California agricultural strikes of 1933

Company housing for Mexican cotton pickers on a large ranch in Corcoran, California. Photo taken in 1940.

The California agricultural strikes of 1933 were a series of strikes by mostly Mexican and Filipino agricultural workers throughout the San Joaquin Valley. More than 47,500 workers were involved in the wave of approximately 30 strikes from 1931 to 1941.[1][2] Twenty-four of the strikes, involving 37,500 union members, were led by the Cannery and Agricultural Workers' Industrial Union (CAWIU).[1][a] The strikes are grouped together because most of them were organized by the CAWIU. Strike actions began in August among cherry, grape, peach, pear, sugar beet, and tomato workers, and culminated in a number of strikes against cotton growers in the San Joaquin Valley in October. The cotton strikes involved the largest number of workers. Sources vary as to numbers involved in the cotton strikes, with some sources claiming 18,000 workers[4] and others just 12,000 workers,[5][b] 80% of whom were Mexican.[4]

In the cotton strikes of 1933, striking workers were evicted from company housing while growers and managerial staff were deputized by local law enforcement. Attacks by employers on peaceful striking workers were common and the surrounding community of bankers, merchants, ministers, and Boy Scouts encouraged the attacks.[6] As a sheriff stated, "We protect our farmers here in Kern county. But the Mexicans are trash. They have no standard of living. We herd them like pigs."[7] In Pixley, California, two strikers, Dolores Hernàndez and Delfino D'Ávila, were murdered and eight others wounded after "local sheriffs handed out six hundred citizen's permits to carry concealed weapons."[6] Eight growers faced charges in the shootings, but all were acquitted.[7] Another man, Pedro Subia, was murdered near Arvin, California. Workers came from camps from all around the Bakersfield area to commemorate his life at Bakersfield City Hall.[8] CAWIU organizers Pat Chambers and Caroline Decker were arrested and charged under the California Criminal Syndicalism Act for their labor organizing activities.[9]

  1. ^ a b Bronfenbrenner 1990, p. 79.
  2. ^ Rosales, F. Arturo (1997). Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. Arte Público Press. p. 119. ISBN 9781611920949.
  3. ^ Bronfenbrenner 1990, pp. 79–81.
  4. ^ a b c d Acuña 2007, p. 237.
  5. ^ Bronfenbrenner 1990, p. 82.
  6. ^ a b Acuña 2007, p. 245.
  7. ^ a b Guerin-Gonzales 1994, p. 121-22.
  8. ^ Acuña 2007, p. 259.
  9. ^ Acuña 2007, p. 237-38.


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