In the summer of 2017, in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale, over 300 tenants living across 12 apartment buildings went on rent strike to protest a wave of rent increases that would have displaced members of their community. Through months of organizing and a series of escalating actions, working-class people took on the biggest corporate landlord in their neighbourhood… and won. In an age where gentrification is rapidly transforming the nature and demographics of working-class neighbourhoods in cities across the world, pushing out poorer tenants, people on fixed incomes, immigrant communities and other long-term residents, the story of the Parkdale rent strike offers an important and practical lesson on how we can organize with our neighbours to fight back.
