Social Context: What Was Being Walled In or Walled Out?
The Big Strike

Exacerbated by the onset of the Great Depression, with a diminishing supply of work and significant increases in the number of men seeking it, conditions finally led to the reorganization of a workers’ union in 1933. In May 1934, the new union declared a coastwide longshoremen’s strike. Employers and shippers immediately barricaded themselves behind the citadel of bulkhead buildings—with strikers kept firmly on the outside and strikebreakers safely sheltered inside. This standoff lasted till July. However, the employers eventually realized their purely defensive position was not sufficient to prevail, so they determined to break the strike by essentially seizing control of the public space of the Embarcadero, which had been occupied by strikers.

On July 3, 1934, three trucks driven by strike breakers sortied from Pier 38 under heavily armed police guard, carrying what was claimed to be strike-bound cargo headed for the Garcia & Maggini warehouse at 128 King Street. This action had been announced in advance, and several thousand strikers and supporters were in place outside the pier on the Embarcadero. However, earlier that day police had pushed them back across the wide street, clearing a path to the warehouse, less than a quarter mile away. Strikers regrouped and attacked the convoy. For the next several hours they contested control of the public way with police, who used firearms, tear gas, and shock tactics.

Truck movements were suspended for the Fourth of July, with a resulting calm along the waterfront. However, on the following day, July 5, police launched a preemptive attack on the mass of strikers near Pier 38, as the trucks began moving again. Strikers were driven up Rincon Hill. There for several hours they battled with bricks and other missiles against mounted and motorcycle police using tear gas and firearms.

By early afternoon, the conflict had shifted to Steuart Street between Mission and Howard, where union headquarters was located. It was here that two men were shot to death by police, the only deaths officially acknowledged although most accounts believe there were several others in addition.

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