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2024-03-29T07:29:31Z
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https://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Mattachine:_Radical_Roots_of_the_Gay_Movement&diff=3891
Mattachine: Radical Roots of the Gay Movement
2007-10-12T00:31:43Z
<p>76.102.174.120: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:gay1$radically-gay-cover.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Harry Hay in the 1930s'''<br />
<br />
You can't hardly separate homosexuals from subversives ... A man of low morality is a menace to the government, whatever he is, and they are all tied up together. '' ''<br />
<br />
Senator Wherry in ''N.Y. Post'', 1950<br />
<br />
It may come as a surprise that the gay movement not only began in the 1950s, but that its founders were former communists and radicals. Harry Hay, who wrote the first call for a gay movement in 1948, had been a party member for 20 years, active in labor organizing and cultural work. The fact that these organizers had already spent most of their lives outside the mainstream no doubt prepared them for the risks involved in forming a gay organization.<br />
<br />
The modern gay movement in America began in Los Angeles, a city that symbolized the mobile, affluent lifestyle of Americans after the War. The Mattachine Foundation (to be distinguished from the post-1953 Mattachine Society) was formed in the winter of 1950 by a group of seven gay men gathered together by Hay. The name refers to the medieval Mattachines, troupes of men who traveled from village to village, taking up the cause of social justice in their ballads and dramas. By sharing and analyzing their personal experience as gay men, the Mattachine founders radically redefined the meaning of being gay and devised a comprehensive program for cultural and political liberation.<br />
<br />
In 1951, Mattachine began sponsoring discussion groups. Years before women's consciousness-raising groups, Mattachine provided lesbians and gay men a similar opportunity to share openly, for the first time, their feelings and experiences.<br />
<br />
The meetings were emotional and cathartic. From 1950 to 1953 attendance snowballed. Soon discussion groups were meeting throughout California. As Dorr Legg described it, The thing was growing. Never was there a mass movement in America like it. There were tens of thousands of people in the L.A. area involved with it.... You could go to a Mattachine meeting every night of every week, year in and out. Groups began to sponsor social events, fundraisers, newsletters, and publications.<br />
<br />
In April 1951, Mattachine adopted a Statement of Missions and Purposes. This encompassing vision of gay liberation stands out in the history of the movement because it incorporated two important themes. First, Mattachine called for a grassroots movement of gay people to challenge anti-gay discrimination. At the same time, the organization recognized the importance of building community: Mattachine holds it possible and desirable that a highly ethical homosexual culture emerge, as a consequence of its work, paralleling the emerging cultures of our fellow-minorities . . . the Negro, Mexican, and Jewish peoples.<br />
<br />
This ideal of a gay cultural and political community with a unique place in democratic society linked Mattachine to Whitman's vision of a hundred years earlier.<br />
<br />
The discussion groups proved effective in building gay consciousness. In 1952, the Mattachine founders pushed forward into political action. That spring, when one of the original members of the group was entrapped by the Los Angeles vice squad, Mattachine decided to mobilize the community and challenge the case in court.<br />
<br />
Under the auspices of the Citizen's Committee to Outlaw Entrapment, Mattachine hired a lawyer, raised funds, published newsletters, and distributed leaflets. When the jury was unable to reach a verdict and the case was dismissed Mattachine claimed victory. An acknowledged homosexual had beaten the vice squad and been acquitted in court!<br />
<br />
Encouraged by this success, Mattachine took an even bolder step the following year. In 1953, the group sent questionnaires to local political candidates, asking them to state their positions on gay rights issues.<br />
<br />
In March, a local newspaper columnist wrote an article about this strange new pressure group, noting that Mattachine's lawyer had been unfriendly when he appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Of course, at this time McCarthy's anti-communist witch hunt was at its peak.<br />
