As the so-called Democrats check out of their five-star hotels, south central Los Angeles and the Pico-Union district continue to suffer in poverty. Like internal colonies, these neighborhoods and their populations contribute to the pool of low-wage labor on which the affluent in our city depend.


Labor organizer Sabina Virgo reports that the wealthiest fifty people in Los Angeles have more money than the poorest two million. The much ballyhood economic miracle of the Clinton years has left many behind, and their lives are unimproved by the "rising tide which lifts alll boats." The Republicans, though, are even worse. As Harold Meyerson has observed, it seems that in Texas, you're either a friend of George Jr.'s or he executes you.


Thousands of Latin American immigrants have relocated to Los Angeles, many of them fleeing wars which were caused by U.S.support for authoritarian regimes the C.I.A. thought could be counted on to oppose the spread of "communism." Their lives wracked with poverty and strife, they left El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras only to find themselves trapped in a conflict between a militaristic police department and street gangs which offered the only sense of belonging available. The value placed on "makng it on one's own" in our society is so great that the connections of community have worn dangerously thin. There are, however, signs of hope.


The upsurge in protest which began in Seattle gives evidence of a new internationalism, as well as of a long-needed alliance between organized labor and environmentalists.


The next stop on the magical mystery tour which appeared first in Washington Strate, then in Washington, D.C. during the meeting of the International Monetary Dund and the World Bank, will be in the Czech Republic, where leaders of the I.M.F. will meet again beginning September 19th. On to Prague!