SOLIDARITY New grape boycott gathering momentum with UFWA’s video For anyone who has seen the United Farmworkers video The Wrath of Grapes, the haunting images and the statistics will linger lon after the 14 minutes of tape are finished. There is six-year-old Felipe Franco; born without limbs after his mother was com- pelled to work until her eighth ‘month of pregnancy in vineyards sprayed regularly with the fungicide Captan, a toxic chemical known to cause birth defects. And there is the small town of MacFarland, surrounded by fields on which tonnes of pesticides have been dumped, where six children have died of cancer and 11 others are stricken with the disease. That is only the beginning. Since the video was made, UFWA vice- president Dolores Huerta told trade unio- nists in Vancouver last week, “four more children have died of cancer in MacFar- land.” In all, some 23 children in the town now have cancer — 800 per cent the normal incidence, based on the small population. Every year, the corporate growers of California dump 200,289,000 pounds of pesticides and herbicides on to the fruit and vegetables grown in the state. The environ- mental.effects of that chemical onslaught are mounting — particularly since any semblance of regulation or control was stripped away by Republican governor George Deukmejian who came into office backed by growers’ money and began sys- tematically dismantling farmworkers’ pro- tective legislation. Not only are farmworkers once again faced with working in fields sprayed with toxic pesticides, but consumers — and those in British Columbia who depend heavily on California produce are particu- larly affected — are also threatened by deadly residues. It was to get that message out that the UFWA launched its boycott of table grapes in 1985. And like the boycott of 20 years ago which brought the union its first contracts, it is beginning to gather momentum across the continent. Huerta, the vice-president of the union and one of the main architects of the boy- cott, was in Vancouver as part of the B.C. Federation of Labour’s strategy conference on Bill 19 last week. But she used the oppor- tunity to press the UFWA boycott cam- paign, urging unionists to obtain copies of the video and to show it widely. “Tt’s not just the danger to farmworkers or the children who are being deformed — it’s the danger to consumers from pesti- cide residues,” she said. “We want to get the message out, to show people what the menace of pesticides really is.” The union is pressing for the outright banning of five pesticides, including Captan and parathion, fair representation elections - and a joint grower-union committee to test for residues. The growers’ resistance to those demands is tied up with the Deukme- jian administration which has effectively removed funding from the occupational safety branch in California, cut the budget of the Agricultural Labour Relations Board and put his own appointees in charge. Huerta cited another statistic to demon- Strate the powerful grip that corporate agribusiness has on California. “Just four per cent of the corporations,” she said, “own 96 per cent of the agricultural land in California. “But we can’t let them hit us again and again,” she told unionists. “We have to them. DOLORES HUERTA... we want Goonle to get the message about what the menace of pesticides really is. develop our own strategies, reach out to the community and tell them what labour’s problems are and what labour is doing for “When we first felt our contracts slipping away and all the companies re-organizing and declaring bankruptcy, we were wring- ing our hands and trying to file charges with the ALRB,” she said. “But then we realized it was going nowhere. “We launched the boycott again and started going out to the public. And it’s re-energized our organization,” she said. Backed by the trade union movement as well as several public organizations and prominent figures in the U.S. and Canada, the boycott is beginning to make itself felt on the growers. According to Frank Curiel, an organizer for the UFWA who was in Vancouver last month, table grape growers had “a disastrous year” last year, with sales down some $30 million. No figures are available to indicate how much the boycott has cut into the $16 mik lion worth of grapes imported annually into this country but clearly the boycott is hay- ing an effect. So far no major stores have taken them off the shelves but, as it did m the 1960s boycott, that too will likely come as the pressure grows. At the moment, Huerta said, half of the UFWA executive is out on the road regih larly taking the issue to the public, pushing the boycott and distributing the video. “Boycotts can be won,” she said, point ing to the successful campaign 20 years ago and to the recent agreement won by tl Brewery Workers at Coors which had been under boycott for several years. “And your help, we will win.’ Copies of the video are available, at F charge, from UFWA, P.O. Box 62, Keene, California 93570. Copies are also available on loan from the Tribune office. é The peace accord signed last month by the heads of five Central American coun- tries is not a perfect document — but it will, if respected, help to end violence and war in the region. Moreover, the accord is significant b. cause it was struck without the interfer- ence of the United States’ Reagan admin- istration, showing a new spirit of independence for Latin American nations. So says Luis Carrillos, western Canada representative for the military and political wings of El Salvador’s liberation forces: the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front and Democratic Revolutionary Front (FMLN/FDR). In an interview Carrillos said the plan, the final product of a blueprint tabled by Costa Rican president Oscar Arias with the assistance of U.S. Senator Chris Dodd, “looks for peace in Central America, and that is what we are looking for.” He cautioned, however, that the treaty, signed by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Sal- vador, Guatemala and Honduras in Gua- temala/City Aug. 15, must be applied recognizing the particular conditions in each country. In El Salvador, he said, unconditional disarmament by the libera- tion forces can not take place. El Salvador’s U.S.-backed president, Napolean Duarte, has attempted to use a clause calling for unconditional disarma- ment to politically isolate the FALN/FDR, initially rejecting an overture late in August to negotiate a peaceful solution to the conflict. Since then, however, he has agreed to a meeting in mid-October with- out preconditions. The FMLN points to a Sept. 7 meeting with Arias, during which the Costa Rican president offered to mediate talks between the front and Duarte’s government. FMLN Commander Shafik Handal stated later that the meeting and the recep- tion Arias gave the front ‘‘shows that Duarte’s plans have come to nothing.” Echoed Carrillos: ““Duarte’s attempt to politically isolate us has backfired.” Carmillos said Duarte had rejected an overture Aug. 27 that a ceasefire be effected in mid-September so that the two sides could sit down and talk peace. The front proposed that El Salvador’s archbi- shop, Rivera y Damas, be the mediator. The fronts point out that several groups, including opposition parties in El Salvador, agree that talks between the FMLN/FDR and the government take place without conditions imposed on either side. In a Sept. 2 statement the fronts said that the peace plan “establishes a favoura- ble framework for the search for political solutions in each internal conflict within Central America. “The fronts have also stated that its implementation requires that each coun- try’s particular political process is recog- nized and that agreements are made with the protagonists in each case,” the state- ment read. Duarte has also proposed that total amnesty be granted to all prisoners of the ‘eight-year conflict. But, said Carrillos, amnesty would also mean freedom and forgiveness for members of fascist death squads convicted of atrocities, a condition to which the fronts can never agree. The Arias peace plan, as presented to the five countries meeting in Guatemala city, was flawed in that it placed most of the blame for Central American conflict on Nicaragua. That emphasis was changed at the meeting, but Nicaragua has been the first to implement sections of the treaty, © allowing the reactionary newspaper La Prensa to restart its presses and a Catholic radio station to broadcast after a shut- down. Among the program’s 11 points are calls for dialogue between warring parties, amnesty and free elections. The plan also calls for an end to outside aid for armed groups, and for the signa- tory countries to end allowing the use of their territory to be a base of operations against another signatory, Carrillos noted. Nicaragua has also indicated a willing- ness to honour a ceasefire with the | counter-revolutionaries, seeking the San- dinista government’s overthrow. But the Reagan administration has vowed to con- tinue seeking funding for the contras, | denounced world wide for atrocities | committed on Nicaraguan civilians. The Reagan administration, knowing those conditions called for the end of U.S. funding for contra bases in Honduras, tried to introduce its own peace plan, tabled at the 11th hour at the Guatemala City meeting. But. delegates rejected it, showing that “countries in Central Amer- ica are perfectly capable of arriving at a totally indigenous solution to their prob- lems. It’s a defeat for U.S. interference in the region,” said Carrillos. Carrillos said the FMLN still holds the military initiative, engaging in operations in all 14 provinces of the small Central American nation. Additionally, he said, “popular actions” — acts of sabotage — are carried out in the meat of the capi- tal, San Salvador. Meanwhile the army continues with its program of “pacification,” which entails forcibly removing villagers from their homes and strafing the countryside. The idea is to repopulate rural areas with “model villages” and then consolidate - power. But the army has failed in its paci- | fication program, said Carrillos. . 10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 30, 1987