The American labor leader Harry A.R. Bridges (1901-1990) became one of the best known radical trade unionists during the 1930s and was thereafter a subject of political controversy. He devoted most of his life and career to the cause of maritime industry workers on the Pacific Coast.

For more than 40 years (1934 to 1979) Harry Bridges earned a reputation as one of the most radical, astute, and successful leaders in the American labor movement. He first came to national attention during the combined waterfront and general strikes which paralyzed San Francisco in 1934. Bridges emerged from this labor conflict as the dominant leader and spokesperson for Pacific Coast waterfront workers. Then, and for many years afterward, his enemies accused him of serving Communist purposes and the federal government several times tried unsuccessfully to deport Bridges. Bridges built his union, the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), into one of the...