00:00:02.380 - 00:00:24.180

The concern itself with the community service organization and the problems of farm labor. The chairman for both of these sessions will be com tson. Well, I'm quite sure you all know that we break at 345 to 4 and 1/4 shot. We once again and the convention

00:00:24.690 - 00:00:43.240

at that time, the Democratic Party in power in California would be discussed by Conrad Draper and the girl looks at California agriculture. I'll turn a meeting over to comrade Tus. Thank you. Um The first uh part of this is gonna be a discussion uh of the

00:00:43.250 - 00:01:01.930

community service organization. As you remember this morning. There was a, a mention of this uh particularly in terms of the uh initiative proposal which uh CSO is considering uh in any uh consideration of farm labor in general or um the general political problems in the state.

00:01:01.939 - 00:01:21.239

The CSO um is one of the most important organizations in California politics. And I think we're very fortunate today to have one of its leading spokesmen uh come and uh speak with us and discuss with us. Something about the CSO. Uh Our speaker is the chairman

00:01:21.250 - 00:01:38.050

of the CSO Labor Relations. Committee here in Fresno. He's a member, I was a member of the agricultural wage board set up by the uh State Department of Industrial Relations and helped set the um newest uh wage order which was set for farm labor, uh women

00:01:38.059 - 00:01:56.589

and Children, working in farm labor. He's also just recently worked on a housing survey which the uh division of housing of the, of the um department, industrial relations has done on uh migrant labor. And he's also worked with the uh migrant labor uh section of the

00:01:57.339 - 00:02:18.360

uh State Department of Public Health. And that, uh and he's been a very uh long and close friend of AO uh since AO'S uh inception uh 2.5 years ago. And uh it gives me a great deal of pleasure to present uh Hector Abed. Thank you very

00:02:18.369 - 00:02:42.610

much, brother friends. First of all, I have to apologize for being just a little bit late and uh uh I've got to tell you what I was doing. I'm uh helping to dig a grave. Uh It's gonna take 14 months to dig it. And uh we've

00:02:42.619 - 00:03:09.750

started since the announcement Wednesday of Mr Nixon's desire to, ok, do what he wants to do. But uh first of all, let me tell you that I welcome the opportunity to be here. I certainly want to thank uh uh Henry Anderson for the invitation. I know

00:03:09.759 - 00:03:39.520

that every item that has been discussed or will be discussed affects all of us, the community of California, our nation and very likely in many uh instances the world. Hi. I'm really grateful for the opportunity of being here before you and sharing this meeting. First of

00:03:39.529 - 00:04:13.339

all, I would like to acquaint you with some of the major problems and accomplishments of the CSO, the community service organization. The CSO as you know, is, although not entirely a Mexican American or Spanish speaking organization, it is primarily interested in the problems of the Spanish

00:04:13.350 - 00:04:35.359

speaking. I think that when you realize that Mr Solinsky, the director of the Industrial Areas Foundation, Mr Fred Ross, who is the West Coast Director of the Industrial Areas Foundation and so many of the other people on the board of the parent organization of CSO, you

00:04:35.369 - 00:05:01.329

will find that it's much greater in scope than has been real. A lot of people have had thought and as a matter of fact, have confronted me with the idea that the CSO is a bunch of rabble, rousing young Mexican Americans that were dissatisfied and that

00:05:01.339 - 00:05:25.600

they grouped together to just holler. Well, that's not the case at all. All of us are Americans first. And if we are able to, we are going to abolish this bit of hyphenated Americanism, Mexican American or otherwise we are Americans first. We're very interested in our

00:05:25.609 - 00:05:53.989

communities. We're very interested in our state, our nation, the world people, human beings. I want to tell you that we have been very fortunate in having had successes. Although limited, we have been very successful in making very strong allies in the Congress of the United States

00:05:55.309 - 00:06:21.089

and on the state level in the assembly in the State Senate so much so that this year Assembly Bill number one brought us one of the sweetest victories that any group could ever hope for. For eight years, we had been fighting and hoping and fighting some

00:06:21.100 - 00:06:49.190

more for a bill or an amendment to a social to the social welfare code that would enable noncitizen to receive aid to the needy aid. This year, Assemblyman Philip Burton introduced a B one, took it all through the assembly, went through the State Senate and upon

00:06:49.200 - 00:07:11.989

reaching Governor Brown's desk, it was signed into law come January 2nd, the needy aged be they citizens or not with qualifications. Of course, we will be receiving aid which has been denied to them before. That is one of the things that CSO is might be proud

00:07:12.000 - 00:07:35.459

of this year. The other, of course, you're all acquainted with our voter registration drive. I don't think there is any other group in the state of California who can point to a figure of 100 and 37,000 new registered voters and this is primarily among the Spanish

00:07:35.470 - 00:08:02.809

speaking again. Uh No one can, can I believe in any one group can make claims to such a figure? And that also is part of our program and part of our accomplishments, January 1st or at the opening of the state legislature. We were fortunate in having

00:08:03.799 - 00:08:28.100

a young lady who possibly did more to influence legislation in our behalf than anybody else in Cso. And this is Dolores Huerta, who many of you may be acquainted with. Dolores worked herself to their physical exhaustion and she really worked hard and what her pay will

00:08:28.109 - 00:08:46.200

be. We don't know because every week it was harder for her to stay up in Sacramento. But she did it all through all through the months, put all that hard work and saw not only the pensions bill come through, but she was very influential in some

00:08:46.210 - 00:09:05.500

of the police brutality bills. At least though we didn't get what we wanted out of them in civil uh in brutal, in the brutality bills, the so-called brutality bills, civil rights legislation, the discrimination in housing. We didn't get all we wanted, but at least Sacramento knew

00:09:05.510 - 00:09:34.909

that Dolores Huerta and the CSO were right there on the spot, the disability insurance for agricultural workers which becomes effective. Tomorrow was the work of the Cso Augustus Hawkins. And again, Dolores Huerta, we don't make these claims on the basis of trying to make people think

