By Jack Brummet, Seattle Metro Editor
The Occupy Oakland General Strike made me remember studying the 1919 Seattle General Strike in a Labor Union class in college. Oakland also had a very successful general strike in the 1940's. And they had another effective one a few weeks ago as part of the Wall Street Uprising. It got a lot of attention, and nothing bad happened; it helped shore up OO; the Oakland P.D. did not leap in with a disproportional response, that night anyhow.
Twenty years after the Seattle strike, in 1936, James Farley, the Postmaster under FDR, said
"there are 47 states in the Union, and the Soviet of Washington," referring to the leftist movements in the state, and especially in Seattle, where the general strike had occurred. There have been similar quotes over the years, referring to the Supreme Soviet of Seattle. . .
The Seattle Star's last ditch effort to stop the General Strike
The Seattle General Strike of February 1919 was the first real city-wide labor action in America to be acknowledged by the media (then, radio, magazines, and newspapers) as a "general strike." The strike happened due to the heavy presence of radical labor unions in the Pacific Northwest, the strong influence of the IWW [International Workers of the World, sometimes referred to as IWW:"I Won't Work."], although they were not heavily involved, and because of the vast numbers of workers and soldiers who were recently out of work due to the end of World War I.
The strike lasted less than a week, but inspired other strikes and was one of the triggers of the
Great Red Scare of 1919. This strike frightened people (well, mainly the 1%-ers of the early 20th century) because it was generally believed the strike was fomented by Communists/Bolsheviks, who successfully revolted in Russia two years earlier. The Wikipedia says the fallout from the strike was "
the first concentrated eruption of the anti-Red hysteria that characterized the Red Scare of 1919."
In an editorial in the Seattle Union Record, a union newspaper, activist
Anna Louise Strong tried to describe the general strike's power and potential:
- "The closing down of Seattle's industries, as a MERE SHUTDOWN, will not affect these eastern gentlemen much. They could let the whole northwest go to pieces, as far as money alone is concerned."
- "But, the closing down of the capitalistically controlled industries of Seattle, while the workers organize to feed the people, to care for the babies and the sick, to preserve order--this will move them, for this looks too much like the taking over of power by the workers."
- "Labor will not only Shut Down the industries, but Labor will reopen, under the management of the appropriate trades, such activities as are needed to preserve public health and public peace. If the strike continues, Labor may feel led to avoid public suffering by reopening more and more activities."
- "UNDER ITS OWN MANAGEMENT."
- "And that is why we say that we are starting on a road that leads--no one knows where!"
Newspaper across the country reprinted excerpts from Strong's editorial.
"The strike began in shipyards that had expanded rapidly with war production contracts. 35,000 workers expected a post-war pay hike to make up for two years of strict wage controls imposed by the federal government." (From an article in the
The Seattle Times on March 31, 1996)
When the regulators refused to lift the wage caps, the Metal Trades Council union alliance declared a strike and closed the shipyards. The Metal Trades Council pleaded for support from the Central Labor Council and virtually all of the city’s 110 local unions voted to join a sympathy walkout.
Local and national press vehemently denounced the strike, and the conservatives called for extreme measures to snuff what they felt was a revolutionary/Anarchist/Bolsheviki plot. Mayor Ole Hanson, elected the year before (with heavy labor union support), armed the police and threatened to declare martial law and bring in federal troops to prevent the strike.
Some of the unions caved early on, and by the time the Central Labor Council officially declared an end on February 11, most unions had already gone back to work.
After the strike, reprisals against "the Reds," specifically the IWW, and Socialist Party, began. Their HQ were raided, and the leaders thrown in jail. Federal agents closed the
Union Record, the labor-owned daily newspaper, and arrested several of its staff members.
Around the country, headlines screamed the news that Seattle had been saved, that the revolution had been broken, and, as Mayor Ole Hanson said, “Americanism” had triumphed over “Bolshevism.” The mayor promised to preserve order and do whatever it took to protect life and property. A few months after the strike was over, Hanson resigned and made a small fortune on a lecture tour, talking about the strike and the evils of Bolshevism.
An anti-syndicalism law passed by the state Legislature early in its 1919 session was used as a basis for numerous raids on Socialist and radical labor headquarters, police disruption of meetings, and the arrest of suspected revolutionaries.
When three marchers were mysteriously shot in Centralia's 1919 Armistice Day parade, vigilantes retaliated by lynching a radical union leader, Wesley Everest. The Seattle Union Record's sympathetic coverage of the union side prompted federal marshals to suspend publication of the paper for several days, charging its editor with sedition.
Slowly, things returned to what passes for normal in Seattle.
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