May 16 was a very special day at Tricon, the world's biggest restaurant corporation and Taco Bell's parent company. It was the day when they open the gates to the old plantation-style grounds of the KFC/Tricon global headquarters and invite the shareholders to the annual pep rally to review their company's profits over the past year and set the course for the year ahead. Here we see some shareholders arriving early for the best seats...

But wait, those aren't shareholders! That looks like farmworkers from the CIW and their allies from the Taco Bell boycott. And those signs they're carrying, what's that they say? "Farm.. worker.. poverty.. = .. fast.. food.. profits."

No wonder it looks like they're not being let into the meeting! A message like that has no place in an uninhibited celebration of profits. Heaven forbid the shareholders might look behind the cold numbers of their investment portfolios and see the human suffering behind the steadily climbing stock prices...

Good thing Tricon cut no corners on security this year, with a mile of fencing surrounding the perimiter and what seemed like an army of police taking positions around every inch and every roof on the Tricon compound. And, of course, the obligatory helicopter overhead...

And so it was that shareholders and the farmworkers -- the flesh and blood at the foundation of their business -- were kept safely apart, and order was maintained on Colonel Sanders Lane, even though several of the loyal guards from the County Sheriff's department were more than a little distracted by the mysterious PR person in red from Tricon, whom they took turns shuttling around all morning in their patrol cars. Certainly the tax payers of Louisville can think of better ways to use their tax dollars than that. One thing, though -- they never seemed to offer the CIW's PR people any rides... guess that's 'cause they have to remain neutral in these things...

And again, for any shareholders who might be checking out the site:

"Farm worker poverty = Fast food profits"...

"Fair food now!"...

Of course, the more than 100 farmworkers and supporters gathered outside the shareholders meeting had other avenues to get their message to the shareholders and to the general public. A strong press turnout,...

some great signs,...

unflagging determination,....

and a dash of undeniable cuteness from the participants combined to simply and movingly convey the day's theme.

At the press conference following the event, CIW members represented thousands of workers in Immokalee and dozens of other dirt-poor farmworker communities in Florida where Taco Bell's tomatoes are grown and picked. Here, Francisca Cortez explains that her community has been kept poor for decades for one simple reason: the value of the tomatoes produced in Immokalee is unfairly shared. Little more than one penny per pound goes to the pickers, who do the back-breaking work in pesticide-soaked fields, while the rest is divvied up among powerful corporations, from the growers to fast food companies like Taco Bell...

Her message was echoed by contingents of religious leaders who came to the protest from across the country,...

...small farmers from Kentucky, who themselves struggle to stay in business against the power of coporate-dominated agribussiness, and union members from several different organizations, including the UFW from California (themselves involved in a campaign for justice for mushroom workers who pick for Taco Bell's sister company Pizza Hut), the IWW, still fighting for this country's poorest workers after all these years, and, of course, Jobs with Justice, a steadfast ally in the Taco Bell boycott from Portland, Oregon, to Miami, Florida.

 

Following the shareholders meeting it was back to the streets and a protest at a Louisville Taco Bell restaurant.

Bouyed by the success of the action at Tricon headquarters, the protesters made some serious noise in what turned out to be basically a two-hour long rhythm jam.

Taking their message directly to the people of Louisville...

..person to person...

one person at a time...

..building bridges from Immokalee to Kentucky, from community to community, in a steadily-building movement that will ultimately bring victory in this boycott and justice to Florida's fields. Taco Bell can swear up and down that it will "never get involved in the labor disputes of its suppliers," but in the end it's all just so much wishful bluster. Taco Bell can't do business outside of its market, and that means that we, the people of this country -- consumers, workers, people of faith, young people and students, all people of good will -- will decide how Taco Bell does its business. As the sign said: "Fair food now!"