Brothers and Sisters, Aloha. Or as I’d say on the mainland . . . Brothers and sisters, welcome. Or as I’d say back where I come from . . . good day, mates.
My name is Harry Bridges. And I know, even here, some of you are saying who the hell is the fella with the funny accent ‘Cause, I’m just a working stiff, always have been and always will be.
But I was also President of this union for 40 years, from 1937 till 1977, and that’s a long time to be anything, especially the President of this union.
But now I get to come out here and relax, enjoy the Aloha. No more tough negotiations for me. No more fighting for the right to have negotiations, for the right to be a union. And I want to say that there were a bunch of fellas that built the ILWU in Hawaii, and the fella that led the way was Jack Hall. I come out here if negotiations get a bit sticky, to make speeches, to meet the big shots, but Jack Hall, and a bunch of others, built the union here. Now we can march and picket and be proud. But it wasn’t always like that, see?
So, “Defend Our Rights—Protect Our Union.” Now, it seems to me, and I might be wrong but I don’t think so, that before you can defend your rights, you have to know what they are and where they came from.
Hawaii was different
And a hundred odd years ago Hawaii was a very different place. Here’s something written by Mark Twain, the fella who wrote “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn” and who said “the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco” . . . and I know what he was talking about:
“The missionaries braved a thousand privations to come and make the native permanently miserable by telling him how beautiful and blissful a place heaven is, and how nearly impossible it is to get there, and by showing him what rapture it is to work all day long for fifty cents to buy food for the next day, compared with fishing for pastime and lolling in the shade through eternal summer, and eating of the bounty provided by Nature.” Letters from the Sandwich Islands (as they were called then)1866.
Harry Bridges (center) with Local 142 Hawaii members at the California Labor School (San Francisco, 1946-47).
And a funny thing happened—the missionaries, or at least some of their kids and grandkids, saw converting the land to be at least as important, and a lot more profitable, than converting the natives:
“The humble New England missionaries came for the lofty purpose of teaching the native, that would be the Hawai’ian, the true religion. So well did they succeed in this, and also in civilizing him, that by the second or third generation he was practically extinct. When Cook arrived there were 300,000 Hawai’ians living here, a 100 years later, there were 40,000 left. And for the sons and grandsons of the missionaries was the possession of the islands themselves – of the land, the ports, the town sites, and the sugar plantations.” Jack London, Honolulu, 1907.
Now, of course, you have to remember that Jack London was a bloody Socialist. I like Jack London.
No Asiatics employed
Well, by 1900 there were workers from all over the place. First, Chinese, and they came under contract. Started out at 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, for 3 to 5 years, $3 a month. About a cent an hour. And if you ran away, you’d get 2 days added to the contract for every day you were gone.
Then from Japan, and then the Philippines, and then from all over the bloody place, see? And in 1900 they had a Labor Day parade . . . listen to this:
From the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 4, 1900. . . “The Territory’s First Labor Day and Parade was the best ever seen here . . . an unqualified success. It takes the laboring man, ‘the horny handed son of toil’ to do things well. Labor Day of 1900 will be long remembered.”
Trouble is, it was a huge parade, this Labor Day parade, a mile and a half long, but there were only 300 union men in it, and they were all haoles. There was the White Mechanics Union, the Painters Union had a float with banners saying “no Asiatics employed.” “Asiatics” couldn’t even get into the bloody parade. That’s not my idea of a good Labor Day.
It look a lot
And it took a lot to get to where we are today:
It took the Hilo Massacre, when 50 men and women were wounded, shot, by police, it took a strike in 1940 that lasted 298 days, it took living through Martial Law—and then, on the plantations, organizing at night, in church basements pretending you were playing cards, with lookouts . . . ’cause if the plantation caught you— you were out. It took the 6,000 Filipinos, who arrived in Honolulu, not as scabs, but instead, as members of the ILWU. It took hunting and fishing and bumming parties, and a longshore strike where everyone ran out of toilet paper.
And it took dealing with the Big 5. And just how powerful were the Big 5? What did they control? Just about everything—and this is from an official report:
They controlled every business of any importance, most of the land, the banks, transportation, buying and selling of just about everything, the police, the legislature, the governor, the judges, the elections, the church, the hotels, the telephone company, the newspapers, the university, Army and Navy Intelligence, the National Guard, lawyers and prostitution.
