6.11.05

F I R S TP R E V266NEXTLAST

Longshoreman's Hall, North Point
San Francisco's Longshoreman's Strike of 1934 is considered the first successful general strike in the history of American labor. During the depression and with wretched working conditions, including starvation wages, daily cattle calls for work, and kickback payments required by gang bosses and employers, the city's longshoreman organized and shut down all shipping on the West Coast. The governor sent in 2,000 National Guardsmen to join police and strike-breakers in an attempt to break the strike. On July 5th, "Bloody Thursday", violence erupted and police shot and killed two longshoremen and injured 100 others. In support of the strikers 40,000 San Franciscans marched with the slain men's caskets and the entire city went on a four-day strike. Finally President Franklin D. Roosevelt stepped in, ordered arbitration, and eventually the longshoremen won the right to decent working conditions. This Longshoreman's Hall was built in 1959 and displays a memorial to the two slain longshoremen.
[ MAP E-14 ]


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