June 7, 6 pm

Lectures, discussion

Economies on the Borderline

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Kathi Hahn, Dieter Behr
(European Civic Forum)
Bitter Harvest. Migration, Exploitation and Resistance in Europe’s Industrialized Agriculture

The produce aisles of supermarkets lure customers with bright red strawberries and tomatoes, green cucumbers and rainbow-colored peppers—delivered fresh every day. But behind this high-gloss consumer merchandise is a reality often marked by social and ecological exploitation. A dramatic example of the deplorable state of affairs currently found in large-scale fruit and vegetable cultivation is the area around Almeria in the El Ejido region of southern Spain. Plastic greenhouses cover a total of some 35,000 hectares there, in which more than ten kilos of hothouse produce is turned out every year for each European consumer. This production method gives rise to the exploitation of thousands of disenfranchised migrant workers from Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. In early December 2005, following a successful fund-raising drive conducted by the European Civic Forum, the first local branch of the SOC trade union (Syndicato dos obrer(at)s del campo—Agricultural Workers’ Union) was opened in El Ejido. This step is an important start for the migrants in organizing themselves and taking up the struggle against racial discrimination. … >>