On Thursday, May 8, the Ad-Hoc Working Group for Haiti launched a weekly vigil outside the Brazilian consulate in Beverly Hills for the return of Haitian human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antione. A weekly fast, begun last November and practiced around the world, continues.
Story/photos: A Weekly Vigil is Launched for Haiti and Kidnapped Human Rights Activist by Ross Plesset

LOS ANGELES, May 2, 2008 – May Day demonstrations and marches were held throughout the region yesterday. Two marches converged downtown at 5th and Broadway in the late afternoon. An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people took part in the downtown demonstrations. Although not as large as the past two years the marches were described as festive and high spirited. Immigrant rights was the primary focus of the demonstration, but other issues such as the Iraq war were featured as well.

Scattered student walkouts and sit outs also took place at a number of local high schools. Dockworkers at the port of Los Angeles staged a one day strike that halted port operations for the day. The dockworkers’ strike, which included all west coast ports, was called by the workers to protest the continuing US war on Iraq. Reports from the newswire: Workers/Immigrants March Rally in LA on May 1 by AJLPP | | Venice High School Students Walk out of Class by Marcus | | May Day Time Line by LA-IMC

PHOTOS: Marcha Primero de Mayo by Oliver Santana
VIDEO: ¡Afuera Con La Migra! May Day Video by Que Chido

From Democracy Now: Report on dockworkers' strike
In related news: Did Google Block ILWU Web Page?

LOS ANGELES, April 30, 2008 – Environmental activists from AmazonWatch with support from the LA Greens and other local groups paid a visit to Occidental Petroleum’s corporate headquarters today. Dressed up in Haz Mat uniforms demonstrators staged a mock toxic clean up outside the Oxy building in Westwood.

Activists are demanding that Oxy pay for the clean up of an area of the Amazon home to the Achuar people. Oxy is blamed for the poisoning of an entire ecosystem that the Achuar depend on for their survival. Today’s demonstration was the first of two planned for this week. The next protest will be held at Oxy’s shareholders meeting this Friday, May 2nd at 9am at the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.From the Newswire: AmazonWatch Clean Up Crew Hits Occidental Petroleum Headquarters | | PHOTOS - From Oxy Protest | | "This is What a Clean-Up Looks Like!" by RP

In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. In a February 22 letter to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, ILWU International president Robert McEllrath reported that at a recent coast-wide union meeting, “One of the resolutions adopted by caucus delegates called on longshore workers to stop work during the day shift on May 1, 2008 to express their opposition to the war in Iraq.”

From the newswire: ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan by Internationalist Group
More on: KPFK's Beneath the Surface (4/28/08 at 5:45 pm)
Also: VERMONT AFL-CIO CALLS ON WORKERS TO SUPPORT WEST COAST SRIKE AGAINST WAR by Vermont AFL-CIO

On Wednesday April 30 and Friday May 2, there will be demonstrations against L.A.-based Occidental Petroleum over pollution and illness caused by nearly 30 years of oil sdrilling in the Peruvian Amazon. The first event, a mock clean-up will take place at the company's headquarters, the second will be outside the annual shareholder's meeting. According to Amazon Watch, Occidental Petroleum is sensitive to this kind of publicity. (Photo at right by Adam Goldstein.) Full story: Two Upcoming Events to Expose Pollution, Sickness in Peru Caused by Occidental Petroleum by RP Announcements: Wednesday event Friday event

Wadsworth UTLA, The Association of Raza Educators, and Parents of Wadsworth will DEMAND that the Los Angeles Unified School District to remove Wadsworth from the Prop. 39 Schools with Available Classrooms List. Prop. 39 requires the LAUSD provide public classroom space, if there is open rooms, for charter schools. However, THERE IS NO ROOM on the Wadsworth campus which operates on 4-tracks due to OVERCROWDING.
From the newswire:South LA School Resisting Charter Invasion by Jose Lara

