SF Labor History Water Front Walk

Every July day has Laborfest events, some of which are missing from the red letter listings. This "al fresco" textbook for all of us will teach the importance of a general strike which we need to put an end to the profit motive that is the cause of the budget "crisis" and war. On Saturday, July 25 at 10:30 a.m., Peter O’Driscoll and Lawrence Shoup lead a free walking tour of the San Francisco labor struggles in the maritime industry from 1835 until the burning of the blue book in 1934.

July 25 (Saturday) 10:30 AM (Free) Meet at 75 Folsom St. at the Entrance of old Hills Brothers Coffee Building, San Francisco. (Bus 12, any bus & train on or under Market and Mission to Embarcadero, walk or take N or T train on Embarcadero to Folsom, 3 blocks south of Market).

San Francisco Labor History Water Front Walk
With Peter O’Driscoll and Lawrence Shoup
There are many stories to be told about labor struggles in San Francisco. This story is about the maritime industry from 1835 until the burning of the blue book in 1934. The main points in history will include President Andrew Jackson's effort to acquire this peninsula from Mexico; gold discovery and the urgent need to build the San Francisco Wharves; the Gold Rush that gave the laboring person a value; San Francisco’s port to the sailor as a corrupt and wicked place; a sailor's life, boardinghouses for coast-wise and high-sea sailors; the secret society of crimps in 1865; young men’s fear of shanghaied; why the crimps; labor support of the eight hour workday; the sailor who became a politician and rabble rouser for the Workingman’s Party of 1877, this party’s influence at the state constitutional convention of 1878; the friction between Capital and Labor as social question; why business owners demanded Congress increase the size of the army; the Sailors Union of 1885 and their violent strike in 1886; why the ship owners association issued the grade book; the 1790 law providing for the arrest of seamen deserters; the 1892 Andrew Furuseth-led organizing of the Sailor’s Union of the Pacific; The Seaman’s Act of 1915 now known as the “Magna Carta” of the American Seamen; ship owner Robert Dollar’ resentment for union sailors in 1917; Dollar’s straw bosses breaking of the 1919 dock strike and issuance the Blue Book. Also labor historian Larry Shoup will talk about the history of the 1901 transportation workers strike which included the Teamsters and was smashed by the San Francisco police. This strike in part led to the formation of the San Francisco Union Labor Party which in 1905 swept the election and took control of the city.
See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Furuseth
http://www.berkeleygreens.org/community/larry-shoup.html
http://www.laborfest.net/2009schedule.htm