"Como trabajadores y mujeres, tenemos que luchar por nuestros derechos y contra la violencia tanto en la labor como en la casa"
"As women and as workers, we have to fight for our rights and against violence both in the fields and in our own homes"
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OK, quick quiz on the defining characteristic
of agriculture in the 21st century:
What do this John Deere tractor,
pictured here on a family farm in Lillehammer,
Norway,...
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... and the transnational fast-food giant,
Burger King, pictured here in Oslo, Norway,
behind two members of the CIW delegation, have
in common?
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Answer: They are both leading examples
of the handful of multi-billion dollar corporations
gripping agricultural producers in a cost/price
squeeze -- cost, in the case of John Deere,
price in the case of Burger King -- and causing
the farm crisis that is being felt everywhere
in the world today, from the factory farms of
Florida to the family farms of far away Norway.
The map above indicates the location of all
the farms in Norway. According to Norway's leading
family farm organization, 10-15 pins disappear
from that map every day.
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An excellent analysis of the market dynamics
at work in agriculture today, entitled "The
Farm Crisis and Corporate Power," (available
at the Agribusiness
Accountability Initiative website) puts
it this way:
" Firms wielding immense market power
squeeze farmers from both sides... This extreme
concentration of market power enables these
firms to extract extremely high profits. This
is especially true when they transact with players
several orders of magnitude smaller, such as
farmers... The farm crisis is caused by these
firms using their market power to take an ever
larger share of the (retail food) dollar and,
thus, choke off the flow of money to farmers...
There is no shortage of money in the agrifood
system, there is merely a maldistribution of
money."
The painting on the wall at the Norwegian Farmers'
Union offices, where the CIW delegation met
with representatives of the Union and of the
smaller Norwegian Farmers' Organization, says
the same thing even more graphically: entitled,
"Farmer's Funeral," the painting depicts
corporate leaders outside a glass skyscraper
playing golf over a family farmer's grave.
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The domination of the modern agrifood industry
by a relatively small number of multi-national
corporations has brought small farmers and farmworkers
together. This growing cooperation to address
the common cause of their impoverishment was
seen not only in the successful Taco Bell Boycott
-- where family farmers marched, fasted, and
protested with farmworkers across the US to
redistribute a small portion of the money in
the food industry to tomato pickers in Florida
-- but in the CIW's current visit to Europe,
where the final days of the delegation's stay
were spent in large part building the foundations
of a trans-Atlantic alliance of farmers, farmworkers,
and other allied organizations dedicated to
greater economic justice in the food industry.
If the success of the Taco Bell Boycott was
any indication, this growing alliance will bring
about a changing of the guard in the food industry
in the years ahead... "changing of the
guard".... that's a picture of the traditional
changing of the guard in Oslo... that's, uh,
something of a pun... OK, we liked the picture
and couldn't figure out how else to put it in
the report...
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In any event... The CIW spent the rest of the
morning with organizations housed at the Human
Rights House in the center of Oslo. where the
delegation discussed the role that responsible
investment can play in rectifying human rights
violations in different parts of the world.
The Oslo Human Rights House was established
in 1989. It currently houses eight member organizations
that work with various forms of human rights
monitoring, reporting and advocacy, both nationally
and internationally. It is part of a network
of such houses throughout the world.
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The day ended with a meeting at the Norwegian
Development Fund, an organization devoted to
a world free from hunger and poverty based on
a sustainable environment. The Development Fund
was excited by the prospect of joining the Campaign
for Fair Food and promised to spread word of
the campaign through its budding youth group.
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The delegation began the next day in Oslo with
two more meetings with important new allies,
here with Norwegian Church Aid and the Ethical
Trading Initiative, discussing ways their organizations
could help advance the goals of the Campaign
for Fair Food...
|
... and here, standing at the foot of a monument
to Norway's workers, with a representative of
Norway's central labor federation, the LO. Fully
55% of Norway's workers are unionized.
