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San Francisco I-Hotel Tenants Demand: Halt Evictions

By VVAW

The eight-year long fight against eviction of the residents of the International Hotel in San Francisco's Chinatown-Manila-town district continues to grow. While the hotel's residents and the thousands of people in the San Francisco area who support them have not yet won a final victory against the possibility of eviction, they are continuing to force the courts and the sheriffs to postpone and postpone the actual evictions, and may force the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to give them the chance to buy their long-time home.

The 80 residents of the International Hotel itself are mainly retired Chinese and Filipino workers. Most of the people living in nearby buildings, all slated for demolition, are retired Chinese workers and workers of other nationalities. Many are in their 70s, 80s, or 90s. For long years they have toiled for miserable wages as agricultural laborers, seamen, restaurant workers. Many live on benefits of less then $60 per month. In addition, the I-Hotel houses the Asian Community Center, Everybody's Bookstore, a community art workshop and gallery, and several commercial businesses.

The attempts by the capitalists--represented by the Four Seas Corporation--at eviction are a prime example of how they don't give a damn if the residents of the I-Hotel have a place to live or not--they only want their "right" to suck profits out of this valuable real estate. Hotel residents, many whom have lived there 30 and 40 years, have made their stand clear: to hell with your profits. And thousands of people have rallied to support their struggle.

Chinatown-Manilatown is one of the most overcrowded slums in the country. 96,000 people live in a 15 block core area next to the city's financial district with its towering modern hotels and office buildings and skyrocketing land values. Many of the employed workers labor for poverty-level piece-rate wages in the garment sweatshops or in the hundreds of restaurants of Chinatown. Thousands more are unemployed. 60% of the families are forced to subsist on yearly incomes of $3000 or less. Almost half the housing units are single-rooms in run-down hotels or above stores where families have to rent two or three rooms, often sharing communal kitchens and baths. Housing in the area is older then 95% of the hosing in the rest of the Bay Area.

Of course the people who run this country care nothing about the miserable conditions people are forced to live in. But they are very concerned that these hotels and apartments are in the way of further commercial development that will put the valuable land to more profitable use. The block of Kearny Street where the I-Hotel stands is all that is left of the Manilatown selection that once covered 12 square blocks. Now the Transamerica Pyramid and luxury Holiday Inn loom up in its place. Scores of other apartments and stores in Chinatown have already been picked for demolition including the Chinatown YMCA.

The bosses and their media--and, when confronted, Mayor Moscone of San Francisco--have tried to cloak their efforts to level the homes of hundreds of workers in hypo-critical expressions of sympathy for the "poor tenants" and meaningless "hopes" that they can be relocated in some other housing. But the tenants of the I-Hotel and other hotels in the area, many of whom have already been evicted, have already been evicted, have not been diverted by all these lies. Many know that the capitalists will throw them into the street if that can, or worse.

Since 1968 the residents have been fighting the attempts to throw them out. Countless times, courts have set eviction dates, only to see them postponed in the face of the determination and resistance of the residents. When the courts ordered residents out back on July 15th, the Committee to Defend the I-Hotel got over 5000 signatures on their No Eviction petitions and held a really of 400 people marching through Chinatown in protest. The court backed down. On September 12 another rally was attended by over 500 people including other neighborhood residents and workers from different industries. Expressions of solidarity and support have come from workers and others across the country.

Seeing that some of the directors of the Four Seas Corp (which wants the residents our in order to "develop" the land profitable) owned businesses in Chinatown, picket lines have been set up. In one incident, one shopper, annoyed as she picked through a stack of ginger, wanted to know "What's wrong? I always shop here." A long-time I-Hotel resident told her, "Art Chan, the owner is trying to kick out tenants at the I-Hotel and Victory Building (next door); we're boycotting his store until they withdraw the eviction order. You know how much rent is going up and the rich keep tearing down what's lef of low-rent housing. Where're we supposed to live?"

"That's not right--I really didn't know," she said as she threw the ginger back and walked away.

Tenants and supporters are now demanding, once again, that the most recent eviction notice be lifted. The sheriff's department, which must serve the order, has already pleaded with the judge for "as much time as possible to prepare--this is going to be difficult." Although at the time this article was printed, a new eviction notice should have been posted, there is none yet. Because of the mass struggle around the issue, a committee of the SF Board of Supervisors has approved purchase of the building in order to sell it to the tenants. The full Board will act in the near future.

Even if the Board does buy the building, something they have refused to do in the past, all the problems of the I-Hotel tenants, and others in the area, won't be solved. It will be one more step in their struggle against the rich who constantly put profits ahead of people. As one speaker from the Asian Community Center said, in buying all this property and attempting to evict the tenants, the "Four Seas Corporation has invested $3.5 million in creating a working class fortress."