The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-05-22
Imperial Valley The Center Of
Sharpening Class Struggles
By FRED ELLIS

riculture, the growers association have insti.
tuted rigid pacing inspection and will cuS-
tail shipments. T7is means a speeding up Of
workers and unem, loyment for additional hun
dreds. In reality, then the present contract
represents. an indirect wage in comparison with
last year.
On the face Of it it may seem that the work.
ers who pick and load from so to 100 crates
a day at Is to / cents a crate may realize
'high' wages. However, when the workers
complete the season-they are practically broke
BY the time thsy are through travelling to
other fields and tidirg over from one field to
another, they are in debt to stores and res
taurantS.
IA Hour Day,
Working conditions are terrible Work be-
gins at a. m. They pick for Z hours and
get paid for the cantaloupes picked. But then
their work has only begun for they usually
have to stay on the field as late as / a. m.
until they load the crates on trucks.
Heat is intense. averaging 100 degrees. Many
cannot stand it ard quit. This is one Of the
reasons for the contract system which covers
the season work. Under this system of virtual
peonage, a certain amount of earnings is kept
by the company; if workers quits he loses
this money. Many workers collapse on the
field each season and die
Workers stand in water all day, this because
the fields are IRRIGATED doll p times the
ground on which they sleep is wet.
Drinking" water is procured right from the
irrigation ditch and has to be sifted through
cloth before drinking.
The Agricultural Workers Industrial League
correctly places the abolition of the contract
labor and piece work systems as one of it's
central demands. The abolition of contract
labor will free the workers from this system
of chattel slavery. In this connection the A.W
IL. must dera straight rate of $1.25 an
hour for all field work, the hour day, 51a
day week and double time for overtime. These
demands of course to be linked up with the
general political demands such as full social
racial and political equality for al workers;
Mexicans, Fiipinos, Negroes, Orientals and
Hindus.
All Workers Must Aid
The significance of events in Imperial Valley
cannot be over-emphasized. The entire work.
ing class must mobilize in support of the I'M
perial Valley workers and to their revolution.
airy organization-the Agricultural Workers
Industrial League.
A nationwide campaign must be Immediately
initiated by the International Labor Defense
against the attempts of the employing class of
California to revive the criminal syndicalist
laws, under which we are being tried The
Workers International Relief must mobilize
widespread movement to raise relief for the
general strike which will take place this season.
The Trade Union Unity League must give
the closest organizational cooperation and guild
ance to the Agricultural Workers Industrial
League and the workers in their struggle, par
ticularly since the organizational work of the
T.U.U.L. in Imperial Valley marks the be-
ginning of organization under revolutionary
leadership of the agricultural proletarat in the
United States.
The Communist Party, of course, must be
in the front lines giving political guidance and
direction to the movement. 1t must continue
it's work of building farm and shed nuclei
thus entrenching itself amongst the agricul.
tural proletariat.
The workers in Imperial Valley: Mexicans,
Filipinos, American. Negroes, Orientals and