Analysis Of 'Self-Help In Hard Times'

In chapter 15, “Self-Help in Hard Times”, Zinn’s overarching point is that unity among workers was not simple to achieve, and that white supremacy was a powerful, deadly force after the war. To support and further discuss these concepts, Zinn points out how relations between the American Federation of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World were often tense, how city life often changed drastically during times of strike, and how immigration laws during the twenties began to favor Anglo-Saxons.
One such way Zinn showcases these ideas is by describing how drastically life changed for cities when workers went on strike, hoping for an increase in their wages. As the strike continued on throughout February of 1919, Zinn recalls how all services, except for those that were consider essential to daily life, ceased. This was most likely due to the fact that when the shipyard workers decided they must go on strike in order to be heard, they did not wish to make the lives of other working men and women like themselves any harder than they needed to be, so they set up ways that services such as the fire department continued running. However, while crime decreased drastically during this particular time of strike, Zinn points of the reality of chaos that occurred afterwards. Raids and arrests of Socialist Party members and members of the IWW happened

Congress fought hard to limit the amount of non-Anglo-Saxons entering the country during this time, and racism, particularly that that was anti-black, was a prominent problem during the twenties. All these factors lead back to Zinn’s underlying point being that, during this time leading into the Great Depression, true unity was greatly difficult to attain and white supremacy was a violent force that was quickly spreading across the