Seattle General Strike of 1919

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The Seattle General Strike of February 6 to February 11, 1919, was a general work stoppage by over 65,000 individuals in the U.S. city of Seattle, Washington. Dissatisfied workers in several unions began the strike to gain higher wages after two years of World War I wage controls. Most other local unions, including members of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), joined the walkout. Although the strike lasted less than a week, the American establishment was very disturbed by the prospect of workers shutting down major cities. Paranoia that the strike had been organized by foreign anarchists and communists, or that it shared their goals, helped lead to the Red Scare of 1919 and 1920.

1 Radicalization
2 The Strike begins
3 Everyday life during the strike
4 The end of the strike
5 References, further reading
6 External links

[edit] Radicalization

At the time, workers in the United States, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, were becoming increasingly radicalized, with many in the rank and file supportive of the recent revolution in Russia and working toward a similar revolution in the United States. In the fall of 1919, for instance, Seattle longshoremen refused to load arms destined for a Russian White Army anti-Bolshevik general, and attacked strikebreakers who attempted to load them. In these years, more workers in the city were organized in unions than ever before; there was a four-hundred percent increase in union membership from 1915 to 1918.

Most unions in Seattle were officially affiliated with the AFL, but the ideas of ordinary workers tended to be more radical. A local labor leader from the time discussed the politics of Seattle's workers in June of 1919:

I believe that 95 percent of us agree that the workers should control the industries. Nearly all of us agree on that but very strenuously disagree on the method. Some of us think we can get control through the Cooperative movement, some of us think through political action, and others think through industrial action.

Another journalist recalls the radicalization of Seattle's workers, discussing the spread of propaganda relating to the Russian Revolution:

For some time these pamphlets were seen by hundreds on Seattle's streetcars and ferries, read by men of the shipyards on their way to work. Seattle's businessmen commented on the phenomenon sourly; it was plain to everyone that these workers were conscientiously and energetically studying how to organize their coming to power. Already, workers in Seattle talked about "workers' power" as a practical policy for the not far distant future.

[edit] The Strike begins

The front page of the Union Record at the strike's beginning.

A few weeks after the November 1918 armistice ending World War I, unions in Seattle's shipbuilding industry demanded a pay increase for unskilled workers. The yard owners responded by offering a pay increase only to skilled workers, probably in an attempt to divide the ranks of the union. The offer was refused, and Seattle's thirty-five thousand shipyard workers struck on January 21, 1919.

Controversy erupted when Charles Piez, head of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) (created by the U.S. government during the war, and, at the time, the largest employer in the industry), attempted to send a telegram to the yard owners threatening to withdraw their contracts if any increase in wages were granted. The message was accidentally delivered, not to the Metal Trades Association, the owners, but rather to the Metal Trades Council, the workers' union. Now the shipyard workers directed their anger, not only toward their immediate employers, but also to the federal government which, through the EFC, seemed to be on the side of their enemies.

The workers immediately appealed to the Seattle Central Labor Council in favor of a general strike of all workers in Seattle. Members of various unions were polled, with almost unanimous support in favor—-even among traditionally conservative unions. As many as 110 locals officially supported the call for a general strike. It began on February 6, 1919, at 10:00 AM.

[edit] Everyday life during the strike

A cooperative body made up of rank and file workers from all the striking locals was formed during the strike, called the General Strike Committee. It acted as a "virtual counter-government for the city" (Brecher), somewhat akin to 1871's Paris Commune. The workers in the Committee organized to provide essential services for the people of Seattle during the work stoppage. For instance, garbage that would create a health hazard was collected, and firemen remained on duty. Exemptions to the stoppage of labor had to be passed by the Strike Committee. In general, work was not halted if doing so would endanger lives.

