Fair Food Austin: Three upcoming events: May 1-3

April 17, 2008

Three upcoming events: May 1-3

Please join us at three upcoming events:

1. Immigrant Rights March
Thursday, May 1st, Rally 4:30pm, March 5:30pm
South Steps of the Capitol, 1100 Congress Ave 78701
Take to the streets on May Day to demand dignity for immigrant workers and the right to live without fear of deportations that divide families!

2. Fair Food Celebration
Friday, May 2nd, 7pm
MonkeyWrench Books, 110. E. North Loop 78751
Before summer arrives and workers leave Immokalee for northern harvests, celebrate the end of another year of local Fair Food organizing with music from Son Armado, photographs, refreshments and updates on the Whole Foods and Burger King campaigns -- including a report-back from the national petition delivery in Miami!

3. Guatemala, International Mining, and Community Resistance
Saturday, May 3rd, 7pm
MonkeyWrench Books, 110. E. North Loop
Fausto Valiente Roberto de Leon represents the Pastoral Commission for Peace and Ecology (COPAE), and will speak about community struggles against gold and silver extraction in San Marcos, Guatemala. COPAE works to monitor the health, social, and environmental affects of mining and supports community efforts to exert their right to autonomy against transnational corporations and create locally determined economic alternatives for development.

Who We Are

Since 2001, Fair Food Austin has organized with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) for fair wages and dignified working conditions in the U.S. agricultural industry. The CIW is a farmworker organization headquartered in Immokalee, Florida with over 4,000 members. The CIW has aided in the prosecution by the Department of Justice of six slavery operations and the liberation of well over 1,000 workers.

We use creative methods to educate consumers about the human rights crisis farmworkers face and to promote the Campaign for Fair Food. The campaign requires large food corporations -- from Taco Bell to Whole Foods -- to demand more humane labor standards from their Florida tomato suppliers, to pay a premium price for more fairly produced tomatoes, and to buy only from growers who meet those higher standards.

Brutal conditions in Florida's fields may seem distant to consumers deep in the heart of Texas, but many of the restaurant and supermarket chains that have helped create this crisis are present in our community and buy Florida tomatoes at some point during the year. Human rights are universal, and by working together, farmworkers and consumers can create a better world.