About Migrant Justice

Formerly the VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project (VTMFSP)

“We are like prisoners here”.—Vermont Migrant Dairy Farmworker.

There are approximately 1200-1500 migrant workers that sustain Vermont's iconic dairy farms. Living without documented status in one of the whitest and most rural states in the country, migrant dairy workers are subjected to aggressive racial profiling practices that convert many workers into virtual prisoners on the farm. Due to this isolation and marginalization workers struggle to access essential community resources, and some experience human and workers' rights abuses. Furthermore, farm workers in Vermont seldom find the time or space to gather as a community to discuss shared problems and plan and organize community solutions. Additionally, many workers migrate here because their own agricultural communities have been marginalized by the corporate globalization and domination of agriculture enabled by policies such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Ironically, upon arriving to Vermont, many find themselves on dairy farms that also marginalized by similar policies and processes underway, which threaten family farms by deepening corporate control of agriculture.

Mission
Migrant Justice organizes with migrant farmworkers and engages Vermonters to build more socially and economically just farming communities and food systems.

We engage, educate and support Vermont communities to effectively challenge US immigration, economic, and trade policies and practices that adversely affect farm workers and family farmers on both sides of the border.

Vision
All of our projects are driven by a shared future vision of healthy, socially and economically just and mutually beneficial farming communities and food systems on both sides of the border that make migration a choice and not a necessity.

Programs

Agricultural Justice
Build alliances for dignified farm worker livelihoods, livable farming communities, and fair food.

Immigrant Rights
Challenge anti-immigrant policies and practices and promote socially and economically just local, national and international alternatives.

Medios Migrantes
Organize with farm workers to improve communication within the community and to strategically use the media to give voice to the community in Vermont.

Education
Organize and develop educational materials and learning opportunities for farm workers and community allies to better understand the root causes of migration and explore practical, political and systemic changes for migrant justice.

History

Migrant Justice emerged in response to critical issues affecting migrant dairy farm workers. Interviews with workers during 2009 and 2010 led to a participatory education project in which teachers and students in 10 Vermont High School Spanish Classes heard personal stories of hardships and lack of freedom shared by their invisible neighbors. The interviews, translated by students, are now available on our website as part of a package of educational resources.

The actual catalyst for launching Migrant Justice came with the tragic death of a young dairy worker, José Obeth Santiz Cruz, on December 22, 2009. The VTMFSP organized the return of his body to his village in Chiapas, Mexico and documented the complex interdependencies between Vermont agriculture and this largely invisible community. This project ended with the production of the documentary film Silenced Voices and a state-wide tour drawing large audiences and widespread media coverage helping to raise awareness about the plight of farm workers and developing a solidarity network. Since then, we have transformed a project into an organization through monthly farm worker community meals and dialogue to build a 10 person, all Spanish Speaking coordinating committee that includes 6 dedicated volunteer migrant farm worker leaders, 2 volunteer organizers, and 2 half-time organizers.

Organization
Migrant Justice began as solidarity collective comprised of allies but through popular education, farm worker outreach, and leadership development we are led by a 10 person Coordinating Committee, including 6 farm worker leaders, 2 immigrant community leaders, and 2 solidarity allies. On January 1, 2012 we changed our name from the VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project (VTMFSP) to Migrant Justice to emphasize this shift in our organizational leadership.

Our Coordinating Committee meets monthly in order to set and review goals and create work plans collectively. We base our priorities on the themes and issues that emerge at monthly farm worker community meals and gatherings. As we identify the need for new information or additional resources, we partner with local allies and draw upon the experiences of successful farmworker led organizations, which has included the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, IDEPSCA, the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, SomosUnPueblo, CATA/Agricultural Justice Project, and VozMob.

Migrant Justice is fiscally sponsored by and working in partnership with Wheelock Mountain Farm, which exists to create fundamental social change through education and non-violent action. The board of Wheelock Mountain Farm provides oversight to ensure proper use and administration of resources and overall organizational accountability.

Accomplishments
“My name is José Martin. A few months ago I was working in a farm in this state…I had to leave the farm because they weren’t paying me and they owed me $1,000.00, but thanks to the VTMFSP and the help of other people we were successful in getting my backwages. I’m thanking you with all my heart and I WANT TO SAY TO ALL THOSE WHO DON’T GET PAID OR ARE OWED BACKWAGES: look for support from this group. Call them at 802-658-6770 and they can support you so you will be respected…DON’T GIVE UP! TOGETER WE’LL ACCOMPLISH IT!”

