Sawt Falasteen - Famed union leader Dolores Huerta urges US to mobilize against Trump

With the administration of US President Donald Trump ramping up immigration raids targeting farmworkers, the veteran activist -- who co-founded the country's largest agricultural union more than 60 years ago -- is a galvanizing figure for those seeking to fight back.

"People are reaching out because they want to do something," she told AFP during an interview at the headquarters of her Dolores Huerta Foundation in Bakersfield, an agricultural nexus in California's Central Valley.

Born in New Mexico and raised in California, Huerta took the reins of the US farmworker movement in the 1960s along with the late activist Cesar Chavez.

They created what is now United Farm Workers, launching an unprecedented fight for the rights of marginalized laborers who toil in the fields that feed America every day.

At the time, Huerta was raising seven children -- she later had four more -- while going through a divorce.

Finding the time to organize and mobilize workers remains as crucial as ever today, she said.

"We've got to be a lot more active, because what's happening right now is so huge. I liken it to what was happening in Germany before Hitler took power," Huerta said.

She argues that it is essential to prepare the electorate to vote in the 2026 midterms, which could reshape the US Congress. Both its chambers currently have Republican majorities.

"This is the only way that this can be solved," she said.

- 'Si se puede' slogan -

Much has changed since her time as a young union leader, but one thing that has never gone away is racism, Huerta said.

"I believe that that illness of racism is what has really contaminated our political system," said Huerta.

"Trump is actually playing out that racism when he is again putting immigrants, and mostly people of color, into the detention centers" with "inhumane conditions," she said.

Many have been sent to countries with which they have no connection, Huerta noted, such as the 252 Venezuelans who were sent to a notorious El Salvador prison, before eventually being repatriated to their homeland as part of a political deal.

For Huerta, the Republican-led crackdown is "absolutely atrocious... our people have been caught off guard."

Huerta believes that the swell of Latino support for Trump that aided his victory in November was driven by religious interests.

Church leaders and lobbyists who are influential with Hispanic communities used issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights to "intimidate" Hispanic communities, who traditionally favor Democrats, into voting Republican, she said.

But Huerta -- whose famous "Si se puede" slogan was mirrored by Barack Obama's "Yes, we can" rallying cry in 2008 -- believes Trump's promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history could yet backfire.

In various sectors ranging from agriculture to hospitality and services, employers are realizing how much they need hard-working immigrants, she said.

- 'Fear' -

The risks have sharply risen for many in her community since Trump came to power, but for Huerta personally, activism has long had perilous consequences.

When she was 58, Huerta was arrested and brutally beaten by police at a San Francisco protest.

Her commitment to the union movement also meant she was an absent mother -- and even today, she spends more time on her work than with her many children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Huerta has often been the only woman in male-dominated spaces, and is renowned by many for her ability to face down corporate power.

In February, her foundation helped drive an ongoing boycott against the retail giant Target over its decision to end pro-diversity programs following Trump's election.

"Trump instilled fear in all these corporations," she said.

Using tactics like boycotts to influence billionaire business owners who can "pull Trump's strings," she said, "we finally are able to move them in the right direction."

"They need to start speaking up and stop these dangerous policies of Trump."

Q.Jaber--SF-PST