Dolci Plans October Tour

SUShN LOCHER BOX 262 TH,E MUHLENBERG COLLEGE ALLENTCWN P•• LIC R~~K Subscription: Vol. XXXVII No.6 - JULY.AUGUST, 1971 25c Per Year Price Ie Bengal Nightmare INDIA HAS 6,000,000 DESTITUTE REFUGEES From reports by ELIZABETH REID (Miss Reid, a member of the Grail Movement, is General Sec retary of AFPRO, Association for Food Production, an ecumenical organization for development, op erating from Delhi. She has visited the refugee areas of West Bengal for Catholic Relief Services, arm of mercy of the Amerman Catholic community. The Bengali people of East Pak istan decided on a non-coopera tion campaign when the meeting of the National Assembly, sched uled for March 3, in West Pakistan, was postponed. A recent election gave the East Pakistanis a majority vote, and they wanted a new con stitution prOViding for civilian rule and more autonomy for East Pak istan. An autonomous East Pak istan is referred to as the Bengal Nation or BangIa Desh. Jaya Par akash Narayan, a Gandhi follower, Sr. Meinrad. stated that the non-cooperation campaign was one of the most successful -ever held. On March ') 25th, the West Pakistan at.my at tacked the unarmed East Pakis • tanis, killing as many as 250,000. A mass exodus of Bengalis, both By PAT HOFFMAN our society low wages means-lack of told him the rules. Learning what it's Muslims and Hindus, brought-six "I haven't seen a thing in the news. prestige and worth as a human being. about, the procedures, understandings, million destitute refugees into the What's happening?" Farm workers are It means being disregarded by school' processes-all this has to be done. neighboring provinces of India. making news; it just isn't often print boards, hospitals, community agencies, 30,000 workers have come under Most of them landed in India's UFWOC contracts since summer 1970. ed. The movement is sending roots government officials, and employers. West Bengal and are -clustered in down and is spreading across the na For years farm workers have lived Most of them are new to the meaning the towns and open fields, depend with these problems, and, for the most of a union. It's an enormous education ent for their life on the compassion tion. I would like to communicate some job. of the meanings of this movement and part, assumed that they could not of the world. solve them.· That picture probably still But more than procedures have to be Mother Teresa and a team of the give a brief run-down of information. learned. How about the worker who Some Reflections holds for most of the three million Missionaries of Charity are head farm workers in this country. But has been elected to the ranch com ing up the refugee relief work for Cesar Chavez talks- about this revo mittee for her farm? The owner has lution in agriculture as a two-edged workers in California and Arizona the Calcutta area.-Ed.) have seen a demonstration that a signed with UFWOC and the five per sword. The one edge has to do with son committee has responsibilities for the economic -and political struggle union of their own can begin to solve The fact that India with its enor these problems. Some farm workers seeing that the contract is enforced. mous population of 547 million has an with the growers in their power. The The grower has signed that piece of other edge has to do with keeping the now expect the union to do that job other six million added, willy-nilly for them. UFWOC contracts say that paper but doesn't plan to do a thing overnight, has not deterred the gov union clc;>se to its best ideals, with he doesn't have to do. "creating the new man" among farm there shall be toilets in the fields, ernment and people from responding cool drinking water, a just system Safety equipment for people who use to this tresh call on national resources. workers. dangerous pesticides is guaranteed in Those of us who have supported this of seniority when you move on and Today a campaign has been launChed movement have become accustomed to apply for a job in another place, health (Continued on page 5) (Continued on page 8) farm workers who have caught that benefits, no foreman driving your crew vision of a new way of being. They down a row at inhuman speed. But have enfieshedthe vision in the hard these improved conditions have not work of strikes and boycotts. We need been a reality for decades. They don't Dolci Plans October Tour to get our heads right so we won't become reality because they are writ be surprised when we discover that ten on a piece of paper called a con- By TOM CORNELL (LeMoyne and Syracuse University) many farm workers are ordinary folks: tract. 