Communists Positive Role In The Farm Worker Strickes Of The 1930's

The involvement of the Communist Party during the labor strikes of the 1930’s was incredibly valuable to the migrant workers. They provided technology, leadership and foresight necessary to make changes that the migrant workers desperately needed. These changes included not only physical changes to the environment in which they worked, slept and rate of pay, but also the mind set in which the growers and owner thought about the workers. The biggest plight against the farm workers was that they were taken advantage of from all angles. They continually endured irregular work, terrible working conditions, inhuman living conditions and absurdly low wages. The growers thought that they could continue the status quo because the migrant worker, specifically the Mexican and Filipino, were thought of as passive and unintelligent.1 The farm workers wanted to eradicate their constant subjection to this type of environment so they were forced into a revolutionary stance for that to change.2 They unionized along with other migrant workers in Southern California into the Workers Union of the Imperial Valley.3 How the farm workers thought about themselves change. They went from accepting the horrible conditions; to seeking a life more desirable and this is what would crack the door for the Communist Party to eventually be able to provide the necessary support for the unionizing movement. In the early part of the 1930’s, most workers strikes ended in a whimper. Growers were working with the law enforcement and developed a track record of terminating strikes easily with little or no pushback.4 This was due in part because the newly formed WUIL was comprised mostly of amateurs who had no experience in striking, nor did they have any idea how to plan strikes or the leadership to execute it.5 Further, once the Mexican Mutual Aid Society succeeded the WUIL, it too was ineffective in its leadership.6 The continuous lack of trailblazers needed to endure the long