KIWA

KIWA Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance KIWA is a multi-racial Community Union with a base of mostly Latino and Korean members.

Founded in 1992, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA) is one of the first and most well established worker centers in the United States. KIWA empowers Koreatown’s low-wage immigrant workers and residents to develop a progressive constituency and leadership in the Koreatown community that can work locally, nationally, and internationally for social and economic justice. Our major work areas

are grassroots organizing, civic engagement and leadership development among tenants and workers in Koreatown; policy analysis and community-led advocacy; arts as a form of social critique and community empowerment; grassroots economic development; collaboration with community allies and networks; and support services that provide critical resources. KIWA is a well-known anchor for Korean American progressives, Koreatown immigrant community members, as well as a hub for multi-ethnic and intersectional social justice organizing in LA.

Chicago police killed ten unarmed workers at a gathering of striking steelworkers and their families today in 1937, in t...
05/30/2026

Chicago police killed ten unarmed workers at a gathering of striking steelworkers and their families today in 1937, in the midst of a historic union drive in the steel industry and a broader upsurge in worker actions and organizing during the Great Depression. The working-class victories during this era were not ordered from the top down through the government’s New Deal policies, but were paid for through the blood and sweat of ordinary workers across the country who dared resist violent repression to commit themselves to organizing in decades-long struggles to unionize formidable industries and corporations.

The fact that the Little Steel bosses refused to obey labor laws reveals that organizing is of utmost importance: pro-worker legislation without building worker power cannot meaningfully advance or even maintain workers’ rights. The efforts by Republic Steel to label the massacre a “riot” on the part of the workers and to use scare tactics to paint union rights as un-American shows how important it is for us to know the history of the labor movement in this country to recognize and repudiate attacks on workers’ rights and worker organizing.

On this day, May 29, 1918, Bert Corona, a Mexican American labor and civil rights leader who devoted his life to organiz...
05/29/2026

On this day, May 29, 1918, Bert Corona, a Mexican American labor and civil rights leader who devoted his life to organizing immigrant workers was born. He was a veteran activist known as “El Viejo” by the time of the Chicano Movement.

Corona, whose father had fought in the Mexican Revolution, was born in El Paso and played basketball at USC, dropping out to volunteer at a church in Boyle Heights and organize for the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the United Cannery, Agriculture, Packing and Allied Workers of America.

In 1938 he joined Guatemalan organizer Luisa Moreno to build the League of Spanish-Speaking People and helped organize for the Community Service Organization in LA. His organizing often brought him into contact with Cesar Chavez, an important leader of the farmworkers movement.

Corona believed in organizing undocumented workers and founded the Hermandad Mexicana Nacional in 1951. It quickly became a major immigrant services provider in Southern California and adopted a radical political orientation as it got involved with the social movements of the 60s.

Corona helped found the Mexican American Political Association in 1959 and worked to increase Mexican political representation in local, state, and national politics. He championed the concept of “un pueblo, sin fronteras” and was instrumental in getting the labor movement to embrace immigrant workers.

It’s been five years since the beginning of the historic unionization campaign at Starbucks, which has overcome numerous...
05/23/2026

It’s been five years since the beginning of the historic unionization campaign at Starbucks, which has overcome numerous attempts by management to crush their struggle by surveilling workers, directly calling on them to vote against the union, firing pro-union workers, and aggressively pursuing litigation. The campaign has become a beacon of hope, not only for the nearly 400,000 Starbucks employees across the U.S. and around the world, but for the labor movement as a whole.

On this day, May 20, 1944, Alejandro Molina Lara was born. A lifelong organizer who played a leading role in the develop...
05/20/2026

On this day, May 20, 1944, Alejandro Molina Lara was born. A lifelong organizer who played a leading role in the development of El Salvador's militant labor movement, Lara embodied the spirit of international solidarity and continued to fight for his class while exiled in LA.

Lara got his start working at a shrimp packing facility, where he was elected leader of the Fishing Industry Union (SIP) within a few years due to his courage and militancy. He launched an organizing drive that unionized nearly all the workers, most of whom were women, by 1972.

Lara's leadership as secretary-general of the SIP compelled the company to rehire fired strikers, pay back wages, offer benefits such as vacations, and grant equal rights to temporary/permanent workers. The SIP participated in solidarity strikes with the growing revolutionary movement.

Lara was elected secretary of the National Union Federation of Salvadoran Workers (FENASTRAS), the country's principal labor front. Lara was ambushed twice and arrested 3 times as general strikes shut down the lucrative shrimp industry as well as the entire country for an end to repression.

FENASTRAS was driven underground and Lara was kidnapped and tortured for months before going into exile. Sponsored by international solidarity and labor groups, Lara met workers across the U.S. while exiled, sharing with them the struggle of Salvadoran workers against US-backed counterinsurgency.

In LA, Lara was elected president of Local 1421 of the United Electrical Workers (UEW) and led a months-long strike against the Industrial Wire Company in 1998, raising wages and abolishing obligatory 12-hour shifts. He lost his job as a welder in retaliation.

We remember Alejandro Molina Lara as a great organizer and a true internationalist who never abandoned the struggle of the working class for emancipation.

