AH QUON McELRATH

The digital age and streaming have created conditions where many performers can barely make ends meet, even those appearing in high profile productions. For the many who eke out a living on local productions, the situation is dire. (See: SAG-AFTRA Can Agree on One Thing: It’s Time to Crush the Big Studios). CLEAR’s Rice & Roses documentary specials have a proud tradition of utilizing SAG-AFTRA members. SAG-AFTRA and the WGA are fighting some of the wealthiest corporations in America. I’m reminded of the 1946 Sugar Strike in Hawaiʻi, when 26, 000 workers challenged Hawaiʻi’s Big Five corporations and the feudalistic system that allowed a handful of companies/families to control the entire economy. The sugar workers and their union waged a successful strike and broke the back of the Hawaii oligarchy! Eddie Lapa, a former sugar worker and later president of ILWU Local 142 reminds us of a simple truth:

AQ’s friend, Claire Shimabukuro, recounts some of the issues that AQ encountered in her fight for health care.

Franklin Odo, died in September. He was a teacher and leader in the struggle for human and civil rights. He used his scholarship to challenge racist beliefs and outmoded paradigms of racial superiority. His thinking and teaching cast light on dark and hidden corners of history. He inspired countless numbers of students, fellow academics, and the general public to examine heritage and personal history as a key to understanding the bigger picture. Franklin was born in Hawai‘i. His parents were shop keepers and later farmers. He graduated from Kaimuki High School and went on to earn degrees from Princeton (BA and PhD), and Harvard (MA). Franklin had a huge influence on the development of Asian American history and Ethnic Studies throughout the United States. He also had a major influence on me. We met in 1982 shortly after I was selected to produce and host Rice & Roses, the then-weekly public TV program about labor and the working class. I had significant experience in social and economic justice struggles on the US Continent, but had only a superficial understanding of Hawai‘i history. Franklin, who was appointed (in 1978) director of the Ethnic Studies Program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa became a mentor and then a friend for more 40 years. In 2009, I interviewed Franklin in conjunction with a Rice & Roses special: Canefield Songs: Holehole Bushi. He was in the process of writing his book, Voices from the Canefields (Oxford University Press 2013), and we had collaborated on video interviews with several women who would be featured in both the documentary and book. In this interview, he shared a wonderful story about his personal transition from elitist academia to a pioneer in the field of Asian American Studies. Franklin developed and directed the Asian Pacific American Program at the Smithsonian Institution, then was Interim Chief of the Asia Division of the Library of Congress, and finally returned to teaching as the John Woodruff Lecturer at Amherst College. For those wishing to know more, visit this website. Franklin’s long and distinguished career is a testament to the knowledge that the struggle never ends. He will be sorely missed. But fortunately he has equipped his many students and colleagues with the tools to continue the struggle against racism and oppression! Aloha Oe, Franklin Odo!

Leonard Hoshijo's role as ILWU Housing Representative and Organizer in an interview for Rice & Roses that was conducted by my predecessor Max Roffman.

Leonard Hoshijo addressing a session for ILWU shop stewards.

In 1958 the Territorial Legislature doubled the number of legislators and the ILWU organized support for progressive candidates including some of its own people, like Yoshito Takamine. Takamine was elected to office with only a 30 vote margin over his rival. Takamine stayed in office after Hawaiʻi Statehood in 1959 and served for 12 consecutive terms. As Chair of the House Labor Committee he helped pass legislation protecting workers. His leadership was responsible for the passage of legislation giving public employees the right to form a union. He was the principal architect of the Hawaiʻi Prepaid Healthcare Act (1974).

Historian, Dr. Franklin Odo tells of Hideo “Major” Okada and how baseball helped advance union organizing.

Olaa Plantation’s Yasu Arakaki shared his story in a 1995 interview about “what’s in a name, baseball and union organizing”. Yasu was a brilliant organizer and headed up the Hawaii Island baseball league and the ILWU effort to organize the island!

Ben Achetta recalls being recruited on the boat on his way to Hawaiʻi.

Alfredo Villanueva remembers picketing during the strike and the recruitment of Filipino workers.

The Union scored an important victory when their supporters in the Seamen's union succeeded while en route to Hawaiʻi, in signing up Filipino workers in the ILWU. They marched off the ship with union cards in hand!

Hawaiʻi’s plantation system used racial manipulation to divide workers and maintain control. Workers were segregated into racial camps and a divide and conquer strategy was employed to keep them from working together to improve their lives. The ILWU had to overcome these divisions as labor organizers sought the creation of one big industrial union, with worker democracy and equality as guiding principles. Sugar worker, Tony Bise explains how immigrant groups were segregated by plantation owners.

Former plantation store worker and union activist, Mitsue “Butch” Thompson, explains how racial unity was a key to ILWU organizing that led to a major victory in the 1946 sugar strike. This 79 day strike marked the beginning of the end of “Big 5” hegemony and the oligarchy’s dominance of Hawaiʻi’s working class!

Mamoru Yamasaki on the 1949 Dock Strike fight for wage parity for Hawaii Longshoremen who were paid less than their counterparts on the West Coast

Hawaiʻi plantation workers were subject to despotic rule by plantation owners and bosses. Yasu Arakaki recalls how the plantation manager attempted to pressure him to break off his engagement to marry.

Plantation workers were often subjected to a system of bribery in order to win concessions from bosses. Yasu Arakaki tells a story of a particularly painful episode for his family.

ILWU social worker Ah Quon McElrath was instrumental in helping to organize and preparing workers for a strike. Her friend Claire Shimabukro reccounts how AQ taught her the craft of labor organizing.

Olaa Plantation worker, Yasu Arakaki, possessed organizational skills, and helped design the structure for the 1946 Sugar Strike. He also became involved in organizing the political campaign that was necessary to compliment union economic bargaining.

Seiko “Shirley” Shiroma’s parents moved to Kahuku when he was 7 years old. He grew up on the plantation and as a kid began working in the fields. He experienced harsh and uncaring treatment by the bosses and became a leader in the ILWU movement to organize workers.

International Longshore & Warehouse Union, Local 142 (ILWU) stevedores went on strike in 1949 to win wage parity with mainland dock workers. Stevedore Enoka Kaohi was from the island of Kauaʻi and explains how longshore workers were able to feed their families during the six month strike.

On September 1, 1946 26,000 Hawaiʻi sugar workers and their families (76,000 in all) began a 79 day strike. The strike soup kitchen played an important role in maintaining unity.