In 2023, we kept busy! We started the year as Worried About Rent and ended it as Valley Tenants Union, with newly defined values and strategy. Along the way, we supported organizing mobile home tenants struggles against evictions, spoke to a cofounder of LATU, protested the mayor, and joined comrades in the Autonomous Tenants Union Network for a West Coast meetup in the Bay. We broke into 3 regional locals, started organizing in our own neighborhoods, created a new website, and started hosting public Popular Education meetings with paid interpretation. We even wrote and printed a zine about policing. 

Along with working through these big changes, we were challenged by the historic rise in evictions and encampment sweeps. Evictions are always violent and traumatizing, so supporting each other through this pain was a necessary challenge. We learned that we need to stick together and heal collectively instead of acting as individual case workers. Our cumulative experience, shared political education, and lessons from other unions and local organizations taught us valuable lessons in how to organize sustainably. This helped us grow to a larger and stronger organization of tenants.

Now, we'll start the new year ready to fight for tenant power all throughout the Valley, building by building and block by block!