HARRY BRIDGES How The Communists Control Our Shipping Gary Allen is a Los Angeles journalist Europe, and possibly even our own At­ eoho has covered tor A M ERI CAN OPINION lantic and Gulf ports.Yet the govern­ such affairs as the W atts insurrection, ment has been unsuccessful in five at­ the pro-Vietcong protests at Berkeley, tempts to deport the man, and many and the Delano grape strike. He is now claim that he has now become the very employed in the preparation ot film­ model of the mellowing Communist. strips on current affairs-the latest being Besides, they say, he is the gran d old Show Biz in the Streets. Mr. Allen has man of the W estcoast union movement, just finished his first book, Communist sort of a Paladinian elder statesman of Revolution in the Streets, which will be labor. published by We stern Islands in the spring. A graduate of Stanford Uni­ I versity, Gary Allen is married and the ALFRED Renton "Harry" Bridges ­ proud father of three young children. who has used the aliases Dorgan, Rossi, Dergan, and Durgan in the Commu­ • THOUGH PRESIDENT Johnson is for­ nist Party-was born in 1901 at Mel­ ever declaring that America must "build bourne, Australia, the son of a pros­ bridges of understand ing" wit h the perous real estate agent." At the age of Com munists, one does not have to look eighteen, after devouring Jack London's towa rd the Iron Curt ain to find Com­ tales of the sea (and socialism), young munist Bridges. W e have one of our 'Arry shipped out as an ordinary sea­ very own whose activities in behalf of man and soon found himself in bawd y the International Communist Conspir­ San F rancisco. Either Bridges couldn't acy have spanned the waters of three find his sea legs or he found Baghdad decades. T he fact is that H arry Bridges, by the Bay captivating. In either event, the President of the International Long­ after a few more trips to sea, he forsook shorem en's and W arehousemen's Union life on the bounding main for a liveli­ -one of the most powerful men in hood bouncing cargo on the San Fran­ America-has been identified as a Com­ cisco docks. There h e jo ined the munist in sworn testimony by some I.W .W .-affiliatd M arine T ra n sport thirty-five wit nesses, includi ng his first W orkers Union, and later became an wife. organizer for the A.F . of L.'s Interna ­ Today H arr y Bridges exerts iron­ tional Longshoremen's A ss ociation fisted control over shipping from An­ (I.L.A .) . chorage to Acap ulco to H onolulu. Be­ On e morning in October of 1933 a sides holding a razor at the throat of • The Com munist Pr ess prefers the fic tion t hat our Far East defenses, there is strong Brid ges' fat her was a " wor ker." We assume he eviden ce to suggest that through agree­ worked, bu t his business was real estate. ments with other Communist union t On January 8, 19 3 9, Bridges led a San Fran­ ci sco par ade to celebrate th e release of Tom leaders he can simultaneously tie up Moone y, the fa mous l.W.W . Commu nist and mur­ shipping throughout all of the Orient, derer . MARCH, 1967 1 Communist Party organizer named pute on the docks soon spread to ships John Schomaker, Bridges, and a Com­ in the harbor as the Communists suc­ munist named Bruce Jones sat in a res­ ceeded in maneuvering seamen of 750 taurant sipping coffee. Schomaker, who vessels to cooperate in a strike under later left the Party, told a jury at Bridges' the auspices of the Communist-domi­ trial for fraud and conspiracy in 1950 nated Marine Workers Industrial that after some preliminary niceties he Union. asked the young Australian; "When Every Communist agency operative are you going to join the Party, Harry?" in the area was soon brought in to help Schomaker testified under oath that with Harry's strike. The International Labor Defense, to provide legal aid for the strikers; the International Workers' Aid, a Moscow agency, to organize re­ lief and feed the strikers; and even the Communist Worker's World, to help with the propaganda-all jumped into the fray to aid Comrade Harry. With these groups came a trained army of Communist propagandists, toughs , and organizers. The strike was soon spread­ ing to other ports as the Bolsheviks' dream of a General Strike began to be­ come reality. Communist-led strikers now battled police with rocks, planks, and iron pipes. The class war was on in 'Frisco and it was all Harry's show. By summer, top Communist