***URGENT ACTION NOW***

Lynda Carson has gone off the deep end in targeting tenant activist James Vann for protest. While I doubt anyone will heed her call, it embarasses me to see her stuff on SF IMC, which is sometimes even featured. While she is entitled to her opinions, people should know that she is not a leader of tenants in Oakland, has no base of support, and the organization Tenants Action Now is unheard of. She may have good intentions, but she has little understanding, plays fast and loose with the facts, is engaging in personal slander instead of principaled politics, and is doing damage to the tenants rights movement.

There was no secret deal that Vann was involved in. What she is referring to is a task force established by the City Council to revise Oakland rent laws at the initiative of Councilmember Dick Spees which Vann participated in as a tenant advocate. When tenant representatives were invited to participate in this process, many decided not to, including some organizations (including Just Cause Oakland), but no collective decision was made. Brother Vann decided to participate in the process to get as much as possible for tenants from it. One of the things that came out of this process is the formula for tying rent increases to the cost of living index. This is a formula the City Council has been trying to adopt for years because they don't want to do their jobs and deliberate over what a just rent increase, if any, should be. The fix was in from the beginning, but not by Vann, but by the Council.

I can tell you for a fact that Vann does not support the recomendation of the task force on the rent increase, nor does the Oakland Tenant's Union or any other tenant organization that I am aware of. Vann and other tenant adocates in Oakland have long advocated a zero percent increase. The important thing to understand is that this was the City Council's process and they and they alone are completely responsible for it.

Whether it was strategically correct to participate in such a task force can, should, and is being debated by tenant activists. Vann himself encourages such strategic discussion. Tenants had to decide whether to boycott or participate in the task force and absent a collective decision to boycott, Vann decided to participate in order to get what could be gotten out of it. Had there been a collective decision to boycott, I know that Vann would not have participated, because he is a team player, which is more than I can say for Carson.

Vann has been an advocate for Oakland tenants for decades and is a founder of the Oakland Tenants Union. He is respected by all tenant activists in Oakland that I know of, with the exception of Carson, who to my knowledge has very little respect among tenant activists. This does not deter Carson who apparently thinks she is the only one who knows how tenants should conduct our struggle. Don't go out to harrass our brother because you think he made a strategic mistake. Dialog with him and other tenants to learn from the experience with the task force and to strengthen our movement for the battles to come. You will find Vann to be cordual, polite, principaled, and completely dedicated to the interest of tenants.