California

Radical Municipalism Is Paving The Way For Direct Democracy In LA

August 24, 2024 Justin A. Davis, Waging Nonviolence. Organize! California, Class Struggle, Democracy, Grassroots, Homelessness, Housing, Los Angeles, Municipalism

Home to almost 10 million residents in 2022, Los Angeles County can sometimes seem like a vast political paradox. Known as a quintessential example of urban sprawl, it is also the most overcrowded county in America. Over the past 20 years, robust grassroots organizing built multiracial movements for organized labor, immigrant rights and housing justice while electing multiple self-identified leftists to L.A. City Council. At the same time, brutal overpolicing, ethics scandals and rising gentrification have been constant challenges for organizers and activists there. This summer, L.A.’s controversial efforts to reduce homelessness have reentered the national spotlight.

How San Francisco Longshoremen Made Their Union A Powerhouse

August 13, 2024 Peter Cole, Jacobin. Strategize! California, History, Longshoremen, San Francisco, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Peter Cole is a professor of history at Western Illinois University and the author of Dockworker Power: Race & Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area (University of Illinois Press, 2018). In this interview, Cole and Jacobin’s Benjamin Y. Fong discussed the dedication and success of the longshore workers in the 1930s and ’40s in overcoming racial division on the docks. Clips from this interview are included in Episode 6 of Organize the Unorganized (among others), which also includes archival interviews with the first International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) president, Harry Bridges, and the first black president of ILWU Local 10, Cleophas Williams.

A Breath Of Fresh Air In San Diego Port Community

August 13, 2024 Roberto Camacho, Next City. Organize! California, Environment, pollution, San Diego

For decades, San Diego’s port communities like Barrio Logan and National City have been plagued with unhealthy air quality. Residents of communities bordering the 34 miles of coastline encompassed by the Port of San Diego face a barrage of toxic pollutants and other hazardous conditions from industrial shipyards, intersecting neighborhood freeways, and even the U.S. Navy. They believe these hazardous conditions would never be tolerated in San Diego’s more affluent areas. The fight for clean air has been a long, uphill battle for these working-class, historically Mexican-American and immigrant communities.

Lack Of Worker Input Creates Bumps In The Road For EV Buses

August 7, 2024 Audrey Elberger, Labor Notes. Educate! California, Electric Buses, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Electric buses are rolling out nationally, and promise to help clean up city air. California is leading the way, with more than 650 active vehicles in 2022, and has mandated a completely electric or hydrogen fleet by 2040. But what happens when managers pick buses that can’t drive up the hills? Drivers and mechanics say bosses picked buses without regard for the requirements of the routes. Safety is also an issue. School bus drivers in San Francisco say their new EV buses have a fiberglass frame that puts a blinding glare in the rear view mirror. They also worry the bus frame, widened to fit large batteries, now barely fits in the road lane, which might cause accidents.

Recognizing The Economic Need For Undocumented Immigrants

August 5, 2024 Mark Kreidler, Scheer Post. Educate! California, Finance and the Economy, Immigration, Worker Rights

The conversation around undocumented immigrants in California is inherently political, tied up in dogma and imagery. And because the state has more undocumented people than any other, it often functions as a surrogate for the national debate. To some researchers studying it, that’s too bad — not because the human and political components of the discussion should be ignored, but because there’s a bigger picture at play in California: The state simply wouldn’t function without the work of undocumented immigrants. Quietly, in the spaces beyond rhetoric, a host of different industries understand that truth. Their profits depend on it.

From Death Row To Being Seen As Human

August 3, 2024 Kevin Cooper, Scheer Post. Educate! California, Death Row, Human Rights, Prisoner rights

Every person unlucky enough to be sentenced to death has often dreamed about getting off death row, especially those who have spent decades as a condemned person living in an inhumane and torturous man-made hell. Some have been able to leave, whether because they received a new trial or hearing, a penalty phase reversal, or they received life without parole (LWOP) in the sentencing or penalty phase of their trial or hearing. Since 1978, 30 men have gotten off death row by committing suicide; 13 were executed by the state. On Jan. 31, 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the dismantling of death row and moving all the condemned individuals to other maximum security state prisons.

Student Debt: It’s A System That’s Rigged

July 24, 2024 Maddy Clifford, In These Times. Educate! California, Class Struggle, Debt, Los Angeles, Student Loans

Leimert Park has long been one of the main hubs of Black life in Los Angeles and an innovative foil to the glitz, glam and paparazzi that many associate with the City of Angels. But anyone who knows better knows that LA’s working class, vibrant neighborhoods and excep-tionally creative locals actually make the city run. LA’s Juneteenth celebration emerged from Leimert Park in 1949; Tavis Smiley has production studios there; one of the city’s best haunts for book lovers, Eso Won Books, was there for more than 30 years; genius musicians like John Lee Hooker and Kamasi Washington could be found playing cheap shows at Babe’s and Ricky’s Inn or the World Stage; and Issa Rae used the television show Insecure to draw attention to how special the area is.

