On February 16, Ethel Kennedy -- champion for human
rights, widow of Robert F. Kennedy, and founder of
the RFK Memorial in her slain husband's name -- paid
a visit to Immokalee to see firsthand the dire conditions
faced by Florida's agricultural workers.
Mrs. Kennedy's day-long fact-finding mission began
at the CIW office with a briefing on the CIW's current
projects, history, and accomplishments, including
a hands-on look at the CIW's highly successful consumer
cooperative (above). Afterwards, Mrs. Kennedy toured
the community, and declared the overcrowded trailers
where workers live "inhumane". 
Mrs. Kennedy viewed nearby tomato fields (left)
and witnessed the reality of the hard labor behind
the agricultural products on which our nation depends.
She also explored the site of one of the slavery rings
exposed by the CIW and prosecuted by the US Department
of Justice, where tomato pickers were held against
their will and forced to work.
Her day concluded at the CIW's weekly community meeting
where she addressed a packed house of CIW members
preparing for the 2005 Taco Bell Truth Tour which
leaves Immokalee in just 10 days! Excitement was tangible
in the air as Mrs. Kennedy joined the farmworker struggle
in an historic moment much like when she and her husband
joined Cesar Chavez, founder of the United Farmworkers,
in California many years ago.
To read more about Ms. Kennedy's visit to Immokalee,
check out this great article in the Palm Beach Post:
"Ethel Kennedy joins fight for farmworkers' rights."
Click
here...
ETHEL
KENNEDY VISITS IMMOKALEE, PLEDGES TO SUPPORT BOYCOTT!...