1934 International Longshoremen's Association and General Strikes of San Francisco

Processed by Padma Rubiales.

The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California 94720-6000

1996

1934 International Longshoremen's Association and General Strikes of San Francisco

Collection number: BANC PIC 1959.003--PIC

The Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California 1996

Finding aid and digital representations of archival materials funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Processed and encoded by:

California Heritage Digital Image Access Project staff in The Bancroft Library and The Library's Electronic Text Unit

Digital images processed by:

The Library Photographic Service

Finding aid completed:

February 1996

Finding aid revised:

April 2000

Collection Summary

Collection Title: 1934 International Longshoremen's Association and General Strikes of San Francisco

Date (inclusive):

Collection Number: BANC PIC 1959.003--PIC

Collector: San Francisco Call Bulletin (Firm)

Extent: 544 film negatives, 247 4x5 inch black and white copy photographs, and 297 8x10 inch black and white copy photographs. 247 digital objects

Repository: The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.

Berkeley, California 94720-6000

Languages Represented: English

Information for Researchers

Access

Collection is open for use.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish photographs must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Pictorial Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], 1934 International Longshoremen's Association and General Strikes of San Francisco, BANC PIC 1959.003--PIC, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Digital Representations Available

Digital representations of selected original pictorial materials are available in the list of materials below. Digital image files were prepared from selected Library originals by the Library Photographic Service. Library originals were copied onto 35mm color transparency film; the film was scanned and transferred to Kodak Photo CD (by Custom Process); and the Photo CD files were color-corrected and saved in JFIF (JPEG) format for use as viewing files.

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Originally received with the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin newspaper photograph archive (BANC PIC 1959.010)

Historical Background

The General Strike of San Francisco occurred July 16-19, 1934 as an outgrowth of the International Longshoremen's Association strike. The ILA strike for control of hiring halls and better pay and hours had closed most Pacific ports except Los Angeles. The attempt of San Francisco employers to open local docks led to a battle between strikers and police on "Bloody Thursday" (July 5), which left two dead and many injured. Harry Bridges, head of the city's division of the ILA, got the general support of other unions, although electricity and food remained available. The four-day strike ended with agreement on arbitration in which the ILA got most of the demands it had made on behalf of longshoremen.

Hart, James D. A Companion to California. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. p. 155.

Chronology Of Events in the Strike Of 1934

March 7	Strike vote taken by Pacific Coast District, International Longshoremen's Association
March 26	President's Fact Finding commission appointed
April 3	Proposals offered by Waterfront Employers' Union accepted by Pacific Coast District Council, International Longshoremen's Association
May 9	Beginning of strike
May 28	Agreement negotiated between representatives of Waterfront Employers' Union and International Longshoremen's Association
June 7	San Francisco Local International Brotherhood of Teamsters refused to handle freight loaded by strikebreakers
June 16	Agreement negotiated between representatives of Waterfront Employers' Union and International Longshoremen's Association
June 26	National Longshoremen's Board appointed
July 3	Industrial Association of San Francisco starts movement of freight from waterfront
July 5	Two strikers killed, National Guard ordered to San Francisco waterfront
July 11	San Francisco Local, International Brotherhood of Teamsters calls strike
July 16	General strike begins
July 19	General strike ends
July 21	Teamsters return to work
July 31	Longshore strike ends

Eliel, Paul. The Waterfront and General Strikes, San Francisco, 1934; a Brief History. San Francisco: Hooper Printing Co., 1934. p. 245.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of 544 modern prints made from original negatives held by The Bancroft Library. The negatives are part of the photograph archive of the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin newspaper photograph archive (BANC PIC 1959.010) and were taken by staff photographers of the newspaper. For many years, this collection consisted of only the first 247 items listed in this finding aid. In 1998, an additional 297 original negatives were discovered in the files of the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin newspaper photograph archive and were printed and added as items 248-544.

The initial 247 prints are grouped under the following topics: Produce Market, Food Convoy; Food Lines, Food Raids; Longshoremen and Pickets; Embarcadero Scenes; Police Scenes, Arrests; Funerals; Miscellaneous; and Portraits, Court Room Scenes. The additions have been arranged under: Longshoremen Loading and Unloading Ships; Goods (Rationing and Deliveries); Police Rounding Up Longshoremen Pickets; Vandalism; Police Confrontations; Sidewalk Memorial; Longshoremen in Court; Protests and Pickets; Miscellaneous Police Scenes; National Guard; Memorial Ceremonies and Funerals; Raids and Arrests of Communists; Street & Public Scenes (during transit strike and return to sevice?); News Photographers Posing. Most of the photographs lack exact dates, but all date from the period up to and including the General Strike, including scenes of "Bloody Thursday." A number of the photographs are of central figures associated with the strikes, including Harry Bridges, Edward Joseph Hanna, Thomas G. Plant, and Angelo Joseph Rossi.

Note on Arrangement of Additions

Negatives now numbered 248-544 were originally grouped into four batches.

Batch 1: Cops [police], Riots (95 negs)
Batch 2: Communists, Reporters, Street Cars, Funeral (22 negs)
Batch 3: Communists (40 negs)
Batch 3a: Reporters, Funeral (11 negs)
Batch 4: Army (National Guard) (124 negs)

Each batch was found housed in a small photographic dry plate box with a brief annotation (as transcribed above) on the exterior, or wrapped with a craft paper strip with an annotation. No other identification was present with negatives. Batches contained film negatives that seemed to be in no particular order, and related images were found in different batches. Therefore they were re-ordered roughly around the chronological history of the strike into groups, as well as could be determined by library staff, and the current arrangement is approximate and identification is tentative. The original batch numbers are written on the top edge of the back of the photographic prints ("Batch 1", for example) so that, if errors in arrangement were made, researchers can tell which images were originally stored in proximity to each other and thereby make more informed identifications of subject.

Container List

Produce Market, Food Convoy, No. 1-25

1 Produce market, food overturned. July 12, 1934. Ruth Brenner, Jacqueline Gordon (l. to. r.)

1934 International Longshoremen's Association and General Strikes of San Francisco

1934 International Longshoremen's Association and General Strikes of San Francisco

Collection number: BANC PIC 1959.003--PIC

Container List

List of Additions