Over the last three days, organized labor has been working in solidarity with one another in a project called Hollywood to the Docks, a three-day march and protest involving both Change to Win unions and AFL-CIO members, from the Teamsters to SAG, from the ILWU to the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports.  They’ve literally walked from the heart of Hollywood to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for the last three days, concluding with a concert on the docks tonight and appearances by Speaker-Elect Karen Bass and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Next Monday, April 21, will be a day of action across the state put together by a coalition called Students for California’s Future, representing 3.2 million students, with major rallies planned in Los Angeles and at the state capital.  They are rallying against cuts to education and the university system, and this will be just the beginning of a year-long effort to call attention to education funding.

And tomorrow, at 4:00 at the ABC/Disney headquarters in Burbank, in protest of the historically awful, content-free Democratic debate aired on ABC last night, the Courage Campaign and local LA activists are going to offer lapel pins to Disney employees.  Otherwise, their network news anchors George Stephanopolous and Charles Gibson will think they hate America, which they obviously wouldn’t want. (We’ll have a lot more on this later)

Angered by eight years of conservative failure and inspired by a fiercely contested Democratic primary, a rejeuvenated grassroots is building all over the country and in California.  Find an organization that speaks to you.  Participate.  Organize.  And inch by inch, we’re going to take this state and this country back.

Mimi Walters appears to be running one of the wingnuttiest campaigns in California history in her bid to get elected to the State Senate. Last week we told you of her proud affiliation with the Howard Jarvis Association at the expense of California schools. Now she is touting her anti-immigrant credentials, even at the cost of fiscal responsibility on the state budget.

Republicans who have made immigration a campaign centerpiece have fared pretty poorly at the ballot box. So while that might suggest silence while California Republicans prepare another immigration-focused campaign, my respect for common sense and human rights forces me to speak up.

Mimi has sent out two pieces of mail to her constituents in recent days playing up her anti-immigrant stance. In a glossy mailer she not only lists her support for various immigrant-bashing measures such as cutting off social services and forbidding something like the DREAM Act – but she also engages in an overtly racist attack on Latinos.

The mailer includes an image from the 2006 immigrant rights’ protests of a Latino holding a sign reading – in English – “Today March, Tomorrow Vote.” The caption to the photo reads “Illegal aliens are demanding more and more rights. Even the right to vote in our elections!” even though there’s no evidence to suggest the protester was an undocumented immigrant.

The other piece of mail was a letter claiming that “it has been estimated illegal aliens cost California taxpayers $10 billion every year.” Not only does she provide no supporting evidence for this extraordinary claim, it flies in the face of evidence to the contrary. Undocumented immigrants contribute at least $9 billion to Social Security, and they also pay numerous state and local taxes, such as sales taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes, and (indirectly) property taxes.

The irony of Mimi Walters’ immigrant-bashing plan is that it seeks to drive taxpaying Californians either underground or out of the state entirely, right at the moment when we need all the tax revenue we can get. It’s an inhuman, reckless plan, but then what else can one expect from one of the most far-right members of the Yacht Party?