Domestic Workers Struggle

Black text on red background, with illustration showing workers breaking the "chains of injustice", 

The Western Service Workers Association (WSWA) has offices throughout the state of California (Anaheim, Oakland, Central Valley/Redding, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, Santa Ana, Santa Cruz, and Watsonville), and is considered an active "entity" of the National Labor Federation (NATLFED). NATLFED is run by volunteers and organizes workers who have been excluded from collective bargaining protections provided by law. NATLFED was established in the early 1970s, led by Gino Perente, a former member of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (the predecessor of United Farm Workers of America). 

The stated purpose of NATLFED and its entities is to provide support and assistance for low-income service workers. However, concerns have been raised about the group's lack of transparency and "cult-like" activities. Some former volunteers have described the organization as a front for the Provisional Communist Party of the United States, and a 2016 book by Sonja Larsen, "Red Star Tattoo- My Life as a Girl Revolutionary," described the abuse of women that she witnessed and experienced as a member of the group. Founder Gino Perente was believed to be con-artist Gerald Doeden, living under an alias. Perente gave lectures to volunteers on the writings of Stalin, Marx and Lenin and removed himself from public view in the late 1970s. After Perente's death in 1995, and an FBI raid on a New York office in 1996, access to organizational and operational information regarding NATLFED has been limited.