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Mike Davis and Jon Wiener, authors of Set The Night On Fire: Los Angeles In The Sixties, are kicking off the DSA-LA Political Education Committee’s Night School Series: Lost Angles with a discussion about the working-class radicals who fought the Los Angeles Police Department and the city economic and political elite in the 1960s.

By the early 1960s Los Angeles was a powderkeg, and the LAPD was a lit fuse. Under the direction of the powerful reactionary Chief William Parker, the department brutally enforced racial segregation in the black ghettoes and white suburbs. But not content with policing the city’s racial hierarchy, they also swarmed gay bars in Silver Lake, busted hippie skulls on Venice Beach, handcuffed teen rock-and-rollers on the Sunset Strip, hounded socialists, and mass-arrested working-class black and Latino students who protested for free political expression and against the Vietnam War. 

Their shared experiences with the LAPD gave these disparate groups a common set of grievances, and an uncommon foundation of solidarity. Understanding the currents that developed and movements that emerged in this period is critical to understanding Los Angeles politics today.

We’re excited to bring you this conversation on July 2nd at 6pm PST which will be moderated by Jacobin staff writer and DSA-LA member Meagan Day. 

This event is the first in the DSA-LA Political Education Committee’s upcoming Night School Series Lost Angles: Piecing Together a Radical LA.

DSA-LA members can also use this link to purchase Set the Night on Fire at 50% on the Verso Books website here.

You can RSVP for all of the classes in our 5-part Night School Series: Lost Angles below. Each session features a brief, informal presentation followed by facilitated discussion designed to engage all levels and connect current events to foundational socialist concepts and debates. Comrades are encouraged (but not required) to review recommended readings linked in the class reader aligned with session topic found here.

RSVP here for Part 1 of the series: The Horizontal City on July 16 at 6PM 

RSVP here for Part 2 of the series: Building a Radical Los Angeles on July 30 at 6PM 

RSVP here for Part 3 of the series: Red Hollywood on August 13 at 6PM

RSVP here for Part 4 of the series: Early Community Organizing on August 27 at 6PM

RSVP here for Part 5 of the series: The LA Secession Wars on September 10 at 6PM

Click here to RSVP

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