Labor History Archives
The Seattle General Strike of 1919
The Seattle General Strike Project
“This page is a guide to the historical study of the Seattle General Strike of 1919 and related issues. It offers links to original research reports, published articles, photographs, political cartoons, document facsimiles, and extensive bibliographic and archival guides. In addition, there are links to related web projects. Sponsored by the University of Washington Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, the page is coordinated by Professor James Gregory.”
We have a lot of labor history here in Seattle. It is amazing how much has changed in 85 years. We might ask ourselves what happened to our collective memory of 'what happened and why?'. We might also ask why so little is taught in schools about the true history of working people.
The site has some great pictures and clippings too.
“The Seattle General Strike of February 1919 was the first city-wide strike anywhere in the United States to be proclaimed a "general strike." It led off a tumultuous post-World War I era of labor conflict that saw massive strikes shut down the nation's steel, coal, and meat packing industries and threaten civil unrest in a dozen cities. The Seattle strike began in the shipyards, which had expanded overnight with war production contracts and where 35,000 workers expected a post- war wage hike to make up for two years of strict wage controls imposed by the federal government. When federal regulators refused, the Metal Trades Council, an alliance of shipyard unions, declared a strike and closed the yards, appealing also to Seattle's powerful Central Labor Council for help. Most of the city's 110 local unions then voted to join a sympathy walkout.”
The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 has made a lot of the actions mentioned above illegal today. Of course some things were illegal then too. Everything can be looked at from differing perspectives. Large multinational corporate conglomerates can buy and control TV, radio and the press. They can essentially monopolize goods and services, moving good paying jobs overseas while charging whatever the market will bare in the US. Corporations enjoy the same rights as a person with none of the responsibilities. Interlinking Boards of Directors weave corporations into incredibly powerful forces, driven by money and control, to get even more money and power.
The same concentration of money was happening in 1919 as it is happening now. Yet, if working families attempted to do the same thing today they would be labeled as “terrorists”, communists or even worse. Why are ordinary people so willing to believe what they read in newspapers, hear on radio and see on TV with little or no reflection upon the actual truth of the matter? And yes, communists were trying to use labor unrest for their own ends back then. But why was there unrest in the first place?
“Most of the local and national press denounced the strike, while conservatives called for stern measures to suppress what looked to them to be a revolutionary plot. Mayor Ole Hanson, elected the year before with labor support, armed his police force and threatened martial law and federal troops. Some of the unions wavered on the strike's third day. Most others had gone back to work by the time the Central Labor Council officially declared an end on February 11. By then police and vigilantes were hard at work rounding up Reds. The IWW, http://www.iww.org ,hall and Socialist Party, http://sp-usa.org/ , headquarters were raided and leaders arrested. Federal agents also closed the Union Record, http://faculty.washington.edu/gregoryj/
laborpress/seattleunion.htm , the labor-owned daily newspaper, and arrested several of its staff. Meanwhile across the country headlines screamed the news that Seattle had been saved, that the revolution had been broken, that, as Mayor Hanson phrased it, ‘Americanism’ had triumphed over ‘Bolshevism.’ “Things are similar today with the unrelenting attacks on people’s right to bargain collectively. Slanted and filtered news prevails. Actually there is little news about workers and unions unless it is negative. Universities say people don’t need unions and that unions are a thing of the past. Labor unions are banned from representing government employees working for the Department of Homeland Security.
What do you think? Is a General Strike any more radical than what corporate America has done to our American dream?
More on the Seattle General Strike can be found at http://faculty.washington.edu/gregoryj/pnwlabor/ . Even here the UW uses language that predetermines how you approach our history.
“This project explores the strike and the early 20th century history of labor and radicalism in the state of Washington. “
Why not use the words: history of government, big business and radicalism in the State of Washington?
There are many ways to view things and there are those who have gone to great lengths to make sure we only think and interpret things a certain way. To preserve our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we have to educate ourselves. For surely there are those in corporations and in unions who would destroy our rights for their own narrow interests and visions.
Who you vote for makes a big difference in your life, liberty and your ability to pursue and obtain happiness. We still have a way through the democratic process to do what our forefathers tried to do with a general strike in 1919.
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