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1934 West Coast waterfront strike

March 31, 2023

1934 West Coast waterfront strike
  Confrontation between a policeman wielding a night    stick and a striker during the San Francisco General Strike, 1934
DateMay 9 – July 31, 1934 (84 days)[1]
Location
Everett, Washington;
Portland, Oregon;
San Francisco, California;
Seattle, Washington;
Los Angeles, California
MethodsStrikes, protest, demonstrations
Parties to the civil conflict
Lead figures

Harry Bridges;
Paddy Morris;
Jack Bjorklund;
Joseph P. Ryan

Casualties and losses
Deaths: 9,
Injuries:>1000,
Arrests: >500.[2]
Deaths:
Injuries:

The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike (also known as the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen's Strike, as well as a number of variations on these names) lasted 83 days, and began on May 9, 1934 when longshoremen in every US West Coast port walked out. Organized by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the strike peaked with the death of two workers on "Bloody Thursday" and the San Francisco General Strike which stopped all work in the major port city for four days and led ultimately to the settlement of the West Coast Longshoremen's Strike.

The result of the strike was the unionization of all of the West Coast ports of the United States. The San Francisco General Strike of 1934, along with the Toledo Auto-Lite Strike of 1934 led by the American Workers Party and the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 led by the Communist League of America, were catalysts for the rise of industrial unionism in the 1930s, much of which was organized through the Congress of Industrial Organizations.[1]

Background

Longshoremen on the West Coast ports had either been unorganized or represented by company unions since the years immediately after World War I, when the shipping companies and stevedoring firms had imposed the open shop after a series of failed strikes.[3] Longshoremen in San Francisco, then the major port on the coast, were required to go through a hiring hall operated by a company union, known as the "blue book" system for the color of the membership book.[4]

The Industrial Workers of the World had attempted to organize longshoremen, sailors and fishermen in the 1920s through their Marine Transport Workers Union.[5] Their largest strike, the 1923 San Pedro Maritime Strike, bottled up shipping in that harbor, but was crushed by a combination of injunctions, mass arrests and vigilantism by the American Legion. While the IWW was a spent force after that strike, syndicalist thinking remained popular on the docks.[6] Longshoremen and sailors on the West Coast also had contacts with an Australian syndicalist movement that called itself the "One Big Union" formed after the defeat of a general strike there in 1917.[7]

The Communist Party had also been active in the area in the late 1920s, seeking to organize all categories of maritime workers into a single union, the Marine Workers Industrial Union (MWIU), as part of the drive during the Third Period to create revolutionary unions.[8][9] The MWIU never made much headway on the West Coast, but it did attract a number of former IWW members and foreign-born militants.[10] Harry Bridges, an Australian-born sailor who became a longshoreman after coming to the United States, was repeatedly accused[further explanation needed] for his acknowledged Communist party membership.[11][12]

Militants published a newspaper, The Waterfront Worker, which focused on longshoremen's most pressing demands: more men on each gang, lighter loads and an independent union.[13][14] While a number of the individuals in this group were Communist Party members, the group as a whole was independent of the party: although it criticized the International Seamen's Union (ISU) as weak and the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), which had its base on the East Coast, as corrupt, it did not embrace the MWIU, but called instead for creation of small knots of activists at each port to serve as the first step in a slow, careful movement to unionize the industry.[15]

Events soon made the MWIU wholly irrelevant. Just as the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act had led to a spontaneous significant rise in union membership among coal miners in 1933, thousands of longshoremen now joined the fledgling ILA locals that reappeared on the West Coast.[16] The MWIU faded away as party activists followed the mass of West Coast longshoremen into the ILA.[15]

These newly emboldened workers first went after the "blue book" union, refusing to pay dues to it and tearing up their membership books. The militants who had published "The Waterfront Worker", now known as the "Albion Hall group" after their usual meeting place, continued organizing dock committees that soon began launching slowdowns and other types of job actions in order to win better working conditions.[15] While the official leadership of the ILA remained in the hands of conservatives sent to the West Coast by President Joseph Ryan of the ILA, the Albion Hall group started in March, 1934 to press demands for a coastwide contract, a union-run hiring hall and an industry wide waterfront federation.[17] When the conservative ILA leadership negotiated a weak "gentlemen's agreement" with the employers that had been brokered by the mediation board created by the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bridges led the membership in rejecting it.[18]

The sticking point in the strike was recognition: the union demanded a closed shop, a coastwide contract and a union hiring hall. The employers offered to arbitrate the dispute, but insisted that the union agree to an open shop as a condition of any agreement to arbitrate. The longshoremen rejected the proposal to arbitrate.[19]

The Big Strike

 
An engraved billy club commemorates police activity in the Battle of Smith Cove in Seattle.

The strike began on May 9, 1934, as longshoremen in every West Coast port walked out; sailors joined them several days later.[20] The employers recruited strikebreakers, housing them on moored ships or in walled compounds and bringing them to and from work under police protection.[21] Strikers attacked the stockade housing strikebreakers in San Pedro on May 15; police fired into the strikers, killing two and injuring many.[specify] The killing of Dick Parker created resentment up and down the coast.[22] Daily similar smaller clashes broke out in San Francisco and Oakland, California, Portland, Oregon,[23] and Seattle, Washington.[22] Strikers also succeeded in slowing down or stopping the movement of goods by rail out of the ports.[24]

The Roosevelt administration tried again to broker a deal to end the strike, but the membership twice rejected the agreements their leadership brought to them and continued the strike.[25] The employers then decided to make a show of force to reopen the port in San Francisco.[26] On Tuesday, July 3, fights broke out along the Embarcadero in San Francisco between police and strikers while a handful of trucks driven by young businessmen made it through the picket line.[27]

Some Teamsters supported the strikers by refusing to handle "hot cargo" – goods which had been unloaded by strikebreakers – although the Teamsters' leadership was not as supportive.[28] By the end of May, Dave Beck, president of the Seattle Teamsters, and Mike Casey, president of those in San Francisco, thought the maritime strike had lasted too long.[29] They encouraged the strikers to take what they could get from the employers and threatened to use Teamsters as strikebreakers if the ILA did not return to work.[30]

Shipping companies, government officials, some union leaders and the press began to raise fears that the strike was the result of communist agitation.[31][32] This "red scare" also helped ignite a controversy about the New Deal Public Works of Art Project murals that were at the time being completed in San Francisco's Coit Tower (on Telegraph Hill, close to the location of the strike in San Francisco), leading to the postponing of the tower's July 7 opening, and later to the removal of communist symbols from two of the American Social Realism style murals.[31][32]

