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Los
Angeles Election More than a Study in Black and Brown
By David Bacon, Pacific
News Service,
May 17, 2001
The runoff election for mayor of Los Angeles, coming June
5, pits a member of the Democratic Party's "old guard" against
one of the most successful Latino politicians in the state's
history. In a way, Antonio Villaraigosa incarnates a decades-long
struggle, but the mix of ideas and alliances involved is far
more complex than that would suggest. PNS associate editor
David Bacon writes widely on immigrant and labor issues.
LOS ANGELES -- Half a century ago, Bert Corona had a dream
that Latinos in California -- field workers and factory hands,
school kids forbidden to speak their families' language --
would win real political power.
At the time, only a visionary like Corona, a labor militant
and Chicano activist, could consider it achievable.
Yet on June 5, one of Corona's "homeboys" from the heady 1960s
may be elected mayor of Los Angeles.
Antonio Villaraigosa learned was a community activist in an
immigrant rights organization founded by Corona, the Centro
de Accion Social Autonoma (CASA).
Villaraigosa went on to get a law degree at People's College
of the Law, worked as an organizer for the huge Los Angeles
teachers' union, and began running for office -- eventually
becoming speaker of the State Assembly.
Now he's running for mayor of the second largest city in the
United States. If he's elected, he'll be the first Latino
in that position for more than a century.
The election pits Villaraigosa against James Hahn. Both are
Democrats, which is a change in a city governed for eight
years by Republican Richard Riordan.
The L.A. election reflects in part changes in the population
-- but only in part. It took former Governor Pete Wilson to
transform a demographic change into a formidable voting force.
In 1994, Wilson narrowly won reelection by betting his political
future on a proposition excluding the undocumented from schools
and medical care. It passed, but in the wake of that election,
thousands of immigrants became citizens with the express intention
of never again being excluded from the political process.
They set out to punish the Republican Party -- and succeeded
so well that it is still reeling. Democrats today control
both houses of the state legislature, and a Democrat sits
in the statehouse.
In race after race, the new immigrant vote has been the deciding
factor. But having a Spanish surname isn't enough. While people
of color make up 60 percent of Los Angeles residents, they
account for only 40 percent of its voters.
Instead, there are signs of a new coalition bringing together
progressive white activists with a new generation of leaders
in communities of color.
At the ballot box, class issues move voters as much as traditional
questions of color or nationality. One reason for this is
that Los Angeles has become a hotbed of labor activity, with
major strikes and organizing drives.
The most visible of these involved immigrant janitors and
hotel workers, but African-American and Asian-American union
members have played a major part in labor's rise.
"The big issues are economic," says Kent Wong, director of
UCLA's Labor Center. "People are voting for things like living
wage, affirmative action, and economic development policy
that...pays attention to underserved communities."
The county Labor Federation has a core of precinct walkers
and phone callers, and used them to win upset victories for
pro-labor Latinos against more conservative ones
The Villaraigosa campaign has to be won citywide, which will
involve a larger turnout of labor's political activists than
ever before. The endorsement was a very big risk for the labor
movement, Wong says. "But it has a lot of boldness and daring,
and it's built up an incredible ground operation involving
hundreds and hundreds of people each weekend."
Unlike Villaraigosa, Hahn has been a quiet member of an old
guard his father helped build. An elected official for 16
years, first controller and then city attorney, he is the
son of Kenny Hahn, a county supervisor for 40 years, when
Mayor Sam Yorty was notorious for racist scare attacks directed
at white voters.
The L.A. press portrays the Villaraigosa/Hahn battle as a
conflict between Blacks and Latinos. "But there's a whole
political realignment taking place here," says Anthony Thigpenn,
a leading community organizer in the Villaraigosa campaign.
"It's happening in the African-American community, like everywhere
else, and many of us are looking to be part of it."
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U.S.
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