[LABOR] [SPINACH RIOT] "Get Weapons for Labor Battle" [photograph of striking workers with their backs to the camera, posing with billy clubs in anticipation of confrontation with police]

[Photographer not identified]

Editore: [Associated Press?], [Stockton, California], 1937

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One photograph, nicely matted and framed (not examined out of frame). The print measures about 10" x 8", and the entire frame measures about 16" x 14". The print appears to be in very good condition, possibly laid to a backing board, with two visible flattened creases to the right side of the image. Backed to the backing paper on verso is the original caption snipe (not credited, but with a code quite similar to those used by the AP during this time), which reads, in full: (10FX) Stockton, Calif., April 23-Get Weapons for Labor Battle-Scene as pickets of the agricultural workers reported at headquarters to-day to arm themselves with clubs, bats, and wrenches. A few hours later a riot broke out as a strikebound cannery opened. Upwards of 50 persons were injured (OTB61140EHk) 1937. On April 23, 1937, workers in several canneries in Stockton, California struck for better pay and working conditions, having reached an impasse with their employers. Supported by the radical I. W. W., the C. I. O., and International Longshoreman's Association (San Francisco's most radical trade union), the union workers went on strike, and about 700 local anti-union workers, farmers, and probably hired hands were already waiting for them with a truckload of pickaxes provided by the sheriff of San Joaquin County (The Stockton Record). The strike almost instantly escalated, with picketing workers disabling delivery trucks, and police and anti-union forces retaliating with violence. After three hours, the canneries finally closed and began negotiating with the strikers. A tentative agreement was reached on April 28th through mediation by Republican Governor Frank Merriam. The strike was short-lived, and one of the most violent in California's history; as stated in the snipe, about 50 people were seriously injured, though there was also at least one death. While the strike was well-covered by newspapers at the time, and there are a number of extant photographs from April 23, we were unable to locate this particular image using broad searches online. Though not specifically credited to the AP, the code on the snipe is quite similar to that on another photograph from a San Francisco strike recently in our possession, which emerged from the same collection, which was indeed credited to the AP. A fantastic image of striking cannery workers, ready - though almost certainly terrified - for a violent confrontation with their bosses, police, farmers, and other hostile forces.

Codice articolo 7917

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• Titolo: [LABOR] [SPINACH RIOT] "Get Weapons for Labor Battle" [photograph of striking workers with their backs to the camera, posing with billy clubs in anticipation of confrontation with police]
• Editore: [Associated Press?], [Stockton, California]
• Data di pubblicazione: 1937
• Condizione: Very good
• Cataloghi dei venditori:
  • Labor history