BOYCOTT Campbell's Cream of Exploitation Soup - In Support of Midwestern Farm Workers

Toledo: FLOC [Farm Labor Organizing Committee], N.d. [1984]. Broadsheet, 11" x 8-1/2". Offset-printed; both sides of a single sheet in red and black inks on white paper. Fine. A fascinating use of the Warholian Campbell's soup meme for political propaganda purposes. Issued by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee during its nationwide boycott of the food industry giant Campbell's, which had refused to negotiate with Ohio farmworkers seeking wage increases. The boycott lasted six years, finally damaging Campbell's reputation sufficiently that the company signed a collective bargaining agreement in 1986. FLOC was organized by Mexican-American migrant workers under the leadership of Baldemar Velasquez in 1967 and continues as a major force in farm labor organization to the present day.

The image also appeared on larger (ca 11" x 17") wall posters; the text on this handbill, headlined "Cream of Reaganomics," indicates that it was printed for hand-distribution to delegates at the 1984 Democratic Nominating Convention in San Francisco; it calls for delegates "to lift high in the air, signs which say "BOYCOTT CAMPBELL SOUP" in conjunction with Rev. Jesse Jackson's speech on the subject on Tuesday of the convention.