For a five-year period from 1965 - 1970, some ninety million American adults participated in a boycott of table grapes in support of the United Farm Workers, most of whom were Mexican and Filipino nationals. The boycott ended when growers made concessions that resulted in contracts with their workers. It was the most successful boycott in U.S. history, undertaken by mostly Euro-American and African-American citizens on behalf of immigrant workers. Songs were written and sung by folk singers about the issue; there was widespread knowledge about and support for the workers.
It is almost impossible to imagine such a thing occurring in America today.

Today is tax day, and as we check boxes for dependents and so on, this is as good a time as any to consider how the growing disparity between even the moderately well-off and the working class continues to grow. It is a story about families - not just the nuclear family, but the family that came before and the family that will come generations later.

analysis by Gina Hamilton
Coastal Journal staff

AUGUSTA -- Employers nationally added 162,000 jobs in March, after a disappointing job loss of 14,000 jobs the previous month. March is only the third month of gains since the recession began in 2007.
Still, the unemployment rate nationally remained at 9.7% for new claims. The seasonally-adjusted Maine unemployment rate for February, the latest month for which figures are available, is 8.3%.
Although the news was positive, there were a number of short-term factors that increased the numbers, including an addition of 48,000 jobs by the Census Bureau as it readied for the count of the U.S. population. Some economists had feared that even more of March's gain would be due solely to Census hiring, so the modest non-governmental gain was viewed favorably.
February's job numbers may also have been artificially depressed by the unusually harsh winter weather along much of the Eastern Seaboard.
A check of local hiring through various media suggests that more non-seasonal, as well as seasonal, jobs are currently on offer.
Even so, Adam Fisher, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Labor, counsels taking a longer term view of the employment situation.
"We are definitely seeing the rate of job losses decline, compared to what we were seeing six months to a year ago," he said. "However, it may be a while before here in Maine, and nationally, we begin to see rapid growth in broad-based hiring across all sectors. Throughout the recession, certain sectors, such as health care, remained relatively stable, while other sectors, such as construction and manufacturing, were harder hit."