Through the grape boycott and other boycotts in the 1960s and ’70s, the United Farm Workers first began "giving young people eager to help farm workers a direct path towards doing so," author Randy Shaw recently wrote. "Until Occupy, potential new activists seeking to address the big picture issues of democracy and inequality were unclear where to go or how to get involved." That changed with the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread like wildfire across America and around the world, advocating for fundamental change in an economic system that benefits the 1 percent over the 99 percent.
Among the activists at Occupy L.A., camping out downtown on the grounds of City Hall, are former UFW organizer Mario Brito, who is helping coordinate efforts there. My son, Arthur Rodriguez, 27, has been involved for most of the last four weeks when he isn’t in college, organizing trash disposal in an environmentally sustainable zero-waste manner and arranging workshops for occupiers on environmental, labor and economic issues, among others. Cesar Chavez’s grand nephew, Mateo Chavez, and his bride, Latrina Rhinehart, planned their Oct. 21 wedding outside Oakland City Hall where Occupy Oakland was camped out. They stuck to their plans, with the occupiers as witnesses. Given his family history, "It’s really fitting," Mateo said, "having Occupy in the background of my wedding pictures."
Cesar Chavez once said, "We don’t need perfect political systems; we need perfect participation." In the tradition of the past and present farm worker movement, the activism inspired by the Occupy movement affirms this basic tenet of participatory democracy.
Arturo S. Rodriguez, President
United Farm Workers of America