HIST 1378 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Seattle General Strike, Industrial Workers Of The World
20 Oct 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Seattle General Strike of 1919
- Led by central labor council
- Seattle had a municipal port that was run by the city (middle class reformers)
o Port meant seattle could replace san francisco as leading port on the coast
because it was 2 days closer to Asia
o Gateway to Alaska
▪ Fishing industry was growing there
- Largest # of workers were timber workers in pacific northwest
- Seattle become most important shipbuilding center in US very quickly
- Seattle had a radical union movement
o Not just ship and timber laborers
o Also painters, barbers, railroad workers, street car workers
o Explosive mixture of people
- Washington = 1st socialist state in the union
- IWW came to area
- Everret (incident?) 1916
o Union ppl took a boat there, unarmed, just going to help people
o Immediately met by deputies, lots of people got hurt
o When they came back a lot of people got arrested
o Massacre horrified the people of seattle
o Deepened sense of class in the city
- Great victory in woods of 1017
o IWW held general strike in the woods
- Bolsheviks
o 1917 russian sailors show up and that was seattles introduction to it
o ppl started to identify with them
o seattle newspaper would have Russian features
o IWW supported Russian revolution
- Socialist party was thorn in place of workplace union in seattle
o 2 completely diff ideas for what a union should be
o socialists took more of a parliamentary approach
- IWW supported integration
- Japanese were largest immigrant population in seattle
- Left wing of socialist party was “antiracist”
- IWW was contesting the exclusion of black workers in the docks
- Later, middle class in seattle tried to have anti-japanese land acts and stuff to restrict
the Japanese. Consistently, leaders of central labor council opposed those efforts
Document Summary
Largest # of workers were timber workers in pacific northwest. Seattle become most important shipbuilding center in us very quickly. Seattle had a radical union movement: not just ship and timber laborers, also painters, barbers, railroad workers, street car workers, explosive mixture of people. Washington = 1st socialist state in the union. Iww came to area: union ppl took a boat there, unarmed, just going to help people. Immediately met by deputies, lots of people got hurt: when they came back a lot of people got arrested, massacre horrified the people of seattle, deepened sense of class in the city. Bolsheviks: 1917 russian sailors show up and that was seattles introduction to it, ppl started to identify with them, seattle newspaper would have russian features. Socialist party was thorn in place of workplace union in seattle: 2 completely diff ideas for what a union should be, socialists took more of a parliamentary approach.
