01/17/2026
From 1965 to 1970, Filipino farmworkers in Delano, California walked off the grape fields to protest poverty wages and brutal working conditions. Their action sparked the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott, which grew when Mexican American workers joined and helped form the United Farm Workers. What began as a local labor strike became a national boycott that asked everyday people to participate by refusing to buy grapes. That pressure worked. By 1970, major growers signed contracts that improved wages, benefits, and labor protections for farmworkers.
This history matters because it shows how coordinated withdrawal of labor and participation shifts power. Walkouts are not spontaneous expressions of anger. They are organized acts of leverage. They rely on numbers, clarity of purpose, and public participation.
The same logic appears across movements and generations. Students walking out. Workers striking. Communities boycotting. These actions force attention, interrupt profit, and make avoidance impossible. They remind us that progress has come from people deciding, together, that the conditions were unacceptable and acting accordingly.
On January 20, we carry that tradition forward. Join the Walk Out on Fascism at 1 PM in Pershing Park, DC. Show up. Walk out. Add your presence to a long history of collective refusal that has changed material conditions before and can do so again.
WE KEEP US SAFE!
