[Marxism] SF - 1934 General Strike Laid Base for Counterculture

nada dwaltersMIA at gmail.com
Fri May 1 09:49:46 MDT 2009


While the review is supposed to be about the counter-culture of the Bay 
Area, Glass makes the almost universally typical labor history 101 
mistake about the 1934 *maritime* strike, but not noting that the strike 
was a join strike by longshore of the ILA AND merchant seamen of the 
Sailors Union of the Pacific. This is almost always a typical outgrowth 
of pro-CP labor  history influence  that seeks to down play the role 
other unions during this and other strikes.

I would urge list members to read a wide variety of points of view on 
this, the West Coast Maritime Strike of 1934 of which the General Strike 
in SF was a pinnacle event. Any good reading list of this history should 
start with this book: "Maritime solidarity: Pacific Coast unionism, 
1929-1938" by Ottilie Markholt. Markholt was married to the president of 
the Tacoma ILA local during the strike and remained an active Wobbly for 
most of her life. She played a major role in organizing solidarity for 
the strike maritime workers throughout the many strikes in the 1930s.

David



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