MODULE 7

ALLOS’ ACTIVISM

Introduction

Bulosan’s creative drive was fuelled by what he experienced first-hand: Filipinos and other minorities abused in
America, institutionalized racism, and workers exploited by capitalist owners. This module will explore Allos’ activism
and will identify the significant people who, in one way or the other, helped him in his battles.

II. Lecture

Allos joined the labor movement sometime within his first three years in America. He was not on the front
lines or working in the fields; his later injuries and poor health prevented active participation. Instead, he contributed
to and edited various union newspapers and magazines, providing a literary foundation to the labor movement and
clear expression of Filipino demands. Bulosan’s work proved ultimately successful, as Filipinos slowly gained better
economic opportunities and civil rights.

By 1934, Carlos Bulosan worked the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America
(UCAPAWA) as its publicist. He edited UCAPAWA’s magazine, The New Tide, and came into contact with
progressive writers around the country. UCAPAWA was organized by the food processing workers in Salinas, CA
and fish cannery workers in Seattle.117 In his autobiography, Bulosan states that he took over the magazine after its
original creator, the socialist lawyer Pascual, passed away.

Later that year, he met Crispulo “Chris” Mensalvas and Claro Candelario, both Filipino labor organizers, in
Los Angeles. They regularly met at the Los Angeles Public Library, where Bulosan undoubtedly continued his
voracious reading. The three friends and other leftist Filipinos formed the Committee for the Protection of Filipino
Rights (CPFR), a branch of the American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born. According to Bulosan’s
FBI file, he served as CPFR’s Commission Secretary. CPFR campaigned to get 20,000 signatures in support for
Filipino naturalization. Their campaign was supported by New York Congressman Vito Marcantonio, a representative
of the American Labor Party. In 1940, CPFR moved to Stockton, where America’s Filipino population was heavily
concentrated, and published their radical newspaper, the Commonwealth Times.

Rather than join larger parties, Bulosan originally wanted to establish separate Filipino units, which he
already did with CPFR. He was criticized among some activists for being a “divisionist” – that is, undermining the
strength of the labor movement by creating these separated groups. But Bulosan believed organizations focusing on
Filipinos would work best for his countrymen. President Harry Truman signed the Filipino Naturalization Bill in 1946,
enabling Filipinos to become citizens. The signing of the bill indicated the success of Bulosan and CPFR.

The Philippines also gained its independence from the United States on July 4 th 1946, as was provided by
the TydingsMcDuffie Act. Carlos Bulosan never applied for citizenship.

In May 1948, Stockton’s Local 7 labor union led an asparagus strike. Bulosan helped fellow Filipino labor
activists Claro Candelario, Chris Mensalvas, Ernesto Mangaoang, Larry Itliong, and Phillip Vera Cruz with the strike’s
organization. With over 1,500 asparagus workers marching through downtown Stockton, it was one of the largest
strikes in American history to date. But the strike was ultimately unsuccessful; the Cold War was already underway,
and farmers, police, and conservative Filipinos used red-baiting tactics to undermine the strike.
 One of Bulosan’s largest roles in the labor movement was his election to the office of Publicity Director for
the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 37 chapter, based in Seattle.

Carlos Bulosan and Chris Mensalvas with Union workers, ca. 1950s

Bulosan was rushed to Firland Sanatorium, a tuberculosis hospital in Seattle, on the day the 1952 yearbook
was released. ILWU officers, such as Mensalvas, scrambled to raise funds to pay for Bulosan’s hospital bills – at
least eighty workers donated. They asked union members and workers to contribute to the Carlos Bulosan Fund,
whose slogan read:

“TO HELP CARLOS BULOSAN, IS TO HELP LABOR!!! DO CONTRIBUTE GENEROUSLY”

Bulosan was released from Firland Sanatorium in 1953, and returned to work for Local 37. In 1954, he
began working on a new Constitution for Local 37, and was transcribing committee meetings. Letters reveal that
ILWU Local 37 slowly won major victories:

“From $30 a month’s [sic] poor food, unsanitary living conditions, deductions, etc. to $250 a month
guarantee [sic] (plus overtime), free plane transportation back and forth, special meals, modern housing, free medical
services, sick benefits, etc.”

