Exemplifying a non-violent path to protest the proposed Southern California International Gateway (SCIG) project, The Los Angeles Port Working Group--a collaborative of community health and environment organizations-- decided to go on a 24-hour hunger strike and all-day vigil in front Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's home.
Flier advertising hunger strike. Photo courtesy of the East Yards Community for Environment Justice. Click on the image for a larger version.
It now faces the Los Angeles City Council for a final vote--and the hundred -plus people slated to partake in the hunger strike hope it will command Villaraigosa to stop what they call an "environmentally racist land-use project that threatens [our] health and well-being."
"The decision to do this hunger strike was to show the seriousness of this project," said Kat Madrigal of the East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. "We can go days without eating, but cannot survive more than a few minutes without breathing."
And Villaraigosa is, at least over the individual councilmembers, a particular target for the group since they feel he had a staunchly clear role in moving the project forward via his appointment of the harbor commissioners--who cast their supportive votes under his direction.
"He has orchestrated this project yet has avoided addressing the SCIG in public," continued Madrigal. "With his leadership, we could have worked together and prevented the development of an unjust toxic rail project that will disproportionately impact low-income communities of color."
Beginning at 7:30 am this Friday, the starving protestors will camp in front of Villaraigosa's home 605 South Irving Boulevard and hold a candlelight vigil come 7PM. If asked to leave, organizers stated they will migrate to City Hall.
New concepts for rapid bus service across the 626 have ironed out the questions of where an East-West route would run and where demonstrations could begin.
Metro and Caltrans eastbound 91 Freeway widening is especially alarming as it will increase tailpipe pollution in an already diesel-pollution-burdened community that is 69 percent Latino, and 28 percent Black