The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-07-19
5 Years of Crisis Make
Workers Wary of Red
Scare BallyhOo
By EDWIN RoLFE

strikers by hoodlum organizations
(such as the ''Vigilantes" and police
all have been used by the bosses
before. Every small strike Of the
past fifteen years-and thousands
of others before then-have wit
messed such actions in varying de-
grees of viciousnesS. Only this year
the agricultural strikers in Califor-
MAS Imperial Valley faced this
governmental thug lineup.
But we must go back Is years to a
similar situation as that which ex-
lists in San Francisco today to wit
ness such methods used on as
widespread a scale-to the Seattle
general strike of 1919, which lasted
for six days before the treachery Of
reactionary union officials brought
about its end
Shipyard Workers Struck
The Seattle general strike began
when the metal trades workers en-
ployed in the ship building yards
(one-fourth of all the ships built
during the war were constructed in
Seattle shipyards) demanded an
increased wage scale and an 8-day,
44-hour week for all workers in the
industry, from the most skilled
craftsmen down to the laborers.
They demanded So day for
mechanics with a graded scale ac-
cording to skill, down to $3.50 day
for the latter" AS the companies.
goaded and advised by the Federal
government and the specially -ap-
pointed Macy Board held out,
$4,000 shipyard workers struck in
Seattle, Tacoma and Aberdeen on
January 81, 1919
Raise RED Scare
The strike was Immediately
charged 30 radical leaders," to
Bolsheviks. The cry of revolution
was raised by the press, which
famed the ignorant flames which it
had started with its vicious, dis
torted accounts of the proletarian
revolution in Russia, just two years
before. Foreigners were held
responsible for the strike. And,
despite the organized orderliness of
the strikers, special police and depu-
ties were sworn in by Mayor Ole
Hanson.
On January % the Central Labor
Council, composed of representatives
of every local union, was urged to
call a general strike in support of
the shipyard workers by the Metal
Trades Council. A meeting on this
communication was called for Sun
day, February 2, AS the strike vote
drew close, oil and foodstuffs were
bought up by those who could afford
to lay in heavy supply, just as in
San Francisco today The press
shouted "Bolshevisml"
Law and order now became the
fetish of the city government, which
had not bothered itself unduly with
law during the war" wv. H. Crook
The General Strike.D
10000 Workers Quit
The general walk-out, which in
volved about 10000 union workers
in addition to the $4,000 shipyard
workers already on strike, took
place at 10 a. m. Thursday, Feb. g.
A strike committee, composed of
delegates from the various unions
involved, was set up. While all
agreed on exemptions for hospital
supplies and for milk, the reac-
tionaries began to vote exemptions
for power and utilities concerns and
other industries, thus weakening the
strength of the huge walk-out.
Although the strikers maintained
perfect self discipline, Mayor Ole
Hanson spent $4,000 to hire and
equip special police. When Mayor
Hanson on February threatened
martial law if the strike were not
Immediately called off, the strikers
voted overwhelmingly on the fol-
lowing day to continue But reac-
tionary officials of the various
unions already had called several
trades back to work, dealing a
serious blow to the strike. The
bosses, with the aid of these reac-
tionary officials, felt secure in their
position as the strike dwindled, and
when it ended, on February II, they
began vicious open-shop drive.
The Same Lineup
How identical were the actions
IF tho Uovarpp,a,,t +ha Lorsoe +l,o
reactionary union officials of Seattle
in 1919 to those of the administra-
ton and bosses and die-hard union
officials of San Francisco today.
The workers are still fighting in
San Francisco, despite the anti
workingclass moves of their officials.
The terror is in full sway, with
police and National Guardsmen and
Vigilantes raiding and beating and
falling all militant workers organi-
cations in the CITY,
Workers Steeled BY Crisis
But it will not be as easy to
break the general strike in San
Francisco today as it was to break
the Seattle general strike fifteen
years ago. In the first place, the
sheer numerical strength of the
strikers is greater. Secondly, and
far more important, the workers
on strike today know well the bitter
lessons, the privation and hunger,
of five consecutive years of crisis.
Thirdly, the militancy of the work
erS, if it is moved along class
struggle channels, is a powerful
force against the reactionary union
officialdom.
Finally, the "red scare does not
cause shivers of fear to a mass of
workers, to a general working class
population which has witnessed the
growth and activities of the Com