The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1935-10-04
THE
STRUGGLE
Continued from last week)

Continued from last week) |
THE
STRUGGLE
A slave rebels. Before the World |
war, the Industrial Workers of the
World. (I.W.W.) successfully or
ganized the Valley workers, but a
few years later, a mighty union
busting movement crippled the
movement.
Then, in the fall of 1882, the Can
merry and Agricultural Workers In
dustrial Union took up the strug-
gle. Norman Mini, now Prisoner
576O6 in San Quentin for the crime
of helping to organize this union,
tells its story:
GAS each crop came :along,
small strikes took place........in Aug
ust, just as the peach picking was
reaching its height, the pickers on
the Tagus ranch "a large corpora
ton farm near Tulare, walked out.
Then the movement began to
spread; soon the whole region was
out.......the union won its demands
completely. The news of the work
ers' first big victory spread north
with amazing speed. Wherever
peaches were being picked, work.
ers walked without organi-
zation, without any preparation,
the workers struck. And in every
case they WON
"The union became a statewide
organization: its membership grew
from a few doubtful hundreds in
January to around 5000 in July,
and to more than 5000 in August.
The showdown came in cotton. In
the last week of September, with
more than 10000 workers concen-
trated in the cotton fields, the union
issued a call for a general strike
when the demands for higher wag-
es and union recognition were re-
fused. Almost before the growers
knew what was happening, more
than $4,000 pickers were out solid
ly on a front a hundred miles long
from Bakersfield to Merced.-.
The strike ended with victory for
the workers..
"That..-.-.put the union solidly
on its feet. AS the 1888 season end
ed, the membership was well over
10000"
In the early spring wages were
around Is cents an hour. The first
strike forced a 221a% scale. The
great peach strike boosted the
scale to Is cents. In some sections
of the grape harvest, 80 cents was
won. In cotton the workers boosted
the 60 cents to IS and 80. That is
why in 1888 California cannery
workers, constituting 300 of those
in the national industry, got 1870
of all the wages. Extra wages won
through strikes in that year have
been estimated at 100000 for
fruit, vegetable and cotton picking,
and for canning.
THE SLAVE
HERDERS REPLY
The bosses do not take such
threats to their buffers and their
Venetian goblets peacefully. They
organize to resist. The yellow
press which serves them screams
"Revolution!" The life of a union
man is made as unbearable as it
is in Fascist countries where union
membership is regarded as treason.
Mexican consuls threaten Mexi-
, can strikers with deportation IN
less they surrender. A hospital
sends a strikers wife to die of
pneumonia in the elds. The strik-
, ers' lawyer is kidnapped. 1.-THE Am
erican Legion reserve was mobil-
lied to keep down the rising tide
J of strike sentiment" boosted the
; Calexico Chronicle. The New York
Times reported that "local author
tiles in the cotton counties took
J sides with the ranchers." Reac-
= tionary judges issue anti-labor in
; functions, and a "peace officer
/ brazenly declares to the San Diego
Sun that, should Federal Couri
enjoin attacks on strike meetings
"there will be bloodshed." Striker:
are beaten. jailed, put into concen
tration camps, run out Of thu
y country, shot and killed. !.
In March, 1885, the New Yorl
Post sent reporter, James Rorty
into the Imperial Valley; he is :
, friend Of unionism and a membe,
Of the Non-Partisan Labor De
7 Tense. He was jailed and deportet
to Arizona. Max Knepper is a re
porter for Upton Sinclair's EPIC
News, favorite paper of scores o
thousands of California Democrats
a Here is his story of what happen
: ed when he got off the train j
s FL Centric:
n Immediately a big bruiser-.....
/ stepped up politely and inquired
: What the hell do you think your
e doing around here? Do you thin.
I the railroad is being run to accom-
modate you birds -? You wan
n to be damn careful where you gC
: We don't want no trouble maker
) in the Valley l discovered late
e this-------is one of the famous wig
le lantes' who go about tarring an
IS feathering, beating and kidnappin
"a people whose economic or soci;
N beliefs vary------it is very difficu
to get workers to talk. They are s
d frightened"
y No wonder the head Of the Ca
- y ifornia State Federation of Labc
"a. F. of L. told a New Yol
Times correspondent that to su
: vive the bosses terror, an organ
- ger would have to be a fanati
~ But the new union fought on.
81 The bosses felt it necessary
w set up a special organization
a. smash it. Because it wants to pa
- as a small mans organization
III it is called the Associated Farl
=, ers," but it was started by an e
q ecutive of the Pacific Gas and Fl