“If you are what you eat, I only want to eat the good stuff” – Remy the Rat
By Ari LeVaux
If you squint, Ratatouille is practically indistinguishable from summer itself. It’s a dish you make when the tomatoes, eggplant, and zucchini are all accumulating faster than you can use them. Thus, it is both a way of enjoying this abundance and also of dealing with it by preserving its components at their peak freshness. Those components are zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, onion, garlic and fresh herbs. Cooked together with olive oil and salt, these earthy treasures add up to something greater than the sum of their parts.
In Ratatouille the film, Remy the Rat made a similar point when attempting to give a lesson on food theory to his hapless brother. “Each flavor is totally unique. But combine one flavor with another, and something new is created.”
So it is with ratatouille the dish, where the diverse flavors of the mature garden do amazing things to each other as they melt together in a brine of tomato juice and olive oil. The mushy eggplant and zucchini surrender their forms, as garlic and aromatic herbs permeate the whole business, and all of the garden flavors combine in your mouth as you chew. Each ingredient is at its best, thanks to the presence of the others.
That film has an extra-special place in my heart because I have a son named Remy, who like the film’s star happens to be a culinary genius as well. He’s seen the movie enough times to recite many of its scenes from memory, and more than enough times to be less than impressed by a recent batch of ratatouille I made, which did not glow like a rainbow as it did in the movie.
Remy’s criticism was understandable, as that batch was pretty chunky. But I had an excuse. It was, by design, destined to be a sauce batch, not built for looks. As soon as it cooled, I planned to liquify it into a pinkish orange slurry that does great on pasta, pizza, and on its own as a salmorejo-like soup. Liquified ratatouille freezes particularly well, and is arguably the most versatile and useful form of ratatouille. I assured Remy that when it came time to construct my masterpiece, a double-ratatouille lasagna, that I would use the mandolin and make perfect slices.
I call it Double Ratatouille Lasagna because it requires making two batches of ratatouille, a sauce batch like the aforementioned, and a batch with thin-sliced ratatouille components layered in with the noodles, sauce and cheeses, so it cooks into a fresh, second batch of ratatouille.
To my relief, Remy the human was impressed with my ratatouille lasagna. He marveled at its hybrid nature, being equal parts French and Italian cuisines. While double ratatouille lasagna is a way to enjoy the beautiful fleeting moments of summer, having ratatouille sauce in the freezer will allow you to make a damn good lasagna all winter long. And if that doesn’t capture the dual nature of summer — a time to enjoy the sunshine and squirrel some away for later use — I don’t know what does.
If you are what you eat, then this time of year I am ratatouille.
Ratatouille
Here is a recipe for the most ordinary, average form of ratatouille. Consider it a starting off point. I have listed the principal ingredients in equal parts, but the reality is you can use whatever you have, in whatever quantities you have. If you only have one eggplant, don’t put off the recipe or go shopping. Just make it with whatever is available. That is the true spirit of ratatouille.
Ingredients
3 cups zucchini slices
3 cups eggplant slices
3 cups tomato, sliced or chopped
1 large onion, minced
1 large bulb of garlic, peeled and sliced
Fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary
1 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons of salt
Process
Preheat the oven to 350. Layer the ingredients in a deep dish pan, alternating so it’s more of a mixture than stratifications. Add the salt and olive oil, cover with foil or a tight fitting lid and bake for 90 minutes. You can leave it in the oven to stay warm for hours until it’s time to eat.
That’s the essence of ratatouille. Whether you made perfect slices or sloppy chunks, the flavor will be the threshold of summer.
Liquid Ratatouille
Make a batch of ratatouille, heavy on the tomatoes if possible. Let it cool and liquify it in the blender.
If you want the smoothest sauce possible, peel the eggplant and zucchini prior to cooking.
This sauce will last at least until the following summer, frozen in freezer bags.
To serve liquid ratatouille as a salmorejo-like soup, mix it with some heavy cream or serve with a dollop of creme fraiche. Garnish with chives, basil, or parsley.
Double Ratatouille Lasagna
In winter when fresh ratatouille ingredients are not available, you can make a simpler version of this lasagna by skipping the raw vegetables and simply layering in sauce, lasagna noodles and cheese. It’s almost as good; still completely amazing.
Ladle enough sauce into a deep baking dish to cover the bottom. Then add a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles. Then, another layer of sauce, followed by a layer of ricotta, and layers of ratatouille ingredients, followed by a layer of mozzarella cheese, and another layer of sauce. Repeat this as many times as your ingredient quantities and pan depth allow.
Cover and bake for 90 minutes. Remove the cover for the final 15 minutes to melt and slightly brown the cheese on top. Allow to cool and solidify, and serve while still warm.
At Los Tres Conchitos, a family-owned diner tucked along Wilmington’s stretch of Pacific Coast Highway, Rep. Nanette Barragán slipped into a waitress role for an hour last week. The congresswoman, a lawyer by training, carried plates of enchiladas and bowls of caldo de res to customers at the 24-hour Mexican restaurant that has been serving the community for more than half a century.
The tableside shift was more than a novelty — it was a statement. Barragán wanted to shine a spotlight on the affordability crisis squeezing families in her district and across the country. She blasted what she calls “the Trump Tax,” tariffs, and cuts to social safety net programs that are driving up costs on food, clothing, cars, and medicine.
