SOUTH CENTRAL FARMERS

South Central Farmers Join Forces with LA CAN,
"We the People," Garment Workers Center, and "Green Jobs Now"

LOS ANGELES--The South Central Farmers have broadened the horizon on health in South Central Los Angeles, allying with four organizations that advance healthy living in the underserved and often neglected district.

The Farmers' have endorsed and will be present at the LA Community Action Network's September 25 rally, 9:30 a.m. at 456 S. Main St., to demand an end to the Safer Cities Initiative, a 2006 city policy that targets low-income and homeless people living in the Skid Row area for police harassment, and has added one new uniformed officer for every block and untold undercover officers, who routinely roust, ticket, and arrest area residents.  The Safer Cities Initiative has resulted in 750 arrests per month in the neighborhood, even as low income housing has been razed for high-cost, high-rise downtown development.  Rufina Juarez, a South Central Farmer, recognized that "health is healthy food, and it is also safety and security in one's own home, and walking the streets without fearing a jaywalking ticket that you can't afford to pay.  The South Central Farmers recognize that part of our mission is to support all organizations working for health in South Central."  She added, "LA CAN is doing that, and we support their work."

Tezozomoc will be speaking about the South Central Farm's past and future at the September 27th "We the People" concert at the State Historical Park at 1245 N. Spring St. in Los Angeles.  The concert's goal is to "stimulate social awareness and an encompassing platform within the urban community to inspire the involvement and active participation of the conscious urban youth."  Tezozomoc will be connecting the ongoing movement to save the South Central Farm from being buried under a mammoth Forever 21 shipping center to the 2000-2001 people's movement to stop the building of downtown warehouses on the Cornfields, now the site of the Los Angeles State Historical Park.  The South Central Farmers will invite inner-city youth and young adults to join in the fight to stop the garment industry giant from taking over the Farm land.  In 2006, hundreds of mostly young people held the Farm for three months against eviction proceedings, which ended with hundreds of county sheriffs and city police storming the Farm and arresting forty-four protestors, as international media recorded the bulldozing of what might have been the world's largest urban agricultural site.

The South Central Farmers have joined with the National Day of Action on "Green Jobs Now" campaign.  "September 27^th will be a national day where the people of South Central tell the rest of the Nation, 'We are ready for Green Jobs', stated Tezozomoc representative of the South Central Farmers.  Alberto Tlatoa, a South Central Farmer states, "I'm ready for the green economy. We are ready to tackle the climate crisis by building a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.  We have been creating green jobs for over two years and we need more."

The South Central Farmers have united with the Garment Workers Center to halt Forever 21's development of the SCF.  For nearly three years, the GWC led a nationwide boycott against Forever 21 demanding the end of sweatshop conditions until reaching a settlement with Forever 21's owner Do Chang late in 2004.  Citing ongoing labor law violations in spite of the settlement agreement, the GWC is demanding that Forever 21 guarantee legal compliance for its workers and subcontractors.  The GWC has announced that "We want to make it clear to the public and to the politicians that they cannot use the economic argument about 'the good jobs' that will stay or be added to the Los Angeles economy if (the South Central Farm site) is given to Forever 21," according to GWC spokesperson Delia Herrera.  The South Central Farmers Action Fund has asked State Attorney General Jerry Brown and City Controller Laura Chick to investigate payments made by Chang and Forever 21 to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who, during the eviction process, publicly claimed he was negotiating with the project developer Ralph Horowitz to rescue the South Central Farm from demolition.

Construction of the Forever 21 warehouse, planned to begin earlier this summer after the City Planning Department concluded that the proposed 2400 daily trucks trips would have no environmental effects, has been put on hold pending the outcome of an Environmental Impact Report demanded by the South Central Farmers with broad support from regulatory agencies, national and local environmental groups, and residents around the 41st and Long Beach site.

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