The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-06
BY JOHN L. SPIYAK

FRESNO, Cal. - The San
Joaquin Valley has the Com
mUnist filters. For that mat
ter, as near as I have been
able to ascertain, the whole
state has them.
Public officials. business men.
farmers and politicians simply walk
around in terror Of the reds" NO
where, however. have I found such
fear Of the results Of Communist
organizational activities among mi
gratory workers.
The incredible conditions under
which about 100000 migratory
workers live and work in the fruit.
vegetable and cotton fields in this
and other valleys we're never thrust
upon the public until Communists
started organizing them.
Here, more than anywhere I have
been so fer. the chief forward de-
velopment since the start of the
depression has been the desire to
organize and to fight bitterly for
their organization and the current
strike demands. The failure of the
NR.A. and its results have not va
ried much in California as in other
areas visited. The story Of the
depression and the change wrought
by it in the lives of all workers is
the same story I have found in
other areas. Wage cuts, price rises.
families disintegrated, but nowhere
did l find actual accomplishments
both from the viewpoint of win
ming slightly improved conditions
and an eager desire for organiza-
ton to continue along the same
line as find here.
AS a result Of this development.
which started under Communist
leadership in 1882, the red filters"
swept over this valley and the rest
Of the state. The press is filled with
it and the steps taken by the law
enforcing agencies, vigilante com
and out and out fascist
groups. The public knows that
Communists are organizing, and the
sympathy which Communist organ
Rational activities among migra-
tory workers is view by labor in gen
eral has terrified agricultural en-
ployers and this fear has spread to
banking and politics.
In these fruit, vegetable and cot
ton areas the organizers have a
tremendous advantage. There can
be no long strike. Either the farmer
gives in or his crop is ruined-and
most of them would rather give in
than bring ruin upon themselves.
To fail to pick the crop means be-
ing thrown out as an independent
farmer, Of joining the ranks OF the
workers as so many have
been forced to do, not through
strikes, but as a result Of the de-
preston.
So far as the workers themselves
are concerned If they lose a few
weeks or a months work at the
most, they are not much worse of
than they were before. AS the mi
gratory worker expresses it:
Sure, what we got 10 lose?"
During 1898 thousands Of them
had no work which might be called
steady even with the greatest ex-
aggeration. They wandered from
field to field seeking work, and very
little work was available. They
would hear Of a crop ready to be
and would rush there
only to find some one was there
ahead of them It was like the old
gold rush days Migratory workers
rushed about looking for a bread
strike, and failing to find 1t learned
to be Indifferent to the few weeks
or months work that they might
lose by going on a strike.
r Fl r o q G H the Communicated
strikes, some 10000 of these 1O0,-
600 migratory workers took out
cards in the Cannery and Agricyl-
tural Workers Union, affiliated with
the T,UUL. Very, very few of these
maintain their status as dues pay
ing members after the strike is won
and they move on to other fields.