Hundreds gathered outside the CIW’s offices on Saturday to celebrate the third anniversary of the CIW’s low-power community-based radio station, Radio Conciencia, with an afternoon full of fun and music.

Festivities included some great clown street theater, games for kids, a cake donated by the workers at a local grocery store who listen all day long to Radio Conciencia at work, and even the awarding of the first-ever “Extraordinary Contribution” certificate to one of the station’s leading community DJ’s!

Don’t miss the great update from the anniversary party, including pictures and a first-hand report with all the action. Click here for the update!

And for more on Radio Conciencia, check out this story from the Naples Daily News, “Radio Conciencia: Audience of low-power station in Immokalee gets music, news from back home — and help with labor issues when they need it” (11/17/06).

PLUS 12/14!… Don’t miss the powerful new letter from several key members of the socially responsible investment community to McDonald’s, criticizing the fast-food company’s ill-conceived “study” of farmworker conditions in its supply chain and urging the company to work with the CIW for real farm labor reforms. Here’s an excerpt:

“As NGOs who are both shareholders and consumers, we believe that the CIW farmworkers can and must represent their own interests in direct dialogue with McDonald’s. To claim, as the report concludes that “the commitment is to the workers” while fundamentally excluding CIW from the effort to identify and address human rights abuses in the fields, respects neither the farmworkers’ full humanity nor the CIW’s recognized achievements in the area of human rights. Moreover, this approach does a disservice to McDonald’s own reputation as a leader in corporate responsibility.” READ THE FULL LETTER HERE