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Student-Farmworker
Alliance By Marc Rodrigues
The CIW was born out of the miserable wages earned by farmworkers and horrible working conditions—what the coalition refers to as “sweatshops in the fields.” At the piece rate of 40 to 45 cents per 32-pound bucket of tomatoes, the average farmworker has to pick two tons of tomatoes to make $50 in one day. Within a system of immense corporate pressure to keep wages low and ignore workers’ rights exist cases of modern day slavery. These cases involve workers in debt bondage to their supervisors, who control every aspect of the workers’ lives on and off the job through violence, intimidation, and the open brandishing of firearms. Workers in these situations are often threatened with death if they attempt escape. Before the CIW called for a boycott of Taco Bell, it had been organizing locally in and around Immokalee for almost a decade. Beyond advocating for farmworker rights, the coalition’s philosophy and method of organizing are what make it such an inspirational social movement. “We are all leaders” is a slogan that the CIW not only declares, but puts into practice. The coalition promotes active leadership through popular education inspired by peoples’ movements in Latin America, a low-power FM radio station where music and messages from the coalition are broadcast in Spanish and indigenous languages by members who volunteer as radio hosts, and weekly assemblies at the coalition’s office where workers come together to discuss and analyze the conditions they face, the reasons for these conditions, and how they can be changed. A declaration by one worker at an assembly picked up as a slogan by the CIW is, “The worker who does not analyze remains a slave.” Some highlights of the coalition’s grassroots struggle over the years to improve wages and conditions and end slavery include: A general strike of thousands of workers in 1995, a march of 500 workers on a supervisor’s home after a worker was beaten for asking for a drink of water, another strike followed by a month-long hunger strike in late 1997, and a 230-mile march from Ft. Myers to Orlando in 2000. While all of these actions and years of organizing were successful in raising wages and improving conditions to a degree, CIW members quickly realized that local contractors and growers only had so much influence. The real power lay in the corporations buying the tomatoes. In early 2001, Taco Bell became the coalition’s target of choice. More than four years of solid organizing later, after an ever-expanding national boycott, Taco Bell and Yum! Brands conceded to the CIW’s demands. Besides improving wages for workers who pick produce purchased by Taco Bell, the resulting agreement established an enforcement mechanism insuring that the extra penny per pound is actually being passed on to the workers, and created an enforceable code of conduct in which Taco Bell must cease doing business with any grower found to be abusive of workers—among other precedent-setting provisions. Although the CIW organized, spearheaded, and won the national boycott of Taco Bell, it recognized it could not win a struggle on such a national scope without allies. Among the more important allies were students and youth, who eventually came together as a national network under the banner of the Student-Farmworker Alliance (SFA) in the early stages of the Taco Bell boycott. Direct Targets
Taking direction from the coalition, the SFA organized a national “Boot the Bell” campaign in which student and youth organizers in solidarity with the CIW successfully removed or prevented the establishment of more than 20 Taco Bell businesses or corporate sponsorship deals from high school and college campuses (with dozens more campaigns in effect when the boycott ended). From UCLA to the University of Chicago to Tampa Preparatory School, students at more than 300 colleges/universities and more than 50 high schools nationwide mobilized around the Taco Bell boycott. Hundreds of students also organized rolling hunger strikes at six colleges in spring 2004; participated in the annual “Taco Bell Truth Tours” organized by the CIW, conducted more than 100 solidarity actions across the country during the 2003 Truth Tour, and participated in the “Root Cause” march against the FTAA organized by the CIW, the Miami Workers Center and other low-income, community-based organizations from southern Florida. In one example of successful organizing, students allied with the Progressive Student Alliance and the SFA at Notre Dame University, after a long and hard-fought campaign, forced their university to cancel Taco Bell’s $75,000 sponsorship of its football program. Encuentro
The week began with an introduction from CIW members on the history of the coalition, followed by three days of anti-oppression trainings, general workshops, and wrapping up with the strategy session. The SFA Encuentro is an example of an organization thinking strategically at a crucial turning point—in this case immediately following a victory that was groundbreaking, but only the first step in making the changes that the CIW and its allies would like to see. The SFA emerged from the Encuentro with concrete and clarified structure and goals, ultimately helping it to become more effective. How student and youth allies can take leadership ancoad be accountable to the CIW was a central discussion throughout the Encuentro. Often movements fail to ask these questions and fall short of becoming true allies that listen, dialogue, and understand privilege and power inequities within activism. By the end of the week, participants began to grasp what it means to organize and act in an autonomous manner, yet under the guidance and direction of the CIW—constantly striving to stay accountable to the workers. Another important theme of the Encuentro was increasing awareness and incorporating the work of the larger student, labor, and global justice movements. As an example, organizers used the term “Encuentro” in solidarity with the Zapatistas—an indigenous movement in Chiapas, Mexico, combating neoliberalism—who similarly name their meetings held with social movements from across Mexico and the world. Encuentro organizers also set aside time and space for CIW members to convey their own stories. Several members spoke about the damage done by free trade and neoliberal policies that had forced them to leave their homes and face extreme exploitation in the agricultural fields of Florida. CIW member Gerardo Reyes-Chavez spoke of the changes that the coalition and the struggle had brought about, stating that the industry and mega corporations such as Yum! could no longer exploit farmworkers with impunity once confronted with what he called la verdad de nuestra existencia—literally, “the truth of our existence.” Not only is this truth the day-to-day life of a migrant farmworker, but for such an invisible workforce it refers to something more basic: The reality that we even exist. Members shared a profound and revolutionary analysis of global capitalism, international migration and the corporate food system that came from their own experiences as farmworkers—some of whom have been in the field since childhood. Others at the Encuentro shared stories about atrocities experienced by them and/or close family members as a direct result of U.S. imperialism in Latin America. Intensely personal and political, spaces such as the Encuentro—full of discussion, relationship-building, and strategizing—are vital as they put us one step closer to building the type of movements that have the power make lasting change. The SFA and other allies of the coalition find themselves at a unique crossroads— victorious and successful but at the same time looking to maintain and strengthen their base and their movement to continue making the necessary changes and improvements in farmworkers’ lives. The CIW is currently calling for its allies to write letters to other fast-food chains urging them to follow the example of Taco Bell/Yum! by improving wages and stopping human rights abuses in their supply chains. The CIW has also acquired a new building to house its future office and community center which will include many vital resources the coalition simply doesn’t have space for in its current location. To make the new community center a reality, the CIW needs support in the form of financial and other donations. Reflecting on the boycott victory and the Encuentro, CIW member Rolando Sales commented, “We’re just starting to struggle. The coalition has shown what an important role it plays in the community, and has achieved something that extends far beyond the community ... it’s important that we keep organizing the new people arriving in Immokalee and discussing with each other the importance of knowing our rights ... students also have an important role to play, knowing about our struggle and having access to different resources and institutions that we don’t have access to.” The SFA network moves forward from the Encuentro newly energized and focused—ready to take on the next corporate target, the entire corporate food system, and beyond.
Marc Rodrigues is a graduate student in Labor Studies at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst and was an intern with the Student-Farmworker Alliance this summer in Immokalee, FL. |
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mmokalee,
FL, is not a typical town. Rather, it could be considered a migrant labor
camp. The permanent population of Immokalee—about 14,000—more than doubles
during tomato harvesting season. A large percentage of Immokalee’s “Latino”
farmworkers are indigenous; Spanish is a second language. Some of the
indigenous languages commonly heard on the streets of Immokalee include
Mam, Chol, Kanjobal, and Nahuatl.