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Events of National Farm Workers Week:Local Efforts Help Workers* soin2H\j(tBY DOROTHY EVANSNational Farm W orkers Week began April 28 with mass at St. James Cathedral at Jay Street and Cathedra! Place. It was officiated by Auxiliary Bishop John J. Snyder, and concelebrated by Father Robert P. Kennedy, director of the Social Action Department of Catholic Charities; Father Alden V. Brown, of Brooklyn College and director of the Peace and Justice Commission of the Diocese, and Father Sebastian Quetglas of St. James Cathedral parish. The 225 Catholic churches from the Borough of Brooklyn, as well as Protestant organizations and particularly the United Methodist Churches joined together to offer prayers in behalf of the work being done for the poor, unorganized, isolated and powerless farm workers of the southwestern part of this country, represented by the National Farm Workers.Mr. Joe Rubio, union representative and Brooklyn spokesman said that this week marked culmination of meetings and demonstrations which have led to support from community and religious organizations. They have been accepted by the AFL-CIO, who also represent civil service employees of the City of New York. This week has been sanctioned by Mayor Beame, as well as the mayors of such other major cities as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago.In answer to the question, why New York and major cities as the target for union demonstrations?, Mr. Rubio stated that metropolitan New York alone usee 13.1% of the national production of grapes and lettuce, with other major cities using relative amounts of these products, In line with a policy begun by ex-Mayor Lindsay, the City of New York will continue to boycott non-union lettuce and grapes for Institutional use in city contracts.Richard Chavez, the brother of Cesar, organizer of the Farm Workers, spoke recently at the United Methodist Church in Park Slope. In his plea to the congregation not to purchase non-union lettuce and grapes, he spoke of the history of the pickers of most of the fruits and vegetables consumed by this nation.A LONG HISTORYFarm workers have always been notoriously underpaid. Their history dates back to the 1800%u2019s when immigrant Chinese. Hindustanis. Japanese. Filipinos and Mexicans formed the labor pool for the farmers of the valley, and worked for pennies a day.The Industrial Workers of the World, known as the %u201c WobWles,%u201d attempted to organize in ban Diego In 1912. In return they were driven into cattleBCWobblies were charged with violation of the Espionage Act, and after the war they were prosecuted under state syndicalist laws passed during the war years.In 1935 the National Labor Relations act was written to include farm workers. The bill came out of committee two months later with farm workers specifically excluded. Adequate justification was never given..In 1961 Cesar Chavez, who himself was born in the fields of California, as was his brother Richard who spoke that day, began to organize the farm workers. Out of the 87 communities and labor camps he contacted, a small nucleus of organized workers formed the United Farm Workers, backed by reform legislation.This began the first boycott against lettuce and grapes. Richard Chavez said his brother Cesar had always been opposed to violence. In the early days when there was trouble, he went on a 25-day hunger strike to show his disapproval. After nine days the people came and asked him to stop, but he wanted to impress the farm workers with his sincerity and his belief in non-violence. He continued with his fast for 16 more days.%u201c Our friends thought we were crazy and we lost many of them,%u201d said Chavez. \learned to stand In picket lines and have someone spit in our faces and to endure. We signed our first contract for union bargaining in 1970. At this time we had 60,000 workers.%u201dAPPALLING CONDITIONS%u201c The people who pick these crops live in unbelievable conditions. They live In shacks, sometimes w ith bodies row upon row, adults and children together, sick and old all in the same room. Often there are no water and toilet facilities. Until we came there were no medical clinics. Children were born in the fields and began work as soon as they were old enough to walk at their mother's sides. Many of our people have died from pesticide poising and bad nutrition.%u201dM r. Chavez said, %u201c Our people live from day to day. We deal with their grievances and try to make things better for them. Since 1970 things have been better. We are fighting for the dignity of man. We do not fight small farmers. We are opposed to the gigantic industries-the Bank of America. Standard Oil, companies such as these who own hundreds and thousands of acres of land.