included a panel discussion with members of the Los Angeles Tenant’s Union, Berlin’s Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen, and Greece’s HARTA, connecting not only tenants struggles, but the importance of a climate-driven just transition in housing, which affects us all globally.
CATU Ireland is a member-led tenants union operating 36 branches across the entire island of Ireland. If you’d like to learn more, visit catuireland.org