“Our constituents are scared and worried about the changes coming from Republicans in Washington,” Barragán said. “Parents should not have to decide between buying medicine for their child and putting food on the table.”
Alongside her critique, Barragán emphasized her support for service workers, backing legislation to abolish the subminimum wage for tipped employees and calling for livable wages, equal pay, and stronger labor rights.
W.S. Milner made art and a community out of snark and love
By Evelyn McDonnell
The third act of Wendy Sue Milner-Calloway’s life began with a creative breakthrough and a harbinger of death. In 2004, she and her husband, David Calloway, moved from the San Fernando Valley to San Pedro. They had sent two children into the world and retired from their careers in the film industry. After publishing a novel in 2001, Wendy redirected her interest in mythological and sacred texts into delicate objects she sculpted in the room above the garage at their Point Fermin Craftsman home.
One day, the couple walked into Point Gallery, a space on West 37th Street run by lifelong San Pedrans Victoria and Dominic Abbatiello. Inspired by the conversation and creative atmosphere, Wendy returned with a round wooden cheese box filled with small books and reliquaries made from polymer. The detailed, gilded objets d’art were inspired by illuminated medieval manuscripts, and each told a story — her narrative interests manifested in material form.
“When she opened the box, I’m thinking with Vicki, ‘How good could these be? It’s San Pedro!’” Dominic recalls. “Then, when I saw them, I was whoa! These are really good.”
W.S. Milner, as she called herself, had her first showing at a two-women exhibit at Point (where The Den is now) in 2013. Half her work sold at the opening. A San Pedro art star was born.
But the triumph was bittersweet. Just as her visual artist career was unfolding, Milner began seeing double. She was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer in her cranium and was given five years to live. Not a person to follow orders, Wendy lived another 11 years, becoming a leader in the San Pedro arts community and a respected artist.
The cancer finally won Aug. 9.
“SNARKY SENSE OF HUMOR”
Wendy Milner was born Dec. 5, 1948, in Lansing, Michigan. She grew up in Woodland Hills, California, and got a BA in English literature and MFA in theater from San Francisco State University. There, she met Calloway; they married in a Calabasas field in 1971. She designed scenery for stage and screen and wrote a novel, In Translation, that mystically interweaves the narratives of a medieval French woman and a 21st-century California skater boi.
Milner was smart, quick-witted, a voracious reader, and had an edge. In college, her nickname was Sparky. “She had that snarky sense of humor,” her husband says. He recalls a “what if” conversation they had shortly before her final surgery.
“Life is for the living; I want you to marry again,” Wendy told her partner of 54 years. “You’ve been domesticated way too long to go back out in the wild.”
“Oh, really?” David responded.
“Yeah. But I just don’t want you to be happy.”
The queen of snark was also a nurturer. As a late-blooming artist, Milner didn’t have the sanction or the sanctuary of the gallery system – so she built her own. She moved her studio to Angels Gate Cultural Center, where she became a member of the board and a founder of the annual fundraising party, which she envisioned as a gothic costume ball. She also cofounded the Mossy Rocks Poetry Society, a group that gathers regularly to read and share poetry, and the Sunken City Literary Society, a group dedicated to reading the winners of literary prizes. Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and friendships were also a central part of her emotional and social life.
“She was hugely generous to vulnerable women, including many fellow artists,” says her friend and neighbor Heidi Tinsman. “She really took people under her wing and was especially helpful to us because she was so edgy and non-sentimental, but ultimately hugely kind.”
“TIME AS THE GIFT”
Raised by Christian Scientists, Milner didn’t believe in any particular religion but thought they were all interesting, particularly Tibetan Buddhism. “She was a firm believer in the idea that there’s a lot of different ways of defining reality,” says Calloway, author of If Someday Comes: A Slave’s Story of Freedom. “And none of it is any better than the other was her point of view. People live one way in this country, and they live that way in that country, and who’s to say?”
Spiritual inquiries inspired this hard-thinking woman’s work, perhaps because just as she was building her friendships and art, Milner was battling mortality. She lost the vision in her left eye, which she covered with either a patch or special glasses. And she suffered.
But she created, and showed her work at galleries, including Michael Stearns. “Although she went through all the treatment and through all of that, she still kept her spirits, still kept doing her artwork,” says Victoria Abbatiello. “She was very motivated in that way. She didn’t waste any time. She really saw time as the gift and that she could produce things that she loved.”
From W.S. Milner’s 2018 one-woman show, “Deciduous Gods.” Photo by L. Steelink, Cornelius Projects, San Pedro, Ca
Cornelius Projects on Pacific Avenue gave Milner a one-woman show, “Deciduous Gods,” in 2018. “Wendy was a devoted curious student of mythology and understood the myths and the gods had real world significance and implications, which resurfaced deciduously,” says Cornelius founder Laurie Steelink. “I had natural wood pedestals fashioned specifically for her works, which resulted in elevating the sculptures to a level of sophistication the gods and Wendy’s work demanded.”
