The legacy of the 1946 sugar strike is larger than sugar. Its legacy is the formation of a multiethnic community force working together to address social and political problems. Community organizing not only won the 1946 sugar strike, it also laid the foundation for political change including the Democratic Revolution of 1954. The 1946 sugar strike is an element of our past firmly embedded in our present selves. It is a catalyst for many social and political changes that we have completely incorporated into our sense of community.
Labors history is everyones history.
Host Chris Conybeare also interviews Guy Fujimura of the ILWU and Ermena Vinluan, the play's Co-Director to learn how and why this drama was produced. This documentary, filmed on location, interviews plantation workers including retirees and hotel workers, and explores their attitudes toward their jobs, their unions and the management. They talk about the perquisite system, the camp police and how it was before the union came in in 1946.