00:09:34.919 - 00:10:01.229

that we did it because we're so powerful or that we're so demanding. We make these claims on the basis of our ability to muster the forces needed to be to put this legislation over. This includes our liberal friends in Sacramento, people like Phil Burton, Mr Hawkins

00:10:02.580 - 00:10:23.280

and so many of the others in my own district, Charles Gags. Then again, Bert Gatto, Senator Burns was helpful. But of course, under the leadership of Governor Brown, all these things, there weren't our victories, there are victories that we played to, but there are victories that

00:10:23.289 - 00:10:43.940

we know came about through this mustering of forces. It was mentioned during the my in the while I was being introduced that I had worked on the state agricultural wage board and again on the health survey and the housing survey. But these are things that CSO

00:10:43.950 - 00:11:16.349

holds very dearly. These problems involving agricultural workers are something that all of us, all of us who eat food should be concerned with. But these people, these people that harvest the food, these people who suffer and there are all kinds of indignities, all kinds of who

00:11:16.359 - 00:11:58.919

have all kinds of problems economically, socially, politically. This this voiceless group I think really need not only help of CSO but every individual who holds human dignity above everything else. The health survey brought results at the opening of the legislature. Governor Brown, in his address, asked

00:11:58.929 - 00:12:21.580

for 100 and $15,000 to set up clinics for agricultural workers. But this was, this was accomplished. Now when the industrial, the Department of industrial relations called for the legislature was the one that actually called for the housing survey and it was put in the hands of

00:12:21.590 - 00:12:54.859

the division of housing. Uh we believe strongly that this housing survey was the result. Now true. I I have been a part of many surveys. I have gathered a lot of statistics, a lot of material. I talked a lot about it, but I insist but the

00:12:54.869 - 00:13:16.809

more we talk about it and the more we look into the situation that the sooner we are going to solve the problems of the agricultural workers, some of the people who live in the metropolitan areas, particularly people who have recently come to the industrial centers of

00:13:16.820 - 00:13:44.940

our state and who came from industrial centers back east and who are not acquainted with the problems of the agricultural workers who have not seen the shacks. The I call it the infested manholes dug by organized agriculture for their workers. You just simply can't imagine what

00:13:44.950 - 00:14:11.549

you will find if you go out to look for it. Not only do we find cases where people are living no different, no different than people who were living under slavery. And this is 1961 not only will you find that, but you will find people who

00:14:11.559 - 00:14:42.739

today are working in agriculture with broken bones who have never had medical attention because they did not have the way to get into town. And because those in charge of the cruise or of the labor camps insisted in saying it will work itself out. You'll miss

00:14:42.750 - 00:15:13.270

a day's work if you go into town and it won't help you a bit. I've seen this as recently as two weeks ago, I've seen cases for over 50 families, 50 families living without water having to haul the water from wherever they could get a hold

00:15:13.280 - 00:15:52.739

of it. Or you could process the highway and you saw pipes this big around carrying water for cotton and alfalfa. This is in an area, 57 sections of land under cultivation, all under irrigation and yet people didn't have any water. A lot of that certainly doesn't

00:15:52.750 - 00:16:13.659

make you the most popular type of a guy. I know, I know, I, I know, I know how popular I am because I talk about this and believe me, I know that this is a friendly audience but I kind of wish that you were. I really

00:16:13.669 - 00:16:40.960

do. I thought that all of you were against me. So I could really let you have it. It's really hard to talk to people that, you know, think along the lines that you do and to try to do a good job. Let's talk then about what

00:16:40.969 - 00:17:16.560

the CSO things should be done. Let's take, for instance, minimum wage for agricultural workers. Now, if any of you know, of any of your assembly men in your district or state senators that will dare introduce minimum wage legislation for agriculture workers, I wish you would. But

00:17:16.569 - 00:17:48.930

I know that no one will do it and do an effective job. My faith in the state legislature goes out the window when we talk about minimum wage for agricultural workers. Now, then after being exposed and having worked with the problem and I think I speak

00:17:48.939 - 00:18:17.199

with, with some degree of authority. I have a background of, of an agricultural worker's family and I've grown, I've grown up in California from one end of the state to the other. I picked, I, I know something about the crops. I know something about conditions and

00:18:17.209 - 00:18:42.359

there are many of us in CSO who know the score. So the only problem, the only solution to this problem that we think might work and that we are going to attempt is to put this on the state ballot. So now we are faced with the

00:18:42.369 - 00:19:19.760

problem of getting a minimum wage initiative on the state bound. We discussed it in July at our board meeting in Oakland and come November, the machinery will be set up to get the necessary signatures to petition. And while I said at the outset that I had

00:19:19.770 - 00:19:50.430

been helping to dig a grave, it just doesn't go for Mr not, I'm just not talking for Mr Nixon. Really, I'm really talking and I think that you share my, my thinking of this. I'm really talking about those people in Sacramento and in Washington who have

00:19:50.880 - 00:20:18.209

for years now pacified us with telling us how nice we are but how nice if we stay at our place this time, we are going to go into their places. We are going to have the biggest voter registration drive anybody ever heard of or saw and

00:20:18.219 - 00:20:56.469

we are going to get these things. If legislators in the richest agricultural coding in the world will not introduce legislation to correct the situation, then we are going to let judge few Californian vote for it. Just this week, Senator Claire Ingle declared that he favored a

00:20:56.479 - 00:21:27.199

90 cent an hour minimum on a national level for agricultural workers, a man who served on the same wage board that I did and who is a five bureau official in this county was contacted by the press for comments on it and he said that they

00:21:27.209 - 00:22:06.650

would be opposed to a 90 cent minimum because it is words, California agriculture must maintain some kind of power over the other state in order to draw the people in here at the time of harvest that these are the same people. This, this is the same

00:22:07.030 - 00:22:46.920

farm bureau that Mr Rizzotti had. This is the same philosophy that the associated farms give you in every, every segment of organized agriculture will tenure that no minimum wage for agricultural workers. He's good. No guarantee for agricultural workers is good because it takes away the incentive

00:22:47.959 - 00:23:12.699

of working out in the sunshine and breathing the fresh air. And these people love these conditions that they are very happy under this situation. They're very happy when you drive up here. Let me let me tell you, you drive out here on, on, on good fellow.

