What a loss we feel with the passing of Kei Utsumi. Several readers and writers share their remembrances.
Basho
Kei ‘Basho’ Utsumi (1935-2022)
September 6, 2022A remembering of the revolutionary life of Kei ‘Basho’ Utsumi (1935-2022), written by Buddy Bell, who knew Basho and worked with him in the last years of his life.
Celebration of life of Kei “Basho” Utsumi
August 24, 2022A Celebration of Life in Kei’s honor will be held at 12:00pm on August 27, 2022 at the office of LACAN, 838 6th St, L.A., CA 90021. For further info, call 213-228-0024.
Kei “Basho” Utsumi (1935-2022): in remembrance
Kei Utsumi touched many lives before his death on July 15, a few days shy of his 87th birthday. In conversations with friends, in being present at countless demonstrations, or in putting pen to paper, his was a passionate, unyielding voice for freedom movements, which will be sorely missed.
Readers’ Views: November-December 2021, Part One
November 19, 2021Readers’ Views on Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives 2021-2022; Labor shortage?; Workers as reason; Support El Milagro workers!; Detroit women’s march; Chapelle’s sexism; Afghans dead and buried; Betrayal of Haitians; and Which side are you on?
Los Angeles police insist on their right to kill
July 4, 2021Police brutality and murders have continued in the U.S. as District Attorneys rarely prosecute criminal police. Los Angeles is no exception where the Los Angeles Police Association and Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva are behind the petition to recall progressive LA County District Attorney George Gascon.
Readers’ Views: July-August 2021, part one
July 2, 2021Readers’ Views on: What Is Socialism?; What Is Marxist-Humanism?; Nuclear Socialism?; Nuclear Capitalism; Flat Earth Society; Indigenous Genocide; Indigenous Liberation; Racism Takes its Toll; Rape Culture; Coming Out in Sports; Colonialism and Liberation
The Chauvin verdict is in, Los Angelenos react
May 8, 2021Several hundred people gathered in Los Angeles after Chauvin’s guilty verdict. They highlighted the fight to end police violence in LA and the whole system it is rooted in.
Readers’ views, January-February 2021: part one
January 31, 2021Readers’ Views on: Trumpist Coup and Fascist Threat; Black Revolt and Social Movements; Right’s War on the Mind; Love Is Love; The Unfinished Battle; Women’s Liberation; What Is Capitalism? What Is Socialism?; Ray Bazmore
Race & the Capitol mob
A view from Los Angeles of the Capitol mob and a pro-Trump rally in downtown L.A.: the policing system was built against Black and Brown people.
LA voters dump killer cop protector Jackie Lacey
November 28, 2020Los Angeles activist Basho tells of the electoral defeat of District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who protected killer cops, and the years of demonstrations and pain that led to her welcomed defeat.
Readers’ views, May-June 2020
April 29, 2020Readers’ views on The dialectic in thought and in liberation; labor and pandemic; pandemic and ecology; pandemic and school; women’s liberation; and voices from behind bars.
L.A. students march for DACA
December 1, 2019Participant report on the Nov. 12 students’ march protesting Trump’s repeal of DACA, which allowed undocumented migrants brought to this country as children the human right to work, to go to school and to live free of deportation.
Lyft and Uber drivers demand their rights!
July 21, 2019Over 30 Lyft drivers and their supporters rallied at the Lyft office in Los Angeles for their labor rights and to reverse pay cuts forced by the company.
LA homelessness up
June 27, 2019Homelessness shot up in Los Angeles. A major reason is unemployment. Homeless people are harassed and criminalized, while an area near Skid Row is gentrified.
Unity in Los Angeles teachers’ strike
January 24, 2019Activist and teachers’ strike supporter Basho reports on the Los Angeles teachers’ strike which is also a strike against charter schools and for better education for Los Angeles’ children.
L.A. is fighting Trump
July 24, 2018Los Angeles was one of hundreds of cities in mass protests in June against Trump’s “zero tolerance” agenda against migrant refuges looking for asylum.
L.A. vendors protest
May 2, 2018Women street vendors and their supporters demonstrated for legalization, elimination of fees and freedom from police harassment on March 9 as part of International Women’s Day.
Vendors march for their rights on International Women’s Day
March 24, 2018In-person report of the demonstration of women street vendors in Los Angeles on International Women’s Day fighting for their jobs and for dignity.
Readers’ Views, March-April 2018, Part 2
March 12, 2018Readers’ Views on Indignant Heart; Justice and ‘Justice’; Youth in Action; Free Press?; Fight Prison Censors!; Voices from Behind Bars.
Readers’ Views: The Dialectic and the Meaning of the Russian Revolution
January 31, 2018The dialectic and the meaning of the Russian Revolution.