<br />
The article set off a panic among Mattachine members, who were horrified at the thought of their activities being linked to communism. In the controversy that followed, two conventions were held and opposing sides took shape. These conventions were unprecedented public meetings of gay people, attended by delegates representing hundreds of discussion group participants.<br />
<br />
Conservative delegates questioned the organization's stated goals, challenging the idea that gay people were a minority. They claimed such an approach would only encourage hostility. Mattachine board members, however, argued that we must disenthrall ourselves of the idea that we differ only in our sexual directions and that all we want or need in life is to be free to seek the expression of our sexual desires.<br />
<br />
While efforts to adopt anti-communist resolutions failed at the conventions, the original leadership was shaken. They, too, feared the consequences of a government investigation of Mattachine activities, which would expose the identity of members and destroy the movement. So, in May 1953, the founders resigned, turning the movement over to the conservatives.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the new leadership shared none of the vision or experience of the original founders. They drastically revised the goals of the organization, backtracking in every area. Instead of social change, they advocated accommodation. Instead of mobilizing gay people, they sought the support of professionals, who they believed held the key to reform. They stated, We do not advocate a homosexual culture or community, and we believe none exists.<br />
<br />
The results were devastating. Discussion group attendance fell and groups folded. The small core of members that remained, in San Francisco and other cities, invited psychiatrists to speak to them and sat patiently through the homophobic diatribes of these experts, to prove their impartiality. As Barbara Gittings said, At first we were so grateful just to have people anybody pay attention to us that we listened to everything they said, no matter how bad it was.... It was essential for us to go through this before we could arrive at what we now consider our much more sensible attitudes.<br />
<br />
''--Will Roscoe''<br />
<br />
[[Finocchio's Pickups at Finocchio's c. 1930]]<br />
<br />
[http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php Gay Sex Before Zippers]<br />
<br />
[[Image:gay1$harry-hay-1996.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Harry Hay in 1996'''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''Carlsson,Chris - Photographer-Artist ''<br />
<br />
Roscoe,Will - Writer<br />
<br />
[[NIGHT STICK: A Novelized Account of the May 21 Riot | Prev. Document]] [[World War II: Self-Discovery for Many | Next Document]]</div>
76.102.174.120
https://foundsf.org/index.php?title=July_5,_1934:_Bloody_Thursday&diff=3890
July 5, 1934: Bloody Thursday
2007-10-12T00:30:15Z
<p>76.102.174.120: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:34strike$rincon-hill-riot-spectators.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Crowd on Rincon Hill watching July 5 riots'''<br />
<br />
After nearly two months of losing $100,000 a day, and after the repudiation of a deal signed without rank-and-file approval by union president Ryan (he was booed off the stage in San Francisco after he presented the deal), the owners, with the support of Mayor Rossi and the SF Police, decided to open the port. At noon on July 3, 1934, the Industrial Association made its effort to transport goods from the docks to a warehouse. A barricade of freight cars of the stage-owned Belt Line Railway was drawn around Pier 38, from which a lane of police cars was formed to the warehouse. In this safety lane trucks moved with the cargo. On the outside of the lane the strikers were attacked by police with clubs, guns and tear gas. The strikers retaliated with bricks and railroad spikes. All afternoon the fighting continued. One striker was killed and a score badly injured.<br />
<br />
After a holiday truce on July 4 (during which California Governor Merriam ordered the National Guard to stand by), police charged 2,000 strikers who were picketing Pier 38 and drove them away after an hour and a half of fighting. The fight continued later in the afternoon as police attempted to drive 5,000 strikers from Rincon Hill, overlooking the waterfront and the Belt Line Railway. Vomit gas and tear gas were used extensively (salesmen from competing firms were handing out free samples to the police!), along with the usual guns and clubs, and strikers responded by throwing spikes and bricks.<br />
