Who better to host a Just Holiday Marketplace in Los Angeles than SAJE? This organization --Strategic Actions for a Just Economy -- has been working to champion the rights of working class people in Los Angeles for the last decade.

And yesterday, SAJE put together a Just Holiday Marketplace. The free and open event invited all to do their holiday shopping from local, independent artisans and vendors while listening to music from Fandango Sin Fronteras and sipping fair traded coffee from Remy Sol Coffee.

Located in the Figueroa Corridor, SAJE's offices are in a rather blighted neighborhood. Outside the office doors, trash dots the streets and graffiti tattoos the walls. Yet walking into SAJE, one gets a warm and inviting look into the progressive work the organization has been doing in the LA community, serving as "an economic justice, community development, and popular education center."

Perhaps SAJE's most inspiring and effective program is the Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice, which brings 25 different organizations together to tackle gentrification and displacement in the Figueroa Corridor. Billions of dollars are being poured into this area -- which stretches from the University of Southern California to the Staples Center.

The task of the Coalition is to ensure that that money leads to some tangible benefits -- such as affordable housing and quality jobs -- for the surrounding community. To that end, SAJE has put together a quick and understandable slide show, What's Behind the New Gentrification of Our Cities?, which provides a good overview of some of the big issues behind issues of gentrification.

The SAJE website itself is a vibrant, timely, and relevant source of information itself, highlighting not only SAJE's latest, but also serving as a news aggregator of sorts, bringing to attention relevant news articles and exposes that may have been buried on page 34 of the Los Angeles Times. To stay informed, join SAJE's mailing list.