Randy Shaw is the author of the forthcoming Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century (University of California Press). Mr. Shaw is the Executive Director and Supervising Attorney of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic in San Francisco. Mr. Shaw received his J.D. from Hastings College of the Law in 1982, and started the Clinic while attending law school. During the past two decades, Mr. Shaw has assisted thousands of low-income tenants and drafted several laws that have preserved and improved affordable housing. Mr. Shaw has also designed and implemented programs that have provided housing for thousands of homeless single adults, and THC is San Francisco's leading provider of permanent housing to this population. He is the author of The Activist's Handbook: A Primer (University of California Press, 2001) and Reclaiming America: Nike, Clean Air, and the New National Activism (University of California Press, 1999). His new book is Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. Mr. Shaw is also editor of the daily progressive alternative online newspaper, Beyond Chron.

About Beyond the Fields:

Cesar Chavez is the most prominent Latino in United States history books, and much has been written about Chavez and the United Farm Worker's heyday in the 1960s and '70s. But left untold has been their ongoing impact on 21st century social justice movements. Beyond the Fields unearths this legacy, and describes how Chavez and the UFW's imprint can be found in the modern reshaping of the American labor movement, the building of Latino political power, the transformation of Los Angeles and California politics, the fight for environmental justice, and the burgeoning national movement for immigrant rights. Many of the ideas, tactics, and strategies that Chavez and the UFW initiated or revived--including the boycott, the fast, clergy-labor partnerships and door-to-door voter outreach--are now so commonplace that their roots in the farmworkers' movement is forgotten.

This powerful book 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. UFW volunteers and staff were dedicated to furthering economic justice, and many devoted their post-UFW lives working for social change. When Barack Obama adopted "Yes We Can" as his 2008 campaign theme, he confirmed that the spirit of "Si Se Puede" has never been stronger, and that it still provides the clearest roadmap for achieving greater social and economic justice in the United States.

Blog Entries by Randy Shaw

Obama Ignores Lessons of Community Organizing

Posted December 13, 2009 | 08:25 PM (EST)


When Barack Obama backed a Senate health reform plan that differed radically from prior proposals, he ignored the lessons he learned as a young organizer on Chicago's South Side. Obama once knew that it's wrong to bypass the community's agenda to strike a backroom deal, regardless of its potentially superior...

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Activists Are Giving Obama a Pass

3 Comments | Posted December 6, 2009 | 08:15 PM (EST)



As President Obama quietly watches Senators undermine health care reform, redirects over $30 billion annually from domestic programs to expand the Afghanistan war, and sounds like the Concord Coalition in prioritizing deficit reduction over job creation, we hear little activist protest. Nor have activists publicly mobilized in response...

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Has Obama Hurt Michael Moore's New Film?

14 Comments | Posted October 13, 2009 | 08:18 AM (EST)


After seeing the U.S. premiere, I wrote that Michael Moore's Capitalism, A Love Story, is a must-see movie and his most powerful and politically fulfilled work. Moore thought so as well, and engaged in a media blitz to encourage a massive turnout to the 962 theater opening on the October...

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Michael Moore's New Film Rocks AFL-CIO

6 Comments | Posted September 15, 2009 | 07:51 AM (EST)


Demonstrating his passionate commitment to progressive change and single payer health care, Michael Moore held the U.S. premiere of his new film, Capitalism: A Love Story, last night in Pittsburgh in conjunction with the AFL-CIO national convention. Sponsored by the National Nurses Organizing Committee and other unions, Moore gave the...

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Obama Did Not "Punk" the Common Guy

38 Comments | Posted August 11, 2009 | 09:19 AM (EST)


Has Barack Obama abandoned the populist policies that got him elected, and done nothing for working people? Frank Rich of the New York Times certainly implies this, framing his August 9 column around a claim by a Virginia real estate agent that "Nothing's changed for the common guy. I feel...

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SEIU Talks Peace -- But Continues War -- on UNITE HERE

Posted July 21, 2009 | 09:52 AM (EST)


SEIU President Andy Stern issued a staff memo last week saying "we are close to putting the dispute with UNITE HERE behind us." Stern said he was optimistic that a settlement was near, and that, "We and the members of Workers United don't want more fights." But Stern's rosy assessment...

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Labor Movement Backs UNITE HERE Against SEIU Raids

2 Comments | Posted June 30, 2009 | 09:06 AM (EST)


In a dramatic blow to SEIU's efforts to raid UNITE HERE members and jurisdictions, 15 of the nation's leading unions pledged Monday to provide UNITE HERE with "material and moral" support. Before a wildly cheering and upbeat crowd of 700, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee denounced SEIU for the "poaching" of...

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Is Fresno SEIU's Vietnam?

1 Comments | Posted June 22, 2009 | 09:51 AM (EST)


SEIU defeated NUHW by 233 votes in their bitter election over Fresno's 10,000 home care workers, but now faces a situation analogous to the United States in Vietnam. It took nearly one thousand staffers and an estimated $10 million for SEIU to eke out a victory in Fresno, the labor...

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SEIU Claims Fresno Victory: Now What?

Posted June 15, 2009 | 09:40 AM (EST)


When SEIU announced on June 5 that the Fresno home care worker election was "virtually over" and that it had prevailed, skepticism abounded. After all, balloting continued through for another ten days, hard data from the field was lacking, and the rival National Union of Health Workers (NUHW) was...

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UFW Alums on Opposite Sides in Battle for Labor's Future

Posted June 1, 2009 | 09:27 AM (EST)


After electing the most pro-union president in decades, organized labor is being torn by internal fights. And on different sides of these conflicts are veterans of the United Farmworkers of America (UFW), whose strategic innovations have shaped today's labor movement and whose "Si Se Puede" ("Yes We Can") rallying cry...

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Community Organizer Obama Asks Activists: "Where's Your Base"?

1 Comments | Posted May 19, 2009 | 09:36 AM (EST)


Some activists excited about Barack Obama's community organizing background forget what this fully means---namely, that he expects groups seeking progressive measures to mobilize their base. Community organizers do not expect politicians to challenge entrenched interests absent grassroots pressure, and President Obama is not about to spend political capital on...

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Yes, Obama Can Honor Cesar Chavez's Legacy

Posted March 30, 2009 | 07:00 AM (EST)


When Barack Obama adopted "Yes We Can" as his campaign theme, he hearkened back to the "Si Se Puede" rallying cry popularized by Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW). As we celebrate Cesar Chavez Day on March 31, the President should consider a more lasting action to honor...

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Stimulus Battle Shows Need for "Neighbor to Neighbor" Strategy

Posted February 17, 2009 | 12:16 PM (EST)



The stimulus vote shows that it will take more than e-mail blitzes, rallies and presidential speeches to enact universal health care, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or comprehensive immigration reform. Instead, activists must implement a district- by-district, specific targeting strategy that pressures Beltway politicians on their home...

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Cesar Chavez at the Root of Obama's Campaign: Grassroots Latino Voter Outreach

Posted October 15, 2008 | 05:29 PM (EST)


In the 2008 February primary elections, Latinos made up 30% of all total voters in California. Now, for the first time in U.S. history, Latino voters could play a decisive role in the presidential election.

If they do, we can thank Cesar Chavez and UFW alumni... and the city of...

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