About Us
Madrid Tenants’ Union (Sindicato de Inquilinas de Madrid) is a member-led organization founded in 2017 with the mission of building popular power and mutual support in every building, neighborhood, and community. We believe homes should serve the people who live in them, not as profit-making assets for landlords and speculators. That’s why we organize collective conflicts and actions to challenge the current housing system, confronting landlords of all kinds – from large investment funds to smaller property owners who exploit tenants month after month.
As a conflict-driven union, we focus our efforts on organizing and mobilizing people through their own housing struggles, exposing the power imbalance between those who own property and those who rent. We see renting itself as a conflict, where landlords extract our wages on a monthly basis thanks to government approval, while neither the market nor the
state provides safe, stable, and decent housing as a fundamental right.
Our Union currently has around 2,000 members, with 85% of our budget funded through membership fees, allowing us to remain financially independent and responsive to our members’ needs. We employ four full-time staff members: a Communications Officer, an Organizational Officer, and two Union Action Officers. We also have six local branches
across the Madrid region.
Internal Structure
Our highest decision-making body is the Annual General Meeting (AGM), where all members can vote on the key strategic areas for the year. In addition, we hold five General Assemblies throughout the year to discuss and refine specific initiatives. The Union also has a coordinating group, three cross-union committees, over ten working groups, and weekly local branch meetings dedicated to mutual support and memeber solidarity, where we all assist each other in our ongoing rent conflicts.
Recent Work
We’ve recently published a Tenant Organizing Handbook, available in English and German, and are currently working on a co-authored book with the Catalonian Tenants’ Union titled Tenant Power. We’ve organized against major landlords, such as Blackstone—whom we’ve defeated twice—and Nestar, against whom we’re currently running a partial rent strike. We’re also actively resisting the impacts of tourism and turistification on housing and have also launched a campaign, “Landlordism is Racism,” addressing the intersection of housing and racial injustice. Recently, we established an ecosocial working group to connect our struggle for housing justice with the fight for environmental justice.
Our two primary goals for the coming years are:
- To organize and sustain an indefinite rent strike, which we believe is the most effective way to pressure the government into truly transforming the housing system.
- To build a united front with other grassroots organizations, linking various struggles to promote a broader, cross-issue agenda.