Extreme Makeover: Florida
tomato industry edition… How could something so good for business make the US Chamber of Commerce so mad? A reflection in two parts… Introduction
In January of this year, the CIW signed its twelfth
Fair Food agreement with a multi-billion dollar food industry leader, this time
with the multi-billion-dollar-est of them all, Walmart.
The agreement symbolized the almost unimaginable
transformation that has taken place in the Florida tomato industry over the past
several years as a result of the Fair Food Program on several levels:
In light of this unprecedented progress to date —
and of the promise of still much more to come in the months and years ahead as
the Program prepares to expand outside of Florida and to crops beyond tomatoes —
why in the world has the US Chamber of Commerce suddenly decided to attack the
CIW and the Fair Food Program?...
For more about the forthcoming series on the
Florida tomato industry's extreme makeover,
visit the CIW website. |
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
Saturday, April 05, 2014
The Class Struggle
Continues...
Drone testing coming to Cape Cod
DECEMBER 31, 2013 - 8:45AM | BY MICHAEL P. NORTON, STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICERole for Cape as FAA picks NY site for drone researchArea around Joint Base Cape Cod effected until February 13, 2017
The Federal Aviation Administration has chosen Griffiss International Airport in northern New York as one of six unmanned aircraft systems research and test sites, a choice with ramifications for Massachusetts researchers and the airspace over Cape Cod.
As a partner with Griffiss, MassDevelopment will manage testing facilities at Joint Base Cape Cod, with test site areas for what are commonly called drones including restricted airspace over the base and in "warning areas" off the Massachusetts coast. The base covers 22,000 acres on Upper Cape Cod.
"Lately, we have been engaged with multiple in-state and federal agencies who have taken advantage of our offer to 'host' them for different projects," Colonel Jim LeFavor, commander of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base, on Cape Cod, said in a statement. "One of our main commodities is plenty of space and willingness to assist."
MassDevelopment reported Monday that "in anticipation of Massachusetts' potential selection," the agency and the Massachusetts National Guard established the MA UAS Test Center on Camp Edwards and "began to host active UAS use in the restricted airspace over the Army Guard's training area." Under current law, test site operations may continue until February 13, 2017.
One of six test sites nationally
The FAA announced its six test sites Monday following a ten-month process involving 25 proposals from 24 states - a MassDevelopment official said Massachusetts did not submit its own proposal
Louise Bruyn - Reading from She Walked For All Of Us
When: Sunday, April 13, 2014, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Where: Grace Episcopal Church • 76
Eldredge St • (on Church St. one block east of Center St. - Exit 17, Mass Pike)
• Newton Corner
1971 — America has been at war in Vietnam for almost six years. The death toll is rising, both for the U.S., and for the “enemy.” Louise Bruyn had enough! It was time to do something. What could one woman do that would make Congress take notice of her protest?
She decided to walk—from her home in Newton, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C. to make her point. Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative Robert Drinan met her on the Capitol steps.
What a point she made! People all over the country rallied to support her. Finally, someone was saying what so many citizens wanted to, and had no idea how to, say—”Stop this War!”
This is her diary, day-by-day, detailing her struggles with fear, her encounters with people along the way, and the many wonderful people who opened their homes, encouraged her, and helped her on her way.
The presentation will be followed by discussion and copies of the book will be available for purchase.
Sponsored by Newton Dialogues on Peace and War
United for Justice with
Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and community
peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed after
September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic justice.
Help us continue to do this critical work! Make a donation to UJP today.
