Community Action Tenants Union is a national
tenants' union in
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. Established in 2019,
it is a mass membership organisation of "renters, council tenants, mortgage holders and people in emergency & precarious living situations".
CATU is affiliated to
ACORN International
ACORN International is a federation of autonomous member-based community organizations and tenants unions. The organisations represent a total membership numbers are currently at approximately 250,000 members.
ACORN International has active affil ...
.
Structure
CATU members are organised in local branches across the island of Ireland, with committees elected by local members. A national committee coordinates the work of local branches.
CATU organises campaigns at local and national level, and its work is grounded in principles of
direct action
Direct action is a term for economic and political behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a governm ...
.
The union's modelled after the Scottish tenants' union
Living Rent, as well as being influenced by the work of the
National Association of Tenants Organisations.
History
CATU has its roots in advocacy groups, as some housing rights activists sought to move beyond advocacy and towards organising tenants.
Some worked with other organisations such as the Scottish tenants' union
Living Rent to learn from their tactics.
In addition to this, organisers were also inspired by the
National Association of Tenants Organisations (NATO) which had represented tenants in Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s, and lead a
national rent strike in the early 70s.
From these international and historical inspirations, the Community Action Tenants Union was founded in October 2019.
CATU's membership increased during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
,
when the union called for the Republic of Ireland to extend its COVID-19 eviction ban.
In 2023, a CATU branch in
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
was established.
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://www.catuireland.org/
Tenants unions