The Red Coast: Radicalism and Anti-radicalism in Southwest Washington by Aaron Goings, Brian Barnes and Roger Snider (review)

The Red Coast is a self-described "popular history" of labor militancy and political radicalism along the southern Pacific coast of Washington state in the early twentieth century (5). The authors' approach puts class conflict at the center of the story. Hence, groups that are often depicted in a rise and fall narrative, such as the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), appear as one expression of an underlying radicalism that continued into the 1930s. In fifteen chapters, The Red Coast brings together the history of lumber, maritime, fishing, and waterfront workers, as well as the role of Finnish men and women. The book combines these topics with efforts by business and its allies to combat radicalism, such as criminal syndicalism legislation, immigration restriction, and vigilante violence.

The story of the shingle weavers and their decades-long fight for the six-hour day illustrates the authors' approach. Because of dangerous work conditions that often resulted in the loss of fingers, shingle weavers continually sought shorter hours. Two unions of shingle weavers were formed in 1890 and 1903, and the workers struck "ten times between 1902 and 1911" (123). The IWW became involved in a strike in Everett in 1915–16, leading to the infamous Everett Massacre and Bloody Sunday, in which five Wobblies and two sheriff's deputies were killed. A 1917 strike achieved a reduction to eight hours. In 1927, the communist-led International Shingle Weavers Union was formed, and in the massive 1935 Lumber Strike workers achieved the six-hour day. This singular achievement was due to long-term organizing among militant workers that spanned several different forms of organization.

Finnish immigrants were an important constituency of radicalism on the Red Coast. Other sources cited by the authors, such as Auvo Kostiainen's essay "Politics of the Left and Right" in his edited volume Finns in the United States and Gary Kaunonen's Challenge Accepted, discuss Finnish meeting halls in general terms or in other places. But The Red Coast provides a thick description of Finn Halls in this region. Many of these halls began as temperance societies, later contested by "Red" and "White" factions (37). In Ilwaco, Finns "gained control" of Columbia Hall, which was built in the 1890s (38). In the 1910s, the Ilwaco local of the Finnish Socialist Federation lost a court case to acquire the hall, then in 1915 built its own Workers' Hall. Some of the halls "were as large as 20,000 feet" and, in addition to supporting plays, dances, and athletic activities, served as strike headquarters, such as during the 1912 Grays Harbor and Pacific County Lumber Strike, known as the War of Grays Harbor (39).

In addition to discussing radical culture, the authors add to the literature of antiunion citizens organizations dealt with in such works as William Millikan's A Union against Unions. Deportation of IWW and other workers in Bisbee, Arizona, in 1917, as described by Melvyn Dubofsky in We Shall Be All, was used frequently as a tool of employers on the Red Coast. In 1890 a mob of well-to-do citizens expelled Chinese immigrants from Aberdeen. Two decades later in 1911, a citizens committee in Aberdeen deported Wobblies involved in a free speech fight. During the 1912 War of Grays Harbor, a citizens committee in Raymond beat and deported striking workers and sought to replace them with "American" scabs from outside the area (74). In this telling, radical immigrants were not an outside influence but local workers with strong ties to the community.

In terms of federal repression, the authors demonstrate an interesting link between class conflict on the Red Coast and federal immigration restriction in the person of Albert Johnson. After battling against radicals as editor of the Daily Washingtonian and as a member of a citizens committee in the Aberdeen Free Speech Fight and the...