Local 37 shifted their focus within the Cold War context. ILWU was also fighting for the rights of Alaskan
workers. Filipinos there were still subject to deportation under the McCarran-Walter Act, since Alaska was not
admitted to the Union until 1959. ILWU won civil rights and liberties and secured better conditions for workers, but
now turned their attention to fighting fascism and reactionism (extremely conservative politics).

In a letter to Aurelio, dated September 16, 1950, Bulosan stated that within the last few months he made
connections with “the people’s liberation movement” in the Philippines, and that he already attempted to connect
some of his relatives to that movement.136 One of the dead guerillas possessed a letter written by “Julie,” one of
Bulosan’s aliases. Defense Minister Ramon Magsaysay accused Bulosan of being one of the Hukbalahap. Bulosan
became a persona non grata in the Philippines for over ten years because of the alleged red taint.
 The FBI conducted surveillance on Bulosan beginning in 1949. They collected data from everywhere they
could – Stockton, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle. Additionally, they checked everything they could – mail, tax
records, and credit records. He knew he was being watched, but likely did not know to what extent the FBI invaded
his privacy. Regardless, this did not stop his creativity and activist work.

The FBI wanted to get enough information to justify Bulosan’s deportation, based on his political leanings.
This was a difficult task already, because of Bulosan’s commission to write “Freedom from Want,” his (apparent)
work with Naval Intelligence and the Office of War Information, and his literary fame. Given his contact with the
Hukbalahap, the FBI may have identified him as a Communist spy. It is also possible the FBI perceived him as an
international terrorist threat.

Within ILWU Local 37’s 1952 yearbook, Bulosan wrote an article “Terrorism Rides the Philippines.” In the
article, Bulosan criticized Defense Secretary Ramon Magsaysay and especially Philippine President Manuel Roxas.
Bulosan denounced Roxas for signing agreements that directly benefitted American special interests, at the cost of
the Filipino People: Roxas signed both the Philippine Trade Act (1946) and Parity Amendment (1947), which gave
American businesses equal rights as Filipinos to use the country’s natural resources. These agreements served only
large corporations, and promoted U.S. neocolonialism in the Philippines.

Later in the article, Bulosan decries Roxas’s attacks on the Hukbalahap, the Communist guerilla group that
originally led the Philippine resistance against the Japanese during World War Two. In doing so, Bulosan was
accused of being part of an international Communist conspiracy by Philippine Secretary of Defense Ramon
Magsaysay. The Communist Hukbalahap was also considered dangerous by the American government, because the
Philippines were in close proximity to the Soviet Union (thereby reinforcing the Domino Theory). The article further
contributed to Bulosan’s disfavor with the Philippine and United States government.

Bulosan wrote either a poem or short story entitled, “The Battle Hymn of the Hukbalahaps,” which does not
appear or was not included in the Carlos Bulosan Papers. He also wrote a novel that used the Huk Rebellion as
historical base. The book was titled The Cry and the Dedication, edited by Epifanio San Juan, Jr., and posthumously
published in 1995. Judging from these two works, it is certain that Bulosan contacted the Hukbalahap to write a
contemporary history of the Philippines, and not to overthrow any government.

In 1954, Bulosan contacted the FBI’s Seattle office to request an interview with an agent. The interview was
granted, and Bulosan hoped to set his record straight. He denied any association with the Communist Party,
defended his occupation as an author, and admitted that he was not involved in any dissident organizations or
insurrections. The next year, the FBI ceased its surveillance on Bulosan, admitting it could not find conclusive proof
of Bulosan’s membership in the Communist Party. Bulosan’s FBI file was declassified.