If a person is extremely
fortunate in his life, he or she may have an opportunity to meet—and better
yet support in some meaningful, if small way—his heroes. I have been blest beyond measure by knowing and working closely some of the legendary
figures of the Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW). I got to meet and march with Martin Luther King in Chicago. And I got to meet César Chavez and help
establish the grape and later
the lettuce boycotts as the IWW’s representative on the Chicago Labor Support Committee for the
UFW.
Chavez was born on March 31,
1927 in Yuma, Arizona to a family
with deep roots in the state.
His father owned a small grocery store and ranch, but lost the business and the family homestead in the Depression at least partly as a result of fraud. Young César and his five siblings moved to California
with their parents where they all entered the world of migrant farm laborers.
The family experienced long hours
in the fields, harsh conditions in crowed
and dirty migrant camps, and prejudice and hostility to “Greasers”
by the communities in which they had
to live or travel.
Like all of the children, César often had to miss school to work in the fields or because the family was
traveling. Despite being an eager and bright student, he came from a family that spoke only Spanish at home and was often punished at school for the use of his native language. He managed to graduate eighth grade, but then had
work full time in the fields to help
support his family.
 |
| In the Navy. |
In 1944 at the age of 17 he enlisted
in the Navy for service in World War II. He experienced
intense discrimination, confinement to
menial jobs with no possibility of advancement, and a rigid
discipline. He described his two
years of service as the worst time of
his life.
Back in California and working in the fields Chavez married his childhood sweetheart, Helen Favela in 1948. The
couple moved to San Jose, California which served as home base while both continued to work
in the fields. Eventually they had eight children.
In San Jose Chavez met and was mentored by Father Donald
McDonnell, with
whom he often discussed the plight of
farm workers and from whom he learned something of the history of labor struggles in the fields. Father McDonnell introduced him to the ideas
of St. Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, and nonviolence. He also launched him on a life long program self-education through wide ranging reading.
Chavez continued to follow the crops until 1952 when he met Fred Ross, founder of the Community Service Organization (CSO), an organization for the Hispanic community affiliated with Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas
Foundation. Ross recognized leadership skills in young Chavez and hired him as an organizer
for the CSO. Trained by Ross in Alinsky’s
techniques, Chavez organized around police brutality issues and led voter registration drives. He traveled through out California for the
organization and became increasingly
drawn to struggles for worker’s
rights. He rose to become National Director of the CSO in 1958, a
position he kept until 1962.
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| Chavez, far right, in an early CSO voter registration drive. |
In 1962 Chavez left the CSO to concentrate
on the plight of farm workers on the job.
That year with Delores Huerta and
his brother Richard, Chavez founded
the National Farm Workers Association
(NFWA), a fledgling labor organization.
At his suggestion his brother Richard created the symbol of a stylized black Aztec eagle as the symbol of the new organization and created the bright red banner with the eagle highlighted in a white circle that soon became familiar
in fields across the state.
Huerta and Chavez hoped to merge the
tactics of non-violence used by Martin
Luther King and the Civil Rights
Movement with a renewal of long
battles for union representation in the fields. But in the early years, members were few and
the organization struggled.
 |
| Chavez leads a march during the five year long Delano Grape Strike. |
Despite his deep ties to the Mexican-American migrant community, the
organization did not really take of until 1965 he threw the support of the NFWA
behind Filipino workers striking in Deleno, the same fields where his
family had labored and where he met his wife.
He broadened the strike to
other fields bringing out Chicano
and other migrants. Within a few months he led a historic march from Deleno to the state capitol in Sacramento to demand better
wages and working conditions in
the fields. The Deleno strike
dragged on for five years, with picketers regularly attacked by grower-hired thugs and harassed
by local police and Sheriff Departments. In the face of many provocations, Chavez always counseled
his members in nonviolence.
The national news media began
picking up on the struggle, particularly after the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor’s Subcommittee on Migrant Labor came
to California to hold hearings where
member Robert F. Kennedy expressed strong support for the workers. It was the beginning of a long relationship between Chavez and
the Kennedy Prince.
The NFWA merged with the Agricultural
Organizing Committee, sponsored by the AFL-CIO
to become the United Farm Workers
Organizing Committee (UFWOC), which launched
a nationwide boycott of table grapes
to pressure the growers into concessions.
