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The Red Coast: Radicalism and Anti-Radicalism in Southwest Washington
The Red Coast is a lively and readable informal history of the labor, left-wing, and progressive activists who lived, worked, and organized in southwest Washington State from the late nineteenth century until World War II. The book serves as a hidden history for a region frequently identified with conservatism, rescuing these working-class activists from obscurity and placing them at the center of southwest Washington’s history.
With a focus on socialists, militant unionists, Wobblies, “Red” Finns, and Communists, The Red Coast covers the people, places, and events that made history—well-known events like the 1919 Armistice Day Tragedy in Centralia and the murders of labor activists William McKay and Laura Law in Aberdeen as well as lesser-known events that have been lost to posterity until now.
The Red Coast also delves deep into the lives and work of the region’s anti-radical forces, examining the collective efforts of employers, news editors, and vigilantes to combat working-class organization. Topics include the Wobblies, the labor wars of the 1910s and 1930s, and the lumber and maritime industries. Labor historians, scholars, and general readers with interest in the working-class history of the Pacific Northwest will welcome this comprehensive and accessible account.
With a focus on socialists, militant unionists, Wobblies, “Red” Finns, and Communists, The Red Coast covers the people, places, and events that made history—well-known events like the 1919 Armistice Day Tragedy in Centralia and the murders of labor activists William McKay and Laura Law in Aberdeen as well as lesser-known events that have been lost to posterity until now.
The Red Coast also delves deep into the lives and work of the region’s anti-radical forces, examining the collective efforts of employers, news editors, and vigilantes to combat working-class organization. Topics include the Wobblies, the labor wars of the 1910s and 1930s, and the lumber and maritime industries. Labor historians, scholars, and general readers with interest in the working-class history of the Pacific Northwest will welcome this comprehensive and accessible account.
256 pages, Paperback
Published June 20, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 30, 2020
Aaron Goings does an excellent job here digging into the radical labor history of a portion of Washington usually considered "trump country" at this point in time. The book self proclaims its bias in viewing the stories of the workers as more important than those of their oppressors, however specifically at the later half of the book, the Marxist rhetoric can come across strong handed and I am sure will turn some away from a really fascinating story. Writing popular labor history like this can be difficult due to the need to ride that line between not undermining the facts of oppression, and not coming across like some neo-Marxist philosophy book. This is just a preponderance in regards to a wider audience picking up the book. I think its intended audience will understand and enjoy the book's straight forward presentation and biting critique of the system.
One thing I found really unique and fascinating is Goings' use of untapped Finnish documents related to left wing Finn immigrants which made up a good portion of the labor movement in the Pacific Northwest. The history which is revealed here really goes to rewrite the commonly understood effects of the Industrial Workers of the World, and shows how industrial unionism effected the immigrant community in the lumber industry.
Overall I really enjoyed this book, and am incredibly grateful for getting to make the acquaintance of Goings during one of his talks on the book. I am immensely excited to see where his work goes in the future, specifically in regard to his upcoming book The Port of Missing Men: Billy Gohl, Labor, and Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest.
One thing I found really unique and fascinating is Goings' use of untapped Finnish documents related to left wing Finn immigrants which made up a good portion of the labor movement in the Pacific Northwest. The history which is revealed here really goes to rewrite the commonly understood effects of the Industrial Workers of the World, and shows how industrial unionism effected the immigrant community in the lumber industry.
Overall I really enjoyed this book, and am incredibly grateful for getting to make the acquaintance of Goings during one of his talks on the book. I am immensely excited to see where his work goes in the future, specifically in regard to his upcoming book The Port of Missing Men: Billy Gohl, Labor, and Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest.
November 27, 2019
I read this book because my mom’s ancestors settled in the Grays Harbor region during the mid 19th Century. My 2nd Great Grandpa Isiah Scammon founded Montesano & while my other 2nd Great Grandpa Briscoe was a member of the territorial legislature and also a judge. Their offspring, My Great Grandpa Burr Pacific Briscoe married Edith Scammon and raised 11 children.
During the time span of this book, My great grandpa ran a logging camp near Rochester SE of Montesano and NW if Centralia from at least 1908-1913, since I have Aberdeen newspapers clippings of deaths at the Briscoe Logging camp . My grandpa was born in 1903, but his 29yo brother Clyde died in 1913 at the camp when a boiler blew up. There were 3 other brothers old enough to work in the camp at that time, but I haven’t found enough information yet. 3 of the brothers left for WW I in 1917. I remember meeting them as I was growing up , during family reunions.
This book gave me great insights in to their times. I can look at all the old pictures with fresh understanding. For instance, I’m sure they were part of the 1912 Grays Harbor War. They were just teenagers then. After perusing the family tree, none of my great uncles married any women with Finnish sounding names either.
