 Welcome
to The Labor Press Project.
This site brings together information about the history and ongoing
influence of newspapers and periodicals published by unions, labor
councils, and radical organizations in the Pacific Northwest.
Labor newspapers have been a critical part of American labor movements since the early 19th century and an equally critical, if largely unacknowledged, part of the history of American journalism. Today more than a hundred periodicals serve the labor movement. Thousands more have done so in the past. The Labor Press Project provides a gateway to both the past and present of this important set of media. Directed by Prof. James Gregory and sponsored by the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at the University of Washington, the Labor Press Project began as a collaborative effort by students in History 450 "Class and Labor in American History" in Spring 2001. The history of labor journalism in the United States is a huge but relatively unexplored topic. Karla Kelling Sclater surveys 180 years of labor journalism and discusses key books and articles about labor journalism in her essay:
The International Labor Communications Association today maintains the traditions of labor journalism. ______ Here are annotated guides and selected articles and pages from historically important labor newspapers of the Pacific Northwest region: The Seattle Union Record is one of the most famous examples of labor journalism in the Pacific Northwest. It has a fascinating double history. A daily newspaper with a circulation that sometimes reached
80,000, it was the voice of labor from 1900-1928. It became so again in the fall
of 2000 when it was resurrected by members of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild during their seven week strike against the Seattle Times and Seattle
Post Intelligencer.
The Industrial Worker was the principal newspaper of the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World. Published initially in Spokane, the Industrial Worker moved to Seattle in 1916. Here is a detailed report: 
The newspaper has had an interrupted history since the 1920s but continues today. For information visit the Industrial Workers of the World site. The Northwest Labor Press of Portland is the oldest continuously published labor newspaper in the region. Since 1900, the Portland Central labor Council and Oregon State Federation of labor have made sure that the Labor Press remains a strong and active voice for unionism. We report on the early years of the newspaper when it was called:
Today the semi-monthly publication can be read on-line at The Northwest Labor Press The Socialist Party exerted considerable influence over Northwest politics and within the broader labor movement during the first two decades of the 20th century. Gary Siebel sorts out the
factions and issues in an introductory essay,
The
Squabbling Socialists of Washington State, followed by reports on four
Socialist papers published in Seattle:
Five Socialist newspapers were published in Everett:
Two Socialist newspapers were published in Tacoma:
The People's Party briefly dominated Washington state politics, electing a governor and many other public officials in 1896. The populist movement was strong both in the cities and in rural areas and laid the ground work for long-lasting radical tendencies among farmers as well as workers. Of the many Pacific Northwest newspapers that carried the Populist message only a few survive. We have a report on the influential Chehalis, WA, newspaper:
Radical journalism in the 1930s and 1940s took new forms. The socialist-linked Seattle Labor College launched a newspaper in 1930 which helped galvanize one of the most effective unemployed movements in the country. By late 1931 the Unemployed Citizens League had tens of thousands of members organized in "self help" production and barter clubs. See the report on:
The Communist Party initially organized competing Unemployed Councils in Seattle but later joined the Unemployed Citizen's League, a move which set off a struggle for leadership in that organization. Here is a report on the CP dominated newspaper:
The Washington Commonwealth Federation was a coalition of progressive organizations and unions that nominated candidates for state and local offices under the banner of the Democratic Party. Communists were initially excluded but after 1936 played an important role in the WCF. The Federation was a major force in Washington state politics from 1934 to 1949 and published a series of influential weekly newspapers during that fifteen year period. Three of them are profiled here.
New unions emerged in the 1930s. The Pacific Northwest witnessed round after round of strikes and organizing campaigns. The Cannery and Farm Laborer's Union was launched in 1933 by Filipino workers who made the annual circuit from the Alaska canneries to the fields of eastern Washington and California. We report on their newspaper:
The American Newspaper Guild organized journalists across the country in the 1930s but the strike that solidified that union took place at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1936. Striking journalists not only brought the Hearst corporation to its knees, they published a daily newspaper of their own that kept the city informed of local, national, and strike news:
Unionism in the timber industry dated back to the 19th
century but it was not until the 1930s that a permanent organization was formed.
The International Woodworkers of America emerged
World War II brought people and industry to the Pacific Northwest and helped the labor movement grow in numbers, legitimacy, and power. The Boeing Company became the region's largest employer and Boeing workers joined what was to become one of the mainstays of the region's labor movement, Local 751, International Association of Machinists. Formed in 1936, Local 751 began publishing its own newspaper in 1939.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters had long been a powerhouse in Seattle. From his base in Seattle's Joint Council 28, Dave Beck organized delivery drivers and long-haul drivers up and down the coast. We have a report on joint Council 28's newspaper:
Public sector unions dated back to the early part of the century but were hard to legitimate until the 1960s when federal workers were finally accorded bargaining rights similar to what private sector workers had won in the 1935 Wagner Act. Postal workers in Seattle had maintained a union since before World War I and a newspaper since 1947. In 1971 they became part of the American Postal Workers Union and the newspaper changed its name:
Protective service workers (police and fire) also have a long history of unionism. Seattle Firefighters Local 27 (International Association of Firefighters) was formed in 1918. It publishes a monthly newspaper:
Since 1998 the KCLC quarterly publication Labor's Voice has been available on-line. Several dozen other historical labor newspapers from the Pacific Northwest have been collected and preserved by the University of Washington library and the public libraries of Seattle and other area cities. Here is a list of these holdings.This site has been developed through the contributions of many people. Special thanks to the students in HSTAA 353 (Class and Labor in American History) who wrote the research reports; to Steve Beda who collected and digitized the newspaper pages with help from Jessica Albano, Glenda Pearson, and Suzi Freelund at the UW Library; to Brian Grijalva who designed an earlier version of this web site, to Fred Bird for much useful advice. Please see the full list of contributors. Below are the other labor history projects directed by Prof. James Gregory and sponsored by the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies: |
