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FREEDOMWAYS    THIRD QUARTER 1973

sheriff's billy club, the bullet and court injunctions. This is all part of the American capitalist tradition and we should not be surprised at this barbarity from a government that has been bombing farm workers in Southeast Asia and destroying rice crops with chemical sprays. Yet in the face of all this the farm workers are demonstrating great courage, integrity and determination and out of this struggle has come one of the outstanding national leaders of the U.S. working-class, in the person of Cesar Chavez. The farm workers are asking that the rest of the U.S. population stop buying grapes and iceberg lettuce from the supermarkets and boycott Gallo wine. That public pressure could force the agro-business corporations to come to the bargaining table. The U.S. Congress, which we all know never leads in anything progressive, must be pressured to pass special legislation which establishes the right of farm workers to choose a union, by the method of impartially administered, secret-ballot elections. Most farm workers are disfranchised by residence requirements for voting so they lack the political clout necessary to get Congress to move. That pressure has to come from those who can and do vote and want to help the farm workers win their just rights.

The position of the Nixon Watergate Administration in this struggle is clear. Not only has the Justice Department not lifted a finger to protect the civil rights of the farm workers in the face of these beatings and other attacks, but it is well known that the Defense Department bought up a large quantity of grapes in order to help the growers keep their profit margin. This is the union-busting administration that George Meany found it convenient to be neutral towards in the last Presidential   Election. The leadership of the AFL-CIO has only given token support to the United Farm Workers since the organizing started in 1966. That's an issue for the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists to take up within the ranks of AFL-CIO because the farm workers need financial support badly and they need it now.

More than 28 million people in the last Presidential election had enough social consciousness to vote against the Nixon Administration's burglars and war criminals getting another four-year-term in office. If that 28 million and their families consciously and deliberately stopped buying table grapes, iceberg lettuce and Gallo wine it could move the farm workers' struggle a long way towards victory. Farm workers represent a new constituency which, when organized, will provide important reserves for the progressive forces in the political battles ahead in this decade. They need our help and we need them. Viva la Huelga!

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