Natasha Sofia

When you're at the grocery store checking for "Product of Canada" labels, remember that most of our domestic fruits and vegetables are grown and harvested by migrant farmworkers from Mexico, Jamaica, and the Eastern Caribbean. Produced in Canada under a system of laws that benefits the multibillion-dollar agriculture industry at the expense of the migrant workers who sustain it. Produced in Canada by migrant workers who pay into EI but are denied access to regular EI benefits. Produced in Canada by migrant workers who, in Ontario, are denied the right to join a union. Produced in Canada by migrant workers who are regarded by the state as good enough to work, but never good enough to stay – no matter how many years of service they put in. Canada's history of systemic racism and exploitation in agriculture exposes the falsehood of the claim that "we are all in this together." Class consciousness demands more than exercises of purchasing power in difficult times. It demands solidarity with workers in our collective struggle for economic justice and liberation.