Seattle General Strike

90 years ago today, on February 6, 1919, the Seattle General Strike began.

The Pacific Northwest was a hotbed of radicalism in the early 20th century. The large Scandinavian population brought a tradition of socialism with them when they immigrated to the region. The longshoremen that worked the region's ports were among the most radical labor unions in the country. The logging industry became a center of radicalism because the conditions workers lived in were so bad that people turned to the Industrial Workers of the World out of desperation. Although many of those terrible living conditions had been ameliorated during World War I, radical loggers still dominated many lumber camps and mills. Seattle had one of the most respected labor newspapers in the country, the Seattle Union Record, and this publication whipped up support in favor of various radical causes.

The precipitating event for the General Strike was a strike in the Seattle shipyards. In solidarity, the Seattle Central Labor Council called the larger action with the active support of the I.W.W. This became the first and only general strike in U.S. history. For 5 days, Seattle shut down. 25,000 workers joined the 35,000 already on strike. The strike committee worked hard to keep basic services running in the city, though the lack of cooperation from the Seattle city government and the strike's disorganized nature made this very difficult.

The Seattle power structure went nuts. Mayor Ole Hanson, elected the year before with labor's support, armed the police and threatened to declare martial law. Although the strike was entirely peaceful from the workers' side, the threat of police or military violence grew daily. The strike had the rapt attention of the nation. Radicals hoped it was the first step on America's revolutionary road. Politicians and business leaders were mortified that the Russian Revolution had spread to America and called for a crackdown. In response to heavy pressure, the Central Labor Council declared the strike over on February 11, though many workers had already gone back to their jobs as the threats mounted.

Perhaps the worst effect of this was that it made Hanson a national figure for the rest of the year. He took advantage of the Red Scare dominating the country in the immediate post-WWI years to launch his a national political career. He toured the nation, giving speeches about the threat we faced from radicalism. Hanson turned completely on his base of support, and in one of the greatest acts of hypocrisy in American political history, called for the suppression of labor. His stock faded with the end of the Red Scare. He tried to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1920, but the Republicans, wary of the crazy Seattle mayor, went for the bland Warren Harding instead. Awesomely, the Wikipedia site on Hanson claims he ran in 1922, which of course was not a presidential year. Classic.

This is one of the most forgotten about events in American history; even among those who are aware of the major events of American labor history, the General Strike gets short shrift. Perhaps this because nothing came of it, but most of the major American strikes of this period were also failures. It was something of a last gasp of pre-communist leftism in American thought. Because of the success of the Bolshevik Revolution and the outright suppression of the I.W.W. after World War I, many radicals turned to the Communist Party and Soviet leadership. There was something beautiful, if almost completely futile, about pre-communist labor radicalism in America. That almost undefinable something was central to the Seattle General Strike, but it was soon lost. Incidentally, Seattle lost its radical edge during the 1920s. The most prominent labor leader to come out of Seattle during that period was Dave Beck, the Teamster head before Jimmy Hoffa, who cut his teeth opposing the General Strike. Beck, like Hoffa after him, lost his position as Teamster president when he was sentenced to prison for corruption. Beck's rise serves as something of a metaphor for the general fall in labor's power in Seattle after the General Strike's failure.

After his 15 minutes of fame ended, Hanson decided to leave Washington altogether. He ended up founding the town of San Clemente, California. There is a beach club named after him there today.