Study of the 20tli

century labour scene in Hawaii

A Spark is Struck! Jack Hall and the ILWU in Hawaii. By Sanford Zalburg. Published by the University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1979. ISBN 0 8248 0672 7. Paperback 5U54.95.

Hawaii’s sugar planters began

importing immigrant labour in

the mid-19th century. Planters’ representatives roamed the globe, recruiting men in China, Japan, Portugal, the South Pa cific, and the Philippines.

Hundreds of thousands came to Hawaii. They found hard work, minimal salaries, and, too often, harsh treatment at the hands of Caucasian supervisors. Many labourers expressed their unrest by aban doning the plantations as soon as their contracts expired.

Others took part in strikes, walkouts, and, occasionally, vi olence.

In 1909, 1920, and 1924 three massive strikes shook Hawaii’s sugar industry. All were led by racially-based unions: in 1909 Japanese struck, in 1920 a loose alliance of Japanese and Filipino unions left the fields, in 1924 Filipinos walked out alone. All failed. The planters refused to deal with labour

collectively. They broke the

strikes with a combination of police action, eviction of strikers from plantation hous ing, and importation of more tractable immigrant labour.

By the mid-1930s Hawaii’s labour movement was mori

bund. It did not long remain so, for in 1935 it was reinvigorated by two events. On July 5, 1933, the United States Congress passed the National Labour Relations Act which guaran teed labour’s right to bargain collectively. And on October 28, 1935, Jack Hall, a skinny young seaman from San Fran cisco, arrived in Honolulu.

Over the next three decades Hall preached labour unity to Hawaii’s multi-racial work force. His instrument was the

International Longshoremen’s

and Warehousemen’s Union.

In A Spark is Struck! The IL WU in Hawaii , Sanford Zal burg tells of Hall’s rise from a field organiser to ILWU re

gional director, a position

which helped make him by the mid-1950s Hawaii’s ‘biggest power broker’.

Martial law blunted the or

ganisational gains made by the

ILWU in the pre-war years.

But with the war’s end in 1945, union organisers spread out among the islands’ sugar plan tations. By 1946 they were ready, and they called for an industry-wide sugar strike. The result was the first significant victory for multi-racial union ism in the Islands.

Hall’s story is not one of uninterrupted progress. A 1947 strike of the pineapple industry failed because of poor plan ning and sloppy execution. In 1949 a strike by dock workers seeking wage parity with their

California counterparts tied up island shipping for 177 days.

Hawaii’s population knew scarcity of vital goods, and it responded with anger and bit terness towards the ILWU.

Worse was to come. In August, 1951, Hall and six others were charged as com munists with advocating the overthrow of the United States

Government. The legal joust

ings lasted three years, the trial itself seven months. Hall and his co-defendants were found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. Several years later the convictions were re versed. But the publicity sur rounding Hall’s undeniable communist ties branded the ILWU as subversive.

The strength of Hall’s character ultimately obviated the red scare. Hall’s word was good, and managers and poli ticians alike came to respect him- They learned that Hall’s foremost consideration, al ways, was the betterment of the working man in Hawaii. By the time of his death in 1971, Hall was acknowledged as one of the principal builders of mod ern Hawaii.

A Spark Is Struck! Jack Hall and the ILWU in Hawaii is an eminently readable book. Zal burg has brought to it all the skills of his 30 years in jour nalism and an awesome amount of research.

If the book is wanting in any respect, it is in Zalburg’s failure

to analyse and to interpret Hall’s actions. And at times Hall’s actions cry out for in terpretation. Still, Sanford Zal burg has made a significant contribution to our knowledge

of 20th century Hawaii.

Dan

Boylan.