Ultra-red

November 2025 came and went but the month marked the ten-year anniversary of Ultra-red's research fellowship with the Social Practice Art Research Center at University of California Santa Cruz, curated by Elliot Anderson. The fellowship was titled, "Against Participation: Social Action and the Conditions of Neoliberalism."

For a week in November 2015, members of Ultra-red from Germany, U.K., and U.S. gathered in Santa Cruz. In conversations with students and scholars, collective members reflected on the contradictions of the value form of participation under neoliberalism based on experiences in public health, housing, education, and art.

While Ultra-red produced numerous discussion papers and collected detailed responses from discussants, "Against Participation" never resulted in a published study as was our original plan. (Perhaps in the future?) However, the analysis of participation in its value form would eventually shape our praxis in a number of organizing projects including the Ballroom Freedom School in New York and the Los Angeles Tenants Union.

See: https://sparc.ucsc.edu/ultra-red/

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"No movement without listening."

https://substack.com/

“In the second part of my interview with L.A. Tenant Union organizers, Celeste Kessler, Lucio Maldonado, and Paulo Suarez, the organizers show a critical distance from the founding of the Union while engaging with the Union's commitment to base-building, popular power, and the praxis and experimentation of popular education. The organizers talk about a shift in their own praxis from bringing tenants closer to the Union to bringing the Union closer to tenants. This means that the forms and practices of tenant organizing are translated into the material reality of a specific neighborhood where the Union strives to establish a new common sense among residents regardless of the depth of their relationship to the Union.”

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BRINGING THE UNION TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD A Conversation with L.A. Tenant Union Organizers in Koreatown, Part Two

"In the weeks before Christmas, Radio Ultra-red had the opportunity to join a Zoom conversation with three L.A. Tenants Union (LATU) organizers; Celeste Kessler, Lucio Maldonado, and Paulo Suarez. All three are part of the Union’s Koreatown chapter and, for a few years now, have been accompanying tenants with Unión de la 8, a neighborhood committee located in the Oaxaca corridor of Koreatown [. . .].

"In the first part of the conversation with the Koreatown organizers on December 3, 2025, I ask them to give us an image of the Koreatown neighborhood and then to situate themselves as organizers in relation to that neighborhood. Understanding the context and the positions of the organizers helps them to then map the terrain of education as it functions in the community organizing of Unión de la 8."

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IN THE TERRAIN OF EDUCATION A Conversation with L.A. Tenant Union Organizers in Koreatown, Part One

📢 ANNOUNCEMENT | ALFORJA NETWORK
From the Alforja Network we strongly condemn the intervention of the United States government in Venezuela.
Sanctions, economic blockade, military threats and political interference violate international law and self-determination of peoples.
Every aggression against Venezuela is also an attack against the peoples of Our America.
We reaffirm that Venezuela has the right to decide its own destiny, without guardianship or blockades.
We express our solidarity with the Venezuelan people and their popular organizations, who resist with dignity.
✊🏽 No to imperialist intervention
✊🏽 Yes to the sovereignty of the peoples

📢 PRONUNCIAMIENTO | RED ALFORJA
Desde la Red Alforja condenamos de manera firme la intervención del gobierno de Estados Unidos en Venezuela.
Las sanciones, el bloqueo económico, las amenazas militares y la injerencia política violan el derecho internacional y la autodeterminación de los pueblos.

Cada agresión contra Venezuela es también un ataque contra los pueblos de Nuestra América.

Reafirmamos que Venezuela tiene derecho a decidir su propio destino, sin tutelajes ni bloqueos.
Expresamos nuestra solidaridad con el pueblo venezolano y con sus organizaciones populares, que resisten con dignidad.
✊🏽 No a la intervención imperialista
✊🏽 Sí a la soberanía de los pueblos

"Any careful observation of the path taken by subcultures could have predicted where we were headed. In the hours after midnight, August 15, 1992, my best friend and I were driving out of Los Angeles. The Antelope Valley Freeway took us northeast towards Vasquez Rocks and the unincorporated area of Agua Dulce. It was seven years before the juggernaut of Coachella Festival set sail on a course that took Southern California popular music towards a party selling 250,000 individual tickets totaling more than $100 million dollars. But on this occasion, pumped with stimulants, we headed towards a destination we had only learned about an hour before."

