CLOSE THE SOA

It's that time of year again, and we are at the SOA in an attempt to make more people aware that this is a location which needs to be shut down.

The vigil and peaceful march, etc...end today, Sunday, but yet the SOA remains standing...let's shut it down soon!

The CIW / SFA are in attendance showing solidarity along with everyone else that has been there the entire weekend. More news after this weekend ... peace out.

PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA

As y'all are aware from my postings, the CIW SUBGUEY 2008 NORTHEAST TOUR is about to begin, and I just wanted to make certain that everyone out there is aware & if able and I urge you to please stop by one of the locations in your area, speak up for those less fortunate than yourselves not only at this time of year, the holiday season, but during the entire year, these farmworkers need a CHANGE as President Elect Obama promised, there is a future for change well in my humble opinion we should make that change real soon for these farmworkers, give them the dignity, respect and a penny more per pound for the tomatoes harvested....along with changing laws to make it possible for them to organize ie unionize to obtain a living wage!

President Elect Obama we humbly ask you to take a few hours out of your busy schedule and visit Immokalee, Florida, sit down & chat with Mr. Lucas Benitez, Mr. Gerardo Reyes and others that work in the coalition to help these farmworkers, take a quick tour of the fields, the coalition has been awarded various prestigious awards Mr. Obama (President Elect, for Human Rights, Anti-Slavery, so please we ask humbly to take the time to visit....Governor Bush stopped & visited, but he could only do so much, yet you as soon to be President have much more power to help us make the CHANGES happen that these workers need.

CIW'S CONTINUING EFFORTS FOR FAIR FOOD

Northeast Subway Tour set to begin two weeks from today!...


High school students in Lawndale, CA -- members of their school's MEChA chapter -- protest outside of a local Subway restaurant this past Sunday, November 9th. Protests like this one are planned in communities along the route of the upcoming Northeast Tour.
Click here for more pics from the exciting action!

11/18/08: Members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and their allies will leave Immokalee this coming December 2nd and head north along I-95 on a path to Milford, CT -- home of Subway's corporate headquarters -- for a 10-day swing through the Northeast aimed at bringing public attention to the exploitation of farmworkers in the fields where Subway's tomatoes are picked.

In cities from Washington, DC, to Boston, MA, the Tour delegation will be meeting with local student, faith, labor, and community groups and organizing actions at local Subway restaurants. Here's a list of the cities and dates:

2008 Northeast Tour
December 2 - 10

December 2 - Miami, FL
December 3 - Raleigh-Durham, NC
December 4 - Washington, D.C. // Baltimore, MD
December 5 - Philadelphia
December 6 - Boston // Providence, RI
December 7 & 8 - New Haven & Milford, CT
December 9 & 10 - New York City

For more information about specific events, or to help organize an event in your community, contact info@allianceforfairfood.org.


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Sustainable food blog Grist.org asks CIW for "elevator pitch" to President-elect Obama on farmworker justice!... CIW joins Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan, Anna Lappé, and more leaders in sustainable food and agriculture in "advising" the new president on how to address the inequities of our food industry.

11/12/08: Don't miss the exciting and inspiring series "Going Up!" on Grist.org for some of the best ideas on what might be next in our country's efforts to humanize and modernize our food industry. Grist asked the CIW for a contribution to the series, which you can read here below:

"Dear President Obama:

We know you’re a busy man, so we’ll get right to the point: Come to Immokalee.

Your victory has allowed us to dream again. Our dream is for a US food industry founded on respect for human rights, not exploitation of human beings.

That’s why it’s so important for you to come to Immokalee, the town that, in many ways, has come to symbolize the struggle of millions of our nation’s farmworkers to survive in the face of grinding poverty, degrading working conditions, and constant human rights violations – the town that one federal prosecutor called “ground zero for modern-day slavery.” Indeed, the most recent Department of Justice prosecution for slavery helped free workers who were forced to pick tomatoes against their will, chained and locked inside u-haul trucks, and beaten by farm labor bosses – right here in Immokalee.

We know you’ve got a lot on your plate. The economic crisis, two wars, climate change… the brutal and unending exploitation of farmworkers, no matter how terrible, just doesn’t rise to the level of the innumerable crises you’ve inherited. We understand that.

But we ask you: Where else could so little of your time have such a great impact? With one brief visit you would bring more attention to the disgraceful treatment of our country’s farmworkers than all the Harvest of Shame exposés, slavery prosecutions, Congressional hearings, and US Presidents since Lincoln combined. With our Campaign for Fair Food, we could turn that attention into action and end generations of farm labor abuse once and for all.

All we need is the right champion, someone who truly cares about the working poor, someone who represents hope to Americans who have been marginalized for far too long, someone like you. And we can do it with just a couple hours of your time." See all the contributions by clicking here

Now, do we think such a thing might ever come to pass? Probably not, but as we say, a community can dream...

And it's not totally without precedent. Governor Jeb Bush came down to Immokalee and met with CIW leaders during his campaign, following the month-long hunger strike by six of our members in 1998, and one of his first acts as Governor-elect was to help expand on wage gains we had won earlier that year.

Much, much more remains to be done, of course -- as evidenced by the six slavery operations brought to justice since Governor Bush took office (the latest of which came on Governor Crist's watch, of course...) -- but who better to help us do it than President Obama? Food for thought...

Click on the video above for the youtube version, or click here for a cleaner, quicktime streaming video

10/28/08: Check out the new video above with exclusive footage from the recently completed tour, and click on the following links for:

All the daily updates from the road


The CIW response to Chipotle's 11th hour announcement on the campaign


And a hard-hitting human rights white paper from the Alliance for Fair Food entitled "Challenging the Chipocrisy"!

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Hello follks...sorry I had not been able to post lately, been real busy, but I'm back & ready to keep y'all updated on the CIW/SFA .... so please take the time to watch the video posted and or click on our link: http://www.ciw-online.org/