In the late nineteenth century, the Pacific Northwest came of age. A deeper understanding of this must begin with some background on the labor movements history in Seattle, and the IWW's place in it. The truth as to the IWW's place in the general strike most likely lies somewhere between the paranoia-filled sentiments of conservatives, and the claims of these AFL leaders who spent years claiming the IWW possessed no influence or involvement.
This is the general position offered by those within the strikes internal leadership of AFL union officers. Historians have suggested that the strike was organized by the AFL unions in Seattle, and that the IWW did not play any significant role. How did an ordinary conflict between shipyard workers and owners turn into an event the magnitude of a general strike? How many of those in control of the strike were involved with the IWW, or sympathized with their cause? To what extent did the strike's leaders attitude correlate with those of Seattle's rank-and-file workers? In the end, it is hard to imagine how the Wobblies could have brought about the general strike as many accused them of doing at the time. Looking into this seemingly simple question brings about many other questions that were hard to answer in 1919, and remain even harder to answer now, eighty years after the fact. The insistence of these conservatives that the IWW was behind the strike, together with the state of the organization and its place in the labor movement at the time, has created a mystery as to just how much of a role the "Wobblies" played in the Seattle General Strike. These people saw the putting down of the strike was the triumph of patriotism in the face of radicalism gone too far. To many of the locals in Seattle the strike was the beginning of an attempted revolution by the Industrial Workers of the World and others with similar radical tendencies. This was at a time when labor was generally divided over ideological lines that prevented them from achieving such mass action very often.įor many at the time, however, the strike represented something else: something more sinister and extreme. Workers expressed their power through a massive action of solidarity, and demonstrated to the nation the potential power of organized labor. labor movement, and is very important, if for no there reason, for what it stands for. But the strike is a landmark for the U.S. Perhaps the momentousness of the event is lost in the fact that the strike took place without violence, or perhaps it is because there was no apparent visible change in the city following the event. Many people know little, if anything, about the strike, however. On FebruSeattle workers became the first workers in United States history to participate in an official general strike. The Seattle General Strike is an event very important in the history of the Pacific Northwest.
They believed in worker ownership of factories, a 40-hour work week, and sanitary conditions in the logging camps-and for believing in these 'rights' they were branded as dangerous radicals.
They found success organizing in the Northwest logging camps by promoting industrial unions that would bring all the workers in the industry under one umbrella union. Loggers, miners, and seasonal agricultural workers formed the core of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) at the outset.
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