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MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES 2379
Mr. RoBiNSox. Well, I was involved in it for about 4 months.
Mr. McCanx. On behalf of the strikers?
Mr. RoBiNSox. Yes. I came off on strike and stayed with the strike. After that strike then we had another strike along about '35, what they called the tanker strike. Of course, I was a patrolman.
INIr. JNIcCaxn. Were you involved in that?
Mr. Robinson. Yes ; I was involved in that.
Mr. McCaxn. Did you ever belong to the CIO or the AFL?
Mr. Robinson. There was not any such thing as CIO at that time.
Mr. McCann. You did not belong to the AFL at all?
Mr. Robinson. No; not at that time. I belonged to the marine engineers. As I say, they were unaffiliated.
However, they are at the present time a CIO organization.
Mr. McCann. Tell us how active you were in that strike?
Mr. Robinson. Well, I was a total stranger there with the boys when I came ashore. I was just another engineer. Through my assistance in the strike and so forth, I was quite active and fairly well able to speak. At the strike termination they decided to set up a federation of some kind for all the maritime unions, including the longshoremen and everybody.
I was elected as a delegate for the marine engineers to go to San Francisco for the formation of this federation as a delegate.
]\Tr. McCann. What year was that ?
Mr. Robinson. That was in '35. We were quite some time deciding what we were going to do and so forth. We did not know how we were going to go about it but we finally came out with a constitution and set it up. We submiitted it to all the different organizations on the whole Pacific coast. It was finally endorsed by the membership.
Then we held an election of officers,
Harry Lundberg of the Sailors Union of the Pacific was elected as the first coast president. Harry Bridges was elected as president of the San Francisco Bay area district and I was elected for the southern California district.
Mr. McCann. Then you are personally acquainted with Lundberg, of course ?
JNli". Robinson. Oh, yes ; he is a personal friend of mine.
Mr. ]\IcCann. And Harry Bridges?
Mr. Robinson. Yes — I would not say the same thing about Harry Bridges, but Harry Lundberg and I are very, very close friends.
Mr. McCann. Go on and give us your experience from then on.
Mr. Robinson. From then on I had quite a time. All my life I have been very much opposed to communism as a theory. I opposed it in the labor movement very seriously and fought it. We had a pretty good organization on the coast that was able, for the coast as a wliole, to keep the Communist element pretty well subdued.
Harry Lundberg, Fisher from Seattle, myself down in San Pedro, we were quite active in keeping the Communist element subdued, every place except iri San Francisco.
Mr. ]\[cCann. You were living at San Pedro then?
Mr. Robinson. That is right.
Mr. McCann. As a representative of the union there?
Mr. Robinson. That is right.