As it happens, I was at Wendy’s first opening and bought one of her little books (my husband later built the pedestals for Cornelius Projects). I always enjoyed visiting her studio at Angels Gate and seeing how her work grew and evolved, wishing I could afford more of her physical pagan poetry. I knew about her cancer, but I found this short woman with white bangs and big glasses constitutionally resistant to pity or remorse. Not surprisingly, she was an acolyte of the Stoics.
Milner had a third surgery Aug. 7. The operation took more than a day, and afterwards, the artist suffered a massive stroke. She never woke up.
Milner’s life and death deeply impacted her San Pedro community. Folks who knew her as an artist, an organizer, a friend and a spouse texted, emailed and spoke their remembrances.
Wendy Milner-Calloway and her husband David Calloway. Photo courtesy of David Calloway.
TRIBUTES
“Curious & brilliant, bitingly honest, accomplished artist, Wendy Milner-Calloway gently reached out to me. We were both artists at Angels Gate. I tend to be reclusive, but I trusted her invitations and my life unfolded into a vivid, joyful experience daily! I read & attended with her many women friends the Sunken City Literary Society that she founded to discuss the current Pulitzer/Booker prize winners. Wendy would text poignant and thought-provoking poems from her morning reading — reading that I suspect helped her endure the terrible pain from the tumor pressing on her brain. Wendy reached out to know me later in our lives. I came to trust her, to share intimacies from our long lives as only women will. I came to love her deeply. Friends to the end, Wendy left me cherished new friends and a more vibrant relationship with my world.” Candice Gawne, human artist
“Wendy was and will always be a very close friend, heart-to-heart talks about life, the universe, and everything. She was and is a powerful, multi-faceted human being. One of her greatest pleasures was to spoil her grandkids rotten; she did it with such glee, those fortunate children will hold her in their hearts as long as they breathe. The list of Wendy is absurdly long, more talented than one person should be, and in such diverse areas. Rather than list who she is, what she is to me is a dear and trusted friend, and I love her and miss her. She was a force to be reckoned with.” Phoebe Barnum, visual artist, Angels Gate Cultural Center
“Wendy was my dream neighbor and friend. Her intelligence, kindness and creativity meant we were treated to memorable meals, lovely art experiences and stimulating conversations. Our mutual love of Angels Gate Cultural Center gave us opportunities to work closely together on fundraising efforts. Wendy made everything joyful and engaging. I treasure every day spent in her company and carry her in my heart always.” Susan Davis, artist
“The AGCC community mourns the loss of Wendy Calloway, also known as multi-media artist W.S. Milner, who was a beloved and respected member of the San Pedro arts community with a long history at Angels Gate Cultural Center. A master of her craft, Wendy brought her spunky, unapologetic soul to vibrant, imaginative sculpture and ceramic work that drew from ancient history and legends to forge contemporary artifacts of human experience. Her artistic legacy and spirited presence will be deeply missed.” Amy Eriksen, executive director, Angels Gate Cultural Center
“Wendy was so smart and so interested in seemingly everything! She knew Greek mythology inside and out, a constant inspiration for her art, a voracious consumer of medieval art history, poetry, and fiction of all kinds. … Wendy was sardonic and had a wicked sense of humor, always self-mocking as too hard-edged and needing to moderate her impulse to snarl and snip social situations and remind herself to ask “what would a kind person do?” But, in fact, that was a big cover. She was massively generous, an ultimate form of kindness. In the neighborhood, she was always asking folks over to her gorgeous Craftsman, delighting in cooking a delicious meal. Interested, always so interested, in whatever you were doing.” Heidi Tinsman, professor of history at the University of California, Irvine
“Wendy and David graciously threw our family a “New Neighbor Welcome party” as she called it, when we moved to the Point Fermin area. She made sure we were surrounded by other kind-hearted human beings, like her, and helped us into this amazing community. I think she was also excited that we were an interracial family like them. Often, we relied on Wendy and David to share their expert advice regarding our home, as we both have old Craftsmans. Looking back through our conversations, I’m reminded that Wendy was always truthful, witty, clever, and encouraging. I’ll always respect her tenacity to put her artistic work as a priority in her life, something I admire and want to take forward. Thank you, Wendy!” Denise Lopez, ceramics artist and owner of The Den
“If my discerning four-legged canine soulmate, Rockette, “el perro” Morton liked someone, I knew they were good people. Wendy Milner was one of those people. Upon entering building D at Angels Gate Cultural Center, where Wendy had an art studio, Rockette would always make a beeline to greet her. It helped that she had dog treats and a comfortable chair to sit in. She saw the special being in Rockette, and we saw the special being in Wendy.” Laurie Steelink, artist and founder of Cornelius Projects
“She had that ability to bring out the best in you. And I told her that one day. I said, you know, I didn’t know all this stuff about myself, but you saw it.” Victoria Abbatiello, artist.
Wendy Milner-Callowy. Photo courtesy of David Calloway.
“The last time I shared with Wendy was in her studio where she was fiercely working on six of her sculpted reliquaries. She was saying how urgent it was that she finish this work before she died. Her surgery was days away, and she told me how 11 years ago, she went to the doctor because one eye was seeing double. She said she didn’t want to get old and feeble and demented, so she was not scared.
‘I had a great life,’ she said.
I told her I was feeling a little dizzy, so she gave me a chocolate Builder Bar, which I consumed. Then I asked for ice because I thought I was about to faint. She actually had ice in her studio in a little plastic bag, which I pressed to my neck as I lay on the floor.
