Join Our Featured Guests - Jane Fonda and Dolores Huerta on April 25th
Lifelong activists Dolores Huerta and Jane Fonda
World renowned activists Jane Fonda and Dolores Huerta will be joining us to discuss “Why the Central Valley Matters.” They understand the importance of Democrats flipping the House in November for the advancement of social and environmental justice. And they know that funding our grassroots groups whose election workers speak the same language and live in the same neighborhoods as CD 22 voters is essential to winning.
Jane Fonda
We all know Jane Fonda is a famous actress, but she is equally well-known for her dedicated activism that continues unabated since the 60s. Jane launched FireDrill Friday teach-ins in 2019 with Greenpeace to “raise a ruckus” about climate change by committing acts of civil disobedience and demanding that our government take action. In 2022, she founded the Jane Fonda Climate PAC to help elect climate champions. As Jane says, “Who gets elected in the United States in November is going to greatly determine whether there’s a future.” She was just named one of only five recipients of the Time Earth Award. (See the article shared at the end of this newsletter.)
Jane Fonda became an activist in her 30s when she began to speak out against the Vietnam War, participate in US civil rights protests, and stand with Native Americans protesting the theft of their land and poor living conditions on their reservations. She also used movies, such as “Coming Home” and the “China Syndrome,” to bring her values opposing war and supporting women’s rights to a wider audience.
Like Dolores, Jane has been arrested for participating in protests and demonstrating for her causes. But neither arrests, nor her age of 86, has deterred Jane’s activism. As part of her effort to address the climate crisis, she currently is fighting to uphold the California law, known as SB 1137, that would prohibit new gas and oil wells within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, and other health sensitive areas. Big Oil’s referendum to overturn SB 1137 is on the November ballot. Upholding SB1137 would help protect CD 22 residents from toxic oil and gas pollution that is damaging their health.
Just outside of Bakersfield, CA in Kern County and provides the majority of CA’s oil.
Dolores Huerta
Ninety-four on April 10, 2024, Dolores Huerta is one of the most influential US labor leaders of the 20th century and a passionate social justice advocate. She has received many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. And, like Jane, Dolores is active in politics and uses political organizing to solve issues facing the marginalized residents of the Central Valley.
Dolores emerged as a social justice activist and leader after working as a school teacher and seeing farmworker children come to school barefoot and hungry. Dolores thought she could do more to help farm workers and their children through organizing than teaching. So, in 1955, she co-founded the Stockton Chapter of the Community Service Organization, focusing on voter registration and economic advancement of Latinos. Later, Dolores and Cesar Chavez co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which became the legendary United Farm Workers Association (UFW). She advocated for unemployment and health care benefits for farm workers and for the elimination of the toxic pesticides affecting their health. Dolores spearheaded a successful nationwide table grape boycott in the 1960s and another one in the 70s, resulting in the ground-breaking California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975 that enabled farm workers to unionize.
Dolores continues to advocate for social justice through the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF) which she founded in 2003. DHF and the Dolores Huerta Action Fund both work to empower marginalized communities in the Central Valley by promoting civic engagement and voting to create “a more just and equitable Central Valley.”