Harry Renton Bridges

(1901-1990) Melbourne, Australia

Fifteen years after he set foot in San Francisco 1920, Harry Bridges was at the forefront of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which was the first US union to actively fight against racism. He led the longshoreman’s San Francisco General Strike (May 9, 1934), notable for “Bloody Thursday” and being first industry-wide strike in US history. Bridges aided in the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and was outspoken of the Vietnam War, South African apartheid, military dictatorships in Central and South America.

Harry Bridges Institute for International Education and Organization:
http://www.harrybridges.com/

The Harry Bridges Project:
http://www.theharrybridgesproject.org/biography.html

Industrial Longshoremen’s Warehousemen’s Union (Local 19):
http://www.ilwu19.com/history/biography.htm

Workers Online (Labor Net’s journal) sponsored by Labor Council of New South Wales:
http://workers.labor.net.au/125/c_historicalfeature_bridges.html

The Harry Bridges Chair and Center for Labor Studies:
http://depts.washington.edu/pcls/index.php

Life And Times of Harry Bridges (multimedia):
http://www.crixa.com/muse/unionsong/reviews/bridges/

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