‘I wonder if it’s because I’ve been talking about death,’ she said. At the time, I thought it was just a warm day.
Strangely, the shock of her absence — the burst of bright energy gone — could suggest an afterlife. But she would hate me saying that.” Peggy Reavey, artist.
Workers have the power to shut down production and the profit pipeline of the billionaire class; labor and community united can stop Trump’s march toward war and fascism.
Freedom Socialist newspaper, Vol. 46, No. 4, August to September 2025,
The U.S. working class is in motion. In the time from January to July, weekend protests by thousands of people have ballooned into massive marches of millions.
And in cities from Los Angeles to New York, flash points are causing sparks to fly and spread.
Unions are starting to bring their discipline and weight to battles over free speech, immigration, federal workforce cuts and more. This was evident when the California president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), David Huerta, was arrested during workplace raids by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Labor’s response was swift and strong. (See “Los Angeles ignites: from raids to resistance” at socialism.com.)
But mass protests alone won’t stop Donald Trump’s wrecking ball. Neither can the courts, where all roads lead to the Supremes. And Congress is part of the problem.
While U.S. capitalism rapidly devolves, ordinary working-class folks won’t stand by as critical programs and services get the DOGE. People want to know what is next. What will reverse this descent into austerity and war or fascism?
Historically in such times of crisis, workers have turned to their greatest power, by withholding their labor in mass strikes. And this is what is needed now.
Workers’ greatest power
A general strike involves shutting down many industries, public and private, from transportation to finance. It can include workers running essential services for public benefit. Such strikes are typically started by unions but joined by the vast majority of workers — unionized or not. Students and community, families, neighbors and the unemployed also play a pivotal role.
History shows how one struggle can widen. This happened in 1934, when dockworkers in San Francisco/Oakland were attacked by police. The whole labor movement responded with a citywide strike.
General strikes can last one day or many. From 2019 to 2021, India, France and Haiti were all rocked by work stoppages to protest spiraling prices and attacks on labor and civil rights.
Walkouts can evolve into a struggle for workers’ power as happened in the Russian Revolution. Or they can force reforms as labor did in the U.S. during the 1930s through general and sit-down strikes. This led to the National Labor Relations Act and birth of the modern U.S. labor movement.
In 2025 U.S. workers have come full circle. Decades of reliance upon the Democratic Party and capitalist labor laws have weakened labor’s muscle.
But Trump’s juggernaut is awakening a sleeping giant; the mood is warming toward strikes, and even the possibility of initiating a labor party.
Don’t mourn, organize
Organizing for a general strike is a concrete next step that workers can take to push back against imperialist war and encroaching fascism. It’s also a way to build solidarity and class consciousness for the battles that assuredly lie ahead.
To gain traction requires support from some international unions or high-profile leaders. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), is one North Star. In March, she declared the labor movement has “very few options but to join together to organize for a general strike.”
Nelson’s call was in response to the Department of Homeland Security stripping workers in the Transportation Safety Administration of their collective bargaining rights.
Rank-and-filers can amplify her urgent appeal by bringing resolutions to their unions, and to county and state labor councils to coordinate solidarity.
Members can ask their unions to establish education committees; coordinate workplace trainings on how to defend coworkers during ICE raids; and mobilize members for labor and community protests.
Labor organizations can be urged to form united fronts for mutual defense of unions and communities that are under attack, including immigrant workers, refugees, communities of color, public-worker unions, women and transgender people.
Forming caucuses within unions is a great way for rank-and-filers to organize and educate on the shop floor. For example, Purple for Palestine, a national caucus within SEIU, has moved the international union on support for Palestine. Through uniting around a program, caucuses can amplify ideas and demands by distributing educational statements, organizing for union meetings, developing strategies to win over coworkers, and defending free speech.
Crisis brings opportunity
The Democratic Party has served as a conservatizing brake on labor. This pattern was on full display in 2022, when former President Joe Biden blocked a national railroad strike. But this summer, two labor leaders resigned from the Democratic National Committee. American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten left the DNC on June 5. President Lee Saunders of the 1.3-million-member public-sector American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) called his departure a move to meet the urgency of the moment. “These are new times. They demand new strategies, new thinking, and a renewed way of fighting for the values we hold dear,” he said.
This new independence could open opportunities for labor bodies to initiate town halls or assemblies where workers and unions can discuss how to build labor’s power, including through strikes and independent political action.
Shut it down!
At every level, from rural towns to big urban areas, workers are demonstrating a readiness to leap forward. Associations of gig drivers are contesting the power of companies like Uber and Lyft. Baristas are taking on Starbucks. Unionized grocery workers are preparing to strike their giant employers. Federal workers are uniting across unions to defend their jobs and stop privatization.
In Washington state, Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity (OWLS) is campaigning for a general strike. One member of the cross-union labor group has worked with others in her local to send a resolution from Office and Professional Employees Local 8 to the Washington State Labor Council 2025 Convention. It calls for labor and progressive forces to “take whatever actions are necessary up to and including a general strike to protect free speech, all workers’ rights, our democracy and the Constitution.”
Labor has the power to turn the tide in its favor. As sung in the beloved union anthem Solidarity Forever: “In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold, greater than the might of armies, multiplied a thousand-fold.”There’s no time to waste.