Wiretaps and FBI
And it took dealing with the Red Menace. And this is a subject where I know what I’m talking about. I had 21 years of hearings and trials, twice to the Supreme Court, twice in prison. Though the second time, while I was inside I did read 12 books. I put on 15 pounds and I organized the guards into the Teamsters! The FBI taped my phones, bugged my hotel rooms and went through my wastepaper baskets.
And here, in the ’49 longshore strike, we had the Dear Joe editorials, in the Honolulu Advertiser, written by the owner, Lorrin Thurston, who the reporters, behind his back, called “blockhead.” Well, blockhead wrote these letters as if they were from Jack Hall to Joe Stalin:
Dear Joe,
If We Was Commies, Joe, This Is What We’d Do. We’d get unions that work ships to agree to follow us blindly—or else. We’d ask for more wages than any sensible employer could grant. Then we’d blockade all the people; bust them; give ’em just enough food to keep from starving. Come on, Joe Stalin. We’ve got Hawaii all set up for you. It’s a pushover. (Honolulu Advertiser, May 4, 1949).
But I’ll tell you something— through those 21 years, it was the Constitution of the United States that was the rock upon which the rank and file built their support of me, and that’s what got me free, not the courts.
And it took dealing with the Smith Act. The Smith Act made it illegal to be a member of the Communist Party. And the question was—“are you now or have you ever been?” So Jack Hall and six other of our members were found guilty, in 1951, of joining the Party back in the ’30s, when it was legal to join. The Supreme Court eventually threw that one out . . .
And anyway, by then the ILWU was here to stay. In 1944 we’d had 900 members, 2 years later we had 30,000. Now, THAT’S organizing!
And I have to say, that in ’42, when the Honolulu longshoremen first came to us with the idea of organizing plantations . . . I said no, but some of the other fellas said “why the hell not” . . . so we said yes. Anyone can make a mistake.
And don’t forget, we didn’t just organize . . . we registered to vote— and we voted . . . and an ILWU endorsement was money in the bank for the politicians . . . and we got our money’s worth, and we got our own members elected . . . cane cutters, pineapple workers, elected to the State Legislature, where they do a bloody good job. And when people say that Hawaii has the best legislation in America for working people, all working people, and it does, that’s because of us, and it’s something we can be damn proud of!
ILWU principles
And what about today? Well, I like to think that I don’t mind speaking my mind, I like to think that I have never minded speaking my mind, no matter who didn’t like it, even when it was my own rank and file . . . and God knows, there were times when you lot would chew my rear end off— but that’s all right, that was my job, and ILWU elected leaders should never be scared to speak their own mind, have their say, and then debate, and then the rank and file votes, and the then the leaders do their job of putting that vote into action. Because this union is built on a few principles, and I’ll tell you 3 of them:
Rank and file democracy, debate, going to the mike to have your say, and the idea that an injury to one is an injure to all. In fact, in case any of you haven’t taken a look at our Constitution for a while, I’m going to read the Preamble to our Constitution.
PREAMBLE – Therefore, we, who have the common objectives to advance the living standards of ourselves and our fellow workers everywhere in the world, to promote the general welfare of our nation and our communities, to banish racial and religious prejudice and discrimination, to strengthen democracy everywhere and achieve permanent peace in the world, do form ourselves into one indivisible union.
Now that’s a union.
Never underestimate the ILWU
So, today I want to say a couple of things to the President of the United States.
First, never underestimate the ILWU. We are a union with a certain amount of power, and we treat that power with respect and integrity, and we expect the same back.
Harry Bridges (third from right) at the signing of the 1956 Hawaii longshore contract.
And I’ll tell you something—I spent 21 years with the government using the word “Communism” to scare the hell out of people and to get just exactly what the hell they wanted. And now we have that new word—“Terrorism”—to scare the hell out of people and for the government to get just exactly what the hell they want. Well, I don’t buy it. You show me anyone out to get America and you’ve got me with you 100%, but when, last year, when we were thinking about going on strike, and the President of our union got a phone call from the head of Homeland Security telling him that a democratic strike by our members would be an act of supporting terrorism, I didn’t buy it, see?