Date Location Workers killed Notes
May 15, 1934 San Pedro, CA 2 When 500 strikers attacked and tried to set fire to a ship housing strikebreakers in San Pedro, police unsuccessfully tried to stop them with tear gas, then shot into the crowd, killing strikers Dick Parker and John Knudsen.[33][34]
June 30, 1934 Seattle, WA 1 Upon hearing that replacement crews were about to take two oil tankers out of the port, union members went to the dock. When the longshoremen tried to get past the dock's gates, they were ambushed by guards. Worker Shelvy Daffron was shot in the back and later died.
July 5, 1934 San Francisco, CA 2 When striking longshoremen surrounded a San Francisco police car and tried to tip it over, the police shot into the air, and then fired into the crowd, killing Nick Bordoise (originally named Nick Counderakis) and Howard Sperry.
August 20, 1934 Portland, OR 1 James Connor, a 22-year-old college student and newlywed working as a replacement worker on his vacation, was shot and killed in an altercation with striking longshoremen.[23] This was one of a string of violent incidents, including visiting Senator Robert F. Wagner coming under fire. A second replacement worker named R.A. Griffin was also wounded in the head.

"Bloody Thursday"

 
 
San Francisco Coroner's Records of Death for Howard Sperry and Nicolas Bordoise

After a quiet Fourth of July, the employers' organization, the Industrial Association, tried to open the port of San Francisco even further on Thursday, July 5.[35] As spectators watched from Rincon Hill, the police shot tear gas canisters into the crowd, then followed with a charge by mounted police.[36] Picketers threw the canisters and rocks back at the police, who charged again, sending the picketers into retreat.[37] Each side then refortified and took stock.[38]

The events took a violent turn that afternoon, as hostilities resumed outside of the ILA strike kitchen.[39] Eyewitness accounts differ on the exact events that transpired next. According to some witnesses, a group of strikers first surrounded a police car and attempted to tip it over, prompting the police to fire shotguns in the air, and then revolvers at the crowd.[15] Other eyewitness accounts claim that police officers started shooting in the direction of the strikers, provoking strikers to defend themselves. Policemen fired a shotgun into the crowd, striking three men in intersection of Steuart and Mission streets. One of the men, Howard Sperry, a striking longshoreman, later died of his wounds. Another man, Charles Olsen, was also shot but later recovered from his wounds. A third man, Nick Bordoise – a Greek by birth (originally named Nick Counderakis) who was an out of work member of the cook's union volunteering at the ILA strike kitchen – was shot but managed to make his way around the corner onto Spear Street, where he was found several hours later. Like Sperry, he died at the hospital.[40]

Strikers immediately cordoned off the area where the two picketers had been shot, laying flowers and wreaths around it. Police arrived to remove the flowers and drive off the picketers minutes later. Once the police left, the strikers returned, replaced the flowers and stood guard over the spot. Though Sperry and Bordoise had been shot several blocks apart, this spot became synonymous with the memory of the two slain men and "Bloody Thursday".[41]

As strikers carried wounded picketers into the ILA union hall police fired on the hall and lobbed tear gas canisters at nearby hotels. At this point someone reportedly called the union hall to ask "Are you willing to arbitrate now?".[39]

Under orders from California Governor Frank Merriam, the California National Guard moved in that evening to patrol the waterfront.[42] Similarly, federal soldiers of the United States Army stationed at the Presidio were placed on alert. The picketers pulled back, unwilling to take on armed soldiers in an uneven fight, and trucks and trains began moving without interference. Bridges asked the San Francisco Labor Council to meet that Saturday, July 7, to authorize a general strike.[43] The Alameda County Central Labor Council in Oakland considered the same action. Teamsters in both San Francisco and Oakland voted to strike, over the objections of their leaders, on Sunday, July 8.[44]

Funerals and general strike

The following day, several thousand strikers, families and sympathizers took part in a funeral procession down Market Street, stretching more than a mile and a half, for Nicholas Bordoise and Howard Sperry, the two persons killed on "Bloody Thursday".[45] The police were wholly absent from the scene. The march made an enormous impact on San Franciscans, making a general strike, which had formerly been "the visionary dream of a small group of the most radical workers, became ... a practical and realizable objective."[46] After dozens of Bay Area unions voted for a general strike over the next few days, the San Francisco Labor Council voted on July 14 to call a general strike.[47] The Teamsters had already been out for two days by that point.[48]

San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi declared a state of emergency.[49] Some federal officials, particularly Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, were more skeptical.[50] Roosevelt later recalled that some persons were urging him to steer the USS Houston, which was carrying him to Hawaii, "into San Francisco Bay, all flags flying and guns double-shotted, and end the strike." Roosevelt rejected the suggestion.[51]

The general strike began on the 16th, involving some 150,000 workers.[15] On the 17th the police arrested more than 300 "radicals, subversives, and communists" while systematically smashing furniture and equipment of organizations related to the strike; the same day, General Hugh S. Johnson as head of the National Recovery Administration spoke at UC Berkeley to denounce the general strike as "a menace to the government".[52]

The strike lasted four days. Non-union truck drivers joined the first day; the movie theaters and night clubs closed down. While food deliveries continued with the permission of the strike committee, many small businesses closed, posting signs in support of the strikers.[53] Reports that unions in Portland and Seattle would also begin general strikes picked up currency.[54]

End of the strike

The calling of a general strike had an unexpected result: it gave the General Strike Committee, whose makeup was far less militant than the longshoremen's strike committee, effective control over the maritime strike itself.[55] When the Labor Council voted to terminate the general strike it also recommended that the unions accept arbitration of all disputed issues.[56] When the National Longshore Board put the employer's proposal to arbitrate to a vote of striking longshoremen, it passed in every port except Everett, Washington.[citation needed]

That, however, left the striking seamen in the lurch: the employers had refused to arbitrate with the ISU unless it first won elections on the fleets on strike. While Bridges, who had preached solidarity among all maritime workers and scorned arbitration, apologized to the seamen for the longshoremen's vote, the President of the ISU urged them to hold out and to burn their "fink books", the membership records of the company union to which they had been forced to pay dues.[57]

On July 17, 1934, the California National Guard blocked both ends of Jackson Street from Drumm to Front with machine gun mounted trucks to assist vigilante raids, protected by SFPD, on the headquarters of the Marine Workers' Industrial Union and the ILA soup kitchen at 84 Embarcadero. Moving on, the Workers' Ex-Servicemen's League's headquarters on Howard between Third and Fourth was raided, leading to 150 arrests and the complete destruction of the facilities. The employer's group, the Industrial Association, had agents riding with the police.[58] Further raids were carried out at the Workers' Open Forum at 1223 Fillmore street and the Western Worker building opposite City Hall that contained a bookstore and the main offices of the Communist Party, which was thoroughly destroyed.[59] Attacks were also perpetrated on the 121 Haight Street Workers' School and the Mission Workers' Neighborhood House at 741 Valencia Street.[60] A police spokesperson suggested that "maybe the Communists staged the raids themselves for publicity".[61]

