Seattle General Strike

One hundred years before the dystopian promise of Seattle's wish-fulfilment centres, the city seemed on the precipice of another future entirely. For five days in February 1919, the emerald city's working class struck across all trades and sectors; as production came to a stop, the real work began: committees were organised to feed the hungry, others to keep the peace and tend to the sick. To the terror of Western tycoons, it seemed as if a red star was flying over Seattle.<br />Cal Winslow retells this woefully forgotten story with fresh eyes. Drawn from original research, Winslow does justice to the leading role that women, black, and Japanese-immigrant workers played in the upsurge, just as he tells the multitudinous histories of resistance that were bound together by the act of the strike.