The actions were endorsed by a broad coalition of about 40 labor, religious, and farm organizations, including the AFL-CIO, American Agriculture Movement, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, National Farmers Organization (NFO), and the Protestant Church USA.

The rally demanded relief from record-low prices that farmers are now receiving from the agricultural monopolies for their crops and livestock. Farmers have been hit with a 17 percent plunge in farm income since 1996, forcing thousands off the land. Farmers at the action demanded that the government put in place measures to stop this devastating decline.

As one placard carried by a farmer stated, "If you understand the 'minimum wage' you can understand a safety net for us." Other signs read, "Food is too important to trust to the volatility of the market," "We can't eat on $2.58 wheat," and, "Dump the Farm Bill."

Melodie Sutter, who with her husband John farms in Central Illinois, said in an interview, "We could live and cover our expenses before the last two years. Although prices have dropped, it has been primarily that expenses went up so much," she said.

"Monopolies are setting higher and higher prices for inputs like fertilizer and seed. The price of seed corn has gone up to $100 a bag, about a 50 percent increase in the last eight years. And fuel prices have gone up about 50 percent from last year," she said. "My husband works three part-time off-farm jobs, and I have worked a seasonal job at the IRS for 13 years." Another farmer noted that three off-farm jobs was the average for the Illinois farmers on his bus to the rally.

The NFU events included participants from nearly every state in the country. The largest groups came from Minnesota, with between 400 and 500 people. Seven buses came from North Dakota. Farmers from Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee came on three buses organized by the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.

Also demonstrating here were 40 farmers organized by the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association (BFAA), who have been organizing a series of actions at the offices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The farmers are protesting the government's failure to even carrying out the terms it agreed to in a Consent Decree issued in 1999 that settled a lawsuit proving gross discrimination in the practices of the USDA.

They were also protesting the fact that the government is now using the FBI to investigate "fraudulent claims" filed by farmers, who are required to provide various levels of documentation of discrimination by USDA agents. Seven of these farmers were arrested on March 20 when they held a sit-in on the steps of the USDA building.

BFAA president Gray Grant denounced the FBI and Justice Department investigations. "Everyone is entitled to compensation, even if they were never able to farm. We were promised land after slavery. Paying the meager amounts of the Consent Decree still does not compensate nor address the 14 million acres of land stolen, or the life these farmers were cheated out of, or the harm done to the farmer's family."

Participants in the BFAA action also took part in the actions called by the NFU.

Also participating were youth that belonged to the Future Farmers of America, part of a strong youth component at the actions. Three high school age youth from farm families in Longmont, Connecticut, attended the rally to bring attention to the concerns of young farmers. All three said they did not believe they were going to be able to make a living at farming after high school.

Justin Hergnreder, a cattle and crop farmer, said, "The way things are going shows it's not getting better but worse. The prices we need to stay in farming are not here." His friend, a hog farmer, echoed the same sentiment. "We came today because the rally also needs to be focusing not just on what farmers need today, but on the youth who are the heart and soul of future agriculture. We want to be able to do what we love to do."

Unionists from around the country also attended, wearing union jackets and carrying banners. Some of the most prominent were the Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers; the American Federation of Grain Millers; United Steelworkers of America members from the Iron Range in Minnesota; and the Service Employees International Union.

On March 20 the NFU events included a press conference, a luncheon that was addressed by Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, and a Town Hall meeting on the rural crisis. The following day the farmers participated in an interfaith service in the morning, then spent several hours lobbying Congress before the noon rally.

One feature that marked all of the events was the relatively few number of farmers who got a chance to speak. The vast majority of those addressing the crowd were not farmers, but included a heavy presence of Senators and congressional representatives, and officials from the USDA, all of whom worked to turn the event into more of a Democratic Party rally for the upcoming presidential elections.

The politicians and USDA officials also attempted to turn the anger of the farmers towards competition from Europe and China. They claimed the problem facing farmers is from the failure of U.S. government representatives to be tough enough trade negotiators, pointing away from the agricultural monopolies owned by capitalists in the United States and the U.S. government itself.

Senators like Tom Harkin from Iowa, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, was typical when he said that the real "foreign competitors" were receiving larger subsidies from their governments, which put farmers in the United States at a disadvantage.

Although these appeals to nationalism were accepted by many, others weren't about to be pointed away from protesting against those they considered the real enemy of farmers. This became evident when, after one Senator said that U.S. farmers have to be on a war footing when it comes to trade, a few farmers shouted from the audience that the only one they wanted to be on a war footing against was Cargill, the giant grain monopoly.

Kelly Shockman, the NFO director in North Dakota and a farmer, said, "Farmers all over the world face difficulties and current trade policies try to pit farmers against each other. Farmers in Japan, Europe, and Canada face the same problems as us."

The desire for unity with other farmers was also reflected in the response given to a speaker from the Federation of Southern Cooperatives. Ralph Paige, the executive director of the federation, which consists of farmers who are Black, received three standing ovations from the thousands of farmers gathered at the rally.

Vicki Trytten, president of the Alaska Farmers Union, and a dairy farmer, said, "All farms in Alaska are family farms, and when times are all right we do okay. But when we bleed we bleed bad. I've seen too many neighbors forced out of farming."

"No more auctions," she chanted from the stage, "No more auctions."

James Harris is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Atlanta. Doug Jenness from St. Paul, Minnesota, and Janice Lynn from Washington contributed to this article.  
 
 
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