00:23:13.199 - 00:23:36.160

And you come up to a beautiful two story colonial with a swim swimming pool in front and a Cadillac in the, in the driveway. And I think a blue Ranno when I see Junior's thunderbird part, but you go through a little side road and you travel

00:23:36.800 - 00:24:08.020

for about two or three miles among walnut trees, vineyards, pomegranates more that plums. And you finally come into a little clearing where 12 families for the last four years have been brought from Texas directly to this place and who have never been to Sanger, which is

00:24:08.030 - 00:24:38.380

five miles away. And during the season, they never even go to a movie. They don't even get out of that camp. They're real happy. We were playing Mexican lottery last Sunday using beads for money. You're changing beans. You know, like I be five beans. Ok? They

00:24:38.390 - 00:25:15.400

don't get paid till after the harvest is over and if anybody leaves, anybody leaves before they don't get paid. There was something wrong with that in 1861. But we tolerate slavery today. Oh, they'll get their money. They'll get their money after they pay for the butane

00:25:17.130 - 00:25:53.770

after they pay for the high prices of cigarettes and all of that is brought in by you pop Pepsi by the case, they'll, they'll get their money after they pay for everything they will. If the Braceros take $275 bank. These people should be taking the box

00:25:53.780 - 00:26:33.900

$50 back. But they've lived here in California for three or four months. Well, we say that the jig is up. We say that we're going to keep hammering away talking, doing everything we can and we make that as a promise. We tell the people, we tell

00:26:33.910 - 00:27:07.420

the people that we're going to keep doing something to help. Well, what else can we do? What else can we do? But try if we don't, if we abandon hope and say to these people, we can't do a thing for you. We can't even help you,

00:27:07.430 - 00:27:53.219

help yourself, which is really the basis of our CSO philosophy. Then we will have gone back 50 years. We must, we must keep on with our voter registration grant. We must keep working for civil rights legislation. We must keep on with not being satisfied and by

00:27:53.229 - 00:28:18.469

being satisfied, I mean, John F. Kennedy isn't going to satisfy me by naming Ramon Tees as ambassador to Costa Rica. Neither is Governor Brown by naming a Chavez to the California Adult Authority and Juan Ave to the California Youth Authority. We are not going to be

00:28:18.479 - 00:28:42.949

satisfied when these people on picking people that are successful. Anyway, Ramon was mayor of El Paso and the last time he ran for re-election, he was unopposed. Chavez holds a master's degree in Social Science and he's, he, he was supervisor of the, of the uh narcotic

00:28:42.959 - 00:29:09.160

enforcement unit in Los Angeles. We're talking about people who need help. We're talking about people who need a dollar 25 and a dollar 50 to buy the same bread that I buy. We're not talking about me either. If I'm not good enough, if I can go

00:29:09.170 - 00:29:27.689

out and hustle shoes, I'm a shoe salesman. Really. If I can't make a living selling shoes and I think that I should be able to, to swing pretty much on my own now, then it's too bad for me. I'm talking about the people that need the

00:29:27.699 - 00:30:09.510

help. I'm talking about people that need protection under the law. People who need to be protected from labor contractors who make a living off of them and not even lift a hand. I'm talking about unscrupulous growers. I'm talking about, I'm

00:30:09.520 - 00:30:47.849

talking about the people who are having to remain captives to the industry that puts the food on our table and I can't, I can't, I can't emphasize uh enough. They, they were how close a problem is to us. Really? When you see communities in this valley

00:30:49.030 - 00:31:25.489

who are almost entirely dependent on what the agricultural worker makes to spend at any given weekend, visit my community in San and see if it isn't the agricultural worker who is keeping up the JC Penney, the Carl shoe store, just the grocery store. You know what,

00:31:25.500 - 00:31:52.380

you know, what, what is being done more and more today. You know, everybody's after the dollar. Sure. I want a dollar and a half for these people. But last night and it makes me mad need to be better in hell a planet dear. Showing his new

00:31:52.390 - 00:32:25.219

cars. Has a Mexican band play. You know what happens? They get these suckers and put them in these new cars and by December they get the cars back, but four or five people in the family worked to make that down payment and, and, and they've lost

00:32:25.229 - 00:33:04.729

everything. They, they, they could have maybe put together. But this, this, this is the, this is the truth in this valley. So we're in closing, let me say that the people like myself and this isn't said it in self pity by a day. Any means those

00:33:04.739 - 00:33:47.760

of us who are competing for our, let me outside of the Spanish speaking community are caught between two forces. The Spanish speaking people are saying and very rightly. So you are not doing enough. You people have become satisfied and it's true. It's true. It's not enough

00:33:47.770 - 00:34:25.219

of us outdoing enough. There isn't, there are 72 teachers, Spanish speaking teachers in Fresno, the Fraser City schools and they should be doing something, the trades profession. There are quite a few scattered around. We're not doing our job now, the other four, what, what is somebody

00:34:25.229 - 00:34:51.909

else saying to us? But I'm going to come down here and speak to Amelia when I'm going to go to San Francisco when I'm gonna go to Sacramento, what are you getting involved with that problem for? You've got a job. So, on one side of it,

00:34:51.919 - 00:35:36.629

you're not doing enough. This, I believe the other side tells you not to get involved, not to get involved. But the only, the only thing that I can say if more Mexican Americans with high school and college education don't come out and help. They're the ones

00:35:36.639 - 00:36:15.959

that are going to suffer because they are not adding anything to their ranks every time that I can get an agricultural worker out of agriculture and into something else. I think that I've accomplished something really, I'm very selfish that way. I've, I've had, I've had more

