The second decade of the 20th Century was a cauldron of reform and social upheaval. President Teddy Roosevelt initiated many reforms that are still with the nation today- like the Food and Drug Administration that he created after reading Upton Sinclair’s book “The Jungle” about the sordid conditions in the meatpacking industry. He then created the National Park Service, creating the first national parks. This is just a few of his accomplishments―but he was the last Republican president to stand with the working class.
The progressive movement emerged in Los Angeles for some of the very same reasons it did elsewhere―workers’ rights, government reform (ending corruption in office), child labor laws, creating a “livable city,” and the creation of the municipal water and power system (the Department of Water and Power). It was also the time when LA annexed the cities of Wilmington and San Pedro to create the Port of Los Angeles as a publicly owned harbor.
These were the days of radical ideas clashing with capital private enterprise ― a struggle that has lasted for more than a century but one the city still struggles with today.
In the 1911 LA mayoral race, there was a runoff between incumbent George Alexander and Job Harriman―an ordained minister and socialist. Harriman led in the primary 44.32 to 36.87 for Alexander.
At the same time, Harriman was involved with defending the case of the McNamara brothers, who were being prosecuted for bombing the LA Times building, then owned by one of the most anti-union publishers, Harrison Grey Otis. Harriman, along with famous attorney Clarence Darrow, argued that the LA Times explosion was caused by a gas leak. But in the end, the McNamara boys pleaded guilty, fearing a death penalty verdict.
This cast a shadow over the Harriman campaign and he lost 62 to 38. The real cause of the Times explosion is still disputed to this very day.
It would be another decade before socialists were to rise again after World War I, when radicals were jailed for speaking out against the war, as Eugene Debs did, as he ran for president from inside a penitentiary, receiving over 900 thousand votes. After the war the “red scare” was started with the Palmer raids on radicals and union members. And it was in 1923 that the International Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies as they were called) went on strike in San Pedro Bay.
They idled hundreds of ships, and the then Mayor Cryer intended to break the strike when a rally was held at Liberty Hill and the famous author Upton Sinclair, who was a socialist) came to speak. Mayor Cryer threatened him with arrest and the LAPD was dispatched to San Pedro. Sinclair being the erudite man that he was, accepted the challenge and stood up in front of thousands of striking dock workers and read the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. You know the part about free speech. Well before he could finish he was arrested and thrown in jail along with hundreds of striking Wobblies.
Sinclair was held incommunicado for days as the police wanted to quickly bring him to trial before he could be represented by a lawyer. Well that plan failed, Sinclair was released and Los Angeles became the center of this controversy. The case was eventually dropped and the following year the Wobbly Hall was busted up by the Ku Klux Klan, the police chief was fired and the city started to reform the city charter.
This incident also started the Southern California branch of the ACLU. It was not fully reported until 1993, when this paper researched the event with the help of Art Alameda and was involved in placing a monument at the site of Liberty Hill.
Ten years after the Liberty Hill incident, the Longshoremen went on strike again and, under the leadership of Harry Bridges, a former IWW member and accused commie, won the 1933 strike and out of that the ILWU was born.
This may seem like the long way around saying that the City of Los Angeles is once again in the struggle between progressives and conservative capital except that this time it’s an internal struggle within the Democratic Party. The rise of the Democratic Socialists of America against traditional liberal Dems. And the DSA seems to be gaining ground, perhaps more because of the cruelty, failures, and corruption of the Republican Party and the Orange Felon, but also because the economics are leaning towards universal health care, free college education, all of the ideals of what President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called the “second Bill of Rights.” Rights that focused on economic freedoms.
And the thing is that these rights are massively popular with the American people polling as high as 73% on some issues. And it is only now, when the current administration has surged the national debt to $39 trillion (One trillion a year on interest payments alone), that people say, “And why exactly can’t we afford national health care”? Yes, if we can spend $40 billion on an illegal war that few believe in, wouldn’t it make America Great again if that money was spent at home as opposed to some insane crusade?
Again this progressive battle ground is now playing out in this coming November election. It will once again come down to which way the LA electorate will choose to vote: progressive change or stasis. If you are unhappy with the state of the city now, this will be the time to speak up and be heard.