From the world famous General Strike of 1919 to the WTO protests of 1999, the city of Seattle has a renowned labor history. This class will go beyond the big events and headlines to understand how diverse communities of working people are central to the city’s past and present.
Beginning with the establishment of capitalism and wage labor on the traditional lands of the Duwamish people in the mid-19th century, through the rise of Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon in the 20th century, the class will explore the role of work in Seattle’s transition from the margin to the center of the world economy. From agriculture to aerospace, sex work to high technology, we will explore how labor has been constituted by divisions of empire, class, race, gender, and other forms of power that are organized globally but manifest locally.
The course will also look at how workers have organized collectively to reproduce and contest these divisions, such as through the white supremacist Workingmens’ Party, the radical Industrial Workers of the World, the anti-imperialist International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and the intersectional Welfare Rights Organization. In doing so, we will gain insight into how past workers’ struggles over power shape wealth inequalities and political movements in Seattle today.
Our main text book is Seattle from the Margins: Exclusion, Erasure, and the Making of a Pacific Coast City by Megan Asaka (University of Washington Press, 2022). In addition, we will read a number of book chapters and essays on particular topics that will be provided electronically on Canvas.
Grades will be determined by class participation, weekly written reflections, midterm and final exams, and a final research paper. The exams will be a combination of essay questions and short answers assessing your knowledge of the concepts and topics covered in the class. The exams will be take-home. Additional guidelines and study guides will be provided.
You will learn how to research and write an original 1,000-word paper on a topic related to Seattle labor history. To aid in your progress, the final paper is broken up into separate assignments over the last half of the quarter. Further details will be provided for each of these assignments.