00:36:15.969 - 00:36:47.340

than three or four young fellows become shoe sales because I told them become something else. Don't, don't work in agriculture anymore. So I don't think that it's going to do any good to just turn your back and say, well, that's how I love. I went to

00:36:47.350 - 00:37:09.110

school or I went through the same thing. Look at me now, this is, this is part of the attitude, really, leave them alone or don't get involved. But we're going to wake up later after everything because in opening this part of the discussion, then I think

00:37:09.120 - 00:37:20.909

that as a member of the socialist party as far as, and, and, and we, as members of the socialist party, I think we can look back on a fairly good record in terms of this organization, attempting to play a role in this area in a quite

00:37:21.189 - 00:37:37.679

uh important and in some cases dramatic role uh during the thirties, uh one of the most important organizations in this area, perhaps the most important was the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, which had a great deal of its strength in Arkansas and this part of the uh

00:37:37.689 - 00:37:53.534

Southern and Southeast United States. This was a, to a very great extent, a union led by uh socialists and the socialist party played an important and I think, heroic uh part in, in, in the struggle in the South, in that, in that area. HL Mitchell uh

00:37:53.544 - 00:38:10.889

who was the leader of the Southern tenant farmers union. Um and later the, the president of the National Agricultural Workers Union and now with the uh agricultural uh workers section of the uh amalgamated butcher's workers union has rejoined the Socialist Party and is active both in

00:38:10.899 - 00:38:29.060

foreign labor work in Memphis and in socialist party work in Memphis, Norman Thomas uh has played a very important role in the general community and civic group uh work particularly around the Sheriff Hoppers Fund and the national advisory committee uh on farm labor. And in uh

00:38:29.070 - 00:38:45.620

earlier uh farm labor organizing efforts in California, socialist party members have worked as organizers, both as volunteers and staff people. So then one census is not a completely new area to us. And one in which we have played some, some role in the past, the, of

00:38:45.629 - 00:39:03.879

course, the most important uh farm um labor work or labor union work that has been done has been the work of the agricultural Workers organizing committee uh set up 2.5 years ago. And we're very uh I think tremendously fortunate this afternoon to have and then later

00:39:03.889 - 00:39:23.090

this evening uh to have four of the uh key people uh in this organization who have done uh very important work uh during these last 2.5 years and without further uh uh abusing the prerogative of the chairman. Uh I'd like to introduce our first speaker. I

00:39:23.100 - 00:39:36.949

think many of you uh if you don't know her, have either heard her on uh some of the radio programs KP FA had a program which he was on or see some of the stories that George ballasted and the Valley Labour citizen, but uh one of

00:39:36.959 - 00:39:57.179

the real poor uh fighters in this struggle, uh Maria Moreno, not a professional professor and woman are working on agriculture. I could show any man how to work in agriculture. So I'm very glad to be here tonight to this evening and I want to excuse my

00:39:57.189 - 00:40:21.699

broken English. But if I run out of English, I will continue them in Spanish. Uh like we heard the hackers telling us just a few moments ago that we had a problem, I guess it's just, it's not very, very big problem. Like most of the people,

00:40:22.139 - 00:40:46.520

the one who owns the land and have a planning what we eat it, it says that there, there isn't a big problem what the agriculture is passing through. And my way of thinking, I guess is the worst problem I ever heard in my life. I want

00:40:46.530 - 00:41:07.010

you to understand that a few days ago. My son, I got a son, 23 year old boy. He went on uh 20 Tulare street way down on the other, on the other end of the town. And he stopped on a, on a car dealer lot and

00:41:07.020 - 00:41:26.810

he was looking at the cars and then he get in touch with the dealer and start talking. Then one day, one way or another, find out that her mother was an organizer from the agriculture work, uh working people. So he told them all your mother is

00:41:26.820 - 00:41:44.300

the one who ruining the ranchers. So you might as well get out of here on my property and that dealer run my son out of his slack from here where he had his cars and that and that, and that, that is the way whenever they go

00:41:44.310 - 00:41:59.459

and ask for a job, they get a job. But after they find out that the mother is working for, get the people organized, they run them out of the field. I don't care. They want to hurt me. No way. I don't got any, I don't, I

00:41:59.469 - 00:42:17.310

don't see any way that, that people could hurt me because they, they already been hurting me so much. If they still hurting me, then I don't feel it. I don't feel, I got no more feeling for her because I got enough. I've been learning everything but,

00:42:17.320 - 00:42:38.820

uh, last week before last I took George Ball with me, which is a reporter and I'm very glad when somebody else is with me because I, but that way some people know how the growers are uh treating us. Of course, most of the people know. But

00:42:38.830 - 00:42:57.719

I, I really feel good with, with, with uh somebody goes with me when I go to this place. On the first picture up here on the, on the left hand side, there is a woman with eight Children. I went to that ranch there and I stick

00:42:57.729 - 00:43:12.360

about inside of a lot of the farmer about, I just said about 5 ft in, inside of the land of his land on the side of the road. I was parking on the side of the road. And I will say, I always say to tell my

00:43:12.370 - 00:43:28.689

husband to stay in the car in case I get in jail. So, uh my husband stayed in the, in the car and I went to talk to those people there and I went a few steps in the, in the yard of his place because he had

00:43:28.699 - 00:43:47.659

a people all up in the front of his yard and that place is taken just in the front of the rancher uh lot a yard under the tree. And uh this house is making of all boxes. Like you see, there is a store with all cans.

