of California Regional Oral History Office University The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Estolv Ethan Ward ORGANIZING AND REPORTING ON LABOR IN THE EAST BAY, CALIFORNIA AND THE WEST, 1925-1987 With an Introduction by Norman Leonard An Interview Conducted by Lisa Rubens in 1987 1989 The of the University of California Copyright (c") by Regents Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well -placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the Nation. Oral history is a modern research technique involving an interviewee and an informed interviewer in spontaneous conversation. The taped record is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The resulting manuscript is typed in final form, indexed, bound with photographs and illustrative materials, and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ************************************ All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between the University of California and Estolv Ethan Ward dated 29 September, 1988. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Request for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The legal agreement with Estolv Ethan Ward requires that he be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Estolv Ethan Ward, "Organizing and Reporting on Labor in the East Bay, California and the West, 1925-1987," an oral history conducted in 1987 by Lisa Rubens, the Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1989. Copy No. ESTOLV ETHAN WARD ca. 1937 Acknowledgments On behalf of all future users of this oral history, the Regional Oral History Office thanks those persons who made it possible. We particularly thank Norman Leonard who raised the necessary funds from Estolv Ward's many friends and admirers . Barbara Baroway Neil Basen Willa K. Baum Beth and Ben Berkov Germain and Helen Bulcke James H. Burford Sidney and Shirley Burkett Norman and Margery Canright Paul and Miriam B. Chown Muriel B. Citret George and Irene M. Curran Patrick Curran Terrence and Nancy Curran Lincoln and Bertha Fairley Frances Foster, M.D. L. Stephen and Judy Gizzi Maria Gizzi Marion Gizzi Caroline Decker Gladstein Theresa J . Goldblatt Hazel and Aubrey Grossman David and Edith A. Jenkins Elinor Kamath Morris Krantz Dorothy and Henry Kraus ILWU International 6 Union ILWU Local , Warehouse Alvin and Pearl Leonard Eric Leonard Norman and Marjorie Leonard Stephen M. Leonard Betty W. Maas Eva and Bill Maas Harry and Mae K. Millstone Paul and Sara Pinsky Bill and Sylvia Powell Sidney and Mae Durham Roger Richard and Lucille Sasuly Professor Alexander Saxton Ruby Silverstone Ruth M. Slade Walter J. and Marcella Stack Norma R. Starobin In Memory of Professors Robert S. and Joseph R. Starobin Gloria Stuart Gwen B. Tompkins Eugenia Ward Trorey Barry and Sharon Uzel Doris Brin Walker David Ward Roger E. Ward, M.D. Julia and Dick Werthimer TABLE OF CONTENTS Estolv Ward ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PREFACE i INTRODUCTION by Norman Leonard iv INTERVIEW HISTORY ix xi BRIEF BIOGRAPHY I FAMILY BACKGROUND AND CHILDHOOD: INFLUENCES ON WARD'S POLITICAL SENSITIVITY 1 A Feminist Mother 5 A Socialist Father 7 Travels in the Pacific and Far East 16 II TRYING TO BE A CONSERVATIVE 23 Military Academy and World War I 21 Marriage and Bourgeois Family Life in Berkeley, 1920' s 26 An Oakland Tribune Reporter, 1925 31 Encounters with Berkeley Bohemianism 36 III THE DIVORCE, THE DEPRESSION, AND THE LEFT TURN 39 The 1931 San Francisco Maritime and General Strike 13 Joining the Newspaper Guild 117 More on Working at the Tribune 51 Joining the Communist Party, 1936 56 Joining the Alameda Central Labor Council 57 Thoughts on the Communist Party 61 IV FORMING THE ALAMEDA COUNTY CIO, 1937 63 Organizing Unions in the East Bay 69 The First California State CIO Convention 71 Reflections on Conferring with Harry Bridges and the Bay Area Labor Movement 72 More on the State CIO 77 Organizing a Demonstration Against Franco 80 More on Organizing in the East Bay 81 Reflections on the Olson Administration 88 V THE HARRY BRIDGES DEFENSE COMMITTEE, 1939 90 Background Information: Bridges and Mooney 90 As Publicity Director 94 The Trial 95 Writing Harry Bridges on Trial 99 Meeting Heywood Broun 101 More on the Bridges' Trial 102 VI DIRECTING CALIFORNIA'S LABOR'S NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 105 Bucking the Communist Party 107 Fraternizing with the Elite 108 On the Radio in Los Angeles, 1940 110 VII ORGANIZING