Harry Bridges (left) with Mrs. Bridges and Vincent
Hallinan in 1950.
Harry Bridges was an Australian born radical
labor organizer for the I.L.W.U. He played a key role in organizing
San Francisco's infamous General Strike in l934. When the government
couldn't deport Bridges by proving he was a Communist, they charged
him with a unique conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. The
claim was that Bridges had defrauded the government out of a
citizenship obtained by a perjured oath denying that he was a member
of the Communist Party.
Bridges was convicted, but eventually won a
reversal at the U.S. Supreme Court. Bridges was never deported, and
in 1970 Mayor Joseph Alioto appointed him to San Francisco's Port
Authority. |