Oct. 12, 1925: U.S. Fights Panama Renters’ Strike

Protesting rising rents and unsanitary conditions, tenants in Panama City, Panama organized themselves into the Liga de Inquilinos y Subsistencia (Tenants and Subsistence League), and began withholding rent. In what became known as the Movimiento Inquilinario riots, tenants organized a mass workers’ strike and a rally at Santa Ana park, in southwest Panama City. On October 12, 1925, police attacked protesters, killing four.

United States soldiers patrolling the streets of Panama City during the latter days of the tenant strike in 1925. Source: Public domain

As protests continued, president Rodolfo Chiari requested U.S. support. U.S. soldiers arrived the next day and immediately banned gatherings of five or more people. U.S. soldiers killed two tenant strikers and began arresting and deporting others.

According to Working Class History:

Authorities eventually ended the movement through a combination of recuperation and repression. Landlords eventually agreed to reduce rents to the levels of January 1925, and give a further 10% discount until September 1926. The government also expanded a planned public works program, including the construction of 200 low-cost homes.

And at the same time the government stepped up repression against organizers of the strike. They arrested tenant leaders in Panama City, banned the Liga de Inquilinos from meeting, arrested and deported numerous anarchists and socialists, banned the production and distribution of leaflets, red flags, and the singing of the Internationale. But by 1932, a new Liga de Inquilinos organized another rent strike. [Continue reading.]