Thread by @jollenelevid

Some farmworker movement history for #CesarChavezDay: In 1955 Filipino Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee went on strike. 8 days later, the Latino National Farmworkers Association voted to join the strike (led to UFW)

The UFW strike was broad, not simply about 1 leader 🧵

Unionists like Larry Itliong & Philip Vera Cruz were socialists. They knew in order to win the strike, they had to break the bosses’ division of workers across racial groups - unite around class. Their leadership w/Dolores Huerta & Cesar Chavez broke decades of boss tactics #UFW

The solidarity clap that many of us use in movements today was created by the farmworkers, who spoke different languages, as a signal to stop working, walk off the fields, and STRIKE. It starts slow, then gets louder, faster, like their heartbeats, into a universal rally cry #UFW

“Leadership, I feel, is only incidental to the movement. The movement should be the most important thing. The movement must go beyond its leaders.”

—Philip Vera Cruz, AWOC union organizer & AWOC co-founder #UFW #Filipino #CesarChavezDay

“Good leaders are the ones who have a good understanding of where the people’s political consciousness is at. The good leaders also have a good appreciation of time. See, you can be radical but it’s no good unless you’re radical at the right time & in a realistic sense...”

“Maybe you can try to speed things up a little, but you can’t go way ahead of the people or else you’ll lose them.”

—Philip Vera Cruz, union organizer & AWOC co-founder

“I’ve learned in the farmworkers movement that the most essential thing is the people.”

—Philip Vera Cruz, union organizer and AWOC Co-founder
#UFW #Filipino #CesarChavezDay

“The success of any positive changes in this country depends on the strength of the workers and the organizations that hold the workers together are the unions.”

—Philip Vera Cruz
#UFW #Filipino #Farmworkers #Union #Strike #AWOC

“All in all I have faith in the younger generation. They are much more knowledgeable and progressive than my generation. There are many hard lessons I have learned here in this country & the younger generation will do an even better job than we did.”

—Philip Vera Cruz

“Many radicals have abandoned the workers because they see that the big unions have become conservative..And radicals see the workers as a conservative, even reactionary, element. Some of these criticisms are true but still, you should never desert the workers.” -Philip Vera Cruz

“Fight to improve the unions and educate the workers. Nothing will change in this country without the total support of the working class. And of course, workers have to continue their struggle to improve their unions & make them truly democratic institutions.”
— Philip Vera Cruz