LA's Progressive Mosaic: Beginning to Find Its Voice (Page 4)

No one should underestimate the difficulties of building progressivism in a city this complex. And there are many strategic, ideological, turf and personality disputes within the Los Angeles progressive world. But neither is LA the citadel of despair most famously depicted in Mike Davis's City of Quartz. There is a serious battle going on for the city's future--fought in skirmishes on the City Council, labor precincts and workplaces, and through a hundred tactical and strategic decisions that union leaders, environmentalists, community activists and religious leaders are making in their daily struggles.

"We're definitely at the dawning of a new era," said Madeline Janis-Aparicio, director of LAANE. "There's a myriad of groups, some old and some new, that not only work together but also really believe in each other and support each other." Adds longtime activist Anthony Thigpenn, head of the community organization AGENDA: "Activists in LA today are more self-conscious about building alliances. We can't win unless we work together."

After years of defending against conservative attacks on affirmative action, immigrants and unions, progressive forces are taking the initiative. The Progressive Los Angeles Network (PLAN), for example, is developing a comprehensive policy agenda intended to serve as an organizing guide and a common vision for the future. Based at Occidental College, PLAN (www.progressivela.org) is bringing activists and academics together across the boundaries of issues, constituencies, race and geography. Through its grassroots affiliates, PLAN aims to inject its ideas into the upcoming municipal elections and beyond.

In many ways contemporary Los Angeles resembles New York City at the turn of the previous century. Back then, New York was a caldron of seething problems--poverty, slums, child labor, epidemics, sweatshops and ethnic conflict. Out of that turmoil, activists created a "Progressive" movement, forging a coalition of immigrants, unionists, middle-class suffragists and upper-class philanthropists. Tenement and public health reformers worked alongside radical socialists. While they spoke many languages, the movement found its voice through organizers, clergy and sympathetic politicians. Their victories provided the intellectual and policy foundations of the New Deal.

LA's progressive mosaic is also beginning to find its voice. It is learning to say "living wage" and "social justice" in English, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese. Like the unions, community groups often hold meetings in several languages. Leaders are developing trust and finding common ground, while running a diverse range of campaigns. While ACORN works on welfare reform and predatory bank lending, AGENDA is mobilizing residents around police-community relations and job development; Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates organizes workers to improve conditions in local restaurants; high schoolers and their parents in the Community Coalition pressure the school board to repair inner-city schools; and the Alameda Corridor Jobs Coalition fights for the region's largest public-works project to provide jobs for residents of adjacent cities.

Whether a powerful movement with political staying power will emerge remains to be seen. But for the first time in years, progressives are optimistic. "There's a real sense that a movement is building here," explains Vivian Rothstein, campaign director with the hotel workers' union, who has more than three decades' experience in civil rights, women's, antiwar and community activism. "The wind is at our back. We can barely keep pace with it."

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