"It is impossible to fully comprehend the world-changing effects of the UFW movement without considering how the fight for dignified wages and conditions in the fields punctured the political economy where the rancher was king."
Honoring Larry Itliong and a generation of radicals whose political ideas are as relevant to workers now as they were in 1965. This article is from the (forthcoming) May/June 2018 issue. Published in honor of May Day.
Reader Comments: Refugee Crisis, Solidarity and Worker Rights; Radical Roots of Great Grape Strike and the United Farmworkers; Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders; Woman Held in Mental Health Facility Because Police Didn't Believe Her; Rhiannon Giddens and Old-Time Music's Black Roots;
Announcements - New York and Los Angeles - Greece,Spain, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Cuba
Reader Comments-Fast-food strikes; Cecily McMillan; Campus Unions; Vietnam War; Farley Mowat; Ukraine; Power of Imagination; Filipino Americans and Farm Labor Movement; BDS; Food;
William Worthy - R.I.P
Announcements - Strike! & New Forms of Worker Struggle -May 28; Bold New Era or Hard Times for Organized Labor? -June 4; Organizing 2.0 Conference -June 6-7; The Origins of Inequality: Grassroots Economics Training for Understanding & Power -June 14 (all New York)
The movie, Cesar Chavez, documents his life and his role in the 1965 Delano Grape Strike. An aspect of the film is the largely forgotten contributions of Filipino Americans to the farm labor movement. Since the 1920s, when Filipinos first learned to organize into unions in Hawaii, Filipinos were important leaders in organizing farmworkers to fight against unfair working conditions.
Too much credit or not enough? The film highlighted the realities of what farmworkers experienced in the past and present. People who watched the film were brought to tears by episodic scenes of farmworkers, Filipino and Mexican, being terrorized by vigilantes. Cesar Chavez also illustrated the feudal rule of the agricultural industrial complex consisting of growers interlocked with the institutions of law enforcement, politics, agencies of the state, and finance.
The new film, which won the Audience Award at SXSW last week, tells the story of the iconic labor leader's fight to unionize farm workers, the inception of the United Farm Workers of America, and highlights the fight for better pay and conditions for farm laborers in the fields of California. "Cesar Chavez," which was screened at the White House on Wednesday, hits theaters March 28th.
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