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THE ACID CONJUNCTURE On Nick Angelos’ Edifice

"It’s impossible to arrive on December 1, World AIDS Day, and not be overcome with feelings of joy, grief, desire, and rage. When the topic of feelings and affects in the context of political struggles comes up, my thoughts immediately turn to my earliest movement experiences in the 1980s. Words come from my lips involuntarily: 'The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is a nonpartisan group of diverse individuals united in anger to end the AIDS crisis through direct action.' This sentence remains etched in my memory and bursts into the room regardless of the context of the conversation, whether AIDS activism, harm reduction, or tenant organizing. In my imaginary, this declaration of purpose and aim stands in as the paradigmatic example of the centrality of political feelings."

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INAPPROPRIATE USES OF THE CITY An interview

This past Sunday, members of Ultra-red's Central American Popular Pedagogies research team presented preliminary insights from their trip to Central America over the summer. Back in June, Tony Carfello, Daniela Lieja Quintanar, and Christina Sánchez Juárez visited popular and political education projects in El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica at a time when Central America is increasingly playing a critical role in the struggle against neofascism.

Hosted by Alyson Escalante from the Red Menace Podcast and Dont Rhine from Ultra-red, the presentation highlighted the role of intentional political networks including formation schools designed to prepare young people as movement organizers. Both the formation schools and the historic networks of popular education centers across the region put individuals and groups in relation to each other. Such networks have for decades nurtured a movement of land defenders, indigenous activists, and anti-imperialist struggle. The various projects across Central America synthesize a political analysis with cultural production, where historical memory sits at the center of strategy and tactics.

Sunday’s audience gathered at All Power Books on West Adams Blvd in Mid-City to hear the report from the Ultra-red research team. The audience was made up of organizers from numerous chapters of the L.A. Tenants Union and other activists.

At the end of the conversation, the group delivered a video message of solidarity to our comrades in Central America, joining with them in building strong movements of community defense and anti-imperialism.

The Central America Popular Pedagogies team are in the process of preparing a future issue of ULTRA-RED: A Journal of Militant Sound Inquiry, published by Rab-Rab Press based in Helsinki, Finland. For more information about ULTRA-RED find us on Facebook or Substack.

https://www.facebook.com/ultraredcollective
https://substack.com/

https://allpowerbooks.org
http://redmenace.libsyn.com

"What follows is the second part of a conversation with three tenant organizers, Tony Carfello, Tracy Rosenthal, and Christina Sánchez-Juárez who were each involved in the founding of the L.A. Tenants Union (LATU). The conversation was held on Zoom on Sunday, September 21, 2025 and was inspired in part by the 10-year anniversary of LATU’s founding. [...]

"As the conversation continues below, I invite the three of them to look back and talk about their experiences ten years ago when they first got involved in School of Echoes Los Angeles. At the time, all three were recent graduates of Southern California art schools and encountered popular education combined with base-building organizing for the first time."

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TENANT POWER BEGINNINGS AND FUTURES A Conversation with Founding Organizers of L.A. Tenants Union, Part Two

"A few years ago I was teaching at the low-residency visual art program at Vermont College of Fine Arts, then located in Montpelier, Vermont. For that particular summer residency our guest artist was Nicolas Lampert, a visual artist working in print-making for activist mobilizations locally in his home in Milwaukee as well as internationally. At the time he visited us at VCFA, Nicolas had given a significant portion of his life to the cause of combating climate change, producing a range of art projects from printed posters to large scale prints and banners for use in mobilizations targeting international climate summits. This work ran parallel to his ongoing collective practices as well as his full-time university teaching.

"During his time at VCFA, Nicolas’ presentations inspired many of the students regarding the role of activist art. But it was in the context of private conversations that he and I had the opportunity to wrestle with the weight of our different struggles around political strategy."

