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	Vol.7, No 32, October 25, 1999
	Farm labor union leader sends call to action By Jason Kosareff Daily Forty-Niner The award-winning founder and president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee told a group of Cal State Long Beach students Thursday that they would need to be the next leaders in organizing labor.  "In the next decade you are going to see a new civil rights movement in the South, and it's going to have a brown face on it," Baldemar Velasquez said. "We are going to need leaders." Velasquez is a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur "Genius" Fellow award and came to Los Angeles to speak at the Third Annual Latino/Latina Los Angeles Times MacArthur Fellows Reunion.  "Where are our national Chicano leaders?" asked Velasquez. "Why don't they cry out against oppression?" Velasquez spoke about the conditions in which North Carolina migrant farm workers live and work. Velasquez and FLOC are organizing migrant workers for better wages and living conditions.  Velasquez described conditions such as excessive heat, pesticide poisoning and dangerous machinery that can endanger workers while they earn very low wages and are taken advantage of by local businesses, officials and growers.  "Housing has gotten worse over the years in the South," said Luis Arroyo, professor and chairman of the CSULB Chicano and Latino studies department. Workers seek housing in abandoned buildings and ghetto areas, and usually multiple families have to share a space to be able to pay the rent, he said. "We have a crying need for voices," Velasquez said.   "But the media market in the South is too small," he said, explaining why little attention may be given to the plight of workers in Southern rural areas.  "Laws protecting the workers will never be enforced," Velasquez said. "Because migrant workers are not organized." The struggle against oppression needs to be on an international scale, Velasquez said. "If [union leaders] want to revitalize the trade unions, they have to have an international perspective." FLOC has led several successful international struggles against such giant agricultural conglomerates as the Campbell Soup Company. Velaquez shared the organizing strategies he used to win contracts for the workers of these companies.  "It was eye opening and enlightening," said Daniel Nafrate, a senior history major.  "The same problems are [in California] also," said Cheryl Chalfont, a senior speech communications major who said she enjoyed Velasquez's lecture.		Vets battle CSULB Labor Department probes for discrimination, fraud; university denies any fault Veterans talk of groupís purpose, spokesmanís ability   Campus center calms fears of public speech   Farm labor union leader sends call to action   Newly opened lab splashes life into studying Stress eats at students   Cell phones for calls, not surfing Haunted House prepared to scare   Youth illustrator projects talents Big West Conference may crumble Maxson holds meeting to discuss conference's future Six California schools lay patiently in weeds Fall 99 ISSUES DAILY 49ER HOMEPAGE
Forty-Niner Publications, Department of Journalism, California State University, Long Beach ©1999 All rights reserved.