FOR MINE, MILL, AND SMELTER WORKERS 112 The Strike at North American, Los Angeles, 19*11 114 Organizing Basic Magnesium, Las Vegas, 1912 121 Evaluating Unionization in Los Angeles 121 Organizing Alcoa 125 More on Basic Magnesium 128 Confronting the War Labor Board 133 The Failed Strike Vote 138 VIII IN RETREAT IN SAN FRANCISCO, 1914 145 Organizing for American Communications Association 147 An Aside About When the Party Went Underground 149 More on Organizing ACA 152 CIO Political Action in San Francisco, 1945 155 The Schnur Campaign 157 The Brewery Workers 159 Writing About the Labor Movement 162 IX REASSESSING MEMBERSHIP IN THE COMMUNIST PARTY 1 64 Another Organizing Drive for Mine-Mill: Jurisdictional Dispute in Salt Lake City, 1947 166 Reflections on the State CIO 170 Dinner with John L. Lewis, 1947 172 The Effect of Taft-Hartley 174 Working at Electrical Manufacturing, San Francisco 175 Forming a Party Unit; Assuming Union Leadership 176 The Communist Party Under Attack 178 Indicted by a Federal Grand Jury 179 Helping the C. P. Underground 183 Becoming a Photographer 186 Friendship with Louis Goldblatt 188 Thoughts on the Henry Wallace Campaign 189 X LEAVING THE PARTY, 1957 191 Trouble Publishing The Piecard 193 Visiting the Polish Translator 196 House Un-American Activities Committee 198 Disillusionment 201 XI DOCUMENTING HISTORY 203 Photography 203 Traveling 205 Visiting Italian Communists 207 More on Angela and HUAC 209 Visiting the USSR, 1959 210 The CIO Purge of Left Unions 222 Meeting the Exiled Left in Paris 226 XII TWO YEARS ABROAD, 1962-1 961 232 More on the Exiled Left 231 On John XXIII, The Liberal Pontiff 239 Working with Quakers in Algeria 213 Return to San Francisco to Write about Tom Mooney: The Gentle Dynamiter 219 XIII RECENT ACTIVITIES AND SOME BACKWARD GLANCES 255 Conducting an Oral History Interview with Louis Goldblatt 255 Fear of a Revived Right Wing in America, and the Prospects for Communism 261 An Oral History Interview with Norman Leonard 266 Cycles of History 267 Never Truly a Conservative 268 Continued Support for Liberal Causes 269 TAPE GUIDE 271 APPENDICES Estolv E. Ward "How Organized Labor Views the Problems of Transition," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol . 2 .22, July 19^2 273 Estolv Ethan Ward, "Looking Back on the Labor Wars: Lewis (sic) Goldblatt Remembers," The Califomians, Nov/Dec 1983 279 INDEX 289 PREFACE For almost a century, San Francisco has been known as a union town, and the International Longshoreman's and Warehouseman's Union (ILWU) as its most active, progressive, and unique union. Back in the 1950s, when the University of California still funded most of the research conducted by its faculty and staff, the University's newly established oral history program interviewed a number of San Francisco Bay Area's labor leaders; for example, Paul Scharrenberg (Sailor's Union), Jennie a of Teamster Union Matyas (ILGWU) , Mary Gallagher (1WW) , variety officials, and J. Paul St. Sure, representative par excellence of the employers in many collective bargainings. But in the following decades, as institutional research funds shrank and foundation funds became more limited to direct action projects, the oral history program of necessity focused more and more on fields that could fund their own historic preservation. A few brief labor history interviews were conducted, but only when they fitted in with another funded project such as the Earl Warren Era Project. The resulting lopsided documentation was noted and deplored by library officials, faculty, and scholars in search of research materials, but it took two private citizens, recently retired from labor union- related work and research to turn the situation around by their own volunteer efforts. They are Estolv and Angela Ward. First, Angela Ward volunteered her secretarial skills to The Bancroft Library to transcribe a taped but untranscribed lengthy interview with Henry Schmidt which had been donated to the office several years earlier. Her husband, Estolv Ward, reading each page as it came off the typewriter, realized that his background had fortuitously qualified him to do labor oral histories. A newspaper reporter and court reporter in the 1930s, his sympathies had led him to throw in his lot with organized labor after the 1934 General Strike. He had worked for various unions and union-related agencies, and had researched and written on labor topics, including a book on Harry Bridges and one on Tom Mooney.