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Bobjohnson1975–1977

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Bobjohnson1975–1977 Bob Johnson 1975–1977 I first heard of Cesar Chavez and the farmworker movement while in high school in Central Illinois, during the late 1960s. I was attending a United Methodist Church weekend retreat for young people. During dinner on Saturday evening, a young minister suddenly stood up and started speaking, as if something had suddenly moved him to do so. He began by saying that what he was about to tell us was controversial. He said that some say it is “communistic.” With that, he proceeded to tell us about Cesar Chavez and why we should boycott grapes. The next time that someone talked to me directly about boycotting grapes was in August of 1973. I had just started my junior year at the University of Illinois in Champaign- Urbana. The woman I was dating had just heard from someone in her dorm about the United Farm Workers’ grape strike that was happening in California. She was deeply moved by the story and was spreading the word to boycott grapes. In February of 1975, I was a delegate to the College Democrats National Convention in Atlanta. There was a resolution to support the boycott of Gallo wine. Gallo had sent several free cases of wine to the convention to influence the vote. A delegate supporting the boycott stashed the wine in his room and did not allow it to be distributed. I got involved in the effort to get the resolution passed. There were those who opposed the resolution and wanted the free wine, so we had to work at it. The resolution had not been voted on when it was time for the convention to adjourn. Those who opposed the resolution demanded that the convention adjourn immediately. The son of a Chicago politician, who held the gavel, ruled that his watch was the official clock, and according to his watch we had not reached the time of adjournment. About 30 minutes later, the resolution passed. I think that was the only time I appreciated how politics worked in Chicago. Soon thereafter I received a thank-you letter for helping with the resolution and an invitation to attend the East Coast Mobilization to Support the Farmworkers, which took place in Washington, D.C. on a weekend in April of 1975. I also received a phone call from Eliseo Medina, who was in charge of the Chicago boycott office. While at the convention I had talked with a boycott staff person, who was there to organize support for the resolution. It has been many years, but I think it was John Heller. He had passed on my name and number to the Chicago office. I told Eliseo that I would be attending the East Coast mobilization and we agreed to meet and talk there. I had not been directly involved with the farmworker support committee on campus. I personally supported the boycotts. As a member of the student government, I had voted to endorse the boycotts and to contribute financial support. I had gotten involved at the convention, but that was it up to this point. 1 I was graduating in a few months with a degree in social welfare, but I did not have a job lined up and was not sure what I would be doing next. I had seriously considered becoming a United Methodist minister, but had reached the conclusion that perhaps the lifestyle restrictions were too demanding. I was searching for something meaningful and worthwhile to do. Five of us from the University of Illinois attended the mobilization. We took my car and made the trip from Urbana to D.C. in about 16 hours, arriving late Friday evening. The event took place at a school. We slept on the floor in sleeping bags. The next day was truly amazing. There were hundreds of people there from all over the East Coast and the Midwest. In the morning we met in the gym to hear from several speakers and then were divided into smaller groups in the classrooms. The classroom that I was in had been assigned to Cesar’s brother, Richard Chavez. He told us about his experiences growing up with Cesar and the story of the farmworker movement. His talk was very moving. That afternoon we reassembled in the gym to hear Dick Gregory and then Cesar Chavez. Cesar’s speech was very inspiring. That was it for me. I knew for sure that I wanted to be a part of this. I met with Eliseo and made a commitment to join the boycott in Chicago after graduation in May. It was real simple. An injustice was being done, and here was a way in which I could get involved to fight that injustice. Initially, my dad was not happy about my decision. He was a strong union man and had held various offices in his local of the American Postal Workers of America. His father before him was also a union activist in the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen. Dad had expected that I would get a college degree and thereby get a good-paying job. He had saved money since I was born so that I could go to college, but now my first job out of college paid $5 per week. What neither he nor I realized at the time was that I was about to get the best education possible and I would learn skills that I would use for the rest of my life. Every person I know of who spent at least a year working on the boycott went on to be successful in whatever they did thereafter. For example, I once had a situation in early 1989 in which I was desperate for work. I had been making a living working on political campaigns. The 1988 election cycle had ended and there was nothing going on in early 1989. I took a job selling new and used cars at a Chevy dealership in San Francisco. In the first month I sold more cars than anyone except for a 30-year veteran. He and I tied and shared the title of salesman of the month. I did not do anything special. I just did what I had learned to do and applied it to the current situation. Soon thereafter Cesar’s oldest son, Fernando, offered me a job doing research and investigative work at his law firm, and I gladly left the car business. 2 I did learn a car sales phrase, which applies to what organizing is all about: “Nothing counts but taillights.” A “maybe” or a “possibly” don’t count. Working on the boycott, we learned that it did not matter how many people said they might come to the picket line at the supermarket. What mattered was how many said that they would definitely be there, and how many of them actually showed up. In everything we did, the key to success was accountability. Although they were volunteers, we conveyed to them that we expected them to show up when they said that they would. We did this by getting a firm commitment to take part in an event, by making reminder calls before an event, and by making follow-up calls to those who did not show up. We let people know that their participation mattered and it was noticed if they did not keep their commitment. Just as we held the volunteers accountable, we too were held accountable. By being required to report our results in hard numbers, we developed a strong desire to do well. Nobody wanted to come to a staff meeting without results to report. This required discipline to follow all the steps that we had been taught and not be tempted to take shortcuts. If something fell through, it was usually because a step was skipped. Another thing that my dad and I did not realize at the time was that my involvement with the United Farm Workers would lead to numerous friendships that have lasted to this day. It also provided me with a network of contacts that have led to every career opportunity that I have had through the years and put in motion a series of events that resulted in me meeting my wife, Janet. It changed my life in a wonderful way that I could not have even dreamed on that fateful day in April of 1975. In late May of 1975, I reported to Chicago. In early June, I was sent along with six other new staff to attend a week of training, which took place at a convent on the Hudson River, north of New York City. There were more than 100 of us there. Fred Ross, Sr. led the training. I knew of his important role in the movement, so I was truly in awe to be at a training that he was conducting. I was also afraid of, and at the same time excited about, the new technology, videotaping, which was being used in the training. We were videotaped as we practiced a mock house meeting. Back in Chicago, my assigned territory was Edgewater, Rogers Park, Evanston, and Skokie. Rogers Park is the part of Chicago just south of Evanston, along the lakeshore. Edgewater is just south of Rogers Park. My responsibility was to organize support for the boycott within this territory. This included conducting house meetings and lining up speaking engagements at union meetings, churches, and schools to persuade people to support the boycott, recruit new volunteers, and generate financial contributions. I organized the volunteers into a variety of activities to put pressure on supermarkets and to persuade consumers to support the boycott.
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