Thread by @ErikLoomis

This Day in Labor History: February 6, 1919. The Seattle General Strike begins. Let's talk about this amazing event and the challenges of the often romanticized general strike in American history.

The Seattle General Strike began when shipyard workers struck for going two years without a pay raise. 35,000 workers walked off their jobs. They believed they would receive a raise after government wage controls during the war were ended.

Instead, the government-appointed leader of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, designed to promote the rapid construction of America’s Navy, conspired with business leaders to keep down wages.

A telegram meant for the business leaders fell into union hands, convinced the shipbuilders that they had no alternative but to strike. They walked off their jobs on January 21, 1919.

Over the next two weeks, business cut off strikers’ credit at grocery stores and police raided a cooperative set up to get food to the strikers.

The rest of Seattle labor saw this as the first strike against organized labor in one of America’s most militant cities and regions. The Metal Trades Council suggested a general strike, which was approved by the Central Labor Council and set for February 6.

On that day, an additional 25,000 workers went on strike, shutting down Seattle. This was the first large-scale general strike in American history. Radicals had discussed for a generation or more, but it had never been successfully pulled off.

Technically, there was a general strike in 1892 in New Orleans, but to my knowledge, it really wasn't part of the public conversation about radical actions in the lead up to this.

The strikers sought to take over basic city services. They organized feeding tens of thousands of people, staffed hospitals, and ensured order in the streets. The city ran peacefully.

Most of the locals engaged in the general strike were affiliated with the AFL. This was a strike led by Seattle’s skilled labor. The IWW dominated agricultural and logging workforces but played a very small role here. It was surprisingly not overly radical.

But as was frequently the case throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, AFL locals were far more radical than the international leadership and especially than the federation itself.

And radicals, including Wobblies, were finding jobs in the shipyards, bringing new ideas onto the shop floor.

The strike collapsed under severe pressure. As one would expect, the forces of order in Seattle and the nation were outraged by the general strike’s existence and, perhaps more so, by its peaceful nature. Perhaps union solidarity might have helped stand up to this pressure.

But the American Federation of Labor leadership was equally outraged. AFL president Samuel Gompers had sought to make himself and his movement respectable during World War I.

Gompers sought to clamp down on strikes, isolate radicals, and show the AFL to be the responsible option that employers should negotiate with. This didn’t really work, as anti-labor employers hated all labor unions equally.

There’s a story of Gompers at a dinner with other high-powered people. Gompers talked of how respectable labor had acted during the war. A big capitalist then lambasted him, basically calling him a Bolshevik and saying that labor was the Allies’ greatest enemy during the war.

After the dinner the capitalist received congratulations from his friends across the business world.

Gompers feared that not only was the Seattle action being run by extremists, but that it would give the AFL bad publicity and undermine organization efforts in the rest of the country. Gompers declared the strike unauthorized and withheld strike funds.

If this wasn’t bad enough, the predictable crackdown by business, police, the media, and politicians came with full force.

Declaring the strikers Bolsheviks, mayor Ole Hanson gave strikers an ultimatum: run City Light (the city electrical company) at full power or the National Guard would take it by force.

In an era when a lot of households did not have electricity, City Light was primarily used by business and running it at low capacity was a tool for strikers against business trying to force people onto the job.

Fearful of violence and dispirited by the lack of AFL support, a few workers started returning to work on February 8 and the strike was declared over on February 9.

In the end, the general strike strategy was a total failure because it showed Seattle business that they could take the biggest punch labor could deliver and survive. After the general strike collapsed, what could labor do next?

The answer was not a whole lot.

Whereas in 1919 it seemed that Seattle labor was on the verge of starting a revolution in the United States, a decade later the city's unions were completely decimated--weak, divided, and unable to stand up to the assaults of employers upon working-class lives.

Dana Frank's book Purchasing Power: Organizing, Gender, and the Seattle Labor Movement, is really outstanding on explaining all of this. She's a great historian anyway and you should read her books.

In the aftermath of the strike, politicians sought to capitalize. Mayor Ole Hanson believed he had saved the United States from the Bolsheviks. Hanson, the son of Norwegian immigrants, had a pro-labor reputation.

As a state legislator in 1909, Hanson had been a strong supporter of organized labor and he was elected mayor with some labor support.

Only three days before the strike, the Seattle Union Record, the labor newspaper of note in the city and a paper very sympathetic to radicals, had commended Hanson for his calm leadership through thes difficult times.

But during the 1919 General Strike, Hanson came down not only as anti-strike, but as the leader of those who thought the strike the greatest threat in history to this nation.

After his threat of martial law helped break the strike, Hanson became famous for his stand against anarchy and Bolshevism.

In a move later perfected by Sarah Palin, Hanson immediately resigned from the mayor’s chair, wrote a book, and went on a national speaking tour. He quickly became one of America’s most popular speakers on the dangers of anarchism and Bolshevism.

Hanson was also one of the targets of the failed April 1919 anarchist mail-bomb campaign, although I’ve always wondered if this wasn’t a frame job.

As 1920 went on though and the nation began moving away from the most egregious violations of working-class rights, Hanson’s speech began to get old fast.

He hoped to capitalize by moving up in the Republican Party, but after giving his speech at the 1920 Republican National Convention, he was forgotten about and faded from view.

He then went on to found San Clemente, California, promoting Spanish Revival architecture by creating a clause in the city charter demanding that new buildings go before an architectural review board to ensure compliance with the city’s chosen architectural style.

Now, on the issues of general strikes. They always sound good to those who envision labor as being one movement but are almost impossible to pull off because in fact labor has never been united about anything ever and never will be.

There have been vanishingly few general strikes--and since sympathy strikes are now illegal, there probably won't be in the near future either. However, they do exist.

When Association of Flight Attendants president @FlyingWithSara called for a general strike to deal with the government shutdown, it made a real impact, moving the airline workers to start the process toward real labor action and forcing Trump to cave fast.

I wrote a piece in @TheAtlantic about general strikes at that time to place them in context, so you can check it out here.

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

Occasionally, people e-mail me about general strikes and how to make that happen. The answer, if this is something you believe in, is to start talking to your friends, family, co-workers, etc. It's basic organizing. It's an unlikely thing to organize for, but that's up to you.

Labor is once again showing these days that their ultimate power is walking off the job.

Strikes are dangerous and risky and should absolutely not be romanticized. But if successful, they are amazing.

And if you are interesting in my views on strikes and labor history generally, I have this here book.

amazon.com/History-Americ…

Back tomorrow to discuss one of the most important strikes in U.S. history that you probably don't know about--the Cripple Creek strike of 1894. That strike can teach us a lot about why workers win and why they lose.