DAY 6

Friends:

Day 6 of the Hunger Strike dawned clear and unusually
mellow at Taco Bell headquarters, after disturbing but
successful negotiations with the Irvine police after
the rally to extend our permit to continue camping
out. The 5 hour rally on Day 5, Friday, Feb. 28 had
exhausted everyone fasting and everyone supporting the
fasters, but was an unforgettable, powerful and joyful
convergence for justice. Fasters even danced and made
impassioned speeches, sometimes fighting off dizzy
spells to do so! But a good night's sleep had not only
revived everyone's spirits and physical health, but
had solidified our collective commitment to the fast
which will continue indefinitely. 32 people remain
here fasting and others continue the fast in other
locations.

The rally yesterday brought an estimated 1,000 people
to witness a silent drama performed by farmworker
hunger strikers and solidarity fasters and supporters,
modeled after dramas witnessed with the landless rural
workers movement of Brazil, the MST, represented
earlier in the week by an MST activist Joao Paulo who
fasted with us in the rain. The drama depicted farm
workers first hoeing their fields in Mexico and
Guatemala, then, because of economic calamity,
crossing the border into the U.S. to work picking
tomatoes in Florida under a beefy contractor's
imperious gaze, while Taco Bell executives handed out
tacos and received bags of money. The workers then
put on red bandanas which said "strike" and sat in a
circle raising their fists until Taco Bell executives
did what we believe they will eventually do, negotiate
and pay an extra penny for each pound of tomato, to go
directly to the tomato pickers.

Music by well-known groups such as Los Jornaleros and
others were interspersed with fiery and poetic
speeches, as well as sharp analyses such as that given
by Eric Schlosser, well-known best selling author of
the book Fast Food Nation, whose speech was translated
by myself. Eric said that he didn't come to Irvine
because he wanted Taco Bell to fall, but rather to say
that if this fast food giant which earns billions of
dollars cannot afford 1 penny more per pound of
tomatoes to the farm workers, that Taco Bell did not
deserve to earn another penny, period.

Mike Moon of the National Family Farm Coalition and
Family Farm Defenders of Wisconsin spoke of why small
farmers support the struggle of farm workers. Stephen
Bartlett, representing Agricultural Missions and the
Community Farm Alliance of Kentucky, itself a member
of the National Family Farm Coalition, said that farm
workers are displaced farmers, the same people, and
that free trade agreements such as NAFTA or the
proposed FTAA are pushed by corporations such as Taco
Bell and Yum Brands in order to guarantee cheap food
(read produced by workers receiving miserable wages
and exposed while spraying toxic chemicals on the
crops), which enhances their bottom line to such a
degree that glass sky-scrapers such as this towering
headquarters building can be erected and share holder
bank accounts fattened even further.

Rally MC Jabiru Hill of the Mississippi Worker's
Center for Human Rights stirred the crowd with a song
sung along by hundreds at the rally: Stop the bosses,
don't listen to their lies, no give backs, we've got
to organize, and had the crowd rocking. The
Mississippi Delta was definitely present with us
throughout the day, with Jabiru's rousing words, songs
and righteous passion.

Representatives of the Presbyterian Church USA, Rev.
Noelle Damico and Rev. Jose Marti spoke, UCC
representatives, Pax Christi, a dozen or more farm
worker unions UFW, PCUN, and local unions were also in
attendance. But the largest contingent were students
from dozens of universities who are all fighting to
rid their campuses and communities of Taco Bell
stores. We learned that there are now 14 Taco Bell
free zones, and that thus far two Taco Bell stores
have had their contracts terminated at the University
of Chicago and University of San Francisco. We
learned that there were 60 simultaneous actions
against Taco Bell taking place across the U.S. We
began to get a sense of the width and depth of support
for fair food and just wages for farm workers, and the
view is panoramic!

Lucas Benitez of the Immokalee Coalition pointed out
that the dozens of security guards hired by Taco Bell
to keep us from their doorstep were themselves the
victims of poverty and a lack of good employment
options, scanning the lines of yellow jackets lined up
in front of the 20 story mirror, most of them
African-American. He also said that we do not hate
the executives of Taco Bell but rather pity them
because their God had become money, whereas our God
was one of succor, selflessness and justice.
Emile Brolick, CEO of Taco Bell corporation, still
refuses to speak with Coalition representatives or
intermediaries. In addition, he rebuffed National
Council of Churches General Secretary Bob Edgar's
request to receive a letter from the NCC to be
delivered by Rev. Noelle Damico, along with 2,000
cards signed by residents of Immokalee, Florida
collected by the Coalition.

In addition, the police of Irvine have appeared to be
using psychological tactics to demoralize the
strikers, by continuing to monitor the encampment with
obnoxious in-your-face video surveillance as during
the rally, by changing the hours when fasters can
erect their tents to get out of the cold or rain, by
hassling us for leaning on their barricades, and by
reneging on the original negotiated agreements (even
the written permit) which indicated that this fast and
encampment were to be "indefinite" and would likely
extend beyond the Feb. 28 rally. Hence, the ongoing
uncertainty of when the local vagrancy statues might
be thrown at the fasters who have no intention of
leaving or eating. Some of the local adversaries have
been spreading a rumor that the fasters are fakes, and
have been eating a block away while pretending to
fast. I can vouch for that fact that the fasters have
really been fasting, because I am one of them. Could
it be that one farmworker eating looks like one
farmworker fasting to those critics?

