Rent Strikes: Book presentation and opening exhibition
The histories of more than a hundred years of struggles for the right to decent and affordable housing can be found in the recently published Rent Strikes: A history of collective tenant actions across the world. These stories on paper will be joined by an exhibition about rent strikes: Maffers II hoog.
Rent strikes
There is a long history of tenants taking collective action across time and in many contexts for adequate housing, including their involvement in rent strikes. Adopting a transnational perspective, Rent Strikes examines episodes of tenant struggles in North and Latin America, Northern and Southern Europe, and Oceania. In doing so, the book edited by Lucas Poy and Hannes Rolf explores a range of actions, including petitions, demonstrations, boycotts and legal actions, and has a special focus on the part played by women in these movements. The contributors examine the role of ethnic, national and gender differences between tenants and landlords, while situating their studies within a broader historical context. What insights can we draw from past struggles? The aim of the authors of the book is to provide inspiration and historical lessons for the tenant activists of today and tomorrow.
Maffers II hoog
For the new exhibition at the IISG, artist Sharon Houkema presents her research into the visual language of the Dutch tenants’ resistance movement around 1930, starting in Amsterdam. During the rent strikes, walls, windows and streets were plastered and daubed with slogans and drawings. These could completely dominate the streetscape. What Houkema was initially struck by was the way in which residents literally took possession of the street. She was then drawn to the visual language itself: the figures, the words and the symbolism. From there, she set out to explore their meaning and context.
For the IISG, she presents a selection of these images, reconstructed on bricks and supplemented with historical visual material and publications from our collections. Together, these elements show how the street could function as a vehicle for protest.
Book Presentation and Opening Exhibition
During the event Bart van der Steen presents his chapter on the Leiden rent strikes of the 1970s. He explains how conflicts over urban renewal and rent increases in the Dutch city of Leiden provided political space for the Maoist Socialist Party (SP) to mobilise renters and pressure authorities, but also how the success of these actions influenced the politics and activism of the SP.
Sharon Houkema will tell about her installation and the rent strikes in Amsterdam around 1930. This protest against high rents began in Amsterdam-West and spread to other cities. There will be an opportunity to view the exhibition after the presentation.
Hannes Rolf and Lucas Poy will contextualise these Duch cases in a global perspective, and will elaborate on their book.
Practical information
Date: 12 May 2026
Time: 16:00
Location: IISG, Cruquiusweg 31, Amsterdam
Admission: Free entry, but sign up via event@iisg.nl
Language: English
Sharon Houkema’s practice explores how images, forms and materials acquire meaning within social, cultural and ecological imaginaries. She works with (media) installations, text and participatory projects. In recent projects, she has focused on forms of housing solidarity and the ways in which collective action becomes visible in public space.
Her work has been presented at venues including Museum Het Schip (Amsterdam), M. (Almere), Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), MU (Eindhoven) and ViaFarini (Milan). In addition, she develops projects in public spaces and educational programmes in collaboration with social partners. She has taken part in research residencies at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (Amsterdam) and Museo Experimental El Eco (Mexico City).
Lucas Poy is an assistant professor in Global Economic and Social History at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is also a fellow of the International Institute of Social History. His research deals with the history of labour and socialism, with a special focus on the so-called ‘Global South’, transnational connections and the question of global solidarities. In addition to two monographs, he has published dozens of scientific articles about the history of labour and socialism. Before joining VU Amsterdam, he was a lecturer at the University of Buenos Aires and a senior researcher of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) in Argentina.
Bart van der Steen is a historian of social movements and works at Leiden University Libraries. He has published monographs on Dutch Trotskyism and the history of the Socialist Party in Leiden. Recent publications include Van verval naar vernieuwing: Leiden 1970-1985 (2025), "Travelling barricades" (Contemporary European History), "Living in Legends" (German History) and "Narratives, violence, and social conflicts" (Mobilization).
Hannes Rolf is an assistant professor at the Institute of Urban History, Department of History, Stockholm University. He specialises in urban history, the history of housing and urban social movements. His main research areas are the tenants’ movement, housing co-operatives and social housing, and he has authored and co-authored several chapters, articles and books on these subjects. He is currently writing a book on the history of social housing in Stockholm during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