As tensions
in the fields grew, some rank and
file members began advocating self
defense against attacks by thugs and police and perhaps action against scabs in the
fields. In 1968 Chavez launched his first great fast, 25 days long to rally his people to
nonviolence. He attracted the attention and support of his hero Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy returned
to California to participate in the peace mass that broke the fast.
In return UFW members worked hard for Kennedy in the California Presidential Primary that spring. They, and Chavez, were devastated by his murder at the very moment of his victory.
In 1970 UFWOC stepped up its national
grape boycott campaign, organizing local
support committees around the country to picket markets selling scab
grapes. The boycott was effective. In 1970 the most growers had enough. Even the most recalcitrant Deleno growers filed into the dilapidated union hall to sign
an agreement.
 |
| Chavez and the Farm Workers employed consumer boycotts around the country that enlisted the active participation of unionist, students, activists, and ordinary consumers and ultimately moved millions. |
The grape strike and boycott was no sooner
won than California lettuce growers signed sweet heart contracts with the Teamster’s Union aimed at keeping the
UFW out. Chavez led some 10,000 farm
workers out on strike in protest, prompting
many growers to abandon the
Teamsters and sign with the UFW. A new
nation-wide boycott of non-union and
scab iceberg lettuce was launched. Chavez was jailed for violating a court
order against the boycott, and was visited in jail by Coretta Scott King and
Bobby Kennedy’s widow Ethel.
When the original UFW contracts with table
grape growers and vintner Ernest and Julio Gallo expired in 1972,
growers rushed to sign with the rival
Teamsters without any consultation
with their workers. Chavez led thousands
out strike in protest while growers obtained
injunctions against picketing. Over 3500
strikers were arrested, hundreds
beaten and at least two shot and
killed. Alarmed by the violence, Chavez halted the walk out but announced a second grape boycott. Within a few months an astonishing 17 million Americans were boycotting scab grapes,
lettuce and/or Gallo wines.
California Governor Jerry Brown helped Chavez achieve his long cherished goal of a state agricultural labor relations law
that guaranteed the right of farm
workers to organize in 1975. Despite
this, the balance of the ‘70’s and much of the ’80’s was a long running battle between the UFW,
since 1972 an official independent
affiliate of the AFL-CIO on one side,
and growers, their Teamster allies, and Republican
politicians on the other.
There were many strikes and boycotts, long
marches and hunger strikes. Chavez and
the union were under constant legal
harassment by growers filing multi-million
dollar law suits against them.
Through it all Chavez persevered and held fast to his cherished nonviolence. In the mid eighties he turned his attention to the use of pesticides in the fields and the health effects on workers and—ultimately—consumers. Yet another grape
boycott was called to protest the use of
poisons and in 1986 he went on his longest
and last fast lasting 36 days to
draw attention to the cause.
 |
| A visibly weakened Chavez symbolically breaks his last fast with Ethel Kennedy, his mother, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. |
Chavez never fully recovered from the effects of that fast, although he
continued his tireless work. On April
18, 1992 at the age of 61 and worn out,
he died in his sleep in the modest home of an Arizona migrant
worker. Forty Thousand mourners marched in his funeral procession.
In September 1984 President Bill Clinton, posthumously
awarded Chavez the Presidential
Medal of Freedom. More recently in
2011President Barack Obama proclaimed March
31 César Chavez Day and urged Americans to “observe this day with appropriate service, community, and educational programs to honor
César Chávez’s enduring legacy.” Today there are ongoing efforts to have his birthday declared a holiday in various states and by the Federal Government.
Chavez’s legacy lives on in the movements for immigrants’ rights and
opportunities for a pathway to
citizenship. While support for those goals has grown,
so has a bitter and transparently racist backlash
symbolized by the adoption of draconian anti-immigrant state laws, the
rise of the armed Minuteman movement and
other racist militias, and Donald Trump’s rise to presumptive Republican Presidential
candidate by baiting immigrants
and insulting Mexico and all of its
peoples—including those who have been American
citizens for generations.
But César Chavez’s greatest legacy is the union he left behind and the millions
he has inspired. ¡Si,
se puede!
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