Salinas, CA - More than a thousand farm workers and supporters marched down the streets of east Salinas Sunday with United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez to celebrate the life of Cesar Chavez and to highlight the need to improve working conditions for farm workers.

The marched started at Cesar Chavez Park and winded its way over a two-mile route through heavily Latino east Salinas neighborhoods to Jesse G. Sanchez Elementary School where there was a rally and festival.

The march brought together more than a thousand people calling for better wages for farm workers and drivers licenses for immigrants.

Today's march also highlighted the value of nonviolence in light of the war on Iraq.

Increased military spending for the war plus budget cuts will cause more despair for millions of impoverished working families, among them farm workers who are among the poorest and most abused workers in America.

The latest U.S. Department of Labor figures show 90% of California farm workers earn less than $10,000 a year and 90% have no health coverage.

Chavez was a champion for farm workers, and used nonviolence as a way to achieve social justice.

Chavez's first major foray into the Salinas Valley began in 1970, when he led a strike by 10,000 Central Coast lettuce and vegetable workers protesting "sweetheart" pacts between growers and the Teamsters Union.

He would have been 76 on March 31, which also marks the 41st anniversary of the UFW, which he founded on his birthday in 1962.

April 23 is the tenth anniversary of Chavez's death in 1993.

Today's event was sponsored by the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, with Jesse G. Sanchez Elementary School.

It was also endorsed by local community groups and labor unions from throughout the central coast.

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Bush War in Iraq would bring 'lasting harm' to democracy at home, UFW says
www.ufw.org/12203war.htm

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Scroll down to view more photos from Sunday's march!