2018 has been a pivotal year for teachers. In West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, Colorado, and North Carolina, teachers walked out of their classrooms and into the streets, demanding their grievances be addressed. This fall, fifteen school districts across Washington state started the school year on strike. Here in Los Angeles, the teachers’ union is engaged in tense negotiations and teachers have overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike if no resolution is reached. We’re finally having a national conversation about the value of educators — and public opinion is on the teachers’ side. …
We are in an unprecedented moment in U.S. history. It is a time of resurgent racism and inequality, but also of newly energized and ambitious activism. Collecting our thoughts on how the progressive movement can meet both the challenges and opportunities of this time, my colleagues Nikki Forunato Bas of Partnership for Working Families, Donald Cohen of In The Public Interest, and I have co-authored a report on the tremendous potential that lies within our cities.
We propose that the most effective way to reclaim American democracy is to invest in progressive organizing at the city level. Throughout the country…
A Vision of Social Justice Feminism
2018 Women for a New Los Angeles Address by Roxana Tynan, LAANE Executive Director
This year is so exciting for feminists — and that includes our brothers! From the amazing women’s marches to galvanizing organizations like Indivisible to the silence-breaking #MeToo movement, women are leading on so many fronts. As the mother of an 11-year-old girl and 8-year-old boy, I find my spirits lifted during these dark and dangerous times by women’s leadership on a scale and scope that we have rarely seen before.
The bracing mobilization of women we are witnessing has mostly…
By: Roxana Tynan, Executive Director at LAANE
While online shopping has fundamentally changed retail and several major brands have shut down shops, America is not experiencing a so-called retail apocalypse. Brick and mortar stores still employ almost 16 million retail workers nationwide, and according to Forbes, “90% of consumer spending is still happening in the real world.” In fact, the 2017 holiday season saw the “strongest growth in holiday retail sales since the end of the Great Recession.”
The people who make all of this possible are retail workers dealing with low wages and other challenges that disrupt their lives…
By: Roxana Tynan, Executive Director at LAANE
Defend DACA press conference and rally in Los Angeles in September.
We are living in a state of constant and overt racism under this administration. Still reeling from the decision to rescind DACA, upending the futures of over 800,000 Dreamers, it is our obligation as a society to look toward other ways to provide sanctuary for our undocumented brothers and sisters. There are two key areas we need to focus on — creating sanctuary workplaces, and passing sanctuary policies at the statewide and city level.
With regards to sanctuary workplaces, employers have a…
By: Roxana Tynan, Executive Director at LAANE
Vintage King Audio in Echo Park increased its recycling rate to 90% and its trash bill was cut in half.
2017 has reminded us in stark terms, whether through devastating hurricanes, fires, floods, or record heat waves, that we cannot ignore climate change and that we must take action in every way possible to reverse it. As an affiliate of the Partnership for Working Families (PWF), LAANE believes in the power of cities to create changes at the local level that can be replicated throughout the country. We have seen several instances of…
By: Roxana Tynan, Executive Director at LAANE
A union pre-apprenticeship program participant working with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power installs a more energy efficient showerhead at an Angeleno’s home.
Earlier this month, Trump spoke fervently about major goals to rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure. It’s clear to us all that America’s roads, highways, bridges, hospitals, government buildings, airports, and sewers are in dire need of repair. Trump touted $200 billion in new spending, and additional incentives for private investment — which really boils down to privatizing American infrastructure.
By: Roxana Tynan, Executive Director at LAANE
Working families in the U.S. are facing a new set of threats from right-wing corporate interests that are more harmful than anything we have seen in generations. A key part of this very deliberate strategy is the weakening of unions through the passage of so-called Right to Work laws. These laws limit the ability of unions to fund themselves by making it more difficult to collect union dues from members, which are used to fight for fair working conditions, elect progressive candidates, and push for policies that benefit working people.
The origins of…
By: Roxana Tynan, Executive Director at LAANE
One of Trump’s most horrendous campaign promises was to build a border wall — a divisive structure that will not keep us safe from harm nor create infrastructure to help our country fix crumbling roads and bridges.
There are countless examples of the failure of our nation’s outdated, underfunded infrastructure. Hurricane Katrina and the levees in New Orleans. Lead in the drinking water in Flint, Michigan. The crumbling Oroville dam and resulting evacuation in Northern California. …
By: Roxana Tynan, Executive Director at LAANE
Donald Trump is making good on his terrifying campaign promises to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. and to round up and deport undocumented immigrants. Within his first two months in office, he has attempted to enact two Muslim bans targeting several Muslim majority nations, he has called for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and he has encouraged Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) to rapidly increase detentions and deportations of undocumented immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
Roxana Tynan
Executive Director of LAANE (Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy), an advocacy organization dedicated to building a new economy for all