But the burning questions I have after reading this book are obviously, their ideas about the Wobblies and later the Communist and Socialist. They were all in California by the Depression. I don’t exactly know when they left Washington state.
Although, my Great Grandpa Scammon was down in Clear Lake by the 1880’s, so they probably had contacts down here already.
Great Book!!
During the time span of this book, My great grandpa ran a logging camp near Rochester SE of Montesano and NW if Centralia from at least 1908-1913, since I have Aberdeen newspapers clippings of deaths at the Briscoe Logging camp . My grandpa was born in 1903, but his 29yo brother Clyde died in 1913 at the camp when a boiler blew up. There were 3 other brothers old enough to work in the camp at that time, but I haven’t found enough information yet. 3 of the brothers left for WW I in 1917. I remember meeting them as I was growing up , during family reunions.
This book gave me great insights in to their times. I can look at all the old pictures with fresh understanding. For instance, I’m sure they were part of the 1912 Grays Harbor War. They were just teenagers then. After perusing the family tree, none of my great uncles married any women with Finnish sounding names either.
But the burning questions I have after reading this book are obviously, their ideas about the Wobblies and later the Communist and Socialist. They were all in California by the Depression. I don’t exactly know when they left Washington state.
Although, my Great Grandpa Scammon was down in Clear Lake by the 1880’s, so they probably had contacts down here already.
Great Book!!
March 29, 2023
The Red Coast is not what you think, but after reading this relatively short work, compiled by three professors sympathetic to the labor movement, you may think that description illustrates the labor troubles Washington State, Oregon, and California experienced in the WWI years and after.
The Red Coast represents the geographic area of Washington's lush and heavily timbered Olympic Peninsula and the towns further South where the world's greatest supply of lumber was felled, processed and shaped, and shipped around the world. The authors look closely at the labor strife experienced by the 'shingle weavers', the Finnish immigrants, the lumbermen, the longshoremen, the woodcutters, and others associated with the timber industries. Grays Harbor, Washington, in the 1920s was the largest supplier of timber and processed lumber in the world.
This was the early 20th century and every attempt to stifle organizing into unions--vigilantes, biased judges and prosecutors, the KKK, the American Legion, others--were employed. Reading about what transpired in Centralia, Raymond, Grays Harbor and other locations where timber mills existed was like reading about the suppression of labor and speech by Nazis. The American Legion was called upon routinely to supply men and guns to kidnap and kill labor organizers.
The book was shocking to me, especially since Washington State where I live is perhaps the most friendly place for organized labor, although, like other places, labor union membership is mostly declining as manufacturing and the timber industries have moved offshore. Raymond, Washington, which experienced severe suppression by the terrorists assembled by the employers, experienced labor strife repeatedly. That's ironic, because, today, Raymond hosts the 'Raymond Crab Feed', perhaps the largest union social event in Washington State.
Although this book is not widely circulated, it is eye-opening and reminded me that a person can never be too protected of his rights to speech or organizing, and to remember that there are still those who would seek to deny every right, including the right to live, if they disagree with you.
The Red Coast represents the geographic area of Washington's lush and heavily timbered Olympic Peninsula and the towns further South where the world's greatest supply of lumber was felled, processed and shaped, and shipped around the world. The authors look closely at the labor strife experienced by the 'shingle weavers', the Finnish immigrants, the lumbermen, the longshoremen, the woodcutters, and others associated with the timber industries. Grays Harbor, Washington, in the 1920s was the largest supplier of timber and processed lumber in the world.
This was the early 20th century and every attempt to stifle organizing into unions--vigilantes, biased judges and prosecutors, the KKK, the American Legion, others--were employed. Reading about what transpired in Centralia, Raymond, Grays Harbor and other locations where timber mills existed was like reading about the suppression of labor and speech by Nazis. The American Legion was called upon routinely to supply men and guns to kidnap and kill labor organizers.
The book was shocking to me, especially since Washington State where I live is perhaps the most friendly place for organized labor, although, like other places, labor union membership is mostly declining as manufacturing and the timber industries have moved offshore. Raymond, Washington, which experienced severe suppression by the terrorists assembled by the employers, experienced labor strife repeatedly. That's ironic, because, today, Raymond hosts the 'Raymond Crab Feed', perhaps the largest union social event in Washington State.
Although this book is not widely circulated, it is eye-opening and reminded me that a person can never be too protected of his rights to speech or organizing, and to remember that there are still those who would seek to deny every right, including the right to live, if they disagree with you.
