{"id":40766,"date":"2025-04-02T13:30:39","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T20:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=40766"},"modified":"2025-04-02T13:30:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T20:30:40","slug":"cesar-chavez-day-and-the-power-of-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/cesar-chavez-day-and-the-power-of-activism\/","title":{"rendered":"Cesar Chavez Day and the Power of Activism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by\u00a0Randy Shaw<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0March 31, 2025 (BeyondChron.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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UFW Founder Offers Lessons for Activists, Movements<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s Cesar Chavez Day comes 59 years after Chavez\u2019s historic 300-mile march from Delano to Sacramento. The journey put Chavez and the farmworkers\u2019 movement on the national stage. The past six decades has seen remarkable growth in Latino political power, electoral clout, and in unionized Latino workers; sadly, the plight of farmworkers has not advanced as much as was hoped following the UFW\u2019s success at the end of the 1970\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavez always insisted that bringing change would not be easy. His legacy offers a powerful reminder that progress toward greater social and economic justice does not proceed on a straight path. In 2008, Barack Obama harkened back to Chavez and the UFW\u2019s legacy when he led crowds in chanting the farmworker rallying cry, \u201cSi Se Puede\u201d in its anglicized, \u201cYes We Can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, rulings by a right-wing Supreme Court, powerful billionaire interests, and a MAGA-driven Republican Party promoting white supremacy and attacks on government itself exposes the difficulty of securing transformative progressive change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the progressive idealism that fueled Chavez and his movement remain. We see this in the protests going on across the nation. We see it in the crowds flocking to Bernie Sanders and AOC rallies and among the many groups mobilizing resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavez and those who got their start<\/a> as UFW activists knew well how quickly politics can turn. And the former UFW leader would be the first to argue that the opportunities for real change remain strong, and that it is up to activists to keep up the struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having written  Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century<\/em><\/a> on the ongoing legacy of Cesar Chavez and the UFW, I  believe that today\u2019s activists can learn much from the farmworkers movement. In past Chavez Day stories I urged readers<\/a> to use Cesar Chavez Day to \u201crediscover Cesar Chavez,\u201d focusing on how the UFW demonstrated the potential success of national grassroots campaigns, reinvented grassroots electoral outreach, and offered the greatest activist \u201cincubator\u201d of our times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cesar Chavez Day is a good time to recall how Chavez and the UFW experienced their own major setbacks through the 1960\u2019s and 1970\u2019s but surmounted them by never giving up the fight. This year\u2019s Cesar Chavez Day also marks the initial  showings of American Agitators<\/a>. This inspiring film tells the story of Fred Ross, Sr., organizing mentor for both Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Be sure to see it when it comes to your city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UFW\u2019s Legacy of Challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1962, Cesar Chavez began a seemingly impossible effort to organize California\u2019s migrant farmworkers. By 1966, Chavez had gotten national publicity and was building strong religious community support. While he did not have the best of relationships with California Governor \u201cPat\u201d Brown (Jerry\u2019s Dad) \u2013 Chavez did not hesitate to publicly criticize Brown just because the Governor was a Democrat \u2013 UFW pressure moved Brown to act favorably toward farmworkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ronald Reagan\u2019s victory over Brown in the 1966 California Governor\u2019s election began eight years of official anti-UFW hostility. Richard Nixon\u2019s 1968 election aligned the federal government against the UFW as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavez and the UFW helped Robert Kennedy win California\u2019s 1968 presidential primary. The UFW\u2019s Latino voter outreach for Kennedy was key. Chavez had a close personal bond with the man who, but for his assassination, would likely have won the presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these setbacks, Chavez and the UFW continued building the farmworkers movement. In 1970, the union won its legendary grape boycott, as growers finally gave in to the massive consumer avoidance of grapes (Nixon\u2019s Defense Department bought three million more pounds of grapes in 1969 over the previous year to help make up for the boycott. It would similarly triple its lettuce purchases during that UFW boycott).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But winning a three-year grape contract with growers through the boycott did not end the fight. When the contract ended, the growers switched their contracts to the then mob-controlled Teamsters union. Because the National Labor Relations Act did not cover farmworkers, and California had no independent law, the UFW could lose its hard-won contracts without a vote of those working in the fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 1975, the New York Times<\/em> wrote a story arguing that the UFW had failed. It claimed  the Teamsters would soon control the table grape, wine and lettuce industries. All the story did was inspire the UFW to intensify its boycott against Gallo Wine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To refute the Times<\/em>\u2018 prediction, Fred Ross, Jr. led a march from San Francisco to Gallo\u2019s headquarters in Modesto. The UFW brought 20,000 marching into Modesto, even more than had participated in Chavez\u2019s 1966 \u201cpilgrimage\u201d from Delano to Sacramento that had put him on the national stage. In June 1975, less than six months after the Times\u2019<\/em> prediction, the Agricultural Labor Relations Act was enacted and the Teamsters soon left the fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lessons for Today<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A big difference between the mindset of Chavez and UFW activists and those today reflects our changing perceptions of time. Because social media posts cross the world in seconds, some activists, the media and the larger society expect movement victories to occur instantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cesar Chavez never had a particular timetable or deadline. When Chavez started organizing farmworkers, nobody knew it would take 13 years to win labor rights, or if the campaign would win even after two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly sixty years ago, Cesar Chavez dared to pursue a dream of organizing farmworkers. He had no government or foundation funds, no wealthy benefactors, and no online funding operation \u2013 all he had was the force of his personality and he and his wife\u2019s commitment to the struggle. For all of the reversals, disappointments and challenges left unmet, Cesar Chavez created a legacy that inspires us to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw is also the author of <\/em>The Activist\u2019s Handbook<\/em><\/a>. His new book is the updated second edition of <\/em>The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco\u2019s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s new book is the revised and updated, The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco. His prior books include Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Posts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Randy Shaw\u00a0on\u00a0March 31, 2025 (BeyondChron.org) UFW Founder Offers Lessons for Activists, Movements Today\u2019s Cesar Chavez Day comes 59 years after Chavez\u2019s historic 300-mile march from Delano to Sacramento. The journey put Chavez and the farmworkers\u2019 movement on the national stage. The past six decades has seen remarkable growth in Latino… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40767,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40766\/revisions\/40767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}