General Hugh S. Johnson, then head of the National Recovery Administration, gave a speech urging responsible labor leaders to "run these subversive influences out from its ranks like rats".[62] A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union was kidnapped and beaten, while vigilantes seized thirteen radicals in San Jose and turned them over to the sheriff of an adjoining county, who transported them to another county.[63] In Hayward in Alameda County someone erected a scaffold in front of the city hall with a noose and a sign stating "Reds beware".[64] In Piedmont, an upscale community surrounded by Oakland on all sides, the chief of police prepared for a reported attack by strikers on the homes of wealthy ship-owners.[65]

Aftermath

While some of the most powerful people in San Francisco considered the strike's denouement to be a victory for the employers, many longshoremen and seamen did not. Spontaneous strikes over grievances and workplace conditions broke out as strikers returned to their jobs, with longshoremen and teamsters supporting their demands.[66] Employers conceded many of these battles, giving workers even more confidence in demanding that employers lighten unbearably heavy loads.[67] Longshoremen also began dictating other terms, fining members who worked more than the ceiling of 120 hours per month, filing charges against a gang boss for "slandering colored brothers" and forcing employers to fire strikebreakers.[68] Other unions went further: the Marine Firemen proposed to punish any member who bought a Hearst newspaper.[69]

The arbitration award issued on October 12, 1934, cemented the ILA's power.[70] While the award put the operation of the hall in the hands of a committee of union and employer representatives, the union was given the power to select the dispatcher. Since longshoremen were prepared to walk out if an employer did not hire a worker dispatched from the hall, the ILA soon controlled hiring on the docks. The employers complained that the union wanted to "sovietize" the waterfront.[71] Workers complained that the employers were exploiting them for cheap labor and forcing them to work in unsafe conditions without reasonable safety measures.[citation needed]

The union soon utilized the "quickie strike" tactic to force many concessions from employers such as safer working conditions and better pay.[72] Similarly, even though an arbitrator held that the 1935 Agreement prohibited sympathy strikes, the union's members nonetheless refused to cross other unions' picket lines. Longshoremen also refused to handle "hot cargo" destined for non-union warehouses that the union was attempting to organize.[73] The ISU acquired similar authority over hiring, despite the philosophical objection of the union's own officers to hiring halls. The ISU used this power to drive strikebreakers out of the industry.[74]

The rift between the seamen's and longshoremen's unions deepened and became more complex in the succeeding years, as Bridges continually fought with the Sailors' Union of the Pacific over labor and political issues. The West Coast district of the ILA broke off from the International in 1937 to form the International Longshoremen's Union, later renamed the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union after the union's "march inland" to organize warehouse workers, then renamed the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in recognition of the number of women members.[citation needed]

The arbitration award also gave longshoremen a raise to ninety-five cents ($19 in 2021 dollars) an hour for straight time work, just shy of the dollar an hour it demanded during the strike. It was also awarded a contract that applied up and down the West Coast.[70] The strike also prompted union organizer Carmen Lucia to organize the Department Store Workers Union and the Retail Clerks Association in San Francisco.[75]

Legacy

The ILWU continues to recognize "Bloody Thursday" by shutting down all West Coast ports every July 5 and honoring Nick Bordoise, Howard Sperry and all of the other workers killed by police during the strike.[76] The ILWU has frequently stopped work for political protests against, among other things, Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, fascist intervention in Spain's civil war, South Africa's system of apartheid and the Iraq War.[15][73]

Sam Kagel, the last surviving member of the original union steering committee, died on May 21, 2007 at the age of 98.[77]

