Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

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

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

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

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?

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