00:43:48.010 - 00:44:01.439

That's where the lady was cooking with eight Children. So I was talking with the lady and here comes the grower and he was arguing with me. And then after George Ball got out of the car and tried to take up the picture, the farmer run away

00:44:01.449 - 00:44:21.060

because he didn't want the picture taken. And both of you were arguing. The organ was this. He says, what are you doing here? Who are you representing this? I told him I'm representing the forgotten people. I don't guess I don't have to explain you what, who

00:44:21.070 - 00:44:38.500

is the forgotten people? Because you know, he says, in a way, I'll tell you who I am. He says I am Mrs Moreno and I represent the agriculture Worker organizing committee says, well, you got no business in here this sour. I got bitten. You. Look at

00:44:38.510 - 00:44:56.699

these people who are living these, all these people are happy. These people feel good. He said, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you the way II I said it to him. I wish I could explain good English like I do in my own language says these

00:44:56.709 - 00:45:15.159

people then every year since 14 years, they have come here to my place every year to pick grapes. I told him, did you feel ashamed to say that in front of me, I was afraid, you know, he might flap me. But I don't care. Like I

00:45:15.169 - 00:45:28.189

said, they said, don't you ashamed to say that in front of me? He says, why? Because you're not going to tell me that these people are happy and that uh where they're staying now because I've been staying under the tree all the time. I've been working

00:45:28.199 - 00:45:45.120

except when I started working with the union. Now I had a home and I thank the union and thank, and I thank God for that uh help that I've been here. So it says these people been here 14 years. So in 14 years, sir, you don't

00:45:45.129 - 00:46:04.229

have, you don't have a little money extra to build a little check for these people. These people are happy, they are happy the way they are. That's what that is the background. Your people have always said that the um the agriculture people are happy the way

00:46:04.239 - 00:46:23.060

they live. But I'm gonna tell you, you're a big liar. I ever heard that. I never lived here. I never was happy in that kind of a home because I used to have it. Next picture is from three rocks. The third one is from another place.

00:46:24.250 - 00:46:45.649

It's on a Fowler road. There were about 10 families camping in that place and the very last one. Therefore, my, my, the place where my Children were picking grapes. That's the house that I had big born, dividing with the curtains dividing the apartment, they divided the

00:46:45.659 - 00:47:08.000

apartment with the big born. There were three families including mine. So I got facts and I got proof the agriculture people are asking something because it's the time now to ask to call for something. I don't care. Like I told him my own kind of a,

00:47:08.709 - 00:47:26.270

of people. So I don't care if the people throw me out from the houses. I don't care. I don't care if my Children doesn't get in a job. I don't care anything. The only thing that I'm car care now is to get the people organized because

00:47:26.280 - 00:47:49.129

we need a union. We need a, a union to, to, to now to, to, to get the end of our suffering. Of course, we have been suffering a lot of things. Some of the people who live in the city, they never know how the agriculture people

00:47:49.139 - 00:48:09.389

live because uh especially they go out when they go out but they go out and see how big is the, is the oranges on the tree? How big the, the bunches of grapes grow? But they don't go where the people are living and where or how

00:48:09.649 - 00:48:32.070

they're making the liv the living. But by, by myself, by myself, I, I tell you that we really need a union. The three ladies, they were, they came in just a while ago. They are American citizens. Never been registered for vote and couldn't get him re

00:48:32.080 - 00:48:53.449

register registered the reason they don't know how to read and write and you find thousands of Mexican people. And I'm not, I'm not saying because somebody is a Mexican that I am a Mexican. And when I, when I registered myself, I didn't know how because the

00:48:53.459 - 00:49:12.209

little things that I've been learning and when I opened my eyes, I opened because I was, I had enough of this suffers that I passed through. That's why I opened my eyes because whenever you don't know, how do you defend yourself, they lock a change on

00:49:12.219 - 00:49:34.889

your neck and get and hold it from the, from your neck and throw you out. That's the way that we all, all our migrant workers are treated that, that, that man, that dealer man told my son says that lady, the one whose cousin, the farmers ruining

00:49:34.899 - 00:49:52.419

his crops, she's gonna get it someday that she's gonna get it because I don't care if I get it or not, it's gonna be it. It won't be no different for me because I I've been working. I, I am in this battle for when not to

00:49:52.429 - 00:50:22.419

lose because thank you very much because I think if the rest of the people they've been suffering and to get the people organized, I guess we, we could do it the same thing. But one thing I'm working very hard to make the people understand if the

00:50:22.429 - 00:50:40.669

growers take away the job from us, find another one. And not to be afraid that tomorrow we don't have anything to eat anyway. If tomorrow we don't have anything to eat. We can get by for a week or two without, without have to be working every

00:50:40.679 - 00:50:58.060

day because by having a pot of beans and 23 tortillas, we get a half ish one and we get by. All right, until we get these people make them understand that we could work and we could make these people understand that we need a union. That's

00:50:58.070 - 00:51:17.280

what we need. I talked to the lady up there in the conference who I went to Los Angeles and I was very glad to hear those words says Mrs Moreno. If you only get 50 women to work along with you, you will get whatever you are

00:51:17.290 - 00:51:38.300

asking for, but we are not asking for too, too much. The only thing we are asking just that we are tired. We are tired to hear whenever we go to, to get a job. My son day before yesterday went to get a job and he wants

00:51:38.310 - 00:51:56.239

and he need to, he had to go three times to that farmer to give the price how much he's going to pay for the job. He's going to be done. He's going to be done three times clear down the follow and we never cried because we

00:51:56.250 - 00:52:17.209

were wasting the money on gas. We, we have to work anyway. It left at 1145. He called. My son was staying here in this office waiting for the call. 1145 he calls, says Abel, you're gonna get a dollar 10 an hour waiting. Have to have to

00:52:17.219 - 00:52:33.219

give three trips to go up there and find out how much money we're going to get. We don't get that privilege. We never go to uh, go to a job and uh, the rancher tell us how much we're gonna get. We never got that privilege. We

00:52:33.229 - 00:52:48.850

never had it sometimes says, well, I don't know what the Mr John is gonna pay, I'll pay. We go with Mr John says, well, whatever Mr Mike is gonna pay, I'll pay and that's the way we go rolling that the ball from one person to another

00:52:49.520 - 00:53:13.080

and still said that we are happy. We are glad. I don't see, I don't see any, any right, any rights I see in that kind of uh uh people because if they got feelings, we got the same, we got the same feelings. I've been working on

00:53:13.090 - 00:53:34.610

three rocks and some of the uh young people went to that place and they find out how the agriculture people live in that place. They have to pay $15 for a little check real small check, $15 and they have to hold their own water. Five miles.