In other cases, workers acted on their own initiative to create new institutions rather than simply continuing the old. Milk wagon drivers, after being denied the right by their employers to keep certain dairies open, established a distribution system containing thirty-five neighborhood milk stations. A system of food distribution was also established, which throughout the strike committee distributed as many as thirty thousand meals each day. Strikers paid twenty five cents per meal, the general public thirty five. Beef stew, spaghetti, bread, and coffee were offered free of charge.

Army veterans created an alternative to the police in order to keep the peace. The "Labor War Veteran's Guard," as it was called, forbade the use of force and did not carry weapons; it was policy "to use persuasion only." As it happened, peacekeeping was unnecessary: not a single arrest was made by traditional police forces in actions related to the strike, and general arrests dropped to less than half of normal. Major General John F. Morrison, stationed in Seattle, claimed that he had never seen "a city so quiet and orderly." A poem in the Union Record reads, in part:

What scares them most is

That NOTHING HAPPENS!

They are ready

For DISTURBANCES.

They have machine guns

And soldiers,

But this SMILING SILENCE

Is uncanny.

The methods of organization adopted by the striking workers bore resemblance to anarcho-syndicalism, perhaps reflecting the influence of the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest (though only a few striking locals were officially affiliated with the IWW). The radicalism of events was certainly conscientious; both workers and their opponents saw the situation as a prelude to revolution. The Seattle Union Record, in an editorial by Anna Louise Strong, attempted to analyze the historical significance of the general strike:

The pamphlet entitled "Russia Did It."

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!

Seattle's Mayor concurred with the conclusion that the general strike was a revolutionary event, but admitted this with regret: "The so-called sympathetic Seattle strike was an attempted revolution. That there was no violence does not alter the fact . . . The intent, openly and covertly announced, was for the overthrow of the industrial system; here first, then everywhere . . . True, there were no flashing guns, no bombs, no killings. Revolution, I repeat, doesn't need violence. The general strike, as practised in Seattle, is of itself the weapon of revolution, all the more dangerous because quiet. To succeed, it must suspend everything; stop the entire life stream of a community . . . That is to say, it puts the government out of operation. And that is all there is to revolt -- no matter how achieved."

Revolutionary pamphlets littered the streets of the city. One, titled "Russia Did It," proclaimed: "The Russians have shown you the way out. What are you going to do about it? You are doomed to wage slavery till you die unless you wake up, realize that you and the boss have nothing in common, that the employing class must be overthrown, and that you, the workers, must take over the control of your jobs, and through them, the control over your lives instead of offering yourself up to the masters as a sacrifice six days a week, so that they may coin profits out of your sweat and toil."

[edit] The end of the strike

Federal troops were sent in by request of the state of Washington's Attorney General. Nine-hundred fifty sailors and marines were stationed across the city by February 7. At the same time, the Seattle mayor added 600 men to the police force and hired 2,400 special deputies. The executive committee of the General Strike Committee, fearing the violent repression so common in early twentieth century America strikes, voted to end the strike, but recanted this decision when it became evident that enthusiasm for the strike remained high among the rank and file.

The international offices of the AFL began to exert pressure on the workers to end the strike. For various reasons, some locals gave in to this pressure and returned to work. With division among the ranks of the strikers thus increasing, and the power of the opposition becoming stronger and more agitated by the strike's continuance, the General Strike Committee voted to end the strike on February 11, at noon. It stated the reasons for ending the strike: "Pressure from international officers of unions, from executive committees of unions, from the 'leaders' in the labor movement, even from those very leaders who are still called 'Bolsheviki' by the undiscriminating press. And, added to all these, the pressure upon the workers themselves, not of the loss of their own jobs, but of living in a city so tightly closed."

The initial shipyard strike persisted. Immediately following the general strike's end, thirty-nine IWW members were arrested as "ringleaders of anarchy", despite their playing a marginal role in the development of events.

[edit] References, further reading

Brecher, Jeremy. Strike!. Revised edition. South End Press, 1997. ISBN 0-89608-569-4
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. Perrenial Classics Edition. Perrenial, 1999. ISBN 0-06-093731-9