In our last update, we shared organizing news from Immokalee, where 2,000 people gathered for a community party and petition signing event. Today, we bring you the inspirational story of one Graciela Lopez, shown above during a United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) tour of apparel factories in Mexico. Graciela is a Fair Food activist extraordinaire from Washington, DC, whose efforts to circulate the petition as far and as wide as possible would put Thomas Clarkson himself to shame! Here's an excerpt from her latest report:
"I was able to collect signatures at the USAS ten year after party, and on the National Mall (which was quite an adventure that I took on ALONE!). Once I got a big group of young teens, the petition practically signed itself. I also attended an event at the city council building to demand paid sick days and did a street theater performance which was pretty fun and people were more willing to sign after watching me be silly... When we were all waiting for the meeting to begin, I crawled through rows of people explaining the campaign and asking them to sign. In my crawling I met some pretty cool georgetown interested folks and got 11 new contacts!!
We will be doing a video petition of some sort (I was thinking something like: "I will not not buy Burger King because..."). This video petition will also be a video project for one of my classes. Also I have a date set up for the fundraiser/dance party/drumcircle/art exhibit/crafts party/pot luck/ sangria (flyer above) will be served :)... Lets see... I guess thats all for now!"
You, too, can be part of this growing campaign (even if your efforts don't quite measure up to Graciela's!). Go to the petition site now for more ideas and materials to bring the campaign to your community today!
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