Bloody Thursday, a documentary film that told the story of the strike, was broadcast on PBS stations across the nation and was awarded a Los Angeles Area Emmy for best historical film in 2010.[78]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Preis, Art (1974). Labor's giant step: twenty years of the CIO. Pathfinder Press. pp. 31–33. ISBN 9780873480246.
  2. ^ Kimeldorf, Howard (1988). Reds or Rackets?: The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront. University of California Press. p. 101. ISBN 9780520912779.
  3. ^ Starr, Kevin (1997). Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California. Oxford University Press. pp. 85–86. ISBN 9780195118025.
  4. ^ Glass, Fred (2016). From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement. Univ of California Press. p. 231. ISBN 9780520288409.
  5. ^ Nelson, Bruce (1990). Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press. pp. 60. ISBN 9780252061448.
  6. ^ Nelson, Bruce (1990). Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press. pp. 61–62. ISBN 9780252061448.
  7. ^ Nelson, Bruce (1990). Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press. pp. 64–65. ISBN 9780252061448.
  8. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 39. ISBN 9780717805044.
  9. ^ Nelson, Bruce (1990). Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press. pp. 79. ISBN 9780252061448.
  10. ^ Nelson, Bruce (1990). Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press. pp. 62. ISBN 9780252061448.
  11. ^ "Harry Bridges: Life and Legacy".
  12. ^ Starr, Kevin (1997). Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California. Oxford University Press. p. 93. ISBN 9780195118025.
  13. ^ Glass, Fred (2016). From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement. Univ of California Press. p. 232. ISBN 9780520288409.
  14. ^ Starr, Kevin (1997). Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California. Oxford University Press. p. 90. ISBN 9780195118025.
  15. ^ a b c d e f Chretien, Todd (June 2012). "The Communist Party, the unions, and the San Francisco General Strike". International Socialist Review. 84.
  16. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 40. ISBN 9780717805044.
  17. ^ Starr, Kevin (1997). Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California. Oxford University Press. pp. 94–95. ISBN 9780195118025.
  18. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. pp. 42–44. ISBN 9780717805044.
  19. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. pp. 41–42. ISBN 9780717805044.
  20. ^ Starr, Kevin (1997). Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California. Oxford University Press. pp. 90–91. ISBN 9780195118025.
  21. ^ Starr, Kevin (1997). Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California. Oxford University Press. p. 91. ISBN 9780195118025.
  22. ^ a b Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 50. ISBN 9780717805044.
  23. ^ a b Munk, Michael. "West coast waterfront strike of 1934". Oregon Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
  24. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. pp. 49–50. ISBN 9780717805044.
  25. ^ Starr, Kevin (1997). Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California. Oxford University Press. pp. 100–101. ISBN 9780195118025.
  26. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 102. ISBN 9780717805044.
  27. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. pp. 103–105. ISBN 9780717805044.
  28. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. pp. 48–49. ISBN 9780717805044.
  29. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 80. ISBN 9780717805044.
  30. ^ Longshoreman's Strike of 1934 – ILWU
  31. ^ a b Depression-Era Murals of the Bay Area. Arcadia Publishing. 2014. ISBN 9781467131445. As the strike raged along the waterfront at the base of Telegraph Hill, many claimed that the labor unrest was influenced by members of the Communist Party. Simultaneously, the PWAP took notice of blatant communist references in the Coit Tower murals painted by Victor Arnautoff, John Langley Howard, Clifford Wight, and Bernhard Zakheim.
  32. ^ a b Kamiya, Gary (July 8, 2017). "How Coit Tower's murals became a target for anticommunist forces". www.sfchronicle.com. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  33. ^ Selvin, David F. (1996). A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco. Wayne State University Press. p. 236. ISBN 0814326102. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  34. ^ "Police Fire Into Ranks of Strikers". Hammond (Ind) Times. May 15, 1934. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  35. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 110. ISBN 9780717805044.
  36. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 111. ISBN 9780717805044.
  37. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 112. ISBN 9780717805044.
  38. ^ Glass, Fred (2016). From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement. Univ of California Press. pp. 239–40. ISBN 9780520288409.
  39. ^ a b Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 113. ISBN 9780717805044.
  40. ^ Starr, Kevin (1997). Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California. Oxford University Press. pp. 107–8. ISBN 9780195118025.
  41. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 119. ISBN 9780717805044.
  42. ^ Starr, Kevin (1997). Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California. Oxford University Press. p. 108. ISBN 9780195118025.
  43. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 122. ISBN 9780717805044.
  44. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 123. ISBN 9780717805044.
  45. ^ Glass, Fred (2016). From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement. Univ of California Press. p. 240. ISBN 9780520288409.
  46. ^ words of Paul Eliel, Waterfront and General Strikes p. 128, quoted in Bruce, Nelson (1990). Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press. p. 303. ISBN 9780252061448. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
  47. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. pp. 138, 141. ISBN 9780717805044.
  48. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 133. ISBN 9780717805044.
  49. ^ Milton, David (1982). Politics of US Labor. NYU Press. p. 50. ISBN 9780853455707.
  50. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 142. ISBN 9780717805044.
  51. ^ Milton, David (1982). Politics of US Labor. NYU Press. p. 49. ISBN 9780853455707.
  52. ^ Carlsson, Chris. "The General Strike of 1934". Found SF. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
  53. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 151. ISBN 9780717805044.
  54. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 173. ISBN 9780717805044.
  55. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. pp. 156–157. ISBN 9780717805044.
  56. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 176. ISBN 9780717805044.
  57. ^ Glass, Fred (2016). From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement. Univ of California Press. p. 244. ISBN 9780520288409.
  58. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 160. ISBN 9780717805044.
  59. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 161. ISBN 9780717805044.
  60. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 162. ISBN 9780717805044.
  61. ^ Selvin, David F. (1996). A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco. Wayne State University Press. p. 200. ISBN 0814326102.
  62. ^ Glass, Fred (2016). From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement. Univ of California Press. p. 243. ISBN 9780520288409.
  63. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 167. ISBN 9780717805044.
  64. ^ Quin, Mike (1979). The Big Strike. International Publishers Co. p. 166. ISBN 9780717805044.
  65. ^ An Exercise in Hysteria: San Francisco's Red Raids of 1934 – David F. Selvin – The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 58, No. 3 (Aug., 1989), pp. 361–374
  66. ^ Nelson, Bruce (1990). Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press. pp. 156–157. ISBN 9780252061448.
  67. ^ Nelson, Bruce (1990). Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press. pp. 158. ISBN 9780252061448.
  68. ^ Glass, Fred (2016). From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement. Univ of California Press. pp. 244–45. ISBN 9780520288409.
  69. ^ Nelson, Bruce (1990). Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press. pp. 160. ISBN 9780252061448.
  70. ^ a b Glass, Fred (2016). From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement. Univ of California Press. p. 245. ISBN 9780520288409.
  71. ^ Nelson, Bruce (1990). Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press. pp. 162–163. ISBN 9780252061448.
  72. ^ Kimeldorf, Howard (1988). Reds or Rackets?: The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront. University of California Press. p. 112. ISBN 9780520912779.
  73. ^ a b Kimeldorf, Howard (1988). Reds or Rackets?: The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront. University of California Press. p. 114. ISBN 9780520912779.
  74. ^ Nelson, Bruce (1990). Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press. pp. 164–166. ISBN 9780252061448.
  75. ^ O'Farrell, Brigid (1996). Rocking the Boat: Union Women's Voices, 1915–1975. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. pp. 40. ISBN 9780813522692 – via Internet Archive.
  76. ^ Glass, Fred (June 28, 2016). From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement. Univ of California Press. p. 246. ISBN 9780520288409.
  77. ^ Nolte, Carl (May 27, 2007). "Sam Kagel -- arbitrator in major labor disputes (obit)". SF Gate. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
  78. ^ Coker, Matt (August 27, 2010). "KOCE Snags an LA Emmy for Bloody Thursday – OC Weekly". www.ocweekly.com. Retrieved January 1, 2023.

Further reading

  • The Big Strike, by Mike Quin, ISBN 0-7178-0504-2
  • A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco, by David F. Selvin. Wayne State University Press (July 1996). ISBN 0-8143-2610-2.
  • Dock Strike: History of the 1934 Waterfront Strike in Portland, Oregon, by Roger Buchanan
  • Reds or Rackets, The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront, by Howard Kimeldorf, ISBN 0-520-07886-1
  • Harry Bridges, The Rise and Fall of Radical Labor in the U.S., by Charles Larrowe, ISBN 0-88208-001-6
  • Workers on the Waterfront, Seamen, Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s, by Bruce Nelson, ISBN 0-252-06144-6
  • Agitate, Educate, Organize: Portland, 1934, by William Bigelow & Norman Diamond, Oregon Historical Quarterly, Spring 1988
  • "1934 West Coast waterfront strike". The Oregon Encyclopedia.
  • 1934: The Great Strike, a multimedia section of the Waterfront Workers History Project, including film and photographs of the strike, a day-by-day account of the strike and digitized copies of newspaper articles and worker newsletters.

