Cesar Chavez: the struggle continues

By Teresa Gutierrez

Cesar Chavez at a Center for United Labor Action rally in Richmond, Va., in the early 1970s. Banner reads: ‘Victory to the United Farmworkers.’

In late March throughout the United States, but particularly in the Southwest, activities commemorated the birthday of renowned Chicano labor leader and social justice activist Cesar Chavez.

Chavez was born on March 31, 1927. He died at age 66 on April 23, 1993. His life is a great example of this country’s rich working-class history.

This labor leader worked to unite many struggles, leading workers to tremendous gains in the process. He is a wonderful example of how oppressed people, despite great obstacles, can come forward to defend their people’s rights.

When he died in 1993, more than 50,000 mourners came to honor his life. According to the official Cesar Chavez website, the funeral “was the largest of any labor leader in the history of the U.S.”

Now, more than ever, the lessons of Chavez’s life illustrate the need to continue the struggle. Today immigrants and farm workers face an incredible backlash.

Arizona—where Chavez was born—is currently in the forefront of a right-wing assault that defaces exactly what he stood for. Vigilante groups dominate the airwaves with hateful racist demagogy, resulting in a further militarization of the U.S./Mexico border and the criminalization of undocumented workers.

Chavez: a life of struggle

Chavez was born in Yuma, Ariz. From his early days he knew the extreme racism Mexicans in this country face.

According to the Chavez website, the small adobe home where he was born was swindled from his family by unscrupulous white people. In 1938 he and his family moved to California. They eventually settled in San Jose.

Interestingly, Chavez and his family settled in a barrio (neighborhood) called “Sal Si Puedes”—“Get out if you can.” Decades later, Chavez and his movement for farm worker rights would come to be characterized by the inspiring slogan “Si, se puede”—“Yes, we can!”

Chavez had a difficult time in school. Spanish was forbidden although that was the language spoken in so many homes of the region.

He remembered having to listen to many racist remarks and noted how schools were so segregated. Chavez said that in integrated schools he felt “like a monkey in a cage.”

He would none theless grow up to become a world leader, outspoken on many issues including the war in Vietnam. He was the first major labor leader to declare solidarity with lesbians and gays.

Above all, Chavez made his mark in the growing fields of California. His name would become synonymous with the plight of farm workers.

This year on Chavez’s birthday, thousands gathered in Los Angeles.

One of those, his granddaughter Christine Chavez Delgado, said: “To some people [my grandfather] was an environmentalist, to some a peace advocate. But I always say that my grandfather was first a labor leader. …

“The real way to honor my grandfather,” she said, “is to continue supporting unions, because that’s really what he was about.”

Indeed, one of Chavez’ greatest contributions was helping to found the first successful union for farm workers in the United States. In 1962, with the help of Dolores Huerta, he founded the United Farm Workers.

The website continues, “In 1962, there were very few union dues-paying members. By 1970 the UFW got grape growers to accept union contracts and had effectively organized most of that industry. The reason was Cesar Chavez’s tireless leadership that included the Delano grape strike, his fasts that focused national attention on farm workers’ problems, and the 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento in 1966.”

“What a terrible irony it is that the very people who harvest the food we eat do not have enough food for their own children,” Chavez affirmed.

He led many strikes and boycotts. In 1975 these struggles resulted in the passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act. This law remains the only one in the country that protects farm workers’ right to unionize.

You don’t have to agree with his every position or tactic to see that the farm workers’ struggle he led changed the face of labor—and agribusiness—forever.

This struggle made such an indelible mark on the revolutionary and progressive movement that to this day those who were active at that time find it hard to buy grapes or head lettuce.

The struggle continues

After many years of struggle, California declared Chavez’s birthday a state holiday. But this victory is now being threatened by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger has proposed eliminating two of 13 state holidays. Latin@s fear Schwarzenegger will cut the Chavez holiday, since he snubbed it March 31 and went to work.

