Working People of California

Daniel Cornford

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780520370722
• eBook ISBN: 9780520332775
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

From the California Indians who labored in the Spanish missions to the immigrant workers on Silicon Valley's high-tech assembly lines, California's work force has had a complex and turbulent past, marked by some of the sharpest and most significant battles fought by America's working people. This anthology presents the work of scholars who are forging a new brand of social history—one that reflects the diversity of California's labor force by paying close attention to the multicultural and gendered aspects of the past. Readers will discover a refreshing chronological breadth to this volume, as well as a balanced examination of both rural and urban communities.

Daniel Cornford's excellent general introduction provides essential historical background while his brief introductions to each chapter situate the essays in their larger contexts. A list of further readings appears at the end of each chapter.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1995.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• NOTES
• 1 WORKERS IN CALIFORNIA BEFORE 1900
• 1 Brutal Appetites The Social Relations of the California Mission
• NOTES
• 2 Chinese Livelihood in Rural California The Impact of Economic Change, 1860-1880
• Finally, it is clear that at no time in the 1860-1880 period was the Chinese population completely segregated into ethnic enclaves, but neither was it fully integrated into the larger economy and society. Consequently, the Chinese fitted into two social stratification systems, which overlapped but were not coincidental with each other. However, given the nature of the data presented here, it is not possible to specify exactly how these two systems affected each other because occupational divisions and rankings represent only one aspect of society. A full understanding of any society’s social structure must take into account the perceptions, attitudes, and patterns of noneconomic social interaction of many different persons and groups. Thus, to provide a broader understanding of the historical evolution of race relations in rural California, theories about the process of labor differentiation during different stages of economic development must be combined with theories about how human consciousness is molded. NOTES
• 2
• 3 Dishing It Out Waitresses and the Making of Their Unions in San Francisco, 1900-1941
• NOTES
• 4 Okies and the Politics of Plain-Folk Americanism
• NOTES
• 5 James v. Marinship Trouble on the New Black Frontier
• NOTES
• 3 WORKERS ON STRIKE
• 6 Racial Domination and Class Conflict in Capitalist Agriculture The Oxnard Sugar Beet Workers’ Strike of 1903
• NOTES
• 7 Raiz Fuerte Oral History and Mexicana Farmworkers
• NOTES
• 8 The Big Strike
• On July 31, however, the necessity imposed by the stevedores’ decision caught up with the seamen. Fortified by the ritual of consigning the fink hall to a fiery grave, and by several conciliatory gestures from the shipowners, the seafarers joined the longshoremen in returning to work. After eighty-three days, the Big Strike was over. NOTES
• 9 A Promise Fulfilled: Mexican Cannery Workers in Southern California
• NOTES
• 4 WORKERS AND POLITICS
• 10 To Save the Republic: The California Workingmen’s Party in Humboldt County
• NOTES
• 11 Reform, Utopia, and Racism: The Politics of California Craftsmen
• NOTES
• 12 Mobilizing the Homefront:Labor and Politics in Oakland, 1941-1951
• NOTES
• 5 WORKERS IN POST-WORLD
• 13 Cesar Chavez and the Unionization of California Farmworkers
• NOTES
• 14 Why Aren’t High-Tech Workers Organized?Lessons in Gender, Race, andNationality from Silicon Valley
• NOTES
• 15 Fontana: Junkyard of Dreams
• NOTES
• Contributors
• Credits