Days of Destruction Days of Revolt Essay

They offer rattling lucubrate and disturbing descriptions of life on the ache Ridge Reservation in entropy Dakota, the slums of Camden, New Jersey, and the surface mining zones assemble Welch, West Virginia, as soundly as some places in Immokalee, Florida, that argon typoly like slave camps. 1 chapter of the platter caught my eye, years of Slavery. It importantly takes place in Immokalee Florida, a center of immigrant agricultural laborers, for the most part Latino. The immigrants ar housed in terrible conditions, which makes it very hard for them to stool.Additionally to the terrible conditions that they be forced to work in, they are in any case paid unreasonably low take for the amount of time they are working. some other thing that is affecting the people who work in the factories are serious problems with breathing. They wel mother this problem because of pesticide poisoning and other chemicals that they are creation exposed to while working. One chemical that is mentioned is Methyl Bromide. It is also non uncommon for these workers to be held in literal slavery, have their paychecks stolen, and be subjected to physical iniquity if they get out of line.The legal strategy in Florida appears go awaying to prosecute cases of slavery, save the immigrants are very agoraphobic to come forward for obvious reasons. They are afraid they will be fired and to a greater extent than likely the cases will non be judged in their favor. This is because these companies are enormous, and are suitable to pay people off to go forward making the workers work under anomalous conditions. ONeill 2 Hedges interviews activists from the Coalition of Imoakalee Workers, a very strong and militant organization. He describes their struggle to secure a nominal level of decent conditions for the workers.The chapter includes the case of Miguel Flores and Sebastian Gomez, who where sentenced in 1997 to fifteen years in prison on charges of slavery, extor tion, and firearm possession. The duo oversaw a modern slavery operation of four hundred men and women who harvested fields in Florida and South Carolina. The book highlights the harsh conditions for the laborers in this operation. The author wrote The workers, mostly indigenous Mexicans and Guatemalans, were forced to work ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week, for as little as $20 dollars a week, all under the supervision of gird guards.Those who attempted to escape were beaten, pistol-whipped, and at times shot. The crew leaders charged the workers unconscionable prices for food. Female workers, according to one victim, were routinely raped. The coalition workers were told by Flores that if their experiences of working in the factory were talked about, he would cut their tongues out. (Hedges 158) The main questions of the people in the community of Immokalee were probably, Who is spillage to take a stand for us immigrants? Who is going to be our leader that we will foll ow so we can be treated like normal human-beings? Their questions were not being answered until a man by the name of Lucas Benitez came along. Benitez was thirty-six and had two children . A group was started by Bentiez as well as people who found the bravery to stand up to abuse, breaking the calendar method of birth control of fear that keeps the system in place. Benitez started by becoming an organizer. He and his group would meet at the local Catholic perform at night to help those who were being treated unfairly. Things were turning around for the immigrants.They were protesting and attempt to do whatever they could to defeat the huge companies who were making them work many hours for much(prenominal) little pay. As they began to protest and strike, the employers gave them what they wanted. The workers of Imoakalee, Florida, got ONeill 3 a pay raise, and were no longer held in literal slavery. otherwise then the few changes that were mentioned above, Imoakalee Florida, h as not importantly changed since the mid 1950s. Today, Imoakalee, Florida, is all the same an area where a majority of Americas crops and scram are grown.Many immigrants still spicy in Imoakalee, Florida. To this day, unfortunately corruption is still going on in Imoakalee. spacious factories and companies are forcing workers to work very hard, and they are also causing damage to the environment. They are causing damage to the environment because of the bullet stacks that are required by the different factories. (Coalition of Immokalee Workers) ONeill 4 whole kit and boodle Cited Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). N. p. , n. d. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. . Hedges, Chris, and Joe Sacco. Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. New York Nation Books, 2012. Print.