The Seattle general strike and the IWW: a discourse analysis

Abstract

The Seattle general strike of 1919 was one of the turning points for the Red Scare, as it was used to create the xenophobic, oppressive atmosphere in which such a phenomenon could thrive. The Industrial Workers of the World beccune the main target of the Red Scare not only in Seattle, but in many locations in the United States. The gap in current scholarship that exists in explaining the general strike and the special attention the IWW received can be filled with the introduction of notion of discourse and its application to the historical evidence available. This discourse had very strong inherent elements of the IWW ideology, thus depicting why the IWW which was insignificant in terms of material existence, was actually extremely important. The fact that it was also used as an excuse to act against the whole working class in most places in the U.S. supplies the remaining part of the ea^lanation. If complex social phenomena such as the Seattle general strike and the Red Scare are to be understood, it is of immense importance not to limit the analyses with classical fields of scholarship. This thesis has been an attempt to introduce a new and previously ignored or neglected element to understand these phenomena better.