Communism, terrorism: same bloody word, see?
And it seems to me, and I might be wrong but I don’t think so, that instead of looking for terrorism in American workers, we need our President to take a look at how he has managed to lead the way to America losing 2 1/2 million jobs, to having another 1.3 million American families fall below the official poverty line of $17,000 for a family of 4, take the biggest federal surplus in American history and, in less than 3 years, turn it into the biggest federal deficit in American history, and how that is destroying our education system, our health care, our care for seniors, our pensions, our social security . . . all the things we fought for so long . . . now, that’s an act of terrorism as far as I’m concerned.
Instead, he asks Congress for Another 87 billion dollars for Iraq. Now, what else could we do with $87 billion dollars? Well, here’s 3 ideas:
1. Solve the school budget crises in every one of our communities; 2. Provide health insurance for every uninsured American child for 15 years; 3. Provide food for all 6 million of the children who will die from hunger around the world for 7 years.
Defend America
And like I said before, you show us a threat to America and you’ve got us 100%. In World War II we signed a no-strike pledge, we worked with the Army and Navy, we worked through the war without pay increases, and we knew that the ship owners were making millions out of the war, but we did it anyway, as good Americans. And we’ll do it anytime we see America under threat. I just didn’t happen to see Korea, or Vietnam, or half of Central America, or Chile, or Haiti, or a bunch of others threatening America. I didn’t see Afghanistan threatening America, and I don’t see Iraq threatening us either. Threatening our oil supply, yes, threatening us, no.
Interfere in the foreign policy of our country? Sure as hell, that’s our job, that’s our right, that’s our privilege, that’s our duty. Foreign policy is too damned important to be left to the striped pants set in Washington DC.
No to war
Instead, we need that 87 million dollars for the war in Iraq. Except, of course, it’s not a war. Neither was Korea, or Vietnam, or all the other countries we’ve bombed and invaded and occupied. The last time America declared war was in 1941 . . . And what do I think about America’s “police actions”? Well, here’s a couple of things I’ve said about them: “No war in the history of the U.S. has been as much of a poor man’s war as is the unofficial war in Korea.” 1953.
And you can say the same thing about every war—it’s the working stiffs that go out and fight and get killed, and it’s the bosses of the weapons industry, the munitions industry, the shipping industry, steel, all the industries that supply a war, they’re the ones that sit here and make millions . . .
“No one of any consequence . . . except those who have a stake in the war . . . says we can win in Vietnam. The logical answer would be straight-out: call it off. If you can’t win, at least have the good sense to admit it to yourself, then you negotiate and try to get the best possible deal . . . with as much face saving as you can get away with.”
Just like we do sometimes . . . if you know that you’re going to lose a fight, you don’t fight, you negotiate for the best damn deal you can get. And another thing . . . the idea that we make money out of war.
“. . . lose a few hours work if that’s the price you pay (for peace)? . . . We as a union have always lived up to the principle that we simply will not buy our (job) security with people’s lives. We never have. And we won’t start now”. 1965.
Attack on civil liberties
Now, one last thing, then I’ll sit down and shut up. My 21 years of hearings and trials was one long attack on my civil liberties. And there were plenty of others got the same thing. But like I said, I had my phones tapped, my hotel rooms bugged and I was followed when I went down a hotel corridor to the bathroom. All because the government decided that I might be a threat to them, not because of anything I had done . . . except of course, be a member of a damn fine union.
Well, today, they’ve got a whole lot of new ways to follow you down a corridor—from satellites, for a start. And a lot of new laws giving them rights to find out just about every damn thing they want to know about you. And the right to throw you in jail without charges and without lawyers for as long as they want.
And I studied the Constitution for 21 years, after all, it saved my skin, and I think that I know it pretty well, and as far as I’m concerned, some of the things going on now, they’re not only against the spirit of the Constitution, they’re against the letter of it.
And, maybe worst of all, they put out this idea that only the people who support all this are patriots. Are true Americans. Well, I tell you, President Bush, that I think you’ve forgotten that this country was founded by a bunch of revolutionaries who said “to hell with the King and to hell with England, we want a country of the people and for the people and by the people.” And, President Bush, you need to remember that we still do.
Brothers and Sisters, Mahalo.