Which Side (of the Border) Are You On?: Nationalism, Ideology, and the Hegemonic Struggle of the Seattle and Winnipeg General Strikes of 1919

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the Seattle and Winnipeg general strikes of 1919, and represents them as two analogous ideological struggles for national hegemony in the post-First World War period. It argues that a comparative analysis of the pro- and anti-strike press during these two strikes reveals that the “form” of nationalism enveloped the “content” of each group’s ideological foundations, conceptions of class, and conceptions of justice, and that this “content” – when extracted from its national “form” – reveals a shared sense of progressive vision among the two groups of strikers, and a shared sense of conservative vision among their opponents.