Radio Rootz' This Day in History

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On this day, February 6, in 1919

  • produced by Hana Georg
  • in

The Seattle General Strike of 1919 began. The Shipyard workers strike expanded into the General Strike of about 65,000 individuals from several supporting unions. This strike was sparked after the workers union mistakenly received a telegram revealing that the US Government played a role in the refusal to increase their wages. The radicalized workers in Seattle, Washington, took over the city for a week, closing down Seattle's capitalist industries. They even set up an alternative to the police force, which was unarmed and forbade the use of force, and get this, the Crime Rate went way down.