• Tina Catalina Checks In – Tina Catalina Corcoran
• Broadway Enrollment – Rachael Babcock
• Solidarity With Wisconsin Workers – Larry Gross

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Tina Catalina Checks In

Dear Beachhead,

Thank you for Mary Getlein, and Patty W., and Jim Smith, and everyone who has been DisPlaced … or MisPlaced…

I miss you…

Always,

Tina Catalina Corcoran/Great Grandma Tina

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Broadway Enrollment

Dear Beachhead,

Enrollment for the 2011 Mandarin Immersion Kindergarten class at Broadway Elementary (@ Lincoln & Broadway) opens tomorrow, Wednesday, March 30th, at 8:15AM.

Enrollment is first-come, first-served. Over 100 enrollment packets have been picked up since they became available just three weeks ago. More than a handful of families have told us that they will camp-out tonight/early tomorrow morning in hopes of getting a spot. Depending on how LAUSD’s budget shakes out, there are 48-58 seats available. Broadway neighborhood kids and siblings of those already in the program will take 5+ of these seats.

Anyways, we have no idea how this will go as the program just started this year; four people could show, or forty+. If it’s the latter, it seems newsworthy to us.

Best, Rachael Babcock,

[parent of a student at Broadway Elementary]

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Solidarity With Wisconsin Workers

Dear Beachhead,

On March 26, organized labor and supporters took to the streets of Los Angeles. Some 10,000 union members and supporters gathered in Downtown for the “Our Communities, Our Good Jobs” labor march and rally.

The massive and important event, which was dubbed “Solidarity Saturday,” was organized by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, which plans to organize similar actions throughout the country.

Marchers with signs linked the day’s events with protests in Egypt and Wisconsin, and unions representing various trades (including teachers, firefighters, truck drivers, hotel workers, librarians, farm workers and nurses) marched together with supporters from the religious, civil rights and economic justice communities for higher wages and better jobs.

The Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) was one of the many groups that joined to support the numerous labor unions from throughout the greater Los Angeles area.

The march began outside Staples Center. Marching through Downtown L.A., the group stopped in front of Ralph’s, JP Morgan Bank, T-Mobile, and the Luxe Hotel in protest of their “Wal-Mart Wages.”

The protest ended up in Pershing Square for a rally that featured high-powered speakers and entertainers.

A keynote speaker was Wisconsin Firefighters Union President Mahlon Mitchell. In his rousing speech connecting Wisconsin to L.A., Mitchell said, “This is about an attack on me. This is about an attack on you. This is an emergency we have in Wisconsin and across the U.S. This is about an attack on the middle class. We need to reclaim our moral outrage … because we are in the battle of a lifetime.”

Tom Morello of “Rage Against the Machine” and Grammy award-winning Latin rock and hip-hop band, Ozomatli, provided stirring performances. Morello, known for his unwavering support for labor, headlined a concert last month for the protesters in Wisconsin.

The protest was also part of the nationwide response that has exploded due to the passage of the union-busting Wisconsin law, authored by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, requiring most public sector workers to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance, and changes that amount to an average 8% pay cut. The law also strips unions of the ability to collectively bargain for anything except wages

The law has also sparked a Wisconsin wide movement to recall many of the Republican lawmakers who supported the passage of the bill.

Larry Gross, Coalition for Economic Survival