page_title: Hawaii Democratic Revolution of 1954
section_title: ILWU
hierarchical_section_title: Hawaii Democratic Revolution of 1954 / ILWU
caption_attribution_description: Japanese Laborers on Spreckelsville Plantation, Maui, oil on canvas painting by Joseph Dwight Strong, 1885, private collection
context_page_description: The Hawaii Democratic Revolution of 1954 was a nonviolent revolution that took place in the Hawaiian Archipelago consisting of general strikes, protests, and other acts of civil disobedience. The Revolution culminated in the territorial elections of 1954 where the long reign of the Hawaii Republican Party in the legislature came to an abrupt end, as they were voted out of the office to be replaced by members of the Democratic Party of Hawaii. The strikes by the Isles' labor workers demanded similar pay and benefits to their Mainland counterparts. The strikes also crippled the power of the sugarcane plantations and the Big Five Oligopoly over their workers.
context_section_description: The Hilo Longshoremen led by Jack Kawano began unified strikes in the 1930s. The Hilo Longshoremen merged with the ILWU, and Jack Wayne Hall was sent to Hawaii. Among these unified strikes was the disastrous 1938 strike in Hilo against the Inter-Island Steamship Company. During World War II striking was put on hold as the members dedicated their efforts towards the war. In 1944 the ILWU and Communist Party of Hawaii put their support behind the Democratic Party since it became apparent that Burns and his movement wanted to empower the working class. This meeting in 1944 has been considered the beginning of the movement. The movement became known as the "Burns Machine". Burns admitted in 1975 that Communist Party members in the ILWU provided vital experience in maintaining secrecy and organizing support among labor workers while keeping the early movement underground.
  After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy by a group of foreign and local residents, the members were not restrained in industrializing the Islands, forming plantations and the Big Five. Economic inequality increased, largely caused by the hyper-concentration of wealth among the planters. On the plantations earlier strikes had failed, as when an ethnic camp went on strike the other ethnic groups' camps acted as strikebreakers; the traditional example was the Japanese and Filipino camps' rivalry. The next generation of workers were children of the immigrant workers, born in Hawaii: Niseis, were a major demographic factor in favor of the movement. Many immigrant workers were denied citizenship but could live and work in the islands under contract. The children of these workers who were born in Hawaii automatically became citizens and at this time they began to come of age to be registered voters and could express their dissatisfaction with their votes. They also had gone to school with children from the other ethnic camps and sometimes intermarried them, and therefore did not express the strong ethnic rivalries that their parents had. After the meeting in 1944, Jack Hall began organizing these plantation workers in a strike campaign known as the March Inland for better working conditions and pay.
  After the war, Burns was able to gain support from Japanese American veterans of the 100th and 442nd returning home. He encouraged the veterans to become educated under the G.I. Bill and to run for public office. Daniel Inouye, who would become a very prominent US senator, is considered the first of the veterans he recruited and was a prominent member of the movement.
caption: Japanese laborers on Maui harvesting sugar cane in 1885.
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