2019 UAA Annual Conference

The rise of neoliberalism as the dominant form of political economic organization since the 1980s was the result of a confluence of economic, political, and ideological strategies that mobilized the state power a major actor on behalf of international corporate capital. Much of the literature on neoliberal restructuring has demonstrated the key role of the state in promoting and justifying not only economic changes but also in the reconfiguration of urban household and communities, completely reconfiguring the political and spatial landscapes of major metropolitan regions.

State supported market-based institutional policies, practices and ideologies have influenced the patterns of development of these urban center in virtually every realm of quotidian experience, ranging from income, housing, transportation, education, health, environment, among others. One of the key elements from the initial stages of this neoliberal agenda has been the assault on workers and unions that has taken different forms and occurred in different societal registers, and resulted in greater levels of precariousness for an increasing percentage of workers. But there has also been a major resurgence in social movements and forms of community organizing that contest the hegemony of neoliberal regimes.

This colloquy highlights the research program developed by the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment that focuses on the theoretically grounded, empirical studies of worker political projects and movements primarily, but not exclusively, in California. Each of the speakers will focus on different aspects of that research agenda, including a unique set of strategies for teaching students that incorporate them in the research projects, the historical background and emergence of what has been labelled the “LA school of community organizing.

Moderator: Raymond Rocco, University of California, Los Angeles

“Expanding the Educational Rights of Immigrant – Women Workers in LA: The Case of the Parent University Project"
Janna Shadduck-Hernandez, University of California, Los Angeles

“Ethnic and Labor Studies and the Right to Los Angeles”
Abel Valenzuela, University of California, Los Angeles

“Labor's Immigrant Turn in LA: Organizing Immigrants and Expanding the Sense of Belonging and Rights”
Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, University of California, Los Angeles

“Contesting Neoliberalism: Grassroots Organizing Reclaiming Democracy”
Raymond Rocco, University of California, Los Angeles