Radical Activism in LA

[redcoyote89]

Hi, I currently reside in Long Beach, California. Im a political science major at CSU LB. I came to California (from Washinton D.C.) inspired by radical community activist groups such as the Black Panther Party and the Brown Beret. Im curious if their is anyone here with knowledge of organizations that would fit the mold; be it radical unions, or community activism. Any input would be greatly apriciated.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Hi, I currently reside in Long Beach, California. Im a political science major at CSU LB. I came to California (from Washinton D.C.) inspired by radical community activist groups such as the Black Panther Party and the Brown Beret. Im curious if their is anyone here with knowledge of organizations that would fit the mold; be it radical unions, or community activism. Any input would be greatly apriciated.

I'm not sure about Long Beach, but in LA you can probably find most of the major left groups. The New Panthers are in LA as are the Brown Beret but the New Panthers, from what I've heard, have gone a more nationalist route than their namesake.

I know personally that Socialist Alternative and the International Socialist Organization are active in LA. A.N.S.W.E.R. does anti-war and pro-immigrant work in LA and there's always the Sparts if you are a masochist.

I believe that the ISO branch there is based on the Riverside campus but they do things throughout LA. If you are intersted in the ISO, check out the www.SocialistWorker.org website and if you like it and want to know more I can find out more or put you in touch with some good comrades there.

[Kassad]

Los Angeles is probably the largest branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. I actually wish you would've posted sooner, since we just had a socialism conference there on November 21st that pulled around 200 people. Since you've recently moved there, I don't know if you heard about it, but we ran one of our members, Carlos Alvarez, for mayor of Los Angeles a little while back. We actually have two more campaigns for office that are in their initial stages and more information on those will be coming pretty soon.

I don't know what your political ideology is, but we're a Marxist-Leninist party. We're active in the anti-war movement through the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition, which is also very active in Los Angeles and has organized some of the larger anti-war, pro-immigrant and pro-worker demonstrations in the last few years. We have a lot of stuff going on in Los Angeles and you can get in touch with the branch there here: http://www.pslweb.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Los%20Angeles

A public forum is coming up on December 4th (which you can read more about by clicking the link above) and if you're interested in working with us or just seeing what we're about, you should definitely attend. I'm a member of the party, so if you have any questions about what we do, where we stand on issues or anything, let me know.

Our website: www.PSLweb.org

[syndicat]

I'm not sure about what's going on in Long Beach. it's a bit of a distance to LA proper. I know that in the southeast suburbs and central LA there is an libertarian communist group, Amanecer, and in Boyle Heights Revolutionary Autonomous Communities, which follows in the community organizing tradition of the original Panthers, has a group house and does community organizing. (I grew up in central L.A. but live currently in the Bay Area.)

[redcoyote89]

I'm not sure about what's going on in Long Beach. it's a bit of a distance to LA proper. I know that in the southeast suburbs and central LA there is an libertarian communist group, Amanecer, and in Boyle Heights Revolutionary Autonomous Communities, which follows in the community organizing tradition of the original Panthers, has a group house and does community organizing. (I grew up in central L.A. but live currently in the Bay Area.)

What is this libertarian communist group you mentioned? Is it just called Amanecer?

[syndicat]

Yes, it's called Amanecer (means "Dawn" in Spanish). It exists in Fresno, San Jose and the San Francisco-Oakland area also. I know a number of its members. They're solid comrades. Actually there is some overlap in members between Amanecer and my group Workers Solidarity Alliance.

They follow in the tradition of the South American revolutionary groups such as the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation, FAG and FARJ and other groups in Brazil. It's a racially mixed group, unlike a lot of anarchist groups in USA.

[redcoyote89]

Are these Groups active in Los Angeles?

[syndicat]

Amanecer is active in L.A. So is Revolutionary Autonomous Communities. Workers Solidarity Alliance doesn't yet have a group in L.A. (even tho it's my hometown).

[redasheville]

Are people from Amanecer involved with the budget cut stuff have Fresno State?

EDIT: The ISO in LA meets in the UTLA building.

[syndicat]

Amanecer only has one person in Fresno. i don't know that person myself, and I don't know if he or she is a student or involved with the current organizing at Fresno CSU.

[Cooler Reds Will Prevail]

There's a radical Filipino community activist group down in LA called Kabataang Maka-Bayan (Pro-People Youth). They have pretty diverse politics, but their homepage features a quote from Mao and there are definitely revolutionary elements. I can get you in touch if you want, they may have people near LB. There's also a group called Mujeres Revolucionarias (Revolutionary Women) I know of... You can find them on Facebook. Other than that, there's pretty much a full selection of your run-of-the-mill communist parties to choose from. LA is a hotpoint so almost every party has a presence down there.

I would recommend trying to start something yourself at Long Beach, though it never hurts to have ties and networks with a variety of people. Different groups and parties can give you both positive and negative examples to learn from.

[redcoyote89]

Well im more attracted to anti-leninist i.e. left communist groups or social anarchists. Particularly ones that are actual active in organizing communities and workers.

[MarxSchmarx]

There's an IWW branch in LA that apparently was recently restarted.

[Cooler Reds Will Prevail]

Well im more attracted to anti-leninist i.e. left communist groups or social anarchists. Particularly ones that are actual active in organizing communities and workers.

You might want to check out Mujeres Revolucionarias then, even just to network. They're indigenistas for the most part with pretty "non-authoritarian" politics. They're active with Latino immigrant communities and such.

http://www.facebook.com/cmpm.la