Wednesday, April 01, 2020

farmworkers are "essential" but excluded, awaiting the virus



David Bacon Fotografias y Historias
FARMWORKERS ARE "ESSENTIAL" BUT EXCLUDED, AWAITING THE VIRUS
By David Bacon
The American Prospect and Capital & Main, 4/1/20
https://prospect.org/coronavirus/american-farmworkers-essential-but-unprotected/
https://capitalandmain.com/americas-farmworkers-await-the-virus-0401



A worker cuts lettuce in a crew in California's Coachella Valley.


In fields and rural communities across the United States the nation's 2.5 million agricultural laborers are waiting for the shoe to drop - for the first cases of coronavirus among farmworkers.  As they wait they are already feeling sharply the effects of the measures taken to contain the virus' spread.

Francisco Lozano, a farmworker in Santa Maria on California's central coast, says poverty makes this crisis much worse.  In the winter, when there's no work, families live off meager savings from the previous season, and when those are exhausted, they borrow from family and friends.  "This is the time work starts up again, picking strawberries," he says.  "But instead of pulling ourselves out of debt our situation is worse now than ever.  The fruit is bad, and they're paying by the hour - minimum wage [California's hourly minimum wage is $13].  That's not enough to live on."

Working conditions themselves have deteriorated. "Because of the rains we're working in the mud," he explains.  "We work close to each other so social distancing is impossible.  They tell us to wash our hands, but there are lots of people for each station and the soap runs out.  People normally have colds at this time of year, and many of us have to work anyway because of the economic pressure.  With the virus, that's dangerous. But the growers just want production."




Picking strawberries in the mud in Santa Maria


In Washington State one of the few farm jobs in March is cutting tulips, and Skagit County normally hosts a Tulip Festival in April.  But three crews, each with 80 to 100 workers, started cutting only to be told that most would be laid off.  According to Ramon Torres, president of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, the state's new farmworker union, "growers told them that no one is buying tulips.  But the workers also suspect growers couldn't comply with the governor's orders to maintain social distancing of six feet between people.  And now the workers who lost their jobs haven't been able to find any others."

Luis Jimenez, head of the Alianza Agricola in New York State, charges that the needs of farmworkers are ignored.  With 4000 farms the state produces more yogurt and sour cream than any other area of the country, and most workers live in housing provided by the dairies.  "But we can't buy food until we get off work, and by then the store shelves are empty - no rice or eggs or meat or paper," he says.  "The growers tell us we have to stay home when we're not working, but then how do we eat?"

Like all workers interviewed for this story, Jimenez fears the arrival of the virus.  "We live 8 to 10 people in a house, so how would we isolate?  Some have their own room, but I know one farm where everyone sleeps in bunk beds in a big room.  At work we have to help each other all the time, like when we have to move a cow.  You can't do this alone, and the job requires it.  The ranchers say that health is important, but I feel they're really only concerned with getting the work done."

Use links to continue reading

https://prospect.org/coronavirus/american-farmworkers-essential-but-unprotected/
https://capitalandmain.com/americas-farmworkers-await-the-virus-0401

[. . .]



TARTINE HARDSHIP FUND
Newly organized Tartine Bakery workers in the Bay Area need your help and assistance!  This fund, supported by the International Longhsore and Warehouse Union, will help hose workers unable to collect unemployment insurance.  

The exhibitions in the following list were scheduled before the current COVID-19 crisis.  Public gatherings are not now taking place and these exhibitions have now been postponed or rescheduled.

Stay healthy!
 

