|
Check out the slideshow plus highlights from across the country!
flickrSLiDR
Sacramento, CA
As the CIW's national petition drive continued to spread, students around the
country were busily organizing educational events and direct
actions-- over 200 events in total -- for the National Student
Labor Week of Action (March 28th - April 4th).
Coordinated
by the Student
Labor Action Project, the Week of Action has grown into
a powerful expression of the broad scope of the student movement
for economic justice, spotlighting campaigns for sweat-free
university apparel, living wages for campus workers, access to higher education, and, of course, the CIW's
struggle for fair food.
Indeed, the Burger King campaign and petition drive were among the central themes of this year's SLWoA, including at this year's national MEChA conference that kicked off the SLWoA with plenty of petition-signing (pictured above)
Overall, SFA contributed over 30 actions and events to the SLWoA through our own March 31 Day of Action as well as throughout the rest of the week. |
Durham, NC
In North Carolina, our friends at Student Action with Farmworkers, whose yearly Farmworker Awareness Week coincides with the SLWoA, organized a series of events, meetings, and actions for a delegation of CIW and SFA members visiting from Immokalee -- seen here meeting with local students and community, labor and faith leaders. |
Atlanta, GA.
Our dynamic duo out of Immokalee then made its way to Emory University in Atlanta, where they connected with old friends from Son del Centro and new ones from the student group Human Rights Action at a festival capping off a week of events for human rights. Together, they delivered this letter stating concern over the presence of a Burger King restaurant on campus to the University's Vice President. |
Denver, CO
Over in Denver, the focus shifted momentarily from BK to Chipotle as the Denver Fair Food Committee organized a hugely successful action at the company's headquarters -- which you can read (and see) more about here. |
Lafayette, CO
Just outside of Denver, the CIW/SFA delegation had the honor to speak at the Escuela Bilingue Pioneer during its annual Cesar Chavez festivities.
The above mural found in the school's cafeteria, with the words "we give thanks to the earth for the bounty it gives us" inscribed above it, made for a fitting backdrop as young students remembered a man who dreamed of and fought for a day when farmworkers would have their full rights respected and earn decent wages for their backbreaking labor... |
Lafayette, CO
...and heard from a CIW member about the ongoing struggle today for that same, as yet unrealized dream.
As they prepared to set off for a short march with their homemade (and adorable) picket signs, the students committed to adding their names to the thousands of other names on the CIW's national petition...
|
Lafayette, CO
...including this newest, and youngest, member of the SFA. |
McAllen, TX
Meanwhile, in the Rio Grande Valley, SFA and MEChA members came out in force for a BK picket with some great art and petition in hand... |
McAllen, TX
...and produced this great video about the petition with footage from their action. |
Seattle, WA
Speaking of MEChA, members from both the University of Washington and Seattle University joined together with the local SLAP chapter and students from the Coalition for Global Concern for an energetic BK action... |
Seattle, WA
.jpg)
... |
Albuquerque, NM
..as our friends in "the 'burque" not only marched in their town's Cesar Chavez parade with Burger King and CIW signs, but also had their own BK action and formed an Albuquerque Fair Food Alliance! |
Madison, WI
SFA and MEChA also got together to take action in Madison, where the cold drizzle couldn't dampen the spirits of these Fair Food'istas. |
Minneapolis, MN
.JPG)
In Minneapolis, the Twin Cities' own creative take on the petition drive was on display at their action in the form of shirts with the petition and dozens of signatures scrawled on each one. |
Wichita, KS
In Wichita, Kansas, some new SFA'istas organized successful awareness-building and petition-signing and held a challenge where students had the opportunity to carry 32-pound buckets 100 feet or more for a paltry 45 cents - the stagnant average piecerate earned by tomato pickers since 1978.
|
Tampa, FL
Bringing it closer to home, friends at the University of Southern Florida in Tampa protested the Burger King on their campus, pointing out "the king's" role in farmworker exploitation... |
Miami, FL
...while our friends from United Students Against Sweatshops at Florida International University in BK's hometown - Miami - held a jarring visual installation exposing the reality of farm labor and farmworker poverty behind BK's profits.
|
Miami, FL
And though the photos for the Week of Action
end there, the solidarity actions kept rolling with
other events taking place in New York City, Chicago, Santa Ana (California), Vermont, Arizona, and elsewhere. All in all, it was an enormously successful
week, not only for the national petition drive and Burger King campaign being led by farmworkers from Immokalee and their allies,
but for young people fighting for social justice and workers'
rights throughout the U.S.
Now, the petition campaign - and its inherent message of radical democracy - surges forward.
Click here to find out
how YOU can bring the movement to your community today! |
|