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The LO did a little reporting on the meeting itself,
as the story of the CIW's trip will be featured
in the next issue of the LO's monthly magazine. |
Then, finally, it was out to Norway's countryside,
heading north to a rural community just outside
of Lillehammer. |
There the delegation met with a local farmer
whose farm produces garden vegetables, dairy,
grass, and wood. It has been in the family since
1620!
His hat commemorates the march from Norway to
Geneva undertaken this spring by farmers to
protest the WTO.
Next up: Oslo, Dublin, and the European Tour's
a wrap!
Scroll down for the rest of the Daily Reports
from the CIW's 2005 European Tour!
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Oslo, Norway, home to Edvard Munch's "The
Scream" (seen here in its street graffiti
form while the whereabouts of the original remain
unknown after its theft from the Munch Museum
in Oslo last year), is also home to the CIW
delegation for the next few days, as the 2005
European Tour reaches its final stop.
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And on its first day in Oslo, the delegation
was invited to address the audience at the "Food,
Agriculture, and Trade Conference," a
gathering of European small farmers,
peasant organizations from the Global South
(including our old friends from the Landless
Peasant Movement of Brazil, the MST), unions,
and other allied organizations.
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There were some heavy hitters at the conference
from the world of small farmers fighting for
a more equitable food industry, including Jose
Bove of France (famous for his dismantling of
a fast-food restaurant that will remain unamed...
to protest unchecked globalization and to demand
support for farmers).
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And another group that's become fairly well known
for taking its own courageous stand against the
ravages of the fast-food industry... |
... why the CIW, of course, represented at the
conference by Lucas Benitez...
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... whose speech drew enthusiastic applause
from the audience of more than 200.
Earlier in the morning, the CIW delegation
met with officials from the Norwegian Petroleum
Fund, the world's largest pension fund, to discuss
ethical concerns involved in food industry investments,
given the reality that agricultural production
in the US takes place in an environment of systematic
violation of several fundamental human rights,
including the right to organize and collectively
bargain and the right to overtime (both rights
are explicitly denied farmworkers under US law).
Talks with the Fund will continue during the
rest of the delegation's stay in Oslo.
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Before reaching Norway, the delegation spent
some time in Amsterdam, home of picturesque
canals...
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... the famous floating flower market...
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... and, yes, of course, fast-food restaurants,
even right there hovering just over the flower
market, lest anyone have a craving for a hamburger
while otherwise lost in the natural beauty of
one of Amsterdam's most treasured destinations.
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The business end of the Amsterdam visit was particularly
successful, as the delegation met with union allies
-- here at a round-table discussion with representatives
of the agrarian section of the largest Dutch union
and groups seeking to organize immigrant workers
in the Netherlands -- discussing plans for solidarity
as the Campaign for Fair Food grows in Europe... |
... and later in the evening at a community meeting,
for a screening of the PBS video and a remarkably
productive discussion... |
... thanks to the insightful questions of the
participants whose on-the-ground experience
in several fields -- including the areas of
agriculture, organizing, and immigration issues
-- helped shape one of the most exciting exchanges
the delegation experienced during the entire
two-week tour. Without a doubt, the evening
gave rise to a number of connections that will
continue to bear fruit well into the months
and years ahead.
Next - More from Oslo, and an update from Dublin,
Ireland, where members of the delegation will
attend an international conference on human
rights!
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Ahhh, France... Romantic land of revolution...
"Liberty, Equality, and... a Supersized
McDonald's Iced Tea?"
Hold on a minute, is that Ronald
McDonald smiling down from a billboard in the
otherwise postcard perfect countryside of Southern
France? Seems that the famous French national
pride has made a little room for the smiling
hamburger pitchman and his big ol' size 19 American
clown shoes...
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... a lot of room, in fact.
