Presentation by Jean Pfaelzer On "Driven Out, the Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans" http://blip.tv/file/3846172/ Jean Pfaelzer, author of "Driven Out, the Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans" made a presentation on July 3, 2010 about her work at the Angel Island Immigration Station. This also marks the 100th anniversary of the Angel Island Immigration Station. Pfaelzer's talk was titled "BEFORE ANGEL ISLAND: THE FORGOTTEN WAR AGAINST CHINESE AMERICANS" Pfaelzer who was also using slides outlined the brutal and systematic "ethnic cleansing" of Chinese American workers in California in the second half of the nineteenth century, and how Chinese miners, railroad workers, field laborers, domestic servants and prostitutes fought back against the violent purges and deportations -- with the first general strike in California, the earliest farmworker strikes, and the first law suits for reparations. This was an event sponsored by LaborFest www.LaborFest.net which is held every July in Northern California to commemorate through art, theater, films and other work the 1934 San Francisco general strike. This is also where the first of five immigration trials took place to expel ILWU president Harry Bridges from the US took place in 1939. www.LaborFest.net
