Author: mopress

By Nick Braune
Mid-Valley Town Crier
by permission

Over Christmas break I reread The Great Gatsby, my favorite novel. It describes our human fate, relentless and connecting up to human violence (called “carelessness” in the book); like an ancient Greek tragedy, the novel always leaves me drenched and almost cleansed at the end. Written in 1922, it is “the great American novel,” loaded with insights and criticism, even pointing out America’s beginning fixation on automobiles, “driving toward death in the cooling twilight.”

And, if that was not moody enough, I got a new book for Christmas, Violence, by a philosopher from Slovenia, Slavoj Zizek (pronounced “JeeJek,” I’m told). His book opens this way:

“There is an old story about a worker suspected of stealing: every evening, as he leaves the factory, the wheelbarrow he rolls in front of him is carefully inspected. The guards can find nothing. It is always empty.” The guards never figure it out, but…”The worker is stealing wheelbarrows!”

It made me think: We are always looking for little instances of violence, signs of violence, worrying that violence might happen on this street and being shocked when we see it in school or on a border between nations. We worry about certain T.V. shows, but we never really look at the overall structure. Maybe the whole wheelbarrow is violent; our whole social administration, our religions are violent; and, of course, Hollywood — but not just Hollywood — California is violent. We are.

Our entertainments, our fascinations, our corporate farms, our globalized capitalist economy itself–all are part of a violent network. Violence as injustice and cruelty is everywhere: Israel, Yes. Hamas, Yes. But also America, whose “geopolitical” plans for the Middle East have caused the current Gaza conflict, ultimately pushing confrontation and blocking U.N. peace efforts, and other efforts. (Remember America’s on-going geopolitical invasion and occupation of Iraq has taken over half a million lives, and created 3 million refugees, some displaced inside Iraq and some now living outside it.)

“Oh, I am so shocked that Hamas fired random rockets onto territory that Israel now owns,” say some conservatives. “Oh, I am so shocked at Israel’s disproportionate response, killing 100 Palestinians for every one Israeli killed,” say some liberals. But I think Zizek might say, “Look at the disparities between rich and poor and the millions of people killed through 200 years of British and U.S. imperialism in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. For once, let’s quit acting shocked, notice the wheelbarrow, and examine root causes.”

Although I may review Violence for this column soon — it deserves a good review — let me report something directly hopeful.

* * *

I interviewed Marina Saenz-Luna, a woman in her early twenties, I guess, whom I worked with two summers ago on issues involving detention centers. She has since moved up north to be an organizer with Just Harvest USA, but was visiting here in the Rio Grande Valley last week.

Braune: I know your group has celebrated a victory lately for the tomato pickers in Florida.

Saenz-Luna: Yes. Just Harvest USA is proudly linked to the Campaign for Fair Food created after the CIW victory against Taco Bell a few years ago. [CIW is a Florida farmworker union: Coalition of Immokalee Workers.] The most recent victory was an agreement with Subway. Subway met the workers’ demands: A one penny more per pound wage increase, the creation of a code of conduct that would extend to all of the workers that pick fruits and vegetables in the U.S. for Subway restaurants, and a zero tolerance policy on slavery.

Braune: I know that the Subway settlement is a great victory: forcing Taco Bell, then McDonalds and Burger King and now Subway to start recognizing the tomato pickers’ dignity. But what is the general mission of Just Harvest USA?

Saenz-Luna: We want to advance farmworker rights, by drawing attention and commitment to human and labor rights, especially through the sustainable food movement. We generate national awareness of farmworkers’ struggles for justice among people who care about local, healthy, non-corporate food and agriculture; and we mobilize this sector in effective campaigns for living wages and safe and dignified working conditions for farmworkers.

Braune: I know you identify closely with the working class and the poor. And you see them as the agent of change, right?

Saenz-Luna: Yes. I once worked a job where I too was exploited and at a loss. It’s been the CIW that has inspired me to speak up for myself: members tell their own stories and lead others in the Campaign for Fair Food. I moved down to Immokalee, Florida at the beginning of last year as an intern to learn how some of the lowest-paid and least respected workers in the U.S. were getting not only higher wages for the tomatoes they picked for about 90% of the country in the winter-time but more importantly gaining dignity and respect.

Braune: And now you work in Baltimore with the national network.

Saenz-Luna: Yes, I am now on the steering committee representing Baltimore, Maryland and the surrounding area (where I now live) for the Student/Farmworker Alliance. (Two people in the Valley in our network are Victoria Siempre and John-Michael Torres. The Valley has a special relationship with Immokalee: I met many families when I was in Immokalee, Florida who had started picking oranges and grapefruits in the Valley a few decades ago.)

The Campaign for Fair Food is calling on the agribusiness industry as a whole to take responsibility for the miserable conditions that those who labor to harvest our fruit and vegetables endure. Our campaign has included tactics of brand-busting fast food logos, making alternative, independent media to tell farmworker’s stories, and ultimately influencing popular culture across culturas and ages by engaging in creative non-violent actions, marches and discussions big and small.

On Saturday, "a well-publicized protest by about a dozen Minutemen,
with three times that many gathered to oppose them" shut down a Denton
day labor site, reports Bill Teeter of the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Organizer Cindy Lou of the LoneStar Minutemen applauded the
results. And the newspaper described her organization as: "U.S.
residents who voluntarily keep watch on the Mexican border to spot
illegal immigrants and report them to authorities."

Outnumbering the Minutemen 3-to-1 were a coalition of protesters from
"the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Denton County
Democratic Party, North Texas for Justice and Peace, Anti-Racist Action
and Peace Action Denton."

"They are here to oppose the immigration; we are here to support"
the workers, said Coty Rodriguez, the District 3 LULAC director for
North Texas. Legislative and foreign-policy initiatives can address
immigration problems, she said.

Arvin Hill of Peace Action Denton calls the Minutemen’s assertions "over the top."

"They characterize immigration as an invasion coordinated by the
Mexican government and elements of our own government," Hill said.

Hill also said the Minutemen have been found to have ties to white supremacists.

Minuteman Marvin Brooke vehemently challenged that.

"When you can’t come up with a valid, legal argument, then you shout ‘racist,’" said Brooke, of Allen.

Quotes from "Group protests at day-labor site" Jan. 8, 2005.

Gunfights in Nuevo Laredo and police corruption top Scott Henson’s top
ten list of Texas Drug War stories for 2005. The shooting wars at
the border are about control of Interstate Highway 35, says
Henson. Meanwhile a border sheriff stands convicted of favoring
some drug operators while busting others. At this point we’d like
to yawn and make reference to the Ginsberg thesis, that the drug war
has always been a prohibition style war over who gets favored and who

gets busted. It was the Reagan White House after all that was
nearly outed for running a wholesale cocaine op under direction of Col.
Norte.

In Dallas, who got busted didn’t even depend on drugs at all, but a
scam involving throwdown chalk! So the Governor has reined in
renegade drug task forces has he? The Texas Civil Rights Review
contributed a story to the effort, but we can’t help remembering that
this means ultimate busting authority along Texas highways will soon be
safely restored to the Department of Public Safety. Are we
yawning again? Sorry. It’s quite early in the year still,
and we’re having trouble waking up to the news.
Henson’s top ten list at Grits for Breakfast