Of all the countries in Europe,
France enjoys (if that's the correct word...)
the highest penetration of McDonald's...
|
... and not just McDonald's. It seems that our
Gallic cousins have developed quite the taste
for fast-food these days.
|
Indeed, France, of all countries, has itself
become something of a fast-food nation.
|
But not everyone in France is " lovin'
it." In fact, the CIW drew healthy crowds
at community meetings in Marseilles and outside
of the rural town of Arles over the weekend,
with the gracious help of our hosts, the European
Civic Forum. The European Civic Forum was formed
shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in1989
to explore alternative models for a more just
society, with a particular focus on fundamental
changes in the areas of agriculture, immigration,
and the media.
|
At the meeting in Marseilles, the CIW delegation
explained the reasons behind the Taco Bell boycott
and described plans for the future of the Campaign
for Fair Food to a diverse crowd that brought
together small farmers, students, and farmworkers
from Spain.
|
The PBS video on the boycott victory gave essential
background on the campaign... |
... while the veteran activists in attendance
demonstrated the time-honored French tradition
of debat, engaging in a spirited and
thoughtful discussion following the CIW's presentation. |
Gabriel M'Binki Ataya of the Sindicato de Obreros
del Campo (SOC) drew powerful comparisons between
the workers' struggle for fundamental human
rights in Immokalee and his own immigrant workers'
fight for fair wages and dignity in the tomato
greenhouses of Spain. The SOC was formed nearly
thirty years ago after the fall of Franco to
defend and improve the rights of Andalusian
day laborers.
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Following the meeting, the European Civic Forum
organized a delicious dinner of organically
produced breads, cheeses, grapes and wine for
the CIW delegation (disclosure: while there
are certainly some hardships involved in the
opening of this new European front in the battle
for Fair Food, the French cuisine is definitely
not one of them...), while members of the delegation
distributed materials -- including the new CIW
postcards to McDondald's, Burger King, and Subway
-- to activists from across the region.
To get your own postcards so that you too can
spread news of the Campaign for Fair Food in
your community and let the fast-food leaders
know that you support an end to sweatshops in
Florida's fields, email us at
workers@ciw-online.org !
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The delegation's second day in the South of France
was spent in the tiny village of Saint Genies
de Malgoires at a day-long farmers' market and
community forum entitled "La Conf en Fete".
The title is derived from the name of the French
small farmers' union that organized the day's
activities, La Confederation Payasanne (a member
of the global federation of peasant organizations,
Via Campesina). |
Fast-food was the farthest thing from the minds
of the hundreds of people who gathered for this
remarkable celebration of French agriculture under
a strong late summer sun... |
... with French produce straight from the farm... |
... livestock on the hoof... |
... and, of course, fresh debat. Here,
Lucas Benitez of the CIW delegation is interviewed
by the regional community radio station, a widely
popular commercial-free station established by
our friends at the European Civic Forum. |
And following another fine --and deliciously slow
-- meal of barbecued sausage, fresh blueberry
pie, salad, strong French coffee (we could go
on, but you get the idea...), market-goers gathered
at City Hall for an open panel discussion on the
corporate domination of agriculture. |
The CIW again provoked a lively debate on the
possibilities of building a new and better world
where the human rights of all those who toil to
put food on our tables are respected. While the
room held many widely-varying opinions on how
best to build that new world, all in attendance
agreed that not only is change possible, but it
is a moral imperative given the extent of exploitation
that underlies corporate agriculture and the food
industry today. |
The discussion was chaired by Nicolas, a member
of the Confederation Paysanne demonstrating here
the traditional French facilitator technique of
speaking with an unlit cigarette in the non-microphone
hand, indicating "this meeting will now come
to an end... due to collective nicotine withdrawal." |
While outside the meeting, a few of the local
residents held their own -- even more traditional
-- debat. |
The delegation's second day in France came to
an end with a tour of our host's inspiring farm
cooperative, one of a union of 10 cooperatives
in several European countries dedicated to food
self-sufficiency for their members and to feeding
thousands of families with weekly bags of fresh,
seasonal produce. Above is a selection of the
cooperative's jams and vegetable preserves. |
The evening brought a spectacular sunset over
the countryside that inspired dozens of Van Gogh's
best works. Van Gogh lived and painted in the
area of Arles and nearby Saint Remy de Provence
for years, and the bright light-washed colors,
wind-bent trees, and scenes of peasant life that
appeared in his art still fill the landscape there
today. |
As it made its way out of France to its next
stop in Amsterdam, the delegation did manage
to catch a drive-by view of the Notre Dame Cathedral
on an all-too-brief taxi ride to the train station
in Paris .
