Repression, Surveillance and Exposure in California, 1918-1939
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Under Prying Eyes: Repression, Surveillance and Exposure in California, 1918-1939. By Simon James Judkins A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History 2014. 1 Abstract This thesis is a study of a network of surveillance organisations that developed in California, especially around Los Angeles, between the First and Second World Wars, employing surveillance as a tool of political and economic repression. It argues that over the course of the period surveyed an expanding network exerted a significant conservative, anti- labour influence on California’s history. This was especially so at the end of the 1930s, when the network contributed information and personnel in a series of public exposures targeted at a broad range of political enemies. As part of a conservative mobilisation against the New Deal nationally and within the state, the California surveillance network created a role for its members based on an ability to smear liberal politics with the taint of communism, a role that continued after the Second World War. For much of its history this network was fuelled by a desire to enforce a conservative status quo that protected the profits of the business community with which it allied and relied upon financially. In the immediate aftermath of the First World War this necessitated the repression of political radicals such as the International Workers of the World, Socialists, Pacifists, Bolsheviks, and other radical dissenters. As California experienced economic booms in the 1920s and crisis in the 1930s, the network attracted new collaborators to form a multifarious entity comprised of patriotic and veterans’ organisations, law enforcement, military intelligence, employers’ associations, and labour spies. As a result the network had access to sources from all spheres of Californian public and private life, including from within government. Mirroring the tactics of the Communist Party of the United States, which attracted its most ardent suspicions, the network also deployed undercover operatives to infiltrate and disrupt the targets of their surveillance. The information exchange that took place between members of the network facilitated the creation of vast archives to hold all the collected material, which contained data on Californian citizens of all political persuasions. The passage of New Deal labour legislation in the mid-1930s presaged a shift in the network’s activities. After the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 and the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 aided union organisation, the California surveillance network increasingly 2 became involved in the surveillance and repression of labour movements. Fear of communist infiltration of labour movements, particularly after a series of major strikes in the maritime and agricultural industries, partly explains this increasing attention. As this thesis shows, anti- labour espionage was also occasionally motivated by profit, misunderstanding, intolerance, and greed. The surveillance network contributed to the formation and activities of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities chaired by Representative Martin Dies which began in 1938. Presenting evidence acquired from its operations, it helped to create evidentiary and ideological support for the post-war anti-communist investigations which drew upon documentation and expertise created in the 1930s. The California surveillance network was thus a major foundation for what became known as McCarthyism. 3 Acknowledgements Writing this thesis has been a long and difficult task, but one thankfully relieved by the company of the fantastic stuff and students in the History programme at Victoria University of Wellington. My gratitude goes to a few specific faculty and staff who were both sources of sublime inspiration, gainful employment, or much-needed advice—and sometimes all three: Steve Behrendt, Giacomo Lichtner, Teresa Durham, Pennie Gapes, Pauline Keating, Jim McAloon, Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, and Philippa Race for her help getting over the final hurdle. Special thanks to my longest-serving office mates: Daniel Cruden, Alexey Krichtal, Florence Baggett, Laurel Carmichael, and Matthew Vinke for their companionship, healthy cynicism, and spit-balling prowess. I’ll add my poem to the wall when I return. My most sincere and humble gratitude belongs to my supervisor and mentor: Dolores Janiewski. Dolores, there are precious few ways that I can offer my gratitude for all the time, wisdom, aid, and faith you have bestowed on me over the last four years. I hope that you find sufficient value in these pages to consider some of that time well spent. And to my friends, family and wife: this, the most difficult thing I have ever created, is now complete. Thank you for your encouragement, your patience, your empathy, your ill-timed temptations, and your love. I will forever be grateful for everything you did to ease the burden. Lucie, you can start teaching me French now. 4 Table of Contents THESIS INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................8 Chapter Outlines ............................................................................................................................ 26 CHAPTER 1: REPRESSION (1918-1930) ............................................................................28 Criminal Syndicalism and the IWW ............................................................................................ 30 A Better America through the Open Shop ................................................................................. 37 Enforcing the Open Shop .............................................................................................................. 47 Documenting Dissent .................................................................................................................... 51 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 61 CHAPTER 2: SURVEILLANCE (1930-1935) .....................................................................63 The Fish Committee investigates Los Angeles .......................................................................... 66 San Diego’s Archivist-General ..................................................................................................... 74 The Network Expands ................................................................................................................... 85 Quantifying Surveillance .............................................................................................................. 96 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 105 CHAPTER 3: EXPOSURE (1936-1939) .............................................................................107 The Duelling Committees ........................................................................................................... 110 Suspicious Eyes and Expanding Targets .................................................................................. 123 Strengthening the Conservative Bloc ........................................................................................ 127 The Defence of Harry Bridges .................................................................................................... 136 A Blur through the Scope ............................................................................................................ 148 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 153 THESIS CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................155 APPENDIX ...........................................................................................................................161 Text of the California Criminal Syndicalism Law ................................................................... 161 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................163 Archival Primary Source Collections ........................................................................................ 163 Published Primary Sources ......................................................................................................... 164 Secondary Sources ....................................................................................................................... 165 5 Abbreviations Used ABPS Association for the Betterment of Public Service ACLU American Civil Liberties Union AFC Associated Farmers of California AFL American Federation of Labor APL American Protective League AVIF American Vigilant Intelligence Federation BAF Better America Federation of California BOI California Bureau of Identification CAWIU Cannery and Agricultural Workers’ Industrial Union CFC Commercial Federation of California CCD Civic Council of Defense CIO Committee (after 1938 Congress) of Industrial Organizations CP / CPUSA Communist Party of the United States of America FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation G-2 The Intelligence Corps of the U.S. Army The House un-American Activities Committee. A catch-all acronym for HUAC the committee’s various incarnations, dating roughly from 1930-1975. IASF Industrial