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BEYOND THE FIELDS

Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century

RANDY SHAW

What Activists and Scholars are Saying:

"A stirring account of how the UFW transformed people's lives, instilling a lifetime commitment to social justice." Randy Shaw shows how the spirit, strategies, and tactics of the UFW in its heyday still strengthen the U.S. labor movement, build Latino political power, and infuse a growing national campaign for immigrant rights."

-Eliseo Medina, former member UFW Executive Board, now Executive Vice President of Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

"A fascinating, invaluable study, "

-Mike Davis, author of In Praise of Barbarians

"An important, stunningly original, and forcefully argued book."

-Ruth Milkman, Director of the UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations and author of L.A Story: Immigrant Workers and the Future of the U.S. Labor Movement.

Obama says "Yes We Can" (SI SE PUEDE):

Read in this book how the SI SE PUEDE spirit of the 1960's became the rallying cry of Obama's 2008 campaign.

YouTube video of Randy Shaw's San Francisco book launch

"Beyond the Fields is a useful resource for anyone interested in organizing, activism, or social movements -- whether because the Obama campaign has made these things freshly relevant or due to a longer-standing interest."

Read the full Daily Kos Review of Beyond the Fields.

"If the Documentation Project could enforce a required reading list, "BEYOND THE FIELDS: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century" by Randy Shaw (University of California Press, 2008) would top the list. For former UFW Volunteers, whether their service was one month, one year, or a decade, Randy Shaw's book is a MUST READ."

-LeRoy Chatfield, Farmworkers Documentation Project

Barack Obama said "Yes, We Can (Si se Puede) - Beyond the Fields reveals the untold story of how the spirit of "Si Se Puede," that began with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers in the 1960s still sets the course for today's social justice movements. Deftly tracing the legacy of Chavez and the UFW, Randy Shaw finds that their influence has ranged far and wide: in the modern reshaping of the American labor movement, in the building of Latino political power, in the fight for environmental justice, in the burgeoning national movement for immigrant rights, and elsewhere. Many of the ideas, tactics, and strategies that Chavez and the UFW initiated or revived--including the boycott, clergy-labor partnerships, and grassroots voter outreach, particularly toward Latinos--are now so commonplace that their roots in the farmworkers' movement are forgotten. Beyond the Fields also describes how the UFW became the era's leading incubator of young activist talent, creating a generation of skilled alumni who went on to play critical roles in progressive campaigns. The spirit of "Si Se Puede" has never been stronger, and, as we see in this powerful book, still provides the clearest roadmap for achieving greater social and economic justice in the United States.

Randy Shaw is the Director of San Francisco's Tenderloin Housing Clinic, and is editor of the online daily newspaper, BeyondChron.org. His previous books are The Activist's Handbook and Reclaiming America, both from UC Press.

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