Hilo massacre

The Hilo "massacre", also known as Bloody Monday, was an incident that occurred on 1 August 1938, in Hilo, Hawaii, when over 70 police officers attempted to disband 200 unarmed protesters during a strike, injuring 50 of the demonstrators. In their attempts to disband the crowd, officers tear gassed, hosed and finally fired their riot guns, leading to 50 injuries, but no deaths.

The moniker "massacre" is a misnomer used figuratively, as the incident caused no deaths neither among the 200-300 labor rights activists nor among the police corps.

These protesters were from a number of ethnicities, including Chinese, Japanese, Native Hawaiian, Luso and Filipino Americans, and from many different unions, including the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. The different groups, long at odds, put aside their differences to challenge the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company. The unions, led by longshoreman Harry Kamoku, demanded equal wages with workers on the West Coast of the United States and closed shop or union shop.

Strikes began on 4 February 1938, and culminated on 1 August when 200 workers gathered to protest the arrival of the SS Waialeale, a steamship owned by the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company. The protesters were ordered to disband, but refused to comply. Force was used, resulting in hospitalizations.

As part of the New Deal, Congress in 1935 passed the Wagner Act, legalizing workers' right to join and be represented by labor unions. Hawaii — not yet a State — had been, starting in the 1920s, virtually controlled by the "Big Five": Alexander & Baldwin, C. Brewer, Castle & Cooke, American Factors, and Theo. Davies. Furthermore, the Hawaii labor force had been divided up into racial blocs, which helped keep wages low.