00:53:37.550 - 00:53:58.810

There is an Cantu cree, there are some families there. They were living there and a little bit of room six by six and a little kitchen. It's the same size. They're getting 80 cents an hour. I don't get that with 80 cents an hour. Any people

00:53:58.820 - 00:54:27.080

can make a living. We never have been making a living. We've always been having, living halfway now. I think that, uh, each time do everybody know. But we, we need your help. We need people to talk to help because by the way, I never, I never

00:54:27.090 - 00:54:43.840

been getting a woman, Mexican woman to help me go along with me because they are afraid to lose their jobs. They're afraid to be, to be run out of his own homes like I did. But, uh, uh, like I said, we have to have little guts

00:54:44.149 - 00:55:05.959

to do this job and I hope we'll get these pretty soon. I, I was planning to, to work on this housing condition. Like I, ever since I go organizing the people, I've been writing letters to Senator Williams. It seems kind of funny. Maybe because they never

00:55:05.969 - 00:55:27.610

heard a migrant work. It write a letter to these big people. But myself, I, I've been trying, uh, to, to write some, I write a letter to Senator Williams and I sent some pictures and I told him Senator Williams, we need your help. I heard that

00:55:27.620 - 00:55:44.649

you are gonna make some, uh, gonna give, uh, have some money to make housing. I don't know how or I don't know anything about it. But the only thing that I'm asking you is why don't you direct if you get the money or the government or

00:55:44.659 - 00:56:03.270

the county or whatever it is, if they're going to give money to, to the people, the ones, the migrant people to make the home, why don't you have conference on a worker man? Don't you think that the worker man, it's honest to pay you to pay

00:56:03.280 - 00:56:24.070

the government, whatever they can get from the government or from the, for the county. And I got an answer. I really got an answer that he tried to do all he can. Same question. Same man. I hope so. He'll try. It's just the same words that

00:56:24.080 - 00:56:43.760

I heard and, and that harvest of change, every person was standing by and see that situation of the harvest chain. It is, I promise to do something for these people. And I, I want you to understand that we are still waiting for that Trump. And uh

00:56:44.050 - 00:57:01.429

the only way that I think that we would get that promise is by getting organized because I, and uh and the convention that the CSO had at Bakersfield, I went there and I told her brother Walt, I said, Brother Walsh, I want to carry a sign

00:57:01.439 - 00:57:18.429

to that place. So this is what kind of sign you want to carry. So I want to carry a sign that says no braceros wanting in United States. So I carry that sign alone. Some people, you know, they call me what this, this and that doing

00:57:18.439 - 00:57:40.010

and this with that kind of sign on his shoulders, keep on showing that sign there. And I went there till the president until the government came in L in. And I was the second one who went to uh how do you say this? We greeted him.

00:57:42.050 - 00:57:57.870

So he told me, he patted me on my shoulder and said, what are you asking for? What do you do? Who, who you represent if I represent the agricultural work, what do you want my shoulder this time? She thought, well, I'm ready for your book. That's

00:57:57.879 - 00:58:15.229

the answer I got. But he never say a word about the sign that it was scary. Nobody ever wanted. He, he told me, well, I'm waiting for your book. So by, by, by those words, I understand a lot of things on the, on the, on my,

00:58:15.520 - 00:58:38.330

on my way to think. And I wish I could, I could find it to you, but I can't because I'm short real short in English. Uh in a way after a while, there's another man came in. So whenever you get strong, whenever you get strong, you

00:58:38.340 - 00:59:00.379

get my home, but you have to get strong to get on my home a little while that walk, get together with him and start talking and the same product is, are you ready with your people? Are you strong enough? The same question? The same words to

00:59:00.479 - 00:59:15.080

give the rest of the people give them to him and give them the rest of the agriculture workers that were there, ask him for help. So, I, I don't, I don't get that. We don't have no way to go. No way to. People could hear us

00:59:15.090 - 00:59:35.929

only by getting organized and the only way that, uh, that we have to get organized but you, people helping us helping us to get organized because it's, it's a hard problem right now. It's really hard because people are hungry. The crops are not good. Uh, wages

00:59:35.939 - 00:59:53.479

are pretty low, taking cuts. They're getting the machines in now. How, how, how we are gonna do it. We don't know, we just keep on trying and trying the way we, we can in the way we get easy way or the hard way anyway. But we

00:59:53.489 - 01:00:24.709

wanted to get organized because we need these unions and by your help and, uh, we help ourselves, I guess we do a lot. So, thank you for your, thank you very much, Maria. I'd like to ask Al Walsh to think of Al Walsh is, uh a

01:00:24.750 - 01:00:50.000

wal organizer in Cal County. I thank you brother, chairman and delegates from the socialist party here tonight and also our brothers and sisters here from a woc. Uh, we can talk about a lot of mistakes. I think I might make a few myself. I'm not a

01:00:50.010 - 01:01:04.000

speaker to come out and speak to the crowd, but I have an organizer and have been organized in lots of places I've organized and a lot of the other unions it has been organized and they told us the same thing that the people would never be

01:01:04.010 - 01:01:29.169

organized and they are organized today. Now, they say I could talk pretty freely. So I am going to talk and tell you a little bit about our problems and the problems of organization. Now, uh, we have a lot of people that we are trying to organize

01:01:29.179 - 01:01:52.330

today that never has belonged to any kind of an organization. They don't know what an organization is. So it makes it hard on us to try to organize these people. Anybody that, that is organized and no organization is, is not too hard. Now, I have belonged

01:01:52.340 - 01:02:05.629

to several other unions for the simple reason, we start out with them from the start. I have to organize the labors in the State of California. I helped organize the teams in the state of California. I have, I helped organize the longshoremen in the state of

01:02:05.639 - 01:02:21.889

California. I carry a car right today from speaking for operating engineers and I worked with them for years and I can work out of work tomorrow for them for a dollar for $4.18 an hour. And it makes me look over the people that was working today

01:02:22.620 - 01:02:38.179

in agriculture and get the measly dollar a dollar 10 cents an hour and have to pay the same thing as we do for the same things that we buy in the stores or clothing or anyplace else, which absolutely makes it hard for them to do so.

