ON MAY 9, 1934, SAN FRANCISCO LONGSHOREMEN got tired of waiting. They had waited patiently for negotiations to produce an acceptable agreement. They had postponed striking when President Roosevelt asked them to, even though they had voted for a coast-wide walkout by an overwhelming 6,616 to 699. They had waited for a government-appointed mediation board to come up with a reasonable resolution to their differences with the waterfront employers.

Since they had been waiting for fifteen years, they figured they could wait a few months longer. But when all their other options failed, twelve thousand longshoremen from every major port along the West Coast walked off their jobs.

This was the beginning of an eighty-three-day struggle. By the time it was over forty thousand maritime workers had joined in a remarkable display of solidarity and courage. Several workers had been killed and hundreds injured. Close to a thousand workers, supporters, and innocent bystanders had been arrested. But shipping had been brought to a complete standstill along the California, Oregon, and Washington coasts. Most astonishingly, San Francisco workers staged a four-day general strike, shutting down the entire city, to protest employer and government-sponsored violence against working people. As a result industrial unionism took root in California and the entire West Coast.