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Bloody confrontations broke out up in major ports. On "Bloody Thursday", July 5, 1934, San Francisco was swept by the bloodiest rioting in three quarters of a century. Striking maritime workers, pitting themselves against police, terrorized half of the waterfront and the warehouse area of the city. Fires were set. Windows were smashed. Traffic was tied up. Trucks were overturned.  For an hour, police and strikers and their sympathizers fought with fists, clubs and finally riot guns, revolvers, tear-gas and at last a vicious, nausea-creating gas recently introduced into police work. At least 34 people were shot, two killed and hundreds injured by the San Francisco police in the fights between the city's police force and strikers. The governor finally sent in the California National Guard to quiet the violence.  The union responded by calling a "general strike"; it lasted four days, during which numerous unions not connected with the waterfront strike refused to work.  

Bloody confrontations broke out up in major ports. On "Bloody Thursday", July 5, 1934, San Francisco was swept by the bloodiest rioting in three quarters of a century. Striking maritime workers, pitting themselves against police, terrorized half of the waterfront and the warehouse area of the city. Fires were set. Windows were smashed. Traffic was tied up. Trucks were overturned.  For an hour, police and strikers and their sympathizers fought with fists, clubs and finally riot guns, revolvers, tear-gas and at last a vicious, nausea-creating gas recently introduced into police work. At least 34 people were shot, two killed and hundreds injured by the San Francisco police in the fights between the city's police force and strikers. The governor finally sent in the California National Guard to quiet the violence.  The union responded by calling a "general strike"; it lasted four days, during which numerous unions not connected with the waterfront strike refused to work.  

The West Coast Waterfront Strike lasted 83 days with longshoremen returning to work on July 31. Arbitrartion was agreed to and it resulted in a victory for the strikers. and the unionization of all West Coast ports in the United States.  For 19 years afterward, the federal government tried to deport Bridges, a native of Australia, but were unable to prove his Communist connections.<ref> Newly opened Soviet archives show that Bridges was indeed a Communist Party member who took orders from Moscow.</ref>

The West Coast Waterfront Strike lasted 83 days with longshoremen returning to work on July 31. Arbitration was agreed to and it resulted in a victory for the strikers. and the unionization of all West Coast ports in the United States.  For 19 years afterward, the federal government tried to deport Bridges, a native of Australia, but were unable to prove his Communist connections.<ref> Newly opened Soviet archives show that Bridges was indeed a Communist Party member who took orders from Moscow.  Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes: "Communists and the CIO: From the Soviet Archives," ''Labor History'', vol 35, no. 3 (Summer 1994). </ref>

==Further reading==

==Further reading==

*  Cherny, Robert W. "Prelude to the Popular Front: The Communist Party in California, 1931-35." ''American Communist History'' 2002 1(1): 5-42  

*  Cherny, Robert W. "Prelude to the Popular Front: The Communist Party in California, 1931-35." ''American Communist History'' 2002 1(1): 5-42  

*  Larrowe, Charles P. "The Great Maritime Strike of '34". ''Labor History'' part 1: 1970 11(4): 403-451; part 2: 1971 12(1): 3-37 35p.

*  Larrowe, Charles P. "The Great Maritime Strike of '34". ''Labor History'' part 1: 1970 11(4): 403-451; part 2: 1971 12(1): 3-37  

*  Larrowe, Charles P. ''Harry Bridges; the rise and fall of radical labor in the United States'' (1972)

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