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PRAXIS VS. ART SCHOOL [Photo: Vermont College of Fine Arts, Noble Hall, Montpelier, February 9, 2007.]

[Español abajo]
A conversation with
Tony Carfello (LATU, Koreatown Local)
Daniela Lieja Quintanar (LATU, Union de Vecinos)
Christina Sánchez Juárez (Sacramento Valley Tenants Union)

Hosted by Alyson Escalante (LATU, Mar Vista Palms Local)
and Dont Rhine (LATU, Hollywood Local)

In June 2025, three researchers from the Ultra-red collective—Daniela Lieja Quintanar, Christina Sanchez Juarez, and Tony Carfello—traveled to Central America to conduct interviews with popular educators. All three are tenant union organizers: Daniela and Tony are members of the L.A. Tenants Union and Christina is a member of the Sacramento Valley Tenants Union. Both LATU and SVTU prioritize building popular power with a strong emphasis on popular education.

What might we learn from the history of popular education and its current praxis in Central America under conditions of increasing government right-wing repression can we learn from here in California? For this event, Daniela, Christina, and Tony will share their insights into popular education history and praxis from their time spent with movement activists in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

This event will be co-hosted by Alyson Escalante from the Red Menace podcast and Dont Rhine, chief editor of ULTRA-RED: A Journal of Militant Sound Inquiry. The event will be bilingual, Spanish and English.

* * * *

Una conversación con
Tony Carfello (LATU, Koreatown Local)
Daniela Lieja Quintanar (LATU, Union de Vecinos)
Christina Sánchez Juárez (Sacramento Valley Tenants Union)

Presentado por Alyson Escalante (LATU, Mar Vista Palms Local)
y Dont Rhine (LATU, Hollywood Local)

En junio de 2025, tres investigadores del colectivo Ultra-red —Daniela Lieja Quintanar, Christina Sánchez Juárez y Tony Carfello—viajaron a Centroamérica para entrevistar a educadores populares. Los tres son organizadores sindicales de inquilinos: Daniela y Tony son miembros del Sindicato de Inquilinos de Los Ángeles y Christina es miembro del Sindicato de Inquilinos del Valle de Sacramento. Tanto el LATU como el SVTU priorizan el desarrollo del poder popular, con un fuerte énfasis en la educación popular.

¿Qué podemos aprender de la historia de la educación popular y su práctica actual en Centroamérica, en un contexto de creciente represión gubernamental de derecha, desde aquí en California? En este evento, Daniela, Christina y Tony compartirán sus perspectivas sobre la historia y la práctica de la educación popular, fruto de su experiencia con activistas del movimiento en Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala y Honduras.

Este evento será copresentado por Alyson Escalante, del podcast Red Menace, y Dont Rhine, editor jefe de ULTRA-RED: A Journal of Militant Sound Inquiry. El evento será bilingüe, español e inglés.

[Español abajo] A conversation with Tony Carfello (LATU, Koreatown Local) Daniela Lieja Quintanar (LATU, Union de Vecinos) Christina Sánchez Juárez (Sacramento Valley Tenants Union) Hosted by Alyson Escalante (LATU, Mar Vista Palms Local) and Dont Rhine (LATU, Hollywood Local) In June 2025, three researchers from the Ultra-red collective—Daniela Lieja Quintanar, Christina Sanchez Juarez, and Tony Carfello—traveled to Central America to conduct interviews with popular educators. All three are tenant union organizers: Daniela and Tony are members of the L.A. Tenants Union and Christina is a member of the Sacramento Valley Tenants Union. Both LATU and SVTU prioritize building popular power with a strong emphasis on popular education. What might we learn from the history of popular education and its current praxis in Central America under conditions of increasing government right-wing repression can we learn from here in California? For this event, Daniela, Christina, and Tony will share their insights into popular education history and praxis from their time spent with movement activists in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. This event will be co-hosted by Alyson Escalante from the Red Menace podcast and Dont Rhine, chief editor of ULTRA-RED: A Journal of Militant Sound Inquiry. The event will be bilingual, Spanish and English.