<br />
As rumors flew that the National Guard were arriving in the evening, the workers made a last desperate push to seize the railway only to be repelled by police. On this Bloody Thursday (July 5, 1934) over a hundred people were wounded, and police bullets killed strikers Nicholas Bordois and Howard Sperry.<br />
<br />
The corner of Steuart and Mission Streets, where the two strikers had been shot down, was adorned with flowers and chalked with the inscription: Two men killed here, murdered by police. In turn, the Governor sent in 1,700 National Guardsmen who installed barbed wire and machine-gun nests along the Embarcadero. Troops were ordered to shoot to kill.<br />
<br />
Freight was moved through this phalanx of protection but languished at the warehouse since the Teamsters continued to refuse to move it. The strike held on, 250 ships lay idle between San Diego and Seattle, and the companies were now losing $1 million a day.<br />
<br />
''--Chris Carlsson''<br />
<br />
[http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php Eyewitness]<br />
<br />
[[Image:34strike$harry_himself.jpg]]<br />
<br />
[[Mattachine: Radical Roots of the Gay Movement | HARRY HAY]]''' (photo) was there on July 5, 1934... a bullet zinged past his ear. Two men were killed, eighty-five more were hospitalized. '''<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''San Francisco Public Library,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Carlsson,Chris - Writer<br />
<br />
[[The General Strike of 1934 |Prev. Document]] [[Bloody Thursday |Next Document]]</div>
76.102.174.120
https://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_General_Strike_of_1934&diff=3889
The General Strike of 1934
2007-10-12T00:28:25Z
<p>76.102.174.120: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:34strike$strikers-shot.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Strikers shot by police, July 5, 1934'''<br />
<br />
After Bloody Thursday, the joint marine strike committee called for a general strike. Fourteen unions voted to support the call the next day, and the Teamsters voted to go out on July 12 if the strike remained unsettled. On Monday July 9 a crowd of 40,000 people solemnly filled Market Street in a funeral procession for the slain strikers.<br />
<br />
Over the next week, momentum for a General Strike snowballed. The Central Labor Council, which had denounced the maritime strike leaders as communists in late May, scrambled to head off the General Strike by creating a Strike Strategy Meeting, an effort characterized by Sam Darcy as an effort to kill the strike, not to organize it.<br />
<br />
At 8 a.m. on Monday, July 16, the San Francisco General Strike officially began, involving around 150,000 workers around the Bay. But it had already been rolling along for a few days by then. Between July 11 and 14, over 30,000 workers went out on strike, including teamsters, butchers, laundry workers, and more; by July 12th 21 unions had voted to strike, most of them unanimously.<br />
<br />
The newspapers coordinated a vitriolic attack on the strike. The ''Examiner'' ran a front page piece on July 16 with the headline General Strike in England Crushed When Government Took Control of Situation next to a front page editorial A Lesson From England. The ''Los Angeles Times'' picked up the theme and wrote The situation in San Francisco is not correctly described by the phrase general strike. What is actually in progress there is an insurrection, a Communist-inspired and led revolt against organized government...<br />
<br />
On Tuesday, July 17, National Recovery Administrator General Hugh S. Johnson gave a speech at UC Berkeley (where students had served as scab workers by the hundreds) in which he paid lip service to the labor's right of collective bargaining, but went on to declare the general strike a threat to the community, a menace to the Government... civil war, brought on by subversive influences.<br />
<br />
July 17 also began a reign of terror targeting suspected homes and meeting places of radicals, subversives, and communists, including the offices of the Marine Workers Industrial Union (60 were arrested for being present), the Communist Party Headquarters, the Ex-Servicemen's Headquarters on Valencia Street, and several private homes. Dozens of armed men burst in, clubbed people, and smashed furniture and equipment. Police mopped up behind them, arresting 300 radicals in one day.<br />
