Thanksgiving — the biggest holiday for supermarkets — is fast approaching. To make this Thanksgiving slavery-free, the Student Farmworker Alliance and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers are organizing the National Supermarket Week of Action, November 14-21. This series will bring you the stories of how people across America are asking their local supermarkets to stand against the slavery and exploitation of agricultural workers and fight for fair food. You can check out the other parts here, here, and here.
National Supermarket Week of Action in Washington, D.C.
Marley Moynahan might be the only person in America who has ended up fighting on the forefront of a national movement for justice because she once got sidetracked on a road trip to Miami. Her caravan stopped in Immokalee, Florida, where they took a walking tour of the city predominantly comprised of migrant tomato industry workers. Moynahan met the workers, talked with them, and then saw the U-Haul truck one of them had to punch his way out of to escape slavery in the tomato fields. It was after that trip she began working with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers through the Student Farmworker Alliance, to fight for an end to slavery and injustice for farm workers. According to Moynahan, working with the CIW has
"... transformed the way I think of myself in the world and how I interact with it. It can be overwhelming to look at the vast structures and that disempower and oppress, that focus more on profit than human dignity... but this movement is a beacon."
Moynahan says the most inspiring and motivating part of the movement is having strong relationships with the workers. Alongside these workers, she helped convince Burger King to sign on with the CIW. She also organized a caravan from Washington, D.C. to participate in the Farmworker Freedom March from Tampa to Lakeland, Florida to protest supermarket chain Publix's refusal to join the CIW's Campaign for Fair Food.
Now, she and over 50 other D.C. area activists are taking on Ahold USA and their major brands Giant and Stop and Shop for the National Supermarket Week of Action. Ahold USA has refused to join the Campaign for Fair Food, and Moynahan and several other concerned D.C. area residents were not going to accept that. This week they held a rally at a local D.C. Giant store, delivered a letter to the manager, and held a picket outside with informational fliers. They also held a screening of the film Harvest of Shame , the 1960 Edward R. Murrow documentary on migrant workers in the U.S., followed by a discussion of how the issues Murrow highlighted 40 years ago are still present today.
Interestingly, not 48 hours after Moynahan and fellow activists lamented the lack of progress in achieving fair food since 1960, the CIW announced a historic victory: The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE) has agreed to their requests and will raise wages for the first time in decades and implement safeguards to prevent slavery in the industry. The agreement will cover 90% of the tomato industry in Florida. Moynahan sees this change as a turning point.
"Two years ago I would have said not a lot has changed since [Murrow's] documentary. But now have things changed? Hell yeah they have. I think the CIW's is by far one of the most revolutionary movements in terms of fostering sustainable long term change. Things have started to shift, the dominoes have started to fall, and this is a huge moment in the movement to change American agriculture."
If you want to be part of this moment of change and you live in the D.C. area (including Baltimore), email Marley Moynahan at marley(at)sfalliance.org to find out more about local events. If you live anywhere else, sign this petition asking Ahold USA and subsidiaries Giant and Stop and Shop to join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Campaign for Fair Food. Because when we all join our voices, we're just one step away from another historic victory in the fight against slavery and injustice in America.
Related Petition
Photo credit: KitAy
Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
D.C. Area Activists Ask Giant, Stop and Shop to Sell Slave-Free Food | End Human Trafficking | Change.org
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