This week, I joined comrades in LA to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy.
The celebration included a keynote speech by Ruthie Gilmore: a wonderful lecture on racial capitalism, racial banishment and organising, delivered in front of a packed theatre. The day after Ruthie’s talk, the Institute brought together many of the people who have intersected with its trajectory over the past years – organisers from LA and the US, as well as scholars from elsewhere. I am deeply thankful to Ananya, Hannah and Kian for organising and for having me there, and for allowing me to share some of my recent work from Naples.
The Institute has been important to me: a real model for organising action and scholarship within and beyond academia. With the change in leadership, its future will be different from the past 10 years. Yet I am sure the people who populate it will continue their solid housing justice and racial justice work for years to come.