Cesar Chavez and the Farm Labor Movement Civil

Cesar Chavez and the Farm Labor Movement: Civil Rights and Environmental Justice

I. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Environmental Movement WWII Chlorinated Hydrocarbons • DDT: dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane • Dieldrin • Heptachlor

• • Pounds of chemicals sold in US 1947: 124, 259, 000 1960: 637, 666, 000 2000: 1. 1 Billion (1991: export 390 million)

"Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? " Rachel Carson

1962 Silent Spring • 1) 2) 3) 4) Conservation Environmentalism Chemicals stored in tissue Chemicals kill years later Americans far too careless Resistance

II. Delano, CA

n Sharp division landowners (white) and workers (Filipino, Chinese, Mexican, Japanese)

III. Highly Mobile and Politically Vulnerable: Migrant Workers, Braceros, and Illegal Immigrants Difficulties: 1) Hard to organize: mobile + vulnerable, landowners powerful 2) Bracero Program: exploitative, encouraged illegals 3) Wagner Act exemption: S + W Dems, blacks and Mexicans n

IV. Cesar Chavez: Life and Backgound A. Early Years as Migrant Worker n b. 1927; farm sold 1938 migrant n 30+ schools, stopped at age 14, 8 th grade

B. San Joaquin Valley: A Little Bit of Dixie in California “No Dogs or Mexicans Allowed” n 1943: CC kicked from theater begins to protest n Joins National Farm Labor Union n

C. Community Services Organization n CSO provided social services: n Voter registration drives n Immigration papers n Police brutality n Organize unions

CC works for 10 years in CSO in CA and AZ n Growing uncomfortable: too moderate with influx urban liberals n 1962: plan for massive union effort rejected n

D. CC Leaves CSO NFWA n $1200 founds National Farm Workers Association n Credit unions n Represent workers n 1964 -65: small wage gains n Not yet ready for full assault

V. 1965: The Delano Strike and Grape Boycott n Spring ’ 65: Filipino union outside LA negotiate increase to $1. 40/hr n Delano paid only $1. 20 Filipinos demand same pay strike n Would NFWA go on strike? – Only $100 in strike fund – If don’t join will shatter credibility

Unanimous vote n Owners attempt to break strike: police n Seem outmatched, but CC and CRM n

Walter Reuther (UAW) brings $10, 000 and promises $5, 000 per month n 1965 US Senate investigation n 1966: Mexican and Filipino unions merge to form UFW (United Farm Workers) n

CC bold strategy: appeal to American people: grape boycott n Follow grapes to stores and distribution centers picket n – Local unions join and refuse to handle “hot grapes”

n April 6, 1966: large Delano grape grower caves n Summer ’ 69: holdouts cave from bankruptcy

n CC made more demands as strike progressed: n Regulation of pesticides n Sept ’ 69: testifies to Senate that 80% US farm workers suffer health problems

VI. Today UFW weaker n Conditions nearly identical to pre-union n Cancer zones, environmental discrimination n Slavery in Florida n – Coyotes/polleros and pollos