AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Students from coast to coast declare: “It’s On, Wendy’s!”

Students at UNC – Chapel Hill symbolically pin a large red dot to their local Wendy’s, building on the nationwide “Red Dot” campaign in which students on university and college campuses map their communities, with red dots indicating locations in which violent incidents of sexual harassment and assault have taken place. For this Sexual Harassment Awareness month, students took the logic a step further, including Wendy’s in their map of red dots.

Wendy’s under fire in 20+ cities for attempting to push farmworker women out of the #MeToo movement…

Last Thursday, April 5th, leaders in the national Student/Farmworker Alliance from nearly 30 schools around the country ushered in the month of April — observed nationally as Sexual Assault Awareness Month — with a wave of action, bridging the struggle to combat sexual harassment against women on schools campus to the parallel struggle underway in America’s fields. Through actions both in the streets and across social media, students demanded that Wendy’s (and university administrations that continue doing business as usual with the fast-food company) be held to account for failing to protect farmworker women in agriculture.

The action was launched as an answer to Wendy’s outlandish public response to the Fair Food movement, in which the company’s spokesperson Heidi Schauer went on record accusing farmworker women of “trying to exploit” the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. Outraged, students from coast to coast pushed back against Wendy’s statement, declaring that CIW farmworker women not only a part of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, but are central leaders in the national movement against sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. Students also declared that there was only one path to redemption for Wendy’s in light of its disrespect to farmworker women: Join the country’s most effective, highly regarded effort to combat gender-based violence in the fields — the Fair Food Program!

Today, we bring you the photo report highlights, straight from the Student/Farmworker Alliance, from the “It’s On Wendy’s” National Day of Action, which made waves in 26 cities from Oakland, California to Miami, FL to Providence, Rhode Island...