Workingmen's Party of California

Denis Kearney, founder of the Workingmen's Party of California.

The Workingmen's Party of California was an American labor organization led by Denis Kearney in the 1870s.

Organizational history

The party took particular aim against Chinese immigrant labor and the Central Pacific Railroad which employed them. Its famous slogan was "The Chinese must go!" Kearney's attacks against the Chinese were of a particularly virulent and openly racist nature, and found considerable support among white Californians of the time. This sentiment led eventually to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Their goal was to "rid the country of Chinese cheap labor."

Kearney's party should not be confused with the less influential Workingmen's Party of the United States, which was based in the Eastern United States.

Footnotes

    Further reading

    Books and pamphlets

    Journal articles and dissertations

    Newspaper articles

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