Socialist Action /May 1999
The Seattle General Strike
By JOHN RUHLAND
SEATTLE-Seventy years ago, working people closed this city down. The
great Seattle General Strike of 1919 was not the first or the last general
strike in the United States.
But the Seattle strike demonstrated-to friend and enemy alike-the tremendous
power that workers can generate when they act in solidarity with the struggles
of other workers. In that respect, it still provides an example for workers
today.
The strike came at a time in which two major international events-the
First World War and the Russian Revolution-had produced a qualitative change
in the consciousness of American workers, as they also did in other countries.
As the slaughter in Europe drew to a close, workers began to demand that
their one-sided sacrifices "for the war effort" be ended, and
that they be granted better wages and working conditions.
Profits had soared while wages were held down throughout the nation by
government control. The economic situation of working people was very difficult.
There had been a 50 percent increase in the cost of living during the last
three years of World War I.
Seattle had a higher cost of living than elsewhere in the country because
it was off the beaten path. There was then, as now, a housing shortage due
to people moving into the area, and rents and home prices were high.
Many U.S. workers realized that this country, which had opportunistically
entered the war late, had ended up with the lion's share of the spoils and
could well afford to grant their demands. And they knew that, if the bosses
should refuse their demands, the Russian Revolution provided a positive
example of what can happen when working people take matters into their own
hands.
The pace of labor struggles quickly grew. According to "History
of the USA Since World War I," in 1917, there were 1,227,000 strikers,
in 1918, there were 1,240,000, and then in 1919, the number more than tripled
to 4,160,000. This was the highest ever up to that time.
Not only did the numbers dramatically increase, but the demands became
more radical and included the nationalization of important sectors of industry
and transport. In June 1920, the congress of the AFL overrode the objections
of its bureaucratic leadership and passed a resolution demanding the immediate
nationalization of the railways.
A radicalization began to take place simultaneously in the political
life of this country. In 1918, the Chicago Federation of Labor called for
a National Labor Party. Their platform included nationalizing the banks,
transport, and other industries, as well as equal rights for Blacks.
And taking its inspiration directly from the Russian Revolution, the
U.S. Communist Party was founded in 1919.
Events occurring in the Pacific Northwest during the period included
a long and drawn-out free speech fight in Everett, Wash. It ended in the
Everett Massacre on Nov. 5, 1916, in which many Wobblies (members of the
Industrial Workers of the World, IWW) were killed.
The Everett Massacre radicalized Anna Louise Strong, a member of the
Seattle School Board, who went on to investigate and publicize what life
was like in the Soviet Union. It was Strong who wrote about the impending
General Strike, in the Feb. 4, 1919, edition of Union Call, the most
quoted editorial in Seattle's newspaper history.
Her article read: "We are undertaking the most tremendous move ever
made by Labor in this country, a move which will lead no one knows where."
Workers' solidarity with Russian Revolution
By 1919, the ruling class was rightfully fearful of a general strike.
The October 1917 Russian Revolution, which had taken place little more than
one year earlier, had engendered great sympathy among class-conscious U.S.
workers.
While the U.S. ruling class sent troops over to overthrow the Bolsheviks,
the IWW sponsored mass meetings to support Russian workers and raise funds
for them.
One mass meeting took place on Aug. 10, 1918, at the Moore Theater in
Seattle. Those attending called on the United States to withdraw its military
intervention in Russia.
According to the book "Revolution in Seattle" by Harvey O'Connor,
when the Longshoreman's Union learned that the Remington Company was attempting
to ship arms for counter-revolution in Russia, the workers refused to load
the crates.
On Jan. 12, 1919, Mayor Ole Hanson ordered the police under Searing (later
to become chief of police) to raid an open-air mass meeting of shipyard
workers in an attempt to prevent a general strike. The workers were brutally
beaten.
The shipyard workers went on strike Jan. 21 to fight reductions in wages
and for a 44-hour workweek. According to O'Connor, $4.16 was the top daily
wage for shipyard laborers at that time. The wages they were asking for
were $8 for skilled workers and $5.50 for unskilled workers. These requests
were rejected.
At 10 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 6, 1919, the General Strike began, and 60,000
workers went on strike in solidarity with over 25,000 metal trades workers
in the shipyards. Fifteen thousand workers in Tacoma joined the strike.
International AFL officials sabotage the strike
The Seattle Central Labor Council's strike committee, which organized
and ran the strike, was made up of 300 representatives of various unions
who almost unanimously voted for the strike. This committee, as well as
a Workmen's, Soldiers' and Sailors' Council, appealed to the strikers to
fight for the nationalization of key industries along with their other demands.
An executive committee of 15 was chosen by the general committee to plan
the details of the strike.
The reactionary executive committee of the AFL union condemned the actions
of the strike committee, threatening various members with expulsion from
their positions on the committee and from their jobs. International officers
of the AFL invaded the area by the trainload and threatened to revoke the
charters of the participating unions.
These threats were one reason the strike ended early. The Seattle union
leaders gave in to the bureaucratic officers of their internationals.
