March 4th in Los Angeles

March 4th in Los Angeles was a great success. Students from CSULA, CSUN, PCC, LACC, ELAC, Jefferson High, Belmont High, LA High, Manuel Arts, LACES High, and many other schools that I am sure I am not naming here, walked out! At CSULA, where I am active with the No Cuts Coalition, there was a rally that started at 9:30am. Students and community gathered in the free speach area. We had alumni of CSULA, Radical Women, the Brown Berets, LMV, ISO and the ANSWER coalition. 

We walked through several buildings calling students and professors out of class. We held signs that read "Tax the Rich, Bail Out the Students, Teachers and Workers" and "Can't Pay Wont Pay for this Crisis!" People were chanting "Walk-Out, Walk-Out". We started our rally with about 40 people, but once we walked through three or four buildings we had over 100 folks with us. We held an open mic rally in front of financial aid and the administration buildings. The crowed was fired up. Many spoke out about the economic crisis, pointing out that the cuts in education were not an isolated incident but rather an extention of the failure of our economic system, capitalism. The crowed was largely composed of women of color. A few sisters who came said they had never been to anything like this before and were very inspired to fight and will continue to get involved. 

There were some obstacles along the way, with the police fallowing us around and the student president trying to calm peoples anger, by telling people who were speaking not to use "bad words". The crowed responded with "don't try to censor us!" and he went away. The leaders of the student wing of the CFA which is Student for Quality Education also did their part to make sure students wouldn't be mobolized to leave school and attend the 3pm rally that was planned by the LA March 4th Committee. They even went as far as to tell SURGE, the AB540 student group at CSULA, not to join in the march with the NCC because we did not have security which was completely untrue. This we will have to continue to discuss as we push forward in our struggle against the privatization of education. 

As the day progressed we began to get word that 100+ students from Pasadena City College walked out, 100+ students from East Los Angeles College walked out, Los Angeles City College walked out, Roosevelt High walked out! We were all on our way to meet at Union Station, we would then march together to Pershing Square where we would join the hundreds of brothers and sisters from throughout Los Angeles who had also walked out to fight the cuts. It was an electrifying scene as hundreds of students poured out from Union Station and again later when we joined everyone else at Pershing Square.

When we arrived a marching banned was playing music and people were jumping, dancing and chanting at the top of their lungs. 

We then began our rally and people jumped on stage for the open mic. Students, teachers and various community activists came up to express their rage at the attacks to our educational system. They pointed out that the democrats were also behind these cuts and that we could only rely on each other to stop them. People spoke against the privatization of education, and one high school student Felipe pointed out that this "would only serve to increase the gap between the rich and us the poor." 

March 4th in Los Angeles was overwhelmingly a success and the first victory of many to come for the working class in LA. There were some who doubted the ability of the LA M4 Committee and doubted the fighting spirit of the youth and workers we were reaching out to. And they underestimated the union bureaucracy's desire to contain this movement. I am sure that this day has helped us all to better understand where the strengths and weaknesses of this movement lie.

I am extremely proud and grateful to have been a part of the first victorious steps of this movement. Power to the people!

In solidarity,

Angelica

Labors Militant Voice