George Andersen (September 19, 1900 – December 12, 1965) was an American lawyer and partner in the

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

-based law firm of Gladstein, Andersen, Leonard & Sibbett. One of his clients,

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 In ...

of the

International Longshore and Warehouse Union The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is a labor union which primarily represents dock workers on the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii, and in British Columbia, Canada; on the East Coast, the dominant union is the Intern ...

(ILWU), allegedly supported communist or pro-communist legal organizations from the 1930s to the 1960s including

International Labor Defense The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was active ...

, the

International Juridical Association The International Juridical Association (IJA; 1931–1942) was an association of socially minded American lawyers, established by Carol Weiss King and considered by the U.S. federal government (in the form of the U.S. House Un-American Activities ...

, and the

National Lawyers Guild The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 193 ...

as well as holding stock in the communist newspaper ''

People's World ''People's World'', official successor to the '' Daily Worker'', is a Marxist-Leninist and American leftist national daily online news publication. Founded by activists, socialists, communists, and those active in the labor movement in the earl ...

''.

Background

George R. Andersen was born in Denmark and immigrated with his family to San Francisco, California, U.S. He dropped out of school after sixth grade to work. Eventually, he graduated from night school classes in law at the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1855, it has nearly 9,000 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees ...

Career

Andersen was a partner in the San Francisco law firm of the law firm of Gladstein, Andersen, Leonard & Sibbett (aka Andersen & Resner and Gladstein, Andersen, Resner & Sawyer in the 1940s), which represented the

(ILWU). Another partner Richard Gladstein defended its union leader

in deportation hearings three times from 1938 to 1955. In 1934, Andersen defended Ida Rothstein, an alleged communist leader of the San Francisco Bay area. In 1938, Andersen was a co-sponsor of the Schneiderman- Darcy Defense Committee, when he was serving as the attorney for the

CPUSA The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...

, Carey McWilliams, and others. In 1939, Andersen defended labor rioters. In 1942, Andersen served as appellant counsel for Anita Whitney, alleged chair of the California Communist Party. In 1944, Andersen and his firm defended a "Negro" respondent on behalf of African-American workers who were members of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders and Helpers of American Union. In 1947 after the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, Andersen and his firm advised the ILWU about how to comply with new laws. In 1948, Andersen and his law firm represented two unions in decisions made by the

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States that enforces United States labor law, U.S. labor law in relation to collect ...

(NLRB). In the 1950s, Andersen represented

Roy Hudson Roy Hudson, also known as Roy B. Hudson, served on the national executive board (also called the national committee) of the Communist Party USA and national trade union director and trade union expert. Career With Al Lannon, Hudson helped fo ...

(union liaison and executive of the CPUSA), Donald Niven Wheeler (

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

government official and alleged Soviet spy), Paul Schlipf (legislative assistant for the California State CIO), and Paul Chown (field organizer for the

United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), is an independent democratic rank-and-file labor union representing workers in both the private and public sectors across the United States. UE was one of the first unions to be ch ...

or "UE" union). In 1954, Andersen submitted an

amicus curiae An amicus curiae (; ) is an individual or organization that is not a Party (law), party to a legal case, but that is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. Wheth ...

in ''VINCENT W. HALLINAN for Disbarment of Member of State Bar of California''. In 1959, Andersen served as counsel to John Dewberry in ''People v. Dewberry''. In January 1948, Andersen was shot by two gunmen, after he tried to stop them from robbing the office. The

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI) closely monitored Andersen and his firm, and some speculate that the FBI was involved in this attack on his office and him. In 1931–32, Andersen joined

Carol Weiss King Carol Weiss King (24 August 1895 – 22 January 1952) was a well-known immigration lawyer, renowned for her advocacy in defending the civil rights of immigrants, key founder of the International Juridical Association, and a founding member ...

and others in founding the

(IJA), a legal bureau to help defend Communists in the USA. In 1937, when the

(NLG) was formed, he served as head of its San Francisco chapter. In 1942, he served on the IJA's national committee. In 1947, he served as local counsel in San Francisco for the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born and was a member of its Northern California Committee for Protection of Foreign Born. In the 1950s, he was a speaker for the

Civil Rights Congress The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was a United States civil rights organization, formed in 1946 at a national conference for radicals and disbanded in 1956. It succeeded the International Labor Defense, the National Federation for Constitutional L ...

(formed by a merger of International Labor Defense with the

National Federation for Constitutional Liberties The National Federation for Constitutional Liberties (NFCL) (1940–c. 1946) was a civil rights advocacy group made up from a broad range of people (including many trade unionists, religious organizations, African-American civil rights advocates a ...

and the

National Negro Congress In African-American history, the National Negro Congress (NNC; 1936–ca. 1946) was an African-American organization formed in 1936 at Howard University as a broadly based coalition organization with the goal of fighting for Black liberation; it ...

). As early as 1947, Andersen was a stockholder in ''

'' as well as 1949 and 1952–54. In 1954, Andersen ran for Congress on the ticket of the Independent Progressive Party. On April 21, 1959, Andersen served as legal counsel to Harry Bridges during a HUAC hearing. Also that year, Andersen was one of 40 lawyers who described the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...

(HUAC) report ''Communist Legal Subversion: The Role of the Communist Lawyer''. In 1961, HUAC alleged that Andersen was the local attorney for the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...

and noted that he had defended Archie Brown for his role in making the 45-minute documentary film ''Operation Abolition'', which filmed the proceedings on HUAC in San Francisco on May 12–14, 1960. During the hearings, Andersen tried to disqualify the committee altogether. Also involved in the hearing was Norman Leonard, a fellow partner in Gladstein, Andersen, Leonard & Sibbett.

Personal life and death

Andersen married Francis Foster (1903–2001). The

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

noted that Andersen's law firm was the first to hire an American-American lawyer. George Richard Andersen died at age 65 on December 29, 1965, in San Francisco.

Legacy

Andersen and his law firm Gladstein, Andersen, Leonard & Sibbett are major subjects of the 2015 book ''Progressive Lawyers under Siege: Moral Panic during the McCarthy Years''.

Background

Career

Personal life and death

Legacy

See also

References

External links