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Exploring the United Farm Workers' History Using Computer Simulations

1999
"The Grape Boycott" presents a simulation of the United Farm Workers (UFW) organizing efforts of the late 1960s and early 1970s as they promoted farm worker rights through the use of boycotts of table grapes and other produce. As shown in the simulation, the UFW needed to organize workers in the fields at the same time as they promoted their cause in the marketplace. This entry, through use of the AgentSheets simulation authoring tool, simulates these efforts and presents the history of the UFW through student-generated text and links to relevant internet sites. The simulation includes the ability of the users to manipulate aspects of the simulation. Users can, for example, modify the simulation by adding or changing the type of workers or change consumer willingness to boycott grapes in the marketplace. Users learn how growers coped with changing labor demands, the economic and racial tensions among growers and field workers, and the way in which a consumer boycott is dependent on long-term organizing efforts. The role of Cesar Chavez in spreading the message and goals of the UFW to consumers is central to the events portrayed in the entry, and more generally to the mechanisms of a consumer boycott. Finally, the entry brings users up to date with links to current UFW organizing efforts.