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

At the Disney Community Forum for struggling hotelworkers in Anaheim, California on September 27, 2011, Maria Elena Durazo – the Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor – shares an anecdote about a simple thing a utility executive once told her, which goes a long way to explaining why corporate executives are so greedy.

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.

By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE

Workers at the Wilshire Hotel in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles go on strike when the hotel owner suddenly slashes their wages and takes away insurance benefits. The workers are joined in their picket by Maria Elena Durazo, the Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Por JACQUELINE GUZMÁN
EL NUEVO SOL

California podría beneficiarse con más de 16 mil millones de dólares anuales si se legalizara a los inmigrantes latinos no autorizados, de acuerdo al Centro de Estudios para la Integracion de los Inmigrantes (CSII) de la Universidad del Sur de California (USC). En California, existen más de 1.8 millones de adultos indocumentados que aportan a la economía del estado.