Seattle’s Gang of Four – An Interracial Coalition

The ‘Gang of Four’ or ‘Four Amigos’ is a group of four Seattle activists from Indigenous, Black, Asian, and Latinx communities.  They organized and advocated for the needs of people of color from the late 60s and 70’s onward.

Councilmember Larry Gossett is the last surviving member of the Gang of Four. Councilmember Gossett is a former Seattle Chapter Black Panther Party member, Co-founder of the University of Washington, Seattle Black Student Union, the former Executive Director of the Central Area Motivation Program (CAMP), and Co-Founder of the Third World Coalition He also founded the Minority Executive Directors Coalition (MEDC) alongside the Gang of Four.  He celebrated his 79th birthday this month.  In this interview with Councilmember Gossett from December, 2021, he reflects on the powerful and lasting work of the interracial coalition. 

Producer: Yuko Kodama

Photo: Gang of Four Book Cover “Gang of Four,” by Bob Santos and Gary Iwamoto

H2A Workers in Washington State

Honesto Silva Ibarra was an H2A visa guest worker and 27 year old father of two from Mexico.  He died in Washington state, as a worker at Sarbanand Farms.  Around the time he became ill, other workers at the same farm were reported ill, dehydrated from the extreme heat and heavy smoke from the summer forest fires.

What came out of the investigation into Silva Ibarra’s death was the passage of State Bill 5438, created to fund  an office tasked with monitoring labor, housing, and health and safety requirements for farms using the H2A visa program.  It also prioritizes outreach to domestic farmworkers before farms use the H2A program.

Rosalinda Guillen of Community to Community Development (C2C) spoke with KBCS’s Yuko Kodama about the H2A Guest Worker Program and the latest with the Washington State H2A Program Oversight Committee.

Produced by Yuko Kodama
Photo: Community to Community Development