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The 1933 cotton strike was the largest single strike in the history of agricultural labor up to that time. By then CAWIU organizers had gained practical experience, and they prepared carefully, holding meetings with farmworkers throughout Kern and Kings counties. They asked for one dollar per hundr…

Throughout 1931 and early 1932 the party’s approach to farmworkers remained much like that in 1930—waiting for a spontaneous strike, usually because of wage cuts, and showing up to provide support and try to take leadership. Caroline Decker, centrally involved in those efforts, recalled, “Two-third…

In early June 1931, Darcy wrote to Jack Stachel about his first six months in the district. Party headquarters was at 734 Harrison Street, in a neighborhood Darcy called the “skid-road” and the local press called the “skid-way”—an area of inexpensive residential hotels, cheap cafes, and numerous ba…

Several party members then began to work in the Imperial Valley, organizing Filipino and Mexican field workers. Local authorities responded by arresting the most prominent organizers and charging them under the criminal syndicalism law. Of the eleven arrested, three were deported and one was found …

The District 13 Executive Committee waited until mid-July to launch their campaign for a “United Political front.” In a letter to the state SPA, the DEC proposed “to issue jointly a call to all labor unions and workers Fraternal Organiza- tions for the purpose of placing into the field a united lab…