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

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

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

ILWU 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. The union was established in 1937 after the 1934 Wes ...

, 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 activ ...

, 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 and American leftist national daily online news publication. Founded by activists, socialists, communists, and those active in the labor movement in the early 1900s, th ...

''.

Background

George R. Andersen was born in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

and immigrated with his family to San Francisco, California, USA. He dropped out of school after sixth grade to work. Eventually, he graduated from night school classes in law at

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

Career

Andersen was a partner in the San Francisco law firm of law firm of Gladstein, Andersen, Leonard & Sibbett (aka Andersen & Resner and Gladstein, Andersen, Resner & Sawyer in the 1940s), which represented 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. The union was established in 1937 after the 1934 Wes ...

(ILWU), while partner Richard Gladstein defended its union leader Harry Bridges 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 attorney for the

CPUSA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

, 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 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 agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Natio ...

(NLRB). In the 1950s, Andersen represented Roy Hudson (union liaison and executive of the CPUSA), Donald Niven Wheeler (

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

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 c ...

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

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

in ''VINCENT W. HALLINAN for Disbarment of Member of State Bar of California''. In 1959, Andersen served a 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 and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

(FBI) closely monitored Andersen and his firm, and some speculate that the FBI was involved in this attack on his office and him. In 1931–2, Andersen joined

Carol Weiss King Carol Weiss King (24 August 1895 – 22 January 1952) was a well-known immigration lawyer, key founder of the International Juridical Association, and a founding member of the National Lawyers Guild in the United States. Her left-leanin ...

and others in founding the

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

(NLG) formed, he served as head of its San Francisco chapter. In 1942, he was 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 American Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born was the successor group to the National Council for the Protection of the Foreign Born and its successor, seen by the US federal government as subversive for "protecting foreign Communists who c ...

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 Li ...

(formed by a merger of International Labor Defense with

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 The National Negro Congress (NNC) (1936–ca. 1946) was an American organization formed in 1936 at Howard University as a broadly based organization with the goal of fighting for Black liberation; it was the successor to the League of Struggle for N ...

). 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 described the in

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

(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, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

and noted that he had defended Archie Brown for his role in making of 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 a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

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