01:02:38.189 - 01:03:01.800

But they have a big family now. Uh Like I say, I'm used to speaking to a group of people that I'm organizing. Not, you have a different way of talking to them. I never have spoken to public like this. I have and just certain occasions, but

01:03:01.810 - 01:03:23.600

not often. I don't say that I'm a very highly educated man. I come up to the fields myself. And at one time, my folks used to own one of the biggest farms in the state of California. And I've been born and raised on a farm and

01:03:23.610 - 01:03:39.100

I don't know what part it is. I have picked all kinds of fruit vegetables in the state of California. Me and my wife both. So lastly I know what this work is. I live in the same condition. You see them people that was showing you there

01:03:39.689 - 01:03:55.750

making kitchens in the bedroom, out of boxes and trays. Anyway, you could and they still have the same conditions right now. We had 2030 years ago. They haven't changed, they haven't changed out here on our farms where they say they got good housing, they have good

01:03:55.760 - 01:04:13.040

housing but not for the agriculture workers. They have housing for the the crows and they have good house work. But the man that's working there the year round has a poor old shack and how to get an, a no windows, no doors when his sack hang

01:04:13.050 - 01:04:32.610

out in front of him. No. Uh, I know this. I have been all over the state of California, all over the state of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona. They ain't a state in the union. I haven't been, I spent two hitches in the United States Army. I

01:04:32.620 - 01:05:00.520

had two discharges. Now, I will tell you a little about the problems and we have with the people that is that they are working on a very, very poor condition and actually they are hungry and the people that are brought in here that they say that

01:05:00.530 - 01:05:24.429

they are from other states. They say Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, all them places like that. And I have spoken to them people, especially from Oklahoma in Arkansas. And they have showed me pamphlets that your farm bureau, your farm Association has sent back there and telling people how

01:05:24.629 - 01:05:36.600

to, what this was, how much money they can make down here. And the good living conditions they had down here and some of the people has come down here hasn't even had enough money to get back to Oklahoma because they have said so if we can

01:05:36.610 - 01:05:52.540

ever make enough money to get out of here, we go back, we won't come back no more. Instead of keeping them people in here and giving them good wages and good living conditions. So the farmers could harvest their crops. They don't do that. They want to

01:05:52.550 - 01:06:06.060

raise, to chase them people out of here and bring people from the other side of the border in here because they can do what they want. They can take these people out here and put them any place and they'll work for whatever they can get because

01:06:06.070 - 01:06:21.360

they're making more money here and they can, they can in Mexico and the biggest majority of them that work here that goes back to Mexico takes the money back with it and they can live over there 6 to 6 months to a year where they couldn't

01:06:21.370 - 01:06:42.110

live here a month with the money to make. And then the government says, where is all our go going to, where's all our currency going to? Well, that's what it's gonna do over there. All these things now, I don't blame a lot of farmers. I haven't

01:06:42.120 - 01:07:06.560

got no grudge against the farmers because we have some good farmers and we have some fact we have both and I work with are big organizations, Dr Bar Rs Griffin Rs, I've been out there too. They're gonna get their help as cheap as possible. Their help

01:07:06.570 - 01:07:25.489

that they get out there is the, and Mex Mexican people from the other side of the border and they can tell them people if you don't work here, we'll send you back to Mexico and that's what they got over so that the people is gonna work

01:07:28.120 - 01:07:52.770

no, our problem is the best program because they're holding that over the domestic people's heads and the domestic people can't compete with them. Well, he'll get more the C, we have an ad in the paper here. Not in Fresno B which they advertise the Fresno B

01:07:52.780 - 01:08:05.679

advertised quite a bit about that. Whether we have one president be reported here or just saying, don't make no difference. But I'll tell you the truth that they put things in the paper that they really don't know what's going on. They just hear about somebody else

01:08:05.689 - 01:08:28.988

telling these things out to Hanford, uh office of unemployment as in that, on the paper stating that the need to around 400 all they Vickers you can't get the people. Well, I've been in Harford, I've held meetings in Harford and I've talked to the people in

01:08:29.148 - 01:08:42.479

Harford and there's right around 4 to 500 people idle. If it's not working, they can't go to work. They've been out there trying to get jobs and they can't get them. I know that for a fact because I talk to these people and why should they

01:08:42.490 - 01:08:57.680

put an ad in the paper that way? For the simple reason that they want to show the public that they need to be served back the work. And then they say that the domestic people here don't want to work. How are they going to work when

01:08:57.689 - 01:09:12.859

they don't give them a job? They prefer the best, better than do the Mexicans because they can do anything they want with this so they can take them out here and work them for 70 cents an hour. And then they had to buy all their stuff

01:09:12.870 - 01:09:30.819

through the company. And when they go send them back home, they ain't got nothing. The company has got all our money. We have some people like this system here. I'm running was saying over in, uh, in three rocks and I have to be over there several

01:09:30.830 - 01:09:48.080

meetings and I've talked with the people there and one old lady, 70 years old come up and told me she don't sing to me to be 70 years old. But she is. And he says, Mr Walters, I'm working out there for 71 cents an hour. Mhm.

