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We seek the support of all political groups and protection of the government, which is also our government, in our struggle. For too many years we have been treated like the lowest of the low. Our wages and working conditions have been determined from above, because irresponsible legislators who could have helped us, have supported the rancher's argument that the plight of the Farm Worker was a 'special case.' They saw the obvious effects of an unjust system, starvation wages, contractors, day hauls, forced migration, sickness, illiteracy, camps and sub-human living conditions, and acted as if they were irremediable causes. The farm worker has been abandoned to his own fate - without representation, without power - subject to mercy and caprice of the rancher. We are tired of words, of betrayals, of indifference. To the politicians we say that the years are gone when the farm worker said nothing and did nothing to help himself. From this movement shall spring leaders who shall understand us, lead us, be faithful to us, and we shall elect them to represent us. We shall be heard.

Cesar Chavez#7

WorkEqualityPoliticsNeglectPolicy

About this quote

What does it mean?
Farm workers seek government support and highlight decades of neglect and poor conditions.
In plain terms
We need politicians to help us after years of being ignored and exploited.
What can you take from it?
Demand government protection and fair treatment from lawmakers.

Where it applies

  • labor negotiations
  • policy advocacy
  • community organizing

Putting it to work

  • lobby legislators
  • organize workers

Questions to consider

  • How can workers gain political power?
  • Why do legislators ignore certain groups?

Another view

Political support often depends on electoral priorities.

More from Cesar Chavez

  1. This is the beginning of a social movement in fact and not in pronouncements. We seek our basic, God-given rights as human beings. Because we have suffered - a…

    Permalink to quote #6
  2. We seek, and have, the support of the Church in what we do. At the head of the pilgrimage we carry La virgen de la Guadalupe because she is ours, all ours, Pat…

    Permalink to quote #8
  3. Our sweat and our blood have fallen on this land to make other men rich. The pilgrimage is a witness to the suffering we have seen for generations.

    Permalink to quote #5

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