the communists' other main campaign in the east end in the 1930s was against unfair rents. in 1939, levitas led a four-month rent strike at brady street mansions, where he lived, as did his grandmother. through this, he met his future wife, sadie freedman. he continued to work in the garment trade, serving as a shop steward for the tailors' and garment workers' union. during world war ii, he served as a fire warden. with phil piratin, he organised an occupation of the bomb shelter at the savoy hotel, in protest at the lack of such shelters in the east end; a few days later, the government agreed to open underground stations as bomb shelters.