International Women's Day event in Chicago. | Photo credit: Gio Araujo

Chicago, IL - To honor International Women’s Day, on March 9, Freedom Road Socialist Organization hosted a film screening of Si Se Puede a documentary on the 1985 Watsonville, California strike, followed by a panel discussion with activists in the Black liberation, immigrant rights and labor movements.

The documentary tells the story of a successful 18-month strike of over 1000 food processing workers by Chicanas and Mexicanas, backed up by the Chicano movement across the country.

The event was well attended by a diverse crowd of over 50 community members and activists from various sections of the people’s movement including Arab, Latino, Black and white workers and students.

The Watsonville strike was sustained for 18 months because of the unity of the workers and the support of the community for their struggle. The company hoped that their coziness with the sellout union officials would make the workers give up, but the unity of the rank-and-file workers and support from the community carried them through to victory.

Two of the panelists picked up on the struggle against sell-out trade union bureaucrats in Watsonville and recognized this obstacle from their own struggles. 

Chanel Crittenden of the Labor Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression put it, “This was a resistance led by the rank-and-file members of the union,” and that we should follow their example of unity when the capitalists attempt to undermine our unity with strategic attacks on older workers, or on healthcare benefits.

Eliza Schultz shared her experience as a UPS worker in the Teamsters in 2018 when the sellout leaders forced them to accept a contract that had been voted down. The union members who fought for a better contract were then joined by more members to defeat the sellout officers a few years later.

Vicky Lugo of El Consejo del Resistencia in defensa del Inmigrante (Resistance Council to Defend Immigrants), when she saw the Watsonville strikers having to stand up to the police, recalled her experiences organizing and winning permits for the street vendors in the Pilsen and Little Village communities in Chicago.

Another point underlined by Schultz was, “Unity is an idea built around an act.” The workers with many years of seniority revolted against the lowering of wages and cutting of benefits; younger workers were drawn in, and following that, the community rallied around them. The unity that resulted was how the strike was sustained for 18 months.

Crittenden compared the ironclad unity demonstrated by the workers in the documentary to the Chicago Teachers Union standing with their students against ICE, rallying the community with them and showing that it takes numbers to force the capitalist class to reckon with our demands.

Vicky Lugo recognized the people are scared, but they are not so scared they won’t fight back. She called for those in attendance to support a week of action beginning on May Day, including marches and boycotts, and led by their coalition of over 50 organizations.

Inspired by the women in the film, Crittenden stated, “Women didn’t fight for their right to work; Black women have always worked and want our work to be recognized. The capitalists will recognize the strength in our numbers and we can make shit happen.”

#ChicagoIL #IWD #UPS #CTU #ICE #CAARPR #Teamsters #SiSePuede #ChicanoLiberation

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