At a birthday commemoration Mario Jaramillo, a shop steward at Angelica Tex tile Services in Vallejo, Calif., said: “Because of [Chavez’s] work, things changed. In non-union shops, treatment is bad. They push workers hard, demand a lot of work and don’t pay enough. Now we have better treatment, wages and working conditions.”

Jorge De Haro has worked in the wine fields since 1973. He said he knows “the difference between working with a UFW contract and without.”

UFW member Robert Garcia said: “We now have bathrooms, water, reasonable wages in some places, medical insurance, grievance procedures. Things have impro ved. But it’s a never-ending struggle.”

Indeed, many of the commemorations this year were marked by today’s struggles, as Chican@s and Mexican@s took on racist and anti-people attacks.

In Salinas, Calif., hundreds commemorated Chavez’s birthday by marching against the impending closing of three libraries. One protester said: “When you close libraries, you close off opportunities, particularly in a poor community. Where are kids going to go to use a computer?”

Salinas is a farming community known as the “salad bowl of the world.” The city must raise $500,000 by June. If the branches close, it will become the country’s biggest city without a public library.

On March 24 in San Antonio, where about 70 percent of the population is Mexican@/Chican@, over 15,000 people marched to honor Chavez. The demonstration focused on a five-year effort to rename Commerce Street for him. Racist politicians have stymied the Chican@ community’s efforts.

The Chavez event was one of the city’s biggest demonstrations in a long time.

In Freehold, N.J., immigrants and their supporters blocked an initiative by an anti- immigrant group, the Union of Patri ots. These reactionaries had booked the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall for a meeting against Latin@ immigrants. After a round of calls demanding that the VFW cancel the booking—callers pointed out that 80 percent of the VFW’s business is Mexican, and that the first Latino GI to die in Iraq was an immigrant—the booking was canceled.

At Southwest College in San Diego, Calif., FIST and MEChA commemorated Chavez’s birthday with an event called “Chavez Cafe.” The theme was “The Strug gle Continues.” Ruth Vela of FIST said, “San Diego FIST chose to celebrate the life and historical contributions of Cesar Chavez by reminding people that the strug gle continues for youth of color. Youth all over the world are denied health care, safety, food and in some cases even water.

“We feel that as activists it is our duty to call attention to these struggles. Rather than just kick up our heels and celebrate the historical victories of the past, we hope to arm working class youth with knowledge of their present so that they are better able to fight imperialism in the future.”

The plight of farm workers

The United Farm Workers made tremendous gains for workers. Today, the struggle for dignity and wages continues.

Agriculture is still California’s largest industry. The state produces more than half the nuts, vegetables and fruits consumed in this country. Nearly every fruit and vegetable is still hand picked. It is backbreaking work.

The business of picking these crops depends on cheap labor. Without it, agribusiness’s huge profits would plunge. For example, California strawberry sales are $840 million annually. Eighty percent of the berries grown in the United States are from California.

In his book “Reefer Madness,” Eric Schlosser shows the many ways in which growers reduce labor costs to maximize profits. One way is paying workers off the books to avoid paying unemployment taxes, workers’ compensation, and Medi care and Social Security taxes.

However, many undocumented do pay these taxes. Recent estimates show that undocumented workers put as much as $7 billion a year into Social Security but never get a penny back. (New York Times, April 5)

Sharecropping—widespread in Cali for nia—is one of the “most insidious means by which growers avoid responsibility for their workers,” Schlosser writes.

Schlosser’s book details the grueling life of strawberry pickers as some of the lowest- paid, hardest work. Migrant workers call the strawberry the fruit of the devil, Schlosser reports.

The back pain is excruciating. Work is seasonal and low paying. Finding a place to sleep, much less a home, is a constant worry, as housing costs are astronomical. The few labor camps around are “grim.”

In 2005 in the United States, many migrants actually live in ditches, orchards, fields and even caves.

As long as these conditions exist, leaders like Cesar Chavez will continue to emerge.

Cesar Chavez, presente!

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