Protesters for farm workers' rights stormed Uptown outside of Taco Bell, 41 S. Court St., early yesterday morning, leading to the arrest of an Ohio University student.
Three banners hanging above the restaurant read, Taco Bell exploits tomato pickers. The middle banner featured a large blue target and the words target oppression.
OU senior Monica Ganguly, 21, the student arrested, said the protest stemmed from Taco Bell's use of tomatoes purchased from farms in Immokalee, Fla.
Some mainstream press is calling their deal with Taco Bell the new slavery
she said, referring to a series of reports in the Palm Beach Post. They live in communal housing and basically
they aren't paid a living wage for what they do.
Ganguly said she was charged with persistent disorderly conduct and released. The Athens Police Department declined to comment.
The protest, which formed several blocks away, reached Taco Bell at about 1:35 a.m., with people dancing, banging buckets and drums, whistling and breathing fire by putting kerosene in their mouths and spitting it on torches.
Protesters spilled onto the street, and threw tomatoes at the marquee. City police officers monitored the protest from across the street.
A weekend gathering in Louisville, Ky. at the headquarters of Taco Bell's parent company, the Yum! Brands, Inc., protested the same issue.
Taco Bell is extremely corporate and homogenized and doesn't care about sustainable agricultural autonomous communities
OU graduate student Jeremy Ernst said.
Around 1:50 a.m., the group moved to the city police building to protest Ganguly's arrest, which happened before reaching Taco Bell.
Loud banging and shouting continued for about five minutes until officers came out and told them they would be arrested if they did not disband.
The group asked what Ganguly was charged with, and the officers said they did not know because the group was distracting them. One officer asked the group about tomato throwing.
We don't have any tomatoes
a protester said.
No
not now you don't
the officer said.
Ganguly left the building to loud cheers, and then the group disbanded.
Lacey Ward, a Marietta College student, said many members of the group attended a protest in Miami in November that was brutally put down by police.
The Miami protest inspired a local conference, which led to yesterday's protest, Ganguly said. People statewide came to Athens for the weekend.
Taco Bell is not the only offender, she said. Other fast food restaurants such as McDonald's and Wendy's use such products as well.
In order to make the products that are so cheap
and not considering where they come from ... we are contributing a lot when we buy those products to the exploitation of other people
Ganguly said.
Taco Bell did not return a phone call seeking comment.
