The Detail of the Pattern is the Movement

I’ve borrowed the title of this post from Dorothy Q. Thomas, who borrowed it from T.S. Elliot. Dorothy is a contributing author to a publication being launched this December, “Bringing Human Rights Home: From Civil Rights to Human Rights.” This is part of a three volume series chronicling the nascent, but growing, movement for human rights in the United States, and Dorothy has contributed a chapter “Against American Supremacy: Rebuilding a Culture of Respect for Human Rights in the United States.” The opening comment in the sub-section “The Detail of the Pattern is in the Movement” is:

So much is happening at once in contemporary human rights work that is can be difficult to discern the movement’s overall shape or even its actual existence. The fact that it does not yet entirely cohere, however, does not mean that it isn’t there. In fact, it’s popping up everywhere....

Her comment came immediately to mind as I received an update from a listserve that keeps activists apprised of the growing support for the Campaign for Fair Food being spearheaded by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers “CIW” (in collaboration with the Alliance for Fair Food). The CIW, a constituency based organization of farmworkers in Immokalee Florida, has successfully persuaded two large multi-nationals, McDonalds and Yum!Brands Inc. to take responsibility for human rights abuses, including sub-poverty wages, in their supply chain. These two corporations have entered into agreements with the CIW to ensure that the growers from whom these corporations purchase tomatoes increase wages and prevent forced labor and other abuses in their fields.

The listserve message that caught my attention went out to the Alliance for Fair Food (AFF). The AFF consists of CIW allies and was founded by several of CIW’s core partners, including the Student-Farmworker Alliance, the Presbyterian Church and NESRI. The message let us know that that yet another anti-war group had endorsed the Alliance for Fair Food. If you have not been involved with this campaign, the first thing that might come to mind is why would a peace group focused on our activities abroad be thinking about farmworkers in Florida? But that question was far from my mind. I’ve gotten used to something that is extraordinary about the CIW campaign -- its ability to get beyond “issue silos” and reach out to an ever increasing range of people of conscience concerned with human rights and dignity.

CIW uses multiple strategies to reach people, but its core message is profoundly about human rights. It is one grounded in fundamental values and the notion that all of us are entitled to the same basic rights, including freedom from slavery and poverty as well as the right to dignity and participation in the decision-making that determines the quality of your life.

Human rights activists consistently say that one of the greatest values of human rights is that it provides an overarching umbrella for all of us concerned with social justice to understand and support each others issues. This is an important detail in the pattern that is the movement, and the CIW’s stellar success in this arena, is a strong argument for continued movement building through approaches emphasizing fundamental human rights.

See information about the upcoming publication of “Bringing Human Rights Home”

See information about the CIW