<br />
Charles Wheeler, vice president of McCormick Steamship Line, said in speaking to the Rotary Club that day that the raids would start soon, intimating that the government had given its approval. Arrested radicals were subject to immigration status inquiries and deportation, another indication of federal involvement in the repression.<br />
<br />
The General Strike began to weaken almost as soon as it began. On top of the violent attacks by vigilantes throughout the city, the conservative Central Labor Council's Strike Committee authorized so many exceptions that they dramatically undercut the General Strike. On the first day, they allowed municipal carmen (streetcar operators) to return to work, ostensibly because their civil service status might be jeopardized. The Chairman of the Labor Council was Edward Vandeleur, who was also president of the same Municipal Carmen, and had opposed the strike since the beginning.<br />
<br />
The Ferryboatmen, the printing trades, electricians, and telephone and telegraph workers were never brought into the strike. Typographical workers and reporters continued to work on newspapers that spewed forth anti-strike propaganda. Labor Council leaders even went so far as to issue a work permit to striking sheet metal workers to return to their jobs in order to repair police cars.<br />
<br />
President Roosevelt officially stayed aloof from the strike; his Labor Secretary Perkins cabled him that the General Strike Committee of Twenty-Five represents conservative leadership.<br />
<br />
By July 19th the General Strike Committee voted narrowly to end the Strike. On July 20th, the Teamsters voted to return to work, fearing that the Mayor's Committee of 500 and the Industrial Association would put strike-breakers on all the trucks in SF and leave the Teamsters without jobs.<br />
<br />
This was the end for the Longshoremen and Seamen's strikes along the waterfront. They soon submitted to arbitration that ultimately led to partial victories on wages and hours, but the key issue of union control over hiring halls was lost to a formula that allowed for joint management of hiring halls with the shipping companies. But the unions got to pick the dispatchers, so they enjoyed control in fact if not by contract. And the strength of the maritime workers was far from broken. For instance, during the period January 1, 1937 to August 1, 1938, more than 350 small strikes and work stoppages occurred along the Pacific Coast.<br />
<br />
''--Chris Carlsson ''<br />
<br />
'''READ MORE: '''<br />
<br />
''Strike!'' by Jeremy Brecher, South End Press: Boston, 1972.<br />
<br />
''American Labor Struggles'' by Samuel Yellen © 1936, Monad Press edition: New York, 1974.<br />
<br />
''The Labor Wars'' by Sidney Lens, Anchor/Doubleday: New York, 1974.<br />
<br />
''The Big Strike'' by Mike Quin, Olema Books: 1948.<br />
<br />
''On The Drumhead'' by Mike Quin, Daily People's World: San Francisco, 1948.<br />
<br />
''The Big Strike: A Pictorial History of the 1934 SF General Strike'' with a narrative by Warren Hinckle, Silver Dollar Books: Virginia City, Nevada, 1985.<br />
<br />
[[The General Strike of 1934 |More Strike]]<br />
<br />
[http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php Newsreel]<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''San Francisco Public Library,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Carlsson, Chris - Writer<br />
<br />
[[1934 Big Strike |Prev. Document]] [[July 5, 1934: Bloody Thursday |Next Document]]</div>
76.102.174.120
https://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_General_Strike_of_1934&diff=3888
The General Strike of 1934
2007-10-12T00:28:00Z
<p>76.102.174.120: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:34strike$strikers-shot.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Strikers shot by police, July 5, 1934'''<br />
<br />
After Bloody Thursday, the joint marine strike committee called for a general strike. Fourteen unions voted to support the call the next day, and the Teamsters voted to go out on July 12 if the strike remained unsettled. On Monday July 9 a crowd of 40,000 people solemnly filled Market Street in a funeral procession for the slain strikers.<br />
<br />
Over the next week, momentum for a General Strike snowballed. The Central Labor Council, which had denounced the maritime strike leaders as communists in late May, scrambled to head off the General Strike by creating a Strike Strategy Meeting, an effort characterized by Sam Darcy as an effort to kill the strike, not to organize it.<br />
<br />
