By PAUL LAVERACK
EL NUEVO SOL
Bernard Hyland, a software analyst and progressive activist, visits the Occupy Los Angeles encampment, and shares his thoughts on how the Occupy movement could leverage its power with elected officials to reform the existing system, even as it seeks to make deeper, more revolutionary changes to the economic and political order.
By PAUL LAVERACK
EL NUEVO SOL
Jason, a cameraman on the Occupy LA media team, discusses the excitement and the obstacles he encountered while documenting the social movement against corporate greed, as he and hundreds of others camped on the lawn at Los Angeles City Hall for two months in the autumn of 2011.
By PAUL LAVERACK
EL NUEVO SOL
Occupy Los Angeles protestor Lucas provides a guided tour of the encampment at the City Hall lawn in downtown LA, and an introduction to several participants in the two-month-long protest against corporate greed. The tour was conducted on November 19, 2011 – eleven days before police forcibly removed the camp, arresting hundreds of protestors.
By PAUL LAVERACK
EL NUEVO SOL
Morris Griffin, a protestor at Occupy Los Angeles interviewed on Day 50 of the occupation – November 19, 2011 – demonstrates the creative nature of solutions to social problems which have emerged from the Occupy Wall Street movement.
By PAUL LAVERACK
EL NUEVO SOL
Prominent liberal journalist Harold Meyerson sits for an extended interview, in which he discusses the recent history of Los Angeles and the rise of Latinos as a political force, the decline of unions nationwide and the shoddy coverage they receive in the corporate press, as well as his thoughts on corporate power and the shrinking American middle class.
By PAUL LAVERACK
EL NUEVO SOL
Charles Bowden, award-winning journalist and author of Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields, discusses his new book about the devastation wrought by the ongoing drug war in Mexico. Bowden shares his views on a variety of pressing social and political issues, as shown in a series of video excerpts from the discussion.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
During this in-depth interview with Arman Hardwick and Jason Ackerman, two undergraduate student activists at Occupy CSUN on October 13, 2011, discussion ranges across the causes of the current economic downturn, FDR and his response to the Great Depression, the excesses of capitalism, solutions offered by socialism, and the need to get corporate money out of politics.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Linda López, una recamarera del hotel Hyatt Century Plaza con quince años de experiencia, participa en una protesta fuera del lujoso hotel Hyatt Andaz en West Hollywood, CA., el 21 de julio de 2011. López describe cómo ella y otras recamareras están bajo presión constante, cómo se lesionan por exceso de trabajo y lo que el Hyatt Corporation quiere quitar a los trabajadores en sus negociaciones de contrato de dos años de duración.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Hotel housekeepers for the Hyatt Corporation, and an official of their union, speak at a protest in front of the luxurious Hyatt Andaz hotel in West Hollywood, CA on July 21, 2011. They paint a picture of abnormally high injury rates, chronic overwork, and management that is deaf to the workers’ entreaties.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
A variety of voices explain why they joined the strike against the Hyatt Andaz luxury hotel in West Hollywood, CA from September 8-15, 2011. Speakers include a housekeeper currently working at the Hyatt Andaz, as well as the union local president, a Congresswoman, a City Councilman, a member of the California Assembly, and the union’s Communications Director responding to a statement from Hyatt management.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Listen to a series of voices from Occupy Los Angeles, during the Global Day of Action against corporate greed, as they reveal why they’ve come out to join the rest of the “ninety-nine percent” in demanding a more just, more equal system for all citizens. Interviewees include a family, a homeless street musician, young single adults, a professor from Cal State Fullerton, and the real-life inspiration for the movie, The Big Lebowski.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Kent Minault, the Volunteer Coordinator for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in the San Fernando Valley discusses the economic benefits of moving LA away from coal as an energy source, the steps to increasing our energy efficiency, and the rise of the Beyond Coal movement, a volunteer-driven effort that is gaining momentum across the city.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Unite Here International President John Wilhelm discusses Hyatt’s dismal record of workplace safety, the difficult conditions under which the housekeepers struggle every day, as well as what the union would like to see in terms of legislation regarding the use of fitted sheets and long-handled mops. Wilhelm draws a parallel between the farmworker struggles of the 1960s and the hotel housekeepers of today.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
When labor unions, elected officials, and civil society groups assembled in Wilmington for the 32nd Annual Los Angeles Labor Day Parade and Rally, on September 5, 2011, one of the prominent groups was a large contingent from “Dream Summer,” a ten-week summer internship for undocumented student activists sponsored by the UCLA Labor Center.
By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Dining Hall workers and their supporters among students, alumni, and faculty hold a picket and rally at Pomona College in Claremont, California, outside the college administration building on Wednesday, August 3, 2011. The event included accusations of unfair labor practices, conflicting views on the proper way for workers to unionize, and an implicit critique of President Obama’s effectiveness on labor issues.
By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Hundreds of hotelworkers and their supporters protest at the Hyatt Andaz luxury hotel in West Hollywood, California, on Thursday, July 21, 2011. The action draws attention to the abnormally high injury rates among Hyatt housekeepers. The hotelworkers shut down traffic, and several housekeepers perform their work tasks in the middle of the street, inviting the world to see the hazards they face on the job.
By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
At a hotelworkers protest outside the Hyatt Andaz in West Hollywood, California, on July 21, 2011, a musician and activist outlines the concept and goals of the Clean Car Wash Campaign in Los Angeles, a drive to win workplace dignity for “carwasheros,” the often-exploited immigrant laborers who shine the metal and polish the glass in Southern California’s world-famous car culture.
By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Civil society leader Jesse Jackson, in Sweden on July 4, 2011 for that nation’s annual weeklong festival of politics, speaks about labor under attack, corporate power in ascendancy, and the need for a mass uprising of ordinary people. He also offers encouragement to students of Cal State Northridge, who are reeling from yet another fee hike, as the state budget implosion continues.
By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Workers, labor leaders, Los Angeles politicians, prominent civil rights figures, and their allies rally at the First African Methodist Episcopal (FAME) church in South Central Los Angeles on April 4, 2011, to commemorate the life’s work of Martin Luther King, Jr., and to show their solidarity with embattled workers in Wisconsin and around the country.
Por PAULA DURAN, SILVIA CONTRERAS, BERTHA GUARDADO
EL NUEVO SOL
Según la Asociación Americana del Corazón (AHA en sus siglas en inglés) en este momento uno de cada tres niños es obeso o sufre de sobrepeso, y un 50 por ciento de estos que padecen problemas relacionados con el peso tienden a seguir presentando el mismo problema cuando llegan a una edad más adulta.