%u201d Gradually, over a period of years, the Farm Workers were able to convince religious leaders of their sincerity and dedication. Ministers and priests joined their picks* linee^ tojo in o T w u n w v irw %u00ae WiiO IiiwT pring W orld W ar I, the selves had come from the fieldsof California. Demonstrators work for $5 a day plus shelter, when there is shelter.Progress has been made. The farm workers have been recognized by the AFL-CIO. There have also been setbacks. A bill was passed by Senate and Congress to provide unemployment insurance to the farm workers, because of great periods of seasonal starvation. However, President Nixon vetoed this bill.BREAKTHROUGH IN BKLYNOne of the most important breakthroughs came about In Brooklyn this past year. The farm workers had demonstrated at many supermarkets, among which were Bohack%u2019s, ShopRite Food Stores and Shopwell. There were arrests made in some of these locations. However, Mr. Joseph Saker, owner of a Shop-Rite food store at 3100 Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn agreed to sell only grapes and lettuce harvested by the United Farm Workers AFLCIO.Shopwell stores, however, issued a statement which said that employees of the food chain industry are themselves members of the Teamsters Union. Thus In many cases, they felt that supermarkets were being asked to boycott products harvested by members of the same union that represented their own employees.Union representative Joe Rubio stated this past week that through the efforts of the AFL-CIO, there will be no more secondary boycotts of local supermarkets. In the past,consumers have been asked not to shop in any of the stores where demonstrations were taking place. Under the new agreement shoppers will not be interfered with. They will, however, be asked to continue to support the boycott of non-union lettuce and California grapes, as well as Gallo wines. Almaden wine growers have long been supporters and members of the United Farm Workers.LIU's Literary Magazine:Fine Quarterly ofAcademic ProseorganizedBY DAN ICOLARI\you get your degree.%u201d I%u2019ve heard it often, sometimes in connection with Long Island University. I don't know whether it%u2019s true or not, but I do know that LIU%u2019s English Department publishes an interesting literary magazine, Confrontation, and it%u2019s more than just another quarterly.C onfrontation%u2019s Spring 7 4 edition (number eight) contains a story by Isaac Baahevis Singer; a memoir on Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas by Frances Steloff of the Gotham Book Mart, and a postscript on Stein by Carl Van Vechten.There are essays on a central theme, war and poetry, by two %u201c name%u201d poets - Todd Gltlin and Eugens McCarthy, the former senator from Minnesota; poems in translation; more essays; and a number of short stories. Many of the contributors are, of course, academics - a long-standing role and refuge for poets in America.And then there are the student poets, whose work is representative of several approaches. Veronica Kirtland%u2019s poem, %u201c Lady W ith a Parasol,%u201d after a painting by Monet, is tight - in the best sense - when its language tells:%u201c She wasn%u2019t ready then To belong Entirely to you Even though her dress Shone pink as pale-veined quartz,Even though her scarfCaught all the breeze Her face veiled to a question mark.%u201dLess successful is%u201c A knot of dark and limpid deprivationAn extension subjugating As a wound, lying before her on the heather ruffled hill,%u201d* Spri ng 19/4V%u00a5W I M V V I R Jl U 0 O I Iprepared for those hard, multl-,8U bobo&n ni bOhOtne art bnA bisY {JR'A , oiq .iicrnow gnwov nrfj bnsmnqsyllabic edges in the preceding lines. And then:%u201c When that was done Then she would be ready. %u2019'In Kirtland%u2019s poem we remember that not everything worth knowing or seeing Is Instantly apprehensible. In his poem %u201c End of the Month S c h iz o p h re n ia ,%u2019 %u2019 G raham Everett proves,there are some things no one wants or needs to kno%u201c There%u2019s the student loan payment,and the rent every month;the gas & the electric I%u2019m too lazy to do with out.I've got to be fed, kept warm, around people, and in beer.It ail mounts up. Somebody%u2019s gonna have to pay these bills.They got my name on them - but i%u2019m so seldom who they think i am.%u201dPoet Muriel Rukeyser has said that the things we are moved by in poetry are the things we've always known. But the things wo know are our views of things, what we think they are. This Idea Is in Everett's last two lines; tu t they deserve better than the flat, one-dimensional facts that precede them. Because of E verett%u2019s shopping-list approach, it%u2019s hard to care very much.Joan Carole Hand, who has published in several other journals, employs a precise, reductive style in %u201c The Need East.%u201d Her vision and herlanguage keep us muVlng fail,right to the end._______ L _%u201c West of Beliefonte The voyage inland flattens like the accents of a Baltimore waitress as she slides the pie forward, heroounter pearly as a turnpike with glints of Pittsburg braceleted In mioca while glass-faced storefronts signal Tyrone & sulphered tenements dot the street the way sliver punctuates old teeth; reminds us of the need East, makes us children loose on the Susquehanna as It snakes up from Harrisburg desperate for rocks to beat itself clean.%u201dIt%u2019s a very fine piece of work with so much to latch onto, like %u201c the way silver punctuates old teeth,%u201d it doesn%u2019t matter that I don%u2019t know how storefronts %u201c signal Tyrone.%u201dConfrontation has a lot of interesting reading between the covers of issue number eight, but those covers are so deadly dull I%u2019d never pick it up at a newsstand if I weren%u2019t looking for it specifically. It needs a large dose of graphic zip to break up all that print, both inside and out. Right now it looks a lot like a wholesale parts catalog.A one-year subscription is $2. W rite Ms. Eleanor Feleppa, Director of Public Relations, Southampton Coliege, Long Istcuiu (utifvmotiy, ouutr wuri^tun,N.Y. 11986.