At 8 a.m. on Monday, July 16, the San Francisco General Strike officially began, involving around 150,000 workers around the Bay. But it had already been rolling along for a few days by then. Between July 11 and 14, over 30,000 workers went out on strike, including teamsters, butchers, laundry workers, and more; by July 12th 21 unions had voted to strike, most of them unanimously.<br />
<br />
The newspapers coordinated a vitriolic attack on the strike. The ''Examiner'' ran a front page piece on July 16 with the headline General Strike in England Crushed When Government Took Control of Situation next to a front page editorial A Lesson From England. The ''Los Angeles Times'' picked up the theme and wrote The situation in San Francisco is not correctly described by the phrase general strike. What is actually in progress there is an insurrection, a Communist-inspired and led revolt against organized government...<br />
<br />
On Tuesday, July 17, National Recovery Administrator General Hugh S. Johnson gave a speech at UC Berkeley (where students had served as scab workers by the hundreds) in which he paid lip service to the labor's right of collective bargaining, but went on to declare the general strike a threat to the community, a menace to the Government... civil war, brought on by subversive influences.<br />
<br />
July 17 also began a reign of terror targeting suspected homes and meeting places of radicals, subversives, and communists, including the offices of the Marine Workers Industrial Union (60 were arrested for being present), the Communist Party Headquarters, the Ex-Servicemen's Headquarters on Valencia Street, and several private homes. Dozens of armed men burst in, clubbed people, and smashed furniture and equipment. Police mopped up behind them, arresting 300 radicals in one day.<br />
<br />
Charles Wheeler, vice president of McCormick Steamship Line, said in speaking to the Rotary Club that day that the raids would start soon, intimating that the government had given its approval. Arrested radicals were subject to immigration status inquiries and deportation, another indication of federal involvement in the repression.<br />
<br />
The General Strike began to weaken almost as soon as it began. On top of the violent attacks by vigilantes throughout the city, the conservative Central Labor Council's Strike Committee authorized so many exceptions that they dramatically undercut the General Strike. On the first day, they allowed municipal carmen (streetcar operators) to return to work, ostensibly because their civil service status might be jeopardized. The Chairman of the Labor Council was Edward Vandeleur, who was also president of the same Municipal Carmen, and had opposed the strike since the beginning.<br />
<br />
The Ferryboatmen, the printing trades, electricians, and telephone and telegraph workers were never brought into the strike. Typographical workers and reporters continued to work on newspapers that spewed forth anti-strike propaganda. Labor Council leaders even went so far as to issue a work permit to striking sheet metal workers to return to their jobs in order to repair police cars.<br />
<br />
President Roosevelt officially stayed aloof from the strike; his Labor Secretary Perkins cabled him that the General Strike Committee of Twenty-Five represents conservative leadership.<br />
<br />
By July 19th the General Strike Committee voted narrowly to end the Strike. On July 20th, the Teamsters voted to return to work, fearing that the Mayor's Committee of 500 and the Industrial Association would put strike-breakers on all the trucks in SF and leave the Teamsters without jobs.<br />
<br />
This was the end for the Longshoremen and Seamen's strikes along the waterfront. They soon submitted to arbitration that ultimately led to partial victories on wages and hours, but the key issue of union control over hiring halls was lost to a formula that allowed for joint management of hiring halls with the shipping companies. But the unions got to pick the dispatchers, so they enjoyed control in fact if not by contract. And the strength of the maritime workers was far from broken. For instance, during the period January 1, 1937 to August 1, 1938, more than 350 small strikes and work stoppages occurred along the Pacific Coast.<br />
<br />
''--Chris Carlsson ''<br />
<br />
'''READ MORE: '''<br />
<br />
''Strike!'' by Jeremy Brecher, South End Press: Boston, 1972.<br />
<br />
''American Labor Struggles'' by Samuel Yellen © 1936, Monad Press edition: New York, 1974.<br />
<br />
''The Labor Wars'' by Sidney Lens, Anchor/Doubleday: New York, 1974.<br />
