By Clyde Birkenstock

Activists hold a demonstration outside Austin City Hall demanding the stoppage of both rent and utilities as well as full wages for workers who have been laid off

Defying the city-wide “stay-at-home” order, a dozen Defend our Hoodz-Defiende el Barrio (DOH) members and supporters rallied in front of Austin City Hall to demand immediate rent stoppage on April 1st.

The masked spokesperson for the group stated, “The ruling class wants us to be afraid of the coronavirus in order to hide what was already on its way – an economic crisis of devastating proportions that will mirror the Great Depression”.

Inside City Hall, the bourgeois city council sat two chairs apart, and voted for the bare minimum of relief to the workers affected by COVID-19 closures and lay-offs. They approved a 60-day grace period on rent, which still requires workers to pay landlords with no guarantee of work or full-wages. Just as the city’s postponement of eviction hearings only pause the process, this policy is a bandage on a dirty wound.

Outside the demands of the working class were clear:

IMMEDIATE STOPPAGE OF RENT – STOP ON ALL UTILITY BILLS – FULL WAGES REGARDLESS OF CIRCUMSTANCE OR IMMIGRATION STATUS.

JOIN THE WORKING CLASS AND REFUSE TO PAY YOUR RENT APRIL 1ST!

Give us work or give us wages!

Stop all utility bills

We demand immediate rent stoppage