A high-water mark of post-war radicalism, the Seattle General Strike saw up to 100,000 workers down tools and run the city of Seattle between February 6-11, 1919. A leader of that struggle travels to another center of radicalism, Duluth, to tell the story.

‘The Story of the Seattle Strike’ from Truth (Duluth). Vol. 3 No. 14. April 4, 1919.

Thrilling story told by Seattle Striker.

Last Sunday evening, at the Woodman Hall, Jas Irving, of the Seattle Metal Trades Council, before a crowded audience, told the story of the Seattle strike. It was a story that stirred and inspired the audience. The speaker in his own quiet way, told of how the workers of Seattle had stopped the wheels of industry and managed things themselves. It was a fine story. We enjoyed it all the more, because it was being told by one of the strikers. It was just like listening to a soldier telling you of a battle he had been in. The story was one that will ever to be remembered by the men and women who had the good fortune to hear it.

“Schawb, Piez and the rest of the big patriots are the biggest bunch of double-crossesrs that ever came West,” said the speaker. He went on to show how Piez and Schawb had told them to keep on the job and behind their backs, these self-confessed patriots were stabbing the men in the back. Until finally the men who won the war decided that it was about time to act.

On January 21st, 35,000 shipyard workers walked out from off the job and folded their arms hands with them. Labor withdrew its power from off the job and Seattle suddenly became like a deserted village. Not a wheel turned, not a bed in the hotels was made, be- cause even the chamber maids are 100 per cent organised, not a paper was printed. Labor just sat still and Seattle went off the industrial map. Not a revolution just labor taking a vacation. What a vacation! With the stopping of industry, the strikers found that they had to take charge of the city. So they set about organizing the food supplies etc. In a day the city was organized. Food was supplied to all workers and those who needed it. Hospitals were supplied with milk. Children were taken care of. Doctors were allowed to attend to their patients. But the employers were left out in the cold. Read the following requests and exemptions, granted and refused, by the Strike Committee:-

Teamsters request to haul oil to the Swedish hospital. CONCURRED IN.

City Garbage Wagon Drivers apply for instructions and are given permits to gather such garbage as tends to create epidemics, but no ashes or papers. House of Good Shepherd granted permission to haul food and provisions only.

Bake ovens at Davidson’s bakery allowed to operate, all wages to go into the strike fund.

It was a strike that will go down in history as the beginning of the end. It is the first real manifestation of the workers’ power. Solidarity, I.W.W. and A.F. of L. made common cause.

“The boys in Camp Lewis were receiving $9.00 per month,” said the speaker, “yet they stood by us to a man. We are with you, they said. Out of 50,000 soldiers, not one man offered to scab upon his fellow-workers. The spirit of Seattle workers is one that must make all union men and women feel prouder of the Seattle labor movement, that has produced such fighters.”

“Ole Hanson, the mayor of Seattle spent $50,000 for machine guns etc., that were never used, because labor placed 1,200 strikers on the police force and they saw that order was maintained. They arrested the imported gunmen and those they did not arrest they decorated their eye-brows. The mayor of Tacoma, who is possessed of more commonsense than mayor

Hanson, did not spend one cent for guns etc. It was just a matter of a mayor keeping his head. Hanson lost his.”

The speaker concluded his remarkable story of the Seattle strike with a stirring appeal. “We are not striking for Seattle, we are striking for all men and women who labor. I have heard the crunching of hard crusts between the teeth of children. I have heard the cries of my sisters on the streets. I have heard the cries of broken-up men and women. I feel that the time has arrived when labor must come together. We must organize ourselves into one union of our class. We must act together and make the labor movement capable of doing big things. Men and women in conclusion I have told you of what they are doing in Seattle. The story is not yet complete. Labor in Seattle has more cards to play and we are asking you here in Duluth to stand your ground, make common cause with your brothers in Seattle and so bring about the long-sought freedom of labor.”

At the close of Irving’s talk, an appeal for a collection was made, which brought in $66.84. Collections are all well and good, they help. But the thing we need here in Duluth is solidarity. We have a molders’ strike going on here and we are going to see our fellow- workers, the molders and machinists, sacrificed. It will mean that many will have to break up their own homes. They will be blacklisted, unless labor comes together and takes a lesson from Seattle. Solidarity is what we mean. Out from your homes to the factory and demand solidarity. With the solidarity of labor, labor can take what it wants, there will be no need to demand anything.

PDF of full issue: https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn89081142/1919-04-04/ed-1/seq-1