On the waterfront His is a life of humiliation and low pay, of long days spent enduring work conditions that can only be described as appalling. We're talking of course about the L.A. actor, who struggles for years to learn his trade, mastering the emotional intricacies of the characters in Shakespeare, only to end up gushing about the cleaning miracles of a toilet bowl cleanser. And even if he climbs into the Hollywood firmament, stardom fades with age, the once-proud sirens of the screen hastily reduced to pitchmen for Underalls and Efferdent.
Ian Ruskin portrays Harry Bridges,
who unionized Hawaii's plantation
and dock workersBy Scott Vogel
svogel@starbulletin.comTo those who find their acting careers listing toward the tragic, Ian Ruskin has a message: Don't forget what first brought you to this noble profession.
"When I was at drama school, we did great plays by Chekhov and Pinter and Arthur Miller, plays that I always felt could affect an audience, to get them to think about life," said the actor and RADA graduate by phone from his home in, yes, Los Angeles. "That's why most actors begin. It's not just that you want to be a star. You want to touch people. But it's easy to lose sight of that, because in the beginning an awful lot of work you are offered is not of that type."
One doesn't often hear of actors who passionately embrace the social importance of their profession, which is why interviewing them is generally a dull affair. Such is not the case with Ruskin, who not only believes in the political relevance of his ancient craft but also works tirelessly to bring stories of like-minded rabble-rousers to the stage.Chief among these is a one-man show about one of the more controversial figures in Hawaii labor history, although the title, "Celebrating the Legacy of Harry Bridges," leaves little doubt as to Ruskin's sympathies. The production, which has already been well-received on the West Coast (a San Pedro, Calif., performance drew a crowd of 1,000) comes to Hawaii this week with performances on Oahu and neighbor islands, with Ruskin in the title role.
An Australian who first arrived in America in 1920 (he would have turned 100 this past July), Harry Bridges was the fiery and charismatic labor leader who spearheaded the great West Coast maritime strike of 1934, an 83-day walkout that led to improved wages and hours for workers, not to mention the rise of the powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which Bridges presided over for 40 years. Under his leadership, the ILWU unionized Hawaii's sugar and pineapple laborers, as well as its workers on the waterfront.
"Putting it in fairly crude terms," said Ruskin, "in the late '30s in Hawaii, the system was that workers were brought in from other countries, and the way plantations were run, the workers were segregated (by nationality). This was a very effective way of controlling workers because you contain bad feelings people have about another race."
Efforts to unionize great masses of workers had previously failed, in part because unions themselves refused to bridge racial barriers. A work force crippled by fragmentation (including separate Japanese, Filipino and Chinese unions) played directly into the hands of the islands' Big Five firms.
"Harry Bridges was adamant about having a union open to all workers," said Ruskin. "If you worked on a plantation or on the shore you could join, and it didn't matter what race or religion you were. That idea of a multiracial and ethnic union was obviously a very powerful idea in Hawaii, where workers were brought in from 25 countries to work on plantations."
It was also a development that forever altered the islands' social fabric and led directly to the Democratic revolution of the '50s, a period during which an ILWU endorsement of a candidate "was like gold," said Ruskin. There's much disagreement about how much Bridges was personally responsible for unionization in Hawaii (Jack Hall and many others led the charge), and further disagreement about labor unions in general, whose reputations have fluctuated dramatically during the ensuing decades.
Far less controversial, however, is Ruskin's mission of socially-charged entertainment, of bringing an eloquent and not infrequently humorous man to the stage. "You don't have to agree with Harry Bridges," he emphasized, but you must consider carefully what Bridges and the ILWU might have meant to the state.
In other words, Ruskin has come full circle, returning to his roots as an actor with a mission, pleading with his audiences to think about life. And when you think about it, that's all Harry Bridges ever asked of his own audiences.
"When we were all down at the heels and just starting to organize," Bridges once said of his efforts to organize dock workers, "I used to tear my guts out trying to tell them they were just as good as anyone else around here; that they could become respectable members of the community; that someday they'd be accepted. They weren't afraid to fight for what they wanted then."
"Celebrating the Legacy of Harry Bridges": Labor leader
When: Maui -- 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Maui Arts and Cultural Center McCoy Theater; Oahu -- 7:30 p.m. Friday, Orvis Auditorium, UH-Manoa; Kauai -- 7 p.m. Saturday, Kauai Community College Theater; Big Island -- 2 p.m. Sunday, University of Hawaii at Hilo Theater.
Cost: Free, but tickets are required for Oahu performance
Call: 956-3836
Click for online
calendars and events.
