Labor’s protective campaigns doubled as exclusionary racial and gender agendas
Evidence
Good solid jobs with good solid wages for men: this was a goal behind the campaign against child labor, against contract workers flooding in from the outside, against the labor of women in factories, against convicts (“slaves of the state”) who worked for little or nothing. Organized labor also strongly supported laws against Asians on the West Coast. The Workingmen’s Party led the agitation in California in the 1870s against the “Yellow Peril” of Chinese labor. No one was as stridently in favor for Chinese exclusion as the labor movement, especially in California. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3196
Categorization
- XREF: Extends the ch75 thread on anti-Chinese violence and exclusion by showing organized labor as its leading engine. — connects to: Postemancipation indentureship reproduced racial exclusion against all new labor groups — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3240; Media reports of abuse control gendered labor migration — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims: Race and Labor in…, 500; Racial discourse actively produces exclusion, not just retroactive justification — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 24 (+1 more)
- SEED: The unifying rubric ‘good solid jobs for men’ across child, convict, female, and Chinese labor is a tight frame for an essay on protective legislation’s exclusionary core.
Broader Connections
- Postemancipation indentureship reproduced racial exclusion against all new labor groups
#expands(0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3240 - Racial discourse actively produces exclusion, not just retroactive justification
#corroborates(0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 24 - Racial ideology actively constitutes labor regimes rather than merely justifying them
#corroborates(0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1448 - Media reports of abuse control gendered labor migration
#exemplifies(0.78) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 500