Self Help In Hard Times Zinn Analysis

Self-Help in Hard Times by Howard Zinn

In Zinn's latest article, he speaks of the aftermath from World War one which lead into the great depression. Zinn’s powerful analysis on the 20’s and 30’s brings us into depth with the effective strikes by unions, the violence that followed them and, the growth of the nation's culture and technology.
The organization of IWW was the first of many strikes brought up by Zinn. The IWW’s strike may have been one of the biggest and most fearful strikes of the time period. The strike started in February 1919 in Seattle, WA. The walkout of nearly 100,000 workers brought the city to a substantial halt for five days. The strike was quiet and orderly, citizens handled it quite well. The strikers organized milk

stations, garbage removal, cheap meals, hospital laundry, and had a guard to keep peace. Even crime had gone down in the city. So why was the strike so fearful? Zinn explains that although no violence had actually taken place during the strike, the government was very fearful. The city’s mayor said, “The general strike, as practiced in Seattle, is of itself the weapon of revolution, all the more dangerous because quiet. To succeed, it must suspend everything; stop the entire life stream of community…That is to say, it puts the government out of operation. And that is all there is to revolt.” This revolt, this silence, this ceasing to function city, was exactly what made the government most fearful. The workers wanted to make it known that, labor was moving away from isolated strikes to a more general attack on the capitalists system as a whole, making the government and future strikers to take great notice. The ways of modern striking were evolving not just through this one strike but, through future railroad and other big oil companies to come.
Although the IWW strike was a peaceful one, after this strike was over an overwhelming amount of chaos and violence erupted. Strikes were beaten down by force, and the economy was doing just well enough for just enough people to prevent mass rebellions. Zinn also goes into detail about a man named Frank Everett, an IWW lumberjack who was at the Centralia, WA headquarters when American Legion members attacked. He was brutally beaten, then drug back behind a car into town and jailed. Later he was taken from his jail his genitals were cut off, he was hung from a bridge and shot by American Legion members. No one was ever tried for this murder but, when one American Legion man was murdered, 11 IWW member were tried for murder. The use of violence was a major tactic and warning the federal government was using against the strike making it clear that the government and its workers had two different versions of justice. The government however, was only concerned of establishing their own.
While the violence of strikes and the unfairness the government obviously showned towards them were alive and well, Zinn lightens his article with new innovations brought about in the late 20’s and 30’s, right before the country's crucial downfall of depression.

Jazz, was a new fun and prosperous music style that stole the heart of the 20’s. Unemployment was also down in the early 20’s and families were doing well due to new things such as credit. New appliances for houses made things easier for women so they would not have to stay at home all day long. Woman could go out and earn more of a living and exercise their newly obtained right to vote. While the classes were slightly gaining more, it still didn’t take away from the fact that the upper class (10%) was to benefit the most in the time period and, that the poor would still very much struggle but, a broader middle class was beginning to see a wider range. All of this was a great asset to the country until the depression would hit in the 30’s and, the country would have to work twice as hard to build itself back up again.
Howard Zinn is a compelling writer in the context of American history. While sometimes his opinions may be overbearing in certain topics, his overall analysis of America's struggles during the 1920’s and 1930’s captured and focussed my attention to understand the situation more as a whole. I especially learned of the ever growing determination of a union striker during the time. Zinn pinpoints key information and details it and as always he seems to enlighten the

reader.