Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor Highlight

The Galveston News painted an unfortunate picture of the ways in which xenophobia, prejudice, and perceived scarcity can turn marginalized workers against one another: “At these laundries all the women talked at once, telling Sam Lee, Slam Sing, Wau Loong and the rest that ‘they must close up and leave this city within fifteen days, or they would be driven away,’ ” This viewpoint would prove to be a recurring theme throughout the early American labor movement, and remains a problem today, when far too many trade unionists still view immigrants as competition instead of welcoming them as fellow workers.