Archives

  • Anne Rand Library, International Longshore and Warehouse Union. January 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine contains digitized materials related to the history of the ILWU, including 1934 strike bulletins.
  • San Francisco General Strike of 1934 photographic collections, via Calisphere, California Digital Library
  • Finding aids (no online content) for the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union Local 1 Records. 1933–1988. 4.58 cubic ft. (5 boxes). At the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
    • Jake Arnautoff Papers. 1935–1991. .28 cubic ft. and 1 vertical file.
    • Albert H. Farmer Papers. 1926–1981. .84 cubic ft. (2 boxes).
    • Wayne "Waino" Moisio papers. 1938–1962. 0.21 cubic ft. (1 box).

March 31, 2023
1934, west, coast, waterfront, strike, this, article, contain, colloquial, terms, phrases, words, articles, should, literal, encyclopedic, language, please, improve, this, article, discuss, this, issue, talk, page, wikipedia, guide, writing, better, articles, . This article may contain colloquial terms phrases or words Articles should use literal encyclopedic language Please improve this article or discuss this issue on the talk page See Wikipedia s guide to writing better articles for suggestions March 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message 1934 West Coast waterfront strike Confrontation between a policeman wielding a night stick and a striker during the San Francisco General Strike 1934DateMay 9 July 31 1934 84 days 1 LocationEverett Washington Portland Oregon San Francisco California Seattle Washington Los Angeles CaliforniaMethodsStrikes protest demonstrationsParties to the civil conflictInternational Longshore and Warehouse Union California National GuardLead figuresHarry Bridges Paddy Morris Jack Bjorklund Joseph P Ryan Frank Merriam Angelo Rossi Julius MeierCasualties and lossesDeaths 9 Injuries gt 1000 Arrests gt 500 2 Deaths Injuries The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike also known as the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen s Strike as well as a number of variations on these names lasted 83 days and began on May 9 1934 when longshoremen in every US West Coast port walked out Organized by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union ILWU the strike peaked with the death of two workers on Bloody Thursday and the San Francisco General Strike which stopped all work in the major port city for four days and led ultimately to the settlement of the West Coast Longshoremen s Strike The result of the strike was the unionization of all of the West Coast ports of the United States The San Francisco General Strike of 1934 along with the Toledo Auto Lite Strike of 1934 led by the American Workers Party and the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 led by the Communist League of America were catalysts for the rise of industrial unionism in the 1930s much of which was organized through the Congress of Industrial Organizations 1 Contents 1 Background 2 The Big Strike 3 Bloody Thursday 4 Funerals and general strike 5 End of the strike 6 Aftermath 7 Legacy 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 10 1 ArchivesBackground EditLongshoremen on the West Coast ports had either been unorganized or represented by company unions since the years immediately after World War I when the shipping companies and stevedoring firms had imposed the open shop after a series of failed strikes 3 Longshoremen in San Francisco then the major port on the coast were required to go through a hiring hall operated by a company union known as the blue book system for the color of the membership book 4 The Industrial Workers of the World had attempted to organize longshoremen sailors and fishermen in the 1920s through their Marine Transport Workers Union 5 Their largest strike the 1923 San Pedro Maritime Strike bottled up shipping in that harbor but was crushed by a combination of injunctions mass arrests and vigilantism by the American Legion While the IWW was a spent force after that strike syndicalist thinking remained popular on the docks 6 Longshoremen and sailors on the West Coast also had contacts with an Australian syndicalist movement that called itself the One Big Union formed after the defeat of a general strike there in 1917 7 The Communist Party had also been active in the area in the late 1920s seeking to organize all categories of maritime workers into a single union the Marine Workers Industrial Union MWIU as part of the drive during the Third Period to create revolutionary unions 8 9 The MWIU never made much headway on the West Coast but it did attract a number of former IWW members and foreign born militants 10 Harry Bridges an Australian born sailor who became a longshoreman after coming to the United States was repeatedly accused further explanation needed for his acknowledged Communist party membership 11 12 Militants published a newspaper The Waterfront Worker which focused on longshoremen s most pressing demands more men on each gang lighter loads and an independent union 13 14 While a number of the individuals in this group were Communist Party members the group as a whole was independent of the party although it criticized the International Seamen s Union ISU as weak and the International Longshoremen s Association ILA which had its base on the East Coast as corrupt it did not embrace the MWIU but called instead for creation of small knots of activists at each port to serve as the first step in a slow careful movement to unionize the industry 15 Events soon made the MWIU wholly irrelevant Just as the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act had led to a spontaneous significant rise in union membership among coal miners in 1933 thousands of longshoremen now joined the fledgling ILA locals that reappeared on the West Coast 16 The MWIU faded away as party activists followed the mass of West Coast longshoremen into the ILA 15 These newly emboldened workers first went after the blue book union refusing to pay dues to it and tearing up their membership books The militants who had published The Waterfront Worker now known as the Albion Hall group after their usual meeting place continued organizing dock committees that soon began launching slowdowns and other types of job actions in order to win better working conditions 15 While the official leadership of the ILA remained in the hands of conservatives sent to the West Coast by President Joseph Ryan of the ILA the Albion Hall group started in March 1934 to press demands for a coastwide contract a union run hiring hall and an industry wide waterfront federation 17 When the conservative ILA leadership negotiated a weak gentlemen s agreement with the employers that had been brokered by the mediation board created by the administration of President Franklin D Roosevelt Bridges led the membership in rejecting it 18 The sticking point in the strike was recognition the union demanded a closed shop a coastwide contract and a union hiring hall The employers offered to arbitrate the dispute but insisted that the union agree to an open shop as a condition of any agreement to arbitrate The longshoremen rejected the proposal to arbitrate 19 The Big Strike Edit An engraved billy club commemorates police activity in the Battle of Smith Cove in Seattle The strike began on May 9 1934 as longshoremen in every West Coast port walked out sailors joined them several days later 20 The employers recruited strikebreakers housing them on moored ships or in walled compounds and bringing them to and from work under police protection 21 Strikers attacked the stockade housing strikebreakers in San Pedro on May 15 police fired into the strikers killing two and injuring many specify The killing of Dick Parker created resentment up and down the coast 22 Daily similar smaller clashes broke out in San Francisco and Oakland California Portland Oregon 23 and Seattle Washington 22 Strikers also succeeded in slowing down or stopping the movement of goods by rail out of the ports 24 The Roosevelt administration tried again to broker a deal to end the strike but the membership twice rejected the agreements their leadership brought to them and continued the strike 25 The employers then decided to make a show of force to reopen