Yet at this morning's meeting of the fasters to
evaluate our staying power, one elderly farm worker
Domingo Alonso, his arm in a sling and suffering from
flu, said he would rather suffer now in a long hunger
strike than continue to suffer the daily indignities
and poverty of being a tomato picker. He said he
would go 20 days or more if necessary. Other farm
worker fasters, some suffering from conjunctivitis,
flu, and arthritis added their voices saying things
like: "I would rather die fasting than live on my
knees." It was a very moving meeting. Other ally
fasters due to leave today, Sunday and Monday, pledged
to continue their fasts in their hometowns and spread
the word further, until all decide to discontinue the
fast. Happily, many of the fasters were feeling
better, the weather was perfect and the weekend lack
of a rush hour has rendered our camp warm, peaceful
and full of communal feeling. Time to look at photos,
play dominoes and enjoy the pristine clear sunny sky
of southern California.

Boycott Taco Bell! What do we want? Justice. When
do we want it? Now. How will we get it? Struggling.
How will we struggle? Hard, hard... hard hard hard.

Keep up the prayers and the calls, faxes, emails to
Emile Brolick, CEO of Taco Bell, and to Jonathan Blum,
CEO of Yum Brands which owns Taco Bell, fax # 502
874-8315/ special email: 502 874 3820.

To read articles about the fast and rally, look at:
www.ciw-online.org or www.indymedia.org

Solidarity for the future of our children and our food
system. Stephen Bartlett, clear headed on Day 6.

DAY 10

Friends:

As Day 10 dawns on the Hunger Strikers at Taco Bell headquarters in
Irvine, California, dozens of solidarity fasters who have returned to their
homes or places of work across the U.S. continue to witness to (and some to
continue to fast for) the commitment of the movement to end one of the most
chronic and racist injustices of the fast-food economy, miserable farmworker
wages and working conditions. Long live the Day 10 Fasters!! (I have to admit
eating a prune or two yesterday, so I could function at work.)

Calls to Jonathan Blum this morning (on his new number, changed
yesterday) got this response, "We have made our position clear. Thanks for calling.
CLICK"). Did I detect a note of annoyance in his voice? (After hanging up, I
suspect he was thinking something like: "Gosh darn it, my new telephone
number compromised so soon? Jimminy Cricket, security has been compromised!
We have an internal leak.") I called again and got a secretary instead, to whom I said
I approved of Yum Brands position on humane treatment of animals in its products,
how they had taken their suppliers to task on that issue and gotten results, and were
now in a position to guarantee that meat in their restaurants was produced by certain
standards." She forwarded my call to a voice mail of public relations, where I reiterated
my disingenuous praise and then continued: "Therefore, I find it contradictory and
offensive that Yum Brands/Taco Bell are not willing to do the same for the humane
treatment and dignity of human beings. How much more worthy are humans than, say,
chickens? The claim that the corporation is not responsible for the tomato pickers
under the yoke of bottom-line suppliers rings hollow when compared to their concern
for two legged fowls and their willingness to intervene on their behalf."
(see Taco Bell website) This was also the jist of the message delivered by best-selling
author Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) at the Feb 28 rally in Irvine, for whom
I was privileged to do a simultaneous translation into Spanish.

On Monday March 3, despite a mass meeting with the mayor that morning,
the police yanked the permit on the hunger strikers and for nearby parking
and porto pottys. Local churches have taken in those who have been
faithfully camping on the concrete all these long, foodless days. But at
6:30 a.m. they/ we are back at Taco Bell's towering glass symbol of success,
with students and families and allies of all stripes.

What happens to a body that has not eaten for 10 days? It runs down.
It burns up muscle and fat. It gets weak. The heart rate accelerates under
the stress. Vital salts and minerals dry up from the brain and nervous
system, one is short of electrolytes. Sometimes the heart flutters. Vision
gets fuzzy. When one rises, dizziness descends. The basal body temperature drops,
leaving it more vulnerable to cold or wet. (Which we have had lots of.) You easily
catch a cold or the flu, or conjunctivitis (as happened
with many of us). The voice grows mellow and airy. Thoughts grow sluggish.
One moves with extreme slowness, so as to conserve energy. The appetite,
long gone, seems like it may never return. One awakes with the heart
racing, for no apparent reason. And the heart pumps like that all day.
Sometimes the blood pressure rises, sometimes it falls. When one stretches,
one finds oneself extremely supple, flexible in the joints. Like a pile of bones?
One is begging a process of dying. The main question: How longwill it take?
(How do I know this? All this happened to me during my 8
days of fasting with the farm workers and students.)

Please call Jonathan Blum of Yum Brands, Emil Brolick of Taco Bell,
the media, the clergy, your congregations, your neighbors. Spread the word.
A great sacrifice is underway. Let us support those who dress themselves
in sackcloth and roll in the ashes, emptying themselves for God's
reconciliation and justice! For an enduring peace in our land!
Jonathan Blum's changed phone number is: 502-874-8825.
The number to call Taco Bell: 949-853-4500


In Solidarity,
Stephen Bartlett
Agricultural Missions/ Kentucky Interfatih Taskforce on Latin America and
the Caribbean/ Jobs with Justice/ Community Farm Alliance