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Why the Seattle General Strike lives on
February 28, 2019 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm UTC-8
FreeWhy the Seattle General Strike of 1919 lives on Today.
Dr. James Gregory, University of Washington Harry Bridges Endowed Chair of Labor Studies.
In this presentation, James Gregory examines how stories and memories of the strike spread in the months, years, decades, and generations that followed. In 1919, stories helped inspire a wave of strikes, including the Winnipeg general strike, while other versions inspired fear as former Mayor Ole Hanson crisscrossed the United States with his new book about how he saved Seattle from a Bolshevik plot. In the decades that followed, radical activists kept the general strike story alive using it promote unions and strikes in the 1930s and different kinds of mobilizations in the 1960s. A century later, the stories are still important, still inspiring, still helping labor movements, and still shaping the political culture of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. This presentation is free and open to the public. Social hour starts at 7 PM and program starts at 7 :30 pm. PLEASE NOTE: This is at a slightly different location than normal at Seattle Pacific University – Demaray Hall, Room 358. This is not far from our usual library location. Demaray Hall, at the corner of 6th Av. W. and W. Bertona St., is to the northwest and features a tall clock tower. Free parking is available as usual in SPU garage at 4th Av. W. and W. Dravus St.
Dr. Gregory is editor of the updated The Seattle General Strike Centennial Edition by Robert L. Friedheim, contributing a new introduction, photo essay, and afterword.