The Silicon Valley of Dreams: Environmental Injustice, Immigrant Workers, and the High-Tech Global Economy

2. Early History and the Struggle for Resources: Native Nations, Spain, Mexico, and the United States

Early History and the Struggle for Resources Native Nations, Spain, Mexico, and the United States The struggle for land has always been the hallmark of politics in North America. Those who control the land control the resources. —Ward Churchill, Struggle for the Land Introduction In 1978, at the Signetics Corporation plant in Sunnyvale, California, several women employees informed the management of their concerns about noxious fumes on the shop floor. Signetics was a major Silicon Valley player and a large manufacturer of semiconductors for military, business, and consumer markets. Initially, the company maintained that these women workers, who experienced dizziness, nausea, mental confusion , and emotional problems, were suffering from what Signetics termed “assembly line hysteria.” However, after many male employees also came forward with similar concerns, the company hired an industrial design firm to investigate the fumes. Like canaries in a coal mine, the three most significantly affected employees (all women) were shifted around the plant in an effort to detect the most serious areas of concern. They became known as the “Signetics Three.” Eventually the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted a study and concluded that significant occupational health problems were evident at Signetics. This finding would not surprise any physician who was aware that Signetics used scores of toxic chemicals in the production of semiconductor chips. The company later fired the “Signetics Three” and 2 23 has the dubious distinction of having polluted the earth so thoroughly that the USEPA has designated one of its properties a federal toxic Superfund site.1 This case underscores that the region of northern California known as Silicon Valley is a site of intense ecological devastation and human exploitation. Thousands of workers and residents, mostly women, immigrants , and people of color, face exposure to hundreds of toxics on the job and in their communities every day. This is environmental injustice with a high-tech face. In this chapter we provide a historical basis for our claim that immigrants, people of color, and their labor are at the center of environmental justice conflicts in Silicon Valley. In so doing, we argue that these populations have confronted environmental injustices in the region for more than two hundred thirty years because (a) they have frequently had their land and natural resources taken from them and destroyed; (b) they have often been denied citizenship and therefore have little formal political power; and (c) they have been concentrated in enslaved, indentured, and related “free” exploitative labor markets where wages are nonexistent or very low and the risks to one’s health are substantial. By presenting evidence that immigrants and people of color have been battling environmental inequalities for centuries, we challenge the common wisdom that environmental injustice is a recent phenomenon. Environmental justice (EJ) conflicts in Silicon Valley have been a hallmark of the region since 1769, when dominant groups controlled and degraded both natural resources (such as land, minerals, and water) and the labor of indigenous, immigrant, and other populations of color, while also imposing environmental risks on these groups. By demonstrating the historical continuity of EJ conflicts in this region, we also address the question of the origins of environmental injustice in Silicon Valley. Simply put, environmental injustice in the area can be traced to the Spanish conquest and its associated devastation of Native American populations and Bay Area ecosystems.2 Since that time, each subsequent period has built upon the previous era, and the exploitation of human labor and natural resources has remained constant. 24 | Chapter 2 Native American Communities Any history of the present-day Silicon Valley region of California must begin with a consideration of First Nations. Long before the Spanish Conquest, beginning at least as early as 500 C.E., the San Francisco Bay was inhabited by an estimated fifty independent nations of the Ohlone/Costanoan people.3 The Ohlone economy was largely based on the accumulation, consumption, and trade of acorns and shellfish. In fact, these societies used meticulously carved shells as currency.4 Trade routes for dried and fresh shellfish, shell jewelry, Sierra obsidian, and coastal abalone shell extended throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, northward through the Sacramento and San Joaquin River valleys, and to points east.5 The Ohlones also used burning techniques for agriculture , specifically for planting and harvesting wild grass and seeds.6 This Native American nation did well as a result of the abundance of natural resources and experienced...