"Do the Right Thing" Report-Back

"It's not a question of whether we will win, but when..."

Students and youth join thousands of farmworkers and their families plus Fair Food allies for huge, joyful and resounding marches and rallies at Publix stores in Tampa, FL

March 10, 2011 — Fair Food activists from across the Tampa Bay area, Gainesville, Miami, Lakeland, Pensacola, Jacksonville, Naples and Fort Myers, Orlando, Atlanta, Nashville, Kansas, Denver, New York City and points between gathered in Tampa last weekend for the culmination of the CIW's "Do the Right Thing" Tour.

Together, through Friday's plantones and Saturday's 1,500-people strong marches, rally and pageant, our voices and energy joined and amplified the message from the CIW to Publix (and to the rest of the retail food industry that has yet to step up and support for the Campaign for Fair Food):

It's not a question of whether we will win, but when.
And when we do win, we will not only free workers from oppressive conditions
in the fields, but we will also free Publix from the impossible burden
of supporting and justifying that oppression...

Check out the below video and press reports and the riveting daily reports from the CIW to get a flavor of the excitement and energy from the Do the Right Thing Tour and actions.

    

Stay tuned as the Campaign for Fair Food focusing on Publix, Ahold USA,
Trader Joe's and Kroger continues!!

"Farmworkers target Tampa Publix stores in protests," Associated Press, 3/5/11 "We are all farmworkers," The Atlantic, 3/2/11 "Farmworkers to pressure Stop & Shop," Boston Globe, 2/26/11 "Farmworkers plan rally at Tampa Publix stores," Ft. Myers News-Press, 3/3/11 "Immokalee farmworkers target Tampa Publix stores in protests," Naples Daily News, 3/6/11 "Students head to Boston, rally for tomato pickers," Brown Herald, 2/28/11

"War of words breaks out in advance of farmworker protest on Saturday," Creative Loafing, 3/4/11 "Fighting for pennies: Tomato protesters battle supermarkets," The Atlantic, 3/2/11 "Immokalee group plans Publix protest this Saturday in Tampa," Naples Daily News, 3/2/11 "Publix customers pledge boycotts until chain stops exploiting farmworkers," Change.org, 3/2/11 "Immokalee workers launch 5-city protest," Democracy Now!, 3/1/11

Help Bring Austin's Fair Foodistas to Tampa!

Hey out there to all our allies and supporters,

We at Fair Food Austin are writing today to ask you, our supporters, to think about donating $25 to help students, young people, and low-wage workers from the Austin area attend an upcoming march being called for by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a migrant farmworker organization based in southern Florida. 

We're sure you all recall the Boot the Bell Campaign that the CIW won in 2005, where tomato pickers from Florida and their allies, including folks in Austin, boycotted Taco Bell for four years until the company agreed to stop human rights abuses, low wages, and ensure the end of slavery in their tomato supply chain.  Since then, the CIW and their allies the Student/Farmworker Alliance have together secured agreements with ten major global corporations (including McDonalds, Aramark and Whole Foods), many of which Austin played a crucial role in bringing to the table.  All these agreements work towards ending the poverty wages and abuses endemic to agriculture, and securing more dignity and power for working immigrant families, and have recently been joined and strengthened by agreements with some of the largest tomato growers in Florida!  Needless to say, their struggle has had ripple effects, and serves as an influence and model for other organizations, including Workers Defense Project here in Austin.  

  

Despite all the victories, though, there is still work to be done to make sure these changes are reaching the workers who need it most. This March, workers from the CIW are planning one of their biggest actions in years, asking for 2000 their allies to show up in Florida to the doorstep of Publix Grocery (the 3rd largest grocery chain in the US) and demand the same accountability and respect from Publix's CEOs.  The CIW has asked Texas allies to help turn out 40 people to thismarch, and here in Austin, we're hoping to bring at least 15 people.  

As many of us who have attended large actions know, these spaces can be seriously transformative, especially for young people.  You might not be able to leave work, your thesis, dissertation, your organization, or your classes to come with us, but you can help support this movement by donating $10-$25 to send others.

The CIW's struggle is one of the most widely successful of our generation.  Some of the most marginalized voices in the US right now are not only demanding respect and dignity, but winning it directly from some of the most powerful CEO's in the world.  It may not seem like a lot, but every city bringing 15 people makes the message a whole lot stronger, and your donation along with three other people's makes it possible for one more person to attend.

We are three weeks away and in our final fundraising push, and we only need $500 more to make this happen. Please consider kicking down some money.  We know a lot of you give tons of time and resources to this work already, so if $25 is too much, what can you comfortably contribute?  $5 or $10? Could you ask someone you know to donate?  Everything helps.

Help us make this happen, and help some of Austin's students, youth, and low-wage workers participate in this transformative experience together.  To make a donation, email kandace@sfalliance.org.  Thanks for thinking about it!

In Solidarity,

Fair Food Austin

sfaatx@gmail.com

Message for the Fair Food Movement

photo by Andrew West, News-Press

Dear compañeras and compañeros, friends, allies, and Fair Food activists across the country,

When our struggle for dignity and respect began in the streets of Immokalee fifteen years ago, we knew it would take a long and arduous journey to realize our dreams. The mentality that reigned for so long in the agricultural industry — typified by one grower who dismissed six of our compañeros on a 30-day hunger strike by scoffing “the tractor doesn't tell the farmer how to run his farm” — seemed as solid and unmovable as a great stone wall.

But today, that wall is tumbling down.

Today, as a result of our Campaign for Fair Food, there are amazing changes underway in Immokalee. We say our because this movement belongs to all of us: farmworkers and students, consumers and organizers, fighters and dreamers.

But our journey is far from complete.

As farmworkers, as members of the CIW, and as mothers who want to leave a better world for our children, we make this appeal today on the verge of one of our most important mobilizations ever to all of our allies to do whatever it takes to join us for the upcoming “Do the Right Thing” action in Tampa.

As we work tirelessly in Immokalee on the implementation of the Fair Food Code of Conduct for which we have fought all these years, we ask that you too organize in your community — talk to your friends, hand out flyers, organize fundraisers, coordinate caravans — join us in Boston and Tampa.

We invite you to walk with us as we demand Ahold and Publix join with the CIW and with the Florida tomato industry to ensure human rights and dignity for the men and women whose backbreaking labor makes it possible for these stores to line their shelves with fresh produce and to make record-breaking profits year after year.

The transformation underway in our community has brought us stories of a new climate of respect in the fields; of parents telling us what it's like to walk their own children to school for the first time ever. These and many other changes that were unimaginable just a few months ago are starting to take root today.

But Ahold and Publix continue to stand in the way of more humane conditions in the fields by refusing to participate – instead callously dismissing the abuses we have faced in the fields and refusing to join nine other corporations in paying their fair share and conditioning their tomato purchases on the Fair Food Code of Conduct. Ahold and Publix threaten to blunt and undermine the progress we're making toward the end, finally, of the Harvest of Shame.

If you support the Campaign for Fair Food, if you support our dreams of a better world, you must join us and tell Ahold and Publix it's time to "Do the Right Thing!"

See you in Boston and Tampa!

– Nely and Silvia,
Coalition of Immokalee Workers