Next up: Amsterdam... oh yeah...
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Ahhh, Europe... Romantic winding
alleyways down timeless cobblestoned streets...
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... breathtaking cityscapes...
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... and the birthplace of the Fair Trade Movement.
Yes, from the British abolitionists
of the 19th Century -- men and women like Thomas
Foxwell Buxton (above), a leader in the passage
of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 that ended
slavery in Britain and its colonies -- who equated
consuming sugar to murder, as it was produced
by slaves, and employed highly successful boycotts
to win their campaign (hmmmm, slavery in the
supply chain, successful boycotts... sounds
oddly familiar...)...
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... to the creation of the Max Havelaar label
(above) in 1988 in the Netherlands, certifying
coffee grown by cooperatives in Oaxaca, Mexico,
as officially "Fair Trade Coffee"
for the first time, the citizens of Europe have
pioneered efforts to address market imbalances
and improve conditions for farmers and farmworkers
suffering the effects of globalization.
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To this land of ever more conscious consumption
a delegation from the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers traveled for a two-week tour of five
major cities, accompanied by a key ally in the
Taco Bell Boycott victory, the Robert F. Kennedy
Memorial Center for Human Rights. The tour began
on Tuesday, October 4, in Geneva, Switzerland,
where the delegation met with a journalist from
the Swiss agricultural industry journal "Agri"
to discuss the poverty and sweatshop conditions
in Florida's tomato fields, the concentration
of market power in the US food industry that
drives that poverty, and the objectives of the
CIW's Campaign for Fair Food.
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Now while the average European consumer may
be far ahead of his or her counterpart in the
US when it comes to sensitivity to the exploitation
behind the food they eat, there is clearly still
more work to do. Fast-food has its fans in Europe,
as the presence of these familiar logos in the
heart of a popular downtown plaza attests (note
to self: Schedule outreach meeting with Swiss
military on next visit to Geneva...).
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And so the tour continued, heading out early Wednesday
morning for a day packed tight with meetings,
interviews, and informal gatherings with potential
new allies in the battle for Fair Food. In the
morning the CIW delegation met with religious
leaders from several international church bodies,
including representatives of the World Council
of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches,
the Lutheran World Federation, and our old friends,
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). |
The meeting was extremely positive and held great
promise for the further expansion of the faith-based
alliance that helped win the Taco Bell Boycott
in the US to the many religious communities of
Europe as the Campaign for Fair Food moves to
the next level. Theological support for a more
humane, community-centered food industry is well
established in many European faith communities,
which allowed for a solid foundation of common
ground in our dialogue around the CIW campaign. |
The day ended with an exciting dinner and discussion
at the Maison des Associaciones, a meeting house
for Swiss progressive organizations,...
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... where the CIW delegation had the opportunity
to lead a discussion on the Campaign for Fair
Food and to learn from the European participants,
including some who traveled several hours to
attend the evening's activities, about ongoing
efforts in Switzerland to bring about community-based
change.
Coming up Thursday: The CIW meets the ILO...
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Agriculture in Immokalee is dominated by corporations
-- corporations like WalMart that use their
overwhelming market power to demand the lowest
possible prices for the produce they buy, corporations
like Monsanto that use their overwheling market
power to demand the highest prices possible
for the products they sell for agricultural
production (fertilizers, pesticides, etc.),
and corporations like the vegetable farms in
Immokalee that have replaced family farmers
and manage to survive this price/cost squeeze
only by exploiting their workers within an inch
of their lives.
