Seattle General Strike

The Seattle General Strike of 1919 was a five-day general work stoppage by over 65,000 workers in the city of Seattle, Washington, which lasted from February 6 to February 11 of that year. Dissatisfied workers in several unions began the strike to gain higher wages after two years of World War I wage controls. Most other local unions, including members of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), joined the walkout. Although the strike was non-violent and lasted less than a week, government officials, the press, and much of the public viewed the strike as a radical attempt to subvert US institutions.

Some commentators raised alarm by calling it the work of Bolsheviks and other radicals inspired by "un-American" ideologies, making it the first concentrated eruption of the anti-Red hysteria that characterized the Red Scare of 1919 and 1920.

Read more about Seattle General Strike:  Background, Strike, Life During The Strike, Radical Visions, End of The General Strike, Aftermath

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    The General Strike has taught the working class more in four days than years of talking could have done.
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    The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath—the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench.
    —Attributed to Seattle (c. 1784–1866)

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    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

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    Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)