Executive Director’s Note
Learning From Katrina

Among the terrible lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina is that poverty is alive and well in America.

Indeed, more than 40 years after Michael Harrington published his classic book The Other America, the country is witnessing an explosion of the working poor that threatens to make a mockery of the American Dream itself.

While this may have come as shock to many, those of us living in Los Angeles know all too well that vast numbers of people—most of whom work full time—are trapped in deplorable conditions which have no place in any country, let alone the richest nation on earth.

Awareness of this epidemic is essential—but it is not enough. A sophisticated, long-term strategy is required to reverse the relentless conservative assault on working families.

This approach must mobilize a broad cross section of society —workers, communities, religious leaders, elected officials—to challenge the increasing domination of our economy by national and multinational corporations. While these companies have exported millions of jobs, there are tens of millions more that cannot be exported. It is these jobs that must form the foundation for rebuilding the American middle class.

Even as we mourn the death and destruction caused by Katrina, we must seize the rare opportunity afforded by this tragedy to focus the nation’s attention once again on the Other America.