"I've been struggling all my life"

Over the past month or so the CRR in Los Angeles has become involved in what seems to be a very successful campaign. Our success here has come not only from the repairs we have forced the slumlords to make but also from the strength that we are discovering among our selves. I had the opportunity last week to speak more intimately with one of the tenants that has really become one of the more militant organizers on this campaign. She is a single mother of two, who migrated to the U.S. from Guatemala when she was in her early twenties. She told me about her economic hardships "back home" and the ones she has faced her in the U.S., trying to raise her children. When I commended her for her strength and fearlessness in confronting managers, supervisors and city officials, she replied "I've been struggling all my life, fighting for my self and my children, this is just another battle I have to face." She just did not realize that she could do it with such success, she later explained. By the end of our conversation we both concluded that the working class can really underestimate its own strength, and although these battles we "have to face" may seem insignificant at times they are nevertheless a testament to the power and strength the working class wields.