| ||
617-383-4857 | www.justicewithpeace.org |
Upcoming Events:
The Politics of Water: From Israel and Palestine to Chelsea and Beyond | Thu Apr 3 | 6:00pm | Chelsea Collaborative | Chelsea | |
Nonviolent Action: The Teachers of Norway | Wed Apr 9 | 7:00pm | Boston College Newton Campus | Newton | |
Campaign Nonviolence Training | Sat Apr 12 | 9:00am | Cambridge Friends Meeting | Cambridge | |
We Pay our Taxes. Are we getting what we need? | Sat Apr 12 | 12:30pm | Emmanuel Church | Boston | |
Pivoting for Peace in Asia/Pacific | Sat Apr 19 | 9:30am | Cambridge Friends Meeting | Cambridge | |
Jobs Not Jails Rally on Boston Common! | Sat Apr 26 | 12:00pm | Boston Common | Boston | |
Sing-Along to Pete Seeger Songs | Sat May 24 | 7:00pm | Calvary United Methodist Church | Arlington |
Part One: “The New Day is not something that’s going to happen, the New Day
is happening right now”… Since 2010, a metamorphosis has been underway in the Florida tomato industry, while in Mexico the industry’s counterpart has only sunk deeper into a morass of violence, corruption, poverty, and exploitation… The quotation at the top of this post came from the Rev. Roy Terry of the United Methodist Church of Naples. Rev. Terry spoke those words during a candlelight vigil held at the Duke University Chapel as part of last month’s Now Is the Time Tour. The vigil was captured beautifully in the simple but moving video above. It bears watching before reading on, if you haven’t already. We begin Part One of this two-part series, entitled “Extreme Makeover: Florida Tomato Industry Edition,” with Rev. Terry’s words because in those words can be found the central theme of this post. In short: In the space of just a few short years, a New Day of respect for fundamental human rights has dawned in Florida’s tomato fields, and that New Day has brought new life to an industry that, before the transformation, was fighting for its very survival. Through its partnership with the CIW in the Fair Food Program, the Florida tomato industry has left behind its often brutal past and found its way toward a more humane, more sustainable future, a future in which Florida tomato growers can embrace the demands of the 21st century marketplace with a product they can be proud of. This new era of transparency and humane labor conditions now starkly differentiates Florida tomatoes from their principal competition in the marketplace, tomatoes from Mexico, where conditions have grown increasingly harsh — and prospects for independent oversight and protection of workers’ rights increasingly dim — during this same period. Exactly how has this come to pass? Let’s take a closer look at recent history on both sides of the border... |
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If you haven't had a chance yet, you won't want to
miss Part One to the new series of posts on the "Extreme Makeover" of the
Florida tomato industry. To offer another slice of this extensive analysis on
the two realities of tomato production in Florida and in Mexico, here is a
second short excerpt:
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Pivoting for Peace in Asia-PacificCHALLENGING US MILITARISM AND CORPORATE DOMINANCE
Saturday, April 19, 9:30 am to 5:00
pm
Cambridge Friends Meeting, 5 Longfellow Park (off Brattle St)
Though most Americans don’t realize it, we’ve come to the brink of war – potentially nuclear war – twice in the last two years, first during tensions with North Korea and then over the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Islands. Our hundreds of military bases have devastating impacts on people in “host” communities. And TPP will cost us jobs, worsen working conditions and assault the environment, all to increase U.S. economic leverage over China and further maximize corporate profits and power. This one day conference will bring us to date on what is happening in Asia/ Pacific, how it will affect us here at home, and what we can do. Join us as we build our ability to pivot for peace, instead of for war. Registration $10; registration plus lunch $20. Donations to the event beyond the cost of registration and lunch are tax-deductible. They are needed to meet the travel costs for our speakers. Sponsored by American Friends Service Committee, Massachusetts Peace Action, United for Justice with Peace, Asian American Resource Workshop, and MoveOn.org Boston Council
Register: pivoting-for-peace.bpt.me or
call 800-838-3006
Info: JSherysr@afsc.org phone: (617)
661-6130
Schedule: http://masspeaceaction.org/4978
| |
Join Massachusetts Peace Action - or renew your membership today! Dues are $40/year for an individual, $65 for a family, or $10 for student/unemployed/low income. Members vote for leadership and endorsements, receive newsletters and discounts on event admissions. Donate now and you will be a member in good standing through December 2014! Your financial support makes this work possible! Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 617-354-2169 • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter Click here to unsubscribe |
Pivoting for Peace in Asia-PacificCHALLENGING US MILITARISM AND CORPORATE DOMINANCE
Saturday, April 19, 9:30 am to 5:00
pm
Cambridge Friends Meeting, 5 Longfellow Park (off Brattle St)
