Family Farm Defenders

By: Rebecca Goodman, FFD board member, retired organic dairy farmer – Wonewoc, WI

When I was a child being raised Catholic and attending a Catholic grade school, May 1^st signified the beginning of the month of Mary, mother of Jesus. We used to process from the school to the church with lilacs and tulips we brought from home to honor her. But this is not the May day I want to talk about here.

Actually, May Day honors workers and is rooted in agriculture, and celebrated by workers across the globe as International Labor Day on May 1. May Day started as a per-Christian holiday celebrated throughout Europe, especially among the Gaelic people. It falls on the halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Song and dance around bonfires celebrated the sown fields starting to sprout and cattle driven to pasture. May Day is a holiday with diverse meanings around the world but gradually became associated with the historic struggles and gains made by workers and the labor movement.

In the Soviet Union, leaders embraced the new holiday, believing it would encourage workers in Europe and the U.S. to unite against capitalism. It was celebrated with high-profile parades and a showcase of military might. Celebrations have declined in importance since the breakup of the USSR.

In Germany Labor Day became an official holiday in 1933 after the rise of the Nazi Party. Ironically, Germany abolished free unions the day after establishing the holiday, virtually destroying the German labor movement.

In the United States, the holiday was first celebrated in 1886 as part of the struggle for the eight-hour workday. On May Day, hundreds of thousands of workers across the county went on strike, demanding better working conditions and shorter working hours. In Chicago, the strike became known as the Haymarket Riot. When police attacked the rioters it became bloody and resulted in 8 strikers being hung for conspiracy. In 1889, to honor the Chicago workers, an International federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May Day a labor holiday beginning what many nations now call International Worker’s Day.

Later, U.S. President, Grover Cleveland, uneasy with the socialistic origins of Workers’ Day, signed legislation to make Labor Day — already held in some states on the first Monday of September—the official U.S. holiday in honor of workers. Canada followed suit not long afterward. In response to anti- communist attitudes and fear of working-class unity, President Dwight Eisenhower, declared May 1 “Law Day”–dedicated to the principles of government under law—and Labor Day celebrated in September.

In dozens of countries around the world May Day has been recognized as a public holiday, and is celebrated with picnics and parties while serving as an occasion for demonstrations and rallies in support of workers.

So we have May Day, International Worker’s Day, and U.S. and Canada’s Labor Day. In light of the U.S. Administration, how will these two days be celebrated this year?

By: John E. Peck, executive director, Family Farm Defenders

Since 1775 when Benjamin Franklin became the very first Postmaster General, the USPS has faithfully fulfilled the many lofty goals that are now inscribed outside the entrance of the U.S. Postal Museum in Washington DC: “Bond of the Scattered Family; Enlarger of the Common Life; Carrier of News and Knowledge; Instrument of Trade and Commerce.”

Affordable universal reliable communication is not something many people can take for granted. In fact, the USPS was such a great American idea (like our national park system) that it has since been replicated across the globe. Under the pretense that the USPS is “bankrupt,” though, Pres. Trump and other neoliberal free marketeers are hellbent to impose an austerity program and ultimately privatize this vital public service. During Trump’s last stint in the White House, USPS was forced to shutter half of its mail processing centers, leading to longer delivery times, and 10% of the nation’s post offices, mostly in rural towns, were put on the auction block. Despite such, the USPS continues to have some of the highest public approval ratings of any federal government agency. After all, who can you trust to make sure you get your seed orders or drug prescriptions in a timely fashion?

How did this quite preventable (and orchestrated) mugging of the USPS come about? Well, one needs to go back a few decades when the government first opened the door for corporate competitors to undermine the viability of the USPS. At just 73 cents to deliver a first class letter, USPS rates remain among the lowest in the industrialized world. Given the surge in packages, accelerated by the pandemic, private outfits like Fedex and Amazon are now allowed to mooch off the USPS’ amazing efficiency to help deliver their own packages (saving themselves up to 75%). Contrary to some naysayers, the USPS does not get a dime from U.S. taxpayers – it provides a valuable public service at cost to consumers. So attacks on the USPS claiming its “horribly wasteful” are just flat out wrong.

The USPS is also hamstrung from taking advantage of other ways to expand its services that many people, especially rural folks, desperately need. For example, the USPS still offers money orders, but many other countries postal systems offer a much wider range of popular financial services such as checking and savings accounts, even low interest loans. One recent study found that the USPS could earn an extra $8-9 billion per year just by providing basic banking options to the millions of Americans who now subsist on the fringes of the financial system. It is no surprise that Wells Fargo is drooling over the possible demise of USPS (as revealed in a recently leaked internal memo), since they hardly want any other option for those now subject to their predatory lending practices.

