[hupso_hide][hupso title=”#FairFoodNation in full blown mobilization mode as #NowIsTheTime Tour draws close!” URL=”https://ciw-online.org/?p=18249″]
February a busy month in Florida and Ohio as preparations for the big action ramp up…
While many across the nation celebrate mid-February with red roses and chocolate, the Fair Food nation has been focusing all of its energy on organizing for the fast-approaching “Now is the Time” Tour! In states all along the route of the ten-day, ten-city tour, Fair Food activists are making every minute count as we head into the homestretch ahead of this spring’s big action. We wanted to share some of the excitement from the Fair Food front with you today, and in the process just maybe inspire you to go ahead and register yourself for the key mobilizations in Columbus, Ohio, and Lakeland, Florida, if you haven’t already!
We’ll start in Orlando, where the CIW gathered with over one hundred youth at the Hope Community Center last night (see the top photo). It was no ordinary presentation. We’ll let the organizing team describe the exciting scene:
Today we had an amazing presentation with the youth from the Hope Community Center, many of whom are from farmworker families. We did a number of dinamicas, and there was a ton of energy, but one thing we did to close out was the palos dinamica, where you try to break one stick and it’s easy, but as you keep adding more and more sticks, it becomes impossible to break.
At the end, students each took a stick and wrote their name on it. Then, they all gathered around Emilio and one by one put them into a basket he was holding. Then, one student bundled all the stick together with a ribbon and placed it back in the basket, showing that they all stand with the CIW and together, we are unbreakable.
We look forward to seeing these extraordinary young people in Lakeland!
Over in St. Petersburg (due east of Orlando), where this past Friday CIW member Julia de la Cruz (in the CIW t-shirt below) brought new meaning to Valentine’s Day at a community event celebrating women’s rights (one of countless gatherings across the world that form part of the international “One Billion Rising” movement). Capturing the experience of thousands of farmworker women both in and out of the Fair Food Program, Julia penned a powerful poem that moved the audience to tears — and also to action, as many of those gathered promptly committed to joining farmworkers in Lakeland on March 14th and 15th after hearing her words.
Here is Julia’s poem in full:
In the rows in the fields,
we carry our pain, sweat and tears,
in this life of grime and earth.
Our red, round bucket
which we fill, day after day,
year after year.
From the seeds that we plant,
we harvest poverty.
Exploitation, humiliation, and sexual violence —
it is what surrounds us.Our hands are black and wounded,
our eyes are tired and full of sadness,
our tears are as heavy as clay
that overflow in the tomato rows.But today,
I want to say that in the fields of Florida,
the New Day is blossoming.
Where there was once desolation, slavery,
and abuse against women,
now there is consolation, respect, dignity, and human rights.
We will never have to remain silent again.Workers, dry your tears,
and let us together cultivate a new day.
Students, allies, people of faith, and communities,
join our struggle,
because it is a just one.We, the women of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers,
we are harvesting the fruit of the new day.
With you and the corporations
who have agreed to respect our human rights,
we are full of joy.But our struggle continues,
and Publix has no more excuses.
Now is the time
to do the right thing —
and join the Fair Food Program.
Next, we’ll head north to Ohio, the site of the first major action of the Tour, where consumers across the state are readying for the March on Wendy’s Headquarters (March 8th – 9th). Just this past weekend, presentations sparked commitments from dozens of Ohioans to organize caravans to the big action. Wendy’s can expect to see a broad swath of Ohio community organizations gathering at its doorstep next month, groups including the Inter-religious Task Force on Central America, the Immigrant Support Network, Jobs with Justice and SEIU, to name just a few. Not to be left out, students and young people are also mobilizing at Oberlin College and John Carroll University in order to join farmworkers for the March to Wendy’s.
And speaking of students… Make sure to check out the brand-new “Boot the Braids” Campaign from the Student/Farmworker Alliance, which is gaining the support of young people across the country. On that note, we will leave you with this particularly charming photo (below), from the Florida Institute for Community Studies’ Youth Program after a workshop with the CIW last week. Stay tuned for more soon on the “Now is the Time” Tour!
