With great appreciation to the great organizers and organizations that won our victory to cut the LASPD Budget by $25 million—35 percent.
Thank you to the brother George Floyd who died because of the sins of the white settler state and who martyrdom sparked a great rebellion. Thank you to the national movement for civil rights and Black Liberation, the Black Lives Matter leadership and the great leadership of Black Students in the LAUSD those organizing, anger, focus, and persuasive testimony was the driving force of our victory.
Great appreciation to Black Lives Matter/LA and Dr. Melina Abdullah, Students Deserve and Joseph Williams, Inner City Struggle and Maria Brenes, United Teachers of Los Angeles and Cecily Myart Cruz and Alex Caputo Pearl, Community Coalition and Aurea Montes Rodriguez, Brothers Sons Selves and David Turner, CADRE and Maisie Chin, Youth Justice Coaltion and Emillio Lacques-Zapien, Taking Action Social Justice Clubs and Brigette Amaya, Labor/Community Strategy Center and Channing Martinez. I have written this article with great respect for all the forces and allies that made this unique victory possible.
Thank you to LAUSD Board Members Monica Garcia, who initiated this strong motion, and Board Members Kelly Gonez, Nick Melvoin, and Jackie Goldberg whose four votes were necessary for the historic move to reduce and eventually eliminate policing, intimidation and anti-Black profiling and punishment in the LAUSD schools.
I write history and political analysis about social movements and organizing. My audience is organizers all over the World and the Third World and the movement leaders in L.A.s Black and Latinx communities in L.A.
This story is about you and I hope you will read it. I welcome comments at Eric@voicesfromthefronlines.com
