Welcome to the Harry Bridges Project
Click here to buy tickets for the performances in Hollywood in May and in Venice in June of To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine and From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks.
The project is dedicated to introducing the public to the life and ideas of Harry Bridges and his impact on our lives today. Bridges was an extraordinary labor leader and social 
visionary whose life and work encompassed all of the important issues and events of his day, including immigration, depression-era policies, red-scares, McCarthyism, the cold-war and labor issues. His story provides a springboard into understanding these times and realizing their significance today, as we face parallel issues of globalization, the growing gap between rich and poor, increasing governmental surveillance and the war on terror. His life inspires people to come together in their communities, discover their own history and take charge of their own lives by engaging in dialogue and debate about these issues in order to move beyond the fears and limitations they can create.
“The struggle of man against power
is the struggle of memory against forgetting”
-Milan Kundera
The Harry Bridges Project Wishes project Advisory Board member Pete Seeger a Happy 93rd Birthday!
See our page about Pete Seeger's invlovement in the project.
Another New Grant – Our Third Two-Year Grant from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission to –
hire a part – time assistant to work with us to help promote performances of From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks and To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine in community colleges and universities and to book a short run of both plays in Los Angeles. Thank you!
A New Grant.
We are excited to have received a generous grant from Cal Humanities (formerly The California Counsel for the Humanities) to complete the production of our radio documentary "A Wild Woman Sings the Blues" about the life and work of Barbara Dane. Details to follow.
Check out our new "Booking Information" pages for Harry Bridges and Thomas Paine. For more information about Ian's one-man play about the one truly radical Founding Father Thomas Paine, "To Begin the World Over Again:the Life of Thomas Paine" please go to: the website and facebook.
Merchandise
PBS Airings
This is one of the best labor history programs I have seen…
it brought that era alive in a way that other portrayals have not…
a spectacular performance and film.
Viewer Ethel Kirk, Novato, California
To See our PBS Airings in 2011 CLICK HERE
(We had 163 airings on 90 stations, reaching 42% of the market (120 million Americans) in our third year of airings!)
Watch us on YouTube
To see all five videos go to our YouTube page.
Here is a sample of what you'll see.
Performances Booked for 2012
• "To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine"
on December 10th or 11th at the http://www.foodanddrugcouncil.org/Convention in Las Vegas
• "To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine" on November 8th at 7:30 at 110 Knight Law Center, http://uoregon.edu/ Eugene, and on November 9th at 7:30 at the Cone Chapel, Waller Hall, http://www.willamette.edu/ Salem. Free and open to the public.
• Excerpts from "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks" and "From Piers to Plantations" plus a panel discussion on October 15th and 16th at the http://www.liuna.org/ Convention in Monterey.
• "To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine" on October
12th at the California Judges Association Annual Meeting in Monterey.
• "To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine" on October 10th at http://www.cerritos.edu/ in Norwalk.
• "To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine" October 6th at the 70th Anniversary Celebration of The Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School
• "To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine"on October 3rd in the Benjamin Franklin Hall of The American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia on October 3rd. Open to the public – http://www.amphilsoc.org/
• "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks" on September 29th at 12 noon and 7 pm for the http://www.ilwu.ca/ in Vancouver, B. C.
• "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks" on August 17th at Grand Performances, California Plaza, Los Angeles at 8 PM. Outdoors, free and open to the public – come early and bring a picnic! http://www.grandperformances.org/gp/homepage.html
• "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks" on July 22nd and "To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine" on July 23rd and 24th at the Headquarters of the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots – bridgedeck.org
• "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks" on May 18th in the ILWU Local 23 – http://www.ilwulocal23.org/
• "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks" on May 15th for the UFCW Local 135 Stewards Conference, San Diego Hilton Bay Front Hotel. http://www.ufcw1167.org/
• "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks" on April 26th for the UFCW Local 1167 Stewards Conference, San Bernardino.
http://ufcw135.com/
• "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks" on March 23rd sponsored by the Contra Costa Democratic Party in Martinez, CA.
• "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks" on March 12th for the Washington Education Association at the Marriott Seattle Sea-Tac Hotel, Seattle. http://www.washingtonea.org/
• "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks" on February 24th for the Musicians Union of Las Vegas, Local 369 –www.musicianslasvegas369.com
• "To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine"
at the California Federation of Teachers Conference, Westin Hotel LAX, Los Angeles on February 9th www.cft.org
To see a list of some earlier performances please visit our Play page.
Videos
Click below (broadband connection recommended) to see Arlo Guthrie singing "The Ballad of Harry Bridges."
Arlo Guthrie
Our First Radio Documentary
To listen to the radio documentary "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks" click Part I and Part II.