Though most Americans don’t realize it, we’ve come to the brink of war – potentially nuclear war – twice in the last two years, first during tensions with North Korea and then over the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Islands. Our hundreds of military bases have devastating impacts on people in “host” communities. And TPP will cost us jobs, worsen working conditions and assault the environment, all to increase U.S. economic leverage over China and further maximize corporate profits and power. This one day conference will bring us to date on what is happening in Asia/ Pacific, how it will affect us here at home, and what we can do. Join us as we build our ability to pivot for peace, instead of for war. Registration $10; registration plus lunch $20. Donations to the event beyond the cost of registration and lunch are tax-deductible. They are needed to meet the travel costs for our speakers. Sponsored by American Friends Service Committee, Massachusetts Peace Action, United for Justice with Peace, Asian American Resource Workshop, and MoveOn.org Boston Council
Register: pivoting-for-peace.bpt.me or
call 800-838-3006
Info: JSherysr@afsc.org phone: (617)
661-6130
Schedule: http://masspeaceaction.org/4978
| |
Join Massachusetts Peace Action - or renew your membership today! Dues are $40/year for an individual, $65 for a family, or $10 for student/unemployed/low income. Members vote for leadership and endorsements, receive newsletters and discounts on event admissions. Donate now and you will be a member in good standing through December 2014! Your financial support makes this work possible! Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 617-354-2169 • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter Click here to unsubscribe |
Free Chelsea Manning Now-Hands Off Edward Snowden
Hello Friends! Please take a few
minutes to read my timely article, and enter into dialogue with me about it! I
also posted the article on my website: www.debvanpoolen.com
sending love from nyc,
deb
ps. My court date to receive a sentence
for my civil disobedience action of interrupting David Petraeus is April 15 in
Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Where is the Domestic Debate on the US
Military?
April 5 is the fourth anniversary
of Chelsea Manning's
leak of the Collateral
Murder video of footage from an Apache helicopter which shows trigger-happy
soldiers killing twelve civilians. Manning, former US intelligence officer,
also leaked massive troves of documents which include details about war crimes
committed by US army personnel, such as the condoning of torture and killing of
innocent civilians in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Four years after the
releases, not one of the people implicated of war crimes in those documents or
in the Collateral Murder video has been prosecuted. Rather, Chelsea Manning was
arrested on May 29, 2010, charged with 22 crimes, endured a three-month court
martial throughout the summer of 2013, and was sentenced on August 21, 2013 to
35 years in prison. As of the writing of this article, she has been in jail
1405 days, or almost four years.
Chelsea Manning’s story
inspired me to make courtroom sketches each day of the three month court
martial. My goal was to help publicize the historic trial which the world’s
mainstream media was mostly ignoring. I spent many hours observing Chelsea and
her attorneys. She appeared to me as a very patient, strong, focused,
reasonable, and mature individual. She did not dramatize her own suffering
during the trial and still avoids calling attention to the injustice of her
ordeal.
Rather, every time
Chelsea has been given the chance to speak, she shares her thoughts about the
power of true information in the public’s possession.Manning stated in a
pre-trial hearing: “I believed that if the general public, especially
the American public, had access to the information contained within the [Iraq
and Afghan War Logs] this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the
military and our foreign policy in general, as well as it related to Iraq and
Afghanistan.”
Chelsea spoke again this past
Thanksgiving when Time magazine published a letter from her in which she lists
Americans who risked their own safety in order to find and share true
information with the public. Chelsea states “… I’m thankful that one
day—perhaps not tomorrow—because of the accomplishments of such truth-seekers
and human rights pioneers, we can live together on this tiny “pale blue dot” of
a planet and stop looking inward, at each other, but rather outward, into the
space beyond this planet and the future of all of humanity."
Four
years after Chelsea’s arrest and imprisonment, the UN Human Rights Committee
called for the release of the Senate Intelligence Report on the Bush
Administration’s Torture and Rendition program. On DemocracyNow.org
last week, Amy Goodman stated that the UN Human Rights Committee report listed
several US programs which violate human rights: Obama’s drone program, racial
profiling, life sentences for juveniles, NSA spying, police brutality, the death
penalty, and the detention of homeless and immigrants. Specific actions which
the committee called for include closing Guantanamo and prosecuting those who
have been involved in torturing prisoners.
When presented with
lists of egregious US programs, most people don’t hesitate to assign blame to
people in governmental, military or corporate leadership positions. I agree that
tremendous responsibility does lie in the laps of such people. However, when
Chelsea has had the chance to speak publicly, she has not talked about being a
victim under the thumb of people in influential positions of organizations with
massive powers. Rather, she has consistently appealed to average citizens to be
the arbiters of change.
