Harry Bridges

Harry Bridges (28 July 1901 – 30 March 1990) was an Australian-born American union leader, first with the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA). In 1937, he led several Pacific Coast chapters of the ILA to form a new union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), expanding its ranks to include thousands of additional warehouse workers. He served as ILWU president for the next 40 years. Bridges rose to national fame as a key figure in the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike. He was designated a subversive alien by the U.S. government, with the goal of deporting him, but it was never achieved. He became an American citizen in 1945. He was then convicted by a federal jury for having lied about his Communist Party membership when applying for naturalization; however, the perjury conviction was overturned in 1953 by the Supreme Court because the original indictment against Bridges occurred outside the statute of limitations. His power as a union president was diminished in 1950 when the CIO expelled the ILWU as part of a purge of alleged Communist influence, but Bridges continued to be re-elected by ILWU membership and remained influential until his retirement in 1977.

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