Today in Labor History July 16, 1934: The San Francisco General Strike began, with 150,000 workers participating. The longshoremen’s strike actually started on May 9 and lasted 83 days, leading ultimately to the unionization of all West Coast ports. The strike grew violent quickly, with company goons and police brutalizing longshoremen and sailors. They hired private security to protect the scabs they brought in to load and unload ships, housing them in moored ships and wall compounds that the strikers attacked. In San Pedro, two workers were killed by private security on May 15. Battles also broke out in Oakland, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. On Bloody Thursday, July 5, in San Francisco, police attacked strikers with tear gas and with clubs while on horseback and later fired into the crowd, killing two and injuring others. A General Strike was called on July 14 and began on July 16, lasting 4 days. Many non-unionized workers joined the strike. Movie theaters and night clubs shut down. Many small businesses shut down & posted signs in solidarity with the strikers.
On July 17, the cops arrested 300 people they accused of being communists, radicals or subversives. The National Guard also blocked both ends of Jackson Street that day with machine gun-mounted trucks to aid vigilante attacks on the Marine Workers Industrial Union headquarters and the ILA soup kitchen. They raided many other union halls and communist organizations. Vigilantes kidnapped and beat a lawyer for the ACLU, as well as 13 radicals from San Jose, CA.
