The Seattle General Strike is an event very important in the
history of the Pacific Northwest. On February 6, 1919 Seattle
workers became the first workers in United States history to
participate in an official general strike. Many people know
little, if anything, about the strike, however. Perhaps the
momentousness of the event is lost in the fact that the strike
took place without violence, or perhaps it is because there was
no apparent visible change in the city following the event. But
the strike is a landmark for the U.S. labor movement, and is
very important, if for no there reason, for what it stands for.
Workers expressed their power through a massive action of
solidarity, and demonstrated to the nation the potential power
of organized labor. This was at a time when labor was generally
divided over ideological lines that prevented them from
achieving such mass action very often. For many at the time,
however, the strike represented something else: something more
sinister and extreme. To many of the lo