My friend and I were talking about the horrible housing situation we're facing in our city (Victoria, BC), and he suggested some kind of mass protest. And while I liked the idea, we quickly realized how futile protests often seem to be when it comes to enacting real change.
That's when I mentioned the recent writer's strike, and how by refusing to play along, they actually won and had a lot of their demands met!
So I guess I'm just opening a general discussion on the matter. The main challenge I see is that we wouldn't be striking against one particular establishment like a writers union or a factory; it would be against a wide variety of building management companies, as well as independent landlords.
You'd also run into the problem of finding a common goalpost to set, considering every city and town has wildly different living wages and situations. We would need to have clear demands in place, but those demands would vary from place to place, making it harder to unite under a single cause.
Does such a thing already exist? Is it something you think is possible? How would we go about organizing such a thing? I don't have experience on the matter, but I would love to get a conversation started on the matter.