THE / CATHOLIC WORKER Sub•cr1pt1on: Vol. xxxm No. 7 MAY, 1967 25c Per Yeu Price le Strike Leader Spring Comes East Mobilization By DOROTHY DAY Ch.rist ls our Peace! On April Last year we published at least 15th I could not help but think of eight stories on the p'rogress of that poem, of F.rancis Thompson's about meeting Christ at Charing the "grape strike" which has been going on in California since Sep­ Cross. I felt that the hundreds of thousands of people who assembled tember of 1965. During these two years of struggle and suffering in the Sheep Meadow at Central Park, New York City, coming from there have been victories against what would seem to be overwhelm­ all points east of the Mississippi, and from St. Louis (not to speak ing odds. Contracts have been signed with powerful growers, such of other cities further west) were meeting him too, in each other, on as the DiGiorgio Ranches irr' Del­ this great peace march. It was the ·ano, Borrrego Springs and Arvin, greatest mass meeting and' march and on July 18th a representation in American history and clearly election will be held at Marysville, demonstrated to the American peo­ the last DiGiorgio ranch not under ple as a whole the unpopularity contract. C o n t r a c t s have been of the war in Vietnam and the signed which the workers them­ longing of the people for peace .. selves negotiated with DiGiorgio, On the same day there was a which have brought them higher similar demonstration in San Fran­ wages, free health insurance and cisco, the largest ever held in that a grievance procedure to settle city. complaints. "I Was There" Contracts have also been signed Tho~e who came on that cold with Schenley. "Now we got rest ·and threatening day (it did not rain rooms," on!! worker said, "and a until evening) were happy that place to wash our hands and paper -they could say, "I was there." to dry them. They put in some ice My position was a ·vantage point water in the summertime. Before on a high rock where many -others we had no rest rooms. We had to were · p er ch e d outside Sheep walk out into the fields, and far Meadow, which was already crowd­ too, because men and women work ed with groups of demonstrators. together." My companions on that knoll were One of the ranches of the Chris­ Raona Wilson and her three-week­ tian Brothers has signed a contract old baby,_Monica Cornell and her and three others wiil follow after two-year old Tom Jr .. Sheila Ma­ an election. loney and. her baby,_ Hermine We have been getting our news Allen Ginsbers. Evao&, from Chjcago, and many from two of our correspondents in ..I saw the three fish one head, carved on insole of naked Buddha Footprint stone at Bodh-Gaya others who came and went. Karl California, and from the organ of under tha Bo tree. Large--6 OT 10 foot size-feet OT soles made of stone are a traditional form of Meyer led a Chicago contingent the farm worker, El Malcriado, votive marker. Mythologically the 32 signs-stigmata, like-of the Buddha include chakras and there was a spirit of elation which is published both in Spanish (magic whee is iymbolic of energy) on hands and feet. This is a sort of a fish chakra. So anti que among all those from the Midwest, and in English and has been edited after an all-night trip on the bus from the beginning by Bill Esher, artists used to sculpt. big feet as symbolic of the illumined man-before Greeks brought in human-face representation of Buddha--: They never used to have statues of him-umbrellas, Bo­ which brought them into town just who was a member of the Oakland in time for the massing in the trees, or feet instead-before Alexander came to India." Catholic Worker group. park. - (Letter from All!'!n Ginsberg, accompanying 1ll1,1stration) This last month we received a Most of the Catholic Worker visit from the leader of the strik­ We confess that we had never seen this symbol before but after we received Allen Ginsberg's letter staff was present, and there were ers, Cesar Chavez, himself. He and we found it in an edition of the short Breviary-among many other symbols of divinity. The fish many for-m er Catholic Workers, a few members of the Association was long used. as a symbol of the Christian-Ichthus; the word fish being in Greek the words Jesus including Betty Bartelme, religious of Catholic Trade Unionists spent Christ, God. The three fish ls an ancient symbol of the Trinity. And the feast of the Holy Trinity editor at Macmillan, Agnes <Bird) a Sunday morning with us at the is in June. McCormack, and Eleanor (Corri­ CW house at Chrystie. Street and "By the word·or the Lord were the heavens and earth and sea created. gan) Gosselin with her husband and later on Monday night we saw him "And all their host by the breath of his mouth." · children. Eleanor was the secretary again at Union Theological Sem­ <Versicle from short Breviary) of the first PAX group in this inary, where those interested gath- • country before World War II. I ered to see what they 'Could do to "There are three that bear witness ln heaven: 'the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit; and could not begin to name all who help on the East Coast. So far these three are one." John V:'1 J were thre. Indeed I would hot there has been no organizing among (From the Short Breviary, Trinity Sunday) make a very good oo!itician-my the peopfa who pick apples and memory for names is so poor. Our grapes in the New York State, and Catholic Worker crowd were sup­ perhaps even younger, straight potatoes in Jersey and Long Island. posed to gather under the G or H (New York is the third largest black hair, face browned by the signs (pacifist or ·religious groups) sun, and brown as an Indian's is Vietnam aiid Beyond apple-gr owing state in the country.) so that we could find one another, brown. I re'1lembered Archbishop From 1934 on we have been con­ but of course there was a great Miranda, himself a Mexican, telling From a talk by cerned with this problem of desti­ deal of mingling of all the groups, me proudiy some years ago, "The Rev. Dr. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. tution among farm worker s, and and the iparch was so slow-moving Mexicans are a new race, a new given at Riverside Church, New York City on we are particularly interested . in that there was plenty of time for people, neither Indian nor Span- April 4, 1967. Chavez because of his emphasis on visiting and picnicking. ish." The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady nonviolence. He has a true recog­ within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering The marchers began to leave the nition of the overall problems of Chavez does not talk much in reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy and laymen­ park about noon, and Centr al Park agriculture, the problems of the such conversations as th_ese, per­ concerned committees for the next generation. They will be was not evacuated until after four, haps because there are so many small farmer and the large grower, concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned so there were few indeed who what the factory system of farming more articulate people around h im. about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about heard the speaker s. has done to the mor ale of the The Rev. Jim Drake, member of Mozambique and South Africa. ·We wi!l be marching for these The rn arch was headed by Dr. employer, and the steady growth the migrant ministry and active in and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end M;H"tin Luther King, and I was of class-war attitud~s on the part the strike from the beginning, re­ unless there is a significant change in American life and policy. delighted to hear that, in addition of both grower and worker. But he cently arrested for praying in front Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our to Dr. Benjamin Spock and many has recognized that the problem is of the Capitol in Texas where the calling as sons of God. others, our own dear friend Msgr. insoluble without tapping the deep fight to organize has spread (so Charles Owen R;ce, who formerly religious Instincts of the people he far without success) did a great In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it h ~aded the St. Joseph's House nf is leading for- patience and per­ deal of the explaining at the CW seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world Hospitality in Pittsburgh and is severance. The banners of Our and at the Union meeting. I would revolution. During the past ten years we have seen emerge a fa mous as a labor priest, marched Lady of Guadalupe h a v e been like very much to hear Chavez pattern of suppression which now has justified the presence of at Dr. King's right hand. prominent in the strike and in tlie speaking to the members of the U.S.