At the East Side Freedom Library, we have been particularly concerned with the Pandemic’s impact on working people—putting healthcare, grocery, transit, and meatpacking workers, and many others, at risk. We have also paid attention to its disparate impacts on immigrants and communities of color. We have been encouraged by conversations and movements which insist that we cannot return to “normal,” because what has been “normal” left us vulnerable to the consequences so many now face.

At ESFL, we have long believed that studying the past is a great way to think creatively about the future. Last month, we initiated our Labor History Reading Group by exploring the Philadelphia Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 and its impacts on the Free African American community in that city, as well as the labor movement there. This month, we will explore the World War I Flu Epidemic and its role in the Seattle General Strike of 1919.

We will read and discuss Cal Winslow’s article from JACOBIN magazine, “When the Seattle General Strike and the 1918 Flu Collided.” Cal is a longtime labor activist and educator, based in California. He has written several books on grassroots labor activism, including Radical Seattle: The General Strike of 1919 (just published this year).

We are excited that Cal will join us, via Zoom, for our discussion of his article. Please email us at [email protected] to receive an invitation to the Zoom for this conversation. Newcomers are welcome.

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