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Do “general strikes” work? Seattle history has an answer episode artwork

Jan 30, 2026 30 min

Do “general strikes” work? Seattle history has an answer

from Sound Politics Hosted by KUOW News and Information

Where did the idea come from to push back against President Trump by holding a general strike? The story takes us back 100 years to shipyard workers in Seattle. We’ll hear why people think general strikes are an effective protest today and whether they work. On this week's episode, we relied on oral histories and primary sources from the Seattle General Strike Project, Wesleyan University, and Labor Archives of Washington. Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible. If you want to help out, go to https://www.kuow.org/donate/soundpolitics/. Sound Politics is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Catharine Smith. Our producers are Gabrielle Healy and Hans Anderson. Our hosts are Libby Denkmann and Scott Greenstone.

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Do “general strikes” work? Seattle history has an answer

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