an unfinished history

The spark that ignited SFA was the 230-mile March for Dignity, Dialogue and a Fair Wage from Ft. Myers to Orlando, Florida, led by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in February 2000. This march provided the opportunity for students from several Florida colleges to learn about and directly participate in the movement to end "sweatshops in the fields."

But it was the March for Farmworker Justice from Quincy, Florida to the governor's mansion in Tallahassee in January 2001 that truly consolidated SFA into an organized network. The march was sponsored by five Florida farmworker organizations with the goal of getting Governor Bush more directly involved in farmworker issues. Over 30 students from across the state participated in the march, gathering over 1500 signatures on a petition to deliver to the governor.

Since then, SFA has been at the forefront of a resurgent farmworker solidarity movement, organizing around the CIW's Taco Bell boycott extensively for four years beginning with a month of protests in February 2001. During this month, members of the CIW and SFA went to five major Florida universities in five consecutive weekends to raise awareness about the relationship between fast-food giant Taco Bell and the brutal poverty faced by farmworkers, highlighting the role students can play in this struggle. At each university, workers and students led well-received workshops followed by a protest at a nearby Taco Bell.

By April 1, 2001 -- the date of the CIW's official announcement of the Taco Bell boycott -- SFA had branches at three universities and strong connections with student organizations at every other major Florida university. Through these contacts, SFA organized an extremely successful day of action on May 1, 2001 with demonstrations in twelve cities affecting close to 30 Taco Bells across the state.  The 2001 May Day of Action marked our first coordinated mass action in solidarity with the CIW, with many more to follow.

As awareness about the Taco Bell boycott spread, the alliance between students and Immokalee's farmworkers grew into a national network with ties to organizations at over 300 universities and 50 high schools throughout the U.S. In that time, SFA organized several National Days of Action around the Taco Bell boycott. In spring 2004, student support for the boycott hit fever pitch with hundreds of students at six college campuses across the country organizing hunger strikes to support efforts to "Boot the Bell" off their campus.

SFA played a key role in supporting the CIW's four major cross-country Taco Bell Truth Tours culminating in massive protests outside Taco Bell's headquarters in Irvine, California as well as the global headquarters of Yum Brands (Taco Bell's parent company) in Louisville, KY. In 2003, the tour included a 10-day hunger strike by farmworkers, students, and religious allies in Irvine; in 2004, the tour featured a 44-mile march from East Los Angeles to Irvine.

We also helped bring South Florida grassroots organizations together for a series of meetings resulting in the Root Cause coalition, which organized a 34 mile march against the 2003 FTAA Ministerial in Miami. This mobilization provided SFA an opportunity to explicitly link our work with struggles against corporate globalization and for global justice from the grassroots.

After nearly four years, the CIW won their national boycott against Taco Bell. Amidst the growing momentum of the 2005 Taco Bell Truth Tour and dozens of "Boot the Bell" campaigns on campuses nationwide (including 22 hard-fought victories since 2002), the CIW and Taco Bell reached a historic agreement on March 9, 2005. Without a doubt, years of persistent and creative student and youth organizing made this amazing victory possible.

Following the successful conclusion of the Taco Bell boycott, SFA became a founding member of and catalyst behind the Alliance for Fair Food, signaling to the fast-food industry that the Campaign for Fair Food would not stop at Taco Bell. Since its birth in March of 2006, the AFF has become a powerful new voice for the respect of human rights in this country's food industry and for an end to the relentless exploitation of Florida's farmworkers.

And in April of 2007 -- following a two-year battle with the largest restaurant chain in the world featuring relentless action and education by students and youth across the country --McDonald’s and the CIW reached a landmark accord that not only met the standards set in the Taco Bell agreement, but also committed the fast-food leader to collaborate with the CIW in developing an industry-wide third party mechanism for monitoring conditions in the fields and investigating abuses. Just one year later, Burger King also agreed to work with the CIW after an unsuccessful campaign of dirty corporate tricks against SFA and CIW.

Now the campaign continues, as the CIW and its allies have set their sights on Chipotle, Subway, and the rest of the fast-food and supermarket industries. Be a part of writing the next chapter in this unfinished history.