The A.W.P.’s Ben Clemens gives context for the ‘anti-red’ hysteria and mob violence that accompanied the 1934 San Francisco General Strike, and, despite the collapse of the strike, the immediate positive effects the struggle had on the labor movement.

‘Strike Brings New Life to San Francisco Unions’ by Ben Clemens from Labor Action (A.W.P.). 2 No. 15. August 15, 1934.

Counter-Offensive to Anti-Red Drive Underway

San Francisco/ Despite the continuing wave of anti-red hysteria and terrorism and the collapse of the mass strike–hailed by business and industrial leaders as the knock-out blow to militant labor unionism on the Pacific Coast–the labor movement in San Francisco is definitely on the march. Three weeks ago, the labor horizon in San Francisco presented an aspect of unmitigated gloom. It is obvious today that so far as labor itself is concerned, there has been no “defeat.”

Injected New Life

The general strike movement, though bearing no practical and specific fruits, has injected new life into the San Francisco labor movement. Union after union is reporting rapid gains in membership and closed shop agreements with union-hating firms which in some cases have resisted their onslaughts for years. This is particularly true of the more aggressive organizations quick to realize that even though the general strike itself failed in its immediate objective–victory of the longshore and maritime unions–it was a tremendous success in demonstrating to the rank and file labor’s potential power and the crying need for mass solidarity.

Excuse For Red-Drive

In view of what has actually happened-both during the four days of the general strike and since the wave of anti-radical hysteria now rampant in California may be difficult for the outsider to understand. What he must remember is this–that the present wave of white terrorism is not the child of the general strike nor even of “communist” domination of the longshoremen’s and maritime workers’ unions.

The waterfront strike and then the general sympathetic strike which grew out of it merely furnished the excuse for the release of a campaign of terrorism against “the reds” and against militant unionism that has been in process of building for more than a year. Its chief impetus has been the agricultural unrest in the great California valleys, which has threatened to break out with renewed virulence this summer and which has resulted in the organization of vigilante groups, backed up by local and county officials in the Imperial, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, and Sacramento valleys during the past year.

During the last six months, the anti-red drive in California’s industrialized agricultural districts has found echo in all the metropolitan newspapers of the state, with the exception of the Scripps-Howard San Francisco “News” and the Los Angeles “Record.” The Hearst papers-five of them in California-the San Francisco “Chronicle,” the Los Angeles “Times,” together with the American Legion and other “patriotic” groups have been conducting an “educational” campaign to stamp out what they term “communism” in California. The campaign was at its height when the general strike occurred. Here was evidence of the imminence of the revolution, planned by the reds! Here was the perfect demonstration that the “reds” controlled the San Francisco labor movement–as well as the organized agricultural workers!

Whip Up Hysteria

As a matter of fact, the “reds” controlled nothing–with the exception of the communist Marine Workers Industrial Union, one of the nine maritime unions in the original waterfront strike. It claims a membership of about 500–mostly seamen. It was the only authentic communist organization in the whole strike. There were, to be sure, some communists of varying tendencies among the 3000 members of the San Francisco Longshoremen’s Union. The Union itself was militant but certainly not “communist controlled.” The Teamster’s Union, which went out in sympathy before the general strike was declared, is anything but communistic. (Some of its members later participated in the wrecking of radical headquarters; there are plenty of Legionnaires in the San Francisco trade union movement.)

But the militancy of the waterfront unions and–to cap it all–the calling of the general strike were sufficient evidence for the industrialists and the patrioteers, already straining at the leash in their desire to crush out any labor offensive. In fact, the general strike was exactly what the Industrial Association wanted–as some of its leaders have since confessed. Up to that time, their cries of “red revolution” had been unavailing, so far as the general public was concerned. With the whole community more or less affected by the sympathy strike, a public which had been either indifferent or vaguely friendly to the strikers began to lend a sympathetic ear. The newspaper propaganda was incredible. One would have thought from it that the staid San Francisco Labor Council was staging a revolutionary coup d’etat. The result was a welling up of mob hysteria which obscured all strike issues while the community went on a red-hunting spree.

Frisco Is “Saved”

While the inauguration of the general strike actually shifted control of the situation from the militant waterfront unions to the representatives of the more conservative unions, it thus furnished exactly the opportunity the industrialists of the city and the big agriculturalists of the valleys needed to bring the “red menace” home to the California populace. And even after the general strike was called off, and the newspapers had congratulated the more conservative labor leaders on their “sanity,” the campaign against radicalism was intensified. Though “revolution” has been averted, California will take no chance with subversive elements hereafter! Communism, in all its forms, is to be permanently stamped out! This includes, of course, all those varying shades of radicalism classed as red by the American Legion.

Strategic Move?

It is because of this campaign that such labor leaders as Joseph Ryan have attempted to put over the impression that the general strike was a strategic move on the part of the “real unionists” to get rid of the reds. It was nothing of the sort. It was an authentic gesture of instinctive sympathy and revolt on the part of the rank and file. It was ill-considered probably, badly planned, and, in a sense, it played into the hands of the industrialists. But it did not, as was feared just after the strike collapsed, turn the trick the industrialists hoped it would turn. It has not afforded them the opportunity to crush the labor movement.

The longshoremen and maritime workers are back pending arbitration, but they went back as a well-organized, well-knit group and from present indications, arbitration will undoubtedly result in certain definite gains. The ship subsidies scandal and investigation which involve most of the big Pacific Coast shippers broke just at the right moment. The ship owners are in no position to be cocky right now.

Bosses Finance Veterans

In the meanwhile, 31 “red” prisoners in San Francisco jails are on a hunger strike. One, the organizer of the Marine Workers Industrial Union, has been tried for vagrancy and found guilty. Criminal syndicalism charges are filed against a group of communist agricultural leaders in Sacramento. This is serious business as the minimum sentence is likely to be five years. The Legion and other veteran groups have organized throughout the state to stamp out the reds. They are backed up by a huge fund raised at the last meeting of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

Communist, I.W.W. and socialist attempts at open air meetings in San Francisco have been broken up, though the socialists staged a large and successful open-air protest demonstration in Berkeley. All communist headquarters remain closed.

The first non-radical protest against vigilante and police terrorism to gain a hearing so far is one made by a group of thirteen leading citizens who might be termed “liberal conservatives.” Their social position gave the protest an excellent display in the daily papers. The Civil Liberties Union is organizing a special committee of liberals to sponsor a great protest meeting within the next week and an Emergency Defense Committee has been formed, under more definitely radical auspices. A counter-offensive is getting under way.

There are a number of periodicals with the name Labor Action in our history. This Labor Action was a bi-weekly newspaper published in 1933-34 by AJ Muste’s American Workers Party. The AWP grew from the Conference for Progressive Labor Action, founded in 1929, and Labor Action replaced the long-running CPLA magazine, Labor Age. Along with Muste, the AWP had activists and writers James Burnham and Art Preis. When the AWP fused with the Trotskyist Communist League of America in late 1934, their joint paper became The New Militant.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/laboraction-cpla/v2n15-aug-15-1934-LA-Muste.pdf