Remembering the successful grape boycott, 40 years later

Remembering the successful grape boycott, 40 years later

http://wagingnonviolence.org/2010/08/remembering-the-successful-grape-boycott-40-years-later/

by Eric Stoner
August 4, 2010

Last week, the Progressive Media Project published an op-ed ­ which
ran in the Sacramento Bee, Philadelphia Inquirer and Charlotte
Observer, among other papers ­ commemorating the 40th anniversary of
the successful 2 1/2 year-long grape boycott by the United Farm
Workers of America.

On July 29, 1970, the UFW signed its first contract with California
grape growers to end their successful national and international
boycott. As Alvaro Huerta recaps the struggle:

It seemed like an improbable outcome, as the battle pitted a mostly
Mexican as well as Filipino immigrant work force against powerful
agricultural growers in California.

Led by the late Cesar Chavez and tireless Dolores Huerta, the UFW
was founded in the early 1960s in response to the inhumane working
conditions for farmworkers in California and other states, such as
Arizona, Texas, Florida and Washington state.

While many American workers during this period enjoyed the right to
organize, 40-hour weeks, minimum wage and relatively safe working
conditions, farmworkers lacked these basic rights and protections.

In an effort to seek justice, dignity and respect in the rural
fields of America, UFW leaders, its members and sympathizers
organized and joined picket lines and marches, signed petitions,
supported labor laws, lobbied elected officials, distributed
educational flyers, produced documentaries, penned songs, performed
plays, held teach-ins and generally supported the nationwide boycott.

The charismatic Chavez ­ who graced the cover of Time magazine on
July 4, 1969 ­ engaged in numerous and lengthy hunger strikes to draw
attention to the cause.

As was the case with the civil rights movement, many UFW activists
were beaten up and a few were killed for the simple act of supporting
the right of farmworkers to organize a union and negotiate for fair
labor contracts.

But the rightness of their cause prevailed.

While this campaign should no doubt be seen as a nonviolent success
story, the farmworkers struggle for justice did not unfortunately end
there. In fact, the grape boycott had to be resumed in 1973 after the
major vineyards broke their contract with the UFW. As David Cortright
writes in Gandhi and Beyond:

The boycotts continued for years, but the halcyon enthusiasm of the
initial grape and lettuce boycotts gradually faded. Boycott activity
around the country became increasingly desultory, and the tactic lost
much of its effectiveness.

My takeaway message from this story is that since boycotts are
extremely difficult to get off the ground and maintain, organizers
must make sure, to the best of their ability, that the any agreement
signed will stick before they agree to call of a boycott. Otherwise,
the businesses or corporations targeted by a movement may strike a
deal, without ever intending to implement it, just to take the wind
of out the sails of the boycott.

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