Portside

30,000 California Prisoners on Hunger Strike

The current political environment shows that activists must be flexible in choosing which political arenas are most open to their goals. Opportunities for state government to enact progressive economic measures are there for the taking, but are not being seized due to a lack of grassroots pressure that is connected to the exclusive focus on federal action.

Latino workers, demanding respect in a precarious job environment, helped boost the state's unionized workforce by 100,000 in 2012.