Now is the time to speak up and insure the proud iconic eagle of the USPS is not replaced by some anemic vulture version. Family Farm Defenders is among dozens of organizations that have joined the Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service. And just like many family farmers rely upon cooperatives for their collective bargaining against agribusiness, postal workers also deserve to have their labor rights respected as fully unionized federal employees. Please contact your elected officials to insure the future of USPS as a vital public good, and next time you are at the post office thank the workers for their essential service. As the unofficial motto of USPS carriers goes: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Neither should DOGE!

By: Anthony Pahnke, FFD Vice President and Associate Professor of International Relations at San Francisco State University.

Originally published by the Captimes (Madison, WI), 3/13/2025

About 100 people, including myself, my mother, faith leaders, some farmers and other community members from Wisconsin, joined an evening call a few weeks ago that had been organized by the interfaith group, WISDOM.

The topic: challenging 287g agreements.

Such agreements have become central to immigration policy debates, as they allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deputize local law enforcement to carry out President Trump’s plans for mass deportation.

Across the United States, 137 counties have signed up, including eight in Wisconsin. Lacking the resources and manpower to deport the estimated 11 million people who are in the U.S. without legal status, and with personnel challenges plaguing the Trump administration’s immigration plans the first time the Republican was in office, these agreements are critical to the government’s intention to increase arrests.

On our call, we discussed which sheriffs to contact, how to speak to them about the problems of working with ICE, and the need to continue to educate immigrants on their rights.

What really surprised me about that call was how so many different people were organizing to challenge a critical piece of the Trump agenda. Motivating us, at least my mother and me, was a strong sense of community that led our family to fight for one another in the past and that still pushes us to take a stand with the most vulnerable among us. In addition to economic considerations, we demand respect and dignity for all, including for immigrants, regardless of their legal status.

My mother lives on the dairy farm where we both grew up. Located in eastern Wisconsin, the dairy industry there and throughout the state has changed significantly over the past few decades. While in the past we milked cows with other family members, now undocumented workers mostly tend to the cattle.

Reports show that if mass deportation took place, Wisconsin’s dairies would be hit hard as no visa program exists for dairy workers and upwards of 70% lack legal status. With 5,661 operating dairies in the state, a 46% decrease from just over 10 years ago, farms have decreased in number while increasing in size and growing dependent on non-family labor.

At the same time, debates about the place of immigrants in our agricultural system are about more than dollars and cents.

Back in the 1960s, my grandfather dumped milk as part of the National Farmers Organization’s (NFO) efforts to raise public awareness and pressure lawmakers to improve milk prices to keep families on the land. Then, similar to the struggle for immigrant rights now, there were serious economic challenges in our community. But also at issue was respect and dignity, as the farmers who were putting the food on Americans’ tables deserved the means to provide a decent life for themselves.

What has remained the same over time is that those directly engaged in agriculture are on the frontlines to protect the land, care for the animals and provide us with food. Accordingly, both farmers and workers deserve not only decent incomes, but safety and security.

We find the opposite in programs like 287g. From increasing racial profiling, to causing undue financial problems for the counties that collaborate, the initiative strikes fear in immigrant families. The program has nothing to do with “going after the worst first” and targeting violent criminals as it overburdens our local law enforcement officers by making them do the job of federal agents.

The reasons that people come into the U.S. are many, including escaping war and poverty. As the vast majority commit crimes at lower rates than native-born citizens, they deserve better than to live in fear.

So until we have politicians willing to respect the millions of undocumented people in this country with real policies that could include worker visas or immigration reform, including for those who make our food system work, we will continue to have calls and organize for change.

As we all know, the ceasefire in Gaza is just the beginning and the future of the region still depends on international solidarity. You can grow hope and change in your garden and help us raise funds in this critical moment. Proceeds will benefit Palestinian farmer members of La Via Campesina (LVC). Our suggested donation is $50 and includes shipping.

The Palestine Seed Solidarity Pack includes

Four types of heirloom seeds:

• Britijan Battari eggplant
• Jarjir arugula,
• Kousa summer squash,
• Yakteen gourd  PLUS:
• Palestine Food Sovereignty ‘zine
• FFD’s “Food is not a Weapon” Gaza Solidarity Statement
• Latest Stop Gaza Starvation Update
• Free Palestine button

You can make a secure online donation using the Mighty Cause donation button on our website or by sending a check to: Family Farm Defenders, P.O. Box 1772, Madison WI 53701

And, if you are placing an order, please email [email protected] to let us know where to send your solidarity package. It is time to grow peace in Palestine and beyond!