Message from the Chair
James Gregory - Spring 2008
It is a great honor to be named the Harry Bridges Endowed Chair in Labor Studies. This is my 25th year as a professional historian, 25 years of teaching, researching, and writing about labor history, western history, civil rights and immigration history. The story of Harry Bridges has been part of all of those endeavors. The Australian immigrant, who settled in California as a young man and helped create and lead the International Longshore Warehouse Union, left a legacy that today extends far beyond that powerful union.
Much of what makes West Coast cities into showcases of progressive and labor- friendly politics connects back in various ways to Harry Bridges and the ILWU. Founded in 1937, the ILWU led the organizing campaigns of the West Coast CIO, launching a dozen other unions in the decade that followed. A beacon of activism on behalf of civil rights and civil liberties as well as unionism, the ILWU almost single-handedly kept progressive politics alive during the McCarthy Era, giving the Pacific Coast a head start into the new radicalisms of the 1960s.
Next November when Seattle and the other West Coast cities cast ballots overwhelmingly for the Democratic nominee, that too will be part of Harry Bridges’ legacy. He would not understand why we now call these “blue states” while Republicans claim the color red, but he would be pleased to see that his work and his union remain part of the root system of West Coast progressive politics.
He would also be pleased to see what has been created in his name at the University of Washington. After his death in 1990, nearly 1,000 members, pensioners, and friends of the ILWU donated more than a million dollars to create the Harry Bridges Endowed Chair and the Center for Labor Studies. It was an extraordinary undertaking, unique in form and impact.
Since it was launched in 1992, the Center for Labor Studies has accomplished a great deal. Each year we teach courses and provide scholarships to students committed to Labor Studies. We fund faculty and graduate student research, host lectures and conferences that connect the campus, the labor movement, and the community. Our endowments and other resources have grown, thanks to the continuing support of our friends in the labor movement. This year the Center has expended more than $125,000 on scholarships, awards, grants, and research projects.
Our impact on the University of Washington has been profound. There are now 60 faculty members affiliated with the Center. They teach at the Tacoma, Bothell, and Seattle campuses and represent more than a dozen different disciplines and departments ranging from the social sciences to the health sciences, from the Drama School to the Law School and the School of Social Work. And because of them, the subjects of work, labor, class, and inequality have become important to the curriculum at UW.
And beyond the University, the Harry Bridges Center has been making important contributions. Students — hundreds now — have graduated and gone on to do important work, some in the labor movement and other social justice endeavors. Graduate students are now teaching on the faculties of colleges and universities across the country. Research projects supported by the Center have resulted in important books, articles, websites, and public policy initiatives. Policy makers, media institutions, union leaders, and academic officials look to the Center for ideas and information.
All of this has been accomplished under the leadership of the five previous chair holders—David Olson, Chuck Bergquist, Margaret Levi, Michael Honey, Dan Jacoby—and with the support of so many of you. I look forward to continuing this important work.