SAMPLE RESOLUTION
Mobilize to defend workers under attack
This sample resolution developed by Freedom Socialist Party labor activists can be brought to unions and other worker and community organizations to help build momentum for a general strike. Groups can adapt it to fit their own or changing circumstances. Please share your results, news or feedback by emailing FSPus@socialism.com.
Whereas the Trump administration and its billionaire backers are waging unprecedented assaults on the working class, such as laying off federal workers and cutting back public services; gutting the National Labor Relations Board and collective bargaining rights; conducting ICE raids and mass detentions of immigrant workers, including union organizers; arresting critics; and deploying the military against protesters in Los Angeles; and
Whereas Congress and the courts have proven incapable or unwilling to defend workers’ rights, free speech and basic democratic institutions; and
Whereas it is time to build united fronts of unions and community groups to defend those under attack, including immigrant workers, refugees, communities of color, public employee unions, women, and transgender people; and
Whereas workers joining together to withhold their labor is a greater power than the political machinations of any aspiring despot, and, as Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson has said, workers “have very few options but to join together to organize for a general strike”;
Be it therefore resolved that (insert organization) will support the call for a general strike; and
Be it further resolved that (organization) will form an action committee to prepare members for a general strike; coordinate worksite trainings on how to defend coworkers during ICE raids; and mobilize members to participate in labor and community rallies and actions; and
Be it finally resolved that (organization) will advocate for a general strike by taking this call to affiliates and labor councils, and urging the AFL-CIO to organize for a general strike.
In the quiet morning haze of a divided America, an upside-down U.S. flag flapping in the wind is jarring, even offensive to some. To others, it is the only truthful symbol left — a distress call from a republic strained by division, misinformation, and a loss of faith in its foundational systems. And as difficult as it may be to accept, flying the flag upside down may now be an entirely appropriate gesture — not out of contempt, but as an urgent SOS from within.
According to the United States Flag Code (36 U.S.C. § 176), an inverted flag is a signal of “dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.” For decades, Americans have associated that gesture with sinking ships, lost hikers, and wartime emergencies. But in 2025, should we not ask: What qualifies as extreme danger if not the slow, choking fracture of our democracy?
The U.S. is not at peace with itself. Partisan media has replaced public discourse. Facts have lost ground to feelings. Courts are politicized, elections are doubted, and legislation often resembles performance art more than governance. When truth is no longer agreed upon and the shared civic culture that once bound red and blue together has frayed into tribal chaos, we must admit we are in distress — culturally, institutionally, and spiritually.
Flying the flag upside down is not a rejection of America — it is an appeal to her conscience. It is not a call to burn the Constitution, but to remember it. It is not anti-veteran, but a plea to honor the sacrifices made in the name of a functioning republic, not just an aesthetic one. Just as a lifeguard waves a red flag to signal danger, Americans who invert their flag are signaling a nation in peril.
Some will say it’s disrespectful. That is fair — they are entitled to that feeling. But perhaps we should also ask: what is more disrespectful — the symbolic flipping of cloth, or the slow corrosion of democratic norms? When elected officials openly flirt with authoritarian rhetoric, when violent conspiracy theorists are welcomed into mainstream discourse, and when millions are convinced the system is rigged regardless of evidence, it becomes clear that we’re not merely in political disagreement — we are in institutional distress.
If ever there were a time to heed the Flag Code’s exception for “extreme danger,” it is now. The upside-down flag is not a partisan act. It is not left or right. It is not red or blue. It is the signal of a republic that still breathes but is struggling to remember how to stand.
Symbols matter. And when used with intent and reverence, they can cut through noise like no speech ever could. The inverted flag is one such symbol. We must not ignore it, mock it, or criminalize it. We must listen to what it tells us about the state of our union.
Because if America is not in distress now — then what, truly, would qualify?
How the current conditions of immigrant detention and Trump Administration policies impelled a farmworker organizer to return to Mexico.
When I spoke with Alfredo Juarez Zeferino, known as “Lelo,” while he was imprisoned in the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, he had to be very careful about what he said. Calls to detainees are monitored. “My freedom of speech here is very limited,” he warned me. Lelo had been held there since his detention in March, and I interviewed him in July.
Two weeks after our conversation, Lelo agreed to “voluntary departure” — the term used by immigration authorities for self-deportation. In early August, by telephone from Santa Cruz Yucucani, his hometown in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, he was able to describe the conditions in this enormous immigrant detention center, which today holds more than 1,500 people awaiting deportation.
“It’s a really terrible place,” Lelo told me. He said bad food was probably the worst problem: The Geo Group, a private corporation that runs the detention center, is supposed to provide three meals a day, but often the last meal would come at one or two in the morning. “The rice was hard, like it never touched hot water, and the beans were never cooked all the way,” Lelo said. “That was the main food they gave us. Chicken was so undercooked that sometimes it dripped blood, and people got sick during the night. One time, everybody turned in their trays and we wouldn’t take the food.”
