At the previous general meeting, we unanimously voted to make local working-class history the topic of the first WCU Article.
arguments for…
During the meeting, we made the following arguments for this topic:
@Turcotte supported it because it could draw more people to our organizing work. He noted that Stockton has a rich union history that many people are unaware of.
@Raiken_202 agreed, stating that starting with local issues would serve as a good foundation for the new year.
@PeterKraljev suggested connecting local labor issues to figures like MLK and Malcolm X, emphasizing how historic figures often have their views sanitized to be celebrated.
@HipGnosis said that “working-class history” has “working class” right in the name, making it a natural fit for WCU. He mentioned the 1937 Stockton Cannery Strike as a specific example of how we could talk about local stories that happened nearby.
I supported it because it could counter the defeatist narratives that people in Stockton have about themselves. It would be good to push past the recent years of political corruption and downturn and reconnect with our roots when there was more working-class militancy.
We approved the article. Now what?
article writing process
Below is the outline for how we plan to proceed with the article writing process. In short, we should have an article outline prepared to present at the next General Meeting in February.
This month, we have two online meetings scheduled to discuss what should go into this article (@Bozzii, can you please edit this post with specific dates and times?).
This thread should serve as the primary hub for discussing what should go into this article.
article outline
Below are some items I think the outline we present next month should cover, but this is just my opinion. We need to decide on this together.
Introduction/Hook
How is this information relevant today?
What is the call to action?
Some general questions we should answer before we get too far into the process:
What is our main message?
Who is our primary audience?
Are we trying to correct misconceptions? If so, which ones?
What will resonate with our audience (not just with us)?
How do we balance information with inspiration to act?
@Englishpete08, or anyone else, do you think there are other questions we should keep in mind?
I did some quick research and found the following labor movements and strikes:
Stockton Cannery Strike of 1937 / Spinach Riot
California Agricultural Strikes of 1933
Filipino Labor Organizing
Delano Grape Strike
Key figures in local labor history (discussing their limitations would be a good topic for later). Focusing on labor history from the perspective of everyday workers is better than focusing on these leaders:
Larry Itliong
Dolores Huerta
Cesar Chavez
There were also splits within the labor movement during some of these strikes. But with a 500-word limit, that might be too detailed.
The spinach strike is pretty interesting because it turned into an actual battle with capitalists, and though the union won their demands in the short run, they were betrayed in the long run.
It serves as a warning and a call to action all in one, assuming we were out correctly
I might take a shot at writing this to see what people think.
That being said, for anyone else interested in taking a crack at it, it might be useful to think about the ways in which one can relate local labor history to labor movements in other areas of California/the country at large and maybe even trying to draw parallels to today’s labor movements.