This was unlike the Minneapolis general strike that took place 15 years
later. That strike, under the leadership of revolutionary socialists and
class-conscious officials, refused to buckle and succeeded in winning a
tremendous victory for the Teamsters.
Because the original shipyard workers' strike was organized by the AFL,
it is considered an AFL strike rather than an IWW strike. But since many
workers held cards in both unions, and since the radical workers did the
actual planning, the IWW deserves much of the credit.
It is even more impressive that the strike occurred when one realizes
that the most radical local AFL officials were in Chicago participating
in a rally for the release of Tom Mooney when the plans for the strike were
made.
O'Connor mentions as well that it is amazing that the strike was pulled
off by craft unions. Craft unionism, which was favored by the AFL, allows
and even encourages one group of workers to feel they are superior to and
can do without the aid of lower paid and less skilled workers. Thus the
AFL excluded African and Asian Americans, as well as most women.
The Wobblies called the AFL "The American Separation of Labor."
The IWW instead advocated industrial unionism, which stresses the
importance of uniting all workers in an industry regardless of their
particular craft.
Ruling class sends in troops
University of Washington President Henry Suzzallo, chair of the State
Council of Defense, demanded that U.S. Secretary of War Baker send in federal
troops. And they were sent in-to "combat the Bolshevik threat."
The media attempted to turn people against the strikers. The Business
Chronicle tried to pit the working-class soldiers who had recently returned
from the war against other workers by suggesting that striking workers be
replaced by the soldiers.
Well-armed soldiers and sailors paraded through the streets, and trucks
bearing machine guns raced back and forth to attempt to provoke the striking
workers into using violence.
Nevertheless, first-hand accounts report a dramatic silence in the city.
Instead of saws ringing, birds could be heard chirping. The only violence
was a single instance, in which the police assaulted a worker.
Crime actually dropped to less than one-third of normal levels. The normal
police docket of 100 per day fell to 30 per day during the strike.
Throughout the strike, there were 21 cafeterias serving meals for 35
cents, 25 cents with a union card. According to O'Connor, part of the reason
things went so smoothly is that during planning of the strike there had
been much discussion of Lenin's speech regarding the importance of civic
management when the people take power.
Reactionary backlash follows the strike
The strike lasted through Tuesday, Feb. 11. After the strike, 31 workers,
all members of the IWW, were arrested and charged with criminal anarchy
for trying to overthrow the government. No one was ever convicted.
The Equity Press, which published the IWW paper, and the Socialist Party
were raided in the open-shop reaction that followed the strike.
The backlash included the passing of draconian federal laws outlawing
progressive activities, such as publishing anything that advocated or justified
sedition as means of effecting social, economic, or other change (the actual
wording is even more vague). J. Edgar Hoover first showed his infamous abilities
to round up radicals in "Justice" Department raids under these
new laws.
The laws effectively condoned and promoted violence against leftists,
as is demonstrated by the Centralia Massacre.
The IWW Hall in Centralia was attacked (for a second time) on Nov. 11,
1919, by the American Legion. In defending the hall, one Wobbly was beaten,
castrated, and hung. While in Centralia recently, I learned of second-hand
reports of other Wobblies that were killed, their bodies being burned in
sawdust furnaces.
According to "The Bloodstained Trail; a History of Militant Labor
in the U.S.," the opportunistic Mayor Ole Hanson earned $38,000 on
a seven-month tour lecturing on how he saved the country from a revolution.
He also wrote a book and, because of his new-found popularity, had hopes
of running for president.
This came from a politician who had entered office while loudly declaring
he was a "friend of labor." These declarations were undoubtedly
due to the fact that over 25 percent of Seattle citizens were in unions.
According to Murry Morgan's book, "Skid Road," at the very
beginning of the strike, Hanson asked some of the labor leaders to lunch
and told them, "Boys, I want my street lights and water supply and
hospitals. I don't care if you shut down all the rest of the city."
But in reality, Hanson had other perspectives. The night before the strike,
the mayor sat in the bedroom of his new 14-room house and worked on plans
for a military assault on the workers.
Was the strike a failure?
Although mainstream accounts touted the Seattle General Strike as a failure,
this conclusion is an attempt to minimize an important event in labor history.
The strike provided a practical training session for working-class politics.
It is no easy matter to stop the industrial activity in a city of 300,000
people.
If in addition, the city runs smoothly, everyone eats, babies and the
sick are cared for, water and fuel delivery and fire protection are maintained,
inexpensive food is provided for all, and electricity for critical areas
is maintained, it becomes the people truly taking power.
Murray Morgan wrote in "Skid Road" that the main problem with
the strike was that its goals were never declared. The means were confused
with the end. The strike became the goal rather than the means to a greater
end.
One lesson that was reinforced in Seattle was the consistent role of
the state-from the mayor to the police-as a strike-breaker against workers.
Not long after the strike, in September 1919, some 365,000 steel workers
in 10 states went on strike. In November 1919, over 400,000 United Mine
Workers went on strike to demand a 60 percent increase in wages and a 30-hour
workweek.
The Seattle General Strike was the beginning of a wave of strikes, but
it was also practice for what it will be like when the working people in
this country attempt to take control of all industries.
Socialist Action /May 1999 |