Title | Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement |
Publication Type | Book |
Year of Publication | 2009 |
Authors | Ganz, M. |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
City | New York |
ISBN Number | 9780195162011 |
Keywords | AFL-CIO, agriculture, Cesar Chavez, civil disobedience, civil rights, farming, La Causa, migrant labor, United Farm Workers, workers' rights |
Abstract | Why David Sometimes Wins tells the story of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers' groundbreaking victory, drawing important lessons from this dramatic tale. Since the 1900s, large-scale agricultural enterprises relied on migrant labor-a cheap, unorganized, and powerless workforce. In 1965, when some 800 Filipino grape workers began to strike under the aegis of the AFL-CIO, the UFW soon joined the action with 2,000 Mexican workers and turned the strike into a civil rights struggle. They engaged in civil disobedience, mobilized support from churches and students, boycotted growers, and transformed their struggle into La Causa, a farm workers' movement that eventually triumphed over the grape industry's Goliath. Why did they succeed? How can the powerless challenge the powerful successfully? Offering insight from a longtime movement organizer and scholar, Ganz illustrates how they had the ability and resourcefulness to devise good strategy and turn short-term advantages into long-term gains. (from Amazon.com) |