Word: boycotts
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...active, the agitation against the third in the line of family dictators increased dramatically last month following the still unexplained murder of La Prensa Editor Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, a longtime Somoza foe. In protest, business groups launched an employers' strike, and they and other dissidents urged voters to boycott the elections. No fewer than 52 candidates pulled out of the campaign, and only a third of Nicaragua's 700,000 voters cast ballots. Somoza's candidates won, but the extent of the boycott was one more sign that his days as President might be numbered...
...well. Before the rigged election that brought General Carlos Humberto Romero, 51, to power in 1977, more than a hundred people were slain by Romero's soldiers in campaign violence. Congressional elections are scheduled for next month, but the anti-Romero Christian Democratic Party has announced a boycott. Power, as a result, will remain in the hands of the soldiers and the few rich families that have wielded it for generations...
Still, amid the disappointment surrounding the end of the long boycott, the UFW's achievements must be taken into account. Starting from literally nothing, the union elicited national recognition and concern for the problems of farm laborers, and managed to enact the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975, permitting elections in the fields. It has gotten better conditions and pay for many of its members, and more or less successfully fought off the occasionally bloody encroachment of the Teamsters. The UFW now has 30,000 members working under over 100 contracts...
...mostly uphill fight against growers and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters for the rights of migrant agricultural laborers. That movement, which has met varying degrees of success, appears to be over for the time being, following Chavez's announcement two weeks ago of the end of the decade-old boycott of non-union lettuce, grapes and table wines. To millions of UFW sympathizers, the announcement came as a surprise, since there is obviously a great deal more to be done for agricultural workers, migrant and otherwise, throughout America...
Chavez said last week that the boycott was ending so that the union could concentrate on its existing contracts and work towards new ones, a prudent apportionment of the UFW's limited strength and funds. Another consideration is that the boycott's effectiveness had appreciably decreased with the passage of time, so Chavez made a realistic decision. The UFW's tangible gains should unquestionably be applauded, but in a largely symbolic sense, the passing of the boycott should be mourned...