Harry Bridges: Life and Legacy
Harry Bridges was one of the most influential labor leaders in US history. Frequently at odds with conservative elements in the labor movement, and often vilified by employers and government officials, Bridges made the International Longshore and Warehouse Union into a progressive pillar of US trade unionism.
Bridges’ most remarkable contribution to labor history comes through his involvement in the Great Maritime Strike of 1934. He was a much respected rank and file leader of the ’34 strike, a strike that shut down west coast ports, led to an unprecedented three-day general strike in San Francisco, and violent confrontations on the docks. It also established the ILWU as a largely democratically controlled union, a powerhouse able to confront employer transgressions. In subsequent years Bridges was hounded by accusations of Communist Party membership and persecuted in a series of government deportation and perjury