Thousands of service workers backed by teachers began a three-day strike against the Los Angeles Unified School District on Tuesday, March 21, shutting down education for a half-million students in the nation’s second-largest school system.
“We are the diviners of change!” proclaims Janaya “Future” Khan. Three thousand people … significantly young and Black … fill the massive concrete steps at Los Angeles City Hall, pouring out onto the sidewalk, into the street, extending the length of the block and into Grand Park. The hotter-than-July sun shines on the faces of Youth Vanguard members who just finished speaking about their recent victory in LAUSD – ousting police from school campuses and cutting their budget by 35%.