1934 Big Strike
Police using tear gas against strikers on Rincon Hill, July 5, 1934.
Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA
1934: The Big Strike--a Menu
The 1934 waterfront strike in San Francisco is by all accounts a seminal event in class relations in the city. There are accounts of this period in many history books, some of which are referenced below. We present a series of screens with texts, photos, captions, and videos that attempt to present the basic story. It follows this sequence:
1934 Strike Tear Gas Competition
The Progress Club—1934 and Class Memory
Strikers block Beltline Railroad, July 10, 1934.
Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA
Market Street during 1934 strike, newly arrived tourists walk up street in absence of streetcar service.
Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA
READ MORE:
A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco by David F. Selvin, Wayne State University: Detroit, 1996.
Strike! by Jeremy Brecher, South End Press: Boston, 1972.
American Labor Struggles by Samuel Yellen © 1936, Monad Press edition: New York, 1974.
The Labor Wars by Sidney Lens, Anchor/Doubleday: New York, 1974.
The Big Strike by Mike Quin, Olema Books: 1948.
On The Drumhead by Mike Quin, Daily People's World: San Francisco, 1948.
The Big Strike: A Pictorial History of the 1934 SF General Strike with a narrative by Warren Hinckle, Silver Dollar Books: Virginia City, Nevada, 1985.
The March Inland: Origins of the ILWU Warehouse Division 1934-1938 by Harvey Schwartz, International Longshore and Warehouse Union: San Francisco, 2000.