<br />
''The Big Strike'' by Mike Quin, Olema Books: 1948.<br />
<br />
''On The Drumhead'' by Mike Quin, Daily People's World: San Francisco, 1948.<br />
<br />
''The Big Strike: A Pictorial History of the 1934 SF General Strike'' with a narrative by Warren Hinckle, Silver Dollar Books: Virginia City, Nevada, 1985.<br />
<br />
[[The General Strike of 1934 More Strike]]<br />
<br />
[http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php Newsreel]<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''San Francisco Public Library,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Carlsson, Chris - Writer<br />
<br />
[[1934 Big Strike |Prev. Document]] [[July 5, 1934: Bloody Thursday |Next Document]]</div>
76.102.174.120
https://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_General_Strike_of_1934&diff=3887
The General Strike of 1934
2007-10-12T00:27:25Z
<p>76.102.174.120: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:34strike$strikers-shot.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Strikers shot by police, July 5, 1934'''<br />
<br />
After Bloody Thursday, the joint marine strike committee called for a general strike. Fourteen unions voted to support the call the next day, and the Teamsters voted to go out on July 12 if the strike remained unsettled. On Monday July 9 a crowd of 40,000 people solemnly filled Market Street in a funeral procession for the slain strikers.<br />
<br />
Over the next week, momentum for a General Strike snowballed. The Central Labor Council, which had denounced the maritime strike leaders as communists in late May, scrambled to head off the General Strike by creating a Strike Strategy Meeting, an effort characterized by Sam Darcy as an effort to kill the strike, not to organize it.<br />
<br />
At 8 a.m. on Monday, July 16, the San Francisco General Strike officially began, involving around 150,000 workers around the Bay. But it had already been rolling along for a few days by then. Between July 11 and 14, over 30,000 workers went out on strike, including teamsters, butchers, laundry workers, and more; by July 12th 21 unions had voted to strike, most of them unanimously.<br />
<br />
The newspapers coordinated a vitriolic attack on the strike. The ''Examiner'' ran a front page piece on July 16 with the headline General Strike in England Crushed When Government Took Control of Situation next to a front page editorial A Lesson From England. The ''Los Angeles Times'' picked up the theme and wrote The situation in San Francisco is not correctly described by the phrase general strike. What is actually in progress there is an insurrection, a Communist-inspired and led revolt against organized government...<br />
<br />
On Tuesday, July 17, National Recovery Administrator General Hugh S. Johnson gave a speech at UC Berkeley (where students had served as scab workers by the hundreds) in which he paid lip service to the labor's right of collective bargaining, but went on to declare the general strike a threat to the community, a menace to the Government... civil war, brought on by subversive influences.<br />
<br />
July 17 also began a reign of terror targeting suspected homes and meeting places of radicals, subversives, and communists, including the offices of the Marine Workers Industrial Union (60 were arrested for being present), the Communist Party Headquarters, the Ex-Servicemen's Headquarters on Valencia Street, and several private homes. Dozens of armed men burst in, clubbed people, and smashed furniture and equipment. Police mopped up behind them, arresting 300 radicals in one day.<br />
<br />
Charles Wheeler, vice president of McCormick Steamship Line, said in speaking to the Rotary Club that day that the raids would start soon, intimating that the government had given its approval. Arrested radicals were subject to immigration status inquiries and deportation, another indication of federal involvement in the repression.<br />
<br />
The General Strike began to weaken almost as soon as it began. On top of the violent attacks by vigilantes throughout the city, the conservative Central Labor Council's Strike Committee authorized so many exceptions that they dramatically undercut the General Strike. On the first day, they allowed municipal carmen (streetcar operators) to return to work, ostensibly because their civil service status might be jeopardized. The Chairman of the Labor Council was Edward Vandeleur, who was also president of the same Municipal Carmen, and had opposed the strike since the beginning.<br />
<br />
