The fight against displacement

It was a small group, no more than 50 people, but the chants could be heard up and down the block: “El Barrio unido, jamas sera vencido! El Barrio united will never be defeated!”

In the spirit of the Zapatistas, the organization Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio (Movement for Justice in El Barrio) continued its fight against gentrification in an Aug. 30 protest at 116th Street and Lexington Avenue, in the heart of El Barrio in New York.

Though Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio’s main fight is against gentrification and displacement, they also fight for the liberation of immigrants, women, LGBT people, people of color, and Indigenous populations.

The fight against gentrification is growing as more and more of Harlem’s residents are displaced. At this point, merely walking down a main street in West Harlem tells the story of how Columbia University has taken over and how greedy landlords have replaced working-class people of color with well-off young whites.

East Harlem, however, still stands a chance of maintaining its largely Black and Latino/a communities. If there is hope to preserve El Barrio, people must all work together, for as the chant says, “El Barrio unido jamas sera vencido!”