Palm Beach, Florida, is one of our nation’s true billionaire enclaves, whose denizens include some of the world’s most powerful corporate barons, with sunny oceanfront estates valued at eight- and nine-digits.
But for the next three days, the farmworkers who harvest the produce plenishing the menu items and grocery store shelves that deliver their profits, are coming to town.
The first ever Farmworker Freedom Festival, organized by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), begins today, March 8, in Palm Beach and will run through March 10. Farmworkers, faith activists, artists and students will gather to celebrate the CIW’s achievements, especially the growth and successes of its signature Fair Food Program, which will likely soon see further expansion. It will be part-jubilee, filled with dance, street theater and live music.
At the same time, the festival will stress the urgency of expanding basic rights and protections to more farmworkers, especially amid new reports of human trafficking and rising extreme heat. Perhaps most crucially, the gathering will amass the CIW’s supporters into the hometown of Nelson Peltz, the billionaire chairman and top shareholder of Wendy’s, who for years has refused to sign onto the Fair Food Program even as rival brands, from McDonald’s to Burger King, have joined.
“Farmworkers rights’ are being trampled on in so many places,” said Lupe Gonzalo, a longtime farmworker and CIW staff member. “It’s urgent for companies like Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program that has been shown to protect their rights.
Make no mistake: The Farmworker Freedom Festival is a celebration.
For three days, participants will gather in high spirits. They’ll engage in interfaith dialogue and discuss the role of the arts in the movement. They’ll join workshops on building student power and to learn about Bomba, a traditional music and dance style created by enslaved Africans in Puerto Rico. They’ll enjoy a benefit concert featuring the Guatemalan rock band Malacates Trébol Shop and others.
The festival will also feature street theater created and performed by farmworkers from Immokalee, Florida, including a two-story tall puppet of a farmworker named Esperanza, or “Hope,” who festival-goers will walk through on the streets of Palm Beach as they demand Nelson Peltz and Wendy’s join the Fair Food Program.
“Hope is what we as farmworkers have for our futures and for an agreement with Wendy’s, and this enormous puppet represents that hope that we have,” says Gonzalo.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which began in the 1990s as a workers’ center fighting for the rights of tomato pickers, has made tremendous strides in improving working conditions for farmworkers, historically one of the most unprotected workforces in the U.S.
Its signature Fair Food Program, created in 2011, has grocery and fast-food giants sign onto a legally binding agreement to enforce a code of conduct in their supply chains that is shaped by workers and monitored by a Fair Food Standards Council. In just over a decade, it has grown to cover tens of thousands of farmworkers across 10 states. After years of campaigning, seemingly immovable corporate behemoths, from Walmart to McDonald’s to Whole Foods and others, have signed on.
Today, the Fair Food Program is lauded........