"No One Knows Where This Will Lead"

The Seattle General Strike in Historical Context

by Dr. John Ruhland, Free Press Contributor

uring the First World War, as in most wars, the anti-war movement was primarily made up of socialists, anarchists, syndicalists, humanists, religious activists and progressive workers. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were especially persecuted because of their longstanding, consistent and principled opposition to war. The position of most of the anti-war movement then as today was that the war was an inevitable result of the rivalry among the various colonial powers. The world powers were fighting over regions to control in order to exploit raw materials and cheap labor, as well as for places to market their finished products.

During World War I, the U.S. opportunistically entered the war late and ended up with a lion's share of the spoils. The U.S. also increased its expansion into Latin America as European attention was focused on the war. Unopposed by European powers, the U.S. intervened in Mexico and Cuba, and occupied Nicaragua. WWI transformed the U.S. from a debtor ($6 billion) to the largest creditor nation ($24 billion). American multimillionaires profited more than anyone from the war. One could estimate the thousands of dollars made by the millionaires per life lost. At their side, opportunistic union officials, such as Samuel Gompers, leader of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), used their support for the war to further their personal agendas. A conference of the AFL in March, 1917 promised its assistance to the government in the event of entry into the war. Gompers was a member of a subcommittee of the National Defense Committee. By joining the war government, Gompers was able to use his position to crush the Socialist opposition within the AFL. One could also estimate how much labor officials profited for each soldier/worker's life lost.

Militant workers then as now were willing to risk their lives and income to improve working conditions for all workers. Strikes were typically called in order to win the eight-hour workday, improve wages, and to fight for the right of collective bargaining. According to the book The 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 the bureaucratic leadership and passed a resolution demanding the immediate nationalization of the railways.

Although the Seattle General Strike is often considered the first and only general strike the U.S. has had, there were several other general strikes in the U.S., including "The Great Upheaval" in St. Louis in 1877. This began as a railway strike during a serious depression and escalated to involve the state guard and then the U.S. Army. In 1886 in Chicago another general strike began in commemoration of Haymarket and in order to fight for the eight-hour day. This spread to a dozen other cities. In 1894 was the Pullman strike. Another was organized in Philadelphia in 1910.

According to Volume 4 of Philip S. Foner's History of the Labor Movement in the US, the idea of a general strike first appeared in England as early as 1817. It became a feature of the Chartist movement. The general strike was debated by congresses of the First International (socialist congress). It was first brought up in the founding convention of the IWW by Lucy E. Parsons, whose husband was one of the Haymarket martyrs, Albert R. Parsons. By 1910, the general strike was regularly advocated in the IWW press. During WWI, between 1914 and 1917, the IWW discussed having a general strike in case the US entered the war and the draft was instituted. Bill Haywood himself wrote the IWW publication "The General Strike," published in 1911.

Other events occurring in the Pacific Northwest during that time period include a long and drawn out free speech fight in Everett, Washington, which ended in the Everett Massacre on November 5, 1916 in which many Wobblies (IWW members) 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 February 4, 1919 edition of Union Call the most quoted editorial in Seattle's newspaper history. It read: "We are undertaking the most tremendous move ever made by Labor in this country, a move which will lead no one knows where." In March of 1917, several hundred sailors from the Bremerton Yards were given special leave to go to Seattle in order to wreck the IWW Hall. On April 20, 1918, the IWW Hall in Centralia was destroyed for the first time.

There were also many public meetings and demonstrations, such as a mass meeting on August 10, 1918 at the Moore Theater in Seattle. Those attending called on the U.S. to withdraw the military intervention in Russia. According to Revolution in Seattle by Harvey O'Connor, when the Longshoreman's Union learned Remington was attempting to ship arms for counter-revolution in Russia, workers refused to load the crates.

Look for part two: "International Socialism and Discontent In Seattle" in the next issue of the Free Press.