ABSTRACT
The American working class burst out of the cocoon of the 1920s and early 1930s: a world of delusion based first on an intense post-war reaction against labor and then on the pain of the Depression. Unlike the political convulsions of 1917–1923, the year 1934 was not the product of war, competing nationalisms, or the decadence of royal dreams. The Battle of 1934 truly merits a study ample enough to reliably establish what really happened, from all vantage points, and to furnish the basis for a criticism of historians’ errors. The Communist “Marine Workers” Industrial Union” had a high profile at that time in only one United States port, Baltimore. The Communists were maintaining a “united front” offensive toward the San Francisco longshoremen, who were increasingly joining the International Longshoremen’s Association. In Portland, late January saw Communist demonstrations at the employers’ fink hall, the Sea Service Bureau, as reported by JA.