The Ferryboatmen, the printing trades, electricians, and telephone and telegraph workers were never brought into the strike. Typographical workers and reporters continued to work on newspapers that spewed forth anti-strike propaganda. Labor Council leaders even went so far as to issue a work permit to striking sheet metal workers to return to their jobs in order to repair police cars.<br />
<br />
President Roosevelt officially stayed aloof from the strike; his Labor Secretary Perkins cabled him that the General Strike Committee of Twenty-Five represents conservative leadership.<br />
<br />
By July 19th the General Strike Committee voted narrowly to end the Strike. On July 20th, the Teamsters voted to return to work, fearing that the Mayor's Committee of 500 and the Industrial Association would put strike-breakers on all the trucks in SF and leave the Teamsters without jobs.<br />
<br />
This was the end for the Longshoremen and Seamen's strikes along the waterfront. They soon submitted to arbitration that ultimately led to partial victories on wages and hours, but the key issue of union control over hiring halls was lost to a formula that allowed for joint management of hiring halls with the shipping companies. But the unions got to pick the dispatchers, so they enjoyed control in fact if not by contract. And the strength of the maritime workers was far from broken. For instance, during the period January 1, 1937 to August 1, 1938, more than 350 small strikes and work stoppages occurred along the Pacific Coast.<br />
<br />
''--Chris Carlsson ''<br />
<br />
'''READ MORE: '''<br />
<br />
''Strike!'' by Jeremy Brecher, South End Press: Boston, 1972.<br />
<br />
''American Labor Struggles'' by Samuel Yellen © 1936, Monad Press edition: New York, 1974.<br />
<br />
''The Labor Wars'' by Sidney Lens, Anchor/Doubleday: New York, 1974.<br />
<br />
''The Big Strike'' by Mike Quin, Olema Books: 1948.<br />
<br />
''On The Drumhead'' by Mike Quin, Daily People's World: San Francisco, 1948.<br />
<br />
''The Big Strike: A Pictorial History of the 1934 SF General Strike'' with a narrative by Warren Hinckle, Silver Dollar Books: Virginia City, Nevada, 1985.<br />
<br />
[[The General Strike of 1934]]<br />
<br />
[http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php Newsreel]<br />
<br />
Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''San Francisco Public Library,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Carlsson, Chris - Writer<br />
<br />
[[1934 Big Strike |Prev. Document]] [[July 5, 1934: Bloody Thursday |Next Document]]</div>
76.102.174.120
https://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_General_Strike_of_1934&diff=3886
The General Strike of 1934
2007-10-12T00:25:55Z
<p>76.102.174.120: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:34strike$strikers-shot.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Strikers shot by police, July 5, 1934'''<br />
<br />
After Bloody Thursday, the joint marine strike committee called for a general strike. Fourteen unions voted to support the call the next day, and the Teamsters voted to go out on July 12 if the strike remained unsettled. On Monday July 9 a crowd of 40,000 people solemnly filled Market Street in a funeral procession for the slain strikers.<br />
<br />
Over the next week, momentum for a General Strike snowballed. The Central Labor Council, which had denounced the maritime strike leaders as communists in late May, scrambled to head off the General Strike by creating a Strike Strategy Meeting, an effort characterized by Sam Darcy as an effort to kill the strike, not to organize it.<br />
<br />
At 8 a.m. on Monday, July 16, the San Francisco General Strike officially began, involving around 150,000 workers around the Bay. But it had already been rolling along for a few days by then. Between July 11 and 14, over 30,000 workers went out on strike, including teamsters, butchers, laundry workers, and more; by July 12th 21 unions had voted to strike, most of them unanimously.<br />
<br />
The newspapers coordinated a vitriolic attack on the strike. The ''Examiner'' ran a front page piece on July 16 with the headline General Strike in England Crushed When Government Took Control of Situation next to a front page editorial A Lesson From England. The ''Los Angeles Times'' picked up the theme and wrote The situation in San Francisco is not correctly described by the phrase general strike. What is actually in progress there is an insurrection, a Communist-inspired and led revolt against organized government...<br />
<br />