February 10, 2020
This is a very interesting look at the beginning of the labor movement in Washington State, particularly focussing on the struggles on Coastal Washington, in communities such as Aberdeen and Hoquiam. We see the influence of the nascent communist movement that was strong in parts of Europe yet never too hold— there nor here.
The reader gets a feel for the rugged life of the logger, sawmill worker, and others depending on forest products and the harvesting natural resources. A carefully crafted story takes the reader back in time sans any attempt to romance the living condition.
The reader gets a feel for the rugged life of the logger, sawmill worker, and others depending on forest products and the harvesting natural resources. A carefully crafted story takes the reader back in time sans any attempt to romance the living condition.
December 17, 2023
This book is by three professors based at St Martin’s College in Olympia WA at the time of the book’s publication. It is about the labor movement in southwest Washington state in the first half of the twentieth century. This region today is relatively conservative, but it was once a hotbed of left wing labor radicalism from the IWW in the early 20th century to the Communist Party in the 20s and 30s. The authors make no effort to hide their partisanship for this radicalism. The book’s tone is one of cheerleading for militant workers in the class struggle. It also follows the conventions of academic scholarship; it relies mostly on primary sources. The book is written in a non-dry style and is moderately engaging. It should especially be of interest to persons who enjoy labor history.
The book’s first chapter is about the struggle during the 1880s and 90s on the Columbia River between gillnet fishermen and the relatively wealthy landowners or lessees of land along the river who operated fish traps. The next chapter deals with the cleansing of Chinese from the town of Aberdeen in 1890, one of the many anti-Chinese pogroms that swept the American west in the late 19th century. Subsequent chapters describe the IWW’s Aberdeen Free Speech fight of the early 1910s; the IWW lumber strike of the same time period; Albert Johnson, the region’s Republican KKK linked congressman most famous for his sponsorship of the anti-immigrant 1924 Johnson-Reed Act; the achievement by the region’s shingle weavers of a six hour day and 30 hour work week through unionization; 1930’s proletarian novels based in SW Washington state; and the 1934 west coast longshoremen’s strike. A major theme of the book is the left-wing activism of the region’s Finnish immigrant population.
Violence and violation of civil liberties are a running theme throughout the book. The Aberdeen IWW Free Speech Fight featured numerous kidnappings, imprisonment and beatings in order to terrorize IWW members (Wobblies). Wobbly William McKay was killed with a gunshot to the back of his head in front of an Aberdeen lumber mill in 1923. Wobbly Wesley Everest was lynched by American Legion members who had attacked the IWW hall in Centralia WA in November 1919, leading to a subsequent gun fight with Wobblies. Communist labor activist Laura Law was bludgeoned to death in her Aberdeen home in January 1940. A month earlier, a mob had attacked and ransacked Aberdeen’s Finnish community hall, a center of Communist Party organizing, in protest at the Soviet invasion of Finland. Besides the two strikers shot dead in San Francisco during the 1934 longshoremen strike, there was a handful of other murdered strikers along the west coast.
The book’s first chapter is about the struggle during the 1880s and 90s on the Columbia River between gillnet fishermen and the relatively wealthy landowners or lessees of land along the river who operated fish traps. The next chapter deals with the cleansing of Chinese from the town of Aberdeen in 1890, one of the many anti-Chinese pogroms that swept the American west in the late 19th century. Subsequent chapters describe the IWW’s Aberdeen Free Speech fight of the early 1910s; the IWW lumber strike of the same time period; Albert Johnson, the region’s Republican KKK linked congressman most famous for his sponsorship of the anti-immigrant 1924 Johnson-Reed Act; the achievement by the region’s shingle weavers of a six hour day and 30 hour work week through unionization; 1930’s proletarian novels based in SW Washington state; and the 1934 west coast longshoremen’s strike. A major theme of the book is the left-wing activism of the region’s Finnish immigrant population.
Violence and violation of civil liberties are a running theme throughout the book. The Aberdeen IWW Free Speech Fight featured numerous kidnappings, imprisonment and beatings in order to terrorize IWW members (Wobblies). Wobbly William McKay was killed with a gunshot to the back of his head in front of an Aberdeen lumber mill in 1923. Wobbly Wesley Everest was lynched by American Legion members who had attacked the IWW hall in Centralia WA in November 1919, leading to a subsequent gun fight with Wobblies. Communist labor activist Laura Law was bludgeoned to death in her Aberdeen home in January 1940. A month earlier, a mob had attacked and ransacked Aberdeen’s Finnish community hall, a center of Communist Party organizing, in protest at the Soviet invasion of Finland. Besides the two strikers shot dead in San Francisco during the 1934 longshoremen strike, there was a handful of other murdered strikers along the west coast.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews