.....................................Mission Statement.....................................

conciencia libre is a multi-ethnic, progressive student organization founded in 1998 by UCLA students seeking to link international issues with local problems, as a way to enhance the educational experience of students at UCLA. Students understand that because Los Angeles is such a diverse place, it is necessary to learn the histories of other people, as well as global, socioeconomic, and political issues, all of which have local and present consequences.

Our mission is to supplement university education with first hand experience in grassroots organizing of students and workers while participating in community activism. Our goal is to develop progressive organizers equipped with the necessary skills to work actively for social justice. conciencia libre utilizes the principles of Popular Education, which include: dialogue, respect, mutual learning, research, action and reflection. Through our reflection we are able to critically understand the realities of working-poor and immigrant communities of Los Angeles.

We apply the knowledge and skills that we learn through our projects: Proyecto de Jornaleros, Escuela Liberacion Naciente and the Student-Worker Front.

Proyecto de Jornaleros closely works with the Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA) to learn principles of Popular Education and to actively promote immigrant rights. We provide English classes to workers at the West Los Angeles and Downtown Labor Centers, using the methods of Popular Education in order to equip day laborers with skills necessary to protect themselves against exploitation.

Escuela Liberacion Naciente provides ESL classes to on-campus service workers and is developing a program to work with immigrant high school students. It was developed out of our relationship with UCLA service workers after our organizing efforts to unionize workers and end privatization.

conciencia libre is a member of Student Worker Front, a labor solidarity coalition. In the past, we have helped end subcontracting at UCLA, unionize over hundreds of workers and organize solidarity actions during the United Food and Commercial Workers strike. Currently, we are organizing students in support of on-campus service workers’. With this we wish to change the power dynamics of UCLA so that they can begin to prioritize people over profit.

The principle goal of conciencia libre is to create conscious organizers that will leave the university with a strong analysis of the nature of oppression in addition to the practical tools and experience needed to work with communities of oppressed and underrepresented people in order to organize for positive social change.