Letting the Market Take Care of Itself

     When one hears the term, “letting the market take care of itself,” one gets the sense that the laws of the economy are laws that are set in stone, or laws that are fundamentally and infinitely unchangeable; much like the laws of physics. For example, in physics, we know that what goes up, must come down. In economy, supply and demand states that when there is a high supply of a product, and little demand the price goes down, and vice-versa. The same could be said of labor. This law of economy, however, has been proven to be, a manipulatable tool. During and after World War Two the federal, state, and local governments reacted with a general lack of enthusiasm, as well with enacting anti-union red-baiting laws, and by replacing strikers with braceros (Immigrant Mexicans), in opposition to Mexican Americans as they went on strike and labor organized.

     President Roosevelt, seemed to see the injustices his people had to endure as poor or working class Americans regardless of race or creed. When organizations complained, he responded by establishing the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC). On the local level, attorneys like Manuel Ruiz, wanting to find evidence of discrimination, were hard pressed to do so, since many Mexican Americans designated themselves as white in the census. Because of his lack of “solid evidence, the FEPC could avoid enforcing the presidential, executive order... The State Department also evaded the executive order by obstructing collection of data.” On the other hand, the President seemed to divert the commission to the War Manpower Commission (WMC) in order to evade the image of the U.S. as being racist. States like Texas brought up this pretext of the racism image just to evade hearing by the FEPC in El Paso. The FEPC employees admitted to Dr. Carlos E. Castaneda, that “the Mexican American would be put in his place” when the supposed war was over. In the case of the Arizona copper barons, the Congress of Industrial Organizers (CIO) organized Mexican Americans against discriminations of being the lowest paid workers as well as whites refusing to work along side them. The FEPC found that the copper barons of Arizona were in fact discriminating against Mexican Americans, yet “Roosevelt administrators did nothing.” Because the federal and state departments were not the only ones whom were discriminating against Mexicans, city governments played the same card. The Los Angeles Police Department, notorious for its racist practices, was found in a confidential FBI report that it “employed [only] 22 Mexican American officers in a force of 2,542; the... Sheriff’s Department had [only] 30 Spanish-surnamed deputies out of 821.” Hypocritically though, the percentage of Mexican Americans that were sent to fight in the war was disproportionately higher than any other race/ethnicity. Aside from the lack of enthusiasm by all levels of government, anti-union red-baiting laws were passed in order to oppress the workers.

     The 1947 Taft-Hartley Act “made the Wagner Act of 1935 and its National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ineffective.” In turn the act “gave antiunion forces the power to petition for another election... The U.S. President could enjoin a strike, if he thought the walkouts imperiled national security.” Also, it gave courts the power to fine strikers. Union dues were not allowed to be used for purposes of political contributions under the act as well. The Taft-Hartley Act also forced Union leaders to swear under oath that they were not communists. If they did not swear, “the law denied their union facilities of the NLRB. Thus,... empowered employers and weakened the collective bargaining process [of unions].” Because of this law it made it easier for antiunion groups to join and red-bait Union leaders. The California Un-American Activities Committee (or the Tenney Committee), formed by the Teamsters and the AFL, “called hearings and smeared progressive  unions, charging that the leadership was Communist.” Elected official of the United Cannery, Agricultural , Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), Luisa Moreno, was eventually pressured to retire from her position in 1947 and was then “deported... because of her activism.” One of the most paranoid of the laws passed was the Freedom of Information Act. It allowed FBI agents free reign to obtain documentaion from any organization it deemed Communist, regardless of having proof. Among the targets were all-American organizations like the G.I. Forum and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), “the ‘Hispanic Movement’ within the Catholic Church,” and individuals like George I. Sanchez and Alonso Perales (because he converted to Reformed Methodist), anyone involved in the Sleepy Lagoon case (especially the chair of the Coordinating Council for Latin American youth, Eduardo Queveda), and M.J. Avila, secretary of the Hollywood Bar Association. 1947, Fred Ross of LULAC was red-baited and the district attorney of Orange County “pressured LULAC to ged rid of Ross.” Aside from the red-baiting laws that were passed, strike-breaking braceros were imported with the help of new federal laws.

     The 1943 bracero program called Public Law 45, allowed immigration of Mexicans into the U.S. The Farm Security Administration (FSA) managed the program. However, when the growers wanted more control they pressured the federal government to hand over the program to the War Food Administration. Section 5(g) allowed lifts of statutory limitation on immigration if it helped the war effort. From that point on the border was wide open and the border patrol funding was cut so as to lower the amount of patrolmen in order “to ensure an open border for a constant flow of undocumented laborers into the United States.” And even though braceros frequently were not paid their wages, they continued to come throughout that decade and “the Government authorities, in collusion with the growers, had glutted the labor market with braceros to depress wages and break strikes.” It wasn’t until decades later that “the bracero contracts... [lapsed] on December 31, 1964.”

     In conclusion, the federal state, and local governments reacted to Mexican American strikes and labor organizing during and after World War Two by responding with a lack of enthusiasm for workers rights, passing red-baiting laws, and by passing strike breaking laws that allowed Mexican immigrants into the U.S., legally and illegally. Historically in the U.S., Economic rights, it seems, have been more important than human rights. The manipulation of laws by all levels of government, proved to be the form in which the laws of economy were manipulated. This sense of disillusionment of the faith we placed on laws (economic, social, or physical for that matter), is not something to be angry or upset at, it is something to be recognized and to be placed in oneself as a sense of vigilant awareness that the establishment will use it to their advantage. To that, the old adage must be truer than previously thought, “rules were made to be broken”, especially when it is convenient to do so.