Resistance, Radicalism, and Repression on the Oxnard Plain: The Social Context of the Betabelero Strike of 1933

FRANK P. BARAJAS

During the Great Depression beet sugar growers on the Oxnard Plain cut the wages of laborers. This, coupled with a tradition of resistance to injustice, sparked a strike by betabeleros (sugar beet workers) that was supported by the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union, the Mexican community, and cross-cultural alliances.
THIS NARRATIVE EXAMINES THE 1933 mobilization of the Mexican community of Oxnard, California—located sixty miles northwest of Los Angeles—on the behalf of los betabeleros during the early years of the Great Depression. In August of 1933, Mexicanos del betabel organized under the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU) to demand a thirty-five cent an hour wage, a comparable 30 to 50 percent increase in the piece rate, an eight-hour work day, regular Saturday paydays, nondiscrimination in hiring regardless of nationality, union affiliation or with the Filipino Protective League (FPL), free transportation to and from job sites, the elimination of the use of labor contractors, employment through a union hall, and union recognition.	1
Figure 1. Mexican betabeleros of the Oxnard Plain during the first half of the twentieth century. Photo courtesy of the Port of Hueneme, Oxnard Harbor District.
In support of the CAWIU, men and women took to the streets, picketed the monstrous American Beet Sugar Company (ABSC) factory, and urged all employees within the plant to support the strike. As the resistance of the Mexican community and los betabeleros galvanized, individuals and organizations from beyond the Oxnard Plain—such as A. L. Wirin of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Emma Cutler of the International Labor Defense (ILD)—monitored events and became involved in the strike—and the stakes were high in a lucrative industry that rewarded Ventura County sugar beet farmers with over $2 million annually. As los betabeleros garnered a critical mass of support from inside—and from outside—the community, farmers of the Oxnard Plain systematically collaborated with the law agencies of Ventura County to crush the strike.	2
The betabelero strike of 1933—a specific response to the increasing commercialization of agriculture on the Oxnard Plain—is part of a longer tradition of resistance to injustice. This strike, similar to a seminal conflict thirty years prior, established the foundation upon which subsequent labor battles were built. And while the Mexican community of Oxnard led the mobilization of protest and opposition, it was aided by a cross-cultural coalition. Individuals and groups representing a variety of temperaments and agendas formed coalitions with Mexicans of Oxnard to advance the cause of los betabeleros. This diversity of interests in the 1933 strike was also a hindrance. In this respect, protraction of the strike allowed for the emergence of ideological, as well as intra- and inter-ethnic, fissures. Coupled with this, the bottom-up organization of the CAWIU inhibited the formation of a core leadership. Despite its limited success, the strike serves as an important prism in which to examine the institutional features that supported an existing tradition of courage and determination within the Oxnard Mexican community prior to and after 1933.	. . .