Organizing the Danish tenants An overall description Headlines 1.A brief history 2.Organizing in the two main sectors 3.Lack of sufficient unity 4.Tenant-unions outside the big cities 5.Strong in handling housing politics, but otherwise a very week national secretariat 6.Housing politics in the light of our lack of sufficient national strength 7.Uniting the local unions in regions with sufficient means to develop better membership services 8.Supporting local unions and activists

A brief history Poverty during the first World War -A national tenant union (not socialist) -Rent regulation – rent control boards -Tenant protection against evictions The thirties – unemployment – new policies -Two tenant unions Towards free marked thinking (1966) -Uniting in Lejernes Landsorganisation (LLO) The seventies – the new left – up and downs for tenant rights -Rent rise are linked to the cost of management (1974) -Tenant democracy and housing associations (1977) -Stopping the sellout of the rented housing to owner-occupied flats (1979) -Growing home ownership and increasing exclusion of tenants from mainstream society

The two main sectors The rented housing owned by private landlords The main work field for LLO Tenant participation boards Rent control boards Most issues depends on laws and the ruling in court Negotiation rights and our ability to participate in these are to weak The housing associations Tenant boards on estate level – to much controlled by the management The national organization for housing association clams and manage to some extend to be an organization for tenant in housing organizations – but just to some extend. Inside LLO we’re often underestimating the consequences of this problem. It’s cutting a lot of potential members of for us.

Lack of sufficient unity Lejernes Landsorganisation (LLO) – More than half in Copenhagen Danmarks Lejerforeninger – – 7 local unions joined together Other local unions – Odense – the town of Hans Christian Andersen Aarhus – the capital of Jutland (4000) The tenants in housing associations estates Free legal aid institutions

Outside the big cities The typical situation Great enthusiasm in the beginning Stability without growth later on An union with 100 – 600 members In the stronger local unions it might be equal to % of the tenants in town. Otherwise lower No employed staff Necessary for further growth Unpaid activist get burned out The activist are important in connection to our strength toward getting the tenant issues across on local and on national level, and as board members in our organization on all levels – but they are often instead only working with a great workload of cases.

The national secretariat Klaus Hansen – our national chairman Jesper Larsen – scholar in economics One secretary/accountant Good at influencing housing policies No one skilled at taking care of building up the organizational work No one skilled at taking care of building up the service-oriented part

Housing politics and strength The rent level are rising by loopholes introduced in the legislation throughout the last 10 – 20 years. The supply of affordable housing in Copenhagen and other big towns big decreasing while the need is increasing. Even in the social democratic party you’ll find politicians joining liberal thought of letting the cost based rent setting system introduced back in the seventies fall and replaced with free marked rent. The fight for preserving rent control can’t be won without a strong and quite better organized tenant organization, that’s reaching into the field of housing politics throughout the country. We have to be more visible. And we have to be able to manage new solutions – if part of the old rent control system are going to fall – it’ll be of vital importance for us to be able to participate in solutions where there still will be some protection against rent increase. One solution could be a kind of negotiated rent system. Our own weakness as an organization might be the most important barrier to cope with if that came to be the solution.

Uniting the unions in regions From voluntary to professional To secure membership service A necessary change filled with barriers and problems You need the activists, and you even need more of them, and you need them to know about the real problems – not just to be filling in boards without knowledge You have to be professional in handling the introduction of employees in a culture that not used to cope with it. Like this one: It’s quit easy to get people on the staff – but it’s not easy to do it without other people thinking they ought to be the ones employed.

Not drowning in the process Voluntary work Employed staff (and voluntary work)

We’ll “kill the change agent” It is tough to be the ”change agent” Everybody just knows have the others ought to do it to do it right If you talking about changing your own way of doing it – it’s much more tough It’s often easier to fight on the inside, than gaining on the outside – like to fight about money we have rather than fighting for new money/more member Frustrations often hurts the change agent – not the backbenchers Tell it, and tell it again – and always know, that everybody wants to do the right thing – they just still aren’t thinking the same way, cause it takes time, management and a lot more to make organizations work forward together without killing it along the way € € €