Ernesto Mangaoang
Encyclopedia
Ernesto Mangaoang was a Filipino American
labor organizer. A communist
and longtime leader of immigrant Filipino laborers, Mangaoang was closely associated with Chris Mensalvas, and was a personal friend of the famous Filipino American intellectual and activist Carlos Bulosan
.
, then a colonial possession
of the United States
, Mangaoang came to the United States in the 1920s, permanently settling in 1926 and finding work among the Filipino cannery workers in the Pacific Northwest
. Dissatisfied with working conditions among the migrant and immigrant Filipino workersa largely migrant workforce working in the isolated salmon canneries in Alaska in the winter and toiling in the fields of California during the summer monthsMangaoang would rise to become a leader within Filipino American workers' movement from the beginning of the 1930s.
The fuller trajectory of Mangaoang's work as a labor activist was compelled not merely by his awareness of the poor working conditions of the Filipino longshoremen and cannery workers, but also by an early consciousness of racial divisions among the working class responsible for debilitating the workers' movement: as white laborers occupied the top rung of the labor hierarchy, minority workers systematically endured the harshest of obstacles in seeking work during the 1930s Great Depression
unemployment wave. Meanwhile, black workers were employed as strike-breakers when white workers protested dissatisfaction with their own conditions, thereby devaluing the gravity of white workers' own demands for progressive change. Terminated from work at the beginning of the Depression years, Mangaoang wrote a letter to the Oregonian in response to a report on the layoff of 60 Filipino hopyard workers: noting the systematic racism in the state's employment practices, Mangaoang concluded with a call for Filipino self-determination
, linking the struggle for Filipino independence to the fight against racism in the U.S. Northwest.
Mangaoang, together with fellow organizer Chris Mensalvas, organized the Filipino workers who made the long and dangerous voyage every year to isolated salmon canneries in Alaska. The subsequent creation of the Seattle-based Cannery Workers Union, ILWU Local 37, is credited to their efforts. Both men became officers of the ILWU Local 37 Union. The organization is recognized as "the country's first Filipino-led union."
Filipino American organizer and labor leader Philip Vera Cruz
, at the time also active in organizing the Filipino farmworkers across the West Coast region, would later recall that
Seeking to implement concretethough nonetheless radicalchanges to the largely immigrant workers' conditions, the union elected a course of putting pressure on the business owners to win better pay, demand decent housing, and doing away with a system of "hold back" policy under which capitalist growers kept half of a worker's pay until the end of the growing season. The union chose to organize a workers' walkout, and, together with Chris Mensalvas, Mangaoang led the 1948 Stockton Strike in Stockton, California
.
As Communists, Mangoang and other leaders of the ILWU Local 7 were arrested in 1950two years after the Stockton Strikeand threatened with deportation under the U.S. government's anti-communist McCarran Act. The Filipino American historian and Marxist
E. San Juan, Jr.
observes that at this time Filipino trade unionists, bearing a special place in the history of the Cold War-era crackdowns, were "brought to trial, harassed, and threatened with deportation."
The ILWU workers' union adopted a resolution issued a statement released to the Institute of Industrial Relations. Condemning the prosecution of the labor activists, it noted that
It noted that even as Mensalvas was released under a writ of habeas corpus
, Mangaoang was held for 70 days before winning the right to release on bail.
Although he had been a citizen of the United States even prior to immigrating from the Philippines, the Court sought to deport Mangaoang back, citing as precedent the approved case of the deportation of Arcadio Cabebe, expelled as a non-citizen Filipino alien, as the United States had never granted United States citizenship to inhabitants of the Philippines when it semiformally annexed the islands.
Mangoang's case, known as Mangaoang v. Boyd and proceeding all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1953, was a rare victory against the Red Scare
of the McCarthy years
: the Court upheld the appeals court decision that Mangaoang could not be deported under the Walter-McCarran Act. The attempted deportation of Mangaoang and Mensalvas was successfully fended off by lawyers from the Communist Party USAthen itself facing McCarthyite repression and charged with violating the later-repealed sections of the 1940 Smith Act
.
Not wanting to bring further harassment on the ILWU and in disagreement over union activities with other members of the ILWU 37's leadership, Mangaoang resigned from the union ranks. Spending the remainder of his life working various jobs across the Northwest.
Aged 66, he died in 1968.
Filipino American
Filipino Americans are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipino Americans, often shortened to "Fil-Ams", or "Pinoy",Filipinos in what is now the United States were first documented in the 16th century, with small settlements beginning in the 18th century...
labor organizer. A communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and longtime leader of immigrant Filipino laborers, Mangaoang was closely associated with Chris Mensalvas, and was a personal friend of the famous Filipino American intellectual and activist Carlos Bulosan
Carlos Bulosan
Also known as Julius Zafra , a Filipino, an English-language novelist and poet who spent most of his life in the United States, and is best known for the semi-autobiographical America Is in the Heart.-Life and career:Carlos Bulosan was born to Ilocano parents in...
.