organ­ izers like Roy Hudson, William Dunne, Jack Stachel, and even Party Chairman Earl Browder were in the Bay area throwing gasoline on the fire. On July fifth the Communists attacked police in Manning Johnson identified Bridges as a top Red. front of a union hall; the officers were "Bridges acted kind of coy for a few at last forced to defend themselves, and minutes, but finally he signed up under in the ensuing battle fifteen strikers were the name Harry Dorgan, using his wounded and two killed. By July fif­ mother's maiden name." John Scho­ teenth, on the motion of Harry Bridges, maker then described in detail to the the General Strike became official and court how on two occasions he person­ over 125,000 workers responded to the ally picked up Bridges' annually expir­ call, turning an economically thriving ing Party card and issued a current one, San Francisco into a dead city over of often seeing Bridges pay his Party night. From that time on, Harry dues, and of attending meetings with Bridges was the hero of the Commu­ Bridges and other Communist Party nist Press. officials. Benjamin Gitlow, the former Gen­ In May of 1934, Communist Harry eral Secretary of the Communist Party, Bridges was ready to move in a big way. called the San Francisco General Strike He went over the heads of his bosses of 1934 a "success beyond the wildest in the A.F. of L. and called a strike on expectations of the Party...." Jack Sta­ the San Francisco waterfront. The dis- chel, the Communist Party's top union 2 AMERICAN OPINION specialist, wrote in the issue of the Com­ VISIOns were over-running France, munist for November of 1934: "The Bridges was actively creating chaos strike proved that it is not only possible and strikes in an attempt to dis­ for Communists to organize a main rupt America 's defense preparation. struggle in the A.F. of L. union , but Then it happened. Suddenly Hitler that it is possible to win the struggle." loosed his legions on his Communist With the settling of the strike late in partners. The next day Harry Bridges' July of 1934, Communist H arry Bridges "British Imperialist War" became a holy emerged as the recognized leader of the war; in fact it became "the people's war labor movement on the Pacific Coast. against fascism," and woe be unto the He served as President of the local I.L.A. from 1934 to 1936, was elected Pacific Coast President of the I.L.A. in 1936, and soon became a member of the A.F. of 1. Executive Committee and then A.F. of L. Vice President for the State of California. A 1936-1937 wildcat strike in defiance of his superiors in the A.F. of L. finally cooked his seagull with the old Gom­ pers group, causing Bridges to form his own organization, the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Un ion (I.L.W.U.) which soon affiliated with the fledgling C.I.O. Bridges be­ came State Director of the c.I.O. in 1937, a post which he held for over a decade." A sample handful of Communist organizations with which Harry Bridges associated includes The Waterfront W orker, International Labor Defense, Th e Western Worker, American Lea­ Sehomoker testified he issued Bridges' Party eard. gue Against War and Fascism, Friends Un ion member who talked of a strike of the Soviet Union, International now that it was Mother Russia whose Workers Order, and the Congress of existence was at stake. Quicker than a Soviet-American Friendship. He turned "Liberal" can say "The Communists are his strikes on and off like a spigot, de­ mellowin g," Harry turned into a chau­ pending on Moscow's strategy of the vinist, urging speed-ups on the produc­ moment. During the time of the in­ tion lines and demanding a declaration famous H itler-Stalin Pact he was de­ of war. nouncing World' War II as a "British During the late 1930's and 1940's Har­ Imperialist War," and it was he who ry Bridges was the scourge of Westcoast coined the phrase, "The Yanks Are Not shipowners; one reason being that, re­ Coming," which became the byword of gardless of merit, rulings of the Na­ every Communist Front organization tional Labor Relation s Board had a pe­ of the period. Wh ile Hitler's Panzer di- culiar habit of being decided in his fa­ vor. It was no accident. Labor Secretary * The c.I.O., which had st aunchly defended Frances Perkins, a vigorous Bridges ad­ Brid ges' activiti es, finall y ouste d t he I.L.W.U . in 1950 for bein g dominated by t he Communists.