1934 International Longshoremen's Association and general strikes of San Francisco, 1933-1934, bulk 1934

Summary

Creators:

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. 253 digital objects

Language:

Collection materials are in English

Background

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.

Biographical / historical:

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.

Date	Event
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.

Acquisition information:

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

Rules or conventions:

Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Related resources

Other descriptive data:

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.

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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