The Workingmen's Party of California (WPC) was an American labor organization, founded in 1877 and led by Denis Kearney, J. G. Day, and H. L. Knight. Its famous slogan was "The Chinese must go!"

Organizational history

As a result of heavy unemployment from the 1873–1878 national depression, Sand Lot rallies erupted in San Francisco that led to the Party's formation in 1877. In

1879 Events January * January 1 ** The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The United States Note is valued the same as gold, for the first time since the American Civil War. ** Brahms' Violin Concerto is premiered in Leipzig with Joseph Joachim ...

, the party won 11 seats in the

State Senate In the United States, the state legislature is the legislative branch in each of the 50 U.S. states. A legislature generally performs state duties for a state in the same way that the United States Congress performs national duties at ...

and 17 in the State Assembly. They also rewrote the state's constitution, denying

Chinese Americans Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...

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 and Pacific Railroad companies that were run by Crocker, Huntington, Hopkins and Stanford. The party took particular aim against cheap Chinese immigrant labor and the Central Pacific Railroad which employed them. Their goal was to "rid the country of Chinese cheap labor." Kearney's attacks against the Chinese were of a particularly virulent and openly

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

nature, and found considerable support among Californians of the time. This sentiment led eventually to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. By 1883, there were no WPC members left in either the State Senate or the State Assembly. Kearney's party should not be confused with the

Workingmen's Party of the United States The Workingmen's Party of the United States (WPUS), established in 1876, was one of the first Marxist-influenced political parties in the United States. It is remembered as the forerunner of the Socialist Labor Party of America. History On Jul ...

, which was mostly based in the Eastern United States. The branches of the Workingmen's Party of the United States that were in California were absorbed into the Workingmen's Party of California after the latter was growing at a rapid rate and had adopted similar language.

Members

City officials

* Denis Kearney, party president * J. G. Day, party vice president * H. L. Knight, party secretary * Isaac Smith Kalloch, Mayor of San Francisco (1879–1881) * Washburne R. Andrus, Mayor of Oakland (1878–1880), candidate for Lieutenant Governor (1879) * James R. Toberman, Mayor of Los Angeles (1872–1874, 1878–1882) * William Jefferson Hunsaker, Mayor of San Diego (1888) * Abel Whitton, President of the Berkeley Board of Trustees (1878–1881) * John F. Godfrey, Los Angeles City Attorney (1876–1880) * Cayetano Apablasa, member of the Los Angeles Common Council (1877–1878), candidate for State Senate (1880)

State officials

* Samuel B. McKee, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court (1880–1887) * George Stoneman, Rail Commissioner (1880–1883), Governor of California (1883–1887) * William F. White, candidate for Governor (1879), Bank Commissioner (1879–1887) * James J. Ayers, candidate for U.S. Representative (1879), State Printer (1883–1887) * John W. Bones, California State Senator (1878–1880) * John P. West, California State Senator (1880–1883) * Warren Chase, California State Senator (1880–1883) * William J. Hill, California State Senator (1880–1883) * Robert Desty, California State Senator-elect (1880, not seated) * Charles C. Conger, California State Senator (1880–1883) * Thomas Kane, California State Senator (1880–1883) * Thorwald Klaudius Nelson, California State Senator (1880–1885) * Joseph C. Gorman, California State Senator (1880–1883) * Martin Kelly, California State Senator (1880–1887) * John S. Enos, California State Senator (1880–1883) * Pierce H. Ryan, California State Senator (1880–1885) * Charles W. Cross, candidate for California Attorney General (1879), California State Senator (1883–1887) * Thomas J. Pinder, California State Assemblyman (1881–1883), California State Senator (1887–1891) * Samuel Braunhart, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881), California State Senator (1897–1900), Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (1900–1906) * J. E. Clark, California State Assemblyman (1878–1880) * Elihu Anthony, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881) * William W. Cuthbert, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881) * Stephen J. Garibaldi, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881) * William J. Sinon, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881, 1883–1885) * John J. McCallion, California State Assemblyman (1880–1883) * Jeremiah J. McCarthy, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881) * Garrett Pickett, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881) *

John Burns John Elliot Burns (20 October 1858 – 24 January 1943) was an English trade unionist and politician, particularly associated with London politics and Battersea. He was a socialist and then a Liberal Member of Parliament and Minister. He was ...

, California State Assemblyman (1880–1883) * Patrick T. Gaffey, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881) * Michael Lane, California State Assemblyman (1880–1883) * John J. McDade, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881) * A. B. Maguire, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881), Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (1900) * Stephen Maybell, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881) * Jeremiah Levee, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881) * Anderson N. Walker, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881) * Dennis Geary, California State Assemblyman (1881–1883) * Horace J. Jackson, California State Assemblyman (1881–1883)

Federal officials

* John R. Glascock, candidate for U.S. Representative (1880), U.S. Representative (1883–1885) * James G. Maguire, California State Assemblyman (1875–1877), Judge of the San Francisco County Superior Court (1882–1888), U.S. Representative (1893–1899)

Other members

* Carl Browne, cartoonist *

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist, Social philosophy, social philosopher and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of ...

, economist

References

External links

September 3, 1879 General Election

November 2, 1880 General Election

California's Second Constitutional Convention

George W. Greene, ''The Labor agitators, or, The Battle for Bread: The Party of the Future, the Workingmen's Party of California: Is Birth and Organization. Its Leaders and Its Purposes: Corruption in Our Local and State Governments. Venality of the Press.'' San Francisco: George W. Greene
n.d. . 1879 * Denis Kearney, ''The Workingmen's Party of California: An Epitome of Its Rise and Progress.'' San Francisco: Bacon, 1878. * �
''Speeches of Dennis Kearney, Labor Champion.''
New York: Jesse Haney & Co., 1878.
''Chinatown Declared a Nuisance!''
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 (August 1967), pp. 269–288. * Mary Gabriel O'Connor, ''Denis Kearney, Sand-lot Orator: A Chronicle of California.'' M.A. thesis. Dominican College of San Rafael A 1937. * Robert Dean Potter, ''Denis Kearney: A Reappraisal.'' M.A. thesis. Chico State University, 1969. {{Authority control Anti-immigration politics in the United States Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States White nationalism in California White supremacist groups in the United States White nationalist parties Left-wing populism in the United States 1877 establishments in California