Re:Work by the UCLA Labor Center

These days, we hear more and more about burnout, as well as rising anxiety levels, particularly in light of the recent presidential transition. How do we want to think about burnout, anxiety, and the emotional and mental load we carry when working in the social justice sector — especially when you have a personal connection to what you’re fighting for?

In this episode, Ainee Athar shares her immigration challenges and journey into advocating for immigrant rights, as well as her experiences with burnout and her pivot to climate justice.

We’re closing out the year with an episode from our friends at Making Contact:

As graduation approached this year, students around the country began protests after calls for divestment from Israel were initially ignored by university leadership. The campus encampments were met with physical violence and the mainstream press dismissed the students’ demands as naive and immature. But, it turns out that there’s a lot we should be asking about college endowments. 

We take a look at what an endowment is and how they’re invested. Then we learn why transparency around the endowment (and divestment!) might actually benefit the entire college community. 

We talk to Kelly Grotke, a financial researcher from Pattern Recognition, a research collective focused on financialized higher education. And, with Andrea Pritchett, we look at the links between the encampments today, and those from the 80s, when students protested South African Apartheid.

Episode Credits:

Host: Salima Hamirani

Learn more about Making Contact

We are approaching the 60th anniversary of the UCLA Labor Center, and we are celebrating - both how far we’ve come and where we’re going next! 

In honor of our anniversary, in this episode we’re sharing insights and memories from our colleagues about their work and evolving connections to the UCLA Labor Center, which they were all introduced to as students. We end with a powerful speech by a recent UCLA Labor Studies graduate. 

This episode will be the first track in our 60th Anniversary mixtape coming out in September.

It’s back-to-school season, and we’re sharing a recording of "Labor Studies 101" from our archives at the IRLE, the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

In this episode, our IRLE director, Toby Higbie, interviews Kent Wong, our previous long time director of the UCLA Labor Center. Toby and Kent talk about the history of the Los Angeles labor movement and what makes it so unique; Kent’s personal background and what brought him to activism; the connections between the labor movement and nonviolent philosophy; hopes for the future; and so much more.

The class was recorded in the spring of 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic and as we were headed into a presidential election — so there are layers of history baked into this episode.

Publications by Kent Wong

In a fast-paced society that often privileges work, wealth, and individual success, where there isn’t always time or space to process, how can we do social justice oriented work while taking care of ourselves?

In Radical Therapy, we speak with Claudia Morales, an LA-based therapist whose work exists at the intersection of social justice and mental health. Claudia shares her journey to developing a radical approach to therapy, one that centers community and emphasizes connection — to one other, to ourselves, to ancestral wisdom, to the Earth, to storytelling and art, and much more.

To learn more about Claudia’s work, visit socialjusticehealing.com. Or find her on Instagram @socialjusticehealing.

Rev. James Lawson Jr. passed away on June 9, 2024. Rev. Lawson was one of the civil rights movement’s most prominent leaders and a lifelong advocate of nonviolence, soul force. He co-taught a UCLA labor studies class on nonviolence for over 20 years with our previous labor center director Kent Wong, and our building, the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center, is named in his honor. 

As we remember Rev. Lawson and process this deep loss for our community, we are sharing our episode Soul Force Part II, in which Rev. Lawson reflects on his memories of the civil rights movement, including the profound impact of losing his friend Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders fighting for justice. He emphasizes the importance of embracing nonviolent struggle for a better world. 

In 1974, Rev. Lawson moved to Los Angeles and played a pivotal role in infusing nonviolence into the Los Angeles labor movement. He has shaped decades of organizing in labor and immigrant rights, and inspired generations of students and activists. 

We feel the profound impact of losing Rev. Lawson, and he will be deeply missed. Let us carry on his memory, his teachings of love and soul force, and continue his work for a more just world.

It’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and we’re sharing an episode about gentrification in Little Toyko from State of the Human, a podcast of the Stanford Storytelling Project.

Little Tokyo is a small neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles. Since 1905, it has been home to generations of Japanese Americans. Today, gentrification is threatening to destroy everything these families have built. This episode tells the story of one community's struggle for survival and the ways in which historical development has both fractured and solidified its people. For some, home is a bed one sleeps in. For us, home is Little Tokyo. This episode was produced by Leah Chase with the Stanford Storytelling Project. 

To learn more about the Stanford Storytelling Project, please visit storytelling.stanford.edu.

In partnership with the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE), Re:Work presents “Changing Lives, Changing L.A.,” a play created from transcripts from the UNITE HERE Local 11 Oral History Project and originally performed before a live audience at Loyola Marymount University and UCLA.

Portrayed by professional actors, four members of UNITE HERE Local 11 share their stories of becoming leaders in their union, and fighting for a better life while helping transform Los Angeles.

Special thanks to Emma Worthington, Regla Soto, Soledad Garcia, and Ignacio Ruiz for sharing their stories.

“Changing Lives, Changing L.A.” was conceived by veteran organizer Vivian Rothstein and crafted by playwrights Doris Baizley and Rose Portillo. It was directed by Rose Portillo and Doris Baizley, and produced by Vivian Rothstein.

The oral histories of the women and men of UNITE HERE Local 11 were voiced by actors Joyce Guy, Marco Rodriguez, Rose Portillo, and Sarita Ocón. Access the UNITE HERE Local 11 oral history interviews here. 

Watch a video recording of the play here. The video recording was edited by Robert Hillig.

Re:Work's audio version was produced by Veena Hampapur and Saba Waheed with mixing by Aaron Dalton.

Thank you to the individuals and organizations who made this presentation possible including:

UNITE HERE Local 11

We’re closing out the year with an episode from our friends at the Pulso Podcast:

Latinos work hard. But is our "work hard" attitude too closely connected to our sense of self-worth? The Pulso Podcast brings you the untold stories & unheard voices that make up our history, our culture, nuestra gente. For Latinos, by Latinos

This episode was produced by Maribel Quezada Smith with editorial oversight by Charlie Garcia. Audio engineering & music by Julian Blackmore.