The Seattle General Strike

The Seattle General Strike
Author: Robert Friedheim
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2018-11-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0295744618

“We are undertaking the most tremendous move ever made by LABOR in this country, a move which will lead—NO ONE KNOWS WHERE!” With these words echoing throughout the city, on February 6, 1919, 65,000 Seattle workers began one of the most important general strikes in US history. For six tense yet nonviolent days, the Central Labor Council negotiated with federal and local authorities on behalf of the shipyard workers whose grievances initiated the citywide walkout. Meanwhile, strikers organized to provide essential services such as delivering supplies to hospitals and markets, as well as feeding thousands at union-run dining facilities. Robert L. Friedheim’s classic account of the dramatic events of 1919, first published in 1964 and now enhanced with a new introduction, afterword, and photo essay by James N. Gregory, vividly details what happened and why. Overturning conventional understandings of the American Federation of Labor as a conservative labor organization devoted to pure and simple unionism, Friedheim shows the influence of socialists and the IWW in the city’s labor movement. While Seattle’s strike ended in disappointment, it led to massive strikes across the country that determined the direction of labor, capital, and government for decades. The Seattle General Strike is an exciting portrait of a Seattle long gone and of events that shaped the city’s reputation for left-leaning activism into the twenty-first century.

Revolution in Seattle

Revolution in Seattle
Author: Harvey O'Connor
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2009
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1931859744

The Seattle General Strike of 1919 was America's first citywide labor stoppage, a defiant example of workers' power in the aftermath of World War I. Told in gripping detail by one of the era's great labor journalists, Revolution in Seattle captures the dramatic dynamics of workers organizing strike committees to take control of their city from below. Republished on the tenth anniversary of the 1999 "Battle in Seattle" against the World Trade Organization, Harvey O'Connor's book offers lessons and inspiration to a new generation of rebels. Harvey O'Connor was a seminal labor journalist and historian, whose work exposed the greed of the depression-era "robber barons" and labor struggles nationwide.

Purchasing Power

Purchasing Power
Author: Dana Frank
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 1994-01-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780521467148

Analyzing consumer organizing tactics and the decline of the Seattle movement as a case study of the U.S. labor movement, this work traces its transformation after the famous Seattle General Strike of 1919, paying special attention to the gender dynamics of labor's consumer campaigns.

The Big Strike

The Big Strike
Author: Mike Quin
Publisher: Legare Street Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-10-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781016422468

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This Is an Uprising

This Is an Uprising
Author: Mark Engler
Publisher: Bold Type Books
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2016-02-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1568585144

There is a craft to uprising -- and this craft can change the world From protests around climate change and immigrant rights, to Occupy, the Arab Spring, and #BlackLivesMatter, a new generation is unleashing strategic nonviolent action to shape public debate and force political change. When mass movements erupt onto our television screens, the media consistently portrays them as being spontaneous and unpredictable. Yet, in this book, Mark and Paul Engler look at the hidden art behind such outbursts of protest, examining core principles that have been used to spark and guide moments of transformative unrest. With incisive insights from contemporary activists, as well as fresh revelations about the work of groundbreaking figures such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Gene Sharp, and Frances Fox Piven, the Englers show how people with few resources and little conventional influence are engineering the upheavals that are reshaping contemporary politics. Nonviolence is usually seen simply as a philosophy or moral code. This Is an Uprising shows how it can instead be deployed as a method of political conflict, disruption, and escalation. It argues that if we are always taken by surprise by dramatic outbreaks of revolt, we pass up the chance to truly understand how social transformation happens.

A People's History of the United States

A People's History of the United States
Author: Howard Zinn
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 764
Release: 2003-02-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780060528423

Since its original landmark publication in 1980, A People's History of the United States has been chronicling American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version of history taught in schools -- with its emphasis on great men in high places -- to focus on the street, the home, and the, workplace. Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As historian Howard Zinn shows, many of our country's greatest battles -- the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women's rights, racial equality -- were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance. Covering Christopher Columbus's arrival through President Clinton's first term, A People's History of the United States, which was nominated for the American Book Award in 1981, features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history. Revised, updated, and featuring a new after, word by the author, this special twentieth anniversary edition continues Zinn's important contribution to a complete and balanced understanding of American history.

Skid Road

Skid Road
Author: Murray Morgan
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2018-03-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0295743506

Skid Road tells the story of Seattle “from the bottom up,” offering an informal and engaging portrait of the Emerald City’s first century, as seen through the lives of some of its most colorful citizens. With his trademark combination of deep local knowledge, precision, and wit, Murray Morgan traces the city’s history from its earliest days as a hacked-from-the-wilderness timber town, touching on local tribes, settlers, the lumber and railroad industries, the great fire of 1889, the Alaska gold rush, flourishing dens of vice, the 1919 general strike, the 1962 World’s Fair, and the stuttering growth of the 1970s and ’80s. Through it all, Morgan shows us that Seattle’s one constant is change and that its penchant for reinvention has always been fueled by creative, if sometimes unorthodox, residents. With a new introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Mary Ann Gwinn, this redesigned edition of Murray Morgan’s classic work is a must for those interested in how Seattle got to where it is today.

Testing the New Deal

Testing the New Deal
Author: Janet Christine Irons
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2000
Genre: Textile Workers' Strike, Southern States, 1934
ISBN: 9780252068409

Customary rights -- Homegrown unions -- Union-management cooperation -- New rules -- Dirty deal -- A battle of righteousness -- We must get together in our organization -- No turning back -- Anatomy of a strike -- Which side are you on? -- Aftermath.

Deep River

Deep River
Author: Karl Marlantes
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Total Pages: 786
Release: 2019-07-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0802146198

Three Finnish siblings head for the logging fields of nineteenth-century America in the New York Times–bestselling author’s “commanding historical epic” (Washington Post). Born into a farm family, the three Koski siblings—Ilmari, Matti, and Aino—are raised to maintain their grit and resiliency in the face of hardship. This lesson in sisu takes on special meaning when their father is arrested by imperial Russian authorities, never to be seen again. Lured by the prospects of the Homestead Act, Ilmari and Matti set sail for America, while young Aino, feeling betrayed and adrift after her Marxist cell is exposed, follows soon after. The brothers establish themselves among a logging community in southern Washington, not far from the Columbia River. In this New World, they each find themselves—Ilmari as the family’s spiritual rock; Matti as a fearless logger and entrepreneur; and Aino as a fiercely independent woman and union activist who is willing to make any sacrifice for the cause that sustains her. Layered with fascinating historical detail, this novel bears witness to the stump-ridden fields that the loggers—and the first waves of modernity—leave behind. At its heart, Deep River explores the place of the individual, and of the immigrant, in an America still in the process of defining its own identity.