Institute on Inequality & Democracy
@ChallengeIneq
The Institute seeks to advance radical democracy through research, critical thought, and alliances with social movements & racial justice activism.
What an immense honor it was to have Naomi Klein give @ChallengeIneq's Third Annual Distinguished Lecture in Ideas and Organizing. "Climate justice is not a luxury policy for better days. It is how we fight fascism." View her full lecture here>> challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/naomi-klein/
From @Shelterforce. Lots of great tools featured in here including our Evictorbook, Landlord Tech Watch, and the Tenant Power Toolkit made in collaboration with the @StrikeDebt @LATenantsUnion @ChallengeIneq shelterforce.org/2025/06/17/tec…
🕊️Rest in power Benito Flores
‘Reclaimer’ Benito Flores dies while resisting eviction from El Sereno home. An organizer remembers Flores as “ a beautiful human being who wanted nothing more than to … not have to worry about being displaced.” lapublicpress.org/2025/07/reclai…
As we all mourn Benito, I wanted to share a glimpse of his brilliant refusal of state power published in one of our @ChallengeIneq articles in @Radical_Housing : radicalhousingjournal.org/wp-content/upl…
LA’s push for parking revenue could worsen crisis for vehicle dwellers. LA wants to raise RV parking tickets by $15 to bring in more money, but activists say the fines unfairly target people living in their vehicles. lapublicpress.org/2025/07/las-pu…
📌Join us this Sunday, July 13 @ 7pm for "Fluctuations of Home: Short Films From LA to DC" feat. #UCLA Activists-in-Residence Lupita Limon Corrales & James Suazo. Proud to sponsor this @uclaftvarchive film series, "(Dis)Placement: Fluctuations of Home." cinema.ucla.edu/events/fluctua…
Excited to partner with @UCLAFTVArchive on the upcoming film series "(Dis)Placement: Fluctuations of Home." Join us for opening night on July 13th w/#UCLA Activists-in-Residence Lupita Limón Corrales (screening her film!) & James Suazo (moderating the Q&A) cinema.ucla.edu/events/displac…
Happy to see here some of my illustrations and the chapter I wrote in collaboration with Renato Abramowicz Santos and Diane Wong - “I Am Still Here”: Community Memory and Archiving Practices Against Displacement
🔥Hot off the press📚 "Insurgent Ground: Land, Housing, Property" is an edited volume of collective scholarship from Freedom School 2024, which brought together a phenomenal group rooted in movements and engaged in organizing knowledge towards liberation. challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/2025/05/05/ins…
"Instead of increasing fines, LADOT should bolster its ticket forgiveness program for unhoused residents." @SamLutzker was quoted saying. Thanks @reporterliz lapublicpress.org/2025/07/las-pu…
📡Tune into this discussion organized by @Graeber_social>> youtube.com/live/FAgj66zNB… Featuring @ChallengeIneq's own Hannah Appel along with Michael Hudson & @ProfSteveKeen, this brilliant trio explores how the legacies of imperialism & debt continue to shape the world order.
@Graeber_social To our public talk: I really appreciate Debt Collective’s pragmatic approach — building practices of solidarity and local self-organization. The truth is, everyone is in debt: landlords owe the banks, tenants owe the landlords. But unless we change the system…
📻Interview w/@ChallengeIneq's researcher @spiroferrer. Data from the #TenantPowerToolkit along w/interviews reveal significantly disproportionate evictions of Black tenants in LA by REITs which have long-lasting effects on tenants' credit & housing access kcrw.com/news/shows/pre…
Thx to @reporterliz for this coverage. Meaningful relationships with communities on the frontlines of struggle along w/public scholarship are key to abolishing structures of inequality. Read the full report co-published by @VeniceJustice1 & @ChallengeIneq: challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/2025/06/25/kee…
As a reporter, I'm a bit reluctant to rely on academic studies about things you can know by just talking to people in your community. But among the authors of this one is @VeniceJustice1, which includes Peggy Lee Kennedy, who's helped ppl clear vehicles citations for 20+ years.
JUST RELEASED: "Keep Moving" report by @VeniceJustice1 & co-published by @ChallengeIneq. Developed in collaboration w/organizers, community members w/lived experience of vehicle residency & university-based researchers, read the findings + virtual launch👇 challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/2025/06/25/kee…
Earlier in June we celebrated the 🔥2025 cohort of #UCLA Activists-in-Residence: Kari Okubo, Romarilyn Ralston, Kaya Dantzler, James Suazo & Lupita Limón Corrales! "Turning the university inside out,” they shared invaluable community-rooted knowledge & pedagogy with our campus.
Link to our "Keep Moving" West LA Vehicle Residents Survey report: challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/2025/06/25/kee…
Excited to share findings and policy recommendations from a community-engaged survey report we just published with the Venice Justice Committee and UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality & Democracy!
"Through her leadership, @UCLACSW not only expanded its institutional impact, but also reaffirmed its commitments to being a refuge for research in social justice & community collaboration." Congrats to our colleague, comrade & friend, Prof. Grace Hong🔥 csw.ucla.edu/2025/06/11/a-r…
👇Read this thread and then go read @rahimkurwa's newest publication, "Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing." We've added it to our summer reading list 📚
It's publication day for Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing, available in paper & free .epub! It traces a century of struggle over Los Angeles' periphery, culminating in the use of policing to expel and repress Black tenants. Here's a look at its chapters:
For all of our friends & comrades in the #UnequalCities Network in and around Delhi, this conversation is not to be missed 👇
Second attempt at what we had to reschedule earlier. If you're in Delhi, come by!
Powerful actions led by @StrikeDebt @LATenantsUnion #TenantPowerToolkit 👏👏👏
RUBS STRIKE!! 50+ apartments in two buildings owned by Equity Residential (one of the largest landlords in the country) are refusing to pay their outrageous RUBS utilities bills!
Excited to partner with @UCLAFTVArchive on the upcoming film series "(Dis)Placement: Fluctuations of Home." Join us for opening night on July 13th w/#UCLA Activists-in-Residence Lupita Limón Corrales (screening her film!) & James Suazo (moderating the Q&A) cinema.ucla.edu/events/displac…
