Workingmen's Party of California


The Workingmen's Party of California was an American labor organization and political party, founded in 1877 and led by Denis Kearney. Remembered primarily for its anti-Chinese racism, the party's famous slogan was "The Chinese must go!"

Organizational history

As a result of heavy unemployment from the Long Depression, Sand Lot rallies erupted in San Francisco that led to the Party's formation in 1877. In 1878, the party won 51 out of 152 delegates to California's Second Constitutional Convention, rewriting the state constitution to deny Chinese Americans voting rights in California. The most important part of the constitution included the formation of a California Railroad Commission that would oversee the activities of the Central Pacific Railroad that were run by Crocker, Huntington, Hopkins and Stanford. In 1879, the party won 10 seats in the State Senate and 16 in the State Assembly.
The party's goal was to "rid the country of Chinese cheap labor," taking aim against Chinese emigrants and the railroad companies that employed them. Kearney's attacks against the Chinese were of a particularly virulent and openly racist nature, and found considerable support among working-class Californians of the time. Ironically, the party's strongest supporters were immigrants themselves; a majority of party members were Irish-born, with dedicated German, French, Swiss-Italian, Scandinavian and Spanish clubs. The party even attempted to organize the city's black community.
Following the 1879 elections, the party began to decline in power and influence as its elected officials, stonewalled by their opponents and mostly inexperienced themselves, were unable to fulfill their bold campaign promises. In 1880, the party was torn apart by one faction seeking to affiliate with the Democratic Party and another seeking to affiliate with the Greenback-Labor Party. By October 1881, the Workingmen's Party had effectively ceased to exist. The next year, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Relation to the WPUS

Kearney's party should not be confused with the Workingmen's Party of the United States, which was mostly based in the Eastern United States. The branches of the Workingmen's Party of the United States located in California were absorbed into the Workingmen's Party of California after "practically all members" of the former abandoned it for the latter, which was growing at a rapid rate and had adopted similar language. One such member was Charles J. Beerstecher, elected to the Railroad Commission in 1879, who originally headed the German language section of the WPUS in San Francisco.

Members

City officials

State officials

Other members

Endorsees

City officials

State officials

Federal officials

Books and pamphlets

  • , n.d. .
  • Denis Kearney, The Workingmen's Party of California: An Epitome of Its Rise and Progress. San Francisco: Bacon, 1878.
  • New York: Jesse Haney & Co., 1878.
  • San Francisco, 1880.
  • Neil Larry Shumsky, The Evolution of Political Protest and the Workingmen's Party of California. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1992.

Journal articles and dissertations

  • Frank Michael Fahey, Denis Kearney: A Study in Demagoguery. Ph.D. dissertation. Stanford University, 1956.
  • Roger William Hite, The Public Speaking of Denis Kearney, Labor Agitator. M.S. thesis. University of Oregon, 1967.
  • Helen Havens Ingalls, The History of the Workingmen's Party of California. M.A. thesis. University of California, Berkeley, 1919.
  • Charles Herzl Kahn, In-group and Out-group Responses to Radical Party Leadership: A Study of the Workingmen's Party of California. M.A. thesis. University of California, Berkeley, 1951.
  • Carole Carter Mauss, The San Jose Branch of the Workingmen's Party of California, 1878-1880. M.A. thesis, San Jose State University, 1997.
  • Doyce B. Nunis, Jr., "The Demagogue and the Demographer: Correspondence of Denis Kearney and Lord Bryce," Pacific Historical Review, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 269–288.
  • Mary Gabriel O'Connor, Denis Kearney, Sand-lot Orator: A Chronicle of California. M.A. thesis. Dominican College of San Rafael, 1937.
  • Robert Dean Potter, Denis Kearney: A Reappraisal. M.A. thesis. Chico State University, 1969.