Harlem fight-back
There are 171,000 families on the public housing list in New York City. 230,000 families live doubled-up. 60,000 people and 25,000 elderly and poor New Yorkers are considered to be on the brink of homelessness. As is the case throughout the United States, the black population suffers most.
Mayor Koch of the big-business Democratic party and his corrupt speculator associates have their plans for Harlem. This “prime piece of real estate” sits in uptown Manhattan and is easily accessible to the major airports of New York and New Jersey. The pressure is on to push out the black working class and unemployed.
State assistance is available for blacks to move out of the area but not within the area. Vacant houses are sold to people who can afford $500 just to make a bid, a $35,000 deposit and who have an income over over $100,000. On top of this, the speculators are moving in, buying up vacant buildings and occupied buildings, forcing the tenants out and turning the buildings into $100,000-plus apartment units.
Powerful political force
The attack on Harlem’s blacks is spearheaded by the city’s ruling elite. “Spatial Deconcentration” is the term used. What this means is that Harlem’s blacks are a powerful force with traditions of revolutionary struggle. They have thrown up such giants as Malcolm X. New York’s big business wants to drive this force out of Manhattan and disperse it.
The Harlem Reclamation Project is leading the fight-back. They organize support for families who refuse to move or who “homestead,” taking over a vacant building and repairing it for their own use. They recently linked their struggles in Harlem to the “shanty town” protests against apartheid in nearby Columbia University.
A Labor Militant reporter recently attended a meeting in Harlem of the “Coalition for a Moratorium on Evictions.” The Harlem Reclamation Project is part of this. There have been 90,000 evictions in the last three years in New York City. Two women have been killed by the police during these.
Fight-back in Harlem
As the meeting ended, there was a discussion on Harlem today compared to when Malcolm X was alive. One Harlem tenant said, “My view is, the place has got worse. One-half of my block is now vacant.”
There is a new fight-back coming in Harlem and throughout all of black America. Nsia Akuffa Bea of the Harlem Reclamation Project explained, “More people are talking about South Africa than ever before. They beat down the black movement but there is a new resurgence coming slowly.”