1934 West Coast waterfront strike
The 1934 West Coast waterfront strike lasted 83 days, and began on May 9, 1934, when longshoremen in every US West Coast port walked out. Organized by the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), the strike peaked with the death of two workers on "Bloody Thursday" and the subsequent 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.
Confrontation between a policeman wielding a night stick and a striker during the San Francisco General Strike, 1934
An engraved billy club commemorates police activity in the Battle of Smith Cove in Seattle.
Image: Record of Death for Howard Sperry
Image: Record of death for Nicolas Bordoise
Harry Bridges was an Australian-born American union leader, first with the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA). In 1937, he led several chapters in forming a new union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), expanding members to workers in warehouses, and led it for the next 40 years. He was prosecuted for his labor organizing and designated as subversive by the U.S. government during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, with the goal of deportation. This was never achieved.
Central figure representing Bridges, from Anton Refregier's 1948 murals at the Rincon Center (formerly the Rincon Annex Post Office)
Bust of Harry Bridges at the University of Washington
ILWU Headquarters
