Selden Osborne papers, 1933-1988

Summary

Creators:

Osborne, Selden

Abstract:

The collection highlights Osborne's extensive involvement in labor organization and the attempt to reform and reveal what he saw as an undemocratic union structure. The collection consists of three series. Series 1 consists of various materials relating to labor organizations including meeting minutes, newsletters, newspaper clippings, election materials, correspondence and other miscellaneous items. The series also includes materials on the Socialist Party, Communist Party, and the Anti-War Movement. Series 2 consists of personal writings by Osborne, including typed manuscript drafts, handwritten notes and correspondence. The majority of Osborne's personal writings, located in focus on the history of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union and its leader, Harry Bridges. Series 3 consists of materials pertaining specifically to Harry Bridges. These records include newspaper clippings pertaining to various court trials that involved Bridges, including a scrapbook, as well as other miscellaneous documents.

Extent:

Number of containers: 1 carton, 1 box, 1 oversize box Linear feet: 2

Language:

Collection materials are in English and Spanish

Background

Scope and content:

The collection highlights Osborne's extensive involvement in labor organization and the attempt to reform and reveal what he saw as an undemocratic union structure. The collection consists of three series. Series 1 consists of various materials relating to labor organizations including meeting minutes, newsletters, newspaper clippings, election materials, correspondence and other miscellaneous items. The series also includes materials on the Socialist Party, Communist Party, and the Anti-War Movement. Series 2 consists of personal writings by Osborne, including typed manuscript drafts, handwritten notes and correspondence. The majority of Osborne's personal writings, located in focus on the history of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union and its leader, Harry Bridges. Series 3 consists of materials pertaining specifically to Harry Bridges. These records include newspaper clippings pertaining to various court trials that involved Bridges, including a scrapbook, as well as other miscellaneous documents.

Biographical / historical:

Selden Osborne was a long-time member of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU). He dedicated much of his adult life to labor reform through leadership in various labor organizations and by trying to reveal what he saw as hypocrisy in the upper ranks of union politics, particularly involving the co-founder and president of the ILWU for forty years, Harry Bridges. Osborne was a resident of San Francisco, California from 1934 and worked as a longshoreman beginning in 1943 until his retirement in the mid 1970s.

Born in Bisbee, Arizona in 1911 and raised in San Diego, California, Osborne excelled in academics and would eventually earn a college degree from Stanford University. While still in college he became very active in social reform, leading him to union organization. Shortly after graduation he became a union organizer of agricultural workers in the San Joaquin and Imperial Valleys of California. He then became a member of the Socialist Party, becoming president of their local Palo Alto, California chapter at the age of twenty-one in 1932. In 1935 Osborne left the Socialist Party with the Trotskyites and formed the Social Worker's Party, which would drive him towards working for issues of union democracy. He would go on to fight for union rights and against what he deemed injustices in the labor union system.

During World War II Osborne spent time in the army and worked as a merchant seaman. He went on to become a pacifist in the 1950s and protested against nuclear armament during the Cold War. Osborne also joined the War Resister's League in civil disobedience and completed the first coast-to-coast disarmament walk across the United States in 1976.

Acquisition information:

The Selden Osborne Papers were given to The Bancroft Library by Selden Osborne on January 10, 1990.

Physical location:

Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Rules or conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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