July 5, 1934: 89 years ago, July 5 1934, San Francisco police opened fire on striking [...]

89 years ago, July 5 1934, San Francisco police opened fire on striking maritime workers, leaving two dead. The day, which became known as Bloody Thursday, was the immediate catalyst for the San Francisco General Strike, which saw almost all work in the city cease for 4 days

Maritime workers had been on strike since May 9, which had been costing waterfront capitalists a reported $100,000 per day. On July 5, the Industrial Association of San Francisco, an owners’ organization, decided to move freight in defiance of the strike
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Mounted police attempted to clear picketing strikers on Rincon Hill with clubs and tear gas, to which the workers responded with bricks, boards, and fists. During the “Battle of Rincon Hill,” fighting continued on and off throughout the day, with the hill changing hands six times

Police began began firing on the crowd. One contemporary newspaper account describes an officer “firing his shotgun into the ranks of strikers until it was empty, and then emptying his pistol.” Scores were wounded, and 2 strikers, Howard Sperry and Nicholas Bordoise, were killed

The next day, workers created a memorial in chalk reading “POLICE MURDER” at Steuart & Mission, where the two men had been killed. When officers erased the chalk, workers recreated the memorial with paint. Five days later, up to 40,000 mourners attended the slain workers’ funeral

Bloody Thursday galvanized organized labor in San Francisco; by the 14th, the SF Labor Council had declared a general strike. Ironically, this escalation took control of the strike away from radical maritime workers and put it in the hands of the more moderate labor establishment

The general strike marked a high point for the class struggle in the Bay Area. While the Labor Council made concessions deemed unacceptable by the many of the maritime workers who had previously led the strike, local unions emerged from the strike in a much more powerful position

Bloody Thursday is still commemorated by the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, who close down ports every year on July 5 to honor “class war heroes” Howard Sperry and Nicholas Bordoise