The second week he was there, Lelo started having vision problems because the lights were always on at night, making it hard to sleep. He signed up for the “sick call” list to get eye drops. “I waited a long time to see a doctor,” he recalled, “and finally an officer told us to go back to our unit. They only had one doctor, and we weren’t going to be seen. After that I didn’t sign up again, but other folks in my unit would wait hours and hours and still not get seen. I’d share an apple or something sweet for people who were diabetic. But day after day it was the same thing. Sign up and maybe tomorrow somebody will see you.”
The Tacoma immigrant detention center is run by the Geo Group, founded as a division of the Wackenhut Corporation, with ties to U.S. intelligence agencies going back to the Cold War. Since discovering in the 1980s the huge profits to be made in federal contracts, the company has become one of the two largest corporations running immigrant detention centers in the United States. Much of those profits are earned by keeping operating costs at a minimum; as a result Geo has been repeatedly charged with short staffing at the prisons it runs. “Geo does this on purpose to make it hard for folks, while maximizing their profit by not having more employees,” Lelo said. Bad conditions serve to coerce people detained at the Northwest Detention Center into self-deportation.
Self-deportation is an important arm of the Trump administration’s immigration policy. According to Mark Krikorian, executive director of the anti-immigrant Center for Immigration Studies, “Any successful strategy to cut the illegal population significantly will have to combine two things: ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] arresting and removing illegal aliens, and other illegal aliens leaving on their own. … Preliminary data suggest nearly one million illegal aliens have departed the country since President Donald Trump’s Inauguration.”
That number is highly questionable, and the center provides no data to support it. It is undeniable, however, that the government is pressuring people to self-deport. Fear of deportation and family separation, as well as hopelessness about any prospect for legal status, has led many people to leave the United States.
In a highly-publicized immigration raid at Glass House Farms on California’s central coast, chaos and fear were deliberately used as weapons to terrorize workers and their families. One man, Jaime Alaniz Garcia, fell to his death desperately fleeing ICE agents. The terror produced by the raids is also a weapon to get people to leave on their own. Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official in charge of the Southern California region, responded to criticism of the Glass House raid. “Illegal aliens had the opportunity to self deport,” he said. “Now we’ll help things along a bit.”
“They are trying all they can to get folks out of the country,” Lelo said, “whether through deportation or asking folks to self deport.” Inside the Tacoma detention center, ICE agents took another tactic. “They went to my unit three times, saying that if people gave up their right to fight their case and self-deported, they’d send them $1,000 after 60 days. People got really mad because a lot have lived here for many years. We have families and we’re part of the community. What is $1,000 compared to 20 years of your life?”
Nevertheless, the constant pressure took its toll on his family, and eventually on Lelo himself. In early March, his family decided to return to their hometown, Santa Cruz Yucucani. At that point, Lelo had not yet been detained. Later, as he languished inside, he described their reasons.
“It was a hard decision because my parents had lived in Washington for 18 years,” he explained. “My siblings were born in the United States. They were going to school there. All their friends are there. But as we saw ICE begin to round up more and more folks, we did not want to put my family through the trauma of separation. So we decided they would leave, which they did on March 16 from Santa Maria, [California, a town from which many people leave to go back to Mexico] on the bus. It’s hard to describe the feeling. We always had this plan for my siblings to go to school and have a better life, more opportunity than my parents had. It was like we had to start all over again.”
Then, on March 25, as he was driving his compañera to work in the tulip fields of the Washington Bulb Company, in the Skagit Valley north of Seattle, he was stopped by immigration agents. When he asked for a warrant, they broke the car window and dragged him out. Within hours he was in the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, and in line for a flight back to Mexico. Only a wave of public outrage, including calls from U.S. Rep. Rick Larson, Democrat of Washington, and Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, also a Democrat, kept him from being loaded onto a deportation plane.
Those protests acknowledged that Lelo’s arrest was not random. ICE later said he had been detained because of an earlier deportation order, but Lelo called the charge a pretext. “Before my detention, I had no idea that there was a removal order for me from 2017, under the first Trump Administration. If they’d really wanted to remove me, they could have, but they didn’t. They waited until Trump was president again to go after me. I was never given the opportunity to respond or fully defend myself. There was never any due process.”
Lelo was targeted because of his history as a farmworker organizer. He was a cofounder of Washington’s new union, Familias Unidas por la Justicia, and helped organize many of the campaigns by Community to Community, the state’s advocate for agricultural workers. One of these was for a cap on rents, and another for the Keep Washington Working Act to protect the rights of farmworkers.
But it was his public criticism of the H-2A contract labor program that earned Lelo the greatest hostility among growers. That program allows growers to recruit workers in Mexico for a season’s work, after which they must return. Workers are very vulnerable, and can be fired and blacklisted for organizing, or simply for failing to meet production quotas. Almost one-third of farmworkers in Washington state have now been replaced by contractors using the H-2A program.
“Growers like WAFLA [the Washington Farm Labor Association — a large labor contractor] know me very well,” he recalled, “and were very upset at our opposition to the H-2A program. I would talk to local workers about losing jobs because of it, and to the H-2A workers themselves when they called to report abuses. That made me a big target. But I don’t regret anything I’ve done. It was all supporting workers.”
