The People United, Will Never Be Defeated:
Inter-Ethnic Solidarity Between Asian Pacific Islanders and Latina/os

By Ryan Masaaki Yokota

Through the 150 years of shared experience here in America, the connections between the Asian Pacific Islander and the Chicana/o, Latina/o communities have been close and fruitful.

From the Sugar Beet fields of Oxnard in 1903 to the Grape Strikes of Delano in 1965, our people have stood together in solidarity through history, defining the great moments of the past through inter-ethnic coalition.

Even today, certain common issues remain of the utmost importance to both our communities. We must remember the lessons of the past if we are to go forward and succeed in our struggles, for together we hold the collective power to change the face of politics in America, and especially in California, for the benefit of all in the future.

It had been some 90 years ago, for example, that five hundred Japanese and two hundred Mexican Sugar Beet farmworkers in Oxnard organized the Japanese-Mexican Labor Association (JMLA) to collectively protest for higher wages.

Leading a force of twelve hundred workers, or 90% of the labor force in the area, the JMLA staged a strike that within a month had broken the sugar beet industry's hold on wages, and had brought about a settlement from their opponent, the Western Agricultural Contracting Company, thus signifying the beginnings of the first inter-ethnic labor alliance in California history.

With meetings held in both Japanese and Spanish, with English as the common language, the JMLA reveled in the victory that their efforts had produced and did what any successful, newly formed union did in those days: they applied for membership to the American Federation of Labor.

Yet little did they realize the response that they would receive. Samuel Gompers, then head of the A.F.L., agreed to a charter to what had been dubbed the Sugar Beet Farm Laborers' Union of Oxnard on one condition, that they would deny "membership of any Chinese or Japanese."

In refuting Gompers' categorically racist demands (which stood aligned with the majority of the Anti-Asian racist platforms of organized labor in the early half of this century), the then secretary Lizarras of the Mexican branch of the JMLA, countered: In the past, we have counseled, fought and lived on very short rations with our Japanese brothers, and toiled with them in the fields, . . .[and] will refuse any other kind of charter, except one which will wipe out race prejudice and recognize our fellow workers as being as good as ourselves.

In this refutation, the Mexican laborers steadfastly stood by their Japanese brothers and refused to bow under to the racist demands of organized labor.

Other examples of inter-ethnic solidarity abound. In 1965, for example, Pilipinos initiated the Delano grape strike on September 8th, under the initiative of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to protest for higher wages and better conditions.

Six months later, Mexican laborers in the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) organized the historic farmworkers march from Delano to Sacramento for similar goals. Through the recognition of common goals and methods, and the realization of the strengths of coalition formation, the Mexicans and Pilipinos jointly formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), which would eventually evolve into the United Farm Workers of today.

Led by César Chávez on the Mexican side, and Philip Vera Cruz on the Pilipino side, the UFW eventually gained significant benefits for all laborers, as we know today.

Which brings us to the present. Even now, struggles exist where Latina/Os and APIs are attempting to coordinate their goals in order to demand greater corporate accountability.

Currently, for example, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Local 11 is organizing the 280 workers of the New Otani Hotel in downtown Los Angeles' Little Tokyo in order to become unionized and to gain the collective bargaining power necessary for health care, job security benefits, and higher wages.

With a workforce composed of 60% Latina/o and 25% Asian Pacific workers (mainly with Japanese and Pilipino immigrants and Japanese-Americans), the attempts to organize the hotel workers demonstrates the dire need for greater unionization in the $8 billion L.A. tourist industry.

With a unionization rate of 30% as compared to Hawaii, San Francisco, New York, and Las Vegas' rate of 90%, L.A. wages remain 50% lower than in these other cities. Asian and Latina/o organizers have already begun the work for a coalition movement that will take into account the different cultural dynamics of each group, in working towards their common goals.

Through these efforts, Local 11 will hopefully be able to organize the hotel to "redistribute the wealth to communities in which the workers come from," as David Monkawa of the National Coalition for Redress and Reparations has said.

In this way multiethnic coalition formation will aid in driving forth the message of the necessity of unionization efforts as a means of demanding greater worker control and rights.

As can be seen, the situation for Latina/o and API communities has become better, now that our communities have started gaining many of the necessary resources and political allies to effect positive change for all of our people, especially on those issues affecting the inner cities today, such as labor issues.

Our communities have steadfastly stood together in the battles of the past, and possess the ability to collectively better our situation for the present.

Historically, members of our communities have realized the incredible power of coalition building in working together to achieve concrete goals for the benefit of all.

Now, the time seems right to continue in this spirit of greater cooperation, by working together to challenge the policies being propagated against our peoples.

Collectively, we can affect change in the political infrastructure of Los Angeles, California, and even further, in the whole of the nation. All that we need is the vision to make it come to pass, and the commitment to make it a reality.

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