Monday, April 12, 2021

farmworkers need families, not deportation and exploitation

 

FARMWORKERS NEED FAMILIES, NOT DEPORTATION AND EXPLOITATION
By David Bacon and Anuradha Mittal
Americas Program, 4/9/21
https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2021/04/farmworkers-need-families-not.html
https://www.americas.org/52253/



POPLAR, CA - 2020 - Farmworkers pick persimmons in a field near Poplar, in the San Joaquin Valley, in a crew of Mexican immigrants. Many workers wear facemasks or bandannas as a protection against spreading the coronavirus. Maria Madrigal is a picker in the crew.


During the Trump administration, the U.S. deported an average of 275,725 people per year, almost the same number of workers - 257,667 - brought by growers last year to labor in U.S. fields. Contract laborers on H2-A visas now make up is a tenth of the U.S.'s total agricultural workforce - an increase of more than 100,000 in just six years.

Deporting people while bringing in contract farm labor is not new.  In 1954, during the bracero program the U.S. deported 1,074,277 people in the infamous "Operation Wetback, and brought in 309,033 contract workers. " Two years later 445,197 braceros were brought to work on U.S. farms.

Farmworkers already living in the U.S. were replaced by contract labor when they demanded higher wages.  Farmworker advocates accused the government of using deportations to create a labor shortage, and force workers and growers into the bracero program. Braceros were abused and cheated, they argued, and deported if they went on strike.

In response, civil rights and labor leaders of that era, including Cesar Chavez and Ernesto Galarza, pushed Congress to end the bracero program.

After ending the bracero program in 1964, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.  A preference system for family immigration replaced the growers' cheap labor supply scheme. By no accident, the grape strike which began the farmworkers' union movement in Delano started the same year.

Today the Biden administration is seeking ways to undo the damage to immigrants and workers wrought by Trump's executive orders.  For farmworkers the worst of those orders came last April, when an infamous tweet suspended all the processing of family preference visas, effective ending the program won by the civil rights movement. At the same time Trump tried to cut the wages of today's braceros, the H2-A workers, and expand the program by making it even more grower-friendly.


[. . .]


 

Online Interviews and Presentations
 
Exploitation or Dignity - What Future for Farmworkers
UCLA Latin American Institute
Based on a new report by the Oakland Institute, journalist and photographer David Bacon documents the systematic abuse of workers in the H-2A program and its impact on the resident farmworker communities, confronted with a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXKa2lHJXMs
 
Organizing during COVID, the intrinsic value of the people who grow our food
Sylvia Richardson - Latin Waves Media
How community and union organizers came together to get rights for farm workers during COVID, and how surviving COVID has literally been an act of resistance.
https://latinwavesmedia.com/wordpress/organizing-during-covid-the-intrinsic-value-of-the-people-who-grow-our-food/
 
Report Details Slavery-Like Conditions For Immigrant Guest Workers
Rising Up With Sonali Kohatkar
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/report-details-slavery-conditions-immigrant-guest-workers


The Right to Remain
http://www.franknews.us/interviews/415/the-right-to-remain

Beware of Pity
http://www.franknews.us/interviews/525/beware-of-pity


En Español
 
Ruben Luengas - #EnContacto
Hablamos con David Bacon de los migrantes y la situación de México frente a los Estados Unidos por ser el principal país de llegada a la frontera de ese país.
https://rubenluengas.com/2021/03/video-mexico-estados-unidos-migracion-y-suenos-rotos-encontacto/

Jornaleros agrícolas en EEUU en condiciones más graves por Covid-19: David Bacon
SomosMas99 con Agustin Galo Samario
https://www.somosmass99.com.mx/jornaleros-agricolas-en-eeuu-en-condiciones-mas-graves-por-covid-19-david-bacon/

"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.html

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

 

Online Photography Exhibitions
 
Documentary Matters -  View from the US 
Social Documentary Network
Four SDN photographers explore themes of racial justice, migration, and #MeToo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWl-uENA7SQ&t=1641s
 
There's More Work to be Done
Housing Assistance Council and National Endowment for the Arts
This exhibition documents the work and impact of the struggle for equitable and affordable housing in rural America, inspired by the work of George “Elfie” Ballis.
https://www.thereismoreworktobedone.com/david-bacon
 
Dark Eyes
A beautiful song by Lila Downs honoring essential workers, accompanied by photographs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdC2gE3SNWw


A video about the Social Justice Photography of David Bacon:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14TvAj5nS08ENzWhw3Oxra4LMNKJCLF4z/view
 



WORK AND SOCIAL JUSTICE:
The David Bacon Archive exhibition at Stanford Libraries

https://exhibits.stanford.edu/bacon/browse

On exhibit through May 9, 2021 in the Cecil H. Green Library at Stanford. Access to campus libraries is currently limited to Stanford ID cardholders due to COVID-19; however, the online exhibition (https://exhibits.stanford.edu/bacon), which includes additional content not included in the physical show, is accessible to everyone, and is part of an accessible digital spotlight collection that includes significant images from this body of work. For a catalog: (https://web.stanford.edu/dept/spec_coll/NonVendorPubOrderform2017.pdf)

 

IN THE FIELDS OF THE NORTH
Online Exhibit, May 29 to August 2, 2020
Los Altos History Museum
https://www.losaltoshistory.org/exhibits/in-the-fields-of-the-north/


VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION - IN THE FIELDS OF THE NORTH
History Museum of Tijuana
RECORRIDO VIRTUAL DE LA EXPOSICIÓN - EN LOS CAMPOS DEL NORTE
Museo de Historia de Tijuana

https://www.facebook.com/542258639265202/videos/659536991515786
 

The exhibitions in the following list were scheduled before the current COVID-19 crisis.  Public gatherings are now being rescheduled.

IN THE FIELDS OF THE NORTH / EN LOS CAMPOS DEL NORTE
March 21, 2021 - May 23, 2021
Carnegie Arts Center, Turlock

MORE THAN A WALL - THE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS OF THE BORDER
Spring, 2022
San Francisco Public Library

DEPORTATIONS
Rescheduled for a date when the gallery reopens
Uri-Eichen Gallery, Chicago
 


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 checkoutreceive 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 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)
https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801473074/communities-without-borders/#bookTabs=1

The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (University of California, 2004)
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520244726/the-children-of-nafta

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

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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