The VERY Latest!...
Students at the University of Chicago made the
highly-coveted list of Mother Jones
magazine's 10th annual round-up of the top 10 activist
campuses for their success in "Booting the Bell"
from the U of C campus.
Coming in at #7, U of C activists,
"scored one of the first victories of the national 'Boot
the Bell' campaign. Because Taco Bell's tomato suppliers are said
to exploit migrant farmworkers, Chicago students lobbied the university
to sever its ties with the chain. On Halloween, 60 students, many
dressed as tomatoes, marched on administration offices. In November,
U of C's food-services manager declined to renew the Taco Bell
contract," (Mother
Jones, Sept./Oct. 2003). Great work, U of C, you
are an inspiration to us all!
** NEWS FLASH ** San Diego City College
latest school to 'Boot the Bell'... Thanks to some dogged organizing
by the local MEChA chapter in an uphill battle against the administration
and the Taco Bell corporation, San Diego City College has joined
15 other schools in declaring their campus a 'Fair Food' zone! Stay
tuned to this site for more as students on campuses across the country
are gearing up for what should be a busy semester of Booting the
Bell!
BOOT
THE BELL CAMPAIGN: All the latest news from the campus
front of
the Taco Bell boycott (for more details on the campaign and other
Student/Farmworker Alliance actions, click
here to visit the SFA website)...
"On behalf of the students and youth of America, we are
here to express our solidarity with the farmworkers who pick
your tomatoes... Until Taco Bell takes responsibility for 
working
conditions in Immokalee, we will take our message to the streets
to ensure that it is anything but business as usual for Taco
Bell! If you have not heard our statement through our solidarity
hunger strike, then you WILL hear it through
our actions!" (Excerpt from student/youth statement read
in front of Taco Bell headquaters, Feb. 28. Click
here to read complete statement.)
If Taco Bell executives didn't hear this statement directly,
the message has no doubt resounded loud and clear through the
more than 100 solidarity actions that took place
during the hunger strike and the 14 universities and high
schools that have Booted Taco Bell from their campus
over the past year.
Check
out some of what has been going on in one of the fastest growing
movements on college and high school campuses today:
SOLIDARITY ACTIONS:
During the week of the hunger strike, over 70 people marched from
the Liberty Bell to a Taco Bell in Philadelphia, and over 150
people shut down a Taco Bell in downtown San Francisco for more
than an hour, in addition to 98 other actions.
Click here for a complete list of solidarity actions.
BELLS BOOTED:
Last semester, the University of San Francisco
administration announced on the USF website that "a campus
movement to break the universities tie with Taco Bell resulted
in the removal of the chain," while the University
of Chicago administration agreed with students that "Taco
Bell was, and is, a 'bad business decision'" and formed a
committee 
of
students and faculty to "discuss and plan the possible removal
and replacement of the Taco Bell on campus." This semester,
three new universities have joined the growing list of campuses
to Boot the Bell: Samford University, Middle
Tennessee State University (MTSU) and California
State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) Click
here for a complete list of schools that have Booted the Bell.
After a series of protests, actions and meetings with administration,
students at Samford University returned this
semester to find that Taco Bell was removed from their campus.
Administration claims that the franchise was removed because it
was not profitable... hmmm, I wonder if the loss of profits had
anything to do with the bad aftertaste of sweatshop labor?
In Fall 2002, three Middle Tennessee State students
joined workers for Alternative Thanksgiving 
Break
in Immokalee where they learned first hand about Taco Bell's sweatshops
by working in the fields alongside CIW members. They returned
to school determined to boot Taco Bell from their campus. After
meeting with the Aramark representative on their campus, administration
quickly agreed that Taco Bell should be removed from their campus
-- come Fall 2003, MTSU will no longer serve sweatshop tacos!
A year and a half ago, Cal State LA temporarily
closed down the Taco Bell franchise on their campus to renovate
the cafeteria and rebuild a larger Taco Bell. After a series of
protests, petitions, and meetings with administration led by students
and faculty, administration agreed that it was in the university's
best interest not to rebuild the Taco Bell out of respect for
the large Latino population on campus and the growing sentiment
among Latino youth to boycott Taco Bell... si se puede!!!
FAIR FOOD FRIDAYS:
Fair Food Fridays has taken off with students and youth leading
regular protests all over the country, including New York, University
of Notre Dame, Milwaukee, University of Madison, University of
Florida, University of Memphis, University of Texas in Austin,
Tuscon, San Diego and Orange County, CA to name just a few.
And now, the question running through the movement is, "If
the workers can give up 2 weeks of 
work,
drive 3000 miles across the country, camp out in corporate hell,
in the pouring rain, and refuse to eat for 10 days to demand basic
respect, then what can we as young people do?" With
over 40 universities currently organizing to Boot the Bell from
their campuses and Student Labor Action Week coming up March 31-April
4, Taco Bell will soon get a taste of what is to come...
Our hats go off to the students at USF, Cal Poly Pomona, the
University of Chicago, San Diego State, the University of Memphis,
the University of Texas at Austin, and students at college campuses
across the country where the Boot the Bell campaign is gaining
momentum and putting human rights on the menu!
For more information on this incredibly successful movement, check
out the Student/Farmworker
Alliance website, the organization that is spearheading
the Boot the Bell campaign. Or email the SFA at sfw_alliance@hotmail.com.
You can also
click here for a list of all the universities and high
schools across the country that have decided that Taco Bell has
no place on their campus until it becomes "not just fast,
but FAIR, food"!