Other public figures
have also called for ordinary citizens to act, as if they can actually make a
difference. Andy Shallal, founder of the very successful Washington DC Bus Boys
and Poets restaurants and DC mayoral candidate, said in an interview last week
for The Real News Network: “I think it’s important to have inspirational
leaders. I think the other part is the people have to rise up. The people have
to worry and get upset enough for them to make change. I really do believe
that. I think people power has not been harnessed in this country.”
Dr. Cornel West spoke
last year in Asheville, North Carolina about the impact of people’s response to
injustice: ”You have to call into question indifference. That is the one trait
that makes the angels weep.” He simply stated that not enough regular people
care. He called our attention to some of those things which the UN Human Right
Committee highlighted last week, for instance: “We spend over a half a trillion
dollars on the prison-industrial complex for the new Jim Crow and act as if it
is invisible. Why can we just turn our backs? White and black folk both do
it.”
Reverend Barber, one of the leaders of the Moral
Mondays movement in North Carolina, appealed to the people at a February 8, 2014
protest: “In this moment we cannot be silent. . . . We must become the trumpets
of conscience.” In that same speech Barber quotes Martin Luther King who said:
“It’s not the words of your enemies that you remember, but the silence of your
friends”.
Many people say that
the problems are too big and intimidating to confront, stating that their
solitary actions can't make a difference. Grace Lee Boggs, author of The Next American Revolution has been
a leader in civil rights, women’s and environmental movements, which have
prioritized massive street protests. But when I met with Boggs at her Detroit
home, she mildly rebuked me for being another one of the many activists who
overemphasize “critical mass” as a strategy element of social movements. Boggs
referred to Margaret Wheatley who writes in Leadership and the New Science about
how the differences between Newtonian and quantum physics should inform our
activist strategies. In Newtonian physics, significant, globally-influencing
change only occurs following the impact of very large forces. In quantum
physics, the world is so energetically interconnected that small, individual
actions actually have reverberations which are felt across the whole world.
Wheatley states: “We need a paradigm shift in our understanding of how
change happens. . . .Changes in small places also affect the global
system…”
Today’s predominant US
culture is based on Newtonian physics. Thus, the vast majority of people
maintain that the most powerful leaders are best positioned to make direct,
necessary changes. However, it is undeniable that no one can completely
understand the various factors leaders weigh when they make their decisions. At
the press conference regarding Snowden, Ray McGovern, former US intelligence
analyst said he had it from a good source that the following incident took place
when a dozen progressives joined Obama at a dinner before the last election.
The group needled Obama for a while, saying things like, “You’re supposed to be
progressive. How can you let all this happen?” Ray said Obama “ran out of
patience, stood up and said, ‘Don't you remember what happened to King?’” Ray
continued, “Just readJFK and the
Unspeakable and you’ll see why Obama would have ample reason to be
afraid.”
In March of 2003, the
US government preemptively attacked the Iraqi people against the will of the
American people, in order to thicken pockets of various US corporations,
tightening a hegemonic noose around the neck of yet another competitor country.
Ever since I comprehended how the collusion of the US mainstream media, US
military corporations, and the US government made this inconceivable war and
many others possible, I have concluded the US powers are fascist. At that same
press conference Ray McGovern also said, “I have been warned not to use [the
word] fascism. . . .Now when you get, as Eisenhower said, the government and the
industrial complex, which now takes the form of multinational corporations,
which also control the media . . . . parts of the congress, even parts of the
judiciary. . . . when you get them all entangled here, you have something very
much approaching what Benito Mussolini defined as fascism.”
I join all these above
voices in asking my fellow citizens to carry out the types of “discussions,
debates and reforms” which Chelsea Manning hoped would follow her leaks of
valuable information to the world. I appeal to those of us who risk nothing
more than inconvenience and discomfort to have challenging conversations about
other human beings who are being denied their basic rights each day. If you,
for whatever reason, are not going to have the conversations, please think about
these crucial issues in the privacy of your own mind.
My mind thinks the stories of Chelsea
Manning’s imprisonment and Edward Snowden’s exile are prime examples of the
United States’ fascist system. Do you agree or disagree?
Why?
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