1. Who they are

Re-set is a platform for socio-ecological transformation, consisting of 3 working groups with independent financial policies (climate justice, political education, right to the city that does mainly tenants’ rights and organizing). There are 10 members of the organization in total. Currently, there are separate projects and campaigns on climate justice and education and one ongoing project held by the right to the city group. From 2021, the right to the city group works on laying foundations for tenants’ organizing in Prague. The project takes place in a Prague housing estate and combines militant research and community organizing.

2. What they did

At the begging of 2021, RE-SET organized a round table involving some experts active in the sphere of housing rights. They acknowledged the necessity of a more bottom-up strategy, so they decide to work simultaneously on the level of the city/country as well as create cells (organize houses, communities, blocks of flats, etc.). Therefore, they began to prepare everything to create a formal membership-based organization, establishing the INN (Iniciativa nájemníků a nájemnic – Tenant Initiative) in the summer of 2021. Afterward, the organization of cells took place: in houses and neighborhoods, based on locality, but also based on the so-called affinity organizing and issue organizing. RE-SET organized public meetings, each one dedicated to one topic. Meetings turned out to be very relevant for many reasons: their role in political education and as spaces where the organization can network and recruit people. They succeed in the creation of a cell in Brno and one in Prague. So far, RE-SET hold 4 meetings in Prague (one every month), 1 in Brno, and 1 public meeting of a migrant working group and they look forward to expanding. They are also currently providing crisis support to stop the rent increase.

3. Why is this relevant to the FundAction community?

RE-SET prototyped and collected a lot of useful know-how and strategies regarding Community Organizing in the sphere of housing rights. Furthermore, they are building a storytelling archive that can be freely referred to.

“The role of FundAction in the project is that without it, this project would not happen. But finally, after 2 years we can say that we figured out how to deal with tenants’ organizing in post-socialist space. We had a great deal of luck, but also hard work and, honestly, I think we have a lot to celebrate.”