Remember

Thanks to the Belfast branch of Community Action Tenants Union (CATU) for sending us this and other documents.

CATU is an all-island tenants’ union founded in 2019. Its website states it was set up to:

…battle the housing and community issues of our time; sky-rocketing rents and house prices, precarious housing, alienation between neighbours, slashed local services, and an erosion of our public spaces.

We think that the only way to beat those behind this – the landlords, banks, companies and politicians – is to get organised ourselves, and NOT just on an individual basis. We strongly believe that real power lies in the hands of ordinary people – tenants, communities, and workers – and change can only come when we act together. CATU is not just for renters, we want to facilitate all people to defend their communities and housing.

This leaflet was produced by CATU Belfast in 2024 in response to anti-migrant sentiment, saying:

Remember: If you can’t afford a house, if your rent is too high, if you struggle with heating and electricity bills, if you’ve been waiting for years to see a doctor…

…it’s not because of those who arrive by small boat, it’s because of those who arrive by yacht!

Noting that “People in Northern Ireland rely on food banks at a higher rate than anywhere else in the UK. […] 47,000 people are on waiting lists for social housing while rents rise faster here than anywhere else in the UK. Rented accommodation is expensive and often poor quality [and] The chair of the British Medical Association NI says the health service is “in a death spiral.”” it says:

Migrants didn’t do this. Bosses did this. Corporate executives did this. Landlords did this. Indifferent and incompetent politicians did this. Northern Ireland is home to 2.6% of all asylum seekers in the UK. Total net migration to NI last year amounted to only around 5,000 people, 0.3% of the population. Migrants are not to blame for these problems. We’re all in the same small boat, and we need to stick together.

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