Historical Events of the Revolutionary World Movement

1903 Oxnard Strike California / USA

1903 Oxnard Strike

California / USA

"Farmworkers in the Land of Plenty"

20 years ago the Oxnard Strike strike commenced. This strike was a large labor victory against capitalist exploitation of Japanese and Mexican immigrant labor.

Background

In light of the racist Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 the Chinese workers who had traditionally made up much of the Agricultural labour of the west coast had been replaced by Mexican and Japanese workers. Then as always immigrant labour faced some of the worst exploitation by the bourgeoisie and the situation was particularly bad for those working under the The Western Agricultural Contracting Company. The WACC was a labor contracting* organization, which almost exclusively recruited from the Mexican and Japanese populations. By 1900 The WACC held the vast majority of the contracts for the Mexican and Japanese workers, upwards of 90%. With a high percent of the labor force under its belt the WACC began depressing wages and paying workers in company script, instead of hard currency, which could only be exchanged at company stores; these stores were designed to have high prices and force the workers into debt. Additionally The WACC deliberately had separate departments for Mexican and Japanese workers in order to prevent unionism from spreading among the workers.

Unity of the Workers

As a result of the intense exploitation, and despite the attempts of the WACC to pit Japanese workers against their Mexican compatriots, in February 1903 five hundred mexican workers and two hundred japanese workers formed the Japanese-Mexican Labour Association and submitted their demands against WACC

Their demands were as follows

•they accused the WACC of artificially suppressing wages;

•they opposed the subcontracting system arguing that it forced workers to pay double commissions; and

•they called for the freedom to buy goods rather than be subjected to the inflated prices of the company store.

After submitting these demands the JMLA declared a boycott of the WACC, this was essentially a strike action. The timing of the strike was perfect as it coincided with the thinning of the sugar beet crops** and thus it shook not only the WACC but other local exploiters such as the American Sugar Beet Company and the farm owners.

Results of the strike action

The JMLA quickly expanded its membership and essentially ground the sugar industry to a standstill. The capitalists used their paid liars in the newspaper to decry the JMLA workers*** and Colonel Driffil of the American Beet Sugar Company threatened to drive the union workers out of the country. This is a typical tactic of the bourgeoisie, they attempt to destroy the revolutionary spirit of immigrant workers by threatening their ability to live safely in their adopted country. In an attempt to split the workers the WACC formed the company union "Independent Agricultural Labor Union" which acted as strikebreakers.**** In addition to the company union IALU, the notorious yellow union, the American Federation of Labour which was lead at the time by infamous class traitor Samuel Gompers***** also stabbed the workers in the back. Despite "representing" a large number of the working class, who support in the strike would have been invaluable for the JMLA, AFL flat out refused to declare a strike or even the most minor of solidarity actions. These labor traitors were then, and they still are today, in bed with the capitalists.

On March 23rd IALU strike breakers confronted JMLA workers in the Oxnard Chinatown and fired on them, wounding 4 and killing striker Luis Vasquez in cold blood. Again the paid lairs of the capitalist class attempted to demonize the striking workers by accusing them of shooting first, despite the fact that the majority of later testimony insisted that the JMLA workers had been unarmed. After this encounter the JMLA took an increasingly militant stance, they would intercept strike breakers and in one case even managed to win over a group of strikebreakers and convinced them to join the JMLA. By March 30th the back of the WACC had been broken and they negotiated with the JMLA to end the strike.