90 years ago this November in a small town on Puget Sound a confortation between the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World) and an armed citizen group of about 200 sworn deputies headed by Snohomish County Sheriff McRae met the passenger ship Verona at the docks in Everett. What ensued was called the Everett Massacre. The factors surround on the day of the massacre are still being fought. Only the principles have changed.
While the I.W.W. was involved with on dark day this diary is in no way either an endorsement or a condemnation of the I.W.W. In fact the I.W.W. were the vilified target of a campaign to intimidate the local Shingle Weavers' Union. In the late 1890's and following into the 1900's Everett was a town build on timber. The shingle industry was subjected to boom times and bust times. In 1914 the industry was experiencing one of those downturns and the owners of the shingle mills prevailed on the workers to take a pay cut. The workers were not inclined to have they're wages cut and went on strike. After a brief period the workers agreed to the pay cut with the understanding that when times improved the owners would reinstate their original wages.
In April of 1916 the Shingle Workers Union held a convention for its Western Washington members. At that convention they voted on a wage scale that would go into effect on May 1. Many of the mill owners in Western Washington honored that agreement but not the mill owners in Everett. Instead they created a committee called the Everett Commercial Club headed up by Fred K. Baker who owned one of the shingle mills. The committee was to determine the merits of the workers claims and report back to the Commercial Club. The committee made no effort to talk to any Shingle Weavers' Union representative at either the local or state level. The committee never tried to learn the viewpoint of the workers. Instead they reported back the Commercial Club that the workers had no justification for their wage demands. The owners and their friends did all this in closed session and during the meeting the Commercial Club blocked any attempts by the Shingle Weavers' Union to attend and state their side of the dispute.
The mill owners characterized the dispute as an attempt by the Shingle Weavers' Union to tell them how to run their business. The truth was that all the workers wanted was to have their wages restored to what they were receiving in 1914 when they agreed to a wage cut. This was the only reason that the workers went on strike. The mill owners in an act of defiance hired strikebreakers. Even though the Department of Labor along with the Commissioner of Conciliation made honest attempts to settle this strike the owners were only interested in crushing the Shingle Weavers' Union. The strikebreakers that they hired were chosen for the fighting abilities. Needless to say on several occasions fights did break out between the scabs and the union workers. The owners had the backing of Snohomish County Sheriff McRae and the only arrests were of union workers and not the strikebreakers.
The I.W.W. became involved with this when James Rowan an I.W.W. representative showed up in Everett to organize a solidarity campaign with the 400 strikers of the Shingle Weavers' Union. When Mr. Rowan attempted to speak, Sheriff McRae and his deputies arrested him. What had began as a dispute between the mill owners and the workers was now involving into a fight for the right to free speech.
The I.W.W. was a labor union that was considered to be a bit radical and got tagged with the name 'Wobblies'. They were also involved with the free-speech movement throughout the early 1910's. While this is not a diary about the I.W.W. it is of some interest to present their Preamble to the IWW Constitution
The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.
Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.
We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.
These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.
Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."
It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.
So on November 5, 1916 about 250 members of the I.W.W. boarded the Verona along with the regular passengers. The I.W.W. had urged they members not to bring weapons with them. This was to show their support of the Shingle Weavers' Union and the basic rights of citizens to free speech.
Upon the request of the Commercial Club Sheriff McRae swore in about 200 deputies and they all armed themselves and went to the dock to meet the Verona. When the captain of the Verona tried to land at the docks he was told that he could not. Soon there after shooting erupted and when all was said and done 7 people were killed.
Even today we have an energy committee headed by VP Cheney with members from the oil industry holding meeting where outsiders are not allowed to speak. Even today we have signing statements by President Bush that he contents places him above the laws of the land. Even today we have corporations rewarding the CEOs while keeping the wages of the workers stagnant. Even today we have a Republican congress refusing to raise the minimum wage so that those on the lowest rung to the economic ladder an improving lifestyle.
Nothing much has changed in 90 years.