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

Kara Hill, the architect and lead project designer for the Valley Performing Arts Center (VPAC), shares insights into the history of large performance spaces, and she details many of the personal and group decisions that influenced the construction of the VPAC, which opened in 2011 on the campus of California State University Northridge.

Por JACQUELINE GUZMÁN-GARCÍA
EL NUEVO SOL
Luis Álvarez, de 28 años de edad, decidío regresar a México en el 2009 después de haber obtenido una licenciatura en Ingenieria Eléctrica de la Universidad del Estado de California, Los Ángeles. Ahora, Luis puede compartir una historia de triunfo en la cual menciona que “El único obstáculo que te detiene de lograr tus sueños eres tú mismo”.

Por JACQUELINE GUZMÁN-GARCÍA
EL NUEVO SOL
Daniel, de 22 años de edad, vivió en Carolina del Sur por 13 años y decidío regresar a México en el 2007 después de graduarse de la preparatoria y darse cuenta que no habia posibilidades de que continuara una educación universitaria. Afortunadamente, fue aceptado en el Tecnológico de Monterrey en Mexico, donde este año obtendrá su licenciatura en Relaciones Internacionales.

Por JACQUELINE GUZMÁN-GARCÍA
EL NUEVO SOL
De origen salvadoreño, Pedro, de 26 años de edad, obtuvo su licenciatura de biología en la Universidad del Estado de California, Northridge (CSUN), y después decidió viajar al país natal de su madre, México, al ver que en Estados Unidos sería muy difícil asistir a la escuela de odontología. El pasado mes de mayo, Pedro salió voluntariamente del Estados Unidos para poder lograr su objetivo principal. Después de investigar el proceso para ingresar a una universidad mexicana, en el otoño del 2011 comenzó su primer semestre en la Facultad de Odontología de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Hoy en día, Pedro siente haber logrado parte de su sueño y darse cuenta que “Los sueños se logran en cualquier país”.

By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE

This series of videos highlights several speakers from the “RePower LA” community meeting at the Pacoima Community Center on November 5, 2011. Speakers include Ricardo De Los Santos, a DWP trainee weatherizing low-income homes for energy efficiency; Eric Garcetti, the president of the Los Angeles City Council; Kent Minault, volunteer coordinator for the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign; and Ron Nichols, the general manager of Los Angeles Department of Water & Power.

By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE

A coalition of civil society groups, including the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), Pacoima Beautiful, and the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, meet in the Pacoima Community Center on November 5, 2011 in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles, CA, to share the thinking behind the RePower LA project, which seeks to achieve financial and environmental savings by improving energy-efficiency in the homes of area residents, and creating hundreds of new “green” jobs in the process.

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

A massive crowd took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, October 15, 2011 as the Occupy Los Angeles movement gained momentum going into its third week. The day’s events were part of a Global Day of Action against corporate greed. Occupy events took place over 1,000 cities worldwide, involving hundreds of thousands of citizens who are tired of the political and economic system favoring the super-rich, at the cost of everyone else.

By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE

Housekeepers and their allies at the luxurious Hyatt Andaz hotel in West Hollywood, CA take part in a week-long strike, in four cities throughout the US. Elected officials from the local, state, and national levels march alongside the workers, as the labor action stretches down the block and around the clock.

By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE

Workers from the three Disneyland Resort hotels hold a community forum in Anaheim, CA on Sept 27, 2011 to share developments in their three-year-plus fight with Disney over a new contract, and fair working conditions. The workers say that Disney has moved to price the health insurance plan so high that no workers can afford it, and that management is shifting full-time positions to part-time, in an effort to erode further the benefits earned by the hotel workers.

By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE

Citizens organize a petition drive in the San Fernando Valley of northern Los Angeles on September 24, 2011, as part of the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign. Los Angeles currently gets around 40% of its electricity from two dirty coal-fired power plants in Arizona and Utah, and while the city already has a plan to move away from coal over time, the Sierra Club wants to accelerate the pace of change, so that LA is beyond coal by 2020.

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

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

The California budget meltdown brings thousands of teachers and their allies out in force, for the “State of Emergency” rally in Pershing Square on Friday, May 13, 2011. From all corners of Los Angeles and Orange County they come, to show their strength in opposing the devastating cuts to public education funding, which may go as high as $12 billion next year – following several years of deep cuts already – if Governor Brown’s tax extension package is not passed.

By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE

As part of the “Take Class Action” series of protests and events surrounding the ongoing California state budget disaster, a panel convenes at California State University Northridge – made of activists and scholars from the campus and elsewhere – to discuss ideas, strategies, and tactics related to social movements in general, and California’s higher education system in particular.

By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
In a day-long rally, march, and sit-in at the administration building on April 13, 2011, a growing crowd of Cal State University Northridge students protest the ongoing budget cuts and fee hikes across the CSU system. The students are joined by professors, union workers, and Alex Hanna, a leader from the recent Wisconsin capitol protests. The organizers, Students for Quality Education, call for the resignation of CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, whom they refer to as “Chancellor Greed,” for his willingness to slash student services while giving himself repeated salary increases.

Civil rights pioneer Reverend James Lawson, Jr. – who marched with MLK and Cesar Chavez and who trained nonviolent resistors from the lunch counters of 1960 North Carolina to the college students of today – addresses the crowd at Cal State Northridge, as part of the statewide Day of Action for Higher Education, held on March 2, 2011. In the Governor’s new budget, Jerry Brown has proposed $500 million in cuts from the CSU system alone – public education is under assault! Rev. Lawson discusses the proper role of institutions in the life of a society, and exposes the government’s false claims that “we’re out of money.” He closes by encouraging students to make this day’s protest just one part of a meaningful life, filled with actions aimed at creating a better world.

By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Cal State Northridge students, faculty, alumni, and their supporters rally & march for the future of public higher education in California. Governor Jerry Brown has just proposed $500 million in savage cuts to the CSU system alone, and a staggering $1.4 billion in cuts to education overall. The students respond by turning out in force for this Day of Action. They gain support from Reverend James Lawson, a living legend of the civil rights movement, who has spent the year as a lecturer in residency at CSUN, teaching theory and tactics for nonviolent direct action.