DOCUMENTING RESISTANCE -
Community Organizing Beyond the Farmworkers' Movement
Photographs by David Bacon

February 18 - March 27
Powell Library Rotunda, UCLA
Los Angeles, CA
 

IN WASHINGTON’S FIELDS: Photographs by David Bacon

February 1-May 10, 2020
Washington State History Museum
1911 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, WA
 

Exhibition Schedule
Exhibitions of photographs are scheduled for the following venues and dates:

In the Fields of the North / En los campos del norte
Scheduled exhibitions:

March 15, 2020 - June 21, 2020
Los Altos History Museum, Los Altos
March 21, 2021 - May 23, 2021
Carnegie Arts Center, Turlock


More Than a Wall - The Social Movements of the Border
Scheduled exhibition:

August 29,, 2020 - November 29,, 2020
San Francisco Public Library

Deportations
Scheduled exhibition:

April 10, 2020 - May 1, 2020
Uri-Eichen Gallery, Chicago IL
 

In the Fields of the North / En los Campos del Norte
Photographs and text by David Bacon
University of California Press / Colegio de la Frontera Norte
302 photographs, 450pp, 9”x9”
paperback, $34.95 (in the U.S.)

order the book on the UC Press website:
ucpress.edu/9780520296077
use source code  16M4197  at checkout, receive a 30% discount

En Mexico se puede pedir el libro en el sitio de COLEF:
https://www.colef.mx

Los Angeles Times reviews In the Fields of the North / En los Campos del Norte - click here
 

 "The Criminalization of Migration: A Socialist Perspective" with David Bacon and Rafael Pizarro.
http://ouleft.org/wp-content/uploads/David-Bacon-The-Criminalization-of-migration.mp4 
 

En los campos del Norte documenta la vida de trabajadores agrícolas en Estados Unidos -
Entrevista con el Instituto Nacional de la Antropologia y Historia
http://www.inah.gob.mx/es/boletines/6863-en-los-campos-del-norte-documenta-la-vida-de-trabajadores-agricolas-en-estados-unidos

Entrevista en la television de UNAM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdSaBKZ_k0o

David Bacon comparte su mirada del trabajo agrícola de migrantes mexicanos en el Museo Archivo de la Fotografia
http://www.cultura.cdmx.gob.mx/comunicacion/nota/0038-18

Trabajo agrícola, migración y resistencia cultural: el mosaico de los “Campos del Norte”
Entrevista de David Bacon por Iván Gutiérrez / A los 4 Vientos
http://www.4vientos.net/2017/10/04/trabajo-agricola-migracion-y-resistencia-cultural-el-mosaico-de-los-campos-del-norte/

"Los fotógrafos tomamos partido"
Entrevista por Melina Balcázar Moreno - Milenio.com Laberinto
http://www.milenio.com/cultura/laberinto/david_baconm-fotografia-melina_balcazar-laberinto-milenio_0_959904035.htmlDie Apfel-Pflücker aus dem Yakima-Tal
http://www.nrhz.de/flyer/beitrag.php?id=23990
EN LOS CAMPOS DEL NORTE:  Farm worker photographs on the U.S./Mexico border wall
http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=fc67a76dbb9c31aaee896aff7&id=0644c65ae5&e=dde0321ee7
Entrevista sobre la exhibicion con Alfonso Caraveo (Español)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJeE1NO4c_M&feature=youtu.be
 
THE REALITY CHECK - David Bacon blog
http://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com
Books by David Bacon

The Right to Stay Home:  How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration  (Beacon Press, 2013)
http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2328
Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants  (Beacon Press, 2008)
Recipient: C.L.R. James Award, best book of 2007-2008
http://www.beacon.org/Illegal-People-P780.aspx

Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006)
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100558350

The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (University of California, 2004)
http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520244726

En Español:

EL DERECHO A QUEDARSE EN CASA  (Critica - Planeta de Libros)
http://www.planetadelibros.com.mx/el-derecho-a-quedarse-en-casa-libro-205607.html

HIJOS DE LIBRE COMERCIA (El Viejo Topo)
http://www.tienda.elviejotopo.com/prestashop/capitalismo/1080-hijos-del-libre-comercio-deslocalizaciones-y-precariedad-9788496356368.html?search_query=david+bacon&results=1

For more articles and images, see  http://dbacon.igc.org and http://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com
and https://www.flickr.com/photos/56646659@N05/albums















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