New from MR Press!
Lettuce Wars
Ten Years of Work and Struggle in the Fields of
California
by Bruce Neuburger
“Does an outstanding, exceptional job of providing the
reader with an inside, on-the-ground view of the industrial farm labor
experience in California and elsewhere. Bruce Neuburger’s story is compelling
and often spell-binding. This is surely one of the most important contributions
to the social justice literature exposing farmworker injustice at all
levels.”
—Dr. Ann López, Executive Director, Center for
Farmworker Families; author, The Farmworkers’
Journey
“In these stirring pages you will find exquisite
descriptions of the work, lovely accounts of the people who do it, and a unique
view of farm worker politics, all delivered in straight forward, good humored
prose. Most of all, Neuburger reminds us of what it felt like to be young and
believe in Revolution.”
—Frank Bardacke, author, Trampling Out the
Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the
UFW
“In the noble tradition of narratives of protest
and witness, this historical work is relevant and timely. It forces us to cast a
critical eye on our American democracy, where the rights of countless workers
are trampled upon by those with political and economic power.”
—Alba Cruz-Hacker, author of No Honey for
Wild Beasts
“An extraordinary book. On one level, it is a
political memoir of a young radical’s decade of immersion in the world of
farmworkers—their work, their lives, and their struggles for union
representation. On another level, Neuburger offers a history of the successes of
the Farm Workers Union and its later degeneration. . . . a fascinating story of
a young man successfully adapting to an unfamiliar culture.”
—Michael Perelman, professor of economics,
California State University, Chico; author, The Invisible Handcuffs of
Capitalism
“Adds a new and carefully observed chapter to the
farm labor saga in Steinbeck country during the Chavez years. . . . It’s the
story of Neuburger’s real life in a notoriously hardscrabble labor market, one
that seemed like a vestige a generation ago but now serves as the default model
in a new era of global neoliberalism. If you’ve ever felt that we’re all ‘casual
labor’ now, this the book for you.”
—Peter Richardson, author of A Bomb in Every
Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed
America
In 1971, Bruce Neuburger—young, out of work, and
radicalized by the 60s counterculture in Berkeley—took a job as a farmworker on
a whim. He could have hardly anticipated that he would spend the next decade
laboring up and down the agricultural valleys of California, alongside the
anonymous and largely immigrant workforce that feeds the nation. This account of
his journey begins at a remarkable moment, after the birth of the United Farm
Workers union and the ensuing uptick in worker militancy. As a participant in
organizing efforts, strikes, and boycotts, Neuburger saw first-hand the
struggles of farmworkers for better wages and working conditions, and the
lengths the growers would go to suppress worker unity.
Part memoir, part informed commentary on farm labor, the
U.S. labor movement, and the political economy of agriculture, Lettuce
Wars is a lively account written from the perspective of the fields.
Neuburger portrays the people he encountered—immigrant workers, fellow radicals,
company bosses, cops and goons—vividly and indelibly, lending a human aspect to
the conflict between capital and labor as it played out in the fields of
California.
Bruce Neuburger is a former farmworker,
longtime radical political activist, GI organizer, movement newspaper writer and
editor, cab driver, and, for the past twenty-five years, adult school and
community college teacher. This is his first
book.
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment