March 14, 1970: 54 years ago, March 13 1970, members of the Berkeley Tenants Union, along [...]

54 years ago, March 13 1970, members of the Berkeley Tenants Union, along with members of People’s Architecture and the Berkeley Food Conspiracy, published “And But For the Sky There Are No Fences Facing” in underground newspaper the Berkeley Tribe

The essay, also known as “Blueprint for a Communal Society,” was published in the early weeks of BTU’s massive 1970 Berkeley-wide rent strike. A manifesto of sorts, it analyzes housing in Berkeley from a radical social and ecological perspective

It calls for a number of dramatic changes to the social organization of space in order to “encourage communalism and break down privatization,” such as removing fences, turning backyards & streets into huge communal gardens, and building community “lifehouses”

Berkeley Tenants Union was founded in 1969 by a number of activists who had been leaders in the People’s Park movement. It attempted to combine traditional community organizing with revolutionary anti-imperialism and a cultural politics that aimed transform everyday life

The early BTU had strong links to other revolutionary left groups and tendencies, including the Black Panther Party. The BPP lent equipment to BTU to publish their newspaper, Tenants Rising, and also let them publish articles in their own paper, the Black Panther

While BTU had only limited success, the manifesto is a fascinating document that, in its call to replace “the space-as-commodity system” with “free, cooperative neighborhoods,” goes far beyond the boundaries of traditional tenant organizing https://t.co/KXQZYdOJpq

Read the full text:

@trampology Most of the screenshots here are from the March 13, 1970 issue of the Berkeley Tribe. Most issues are accessible for free online.