In the end, however, months in detention took their toll. In mid-July, Lelo decided to leave the country voluntarily. He and many others faced the same situation, worn down by the impact of dehumanizing conditions and hopelessness for any solution to their cases. “It’s very hard to bring legal cases from within this place,” he explained during our conversation while he was still in Tacoma. “There are many people here and they’re all losing [their cases] and getting deported. Two people even won their cases, and they’re going to be deported anyway. A lot of people here have legal status. They have good jobs. They’ve been paying taxes for many years. But at the end of their last hearing, they get removed from the country anyway.”
In that sense, Lelo’s case was no different. “Winning from within just doesn’t seem possible,” he said. “Even if I went through all the legal steps and had a decision in my favor, there is no guarantee I will be released after that. Signing the voluntary departure is the only option I have.”
At the end of the ordeal, however, Lelo found himself in Santa Cruz Yucucani, an Indigenous Mixtec community that he only remembered as a child, but which still remembered him. “I went to town a couple of days ago and people recognized me and invited me to eat,” he told me. “I’ve had a lot of really good food here. There are other families in Santa Cruz that have come back as well, and folks are excited that we’re back.”
Lelo’s family are farmers, and on his return he began going out to the fields with his father and grandfather, where they plant corn, green beans, pumpkins and bananas. “My grandpa sells a little bit of it, but it’s mostly just for the family. We clean the fields and take care of the crops.”
As a union organizer of farmworkers in the United States who labors for wages in industrial agriculture, it has been a revelatory experience. “The big difference is that here we don’t work for anybody, because the fields belong to the family,” he says. “We can take a break whenever we want, and when it gets hot we just go find shade. It’s a huge change from being a farmworker working for a boss.”
But he doesn’t forget the union and the community from which he was taken by force. “I haven’t stopped feeling part of an immigrant community that’s trying to defend itself. As a farmworker, it’s heartbreaking to see pictures of the military chasing us in the fields. We’ve never been able to legalize, and now we have to leave. It’s not right. People have to pay attention to what’s happening and speak up. Don’t look the other way.”
In the meantime, though, Lelo simply has to live. “Tomorrow I’m going to the banana field. It’s going to be the first time in 18 years,” he says.
A former union organizer for thirty years, David Bacon’s photo essays and stories seek to capture the courage of people struggling for social and economic justice in countries around the world.
How Civil Service Gains Are Being Rolled Back a Century Later
On his first day back in office, the felon occupying the Oval Office symbolically declared war on labor and the middle class by reviving Schedule F, an executive order he first issued at the end of his initial term. The measure stripped civil service protections from tens of thousands of policy-influencing federal employees, making them “at-will” and easier to fire. This time, the Office of Personnel Management formally proposed rules to reclassify 50,000 federal workers.
Also on Jan. 20, 2025, he imposed a hiring freeze that halted nearly all federal civilian hiring. The freeze has since been extended twice and now runs through Oct. 15, with only limited exemptions for national security and public safety roles. A July memorandum further required that new hires receive approval from agency leadership — typically political appointees — centralizing control of the civil service.
That same day, he issued Executive Order 14151, mandating the immediate termination of all federal Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility programs. Employees in those roles were placed on leave, DEI offices were eliminated, public materials removed and grant funding canceled. Separate orders rolled back affirmative action requirements for federal contractors and banned consideration of race, sex or gender in hiring, calling such practices “radical and wasteful.”
By day five, he fired 17 inspectors general, watchdog officials charged with rooting out fraud and abuse. The “Friday-night purge,” as it came to be known, disrupted oversight and likely violated statutory protections.
On day 29, Executive Order 14215 required independent agencies to submit major regulations to the White House and to follow legal interpretations issued by the president or attorney general — further eroding their autonomy.
The Office of Personnel Management estimated that 300,000 federal workers — about 12.5% of the workforce — would leave or be dismissed in 2025 as part of a sweeping downsizing initiative. At the IRS, one-quarter of the workforce departed amid politically motivated restructuring, while three senior executives were dismissed.
An OPM memo recommended reclassifying Chief Human Capital Officer positions from career-reserved to more politicized “SES general,” allowing political appointees to fill them and move against career officials deemed disloyal.
The Department of Education cut staff and resources in its Office for Civil Rights, closing regional offices and prioritizing investigations that cast diversity efforts as unfair advantages, while complaints from marginalized students went unresolved.
Changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program penalized public service workers if their employers engaged in “illegal” activities, such as supporting transgender youth — putting teachers, nurses and social workers at risk of losing benefits.
The commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, was removed after releasing jobs data that did not align with the administration’s narrative, raising fears of politicized manipulation of economic reporting. At Yosemite National Park, a scientist was fired in another move seen as politically motivated retaliation against conservation work, threatening public service missions.
Not since the dawn of the 20th century, before the civil service system was fully established, have government jobs been dispensed this way.
A 1913 series in the San Pedro News Pilot told the story of Peter Pearce, a respected janitor who lost his city hall position after more than three years when the Los Angeles Civil Service Commission barred him from taking the janitorial exam, citing his age. Pearce, who had migrated from Guernsey in the Channel Islands with his wife Alice around 1884, was by then a pioneer San Pedran. His removal was linked to patronage politics that rewarded allies with government jobs.
Civil service reforms, beginning with the Pendleton Act of 1883, were designed to prevent such abuses. Age limits and merit exams were originally intended to ensure competence, maturity, and reliability, and to curb patronage systems that privileged loyalty to party over public service.
