ustxtxb_obs_1969_12_19_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

Chavez Visits Texas Fort Worth Organization of farm workers in Texas will be given top priority once Cesar Chavez and his United Farm Workers their strike against table grape growers in California, according to a source active in the national boycott against grapes. Texas is to be the primary link in a chain of ten service centers to be built along the Mexican border from the Rio Grande Valley to Southern California. The centers will serve as the focal points around which workers will be organized in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; and attempt to cut into the most serious problem now facing Chavez the illegal importation of Mexican labor from across the border to serve as strikebreakers. Antonio Orendain, secretary-treasurer of UFWOC, and one of the organizers who tried to salvage the last strike effort in the Valley for UFWOC, is now back there doing the long and tedious job of building a service center and organizing the workers. According to sources in the state AFL-CIO, Orendain is working out of McAllen to purchase an eight-acre site for a permanent headquarters and service center. He has a radio program in Spanish which is heard six days a week by thousands of workers in South Texas and Northern Mexico. Health and insurance programs are being planned, along with a newspaper for the workers. Orendain is working closely with Colonias del Valle, a community self-help organization led by UFWOC organizer Reynaldo de la Cruz and Ed and Tina Krueger, a minister and his wife who were active in behalf of the Texas Council of Churches during the Valley strike of 1966-’67. CHAVEZ, WHO is director of UFWOC, just completed a trip to Texas, and visited with Orendain in McAllen as part of a six-city speaking tour the most stops Chavez has made in any state since he began a North American swing some two and one-half months ago. While in Fort Worth, Chavez was very non-committal about organizing efforts in the Valley; seeming to prefer to discuss the reasons for the failure of the last strike there and his efforts on behalf of the nationwide boycott. Chavez has long felt that the_1966-’67 strike was premature and did not have the necessary organizational base. He says that UFWOC was dragged in unwillingly but. did make an effort to salvage the strike. However, it was too late, there was too much factionalism and no Mrs. Estes is a journalist at Arlington whose articles have appeared previously in the Observer. base from which to operate. UFWOC representatives do think that the Valley strike accomplished two positive results a minimum wage for Texas and a loss of fear by chicanos of the Texas Rangers. Some people here took Chavez’ vagueness about Orendain’s activities in the Valley as an unwillingness to commit UFWOC totally until the situation in Sue Horn Estes California is more clearly a victory and until he can be sure that organizational efforts in the Valley are meeting some degree of success. _ Funds for the Valley organizing effort are limited. The Texas AFL-CIO is unwilling to commit any money to that area of the state until Orendain can prove himself. His association with the previous strike, although he arrived too late to salVage anything, is apparently one hang-up. Others see Chavez’ vagueness as lending credence to rumors in North Texas that Orendain and Chavez are at odds over organizing efforts in the Valley; and that Orendain has visions of setting up a personal power base in Texas. Sources close to UFWOC deny that this is true. While admitting that Chavez and Orendain have had their differences, they contend that UFWOC and La Causa are always the overriding consideration with both men and that Chavez’ visit to McAllen was to show his solidarity with Orendain and his support for the organizational efforts in the Valley. This assessment seems to coincide more closely with Chavez’ committment and personality he is almost Christlike in his dedication to the farm workers, not only in California but nationally. DISCUSSING generally organizational efforts in Texas, Chavez sees the state as no bigger a problem than other right-to-work states. “The power structure is pretty much alike anywhere you go, so organizing is a slow and expensive process.” He broke up a press conference with a statement that he hoped “the Texas Rangers will be part of history” by the time of the next Valley strike. Chavez seemed encouraged about the growing activity among young chicanos throughout the state, and said that it is “not as hard to organize when the youth ATHENA MONTESSORI SCHOOL Leo Nitch, Director NEW NORTHWEST LOCATION 7500 Woodrow Phone 454-4239 are active because that activity spills over into the adult community.” Chavez reluctantly admitted that he might have something to do with the awakening across the country of Mexican-Americans, but contends that he and UFWOC are just part of the whole picture. “I feel the responsibility to take the union wherever farm workers need organizing,” he says, “and there is a lot of excitement across the country among farm workers for a union.” UFWOC has been asked for help from such divergent groups as Indians in Canada’s northwestern provinces to black citrus workers in Florida. Chavez’ visit to Fort Worth gave a boost to the sagging morale of the local boycott committee. Some 1,000 persons turned out to hear him speak in an ecumenical Thanksgiving eve service at the home church of the local Catholic archdiocese. The bishop, Rev. John Cassata, introduced Chavez. Local chain store executives with Buddies Supermarkets, the current target in Fort Worth for the grape boycotters, were more uptight than usual as Chavez picketed their store for an hour. They spent a lot of time taking pictures of the boycotters, as did the local police, but threats of a restraining order were not carried through. December 19, 1969 9 CLASSIFIED BOOKPLATES. Free catalog. Many beautiful designs. Special designing too. Address: BOOK PLATES, Yellow Springs 8, Ohio. YAMAHA: For the best soundpianos–organsguitars available at Amster Music & Art Center 17th & Lavaca, Austin. 478-7331. ANNE’S TYPING SERVICE \(Marjorie Anne Binding, Mailing, Public Notary. Twenty years experience. Call 442-7008 or 442-0170, Austin. OKLAHOMA LIMITED. A Journal of Political Opinion. Published Monthly $5 Per Year. Box 2777-TO, Norman, Okla. 73069. NOLA Express. New Orleans muckraker. Bi-weekly underground tabloid. Subscribe damnit! $3 a year. Box 2342, New Orleans, LA 70116. EGGROLL, a new bi-monthly magazine of satire for hip and crusty old liberal alike. Subscriptions $3.00 for twelve issues; 100 W. 32nd St., Austin, Texas 78705. $1,195 STUDY TOUR. Moscow, Leningrad, Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna. July 22-Aug. 30, 1970. SMU course credit. Dr. Virginia Currey, Political Science, SMU, Dallas, or Ilya Mamantov, SMU, or in Houston, Ray Schreftler, 734-6265. Reserve place by Jan. 1. Home telephone Dr.