A History of the Progressive Movement in Los Angeles: the Thirties

1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s

1934: In the depths of the Depression, Upton Sinclair published I, Governor of California and How I Ended Poverty: A True Story of the Future. In this short volume, Sinclair described how, as Governor, he would put the state's unemployed to work in state-aided "production for use" cooperative enterprises. The book launched what Sinclair regarded as an educational campaign for Governor around a simple slogan- "End Poverty in California" (EPIC). Sinclair's genius was his ability to bring together the broad spectrum of progressives and radicals around a common vision and a concrete reform agenda. In a state where Republicans long dominated the statehouse, Sinclair shocked the political establishment and won the Democratic nomination, attracting more primary votes than any candidate in the party's history. More than two-thirds of those votes came from Southern California. Fearful that LA had become a hotbed of radical thought and action, big business - led by the Hollywood studios, the Los Angeles Times, and the big agricultural growers - mobilized an extraordinary media campaign that ended in Sinclair's defeat in November.

Upton Sinclair

Amidst the social and economic chaos of the Depression, the political sparks that had been ignited by the EPIC campaign soon spread. EPIC Clubs formed the backbone of a statewide progressive drive that included a flourishing cooperative movement, a revived labor movement led by the new Congress of Industrial Organizations and its Labor Non-Partisan League, and a cultural and literary renaissance of writers, artists, photographers, and independent filmmakers exploring a range of social themes. Voters elected several EPIC candidates to the state legislature. Some of them - like Augustus Hawkins of Los Angeles and Jerry Voorhis of Whittier - were later elected to Congress, while former EPIC supporter Culbert Olson was elected Governor in 1938.

The EPIC campaign was part of the broader political upheaval of the 1930s. Workers in Los Angeles and elsewhere joined unions in unprecedented numbers, engaging in civil disobedience, and even general strikes. In 1933, Mexican and Japanese berry workers in El Monte went on strike to demand a raise in their 9-cents-an-hour pay. They were soon joined by several thousand other workers in Culver City, Venice, and Santa Monica, an uprising that led to a 20-cents-an-hour settlement. That same year, union organizer Rose Pesotta led the mostly Latina women in the garment industry in one of the few industry-wide strikes in Los Angeles' history. Community groups blocked landlords and police from evicting unemployed renters. Seniors mobilized around the Townsend Plan, initiated by a charismatic and eccentric doctor in Long Beach in 1933 and helped pass Social Security Act. In the midst of this protest, Sinclair's campaign, even in defeat, made radical ideas seem like common sense. In that climate, President Roosevelt sought to contain the rebellion and humanize capitalism by enacting a New Deal agenda that included the Wagner Act, Social Security, and a jobs program for the unemployed.

The New Deal inspired further activism. Within a year after the EPIC defeat in the Governor's race, for example, several of the city's labor, progressive, and radical organizations formed the United Organization for Progressive Political Action, and three of its candidates won election to the City Council. That same year, Tokijiro Saisho, a Socialist from Saga, initiated in Los Angeles the California Farm Laborers Association among Japanese workers. Workers at the Douglas Aviation plant in Santa Monica organized a sit-down strike in 1937, which also helped launch the successful unionization of the aerospace industry and lifted the next generation of aerospace workers into the middle class. Among low wage workers, including Asian, Mexican, and transplanted midwestern and southwestern farmers, bitter agricultural strikes in Los Angeles and the Imperial Valley foreshadowed the rise of farmworker unions in the 1940s and again in the 1960s. Police chief Red Hynes sent his police army to close the borders against the "immigrant" Okies and Arkies, and politicians used racial fears to divide the voters. Even so, a progressive coalition continued to grow in strength, culminating in the successful mayoral election of Fletcher Bowron, a Superior Court judge who was attacked by the Los Angeles Times as an "honest reformer who has become the unwitting dupe of the CIO, the Communists, and certain crackpot reformers."