the port in San Francisco 26 On Tuesday July 3 fights broke out along the Embarcadero in San Francisco between police and strikers while a handful of trucks driven by young businessmen made it through the picket line 27 Some Teamsters supported the strikers by refusing to handle hot cargo goods which had been unloaded by strikebreakers although the Teamsters leadership was not as supportive 28 By the end of May Dave Beck president of the Seattle Teamsters and Mike Casey president of those in San Francisco thought the maritime strike had lasted too long 29 They encouraged the strikers to take what they could get from the employers and threatened to use Teamsters as strikebreakers if the ILA did not return to work 30 Shipping companies government officials some union leaders and the press began to raise fears that the strike was the result of communist agitation 31 32 This red scare also helped ignite a controversy about the New Deal Public Works of Art Project murals that were at the time being completed in San Francisco s Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill close to the location of the strike in San Francisco leading to the postponing of the tower s July 7 opening and later to the removal of communist symbols from two of the American Social Realism style murals 31 32 Date Location Workers killed NotesMay 15 1934 San Pedro CA 2 When 500 strikers attacked and tried to set fire to a ship housing strikebreakers in San Pedro police unsuccessfully tried to stop them with tear gas then shot into the crowd killing strikers Dick Parker and John Knudsen 33 34 June 30 1934 Seattle WA 1 Upon hearing that replacement crews were about to take two oil tankers out of the port union members went to the dock When the longshoremen tried to get past the dock s gates they were ambushed by guards Worker Shelvy Daffron was shot in the back and later died July 5 1934 San Francisco CA 2 When striking longshoremen surrounded a San Francisco police car and tried to tip it over the police shot into the air and then fired into the crowd killing Nick Bordoise originally named Nick Counderakis and Howard Sperry August 20 1934 Portland OR 1 James Connor a 22 year old college student and newlywed working as a replacement worker on his vacation was shot and killed in an altercation with striking longshoremen 23 This was one of a string of violent incidents including visiting Senator Robert F Wagner coming under fire A second replacement worker named R A Griffin was also wounded in the head Bloody Thursday Edit San Francisco Coroner s Records of Death for Howard Sperry and Nicolas Bordoise After a quiet Fourth of July the employers organization the Industrial Association tried to open the port of San Francisco even further on Thursday July 5 35 As spectators watched from Rincon Hill the police shot tear gas canisters into the crowd then followed with a charge by mounted police 36 Picketers threw the canisters and rocks back at the police who charged again sending the picketers into retreat 37 Each side then refortified and took stock 38 The events took a violent turn that afternoon as hostilities resumed outside of the ILA strike kitchen 39 Eyewitness accounts differ on the exact events that transpired next According to some witnesses a group of strikers first surrounded a police car and attempted to tip it over prompting the police to fire shotguns in the air and then revolvers at the crowd 15 Other eyewitness accounts claim that police officers started shooting in the direction of the strikers provoking strikers to defend themselves Policemen fired a shotgun into the crowd striking three men in intersection of Steuart and Mission streets One of the men Howard Sperry a striking longshoreman later died of his wounds Another man Charles Olsen was also shot but later recovered from his wounds A third man Nick Bordoise a Greek by birth originally named Nick Counderakis who was an out of work member of the cook s union volunteering at the ILA strike kitchen was shot but managed to make his way around the corner onto Spear Street where he was found several hours later Like Sperry he died at the hospital 40 Strikers immediately cordoned off the area where the two picketers had been shot laying flowers and wreaths around it Police arrived to remove the flowers and drive off the picketers minutes later Once the police left the strikers returned replaced the flowers and stood guard over the spot Though Sperry and Bordoise had been shot several blocks apart this spot became synonymous with the memory of the two slain men and Bloody Thursday 41 As strikers carried wounded picketers into the ILA union hall police fired on the hall and lobbed tear gas canisters at nearby hotels At this point someone reportedly called the union hall to ask Are you willing to arbitrate now 39 Under orders from California Governor Frank Merriam the California National Guard moved in that evening to patrol the waterfront 42 Similarly federal soldiers of the United States Army stationed at the Presidio were placed on alert The picketers pulled back unwilling to take on armed soldiers in an uneven fight and trucks and trains began moving without interference Bridges asked the San Francisco Labor Council to meet that Saturday July 7 to authorize a general strike 43 The Alameda County Central Labor Council in Oakland considered the same action Teamsters in both San Francisco and Oakland voted to strike over the objections of their leaders on Sunday July 8 44 Funerals and general strike EditThe following day several thousand strikers families and sympathizers took part in a funeral procession down Market Street stretching more than a mile and a half for Nicholas Bordoise and Howard Sperry the two persons killed on Bloody Thursday 45 The police were wholly absent from the scene The march made an enormous impact on San Franciscans making a general strike which had formerly been the visionary dream of a small group of the most radical workers became a practical and realizable objective 46 After dozens of Bay Area unions voted for a general strike over the next few days the San Francisco Labor Council voted on July 14 to call a general strike 47 The Teamsters had already been out for two days by that point 48 San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi declared a state of emergency 49 Some federal officials particularly Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins were more skeptical 50 Roosevelt later recalled that some persons were urging him to steer the USS Houston which was carrying him to Hawaii into San Francisco Bay all flags flying and guns double shotted and end the strike Roosevelt rejected the suggestion 51 The general strike began on the 16th involving some 150 000 workers 15 On the 17th the police arrested more than 300 radicals subversives and communists while systematically smashing furniture and equipment of organizations related to the strike the same day General Hugh S Johnson as head of the National Recovery Administration spoke at UC Berkeley to denounce the general strike as a menace to the government 52 The strike lasted four days Non union truck drivers joined the first day the movie theaters and night clubs closed down While food deliveries continued with the permission of the strike committee many small businesses closed posting signs in support of the strikers 53 Reports that unions in Portland and Seattle would also begin general strikes picked up currency 54 End of the strike EditThe calling of a general strike had an unexpected result it gave the General Strike Committee whose makeup was far less militant than the longshoremen s strike committee effective control over the maritime strike itself 55 When the Labor Council voted to terminate the general strike it also recommended that the unions accept arbitration of all disputed issues 56 When the National Longshore Board put the employer s proposal to arbitrate to a vote of striking longshoremen it passed in every port except Everett Washington citation needed That however left the striking seamen in the lurch the employers had refused to arbitrate with the ISU unless it first won elections on the fleets on strike While Bridges who had preached solidarity among all maritime workers and scorned arbitration apologized to the seamen for the longshoremen s vote the President