Famed labor organizer Dolores Huerta gave a keynote lecture and did a Q&A at University of San Diego Wednesday evening, Oct. 22. (Photo by Sophia Sleap/Times of San Diego) Credit: Sophia Sleap
Dolores Huerta set out to share a message of hope in San Diego: “People power,” she said, will triumph.
The living labor legend delivered those words to hundreds of students and members of the public who gathered to hear her speak at the University of San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice on Wednesday evening.
“Something good will be coming out of this dark period,” she said. “But we are the ones that have to start forming those policies that we want, to make sure that when we come out of this era that we’re in right now, we’re going to come out a lot stronger.”
Sharing lessons from her decades of labor organizing, the 95-year-old Huerta said peace can be achieved within the lifetime of today’s young people.
The key, she said, is to organize, protest and vote.
Overcoming opposition
She shared the example of the famous grape boycott she led with César Chávez in the 1960s.
“The growers were against us. The oil industry was against us. The banking industry was against us. The governor of California, Ronald Reagan, was against us. The president of the United States of America was against us,” she said. “And we beat all of them.”
She said the 19 million Americans who joined the boycott across the country in support of farmworkers made it possible.
“It was people power. People understanding that they had power, that they could take action,” she said. “And once you see that, you get addicted.”
Huerta gave recent examples of this power in action: the boycott of Target that led to a drop in share prices and the resignation of the retailer’s CEO, and users canceling their Disney subscriptions, which helped late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel return to the air after his suspension.
“Within a week, within 24 hours, they felt the pain. The pain is in their wallets,” she said.
Huerta also applauded everyone who attended a “No Kings” rally. “We’ve got to protest and we’ve got to march. And we do those things that really make a visible difference,” she said.
A call to vote in the special election
Huerta also urged people to vote yes on Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting proposal. “We’re going to have the opportunity to vote — to change our voting districts so that we can elect people that care — that are more progressive to the Congress,” she said.
“Because it is our Congress right now that is using our tax dollars,” she said. “It’s our money —our millions of dollars that we need for healthcare, that we need for housing, that we need for all types of education and all types of disability resources, etc. It’s our tax dollars.”
She encouraged people not only to vote yes on Prop. 50, but also to organize their relatives, neighbors, and even their exes, to vote. “Then we can set the groundwork for the elections that are going to happen in 2026,” she said.
Huerta ended the event by leading a chant: “Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power! What kind of power? People power!”
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