The Farmer

When will we see the enemy? Representatives from the major independent
progressive parties and grassroots
independent progressive organizations met at the IPPN Summit from
June 1-4, 2000 at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. There they shared
“common” agendas produced from different geographical,
ethnic, class, levels of militancy, historical backgrounds
and ages. Many parties came with their own agenda, but found
that much of that agenda was shared by the other parties and organizations. They
came from different valleys on different sides of the mountains
but wound up at the same table of collective awareness
that the “enemy” must be the same since the problems were the
same. Now, how to forge a common strategy? We learned a
lot from each other, but one thing struck home to me as a farmer
and farm advocate. Migrant labor leader, Baldemar
Velasquez , confirmed a nagging suspicion that I
had. Now that I have experienced farming for a few years, instead of teaching,
I questioned how could food be so cheap? I
knew about the mechanization and “chemicalization” of agriculture. But
even after the machines had done their thing and the
chemicals had done their thing, how could 2 million
or less farmers still remaining on the land produce such an
abundance of food and fiber at such
cheap costs for over 200 million people? There is but so much strength
that one man has and only 24 hours in a day. I knew that
there were a large number of migrant laborers being
shipped hither and thither crisscrossing America working on these farms,
but…Mr. Velasquez informed us that at any given time there may be as many as
400,000 such “slaves” in North Carolina
alone, where he is presently organizing workers in the
cucumber fields. In the southeastern US you might have 3,000,000
under such slave like conditions. So
when you bite into that ear of corn, you will be eating complements
of chemicals and slaves. Now the
priests of “new world order” are preaching the benefits of carrying
this same brand of agriculture throughout the world. If
China comes into the WTO then she must reduce
the number of her small family farms so that she can import more food
from the west. In other words China must substitute food
produced from independent labor to food
produced by slaves. However, if the new slaves decide to revolt, where
will that leave China and the rest of us? We
were fortunate to have at our conference Dennis Brutus, a former leader
of the anti-apartheid movement in South African and now a
conceptual mentor for the fighters against
global bloodsuckers. He apprised us of how the new global elite have
the world hostage to an intellectual concept, where the
“bottom line” is all that matters, people are not
important and “there is no other way” but to bow down to the global priests
of Mammon. The multinational corporations have the masses
in the affluent west believing that
their great affluence and ease is a product of super science and benign
capitalism. Instead the migrant worker issue shows that
the rich are eating not only the resources of the
planet up at an alarming rate, but are drinking the blood, sweat, and
tears of the third world, no, first world masses. It
is time to come off the sidelines and join the front line. A line has
been drawn in the mental and moral wastelands of America.
Step across. Step across at the protests before the
Republican Convention in Philadelphia at the end of July. Step across
at the People’s Convention right before the Democratic
Convention in Los Angeles in August. Step across
at the “Juneteenth” celebrations and Black farm rally in Washington,
DC on June 19, 2000. Keep your eyes and ears open for all
such opportunities step across that line and
step. Here are some links: Republican Convention protests
http://www.unity2000.com/
Democratic Convention alternative http://www.peoplesconvention.com/
Juneteenth Celebration htttp://www.19thofJune.com
Black Farmers Rally http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/bfaa.htm