of the ISU urged them to hold out and to burn their fink books the membership records of the company union to which they had been forced to pay dues 57 On July 17 1934 the California National Guard blocked both ends of Jackson Street from Drumm to Front with machine gun mounted trucks to assist vigilante raids protected by SFPD on the headquarters of the Marine Workers Industrial Union and the ILA soup kitchen at 84 Embarcadero Moving on the Workers Ex Servicemen s League s headquarters on Howard between Third and Fourth was raided leading to 150 arrests and the complete destruction of the facilities The employer s group the Industrial Association had agents riding with the police 58 Further raids were carried out at the Workers Open Forum at 1223 Fillmore street and the Western Worker building opposite City Hall that contained a bookstore and the main offices of the Communist Party which was thoroughly destroyed 59 Attacks were also perpetrated on the 121 Haight Street Workers School and the Mission Workers Neighborhood House at 741 Valencia Street 60 A police spokesperson suggested that maybe the Communists staged the raids themselves for publicity 61 General Hugh S Johnson then head of the National Recovery Administration gave a speech urging responsible labor leaders to run these subversive influences out from its ranks like rats 62 A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union was kidnapped and beaten while vigilantes seized thirteen radicals in San Jose and turned them over to the sheriff of an adjoining county who transported them to another county 63 In Hayward in Alameda County someone erected a scaffold in front of the city hall with a noose and a sign stating Reds beware 64 In Piedmont an upscale community surrounded by Oakland on all sides the chief of police prepared for a reported attack by strikers on the homes of wealthy ship owners 65 Aftermath EditWhile some of the most powerful people in San Francisco considered the strike s denouement to be a victory for the employers many longshoremen and seamen did not Spontaneous strikes over grievances and workplace conditions broke out as strikers returned to their jobs with longshoremen and teamsters supporting their demands 66 Employers conceded many of these battles giving workers even more confidence in demanding that employers lighten unbearably heavy loads 67 Longshoremen also began dictating other terms fining members who worked more than the ceiling of 120 hours per month filing charges against a gang boss for slandering colored brothers and forcing employers to fire strikebreakers 68 Other unions went further the Marine Firemen proposed to punish any member who bought a Hearst newspaper 69 The arbitration award issued on October 12 1934 cemented the ILA s power 70 While the award put the operation of the hall in the hands of a committee of union and employer representatives the union was given the power to select the dispatcher Since longshoremen were prepared to walk out if an employer did not hire a worker dispatched from the hall the ILA soon controlled hiring on the docks The employers complained that the union wanted to sovietize the waterfront 71 Workers complained that the employers were exploiting them for cheap labor and forcing them to work in unsafe conditions without reasonable safety measures citation needed The union soon utilized the quickie strike tactic to force many concessions from employers such as safer working conditions and better pay 72 Similarly even though an arbitrator held that the 1935 Agreement prohibited sympathy strikes the union s members nonetheless refused to cross other unions picket lines Longshoremen also refused to handle hot cargo destined for non union warehouses that the union was attempting to organize 73 The ISU acquired similar authority over hiring despite the philosophical objection of the union s own officers to hiring halls The ISU used this power to drive strikebreakers out of the industry 74 The rift between the seamen s and longshoremen s unions deepened and became more complex in the succeeding years as Bridges continually fought with the Sailors Union of the Pacific over labor and political issues The West Coast district of the ILA broke off from the International in 1937 to form the International Longshoremen s Union later renamed the International Longshoremen s and Warehousemen s Union after the union s march inland to organize warehouse workers then renamed the International Longshore and Warehouse Union ILWU in recognition of the number of women members citation needed The arbitration award also gave longshoremen a raise to ninety five cents 19 in 2021 dollars an hour for straight time work just shy of the dollar an hour it demanded during the strike It was also awarded a contract that applied up and down the West Coast 70 The strike also prompted union organizer Carmen Lucia to organize the Department Store Workers Union and the Retail Clerks Association in San Francisco 75 Legacy EditThe ILWU continues to recognize Bloody Thursday by shutting down all West Coast ports every July 5 and honoring Nick Bordoise Howard Sperry and all of the other workers killed by police during the strike 76 The ILWU has frequently stopped work for political protests against among other things Italy s invasion of Ethiopia fascist intervention in Spain s civil war South Africa s system of apartheid and the Iraq War 15 73 Sam Kagel the last surviving member of the original union steering committee died on May 21 2007 at the age of 98 77 Bloody Thursday a documentary film that told the story of the strike was broadcast on PBS stations across the nation and was awarded a Los Angeles Area Emmy for best historical film in 2010 78 See also Edit San Francisco Bay Area portal Organized labour portalEverett massacre Harry Bridges History of the west coast of North America List of worker deaths in United States labor disputesReferences Edit a b Preis Art 1974 Labor s giant step twenty years of the CIO Pathfinder Press pp 31 33 ISBN 9780873480246 Kimeldorf Howard 1988 Reds or Rackets The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront University of California Press p 101 ISBN 9780520912779 Starr Kevin 1997 Endangered Dreams The Great Depression in California Oxford University Press pp 85 86 ISBN 9780195118025 Glass Fred 2016 From Mission to Microchip A History of the California Labor Movement Univ of California Press p 231 ISBN 9780520288409 Nelson Bruce 1990 Workers on the Waterfront Seamen Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s University of Illinois Press pp 60 ISBN 9780252061448 Nelson Bruce 1990 Workers on the Waterfront Seamen Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s University of Illinois Press pp 61 62 ISBN 9780252061448 Nelson Bruce 1990 Workers on the Waterfront Seamen Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s University of Illinois Press pp 64 65 ISBN 9780252061448 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 39 ISBN 9780717805044 Nelson Bruce 1990 Workers on the Waterfront Seamen Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s University of Illinois Press pp 79 ISBN 9780252061448 Nelson Bruce 1990 Workers on the Waterfront Seamen Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s University of Illinois Press pp 62 ISBN 9780252061448 Harry Bridges Life and Legacy Starr Kevin 1997 Endangered Dreams The Great Depression in California Oxford University Press p 93 ISBN 9780195118025 Glass Fred 2016 From Mission to Microchip A History of the California Labor Movement Univ of California Press p 232 ISBN 9780520288409 Starr Kevin 1997 Endangered Dreams The Great Depression in California Oxford University Press p 90 ISBN 9780195118025 a b c d e f Chretien Todd June 2012 The Communist Party the unions and the San Francisco General Strike International Socialist Review 84 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 40 ISBN 9780717805044 Starr Kevin 1997 Endangered Dreams The Great Depression in California Oxford University Press pp 94 95 ISBN 9780195118025 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co pp 42 44 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co pp 41 42 ISBN 9780717805044 Starr Kevin 1997 Endangered Dreams The Great Depression in California Oxford University Press pp 90 91 ISBN 9780195118025 Starr