"We Ask not for Mercy, but for Justice": The Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers' Union and Filipino Civil Rights in the United States, 1927-1937

Abstract

This article examines role of Filipino-led Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers' Union (CWFLU) as a civil rights organization from 1927 to 1937. While Filipino laborers who travelled to Alaska to work in seasonal canned salmon industry founded union in 1933, other Filipino cannery workers (or Alaskeros) reported racism and discrimination they faced while on job in newspapers and journals, calling attention to need for a protective organization for employees. Despite Filipinos' ambiguous status as American nationals while under American control, Filipino workers used CWFLU as a vehicle to fight for as well as basic rights and protections as American subjects and eco- nomic contributors to United States. From Filipino students who were some of first employees to expose level of discrimination against Filipino and other Asian workers in cannery industry to later leaders of CWFLU who fought for basic rights of Filipinos who were targets of racially-charged vio- lence, CWFLU served as an essential social and political organization for working-class Filipinos prior to World War II. I argue in this article that historians should approach CWFLU as a Filipino civil rights organization and an impor- tant component of West Coast civil rights movement. O what thrills are coming with advent of June! University of Washington student Victorio Velasco penned in a 1934 article describing life as a cannery employee in Alaska for readers of The Filipino Student Bulletin .V elasco, who was a contributor to The Filipino Student Bulletin and a veteran in seasonal cannery industry, spoke favorably of life in the land of midnight sun, painting vivid pictures of canoeing, romances with native girls, friendships with other students eager to earn wages and tuition money for up-coming academic year, and, of course, manly labor that characterized work in canneries. For Velasco and hundreds of other Filipino students along West Coast who signed up to in Alaska from June to August (known as Alaskeros), cannery life was part of experience of living in United States as a self-supporting student striving to make most of American educational system. Year after year, students such