Dreamers fight back
November 14, 2017From Sept. 1 through Sept. 10, Dreamers fought for their human rights against President Donald Trump’s administration’s white nationalist policy of rescinding President Obama’s DACA Program
DACA Dreamers and allies resist Trump
October 24, 2017A participant reports on a series of protests, rallies and marches of thousands taking place in September in Los Angeles against President Donald Trump’s attacks on youthful immigrants called Dreamers by ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival Program.
Cyclists demand bike lanes in Skid Row
September 3, 2017On July 8, 60 residents and activists rode bikes from Skid Row to City Hall to protest the lack of bike lanes in their neighborhood, despite the large number of bicycle riders living there.
Fighting back against the rise of neo-Nazi hate
August 28, 2017In-person reports of demonstrations in Chicago, Memphis, Oregon, Los Angeles and Halifax in Canada in solidarity with activists in Charlottesville, Va., fighting against neo-fascism and demanding to take down Confederate statues. .
Mass rallies denounce Trump and defend immigrants: Los Angeles
March 16, 2017Los Angeles youth march against the xenophobic deportations of Mexicans, Muslims and undocumented workers by Trump.
Black Lives Matter occupies LA City Hall Plaza
September 20, 2016Barred from entering City Hall by LAPD officers, LA Black Lives Matter started an occupation of City Hall Plaza protesting Police Chief Charlie Beck’s ruling that shooting Redel Jones five times was within policy.
Readers’ Views: July-August 2016, Part 1
July 7, 2016Readers’ Views on Hate: Orlando to Brexit; Black Lives Matter; Muhammad Ali and Dr. King; Duterte in the Philippines; News & Letters Readers Unite!; and Deadly Assault on Women From the U.S. to Israel.
Readers’ Views, July-August 2015
July 4, 2015Black lives as Subject; Russia in crisis; Nothing about us without us; Homelessness in L.A.; Central Canada Alliance; Perspectives and philosophy; Elderly to the streets?; Women and Yemen half-peace; Labor and climate justice; Dialectic and women’s liberation; Voices from behind the bars
Black Lives Matter actions: Baltimore, Chicago, Oakland, Los Angeles
June 30, 2015Demonstrations in Chicago, Oakland, Calif., and Los Angeles show the ongoing militant character of the Black Lives Matter movement as mostly young Black protesters take their anger and demands to the streets.
Cop killings protested!
May 7, 2015Several hundred people of all races marched from the Union Rescue Mission in Skid Row, where a homeless Black man with mental problems known as Africa, was killed by six Los Angeles police officers.
Fight for $15 and Dr. King
April 30, 2015In Chicago, thousands march for a living wage, while in Los Angeles, protesters of all races marched downtown on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s 1968 assassination. They included low-wage workers campaigning to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, uniting with the movement against police killing of unarmed Black and Brown youth.
Rage against lawless police murders
January 28, 2015Participant reports from several Black Lives Matter protests in different cities.
Stop blaming migrants
November 24, 2014Los Angeles—On Oct. 7, 150 Latina/o, Black, Asian and white youths gave public comments at the Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting against extending Regulation 287g, which was to expire. The regulation allowed the L.A. County Sheriff to act as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents putting into practice the so-called “Secure Community” policy allowing deputies to question anyone who appears to be a Latina/o migrant as a criminal suspect. It has resulted in thousands of working class migrants and even U.S. citizens to be stopped, detained and deported….
Workers can fix L.A.
November 22, 2014Los Angeles—On Oct. 28, several thousand Los Angeles City workers (mostly Latina/o and Blacks) and community supporters marched through downtown to City Hall to protest the city’s proposed 30% cut in workers’ wages and benefits. The cuts included medical coverage, bonuses and retirement benefits, as more and more of the city’s infrastructure deteriorates….
Readers’ Views, September-October 2014, Part 2
August 31, 2014From the September-October 2014 News & Letters
THE FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT AND THE BLACK REVOLUTION
I am in the movement still because of the Free Speech Movement (FSM)—it turned my life around. I studied everything about the New Left. I came to Berkeley and decided this is where I needed to be. [=>]
Homeless on the move
August 29, 2014From the September-October 2014 issue of News & Letters
Los Angeles—On Aug. 1, 30 Los Angeles Community Action Network activists of all races, including many formerly homeless, protested in Skid Row and adjacent downtown. We were demanding that the homeless be housed in the largely vacant Cecil Hotel, which had been designated low-income housing. [=>]
Justice for Ezell Ford
From the September-October 2014 issue of News & Letters
Los Angeles—On Aug. 17 over 1,000 protesters gathered at the downtown LA Police Department (LAPD) headquarters. We were there not only in support of Michael Brown, but also to protest the many killings over the years of Black, Brown and even a few white youths [=>]
Free Leonard Peltier!
March 31, 2014Los Angeles—On Feb. 8, 50 activists of all races gathered at MacArthur Park to be part of freeing Leonard Peltier, who is starting his 38th year in a federal penitentiary for a crime he did not commit.