Kevin 1997 Endangered Dreams The Great Depression in California Oxford University Press p 91 ISBN 9780195118025 a b Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 50 ISBN 9780717805044 a b Munk Michael West coast waterfront strike of 1934 Oregon Encyclopedia Retrieved April 15 2017 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co pp 49 50 ISBN 9780717805044 Starr Kevin 1997 Endangered Dreams The Great Depression in California Oxford University Press pp 100 101 ISBN 9780195118025 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 102 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co pp 103 105 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co pp 48 49 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 80 ISBN 9780717805044 Longshoreman s Strike of 1934 ILWU a b Depression Era Murals of the Bay Area Arcadia Publishing 2014 ISBN 9781467131445 As the strike raged along the waterfront at the base of Telegraph Hill many claimed that the labor unrest was influenced by members of the Communist Party Simultaneously the PWAP took notice of blatant communist references in the Coit Tower murals painted by Victor Arnautoff John Langley Howard Clifford Wight and Bernhard Zakheim a b Kamiya Gary July 8 2017 How Coit Tower s murals became a target for anticommunist forces www sfchronicle com Retrieved February 4 2019 Selvin David F 1996 A Terrible Anger The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco Wayne State University Press p 236 ISBN 0814326102 Retrieved April 22 2017 Police Fire Into Ranks of Strikers Hammond Ind Times May 15 1934 Retrieved April 22 2017 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 110 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 111 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 112 ISBN 9780717805044 Glass Fred 2016 From Mission to Microchip A History of the California Labor Movement Univ of California Press pp 239 40 ISBN 9780520288409 a b Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 113 ISBN 9780717805044 Starr Kevin 1997 Endangered Dreams The Great Depression in California Oxford University Press pp 107 8 ISBN 9780195118025 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 119 ISBN 9780717805044 Starr Kevin 1997 Endangered Dreams The Great Depression in California Oxford University Press p 108 ISBN 9780195118025 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 122 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 123 ISBN 9780717805044 Glass Fred 2016 From Mission to Microchip A History of the California Labor Movement Univ of California Press p 240 ISBN 9780520288409 words of Paul Eliel Waterfront and General Strikes p 128 quoted in Bruce Nelson 1990 Workers on the Waterfront Seamen Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s University of Illinois Press p 303 ISBN 9780252061448 Retrieved April 15 2017 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co pp 138 141 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 133 ISBN 9780717805044 Milton David 1982 Politics of US Labor NYU Press p 50 ISBN 9780853455707 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 142 ISBN 9780717805044 Milton David 1982 Politics of US Labor NYU Press p 49 ISBN 9780853455707 Carlsson Chris The General Strike of 1934 Found SF Retrieved April 15 2017 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 151 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 173 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co pp 156 157 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 176 ISBN 9780717805044 Glass Fred 2016 From Mission to Microchip A History of the California Labor Movement Univ of California Press p 244 ISBN 9780520288409 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 160 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 161 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 162 ISBN 9780717805044 Selvin David F 1996 A Terrible Anger The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco Wayne State University Press p 200 ISBN 0814326102 Glass Fred 2016 From Mission to Microchip A History of the California Labor Movement Univ of California Press p 243 ISBN 9780520288409 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 167 ISBN 9780717805044 Quin Mike 1979 The Big Strike International Publishers Co p 166 ISBN 9780717805044 An Exercise in Hysteria San Francisco s Red Raids of 1934 David F Selvin The Pacific Historical Review Vol 58 No 3 Aug 1989 pp 361 374 Nelson Bruce 1990 Workers on the Waterfront Seamen Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s University of Illinois Press pp 156 157 ISBN 9780252061448 Nelson Bruce 1990 Workers on the Waterfront Seamen Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s University of Illinois Press pp 158 ISBN 9780252061448 Glass Fred 2016 From Mission to Microchip A History of the California Labor Movement Univ of California Press pp 244 45 ISBN 9780520288409 Nelson Bruce 1990 Workers on the Waterfront Seamen Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s University of Illinois Press pp 160 ISBN 9780252061448 a b Glass Fred 2016 From Mission to Microchip A History of the California Labor Movement Univ of California Press p 245 ISBN 9780520288409 Nelson Bruce 1990 Workers on the Waterfront Seamen Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s University of Illinois Press pp 162 163 ISBN 9780252061448 Kimeldorf Howard 1988 Reds or Rackets The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront University of California Press p 112 ISBN 9780520912779 a b Kimeldorf Howard 1988 Reds or Rackets The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront University of California Press p 114 ISBN 9780520912779 Nelson Bruce 1990 Workers on the Waterfront Seamen Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s University of Illinois Press pp 164 166 ISBN 9780252061448 O Farrell Brigid 1996 Rocking the Boat Union Women s Voices 1915 1975 New Brunswick NJ Rutgers University Press pp 40 ISBN 9780813522692 via Internet Archive Glass Fred June 28 2016 From Mission to Microchip A History of the California Labor Movement Univ of California Press p 246 ISBN 9780520288409 Nolte Carl May 27 2007 Sam Kagel arbitrator in major labor disputes obit SF Gate Retrieved April 15 2017 Coker Matt August 27 2010 KOCE Snags an LA Emmy for Bloody Thursday OC Weekly www ocweekly com Retrieved January 1 2023 Further reading EditThe Big Strike by Mike Quin ISBN 0 7178 0504 2 A Terrible Anger The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco by David F Selvin Wayne State University Press July 1996 ISBN 0 8143 2610 2 Dock Strike History of the 1934 Waterfront Strike in Portland Oregon by Roger Buchanan Reds or Rackets The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront by Howard Kimeldorf ISBN 0 520 07886 1 Harry Bridges The Rise and Fall of Radical Labor in the U S by Charles Larrowe ISBN 0 88208 001 6 Workers on the Waterfront Seamen Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s by Bruce Nelson ISBN 0 252 06144 6 Agitate Educate Organize Portland 1934 by William Bigelow amp Norman Diamond Oregon Historical Quarterly Spring 1988 1934 West Coast waterfront strike The Oregon Encyclopedia 1934 The Great Strike a multimedia section of the Waterfront Workers History Project including film and photographs of the strike a day by day account of the strike and digitized copies of newspaper articles and worker newsletters Archives Edit Anne Rand Library International Longshore and Warehouse Union Archived January 14 2016 at the Wayback Machine contains digitized materials related to the history of the ILWU including 1934 strike bulletins San Francisco General Strike of 1934 photographic collections via Calisphere California Digital Library Finding aids no online content for the International Longshoremen s and Warehousemen s Union Local 1 Records 1933 1988 4 58 cubic ft 5 boxes At the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections Jake Arnautoff Papers 1935 1991 28 cubic ft and 1 vertical file Albert H Farmer Papers 1926 1981 84 cubic ft 2 boxes Wayne Waino Moisio papers 1938 1962 0 21 cubic ft 1 box Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title 1934 West Coast waterfront strike amp oldid 1145357743, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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