2013 prompts a look back at what brought us here, and a look forward at the road ahead toward a more perfect justice for the country’s farmworkers
The image above is a close-up of the original Emancipation Proclamation, which is today on rare display in the National Archives in Washington, DC, as part of the national commemoration of its signing by President Lincoln on January 1st, 1863 (the original has been severely damaged by exposure to light over the years and so is only infrequently available for viewing by the public). This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Proclamation, the document that helped pave the way for the eventual abolishment of slavery two years later with the ratification of the 13th Amendment.
Of course, that was the mechanical role that the Emancipation Proclamation played in the ending of slavery as a legal institution in this country and in the upheaval of the Civil War. But its metaphysical role in those tumultuous times, in the bending of the “arc of the moral universe” to which Martin Luther King would refer 100 years later, was far deeper than that. In the words of Reginald Washington, an archivist of African-American history at the National Archives, the Emancipation Proclamation also brought “a fundamental change in the character of the war.” He added:
| “With the stroke of Lincoln’s pen, a war to preserve the union had overnight become a war of human liberation.” read more |
History’s Echoes Today
That war of human liberation would continue, by other means, for more than a century after Lincoln’s death, and two recent articles reflecting on that continuing battle remind us that the fight, in some meaningful ways, is still not over.
Eric Foner, a professor of history at Columbia University, writes in the New York Times (“The Emancipation of Abe Lincoln,” 12/31/12), of Lincoln’s “magnificent second inaugural address of March 4, 1865, in which Lincoln ruminated on the deep meaning of the war” :
| “He now identified the institution of slavery — not the presence of blacks, as in 1862 — as its fundamental cause. The war, he said, might well be a divine punishment for the evil of slavery. And God might will it to continue until all the wealth the slaves had created had been destroyed, and “until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.” Lincoln was reminding Americans that violence did not begin with the firing on Fort Sumter, S.C., in April 1861. What he called “this terrible war” had been preceded by 250 years of the terrible violence of slavery.
In essence, Lincoln asked the nation to confront unblinkingly the legacy of slavery. What were the requirements of justice in the face of this reality? What would be necessary to enable former slaves and their descendants to enjoy fully the pursuit of happiness? Lincoln did not live to provide an answer. A century and a half later, we have yet to do so.” read more |
A second article in the pages of the Times looks at the “legacy of slavery” still present in the United States of the 21st century. In a piece entitled, “How Many Slaves Work for You” (1/1/13), Louis Masur, a professor at Rutgers University, writes:
| “In 1963, standing before the Lincoln Memorial, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. labeled the Proclamation a “beacon light of hope” to African-Americans and used the centennial to call for a renewed commitment to civil rights in America. Fifty years later, we might consider what a new Emancipation Proclamation would look like, one written for our times.” |
He continues:
| “In a speech delivered in September at the Clinton Global Initiative, President Obama declared that the time had come to call human trafficking by its rightful name: modern slavery. “The bitter truth is that trafficking also goes on right here, in the United States,” he declared. “It’s the migrant worker unable to pay off the debt to his trafficker. The man, lured here with the promise of a job, his documents then taken, and forced to work endless hours in a kitchen. The teenage girl, beaten, forced to walk the streets. This should not be happening in the United States of America.” |
And concludes:
| “For those who insist they would have been abolitionists during the Civil War, now is the chance to become one.” read more |
Fair Food in the 21st Century
The CIW has long been at the forefront of the fight against modern-day slavery. And with the implementation of the Fair Food Program — launched in earnest in 2010 when over 90% of the Florida tomato industry agreed to participate in the groundbreaking social responsibility initiative — many significant changes have begun to take place in Florida’s fields.
In recognition of those changes, Take Part, the digital division of Participant Media (which, in an interesting coincidence, happens to be the production company behind this holiday season’s blockbuster film, “Lincoln”), chose the CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food as one of its “5 Biggest Food-Movement Victories of 2012“.