Some of our 2011 accomplishments include:

• Organized a farm worker driven campaign culminating w/ a historical farmworker meeting w/ the Governor producing a new VT State Police Policy explicitly directing police to not use State resources to enforce immigration laws

• Organized support to stop the deportation of Migrant Justice leader Danilo Lopez leading to a VT Human Rights Commission hearing finding that State Police wrongfully racially profiled Danilo and his cousin Antonio by investigating their immigration status.

• Organized the first ever migrant farmworker led press conference and petition drive culminating in a visit to Governor Shumlin seeking his support to opt out of 'Secure Communities' immigration enforcement program (see http://vtmfsp.org/node/104);

• Partnered with the VT Workers’ Center to defeat an amendment to exclude migrant farmworkers from Vermont’s Universal Health Care system by organizing for a farm worker to speak at the May 1, 2011 State House Rally (see http://vtmfsp.org/node/97);

• Built organizational capacity and farm worker leadership by putting our farm worker leadership in communication with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, and SomoUnPueblo, and VozMob;

• Organized with migrant farm workers to obtain over $5,000.00 in back wages and launched a new Farmworker Rights Hotline "TeleAyuda" to sustain this work;

• Pressured the Vermont Attorney General to recommend that local police abstain from immigration enforcement and launched Bias-Free-Policing Campaign (Action Pack available: http://vtmfsp.org/sites/default/files/ActionPackforBiasFreeVT.pdf);

• Helped build, educate and mobilize a state-wide solidarity network of individuals and organizations by reaching over 1,500 individuals with our documentary film Silenced Voices;

• Partnered with educators and Farm to School groups to develop supporting educational resources for educators to engage the issues of immigration, globalization, and food justice (http://www.vtmfsp.org/resources#ed).

• Built a volunteer transportation network that includes 30 active volunteers in 4 different counties supporting over 100 farm workers in 5 different counties to access health, food, transportation and legal resources;

• Organized with farmers, volunteers, and allies to create 32 new farm worker vegetable gardens on Vermont dairy farms and supported a follow-up food storage workshop.

Solidarity Collective Members
Brendan O'Neill was a campaign coordinator for ACERCA, from 2001-2004, where he organized across borders to challenge corporate-driven free trade agreements' social, economic and ecological impacts on indigenous and rural farming communities. He also taught in the Latin American Studies program at Plattsburgh State and the Inter-American Studies program at Burlington College (2004-2007). Brendan has collaborated with various local, state-wide, national and international organizations to strengthen worker, farmer and immigrant rights movements. Since 2007 he worked with Vermont's migrant farmworker communities designing a popular education curriculum as an English as a Second Language Teacher to explore day to day problems and community needs and solutions and later helped initiate the effort to build Migrant Justice. He is currently a half-time organizer with Migrant Justice. Contact: brendan [at] migrantjustice [dot] net

Natalia Fajardo is a social and environmental justice organizer. Originally from Colombia, Natalia is active as a volunteer for the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Colombia, exploring militarization of government civilian agencies. She holds an Environmental Science degree from UVM, where, as a student she worked with the Environmental Council to pass a policy leading the use of 100% recycled office paper at the school. After graduation Natalia worked for Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) for almost 3 years as grassroots organizer on local economic and environmental issues. She became involved in migrant farm worker issues when a good friend was arrested in Addison County and kept in prison for 3 months, then deported for being undocumented. Natalia helped initiate and develop Migrant Justice and is currently a half-time organizer. Contact: fajardonatalia(at)hotmail.com

Monica Collins has worked in experiential and popular education in El Salvador, Ecuador, and with BorderLinks on the US/Mexico Border where her work focused on issues of migration and globalization. She is a current board member of BorderLinks and maintains her ties to the Tucson, AZ area. As a native Spanish- speaker and daughter of Peruvian immigrants, working on the issues related to migrant farmworkers, immigration and social and economic justice is work that is very close to her heart. She has worked in many different areas including education, publishing, small business and farming. A graduate of Vermont Law School's Master of Environmental Laws program, Monica works as a paralegal at Langrock Sperry & Wool in Middlebury, Vermont where she specializes in complex case litigation. Monica is a founding member of Migrant Justice. Contact: collins.monica(at)gmail.com

Martha Caswell works in community development with both domestic and international experience addressing the root causes and effects of poverty and inequality. The belief that community members are the best experts for determining sustainable approaches for addressing their own challenges has been central to all of her work. Most recently, Martha worked for Grounds for Health, where she partnered with coffee-growing communities to provide access to women's health services. With a focus on Latin America, this work took her to some of the sending communities for Vermont's migrant farmworkers. Martha is a board member of Food 4 Farmers, an organization addressing chronic seasonal hunger in coffee-growing communities, and is one of the Vermont funding panel representatives for the Haymarket People's Fund. Using her training in intergroup dialogue and participatory education, Martha has worked with immigrants and undocumented workers both in New York City and Vermont. Contact: mjcaswell(at)gmail.com

Uprooting the Root Causes of Migration: Towards Farmworker and Food System Justice!

