Singing the Internationale.(tenants band together to protect rights)(Column)

Communism in Europe collapsed 14 years ago, so I had to come to America to experience a real Marxist class struggle. In February a wealthy businessman bought the building where I live in Manhattan, along with a dozen others. Having spent $109 million, he now wants to maximize his profit. So he's raising rents and trying to evict people. Also, he's making a big fuss with the doormen. "I used to get $16 an hour," complains Danilo Rodriguez from Puerto Rico, who covers the afternoon shift in my lobby on West End Avenue. "But he got rid of the pension benefits and the health insurance, so now I make only $10."

My native Italy has the largest Communist Party in the West, and we are accustomed to powerful unions, labor strife and strikes. All I knew about the American variant was Joan Baez singing "Joe Hill" at Woodstock and Ronald Reagan screwing the air-traffic controllers. Never did I imagine that I, too, would soon be involved. Yet one day a sheet of paper slid under my door announcing a secret meeting in apartment 12C. "We gotta be united," tenants admonished one another. This from folks who, before, hardly said hello in the elevator.

At first I was mystified by all the talk of "condoms." Then I found out the word was "condos," and that the landlord would be selling off the rentals as "owner-occupied apartments"--for big money, of course. To "protect our rights," my fellow tenants hired a lawyer for the (to me) incredible sum of $13,000. Being an individualist, I refused to pay my $300 share. Why waste money against a phantom who hadn't yet done anything against us?

The phantom finally showed up. His company's name: Acquisition America. "He doesn't even try to sound nice," commented someone at the next meeting. So now we are all mobilized, Sacco and Vanzetti style, with aggressive direct actions unimaginable even in Italy. There's a big, funny, gray inflatable rat ...