Who Are RAC-LA, and What Are They
Doing in MacArthur Park?
by John A Imani
/This piece by John, an active member of the organization he's
writing about, is a partisan look at work happening in underserved
communities on the grassroots level. This has gone on years before
the Occupy movement arrived, and is characteristic of various like
efforts that often go unheralded./
/--- The Editors/
It's Sunday. Any Sunday. Any Sunday for the last four years. Alongside
the sidewalk sit crates of fruit, vegetables and breads. Taking portions
from the foodstuffs and placing these in tote bags and boxes, workers
take care to ensure that each is as any other. Farther back, on a slight
hillside, people---in the main, older people---sit and chat in a variety
of languages: Spanish and Korean sometimes crowds out the English.
Children help out, putting together the parcels, or play games, or both,
often at the same time. Two women have cooked and offer the workers
traditional Mexican and/or Central American dishes. There is even a
vegan option. Another man has mixed fruits and water to form /agua de
frutas/ with which he fills cups. Sunday. Any Sunday.
RAC-LA
Revolutionary Autonomous Communities-Los Angeles (RAC-LA*) *was created
in**the aftermath of the police riot in MacArthur Park on May Day 2007.
On that day the LAPD targeted migrant workers who had used their
Constitutional right of assembly to stand up for all our human rights.
To demonstrate our support of the right of migrant workers to go and
stay wherever there is work, residents of the MacArthur Park area and
others joined together to support those with no papers and those with no
means. RAC-LA came forward to aid the community in
self-organizing---seminars on renters' rights, and other issues---so
that, with the help of each other, we might make this inhuman way of
living a bit more bearable while at the same time acquiring the means
and the consciousness to one day transform this beastly system into an
image of our own humanity. Since the beginning, the RAC-LA food program,
'La Programa de Comida', has given out baskets of food to an average of
over 100 persons each Sunday. In total, more than 20,000 such baskets of
vegetables and staples such as rice and beans have been passed on to
those in need.
Full Article at:
http://fourstory.org/features/story/who-are-rac-la-and-what-are-they-doing-in-macarthur-park
--
JAI
RAC-LA
https://lists.riseup.net/www/admin/newplanet-newlives
http://revolutionaryautonomouscommunities.blogspot.com/
http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=JohnAImani
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com
laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