Pomona, Calif - After being subjected an unannounced pay cut from $10/hr to $8/hr, Cal Poly student marketing representatives Austin Garrido and Sarah Doolittle were fired by their employer, Uloop.com, for attempting to organize a worker's union. The students were fired from their part-time jobs 20 minutes after posting a message in an online inter-company form announcing their intention to form a union. Doolittle and Garrido have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board.
From the newswire: Student Workers Claim They Were Illegally Fired by Cal Poly Community Activist

Labor Notes supporters are no strangers to heated debate—and the SEIU International is not the first union to protest at our conference. During the 1980s, for example, we saw opponents of the New Directions Movement inside the United Auto Workers put up picket lines outside our conference hotel and had BLAST—the Brotherhood of Loyal Americans and Strong Teamsters—try to intimidate Teamster reformers attending our events.

People are going to disagree and that is fine. There is no idea that can’t be discussed at a Labor Notes conference. We welcome debate on any and all issues facing the labor movement, including the heated dispute between the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) and the leaders of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) over the best way to build power for health care workers. But that debate must take place with respect and free from intimidation. Despite being welcomed to the conference earlier in the day—and given space to debate supporters of the CNA/NNOC about neutrality organizing agreements—SEIU staff and members shouted down speakers at workshops and panels throughout the event.
SEIU International Attacks Labor Gathering - Conference Goers Assaulted. by Labor Notes - repost

ESTE de LOS ANGELES, 13 abril 2008 -- Los manifestantes, convocados por un conjunto de organizaciones bajo los auspicios del Frente Unido de los Pueblos de América, marchamos desde Cinco Puntos hasta el parque de México (junto a Lincoln Park) en el este de Los Angeles.

Bajo un sol que parecía de julio y no de abril, echamos cánticos, cantamos, y por supuesto marchamos hasta llegar a la estatua de Zapata. Allí vimos a danzantes que nos hicieron recordar lo bonito de nuestra cultura mexicana y chicana y a oradores que nos recordaron lo crítico que son nuestros movimientos actuales.
Marcha Por Zapata 2008 by Rockero
March in Honor of Emiliano Zapata by Marcus

LOS ANGELES April 6, 2008 The large and loud mid-Wilshire protest demonstration against Antonio "Tony" Saca, right-wing president of El Salvador, in front of the Wilshire Ebell Theater this afternoon, apparently brought about a change in the President's arrival plans. As a bevy of LAPD motorcycle officers, leading his motorcade, arrived at the box office entrance to the theater, demonstrators "went into high gear" and the bike officers all reversed their route and the motorcade was taken to a parking lot side entrance.

It appeared both L.A.P.D. and Salvadoran security forces, traveling with the president, wanted to spare him the agitated anti-ARENA scenario. An L.A.P.D. officer, who related well to a National Lawyers' Guild legal observer, commented, "They're taking him around to the side; he won't be appearing in this area." Every large vehicle, including a giant white limo, created a frenzy of chants calling the ARENA president "an assassin," "an enemy of the poor and workers," and "a Bush puppet with troops in Iraq."
From the newswire: MILITANTS, LOUD DEMO CAUSES "CHANGE OF ROUTE" FOR SALVADOR'S RIGHT-WING PRESIDENT by don w. white
Photos: Protest Against President of El Salvador by Marcus

ONTARIO - March 24, 2008 - The residents of "Ontario Tent City," a Bushville formerly home to approximately 400 homeless people, were evicted today and their possessions bulldozed. "I have nowhere to go," and "I don't know what I'm gonna do," were the refrains heard over and over. The few residents who were allowed to stay were relocated to a lot across the street from the main settlement to allow for "improvements."

The city government set aside the plot of land, about the size of two city blocks, in October of 2007 in order to provide an alternative to the people that were removed from smaller encampments near the Ontario Museum of History and Art and elsewhere. Since then, awareness of the camp spread through word of mouth and through the reports of print and electronic media. The city provided port-a-potties and trash removal, but the bulk of the resources were provided by volunteers, including church groups, charities, and local activists. Full story: Tent City Residents Evicted, Dwellings Bulldozed by Rockero

Related articles: Tent City residents being evicted Tomorrow, March 24, ACLU to try to intervene by Lady Madonna

AUDIO: Interview with homeless rights activist Mike Dunlap. Part 1: History of Tent City Ontario.| | Part 2: The Eviction. | | Part 3: The Future for Tent City?

