The Filipino Piecemeal Sugar Strike of 1924–1925

Description

The 1924 Filipino sugar strike came as a shocking blow to Hawaii's self-image. The tragic deaths at Hanapepe were regarded as an anomaly in Hawaii's peaceful, idyllic image. Yet as Reinecke's research clearly indicates, the sugar industry was building to a climax in the 1920s. In the traditional sense, the strike was a "piecemeal" affair, lacking clear goals and having virtually no leadership or plans. These young, largely illiterate, Filipinos wrought massive changes into a more modern, industrial mode; into what was widely known thereafter as the Big Five. Evidence from the University of Hawaii's new archive collection, the H.S.P.A. Plantation Archives, not available to Dr. Reinecke completes the picture of the strike with evidence of the massive changes in management, recruitment and labor policies. The strike remains as he described it in his title: "The Piecemeal Strike." The new evidence rounds out the transformation of the industry.