Today is Cesar E. Chavez's 81st Birthday.
This weekend, The United Farm Workers held events in Los Angeles to commemorate this day. But it's not a one time thing for them, they have been celebrating this day for years. I think it's time that we do the same.
More to come:
Chavez has a complex history of activism, largely rooted in his pursuit of justice for migrant farm workers, mentored by the grassroots activism of Saul Alinsky
A passionate believer that social justice could be achieved through American democracy, Saul Alinsky methodically showed the "have-nots" how to organize their communities, target the power brokers and politically out-maneuver them. The lessons he taught people about the nature of power, imparted dignity to the poor and helped create a backyard revolution in cities across America. His work influenced the struggle for civil rights and the farm workers movement, as well as the very nature of political protest. He was a mentor to several generations of organizers like Ed Chambers, Fred Ross and Cesar Chavez. Alinsky's still thriving Industrial Areas Foundation became the training ground for organizers who formed some of the most important social change and community groups in the country.
Chavez grew up poor. He watched as greed and the Great Depression drove his family deeply into poverty and a migrant farm worker way of life.
He brought together migrant workers, organizing them to combat low pay, harsh conditions, strive for benefits and msot of all, dignity, often with results that poured into other sectors as in the creation of Colegio César Chávez in 1973.
Chavez used any means necessary to draw attention to injustice, abuse and greed, often fasting for weeks to bring about change, fighting the good fight even on the day he died...
Cesar Estrada Chavez died peacefully in his sleep on April 23, 1993 near Yuma, Arizona, a short distance from the small family farm in the Gila River Valley where he was born more than 66 years before.
The founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO was in Yuma helping UFW attorneys defend the union against a lawsuit brought by Bruce Church Inc., a giant Salinas, Calif.-based lettuce and vegetable producer. Church demanded that the farm workers pay millions of dollars in damages resulting from a UFW boycott of its lettuce during the 1980's. Rather than bring the legal action in a state where the boycott actually took place, such as California or New York, Church "shopped around" for a friendly court in conservative, agribusiness-dominated Arizona-where there had been no boycott activity.
"Cesar gave his last ounce of strength defending the farm workers in this case," stated his successor, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, who was with him in Arizona during the trial. He died standing up for their First Amendment right to speak out for themselves. He believed in his heart that the farm workers were right in boycotting Bruce Church Inc. lettuce during the l980's and he was determined to prove that in court." (When the second multimillion dollar judgement for Church was later thrown out by an appeal's court, the company signed a UFW contract in May 1996.)
So, today, the 81st anniversary of his birth, I hope you can take a minute and sign the UFW petition for a Cesar Chavez National Holiday. It's time to remember this worker's fighter.