As the California Faculty Association strike dates
approach, it is especially appropriate to consider strikes of the past. Last
week our campus was closed in recognition of Cesar Chavez Day. Sadly, for most
students, this day was viewed as just another holiday thrown on the calendar, a
day for Netflix binging, relaxing on the beach, or—god forbid—catching up on
homework. I think it is important to take a bit of time to revisit why we were
given the day off and to appreciate the man and the movement that we ought to
have been celebrating.
Fifty years ago, strikers set out on foot from
southern California, traveling nearly 350 miles to the capitol building in
Sacramento. Led by Cesar Chavez, they marched for 25 days and were joined by
hundreds of people along the way. Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and countless
other Chicano and Filipino farmworkers fought for better working conditions and
basic human rights. Using all sorts of approaches from the grape boycott to the
massive strike (Huelga!) to art and theater, a movement that started small
reached across the entire nation, garnering support from as far away as Europe,
where dock workers refused to unload Delano grapes. Eventually, after years of
struggle and striking, the UFW was born.
Many of the stories in Naomi Klein’s Blockadia are reminiscent of the civil
rights movements of the 1960’s, like the farm workers movement. She shares
stories of people across the world standing up for their health and their homes
against corporate giants. These are movements led by the people, “grassroots”
if you will. Like the farmworkers, most of the people of “Blockadia” are poor
and lack agency, but after coming together are able to exert social power as
communities. While the dialogue around environmental issues is so often “doom
and gloom,” these examples provide inspiration to those of us who have become disillusioned
by top down environmentalist approaches.
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