#ESPIONAGE DEFINITION WW1 TRIAL#

“Whereas, the appalling loss of life which will inevitably result…will fall with crushing force on the working class alone, while the kings, capitalists, and aristocrats remain in safety, and Wells, the Seattle Central Labor Council (representing 25,000 workers) passed an antiwar resolution the day after European fighting was declared in 1914. In Seattle, the war reduced unemployment but also produced an outpouring of antiwar agitation, stemming from the labor and radical movements. While for some the prospect of American entry into the conflict meant jobs in war industries like shipbuilding, lumber, and shipping, for others it meant conscription into a brutal overseas war and a curtailing of democratic freedoms at home. It emerged just as the United States entered a deep economic recession in 1914 and seemed to provide a way for American capital to solve the economic crisis by expanding into foreign markets and competing for its own sphere of political and economic influence. World War I was a conflict between European powers over boundaries, borders, and spheres of influence in colonized continents. In the Northwest, World War I highlighted organized labor’s place as an (often radical) political actor, and precipitated the Seattle General Strike of 1919. Many movements for social change were framed in terms of labor-the IWW worked to organize workers of all ethnicities and backgrounds-and agitation against Europe’s Great War was no exception. Organizations like the Socialist Party and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) gained national prominence with their ideas of building a democratic worker-run society not tied to the interests of capital or business. The decades leading up to World War I had seen the emergence of the union movement. (Photo courtesy of Special Collections, University of Washington Librairies) Northwest Antiwar History: Ch 1 Labor Radicalism and World War I by Jessie Kindig

#ESPIONAGE DEFINITION WW1 TRIAL#

1913, socialist and leader of the Seattle chapter of the American Union Against Militarism, later the No Conscription League, who was put on trial for speaking out against the war.

Espionage definition ww1