Did you know that in 1903 the American Sugar Beet Company conspired against its workers to lower wages by pitting Mexican workers against Japanese workers?
On February 11, 1903, in response, 500 Japanese and 300 Mexican sugar beet workers in Oxnard, CA went on strike for 48 days! The formation of the Japanese Mexican Labor Association (JMLA) launched the first multiethnic agricultural strike in California history.
The Oxnard Sugar Beet Strike of 1903 was a formidable moment in American labor history.
JMLA members fought against sub-living wages and contracting out of their work – while facing violence from their employers, a monopoly of subcontractors and a racist miscarriage of justice.
Between February 3, 1903 and March 30, 1903, Japanese Mexican Labor Association members were on strike against the American Beet Sugar Company and its Western Agricultural Contracting Association. To show their solidarity and support from the community, the JMLA wore an insignia. The insignia was used for buttons, banners and signs everywhere in the city of Oxnard.
The JMLA insignia was described as a “ a pair of clasped hands across a red rising sun.” According to Tomas Almaguer, the “white banner with a red rising sun and pair of clasped hands” had the letters J.M.L.A.” superimposed over this insignia.
According to John Murray, the city of Oxnard was full of white buttons, with thousands distributed throughout the city and when no more were available, hundreds of beet workers put red buttons on their buttonholes to show that they were JMLA supporters.
As far as we know, a picture of the insignia doesn’t exist today. However, we worked with a local Oxnard artist, (Julio Alcala) to reimagine the insignia you see here!
According to Tomas Almaguer’s entry in Daniel Cornfield’s Working People of California, in 1897, the Oxnard brothers established the American Sugar Beet Company in Ventura County. In 1899, they formed the Bank of Oxnard and began loaning funds to growers who were doing business with their American Sugar Beet Company aiding its rapid expansion.
By 1903, in three years’ time, the American Sugar Beet Co was processing more than three times its output from 1900, yielding over 200,000 tons.
But the Oxnard’s sought to reduce costs by lower wages. In 1902, they formed the Western Agricultural Contracting Company (WACC) and began recruiting farm laborers – most of whom were Japanese. WACC contractors harvested almost 75% of the 1902 sugar beet crop in Oxnard and in early 1903, this near monopoly of WACC farm labor contractors sought to squeeze out and eliminate remaining small, independent contractors.
With the threat of absolute monopoly nearing and WACC wages dropping due to lack of competition, on Feb 11, 1903, 500 Japanese and 200 Mexican farm laborers created the Japanese Mexican Labor Association (JMLA).
On March 17, 2024, join at Oxnard College’s Performing Arts Center to celebrate and learn more about the lessons learned from the Betabeleros, their fight for fair wages and their solidarity in the face of a racist labor movement.
To learn more about the JMLA Strike read Curious Unions: Mexican American Workers and Resistance in Oxnard, California, 1898-1961 by Frank Barajas https://bit.ly/48yeuxw
Join the March 17 at Oxnard College’s Performing Arts Center as we bring the JMLA insignia back to the streets of Oxnard for the first time in 121 years!!