Dissolution of the Texas Farm Workers' Union, 1980's
The eventual end of the Texas Farm Workers Union is rather enigmatic. Historians have not been able to reach a consensus on the exact date the Union ceased operations, but they do agree that by sometime in the early to mid-1980's, the Union lacked the funding they needed to continue organizing successful strikes. Deprived of the ability to take meaningful direct action against the farm owners, the Union would have quickly become defunct.
The fate of the Union is primarily attributed to the strong conservative stance of the Texas State Government, but it also clear that local farm owners, law enforcement, and even competing unionists from the United Farm Workers each played a role in the Texas Farm Workers Union's demise.
In the Union's last available statement, titled "Farm Workers and the 80's", founder Antonio Orendain takes a defiant tone as he addresses the past and future of the organization, and of the Chicano and farm workers' struggles more broadly.
It seems clear that at the time of writing, Orendain fully intended the Union to continue its struggle into the next decade, even despite mounting financial and political obstacles.
"The Texas Farm Workers' Union will continue to struggle, because we think that it is better to die on our feet than to live on our knees,"
Conclusions
As modern observers, we find it difficult to square the story of the Texas Farm Workers Union with the simple feel-good narrative of American history.
In America, the underdog is supposed to win, the noble cause is always worth fighting for, and common people are supposed to have the final word in politics.
Yet despite this, when farm workers deep in the heart of Texas stood up for their rights, they were met with an insumountable wall of obstacles. Even more unsettling, the political, economic, and legal structures that suppressed the Union still reign throughout much of the Deep South.
For us, this begs the question of what progess for workers' rights must still be made in our country, and what can be done to accomplish it.
