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2 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 237 (1966-1967)
Tenant Unions: An Experiment in Private Law-Making

handle is hein.journals/hcrcl2 and id is 245 raw text is: TENANT UNIONS: AN EXPERIMENT IN PRIVATE LAW-MAKING* Gordon J. Davis** Michael W. Schwartz*** The powerlessness before private and public author- ities that is the typical experience of the slum tenant is reminiscent of the situation of blue-collar workers all through the nineteenth century. Like the work-rs, tenants are forced by the conditions of modern life into a condition of substantial dependence on those who possess great political and economic power; moreover, the very fact of dependence coupled with an absence of education and self-confidence makes them unwilling and unable to stand up for what they need from those in power. It is familiar history that many of the workers remedied their condition by banding together and making * Much of the material discussed in this article is not readily available. Interested persons may ob- tain copies of the following items by writing the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review: 1) Contracts used by the East Garfield Union to End Slums, JOIN, TAC and the Englewood Tenant Union; 2) twenty page rough history of JOIN tenant unions by Burt Steck; 3) TAC survey of Old Town Gardens; 4) Condor-Costalis' analysis of the East Garfield Union's initial contract. The most valuable items are the contracts. Those wishing to receive any of these materials will be charged the expense of copy- ing and postage. ** A.B. Williams College, 1963; Columbia University, 1963-1964; Harvard Law School, 3L. *** A.B. Harvard College, 1963; Ecole Normale Superieure; Paris, 1963-1964; Harvard Law School, 3L. The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of the following individuals, without whose cooperation this article would not have been possible: Irving Birnbaum, counsel for JOIN; Gilbert Feldman, partner in the firm of Kleinman, Cornfield & Feldman; Norman Hill, staff member of the Industrial Union Depart- ment's Community Union Center (AFL-CIO); Albert Lincoln, senior in Harvard College and summer assistant of Irving Birnbaum; James Poling, staff member of East Garfield Park Union to End Slums; Harriet Stulman, staff organizer for JOIN; Roger Warren, a first year law student at the University of Chicago; the office of Congressman Sidney Yates, (D. -Ill.). -237-