A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco

by David F. Selvin

This work presents a narrative of the Pacific Coast maritime strike and the San Francisco general strikes of 1934. Using primary sources and critical commentary as well as personal recollection, Selvin reconstructs the tactics, strategies, policies and programmes of the strikes.

Genres: Labor, History

272 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1996

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Selvin recounts the events of the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen strike that culminated in the 4 day San Francisco General Strike after the murder of two longshoremen by police. Selvin was a participant in the strikes and makes the argument that Communist activists got involved in the strike because they were willing to do battle with the employers when nobody else would, as opposed to other arguments about the syndicalism of the maritime industry (Nelson in Workers on the Waterfront.) Selvin notes that anger had been boiling up over the course of the 1920s and 30s, but little strike activity had actually occured because of corrupt unions and brutal companies, which made the explosion of 1934 a breakthrough. The companies underestimated the anger felt after brutal treatment and long poverty by maritime workers, and both sought to paint the unionists as radical Communists and meet them with police and vigilante violence. The strike started, Selvin states, as simply one for recognition of the ILA pacific divisions as opposed to the company unions, and the right to have a union hiring hall for longshoremen. After constant attacks by police, vigilantes, and the press, the union fought back and scored public sympathy, as the conservative AFL threw its weight behind the strike for a quick four day general strike, which led to recognition and arbitration of the ILA, which eventually became the militant ILWU after the birth of the CIO.

Selvin does a magnificent job recounting the foundational event of West Coast maritime radicalism, but noted it came down to smart unionism than pure radicalism, as Harry Bridges would not listen to Sam Darcey, the Communist Party district leader, who said the longshoremen should strike under the Communist maritime unions (which during the Third Period meant that AFL unions were condemned as fakers, later to be reversed a few years later during the Popular Front.) Bridges and the radicals wisely organized with existing unions and worked with the AFL to achieve recognition and beat back the hated "Blue-Book" company unions. This solid militarism helped unleash the long "terrible anger" of longshoremen that had built up over a decade. Selvin's narrative is easy and short, relying on newspaper accounts, oral histories, and personal recollections.

[Zack]

I thought this book did a good job of showing the conditions that gave rise to the strikes and what life was like during the strikes in the Bay Area. It didn't show the affects the strikes had very well--but perhaps that was outside its scope. The most interested parts for me personally, was when it went back to the late 1800s and early 1900s and gave brief overviews of Bay Area waterfront strikes and struggles I hadn't know about before.

[Jonna Higgins-Freese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for research on Frances Perkins. 54-61 interesting.