“Every Student Matters” rally in Long Beach. Photo by Warren Hill.
Much of the news media coverage of Liberty Hill’s grantees this past month focused on “new generation” community organizers: young people protesting like zombies, youngish L.A. leaders being highlighted nationally, and young students winning a discipline reform resolution in Long Beach Unified School District.
Nov. 1
In a story on labor unions and L.A. County, the L.A. Times reported that union members participated in protests by ReFund LA Coalition, which accuses Brookfield Office Properties of using Prop 13 loopholes to avoid paying $10 million in property taxes per year. A Brookfield representative responded that the company planned to pay property taxes at full current assessed value, contradicting an earlier position. ReFund Coalition, which includes Liberty Hill partner groups Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), CLEAN Carwash Campaign, Community Coalition, InnerCity Struggle, People Organized for Westside Renewal (POWER), and other labor and education groups, claim a victory. More details in a Times Business section story in late September.
Oct. 29
Advocate.com profiled “Q & A Space,” a new website created by API Equality-L.A. The website, which stands for “queer and Asian,” is meant to support LGBT people in Asian and Pacific Islander communities.
Oct. 28
L.A. Voice PICO made the front page of the L.A. Times in a story about its faith-based coalition of congregations organizing surveys and outreach efforts to overcome “low-tech” problems facing low income people seeking healthcare in California where “high-tech” problems with insurance sign-ups are not an issue.
An article in Honolulu Magazine as lawmakers debated same-sex marriage legislation in Hawaii describes testimony from members of Life Foundation, a grantee of Liberty Hill’s Queer Youth Fund.
Oct. 25
Youth Justice Coalition used the popular, seasonal mode of a “Thriller” flash mob to bring attention to their youth-led protest against the Echo Park gang injunction, described with a video in the national Colorlines blog.
Also seasonal: the nightmare of trying to get national political leaders to take action. Fox News describes reactions to efforts to restart immigration reform action, including a strongly worded comment from Angelica Salas of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).
Oct. 24-25
Among the nine “young activists to watch” from across the U.S. spotlighted by Peter Dreier on Bill Moyers’ TV show and on BillMoyers.com are Amy Schur of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and Angelica Salas of CHIRLA, profiled on the website. Moyer’s full interview with Dreier discusses the new generation of activists.
Oct. 22
An article and two videos on USC’s Annenberg TV News feature Youth Justice Coalition actions including the group’s participation in the 18th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation, and their attendance at a Compton City Council meeting demanding official steps to lower violence.
Oct. 16-18
Liberty Hill grantees had legislative victories on the State level this season, but setbacks as well. The vetoed AB 1263 would have increased the number of state medical translators. Poulinna Po of Khmer Girls in Action (KGA) talks in this Huffington Post story about the difficulties of translating in medical situations for her diabetic father at 15 years old with an imperfect grasp of Khmer.
KGA supporters were also called upon for context as Voice of America News wrote about the new report issued by Asian Americans Advancing Justice L.A. about our growing Asian American community and the unemployment and poverty facing a growing number of its members.
Oct. 10-14
Cornerstone Theater Co. is presenting a play called “Love on San Pedro” set in Skid Row and featuring homeless individuals in its cast. As described in this story, Los Angeles Community Action Network (L.A. CAN) is one of the groups whose members contributed to story circles and community readings that helped develop the play. And in an L.A. Times piece about plans to create more pedestrian-friendly areas downtown, L.A. CAN’s Becky Dennison voices concern about potential gentrification.
Oct. 10
An article inLatinos Post describes a court-ordered settlement requiring owners of Club 907, a now-closed downtown taxi-dance venue, to compensate immigrant workers with $1.1 million for work performed between 2006 and 2010.
The backstory is on Liberty Hill’s website in a profile of one of our 2011 Leaders to Watch, Xiomara Corpeño of CHILRA who described how “when she and other CHIRLA staffers spoke with hostess dancers arrested in… [Nov. 2010] LAPD raid on Club 907” it became clear that “the women were turned over to ICE officials for deportation, even though the working conditions could be compared to indentured servitude.” CHIRLA then began a multiyear successful effort to treat the women as victims, not perpetrators, of crime, as described in an L.A. Times editorial.
Oct. 9
CBS Los Angeles reported on a rally and quoted Kat Madrigal of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice in support of SB811 which would require Caltrans to read an alternative proposal to the 710 Corridor Project.
Oct. 8
The “Every Student Matters” rally at the Long Beach Unified School District Board meeting was called to support a resolution before that board to reform discredited punitive discipline practices such as expulsion that increase dropout rates. Members of several of Liberty Hill’s Brothers, Sons, Selves coalition groups including Khmer Girls (and Guys) in Action and Californians for Justice participated in the rally, can be seen in the photos accompanying stories about the passage of the resolution in the Long Beach Press Telegram story, the Long Beach Post, and the Orange County Register. Notice of participation by Liberty Hill CEO Kafi D. Blumenfield is made in the preview announcement in the Press Telegram.
Oct. 5-7
Using as its lead the story of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles (CHIRLA) member Jorge Garavito, who talked about his father’s deportation, the L.A. Times described and ran photo of the big immigration reform rally in Hollywood. Meanwhile, ABC-CBN described the protest by talking with Lolit Andrada Lledo, Dondi Monzon, and Aqui Soriano Versoza of Pilipino Workers Center (PWC).
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