March 9, 2018 - This week marks two historic dates in the intersection of the labor movement and nonviolence. Fifty years ago, Cesar Chavez ended his 25-day fast to promote nonviolence. One hundred years ago, Mohandas Gandhi started an indefinite fast to resolve a mill strike.
The United Farm Workers had been engaged in a long strike against California grape growers, and in February 1968, the Guimarra company had filed a complaint in court. They alleged the union had been threatening and intimidating its employees, picketing illegally, and spreading roofing nails on ranch driveways. Railroad cars full of grapes had been ruined by sabotage to their refrigerator units. With a cloud of negative publicity looming overhead, Chavez looked for a way to shift the conversation and inspire the union.
In The Crusades of Cesar Chavez, Miriam Pawel explains
[T]he man Chavez had adopted as his role model was Gandhi. Chavez's admiration for Gandhi went beyond his steadfast adherence to nonviolence. Chavez was fascinated by Gandhi's personality and ability to wield power. His embrace of voluntary poverty, his ideas about community, and his penchant for fasting intrigued Chavez and spurred him to emulate the Indian leader.
On February 19, 1968, Chavez invited strikers, staff, and volunteers to a meeting, and announced that he had begun an indefinite fast to promote the principals of nonviolence. As the leader of the union, it was his responsibility to lead by example. For more than an hour, he explained the reasons why violence was unacceptable as a means to an end. If the senseless killing in Vietnam was wrong, it was just as wrong in America. After telling the crowd that he loved them all, Chavez walked three miles to Forty Acres, the future site of the union's headquarters in Delano, California. It was the sixth day of his fast.
One week later, Chavez arrived at the county courthouse to face Guimarra's charges. He was flanked by hundreds of farmworkers, who packed into the courtroom even after every seat was full. The judge, confounded by the crowds and lengthy fast, postponed the hearing for two months. The union celebrated, but Cesar Chavez would not break his fast.
Perhaps he knew that exactly 25 years earlier, his role model Mohandas Gandhi had been in the middle of a 21-day fast, protesting his detention without charges by the British. Or perhaps he knew that exactly 50 years earlier, Gandhi had also been involved in a labor dispute, which he resolved through a fast and a commitment to nonviolence.
In 1918, Ahmedabad, India, was a city of a quarter million people that was dominated by the textile industry. During a virulent plague, the mill owners had been paying bonuses of 70% or more to get workers to show up. But as the danger died down, they announced that the plague bonuses would end, and that workers would be given a 20% raise instead. With the plague's disruption still impacting prices, the workers were hesitant, and the mill owners shut down the factories and declared a lockout.
Gandhi arrived on the scene in February, and addressed the workers each evening under a tree on the banks of the Sabarmati River. After collecting data on prevailing wages in other cities, Gandhi had determined that a 35% raise would be fair to all sides, and asked the thousands and thousands of workers to make a solemn vow: First, they would not resume work without a 35% increase, and second, they would remain nonviolent and peaceful. Gandhi emphasized the importance of this second point, and it was noticed.
In Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence, Erik Erikson describes it this way:
The police had been prepared for the worst, and armed constables began to patrol the streets... After two days, however, the Commissioner was convinced that Gandhi had the situation well in hand. He posted some horse carriages with constables at strategic intersections for another two days and then withdrew the special force altogether.
After 2-1/2 weeks, the owners ended the lockout, and the workers were officially on strike. Gandhi encouraged them to continue to hold out for their 35%, but he could see they were losing faith. Friday, March 15, 1918, as he addressed the dwindling crowd, he realized that something had to be done to galvanize the workers. Like Chavez in 1968, Gandhi announced he had begun an indefinite fast. This would continue until the strike was resolved.
In later years, Gandhi's fasts would be worldwide news, but his first public fast was a private horror. The mill owners were offended that he would offer up his own life in a matter that involved him only tangentially. By Monday, a complex deal had been worked out, and on Tuesday the triumphant workers returned to their machines with a 35% raise. Gandhi's indefinite fast ended on the fourth day, and helped create one of the first modern unions in India. Overall, it was a victory for Gandhi's satyagraha technique, variously translated as “soul force” or “firmness in truth,” although slightly tainted by the inherently coercive nature of a hunger strike.
Twenty-one days into his own fast, Chavez was struggling. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., enmeshed with a strike of sanitation workers in Memphis, sent a telegram of praise and support, writing, “You stand today as a living example of the Gandhian tradition with its great force for social progress and its healing spiritual powers.” On the advice of his doctors, Chavez agreed to take water with nutrients after 21 days.
The literal breaking of the fast was Sunday, March 10, 1968. Cesar Chavez broke bread with Robert F Kennedy, six days before his guest announced he was seeking the Democratic nomination for President. Although too weak to talk, Chavez's statement reiterated his commitment to nonviolence:
We are gathered here today not so much to observe the end of the Fast but because we are a family bound together in a common struggle for justice. We are a Union family celebrating our unity and the nonviolent nature of our movement. Perhaps in the future we will come together at other times and places to break bread and to renew our courage and to celebrate important victories.
The legacy of fasting as a tool for social change continues in 2018. From March 11-15, a group fast in New York will call for Wendy's to join the Fair Food Program to protect the farmworkers who harvest the produce for thousands of its restaurants. The Freedom Fast culminates with a march on the 100th anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi's first public fast.
Fastforpeace.org, an organization who promotes Gandhi's lessons with a national day of fasting on the 15th of each month, invites all Americans who are able to fast for 24 hours, eating no food and drinking only water. Observance is personal and individual; participants fast for whatever 24-hour period works best with their regular schedule on the 15th, and can share their experience on social media using #fastforpeace. Dinner to dinner fasts are common for first time fasters.
Each month, participants are also invited to take the money they saved on food and donate it to help others. March's charity is Interfaith Worker Justice, a national network that looks to advance and protect workers’ rights and is overseen by an interfaith board of labor and spiritual leaders. Donations can be made on their website.
Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, and many others have incorporated fasting into their campaigns for social change. To echo Chavez's words 50 years ago, Americans of every class, color, and creed are bound together in common struggle for justice. A monthly day of fasting celebrates our unity and the nonviolent nature of our movement. The Gandhian tradition continues; will you fast for 24 hours with us on March 15?
More information about the monthly fast for peace can be found at fastforpeace.org, where you can sign up for our free newsletter, learn more about this month's charity, or make a donation.
Sources:
Photos from Wikimedia Commons.
Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence (Erikson, 1969)
The Crusades of Cesar Chavez (Pawel,2014)
Statement on Ending Fast (Chavez, 1968)
Cesar and Martin, March '68 (Mariscal, 2009)
Why We Are Fasting (boycott-wendys.org, accessed 3/9/2018)