ALL KINDS OF GREAT NEWS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY!

Boycott action on campuses and in communities from Florida to Idaho is heating up. Here’s just some of the latest news to give thanks for this Thanksgiving weekend!…

From the Boot the Bell campaign… This month, Cal State University San Bernadino became the 21st school to “Boot the Bell”! Over the course of the last two years CSUSB campus activists organized campus-wide forums, gathered 1,500 signatures to send to their administration, and won endorsements from 3 student and faculty bodies asking to remove Taco Bell from campus. Although the Student Union where Taco Bell was formerly housed was closed for renovations over the summer, students were already gearing up this semester to let their administration know that they would not tolerate Taco Bell’s return to campus. They just received word that when their student center re-opens… Taco Bell will not! That’s three schools in the last three months alone — Notre Dame, UCLA, and CSUSB — to tell Taco Bell that social responsibility is the price of admission to do business in their communities!

Also, while UCLA was making it official, changing out Taco Bell for “Shorty’s Subs” on that storied campus (photo on left), campaigns at both Boise State University and Washington University in St. Louis were gathering momentum. At BSU, students protested at a local Taco Bell (picture above, right), while the Student Senate considers a resolution similar to that passed 17-2 by the Faculty Senate last month calling on BSU to end its sponsorship contract with Taco Bell. Click here for an article on the protest and the resolution from the BSU newspaper.

Meanwhile the campaign at Washington University is focusing on the renewal of Taco Bell’s contract there next year. Dining Services General Manager Kathy Carmody, as quoted in the WU paper, seemed inclined to listen to the students’ concerns, saying, “Our contract with Taco Bell is up next year,” said Carmody. “We’re open to whatever students bring to the table. We’d just as soon do another concept that students want to see.”

New Endorsements… New endorsements are pouring in, from the peace and anti-war movement to national faith organizations. CODEPINK and Pax Christi International joined our growing list of endorsers from the world of peace activism, while the Alliance of Baptist Churches, the Episcopal Migrant Ministry, and the Christian Church in Florida (Disciples of Christ) added their voices to the chorus of religious organizations and churches supporting the call for fair food. To all we send our heartfelt thanks!

Finally, right here in Southwest Florida, our own Catholic Diocese of Venice ended a long-time relationship with Taco Bell by disallowing the restaurant chain to advertise in the Epiphany Cathedral’s weekly bulletin. Our hats go off to the folks in the Peace and Justice office of the Diocese for their years of hard work and unwavering solidarity with farmworkers here in Immokalee.