Inside the UFW: The Fermentation Begins
When we last left off, the legendary United Farm Workers union and its affiliated "movement" was threatening to sue the L.A. Weekly over a column I had written. The L.A. Times was similarly threatened because of a ground-breaking investigative series on the house that Chavez built written by Miriam Pawel.
Both Pawel and I had argued that forty years after the emergence of the UFW, Cesar Chavez' heirs had become adept at using his legacy to take in millions in public and private funds but had failed to organize any significant number of farm workers into unions. Last summer, I wrote extensively about the deplorable conditions that California campesinos now endure.
All that as intro to this breaking news:Â In the heat of this scrutiny, the UFWÂ network has now suffered its first and crucial high level defection. As I report in L.A. Weekly, Nora Benvides -- the director of the farm workers' community organizing arm known as LUPE-- has resigned in frustration.
LUPE is one of the few bright spots in the generally dysfunctional UFW universe -- ably carrying out some important work. But Benavides had apparently come into disfavor as she criticized the current UFW strategy of bunkering in, brushing aside the press criticism and counter-attacking the press. She apparently wanted to get on with the work at hand and not fritter away UFW resources and energy by trying to demonize we reporters who have levelled the criticism. And that, in turn, led to some pretty heated confrontations.
Benavides' resignation is a big loss for the UFW family. She's a talented and passionate organizer and, it should be noted, the only woman who directs a farm worker agency.
I'm going to keep hope alive and wish that Benavides' departure might strike some common sense into the UFW leadership; that it will come out of the bunker, admit some of its mistakes, re-tool its current failed strategy, and get serious about unionizing farm workers.
Again, here's the link to the breaking story about Benavides' departure.Â
Â
February 28th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
“Times reported that the heirs of César Chávez had used his legacy to build up an interlocking network of organizations that were successful in capturing millions of dollars in public and private funding but had neglected the work of organizing impoverished farm workers into unions.â€
Inheriting a union is difficult, since being political is not a genetic condition—sons and daughters should not take credit for a parent’s success nor should they be responsible for their parent’s shortcomings.
Forty years ago there seemed to be several charismatic political leaders who surfaced simultaneously, unfortunately they have not been replaced.
Marc–There is one upside to reading your article in the LA Weekly; those interested liberal affluent readers can find out where to get a transforming ‘lipo treatment,†on Rodeo Drive.
March 1st, 2006 at 11:20 am
So now they’re driving away the best they’ve got left…sad.
Totally OT, but if this is accurate it really sucks.
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/iraq/were-bringing-the-war-back-home-157660.php
March 1st, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Reg,
Now that’s scary–soldiers who risk limb and life to defend Bush’s false rantings, cannot access the TRUTH on the internet–China here we come!
March 2nd, 2006 at 7:39 pm
Cooper, what is your shtick, man? Don’t you have anything better to do than dump on the UFW? If you paid any attention, you would see that there is organizing going on, and that it invariably meets with fierce resistance, with little legal protection available for those who are threatened and punished by growers. Convenient, isn’t it, that all of a sudden Benavides is one of the “good” people, a “bright spot” that Cooper only noticed after she resigns! Perhaps if there had been some balanced reportage by Pawel and Cooper about those bright spots — surely there are some still working in the movement — then there would not have been the truculent movement response and the movement could do what it’s supposed to — help farmworkers.
March 2nd, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Here’s an interesting column that ties together two Cooper themes: Cesar Chavez, Minuteman.
As for those campesinos, perhaps their situation is dire precisely because of the illegal immigration that Cooper supports.
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