photographer interview, march to support mexican autoworkers
PHOTOGRAPHER INTERVIEW, MARCH TO SUPPORT STRIKING AUTOWORKERS IN MEXICO INTERVIEW WITH DAVID BACON AT THE WORKING COACHELLA EXHIBITION IN RIVERSIDE
February Artist spotlight interview with @dbacon1959 an independent writer and photographer. David discusses his journey into photography and the social impact of his work. He started taking photographs while working as a union organizer, capturing moments of workers on strike and using the images to raise awareness and support. Bacon emphasizes the importance of showing the social reality through his photographs and using them to inspire action for social change. David’s exhibit “ Working Coachella” is on display now @inlandcivrights.
Over 3000 workers at the Audi assembly plant in Puebla, Mexico, have been on strike since January 24. The plant makes the Q5 luxury vehicle - 60% exported to the U.S. and 40% exported to Germany. The union has no strike fund. Support for the workers is being collected by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
To understand the reason for the strike, Mexican journalist Manuel Fuentes explains:
The context for this strike were the salary increases won by the United Auto Workers in the United States of at least 25% in 4 ½ years, for workers at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, after a strike of six weeks. The UAW contracts included raises of at least 25% for the highest-paid workers, to more than $40 an hour, and even larger increases of up to 160% for the lowest paid workers, who will also reach more than $40 an hour at the end of the contract 4 and a half years from now.
The big businessmen in Mexico see this as an obstacle to their plans to impose low wages, since they cannot hide that the workers at the Audi plant in Mexico do the same work as their colleagues at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis in the United States. Yet workers in the automotive industry in Mexico earned from 339 to 1,058 pesos per day in 2023 ($19.88 to $62.04).
At the recent Global Solidarity conference in Los Angeles, organized by the UCLA Labor Center, activists from unions and worker centers, including the United Auto Workers, marched to the Mexican consulate to show support for the strike. Leading the march was Edgar Romero Toxtle, the secretary treasurer of SITRAUDI, the Mexican union on strike.
WORKING COACHELLA Photographs by David Bacon
Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California 3933 Mission Inn Avenue, Suite 103 Riverside, CA 92501
More Than a Wall / Mas que Un Muro explores the many aspects of the border region through photographs taken by David Bacon over a period of 30 years. These photographs trace the changes in the border wall itself, and the social movements in border communities, factories and fields. This bilingual book provides a reality check, to allow us to see the border region as its people, with their own history of movements for rights and equality, and develop an alternative vision in which the border can be a region where people can live and work in solidarity with each other. - Gaspar Rivera-Salgado
David Bacon has given us, through his beautiful portraits, the plight of the American migrant worker, and the fierce spirit of those who provide and bring to us comfort and sustenance. -- Lila Downs
Published by El Colegio de la Frontera Norte with support from the UCLA Institute for Labor Research and Education and the Center for Mexican Studies, the Werner Kohlstamm Family Fund, and the Green Library at Stanford University
"The "border" is just a line. It's the people who matter." - JoAnn Intili, director, The Werner-Kohnstamm Family Fund
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
Exhibited throughout the pandemic in the Cecil H. Green Library at Stanford. 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)
Online Interviews and Presentations
Red Lens Episode 6: David Bacon on US-Mexico border photography Brad Segal: On episode 6 of Red Lens, I talk with David Bacon.
David Bacon is a California-based writer and documentary photographer. A former union organizer, today he documents labor, the global economy, war and migration, and the struggle for human rights. We talk about David's new book, 'More than a Wall / Mas que un muro' which includes 30 years of his photography and oral histories from communities & struggles in the U.S.-Mexico border region. https://www.patreon.com/posts/71834023?fbclid=IwAR0BRhHYbrYU3BoeoAMFKU_zdHs5Xirmmt1LzQtfwf1yD8p9EYLXKhzzbDE
Letters and Politics - Three Decades of Photographing The Border & Border Communities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvs6SyXsM-4 Host Mitch Jeserich interviews David Bacon, a photojournalist, author, broadcaster and former labor organizer. He has reported on immigrant and labor issues for decades. His latest book, More Than A Wall, is a collection of his photographs of the border and border communities spanning three decades.
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
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
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