There are alternatives, of course.
On Day 3, the CIW delegation visited a farm
cooperative just ten miles from Geneva, named
"Affaire Tournereve" (roughly translated
as "Sunflower Dream Affair"...), that,
as the sign reads, is a collaboration of "Town
and country working together to reinvent an
agriculture that is inspired by our dreams."
But more on that later. First,
Day 3 began with a series of meetings at the
International Labor Organization (ILO), which
functions as a sort of United Nations for labor
issues, and is charged with monitoring and advocating
for the respect of fundamental labor rights
across the globe.
|
 The
delegation met with representatives from several
branches of the ILO, including the Bureau for
Workers' Activities (ACTRAV), the Special Action
Programme to Combat Forced Labour, the Programme
on Promoting the International Labour Standards
Department (NORMES), the Declaration on Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work (DECLARATION),
and the International Migration Programme. Once
we made our way through all the formal titles
and department names... the delegation got down
to talking about the matter at hand -- protecting
the fundamental human rights of farmworkers,
workers who are excluded from the right to organize
even under US law.
In ILO speak, the CIW delegation
and the various ILO representatives enjoyed
a frank and wide-ranging discussion and the
CIW delegation left the meetings feeling cautiously
optimistic about the possibility of future collaborations...
... or, in other words,
we met them, they met us, and it seems like
we might be able to work together to defend
workers' rights in Immokalee one day.
|
 As
it made its way out of the ILO, the CIW delegation
came upon these signs posted throughout the
building advertising an employers' conference
on social responsibility. We asked... none of
the participants was from the fast-food industry.
Following nearly half a day of navigating the
byzantine halls and bureaus of the ILO, we returned
to more familiar ground, visiting friends at
the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF).
We discussed plans for solidarity wtihin the
IUF's extenisve network of affiliated unions
and allied organizations with the Campaign for
Fair Food and organizing strategies within a
increasingly global food industry. In short,
we will be in much closer contact with the IUF
in the years to come.
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Then, as evening came to our last night in Geneva,
it was on to "Affaire Tournereve," and
a welcome visit to the Swiss countryside... |
 ...
to visit the bi-seasonal distribution point
for a new agriculture/consumer initiative in
Switzerland. Here you see bags of products fresh
from the local contryside produced by local
peasants ready to go directly into the hands
of local population.
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Here the delegation, with one of our kind and
generous Swiss hosts, learns how the program
in just one year has grown from 1 to 10 producers
and from a handful to 1,200 consumers. The market
for fair food in Switzerland is clearly booming.
|
 Not
only did the delegation hear about the production
and distribution system, but also got to taste
the delicious fare...
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... and was sent home heavily laden with the
fruit of this fine cooperative's labor. We doubt
the apples and pears will make it back to Immokalee.
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On its last morning in Geneva, the CIW delegation
met with the International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), whose director is
also the Secretary of the Workers' Group of
the ILO, and again with Monique Cloutier of
the ILO's Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV).
Immokalee is one of the poorest towns in the
United States. Workers in Immokalee are taking
on one of the richest industries in the world,
the $120 billion fast-food industry. As the
Campaign for Fair Food gathers steam in Europe,
it will need to count on solid allies in this
distant land to help spread the word and keep
the momentum growing for fundamental change
in the food industry. If our meeting on the
last morning in Geneva with the fine people
at the ICFTU is any indication,fast-food industry
leaders might want to start thinking sooner,
rather than later, about how they can make fast-food
FAIR food, too.
Hey, that's a cute baby...
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And so, it was with heavy hearts that the delegation
left Switzerland for the next leg of the tour
-- two days in France with workers' movements
in the area of Marseilles. The drive was long,
but the trip more than made up for its length
with the extraordinary beauty of the French countryside.
For your viewing pleasure, we leave you with a
few glimpses of that beauty... enjoy. |
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Arriving in Marseilles... tomorrow, more from
this incredible French port city. |
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