Biography
Born in 1902 in the PhilippinesPhilippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, then a colonial possession
Commonwealth of the Philippines
The Commonwealth of the Philippines was a designation of the Philippines from 1935 to 1946 when the country was a commonwealth of the United States. The Commonwealth was created by the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1934. When Manuel L...
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Mangaoang came to the United States in the 1920s, permanently settling in 1926 and finding work among the Filipino cannery workers in the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
. Dissatisfied with working conditions among the migrant and immigrant Filipino workersa largely migrant workforce working in the isolated salmon canneries in Alaska in the winter and toiling in the fields of California during the summer monthsMangaoang would rise to become a leader within Filipino American workers' movement from the beginning of the 1930s.
The fuller trajectory of Mangaoang's work as a labor activist was compelled not merely by his awareness of the poor working conditions of the Filipino longshoremen and cannery workers, but also by an early consciousness of racial divisions among the working class responsible for debilitating the workers' movement: as white laborers occupied the top rung of the labor hierarchy, minority workers systematically endured the harshest of obstacles in seeking work during the 1930s Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
unemployment wave. Meanwhile, black workers were employed as strike-breakers when white workers protested dissatisfaction with their own conditions, thereby devaluing the gravity of white workers' own demands for progressive change. Terminated from work at the beginning of the Depression years, Mangaoang wrote a letter to the Oregonian in response to a report on the layoff of 60 Filipino hopyard workers: noting the systematic racism in the state's employment practices, Mangaoang concluded with a call for Filipino self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
, linking the struggle for Filipino independence to the fight against racism in the U.S. Northwest.
Mangaoang, together with fellow organizer Chris Mensalvas, organized the Filipino workers who made the long and dangerous voyage every year to isolated salmon canneries in Alaska. The subsequent creation of the Seattle-based Cannery Workers Union, ILWU Local 37, is credited to their efforts. Both men became officers of the ILWU Local 37 Union. The organization is recognized as "the country's first Filipino-led union."
Filipino American organizer and labor leader Philip Vera Cruz
Philip Vera Cruz
Philip Vera Cruz was a Filipino American labor leader, farmworker, and leader in the Asian American civil rights movement. He was a co-founder of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, which later merged with the National Farm Workers Association to become the United Farm Workers...
, at the time also active in organizing the Filipino farmworkers across the West Coast region, would later recall that
Seeking to implement concretethough nonetheless radicalchanges to the largely immigrant workers' conditions, the union elected a course of putting pressure on the business owners to win better pay, demand decent housing, and doing away with a system of "hold back" policy under which capitalist growers kept half of a worker's pay until the end of the growing season. The union chose to organize a workers' walkout, and, together with Chris Mensalvas, Mangaoang led the 1948 Stockton Strike in Stockton, California
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
.
As Communists, Mangoang and other leaders of the ILWU Local 7 were arrested in 1950two years after the Stockton Strikeand threatened with deportation under the U.S. government's anti-communist McCarran Act. The Filipino American historian and Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
E. San Juan, Jr.
E. San Juan, Jr.
Epifanio San Juan, Jr., also known as E. San Juan, Jr. , is a known Filipino American literary academic, mentor, cultural reviewer, civic intellectual, activist, writer, essayist, video/film maker, editor, and poet whose works related to the Filipino Diaspora in English and Filipino languages have...
observes that at this time Filipino trade unionists, bearing a special place in the history of the Cold War-era crackdowns, were "brought to trial, harassed, and threatened with deportation."
The ILWU workers' union adopted a resolution issued a statement released to the Institute of Industrial Relations. Condemning the prosecution of the labor activists, it noted that
It noted that even as Mensalvas was released under a writ of habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
, Mangaoang was held for 70 days before winning the right to release on bail.
Although he had been a citizen of the United States even prior to immigrating from the Philippines, the Court sought to deport Mangaoang back, citing as precedent the approved case of the deportation of Arcadio Cabebe, expelled as a non-citizen Filipino alien, as the United States had never granted United States citizenship to inhabitants of the Philippines when it semiformally annexed the islands.
Mangoang's case, known as Mangaoang v. Boyd and proceeding all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1953, was a rare victory against the Red Scare
Red Scare
Durrell Blackwell Durrell Blackwell The term Red Scare denotes two distinct periods of strong Anti-Communism in the United States: the First Red Scare, from 1919 to 1920, and the Second Red Scare, from 1947 to 1957. The First Red Scare was about worker revolution and...
of the McCarthy years
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
: the Court upheld the appeals court decision that Mangaoang could not be deported under the Walter-McCarran Act. The attempted deportation of Mangaoang and Mensalvas was successfully fended off by lawyers from the Communist Party USAthen itself facing McCarthyite repression and charged with violating the later-repealed sections of the 1940 Smith Act
Smith Act
The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S...
.
Not wanting to bring further harassment on the ILWU and in disagreement over union activities with other members of the ILWU 37's leadership, Mangaoang resigned from the union ranks. Spending the remainder of his life working various jobs across the Northwest.
Aged 66, he died in 1968.