Writing, “Thanks to increased awareness, advocates for healthy food and fair farming made massive progress this year,” the folks at Take Part congratulated the CIW for the advances of 2012:
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Fairer Conditions For Farmworkers For more than ten years, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) has pressured grocery store chains and restaurants to sign the Fair Food Agreement, which would improve conditions for farmworkers in Florida’s tomato industry, including raising daily wages from $50 to $80. This year, the grassroots organization made huge headway. In February, Trader Joe’s, which has more than 350 outlets, became the second major food retailer (after Whole Foods) to sign the document. The agreement not only guarantees higher wages, but it also grants workers much-needed basic rights, like safety education, protection from violence and sexual harassment in the fields, accurate time-keeping, and grievance procedures that protect them from the threat of retaliation by employers. By October, Chipotle buckled to the pressure of CIW as well: After six years of working to bring Chipotle into its Fair Food Program, CIW issued a press released stating that the two groups had reached an agreement. Chipotle wasn’t the first fast-food chain to make the leap—Burger King and McDonald’s did so much sooner—but the company’s reputation for making “food with integrity” makes it a prime example for the rest of the industry. Gerardo Reyes of the CIW called the development “a turning point in the sustainable food movement as a whole, whereby, thanks to Chipotle’s leadership, farmworkers are finally recognized as true partners—every bit as vital as farmers, chefs, and restaurants—in bringing ‘good food’ to our tables.” |
Of course, “good food” is first and foremost food produced free of forced labor. In this sense, the most important progress of the past two years may well be the transition in CIW’s anti-slavery efforts from an approach based solely on prosecution to one focused on prevention.
Rather than addressing slavery after the fact through investigation and prosecution of the ringleaders, the Fair Food Program has put into place — through a carefully woven fabric of worker-to-worker education, effective complaint investigation and resolution, and real market consequences for growers in the event forced labor is found on their farms — a system aimed at eliminating the conditions that encourage slavery to take root. With the participation of progressive growers and of the retail food giants whose volume purchasing power shapes the 21st century food market, we are building a new agricultural economy that supports fairer wages for farmworkers, rewards those growers who provide fairer working conditions in the fields, and punishes those who allow abuses to take place on their farms.
Unfinished Business
But despite the historic changes underway, there are still some retail food giants who refuse to do their part to support the Fair Food Program and eliminate forced labor and other human rights abuses — from wage theft to sexual harassment — in the fields.
That’s why this coming spring (March 3-17) we are taking to the streets in a two-week march, from Ft. Myers to Publix headquarters in Lakeland, the “March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food.”
The march will have two goals. First, we will march to mark the progress we have made since the turn of the new millennium, progress including the implementation and growth of the Fair Food Program. And second, we will march to underscore the hard work that remains to be done as supermarket industry leaders — chief among them Publix — continue to undermine that progress and deny their responsibility to do their part to end decades of farmworker poverty and degradation.
And because this is ultimately a reflection on the unfinished business ahead of us, we’ll end this first post of the new year with the conclusion from our announcement of the march last month:
| And so we will, once again, march. We will march to celebrate the changes underway today in Florida’s tomato industry. We will march so that Publix does, finally, support the Fair Food Program. We will march so that those growers who refuse to meet the new standards no longer get solace, and sales, from retailers like Publix who remain willing to purchase tomatoes produced the old way, “no questions asked.” And we will march so that, one day, farmworkers across this country might enjoy the unprecedented new rights and working relationships being born today in the fields of Florida.
Join us, and help us win the participation of Florida’s wealthiest corporation in a program that is changing the lives of Florida’s poorest wo It is time for Publix to “do the right thing.” Until they do, it is time for us, all of us, to march. Stay tuned in the months to come for how you can be a part of the March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food! |
rkers, workers who harvest the food for Publix’s shelves and still bear unimaginable poverty for its profit.