OUR HISTORY
Southampton Tenants union was inspired by the renaissance of tenants union movement.
(Read more about it in the next section.) Organised by a small group of determined people, our first meetings took place in the Autumn of 2022.
We officially launched STU on 22 Dec 2022.
We ran campaigns, organised protests and engaged with the local community and the decision makers to improve renters’ housing situation.
The history of tenants organising against their landlords goes back as far as the 19th century in the US when the Anti-Rent Movement of New York took place in 1839–1845.
Further rent strikes followed not just in New York in the first decades of the 20th century but in England, Scotland, Spain and Sweden in Europe, and further afield in South-America.
Another wave of organisation happened in the 1960-80s, in Ireland during the troubles, in New York and in South-Africa.
The widening economical gap between wealthy elites and the working classes since the 2008 banking crisis saw the establishment of tenant or renters unions in the US, Australia and the Europe.
London Renters Union was founded in 2016, and was followed by others in the UK.
This short video by Scotland’s Living Rent union explains what a Tenants Union is.