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"Black Friday is a commercial nightmare, which is why, for the past decade or so, I've usually spent it at one of the many protest rallies at Walmarts around the country," writes Peter Dreier (Photo: Wikimedia/cc)
What I'm Thankful For: Food Workers and Anti-Hunger Activists
Happy Thanksgiving to all (except the Walmart board of directors)
Nov 23, 2017
I recently heard someone say that Thanksgiving is our least commercialized national holiday. That seems true.
Thanksgiving isn't about buying and giving gifts. It is about getting together with friends and family (even the ones you don't like), being grateful, and being forgiving.
It is a secular holiday, available to all, regardless of beliefs. You can say a prayer around the Thanksgiving meal if you want, but it isn't obligatory.
If we overlook the Pilgrims/Indians mythology (a prelude to genocide), Thanksgiving is really about the harvest, which could be translated today into recognizing the people who bring us our food -- the farmers, farm workers (thank you United Farm Workers, Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, and today's Coalition of Immokele Workers), food processing workers (today's counterparts to the meatpacking workers described in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and the cannery workers in John Steinbeck's Cannery Row), grocery workers (thank you United Food and Commercial Workers), and the restaurant workers (thank you UNITE HERE).
Thank you to Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and Frances Moore Lappe's Food First for reminding us about the conditions under which food gets from farm to table.
Thanksgiving also reminds us (like the Elijah Cup at Passover seders) to think about the millions of Americans, and billions of people around the world, who are hungry. Thank you to all the soup kitchens that feed the hungry and the anti-hunger groups that challenge the root causes of hunger -- inequality, poverty, corporate agribusiness, and the concentration of landownership around the world.
This isn't to ignore the worker exploitation within the turkey and cranberry industries (or the self-promotional Macy's parade in New York), but Thanksgiving just seems more benign than the crass commercialism of profit-seekers around Christmas, Mothers Day, and Valentines Day.
Of course, the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, is a commercial nightmare, which is why, for the past decade or so, I've usually spent it at one of the many protest rallies at Walmarts around the country organized by the workers rights group OUR Walmart. They've put that day-of-protest on hold this year, but I hope they renew it soon. I miss the solidarity of standing with labor and community allies protesting the country's largest private employer of miserably-paid workers.
So, Happy Thanksgiving to all (except the Walmart board of directors).
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Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Peter Dreier
Peter Dreier is the E.P. Clapp distinguished professor of politics at Occidental College. He joined the Occidental faculty in January 1993 after serving for nine years as Director of Housing at the Boston Redevelopment Authority and senior policy advisor to Boston Mayor Ray Flynn. He is the author of "The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame" (2012) and an editor (with Kate Aronoff and Michael Kazin) of "We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism, American Style" and co-author of "Baseball Rebels: The Players, People and Social Movements That Shook Up the Game and Changed America" (2022).
I recently heard someone say that Thanksgiving is our least commercialized national holiday. That seems true.
Thanksgiving isn't about buying and giving gifts. It is about getting together with friends and family (even the ones you don't like), being grateful, and being forgiving.
It is a secular holiday, available to all, regardless of beliefs. You can say a prayer around the Thanksgiving meal if you want, but it isn't obligatory.
If we overlook the Pilgrims/Indians mythology (a prelude to genocide), Thanksgiving is really about the harvest, which could be translated today into recognizing the people who bring us our food -- the farmers, farm workers (thank you United Farm Workers, Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, and today's Coalition of Immokele Workers), food processing workers (today's counterparts to the meatpacking workers described in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and the cannery workers in John Steinbeck's Cannery Row), grocery workers (thank you United Food and Commercial Workers), and the restaurant workers (thank you UNITE HERE).
Thank you to Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and Frances Moore Lappe's Food First for reminding us about the conditions under which food gets from farm to table.
Thanksgiving also reminds us (like the Elijah Cup at Passover seders) to think about the millions of Americans, and billions of people around the world, who are hungry. Thank you to all the soup kitchens that feed the hungry and the anti-hunger groups that challenge the root causes of hunger -- inequality, poverty, corporate agribusiness, and the concentration of landownership around the world.
This isn't to ignore the worker exploitation within the turkey and cranberry industries (or the self-promotional Macy's parade in New York), but Thanksgiving just seems more benign than the crass commercialism of profit-seekers around Christmas, Mothers Day, and Valentines Day.
Of course, the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, is a commercial nightmare, which is why, for the past decade or so, I've usually spent it at one of the many protest rallies at Walmarts around the country organized by the workers rights group OUR Walmart. They've put that day-of-protest on hold this year, but I hope they renew it soon. I miss the solidarity of standing with labor and community allies protesting the country's largest private employer of miserably-paid workers.
So, Happy Thanksgiving to all (except the Walmart board of directors).
Peter Dreier
Peter Dreier is the E.P. Clapp distinguished professor of politics at Occidental College. He joined the Occidental faculty in January 1993 after serving for nine years as Director of Housing at the Boston Redevelopment Authority and senior policy advisor to Boston Mayor Ray Flynn. He is the author of "The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame" (2012) and an editor (with Kate Aronoff and Michael Kazin) of "We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism, American Style" and co-author of "Baseball Rebels: The Players, People and Social Movements That Shook Up the Game and Changed America" (2022).
I recently heard someone say that Thanksgiving is our least commercialized national holiday. That seems true.
Thanksgiving isn't about buying and giving gifts. It is about getting together with friends and family (even the ones you don't like), being grateful, and being forgiving.
It is a secular holiday, available to all, regardless of beliefs. You can say a prayer around the Thanksgiving meal if you want, but it isn't obligatory.
If we overlook the Pilgrims/Indians mythology (a prelude to genocide), Thanksgiving is really about the harvest, which could be translated today into recognizing the people who bring us our food -- the farmers, farm workers (thank you United Farm Workers, Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, and today's Coalition of Immokele Workers), food processing workers (today's counterparts to the meatpacking workers described in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and the cannery workers in John Steinbeck's Cannery Row), grocery workers (thank you United Food and Commercial Workers), and the restaurant workers (thank you UNITE HERE).
Thank you to Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and Frances Moore Lappe's Food First for reminding us about the conditions under which food gets from farm to table.
Thanksgiving also reminds us (like the Elijah Cup at Passover seders) to think about the millions of Americans, and billions of people around the world, who are hungry. Thank you to all the soup kitchens that feed the hungry and the anti-hunger groups that challenge the root causes of hunger -- inequality, poverty, corporate agribusiness, and the concentration of landownership around the world.
This isn't to ignore the worker exploitation within the turkey and cranberry industries (or the self-promotional Macy's parade in New York), but Thanksgiving just seems more benign than the crass commercialism of profit-seekers around Christmas, Mothers Day, and Valentines Day.
Of course, the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, is a commercial nightmare, which is why, for the past decade or so, I've usually spent it at one of the many protest rallies at Walmarts around the country organized by the workers rights group OUR Walmart. They've put that day-of-protest on hold this year, but I hope they renew it soon. I miss the solidarity of standing with labor and community allies protesting the country's largest private employer of miserably-paid workers.
So, Happy Thanksgiving to all (except the Walmart board of directors).
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