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A member-supported, nonprofit peoples think tank and education-for-action center... |
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Taco Bell Truth Tour ReportImmokalee, in South West Florida, is one of the most important agricultural areas of the United States, producing tomatoes and other vegetables. It is also home to thousands of farm workers who have been displaced from their native countries like Mexico, Haiti, and Guatemala. Immokalee farmworkers are currently paid 40-45 cents per 32 pound bucket, a wage that has not increased since 1978. CIW is demanding an additional one cent per pound of tomatoes, which, if funneled directly to the workers, would nearly double the piece rate for workers! The CIW campaign focuses on Taco Bell, owned by Yum! Brands, the world's biggest fast food restaurant owner, because they are the largest purchaser of Florida tomatoes. While reaping over $25 billion in annual receipts, Taco Bell has shamelessly refused CIW's demands, claiming that they do not involve themselves in labor disputes. Taco Bell's greed has mobilized thousands of farmworkers and their supporters across the country. On March 5, the CIW's march culminated at Taco Bell Headquarters in Irvine, CA. 
New Book by Food FirstShafted: Free Trade and America's Working Poor is a piercing document. Fifteen working people-farmworkers, farmers, seamstresses, factory workers, longshoremen-make the crucial link between free trade agreements and environmental degradation on working people's lives. These aren't theorists; these are the voices of experience. The publication of this book could not be timelier: in the wake of the amazing collapse of the WTO talks in Cancun, the even viler Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA-or “NAFTA on steroids”) talks are looming on the horizon (November, in Miami). We must act to educate ourselves, our politicians, and our friends, and Shafted is a powerful educational tool. Want to do something about free trade agreements like the FTAA? Educate your congresspeople! Organize to Bring Change!
A key part of the Economic Human Rights: The Time Has Come! campaign is working with groups to make their community a Human Rights City. Community members partner with local
government to pass Human Rights Resolutions in their city. Although the resolution is not legally binding, its broad framework provides an effective tool for more
specific campaigns for social and economic justice. The resolution ratifies and pledges support for the rights included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Each successfully passed Human Rights Resolution sends a powerful message to the US Senate that Americans support the ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and sets the stage for other campaigns to work locally for economic human rights. Campaign History: Why Economic Human Rights?Many activists and community organizations are working on the premise that their struggles to help people meet basic needs (food, security, health care, shelter, etc.) are struggles to help people realize their basic human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) guarantees all people the right to food, shelter, employment and adequate health care. More... Linking Hunger and Human RightsPowerful misconceptions - what we call myths - confuse the real causes of and solutions to hunger, either leading us down the wrong path or leaving us feeling powerless to achieve meaningful change We hear these myths daily in the news media, and in statements from agribusiness, biotech companies, the World Bank and our own government.Ending hunger requires addressing its roots in persistent and growing inequality, and doing so requires broad structural changes in access to food, jobs that pay a living wage, and land and other resources needed to grow food. Changes that could end hunger can only come through mobilizing large numbers of people, and to do this we need to change the way we think.
America's Working Poor Testify on the Impact or Free TradeJune 12, 2003
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