Now, more than a century later, history threatens to repeat itself.
Fortunately, pro-labor movements have stepped up the fight. Federal worker unions such as the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Treasury Employees Union and AFL-CIO affiliates have filed lawsuits challenging the executive orders and lobbied allies in Congress to block or defund anti-worker policies.
Unions and labor coalitions have justifiably framed these attacks on the civil service as a threat to democracy, warning that politicizing the workforce undermines stability and fairness. They have launched media campaigns highlighting federal workers’ roles during crises such as the pandemic response, natural disasters and veterans’ care.
Labor organizers are also working with civil rights, environmental and good-government groups to argue that undermining the civil service system damages not only workers, but also public accountability.
Political action committees and grassroots groups are targeting pro-management candidates in elections and backing pro-labor challengers, especially in swing districts. They use union scorecards to mobilize members and families against lawmakers supporting rollbacks of civil service protections.
Federal employee unions have organized days of action, rallies and informational pickets at agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, IRS, and Social Security Administration. While federal workers face legal limits on striking, they have used demonstrations, petitions and “work-to-rule” tactics to resist changes.
The stakes are clear: if the civil service falls, so does the principle that government exists to serve the public, not a party or a president.
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Aug. 27 issued a statement urging Congress to pass gun violence prevention legislation after a shooting Wednesday morning during Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school, killing two children and injuring 17 other people.
“The American people have had enough thoughts and prayers from politicians,” said Hahn in a social media post. “These children were literally in Mass when they were murdered. Congress has the power to act on gun violence—what’s missing is the courage.”
School Threat Assessment Response Team
Hahn is also raising awareness about LA County’s School Threat Assessment Response Team or START as the school year gets underway in Los Angeles County.
START is a team of county mental health professionals who partner with local law enforcement to respond to calls about possible threats against schools across the county. The aim is to intervene before a threat of school violence becomes a reality.
“Whether you are a parent or a student and you hear something that doesn’t sound right, I urge you to contact START,” said Supervisor Hahn. “Specially trained County mental health professionals and their law enforcement partners will respond quickly, make sure to keep people out of danger, and get the person in crisis the help they need.”
Hahn has led an effort on the board to expand the START program to allow professionals to more quickly respond to any reported threats against schools or students. In 2023, Hahn worked with the Department of Mental Health to launch a countywide ad campaign aimed at educating young people about how to report a school threat to START.
Teachers, school administrators, parents, and students who have experienced or witnessed an actual or implied threat of school violence, are urged to contact the START program by calling 213-739-5565 or emailing START@dmh.lacounty.gov.
The Long Beach Creative Group announces an open call for artists to submit work that relates to, represents, or challenges the idea of Long Beach. The exhibition, titled Long Beach Vibez, was proposed by Michael Biagiotti, who will serve as one of three jurors. Submissions are currently open, and will be accepted through Sept. 3 at 10 p.m.
The exhibition will open on Oct. 11 and run through Nov. 15 in the Rod Briggs Gallery.
“Long Beach is a gritty city by the sea that’s unapologetically authentic,” Biagiotti said. “Our city has many faces, and with this show I want to capture both the diversity and the common thread that unites us.”
Long Beach Creative Group board president Travis Stock-Tucker agrees. “Long Beach isn’t just a backdrop,” he said. “It’s the main character in thousands of untold stories. I really hope to see historic icons, tattoo culture, beach life, urban landscapes, the food scene, and the vibrant global intersections represented in the works that artists submit,” Stock-Tucker continued.
Original works of art in the following media are welcome: sculpture and assemblage; paintings, drawings, and collage; photographs, digital art, or videos; and printmaking. All work must have been produced within the last five years and may not exceed 36 inches in any dimension, including the frame. Work produced or significantly altered by AI is not being accepted for this show.
Los Serenos de Point Vicente is hosting an open house, Sept. 3, to introduce community members to how they can become and participate as volunteer docents. Los Serenos de Point Vicente is in search of adults who are eager to learn about the local geology, flora and fauna, and history, and share their knowledge with museum visitors.
The open house will be held at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center at 7 pm.
Membership is open to those interested in learning about the nature and history of the local area and sharing this knowledge by conducting tours of the Point Vicente Interpretive Center and various trails scattered on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
A full description of docent duties and responsibilities is available here :
The 501(c)(3) non-profit organization Los Serenos de Point Vicente has assisted and supported the City of Rancho Palos Verdes’ objectives for the Point Vicente Interpretive Center since 1984. It operates various educational programs for children between 2 and 18 years of age. It also provides learning opportunities for the general public through monthly docent guided nature walks which are held at Abalone Cove Shoreline Park, Forrestal Nature Preserve/Ladera Linda Community Center, the Trails at Ocean Trails Nature Reserve and Alta Vicente Nature Reserve. Los Serenos de Point Vicente docents and volunteers provide interpretive and educational services to the community regarding the unique features and natural and cultural history of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and the migrating Gray whales that could be easily viewed from the Center’s outstanding vantage point by the Center’s many visitors.
Time: 7 p.m., Sept. 3
Cost: Free
Details: www.losserenosrpv.org/become-a-docent/
Venue: Point Vicente Interpretive Center, 31501 Palos Verdes Dr W, Rancho Palos Verdes
