The port city of Gothenburg, Sweden, experienced massive social changes during the 19th century. Gothenburg became an important industrial center and the population multiplied tenfold. The urbanization process led to friction as the amount of factory workers rapidly increased. Together with other groups, such as clerks and small shop-owners, the workers formed a distinct popular class culture with organizational expressions and collective mobilization that changed the social and political order of the city forever. One of these expressions was the tenants´ associations, local organizations that were formed to further the tenants claims against their landlords and to advocate political reforms benefitting for the benefit of the tenants. These organizations, seen as a sort of trade unions for the rented home, rapidly grew in the mid-war period. Tenants´ associations advocated protective legislature for tenants and confronted landlords, both with legal mains and with militant methods such as rent strikes and blockades. The associations were also important in the social life of the working-class communities, organizing studies, social events and summer activities for children. This paper examines the role of the tenants´ association in the everyday life of the Gothenburg neighborhoods and especially the role of the associations in bringing different groups of workers, such as port and factory workers, together. By looking at the tenant movement of Gothenburg and comparing it to similar movements in other cities, such as Glasgow, I hope to show how the geographical and social context in the rapidly changing city of Gothenburg produced organizations that both showed remarkable similarities and notable differences to collective action organizations elsewhere.