Documental en audio de 11 minutos sobre la Granja Sur Central, con breve historia de la granja, el desalojo y la lucha actual.
South Central Farm by Radio Zapatista

As part of the International Day of Action in Solidarity with the People of Haiti, Global Women’s Strike hosted a showing of the films Haiti: Harvest of Hope (see the trailer here) and What’s Going on in Haiti? at the Eastside Café on Saturday, March 1. Margaret Prescod of Pacifica Radio and Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike, moderated the event. "The Reports that I’ve gotten are is that things are going very well, there were events in about 36 cities around the world,” she said.
Report back: Haiti Event Marks Four Years Since the Coup Against Aristide by Weak from Fasting

On January 31st of last year, Councilperson Jose Huizar spoke strongly in favor of keeping the Southwest Museum as a full-functioning museum, not as a truncated exhibit space as envisioned by the Autry National Center (which acquired the museum in 2003 through a merger). “We know that the Autry wants to expand its Griffith [Park] site in order to possibly put more of our resources [there],” said Huizar at a public meeting. “I will be opposed to any move to expand that site until we take care of the commitments [applause] we’ve laid out today. . . . The direction I’m taking is those items that have been expressed by the Coalition.”

He described the museum as “what is arguably the heart and soul of Northeast Los Angeles.”

When Villaraigosa was running for mayor in 2005, he famously said, also in front of a large gathering, that as mayor he would “yank their chain,” to get the Autry to comply with the wishes of the community.
From the newswire: Villaraigosa and Huizar Renege on Promises to Protect the Southwest Museum by Ross Plesset

The winter 2007 AntiMall took place in Highland Park at La Culebra community space. (Other locations have included the South Central Farm, the Southern California Library, and the El Sereno Community Garden.) . . The items on sale came from numerous places from “Chiapas to Afghanistan to Venezuela.” Food from the South Central Farmers was available as well. Live performers included In Lak Ech, Zocalo Zue, and Quincy McCrary, with DJs including Black Shakespeare, Songo Electriko, and Vampiro Fronterizo.

La Culebra has served as a community space for many years for events such as sweat lodges, poetry readings, and women’s circles.
From the newsire: Winter AntiMall (photos/report) by RP| | Winter AntiMall (additional pix) by RP

One day after helping to deliver, according to last Friday’s, headlines in Los Angeles’ second largest newspaper, the Daily News, a “beating” to Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo --at a dramatic Union Rescue Mission press conference, that was called by the city to announce yet another highly-publicized lawsuit over hospital “dumping” on Skid Row --a grassroots coalition, currently headed by a homeless man on Skid Row itself, is denouncing the City’s dumping lawsuits as a fraud and a waste; and the group charges that Delgadillo’s lawsuits are, in fact, a part of a city-wide massive cover-up of LAPD’s own, unprecedented, recent mass arrests of homeless people. Read: Homeless Denounce Delgadillo at Press Confrence; Expose LAPD’s "Broken Windows"

High school youth from South Los Angeles will lead walking tours, open to the public, of the Vermont corridor neighborhood. Focusing on local economic health and transportation issues, the youth will tell stories of the neighborhood’s history, connecting it to conditions today. The tours, which will highlight community landmarks and cultural institutions as well as significant historical changes, were created by young people as part of the Southern California Library’s “V-Map” neighborhood mapping project.

The tours begin at the Southern California Library, located at 6120 S. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90044. Two tours focusing on economic health will take place Saturday, June 9, 2007, at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. and two tours focusing on transportation issues will take place on Saturday, June 16, 2007, at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. The tours are free and open to the public, and are approximately one mile in distance and 60 minutes in length. Comfortable walking shoes are strongly recommended. Call the Library at (323) 759-6063, ext. 15, to reserve a spot; space is limited.