On this day, May 18, 1980, the people of the South Korean city of Gwangju launched a 9-day uprising against martial law ...
05/18/2026

On this day, May 18, 1980, the people of the South Korean city of Gwangju launched a 9-day uprising against martial law and the coup government of Chun Doo-hwan. Widely considered to be the spark that ignited the movement for democracy and reunification in the 80s, the spirit of the Gwangju Uprising continues to resonate today.

The violent repression of student demonstrations on May 18 led to a popular uprising that involved the whole city. Ordinary people forced thousands of paratroopers out of the city and established collective control over Gwangju, liberating it from Chun Doo-hwan's martial law regime.

Over the next few days, popular structures of political power were formed, crime rates plummeted, daily mass rallies drawing 100,000-150,0000 people were conducted, food and medical aid were freely distributed, and genuine solidarity and cooperation flourished among the citizenry.

On May 27, with the approval of the U.S. joint command and the Carter administration, 20,000 troops that had encircled Gwangju were unleashed on the city. The massacre that ensued claimed thousands of lives, with an untold amount of Gwangju residents tortured and imprisoned.

The Gwangju People’s Uprising played a major role in spurring the democratization movement in Korea, with workers, students, farmers, and dissident intellectuals committing themselves wholeheartedly to the resistance against the Chun Doo-hwan regime in the following years.

1919 was a year of revolution: from Korea to Russia to Ireland, working people risked everything to resist their oppress...
05/16/2026

1919 was a year of revolution: from Korea to Russia to Ireland, working people risked everything to resist their oppressors, determined to change society. In North America, the growing ranks of the industrial working class faced low wages, rising prices, unemployment, discrimination, poor living conditions, and a system that made enormous profits off an unjust war. The story of the Winnipeg General Strike and the Canadian Labour Revolt demonstrate the need for a clear strategy and program in moments of social crisis and upheaval.

Proud to celebrate Alexandra Suh, Executive Director of KIWA, today at Los Angeles City Hall for her commitment to justi...
05/16/2026

Proud to celebrate Alexandra Suh, Executive Director of KIWA, today at Los Angeles City Hall for her commitment to justice, immigrant workers, and community empowerment. We thank Councilmember Heather Hutt and the entire City Council.

Congratulations to Alexandra and all the awardees on this well-deserved recognition in celebration of AANHPI Heritage Month — their leadership, compassion, and dedication inspire so many in our communities. 💛✨

The story of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) is integral to the proud tradition of challenging discrimination, in...
05/13/2026

The story of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) is integral to the proud tradition of challenging discrimination, inequality, and racism taken up by the working class movement in the U.S. The WFM was one of the first unions to challenge the policy of Asian exclusion and united immigrant workers from far-flung shores to unite in joint struggle with each other and their U.S.-born counterparts. For this it endured heavy repression, from the bullets of state militias to the McCarthyite witch hunts of the 1950s, through which it continued not only to unionize but to actively conscientize workers for social change.

The labor movement in California has had a long and storied history of struggle: bitter defeats, great victories, and co...
05/07/2026

The labor movement in California has had a long and storied history of struggle: bitter defeats, great victories, and continued resilience in the face of relentless attacks and attempts to coopt it. Its waning power since the height of its influence in the early 20th century has had profound impacts on the ways our workplaces are organized and our capacity to resist exploitation. The struggles of the past provide a roadmap for building back a stronger labor movement today. Workers need each other.

On this day, May 6, 1913, Angelo Herndon was born. At 19 he was arrested under an old slave insurrection law for organiz...
05/06/2026

On this day, May 6, 1913, Angelo Herndon was born. At 19 he was arrested under an old slave insurrection law for organizing a peaceful demonstration of Black and white unemployed workers. His case as a prominent political prisoner would rally multiracial solidarity across the South.

At 9 Herndon began working as a delivery boy, where he found that the "walls of race, color, and class now rose between me and the hostile world outside," and at 14 he left his family to work in the mines in the footsteps of his father, who died of black lung when Herndon was 12.

It was in Birmingham AL where Herndon came to fully grasp the economic, political, and physical terror enacted on Black workers in the South, and where he was introduced to the Communist Party's militant anti-racism through the Unemployed Councils that the party organized.

Herndon eagerly took up organizing despite ruthless repression, building up the Unemployed Councils, Trade Union Unity League, and the Scottsboro Defense Committee with "the conviction that only death could stop me from working for the social revolution in America.”

The Great Depression collapsed the Jim Crow farm economy, and poor Black and white Americans were streaming into cities looking for work. In June 1932, 23,000 families were dropped from relief rolls in Atlanta, and 100s of unemployed workers were forcibly sent back to starve.

Herndon successfully drew 100s of Black and white workers to the city's courthouse to march shoulder-to-shoulder. Never before had there been such a show of in*******al unity in the South, a demonstration of Southern workers' power, like a dormant giant that "now began to stir."

Stunned city officials quickly approved relief but moved to arrest Herndon, who was indicted for attempted insurrection after being found with communist literature. Appearing twice before the Supreme Court, Herndon could've faced the electric chair if convicted.

When called to the stand, Herndon used the opportunity to address the ruling class’s strategy of dividing Black and white workers to prevent solidarity. Sentenced to a Georgia chain gang for 20 years, a multiracial campaign overturned his conviction after five years.

Address

1053 S New Hampshire Avenue
Los Angeles, CA
90006

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

(213) 738-9050

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