01:09:48.959 - 01:10:07.899

He says I have to work hard because I have a little family and I have to support 71 cents an hour. Just think people 71 cents an hour. Horn cotton on the field. I don't tell you that's a hard job because I know. So that's the

01:10:07.910 - 01:10:22.770

way that they treat these people. And now they can come along and tell them they gave you a certain part to work or the best part of the work is given to the beer or the people from the other side of the border. And the domestic

01:10:22.779 - 01:10:41.040

people gets the worst part of this, same as picking cotton. They take the worst and they give the best two, the people over on the other side, we have people here with us today picking cotton out here at $3 100 and working 10 or 12 hours

01:10:41.049 - 01:11:03.629

and making $6. 1 man, how is he going to support a family of five people making $6 a day? All these things have happened in our own country that I, I say a rich America, California, which is supposed to be one of the richest state we

01:11:03.640 - 01:11:17.899

have. And then the people have to work for the, for that money. And then they say they're paying these people lots more money than they are someplace else. I know that we have some states that paying more money than the, than the state of California thought

01:11:17.910 - 01:11:36.830

to pay. But I have worked in it and I'm talking about a culture, not nothing else. Washington for one and Washington gives you housing, don't charge you nothing for your house, don't charge you nothing for your lights or water or nothing for your wood and they

01:11:36.839 - 01:12:04.259

pay you more than you can get here. Oh, that's my problem is that we are trying to organize a bunch of people that are in them conditions today, conditions that shouldn't exist in this country. I know I'm saying this because I know this because I've been

01:12:04.270 - 01:12:22.569

born and raised right here in the State of California. My folks have been born and raised right here in the state of California, my mother, my grandfather, my grand folks and them come with us. We are Indians and that's why I say that I have been

01:12:22.620 - 01:12:41.000

and fought for this country and I know that I have lost two brothers in, in different wars and still we have to live in the conditions we are living in now. For what? Why should we have to do that in our own country if it wouldn't

01:12:41.009 - 01:12:58.520

be for these people that you have that's working in these fields today. All the people in this room and all over the state and the United States wouldn't eat. They are the more important people we have, they are the people that planted and ground takes care

01:12:58.529 - 01:13:17.950

of it. The water irrigates and picks it and puts it in the market for you people to eat and still there are more forgotten people we have. That's why I'm saying tonight that we have these things. Now, this union that we are building, we have had

01:13:18.950 - 01:13:37.160

a lot of trouble trying to build this union. We have had a lot of difficulty in it. For some reason, we have had some has been trying to work against us thinking that they could do something by getting up on top. And that's what has hurt

01:13:37.169 - 01:14:01.750

us. A whole lot organizers that they wanted the job of being a director or a big high representative or something like that. Big pay. We're not working for big pay. We are working for people to be organized like myself. I'm not getting big paid. I can

01:14:01.759 - 01:14:21.319

make more money working in my own trade than I'm getting right here. But I'm here because I can talk to these people. I can talk three different, four different languages and I can talk to him. And that's the reason that I'm working to try to organize

01:14:21.330 - 01:14:43.600

these people because they are the forgotten people like myself. If I, when I used to work in the field, oh, all these people that we have and we have a lot of them here. It belongs to a WLC and we are working in a different program

01:14:43.609 - 01:15:09.509

now and our program today is to put some branches and the different places that we have often and our branches will work where the people electing their own office, the people themselves working for their, for their themselves to organize the people. It should have been done

01:15:09.580 - 01:15:32.520

a long time ago. But it wasn't, we've made a lot of mistakes and we're going to try to write the mistakes just like any other organization when they start out so that we are going to build a union. I have it in my heart that we

01:15:32.529 - 01:15:54.419

are going to build a union because we have the sympathy of the people, the public like yourselves and many others that's working to help these people. They talk about the laws that they have passed. What about these laws are they gonna enforce these laws or are

01:15:54.430 - 01:16:08.640

they just gonna be, just put on paper and be forgotten? Like the rest of them, we have a lot of laws that have been passed but have been forgotten then pigeonholed. Why? Because there's too much pressure with the Farmers Association, the Farm Bureau and the rest

01:16:08.649 - 01:16:30.620

of them that the laws don't come up. We have laws right now that they have passed. There's another law, this new law for the women in the fields. And if they don't enforce that law, what good is that law? The law is no good unless it

01:16:30.629 - 01:16:52.890

is enforced. I know that I know because I have been in the law enforcement myself. I've been chief deputy Sheriff of Saint Louis, Mr mconie. I've held several jobs as chief of police in a lot of places, Oregon Washington. And I know that a lot of

01:16:52.899 - 01:17:13.339

laws are not enforced because there's too much dirty work right in your law enforcement office. I know that's the reason I quit. I quit politics for that purpose. There's too much corruption. Most, a lot of people probably don't know. And I, what I know that really

01:17:13.350 - 01:17:29.100

goes on and a lot of say, a lot of them tell us that we are trying to organize these people just the same to tell about the socialist party or any other party that you are. Whenever you try to help the underdog, they tell you that

01:17:29.109 - 01:17:47.689

you are commons they called me a com for years. But I like to, I like to know who is a com looks to me like the other side is a promise to me. I don't know because they are the ones that they're the ones that putting

01:17:47.700 - 01:18:11.379

up all this, the money, the money people. I don't know. I, that kind of confused me sometimes to call me a communist and I don't even know what communist means. I haven't found it yet. So lastly, at any time that you are trying to help a

01:18:11.390 - 01:18:29.529

group of people and they call you a communist. Well, I've been over siege and fought in the World War and I have seen them people over there, what you read in the paper here or what you hear over TV, and everything else. It's just what they

01:18:29.540 - 01:18:40.589

want you to hear and that's all. You don't get the straight facts of the whole thing. Only the man that's been overseas. And then they tell you when you come up from over there and they come over here and they tell you not to say certain

01:18:40.600 - 01:19:08.859

things that you know, and you've seen over there. So that's the reason I've seen this, that these people, what we call the forgotten people has got to be organized. We have to, and we are going to organize it with the health of the people themselves, in

01:19:08.870 - 01:19:31.589

the health, with the health of the public and other organizations that we have, we are going to organize these people. No, I think I've talked here long enough that one, um, Brother Anderson up here. But anyway, the last words I got to say to you folks

01:19:31.830 - 01:19:42.410

here, this, here today is, don't forget these people fight for them and they will fight for you one day I think.