On Tuesday, July 17, National Recovery Administrator General Hugh S. Johnson gave a speech at UC Berkeley (where students had served as scab workers by the hundreds) in which he paid lip service to the labor's right of collective bargaining, but went on to declare the general strike a threat to the community, a menace to the Government... civil war, brought on by subversive influences.<br />
<br />
July 17 also began a reign of terror targeting suspected homes and meeting places of radicals, subversives, and communists, including the offices of the Marine Workers Industrial Union (60 were arrested for being present), the Communist Party Headquarters, the Ex-Servicemen's Headquarters on Valencia Street, and several private homes. Dozens of armed men burst in, clubbed people, and smashed furniture and equipment. Police mopped up behind them, arresting 300 radicals in one day.<br />
<br />
Charles Wheeler, vice president of McCormick Steamship Line, said in speaking to the Rotary Club that day that the raids would start soon, intimating that the government had given its approval. Arrested radicals were subject to immigration status inquiries and deportation, another indication of federal involvement in the repression.<br />
<br />
The General Strike began to weaken almost as soon as it began. On top of the violent attacks by vigilantes throughout the city, the conservative Central Labor Council's Strike Committee authorized so many exceptions that they dramatically undercut the General Strike. On the first day, they allowed municipal carmen (streetcar operators) to return to work, ostensibly because their civil service status might be jeopardized. The Chairman of the Labor Council was Edward Vandeleur, who was also president of the same Municipal Carmen, and had opposed the strike since the beginning.<br />
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The Ferryboatmen, the printing trades, electricians, and telephone and telegraph workers were never brought into the strike. Typographical workers and reporters continued to work on newspapers that spewed forth anti-strike propaganda. Labor Council leaders even went so far as to issue a work permit to striking sheet metal workers to return to their jobs in order to repair police cars.<br />
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President Roosevelt officially stayed aloof from the strike; his Labor Secretary Perkins cabled him that the General Strike Committee of Twenty-Five represents conservative leadership.<br />
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By July 19th the General Strike Committee voted narrowly to end the Strike. On July 20th, the Teamsters voted to return to work, fearing that the Mayor's Committee of 500 and the Industrial Association would put strike-breakers on all the trucks in SF and leave the Teamsters without jobs.<br />
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This was the end for the Longshoremen and Seamen's strikes along the waterfront. They soon submitted to arbitration that ultimately led to partial victories on wages and hours, but the key issue of union control over hiring halls was lost to a formula that allowed for joint management of hiring halls with the shipping companies. But the unions got to pick the dispatchers, so they enjoyed control in fact if not by contract. And the strength of the maritime workers was far from broken. For instance, during the period January 1, 1937 to August 1, 1938, more than 350 small strikes and work stoppages occurred along the Pacific Coast.<br />
<br />
''--Chris Carlsson ''<br />
<br />
'''READ MORE: '''<br />
<br />
''Strike!'' by Jeremy Brecher, South End Press: Boston, 1972.<br />
<br />
''American Labor Struggles'' by Samuel Yellen © 1936, Monad Press edition: New York, 1974.<br />
<br />
''The Labor Wars'' by Sidney Lens, Anchor/Doubleday: New York, 1974.<br />
<br />
''The Big Strike'' by Mike Quin, Olema Books: 1948.<br />
<br />
''On The Drumhead'' by Mike Quin, Daily People's World: San Francisco, 1948.<br />
<br />
''The Big Strike: A Pictorial History of the 1934 SF General Strike'' with a narrative by Warren Hinckle, Silver Dollar Books: Virginia City, Nevada, 1985.<br />
<br />
[[The General Strike of 1934 |More Strike]]<br />
<br />
[http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php Newsreel]<br />
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Contributors to this page include:<br />
<br />
''San Francisco Public Library,San Francisco,CA - Publisher or Photographer ''<br />
<br />
Carlsson, Chris - Writer<br />
<br />
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