Today In Labor History April 8, 1935: Oscar Zeta Acosta was born on this day. Acosta was a Chicano lawyer, writer and activist in the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo (1972) and Revolt of the Cockroach People (1973). He was good friends with Hunter S. Thompson, who called him “My Samoan Attorney,” in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Acosta disappeared in Mexico in 1974. He is assumed dead.

Acosta studied creative writing at San Francisco State, before turning to the study of law. He moved to east Los Angeles in 1968, where he become active in the Chicano Movement as an activist attorney. He defended The Chicano 13, during the East LA Walkouts, as well as boxer and activist Corky Gonzalez. He once ran for sheriff vowing to abolish the sheriff’s department if elected. He came in second, with over 100,000 votes.

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Today in Labor History March 31, 1927: Cesar Chavez was born. Famous for his role in leading the United Farm Workers and, now, even more infamous for his sexual assaults on women and girls in the movement, it should be pointed out that there were numerous other abusive and rotten aspects to his leadership style that affected both women and men. For example, in 1967, he launched his first of several purges of the UFW, ostensibly to remove Communists. However, there was no evidence of communist infiltration of the union and it was most likely a move to solidify his autocratic rule.

In the 1970s, he blamed “illegal immigrants” and “wetbacks” for UFW failures and launched the "Illegals Campaign" to identify illegal migrants so that they could be deported. His cousin Manuel Chavez established a UFW patrol, or "wet line," along Arizona's border with Mexico to stop illegal migration into the US. Actions such as these led to conflicts with many progressive groups that had previous collaborated with the UFW, including the National Lawyers Guild and the Confederation of Mexican Workers.

In 1977, Chavez became infatuated with the religious cult, Synanon and used Synanon’s “game” to punish union members and enforce conformity and obedience to his authority by subjecting members to harsh, profanity-laced criticism from the rest of the community.

He also expressed support for the brutal Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and specifically his declaration of martial law, which alienated Filipino members of the union, as well as many of the religious organizations that had supported the UFW. Ironically, Chavez had originally travelled to the Philippines in order to win back support of Filipino farmworkers. And, contrary to the official mainstream narrative, it wasn’t even Chavez who had started the UFW, or the Delano Grape Strike. Rather the 1965 grape strike had been initiated by Larry Itliong and the Filipino-led AWOC. The nationwide protest lasted five years and ended with the first union contract for U.S. farm workers outside of Hawaii.

You can read more about the Filipino roots of the farm workers labor movement here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2026/03/25/larry-itliong-and-the-filipino-roots-of-the-united-farm-workers-movement/

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