Clergy, CIW and community members gather for Publix protest in support of Reverend Clay Thomas

On Sunday, Sept. 29, a large group of clergy, community members and Immokalee workers gathered at St. Martha’s Catholic Church for a community-wide assembly before marching in a procession to the Promenade Publix, where attendees sang peacefully on the sidewalk adjacent to Tamiami Trail while a clergy delegation entered the store to purchase Fair Trade coffee.

The peaceful protest, although primarily tied to the campaign by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to get Publix to sign onto the organization’s Fair Food Agreement (FFA) –– which guarantees certain rights to farmworkers –– was also a response to Publix’s enacting of a ban on First Presbyterian Minister Rev. Clay Thomas on Labor Day weekend.

The ban was put in place after Rev. Thomas had been visiting with CIW workers following a peaceful picket. Thomas had entered the Publix in order to purchase a sandwich from the deli, but was soon escorted from the grocery store by three police officers. Although he had been wearing a CIW t-shirt at the time, it made no mention of Publix.

Fortunately for Thomas, many prominent members of the Sarasota area’s religious community were more than willing to stand, and march, behind him and the CIW in solidarity.

Reverend John Walker, who is a Pastor at Bethel CME Church and a Chaplain at New College of Florida, University of South Florida, Ringling College of Art and Design and the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, spoke during the assembly prior to the procession. In his speech, he explained why religious leaders and followers of all faiths should come together to bring justice to the world for poor or disenfranchised individuals.

“It’s going to take the faith community, which means Muslims, Jews, Christians and whomever else who wants to stand for what’s right,” Walker said. “We have to come together to make sure that the powers that make the decisions understand that we are going to bring truth to power.”

More than just words –– spoken in both English and Spanish by a number of different speakers –– were at the assembly to demonstrate these ideas. Young and old, Spanish and English speakers, professors, students, Christians of various denominations, Jews, Muslims, other religious followers and people without religious affiliation representing many different races and nationalities made their presence known at the assembly as they rallied behind the common cause of equal rights for all.

The assembly concluded with a reading of the peaceful guidelines established for civil rights marches in Alabama in the 1960s followed by a song. The lyrics, “We are walking in the light of God,” were sung in English, Spanish and even Swahili.

After that, the assembly filed out of the church and began their peaceful procession, led by a group of clergy members carrying a large sign that read, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice,” a quote from the book of Micah in the Old Testament of the Bible.

The procession itself was a quiet one. There were no chants and no shouting of slogans, just the sound of feet treading on pavement and the occasional chatter of conversation.

Once the procession reached the edge of the “no protest zone,” all signs were discarded and the protest broke off into two flanks, one consisting of clergy –– with the exception of Thomas –– that entered the store. Everyone else, Thomas included, marched onto the sidewalk adjacent to Tamiami Trail and the Publix parking lot. The procession made sure that their final destination was legally public property and not Publix property. There, CIW members handed out water bottles to protesters, and the singing resumed.

After a few songs, Thomas made the announcement that the clergy had been successful in purchasing their Fair Trade coffee without issue. “They let the delegation in!” he excitedly told those in the crowd, who immediately burst out in ecstatic applause.

The procession then marched back to the place where they had left their signs, and Walker related the events inside the store to the crowd.

“We did ask the manager to speak with us and he did come out to speak with us,” he said. “There wasn’t really much he could say. … We asked him about coming to the table with the farmworkers to discuss the issues and concerns. He said he really didn’t have the authority to do that, so I told him, ‘You have no power, huh?’”

That last comment was met with abrupt laughter from the crowd, who could identify with the irony of the situation. Walker continued: “He gave me the name of an individual down at the corporate office ... who we should contact to bring [the farmworkers] to the table. The explanation he gave me was that ... it’s between the buyers and the farmworkers.”

According to Walker, this answer fails to address the central issue. “We informed him that Publix is a well-known … supermarket around this area. They have a lot of influence and a lot of power,” Walker said. “So, [I told him], if your buyers cannot come to the table, then it’s your responsibility to find other buyers who will.”

Aside from the FFA, the clergy delegation, which included Thomas’ wife Trish Thomas, had inquired about lifting the ban on Thomas. The Publix manager, according to Trish Thomas, stated that once a ban has been instated it cannot be withdrawn. Unfortunately for the Thomas family, Trish Thomas said, Rev. Clay Thomas is still not allowed to set foot into Publix to purchase diapers for his daughter or other essential items.

Jordan Buckley of the Interfaith Action Group then commented on what the CIW and clergy coalition plan to do in the continuation of their campaign.

“There was just a question here about, ‘Well what’s the next step? What are you going to be doing next in Sarasota?’” he said. “Someone else informed us that Longboat Key apparently is renovating their Publix there on that island. … So what we’d like to propose is that everyone here please go back and remember, when the Longboat Key Publix opens, we should be there … and we should have a presence on that island.”

After the announcements were made and the assembly began to move apart, Thomas commented on how he thinks that the procession fits into the overall campaign to get Publix to work with the CIW and sign onto the FFA.

“Sometimes you never know what the tipping point will be, where corporations will see that it’s in their best interest to finally come to the table. If this wasn’t the catalyst, it might be the beginning of increased pressure that they have not seen before,” he said. “For a single town, our little town of Sarasota, to pull together 40 clergy in pretty short order speaks volumes to how unpopular their decision had been to not sit down with the farmworkers.”

The breaking news on Thursday, Oct. 4 that Chipotle had signed on to the CIW’s FFA was celebrated by supporters not only as another major step forward in the CIW’s campaign to end the exploitation of farmworkers, but also as a development that may affect the decisions of other major companies, such as Publix, in their future dealings with the CIW.