FireWorks writes: Modeled after the Seattle Solidarity Network (SeaSol), EBSN is a group of workers and tenants who use direct action to fight landlords and bosses. Working against both wage theft at workplaces, despicable conditions in housing complexes, as well as against foreclosures, EBSN has worked to combat abuses and build power among workers and tenants. FireWorks through email reached out to the group to get more information on them and what it is they do in the East Bay.

FW: Recently, you all have gotten a lot of media coverage about your involvement in a West Oakland housing complex fighting a slumlord. Can you tell us more about this struggle?

EBSN: Booker Emery is a 40 unit building near the West Oakland Bart station that had everything wrong with it a building could have: mold, bedbugs, roaches, dead pigeons in the air shafts, holes in walls and ceilings, an unreliable and abusive landlord and security cameras that were used to intimidate tenants that demanded repairs and better conditions. There were tenants with chronic and debilitating respiratory problems because of nightmarish floor to ceiling mold. Some tenants had to send their children to stay with relatives because the bedbug problem was so severe, and I met with tenants whose legs were scarred from hundreds of bites. Before we started organizing there, tenants who requested repairs were moved into even worse units or told to keep quiet or get out.

Read More | East Bay Solidarity Network | FireWorks

Previous Related Indybay Feature: Evict This! The Landscape, History and the Battle Against Evictions in West Oakland