In the 1934 S.F. General Strike, Harry Bridges convinced strikers that full equality for Black longshoremen was necessary. He urged Blacks to join strikers on the picket, saying that when the strike was won, Blacks would work on every dock on the West Coast. He kept his promise. 
This opened the door for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) to become one of the most integrated, multiracial and multinational unions in the country.
One masterful decision that Harry Bridges made was negotiating a **single contract** covering every port from San Diego to Bellingham, Wash. That prevents shippers from playing one West Coast port against another, as sometimes happens on the East Coast.
The United States government lost every effort it made to deport Bridges (he was an Australian immigrant), revoke his naturalization, or prosecute him for denying that he was a member. The CIO expelled the ILWU in 1950 for being “dominated by communists.”
In 1958 Harry Bridges decided to marry Noriko Sawada, a Japanese American, in Reno. When the court clerk denied them a marriage license on the grounds it violated the state’s anti-miscegenation law, they challenged the law in court. They won & were married at the end of the year.
Harry Bridges started off as a store clerk, but the novels of Jack London lured him to sea when he was 16.
Bridges was shipwrecked twice, once staying afloat on his mandolin.
He entered the US by jumping ship in 1920 after arguing with the skipper about the treatment of seamen.
Bridges was shipwrecked twice, once staying afloat on his mandolin.
He entered the US by jumping ship in 1920 after arguing with the skipper about the treatment of seamen.