Many migrant workers here in VT, in particular those from indigenous communities in the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca commonly speak of the hopelessness in maintaining their familial, communal and traditional agricultural communities in the face of plummeting corn prices, a lack of support programs for small farmers in Mexico, unequal competition with big agribusiness, and increased drought and flooding. Thus, many workers share that they are not here because they want to be rather they are here because they have to be.

Meanwhile, Vermont dairy farmers share that they can't stay afloat because their costs of production have long been well above the price of milk. Many Vermont dairy farms struggle to pay livable wages to themselves never mind their employees. Recently, one Vermont dairy farmer filed a class action law suit against corporate giant Dean Foods for price fixing and monopolization of the Northeast Dairy market, which they argue is part of the reason for these low prices. There were 1075 dairy farms at the beginning of 2009. Now there are less than 1000!

On both sides of the border small farmers are struggling to hang on. Family farmer organizations all over the world are pushing for the creation of supply management systems, farmer support programs, guaranteed prices for small producers, and the end to policies that enable the corporate control of agriculture (1). But these measures they push for go against the dominant U.S. sponsored economic paradigms and policies of 'deregulation', 'free trade' and 'free markets'.

Now, in a bitter and twisted interdependent irony, displaced farmers from Mexico who are forced to migrate to maintain their families keep afloat many of Vermont’s rural farming communities that also teeter on the verge of extinction (Listen here).

In the 1980s and 1990s, promising the benefits of economic globalization, the US government, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) forced Mexico to 'de-regulate' its agricultural economy by eliminating its farmer support programs, assistance and various protections (2). Approximately, 10 million Mexican farming jobs were lost during these massive economic reforms due to the unequal competition it created. The U.S. pours $20 billion of subsidies into agriculture annually while Mexico provides $3.5 billion, this allows U.S agribusiness to sell corn at prices 30 percent below Mexico’s cost of production. Furthermore, the average Mexican farmer spends 17.8 days of labor to produce one ton of corn, while the average U.S. grain company spends 1.2 hours (3). This process drives small farmers off the land and forces them to migrate. Since the 1994 passage of NAFTA the number of Mexicans migrating to the U.S. each year has more than doubled.

Meanwhile, beginning in the 1980s here in the US similar types of economic reforms and 'de-regulations' forced cuts in programs that support and protect small farmers. This enabled and favored corporations like Dean Foods and global corporate agribusiness like New Zealand's Fonterra to monopolize and dominate milk markets forcing down prices well below the costs of production for Vermont family farmers (4). Recently, the cases of both Dean Foods and Fonterra highlight the negative impacts of the implementation of 'deregulation', 'free trade' and 'free market' policies in the US, which have 'freed' corporate global capital to ensure their own profits while driving family farms out of business (5) (6).

Indeed, the current broader economic crisis is due in large part to the U.S. governments' religious like commitment to the 'deregulation', 'free trade', and 'free market' formula at any cost. In practice, these polices simply open the door for increased power and profits for a handful of corporations to assert increasing control over all sectors of the economy including agriculture.

Rather than address the root causes of migration that continuously generate desperate conditions and force family farmers to migrate the national immigration debate focuses on increasing "border security" and "enforcement", which criminalizes immigrants, channels resources towards building a militarized border, and increases racial profiling. For these reasons Migrant Justice seeks to engage Vermont communities to support migrant farmworkers' rights in Vermont while at the same time generating a dialogue about alternatives to migration that embrace both farmworker and food system justice.




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




For more information or to get involved:
VTMFSP [at] gmail [dot] com

Migrant Justice is grateful and appreciative for the friendship and solidarity of Wheelock Mountain Farm in West Wheelock VT, who have offered to house our new initiative: http://wheelockmtnfarm.wikispaces.com/.

In addition, we are grateful for the hard work and donated time of Joe Golden from Triangulus who helped make this website possible http://www.triangul.us/.

Thank you as well to Caleb Kenna for donating his beautiful photographs of migrant farmworkers in Vermont http://goldencageproject.org/index.htm. We are also grateful to Sam Mayfield for additional photos taken during the Migrant Justice delegation to Mexico http://samville.blogspot.com/.