Wages did not keep up with rapidly rising prices and higher wages were the core demand of almost all the strikers. 5 million workers went on strike throughout the United States, the greatest number of strikers in one year in American history. When the war ended however, the country was overtaken by a wave of strikes. The motivated and radicalized workers wanted to strike, but their leaders and the federal government urged them to work through it. But while consumer prices rose during the war, wages did not. The administration of Franklin Roosevelt, wanting to avoid strikes that would undermine wartime production, brought both the AFL and CIO into wartime planning. Often using communist organizers, the CIO built on the militancy of American labor to become a powerful force in opposition to both the more traditional AFL and conservative business interests.ĭuring World War II, the AFL and CIO turned their energies toward defeating the fascist menace of Germany and Japan. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) had achieved major successes in organizing American workers during the late 1930s. Hundreds of thousands of Americans moved to San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, and other cities to work in wartime industries. The Oakland general strike came out of the massive changes to the Bay Area during World War II. After its defeat, the labor movement in Seattle fell apart, a victim of both internal fighting and the vicious Red Scare that followed World War I. Fearing long-term fallout, national AFL leaders denounced the strike and it quickly fell apart. Seattle mayor Ole Hanson took the lead in crushing the strike ordering the National Guard to take control of the city’s light company. In an atmosphere fearful of radicalism after the Bolshevik Revolution, conservatives around the nation declared the strike the first step toward revolution. By February 6, over 60, 000 workers were on the streets where they remained for four days. The strike began with shipyard workers but was quickly joined by workers around the city. Horrible working conditions in the timber industry, already radicalized immigrants from Scandinavia, activist dockworkers and the popularity of the Industrial Workers of the World among the region’s thousands of transient workers made Seattle a fertile center of radical thought that even influenced labor organizations affiliated with the traditionally moderate American Federation of Labor (AFL). The Pacific Northwest in the early 20 th century was a center of radicalism. This was the first citywide collective action in American history known as a general strike. In 1919, the workers of Seattle engaged in a three-day mass action calling all city workers onto the streets. The two major general strikes in American history are the Seattle General Strike of 1919 and the Oakland General Strike of 1946. What can today’s protesters learn from their activist ancestors to help participants draw strength? How have general strikes affected long-term labor and social movements? On the other hand, few actions offer a more direct challenge to those in power. General strikes are rare in American social movements, because they are difficult to coordinate. Incredibly threatening to those in power, they rarely succeed.
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