I’ve started to read a book about the IWW because I got interested in the idea that WA was once a center of militant labor, through hearing some spoken word by Utah Philips.
Anyhow, we have a bit of history in mining probably between then 1880′s and 1920′s, which is around the time that all this was happening. Then I remembered something about Great Grandfather getting away from the mines, in the midwest, back around that time because of the violence. I guess I never made the connection.
So, Great Grandfather was part of the _establishment_ as a guard for the mining companies right? Interesting. So, did he leave it as the violence started or after some big event, I wonder?
Turns out there’s quite a bit more history than just the WTO locally here in Seattle, and the state.
The museum of labor & industry has, at least, a nice searchable photographic database which has a good number of pictures from the era. Some of these pictures relate to the Great Strike of 1919 and some others.
There was also a big display in 1999 …
The University of Washington also has a department of labor studies. Further, at least one of the staff has thier own page about the labor movement.
You may find more than I did, but at least you’ve got a place to start.
