When we first started talking about the tenant union campaign, we had talked about why TUs are important (collective action, solidarity, “protagonism”, clarifying class interests, etc).
@Englishpete08, @NoraG, @SeanHun, and I thought it would be a good idea to consolidate that information into a “TU 101” presentation that we could share with new members and tenants that we speak to.
Skimming this book, there’s a lack of direction from a class struggle perspective. It’s very vague in terms of actually achieving their landlordless future. Below is one of the only main mentions of socialism/communism and it is even more vague than progressive definition of “socialism is when the government does things;” it’s down to community building.
“Acting in community remakes our political orientation to our everyday life. Alcazar explained that participating in the union has transformed her relationship to the idea of “communism,” which she once associated with being controlled. Now, she says, it’s about having control. “Communist to me is community. Community working together. Common, you have everything in common. That’s communism. My dream is that one day not only Flower Drive but all these tenants unions become communist 84 communist as working together, for one purpose, getting a house for everybody.”” ([Rosenthal and Vilchis, 2024, p. 83]
Seems more like the writer is trying to undo the negative connotation that communism has, rather than give a theoretically consistent definition.
Vagueness isn’t great but honestly might be more useful than precise technical definitions when writing a book like this