Kamala Harris’s Distinguished Career Of Serving Injustice

July 22, 2024 Marjorie Cohn, Consortium News. Educate! California, Democrats, Elections, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Police

Sen. Kamala Harris is rising in the polls after dramatically confronting former Vice President Joe Biden during the Democratic primary debate about his opposition to federally mandated busing for desegregation. The following week, however, Harris backed away from saying that busing should always be federally mandated, calling it just one “tool that is in the toolbox” for school districts to use. When asked to clarify whether she would support federal mandates for busing, she said: “I believe that any tool that is in the toolbox should be considered by a school district.” But Biden’s poll numbers are falling as a result of Harris’s theatrical attack.

Appeals Court Dismisses Biden Genocide Complicity Case

July 18, 2024 Brett Wilkins, Consortium News. Educate! California, Genocide, Genocide Convention, Israel, Joe Biden, Legal System, Palestine

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, which was led by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of several Palestinian groups and individuals. During a Tuesday interview on Democracy Now!, CCR attorney Katherine Gallagher — who represented plaintiffs in the case — said its dismissal “essentially gives the blank check to carry out any kind of conduct that the executive wants in times of genocide, in times of war.”

California Regulators Refuse To Enforce New Orphan Well Rules

July 18, 2024 Joe Fassler, DeSmog. Resist! California, Environment, Oil and Gas, Politics and Policy, Social Justice

As two of California’s largest oil and gas companies join by corporate merger, state regulators are declining to apply tough new rules governing the transfer of defunct oil and gas wells, DeSmog has learned. But a growing chorus of California legislators say that nonenforcement stance violates a groundbreaking law they fought to pass just months ago — and they, along with dozens of environmental groups, are demanding that regulators change course. “They’re just ignoring the statute,” Kassie Siegel, director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an interview. “We need the governor to step in and tell the agency to follow the law,” she added

Illegal Sale Of Palestinian Land Embraced By Biden, Local Government

July 11, 2024 John Parker, Black Agenda Report. Resist! California, Israel, Israeli Occupation, Land Rights, Land theft, Los Angeles, Palestine

On Sunday June 23rd there was a sale of Palestinian land in Los Angeles, California. The promotional materials included a photograph that looked a lot like Gaza’s shores. According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that fits the image of Zionists wanting to clear out the land for more settlers – an ethnic cleansing operation of murder and starvation against the entire population of Gaza and the West Bank. Although the sale was held at Adas Torah synagogue, the event was not a worship service. It was a venue that was hosting the My Home in Israel real estate agency which promotes prospective home ownership in Israel (occupied Palestine).

California Moves To Ban Forced Prison Labor

July 11, 2024 Giuliana Perrone, Inequality.org. Create! Abolition of Slavery, California, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Slavery

If you’re looking for a rare bit of good news, look no further: California is finally taking steps to abolish slavery from its constitution by banning it in state prisons. On June 27, 2024, the state legislature passed the End Slavery in California Act, teeing up a statewide vote this fall on whether to end forced prison labor in the Golden State. As of now though, California remains among the 16 states that allow the forced servitude of its prisoners. California’s Constitution, like the 13th Amendment, bans involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime. This new amendment would remove that exception, often dubbed the “slavery loophole.”

Transit Workers Demand ‘Fix Our Schedules,’ Packing Board Meeting

July 9, 2024 Michael Sebastian and Richard Marcantonio, Labor Notes. Resist! California, Oakland, Transit, Transportation, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

“Fix our schedules.” That’s the demand that filled the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit board room in Oakland, California, beyond capacity on June 5. Bus operators are “not able to have a break,” Transit (ATU) Local 192 President LaTrina Meredith said, opening two hours of public comment. “They’re trying to make a schedule that is unsafe. They won’t drink water because they don’t have time to use the restroom.” Dozens of drivers spoke. For busy bus lines, despite the 15-minute layover on paper, in reality “we get there maybe six or seven minutes after,” said Linda Muhammad, who has 20 years of experience. “And then we have to secure the bus, answer questions, run to the bathroom, come back, load up, and when we load up, we’re usually pulling out late.”

Nearly 500 Tenants Left Apartment Complex Before Eviction Ruled Illegal

July 7, 2024 Mark Kreidler, Scheer Post. Resist! California, Eviction, Housing, Housing rights, Los Angeles

Vindication arrived too late for Karen Hunt. From the day she heard a knock on her door in May 2023 at the Barrington Plaza in West Los Angeles, Hunt knew something was not right. The two men outside her apartment wouldn’t tell her who they were, not even after they handed over the eviction notice. “Early morning, and they just continued to stand there repeatedly knocking, saying, ‘We have to talk to you and give this to you in person,’” Hunt said. “We’d heard rumblings about what was going on. I finally just opened the door, took the envelope and shut the door on them.”

Campaign For A Safe And Healthy California Wins Victory Against Big Oil

June 27, 2024 CAvsBIGOIL.com. Resist! Big Oil, California, Drilling, Fossil Fuels

Sacramento, CA– Today the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California (CSHC) announced that despite opponents spending nearly $61 million on deceitful efforts to repeal a California law (SB 1137) that protects neighborhoods from toxic drilling, Big Oil has reversed course and forfeited their deceitful ballot measure from the November ballot in a stunning defeat. “Big Oil spent tens of millions of dollars trying to fool voters, using the profits made at the expense of community health, but it was no match for the groundswell of people power and community support we were able to unite all across California,” said Darryl Molina Sarmiento, CSHC Steering Committee Member and Executive Director of Communities for a Better Environment.

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