'Dhe power of that contract is .Danilo Dolci, who has been called the October IS-Rochester, New York who complain when the services of the the union that can enforce it. And the Gandhi of Sicily, will tour the United (Monroe ,Community College) union are inadequate, slow or con power of the union is the people who States in October. Dolei, who was October 16-18-Philadelphia, Penna. fusing to them; and who resist doing are a part of it. trained as an architect, left a highly (Villanova and Haverford) the ranch committee work that makes So what does that mean? Here's a profitable career in Milano to work October 19-20-New York City (City a turning-around of power real in that man doing field work on a farm near among the poor (}f Western Sicily University of New York) place. Coachella in Southern California. He twenty years ago. He had been im October 21-Departure for Sicily The leadership of the union has a never cared that much about the union prisoned during World War II for Friends of Danilo Dolci, Inc., P.O. tough job going up against the power struggle. He worked while others were refusal to serve in the Fascist army. Box 182, Haddonfield, New Jersey of agriculture. It has another tough on strike. But now he is a member of The same instinct that led him away 08033, is coordinating Dolci's tour. CW job leading farm workers to take on the union. His employer has signed a from m1litary service led him to readers who might wish to schedule new roles and responsibilities. contract with UFWOC. He and his Partinico, a small village near Palermo, Dolci in their areas or to know his pre When I heard Cesar talk about "cre fellow workers know the benefits where he organized the people around cise timetruble take note. ating the new man," he talked about guaranteed by the contract, but he nonviolent techniques of action for the I spent the month of October, 1970 some problems the union is currently doesn't understand the procedures for improvement of their lives in opposition With Danilo on tour of the United having in order to show what the getting some of those benefits. His to the entrenched and immobile gov States as his guide and interpreter. At union needs to do. Most of us are aware wife is expecting their second child dur ernmental bureaucracy and the Mafia. that time the Friends of Dolci group of the multitude of inter-woven prob ing the summer and the hospital This is his itinerary: was not well enough established to lems farm workers have faced. Most benefits will help. The baby comes and October 2-6-New York City coordinate a nationwide tour, so the of these problems stem from exceed so does the bill. This man knows he's October 7-Los Angeles Fellowship of Reconciliation undertook ingly low wages, poor diet, little -or supposed to have hospital coverage, but October 8-10-San Francisco and that responsibility as a contribution to no health care, high death rate for doesn't know what he needs to do to get Palo Alto (Stanford University) the work in Sicily. When I was asked babies as well as adults, crowded liv it. He feels frustrated and angry at October 11-12-Madison, Wisconsin to translate for Danilo I accepted the ing, condItions and the toll that can the union. He has suddenly been thrust <University of Wisconsin) task w,!th misgivings. My Italian is poor take on family relationships. And in into a new ball game and no one has. Octooer 13-14-Syracuse, New York (Continued on pare 7) " Page Two THE CATHOLIC· WORKER July-Augu8t, 1971 Vol. XXXVII No. 6 July-Augu8t, 1971 A Return 'To Life By JIM CHAPMAN with imminent withdrawal symptoms, CJUHOUC~WORKER I am a Bowery bum. You have seen weak from lack of food for several days -and shoeless. Also I stink. I haven't me (and many, many others) lying washed or shaved since· I bought the Published Monthly (Bi-monthly March-April, July-August, in doorways, in the middle of side October-November) first bottle-and I stink. So bad' I ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT walks, or sprawled in alleys, or on might tip the very delicate air pollu PETER ~ A URIN. .'ounder a discarded mattress among the trash tion balance from acceptable to un desirable, or even' unbearable. I'm as DOROTHY DAY, Editor and Publisher cans and the garbage bags. MARTIN J. CORBIN, Managing Editor bad for ecology as Con Ed. I am not sleeping. I am comatose Well, now do you understand? It is Associate Edit~rs: rendered that way by two or three CHARLES BUTTERWORTH, JACK COOK, RITA CORBIN (Art>.

Load more