Prompted in part by a three-time South Bay congressional candidate, a group of Los Angeles Unified teachers plans to march to school district headquarters Tuesday in solidarity with ongoing protests on Wall Street and at L.A. City Hall.
"Occupy LAUSD" is the newest permutation of the Occupy movement that has gained steam - and media attention - over the past month since protesters took over Zuccotti Park in New York's financial district to express frustration with growing income inequality in the face of rising corporate profits.
Protesters with the Los Angeles branch of Occupy Wall Street began camping out Oct. 1 at City Hall, which has seen a densely packed tent city take over the surrounding lawn. Thousands marched through downtown over the weekend.
It's perhaps no surprise that Los Angeles teachers - known for regularly donning red union shirts and mobilizing against school board actions - would want to join in the protest, especially since labor groups have begun to get support from Occupy L.A. and vice versa.
Budget cuts, closed school libraries, lost teaching jobs and the district's initiative to let charter organizations run LAUSD campuses are among the teachers' complaints.
Those frustrations have been articulated elsewhere - and well before what some are calling "the Occupation" began. But Occupy LAUSD organizers say they have common cause with a movement that conservative critics have termed an un-American call to class warfare.
"There is a natural linkage. The Occupy Wall Street movement is challenging corporatization of America, privatization of the public sphere, and that's exactly what we're seeing in our district," said LAUSD teacher Marcy Winograd.
An antiwar activist who twice mounted challenges against former South Bay Rep. Jane Harman and ran last in spring's primary against now-Congresswoman Janice Hahn and others hoping to succeed Harman, Winograd is one of two organizers of Occupy LAUSD. She was laid off from her job at Crenshaw High last year and is now substitute teaching in the school district.
Her collaborator is Jose Lara, a history teacher at Santee Educational Complex south of downtown and a member of the board of United Teachers Los Angeles.
Winograd and Lara said teachers were frustrated with the growing charter school movement and Public School Choice, an unusual district program begun in 2009 that lets outside groups bid to control new and troubled LAUSD campuses.
Lara called it "the 1 percent influence on our school district," in reference to the Occupy movement's claim to represent the other 99 percent of Americans who are not wealthy. He said concern about affluent donors' and charitable foundations' support of the charter school movement aligns with Occupy Wall Street criticism of the banking industry.
"The link that I would see is the influence that big money has on government," Lara said.
Lara last week introduced motions that were passed by UTLA's 50-member board in support of Occupy L.A. and Occupy LAUSD. Because the union's 350-member House of Representatives will take up the matter at a meeting this week, UTLA support for the movement is not yet official, spokeswoman Marla Eby said.
Winograd said Occupy LAUSD supporters did not want to wait for the endorsement of UTLA.
"We're going to be building something much larger, but we did want to join forces with Occupy L.A. and we don't know how much longer they'll be at City Hall. It is in the news; it's on people's minds. And there is a cost to waiting," Winograd said. "It's time for the rank-and-file to step up."
Winograd said she hoped several hundred teachers would participate in the march initially.
Lara expects to see tents erected on sidewalks in front of the district's headquarters on Beaudry Avenue, right next to the Harbor (110) Freeway.
"We have a few teachers ready to do the camp-out," Lara said.
The Occupy LAUSD group planned to meet Friday night to identify and refine a set of demands.
Susan Cox, a spokeswoman for the school district, said Friday that LAUSD had not gotten any notice of a planned protest. Typically, the district will receive advance warning when UTLA plans to protest in front of district headquarters, she said.
"There's nothing to comment about," Cox said. "We don't comment on anything speculative."
News By:
dailybreeze.com
"Occupy LAUSD" is the newest permutation of the Occupy movement that has gained steam - and media attention - over the past month since protesters took over Zuccotti Park in New York's financial district to express frustration with growing income inequality in the face of rising corporate profits.
Protesters with the Los Angeles branch of Occupy Wall Street began camping out Oct. 1 at City Hall, which has seen a densely packed tent city take over the surrounding lawn. Thousands marched through downtown over the weekend.
It's perhaps no surprise that Los Angeles teachers - known for regularly donning red union shirts and mobilizing against school board actions - would want to join in the protest, especially since labor groups have begun to get support from Occupy L.A. and vice versa.
Budget cuts, closed school libraries, lost teaching jobs and the district's initiative to let charter organizations run LAUSD campuses are among the teachers' complaints.
Those frustrations have been articulated elsewhere - and well before what some are calling "the Occupation" began. But Occupy LAUSD organizers say they have common cause with a movement that conservative critics have termed an un-American call to class warfare.
"There is a natural linkage. The Occupy Wall Street movement is challenging corporatization of America, privatization of the public sphere, and that's exactly what we're seeing in our district," said LAUSD teacher Marcy Winograd.
An antiwar activist who twice mounted challenges against former South Bay Rep. Jane Harman and ran last in spring's primary against now-Congresswoman Janice Hahn and others hoping to succeed Harman, Winograd is one of two organizers of Occupy LAUSD. She was laid off from her job at Crenshaw High last year and is now substitute teaching in the school district.
Her collaborator is Jose Lara, a history teacher at Santee Educational Complex south of downtown and a member of the board of United Teachers Los Angeles.
Winograd and Lara said teachers were frustrated with the growing charter school movement and Public School Choice, an unusual district program begun in 2009 that lets outside groups bid to control new and troubled LAUSD campuses.
Lara called it "the 1 percent influence on our school district," in reference to the Occupy movement's claim to represent the other 99 percent of Americans who are not wealthy. He said concern about affluent donors' and charitable foundations' support of the charter school movement aligns with Occupy Wall Street criticism of the banking industry.
"The link that I would see is the influence that big money has on government," Lara said.
Lara last week introduced motions that were passed by UTLA's 50-member board in support of Occupy L.A. and Occupy LAUSD. Because the union's 350-member House of Representatives will take up the matter at a meeting this week, UTLA support for the movement is not yet official, spokeswoman Marla Eby said.
Winograd said Occupy LAUSD supporters did not want to wait for the endorsement of UTLA.
"We're going to be building something much larger, but we did want to join forces with Occupy L.A. and we don't know how much longer they'll be at City Hall. It is in the news; it's on people's minds. And there is a cost to waiting," Winograd said. "It's time for the rank-and-file to step up."
Winograd said she hoped several hundred teachers would participate in the march initially.
Lara expects to see tents erected on sidewalks in front of the district's headquarters on Beaudry Avenue, right next to the Harbor (110) Freeway.
"We have a few teachers ready to do the camp-out," Lara said.
The Occupy LAUSD group planned to meet Friday night to identify and refine a set of demands.
Susan Cox, a spokeswoman for the school district, said Friday that LAUSD had not gotten any notice of a planned protest. Typically, the district will receive advance warning when UTLA plans to protest in front of district headquarters, she said.
"There's nothing to comment about," Cox said. "We don't comment on anything speculative."
News By:
dailybreeze.com
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