Harvey O'Connor (29 March 1897 – 29 August 1987) was an American radical

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

newspaper editor An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

, author, and political activist. The author of nearly a dozen books in his lifetime, O'Connor is best remembered for his activity in the 1919 Seattle General Strike and as a memoirist about early 20th Century politics in

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

Biography

Early years

Harvey O'Connor was born March 29, 1897 in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, the son of a railway cook.Solon DeLeon with Irma C. Hayssen and Grace Poole (eds.), ''The American Labor Who's Who.'' New York: Hanford Press, 1925; pg. 176. He attended

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

in neighboring

St. Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

before relocating with his family to

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

, where he completed

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in 1914. Owing to the death of his father and his mother's need for financial support, O'Connor went to work in various lumber camps as a logger after graduation rather than continuing his education.Harvey O'Connor, ''Revolution in Seattle: A Memoir.'' New York: Monthly Review Press, 1964; dust jacket biography. There he joined the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines genera ...

, a radical

industrial union Industrial unionism is a trade union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade, thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in ...

espousing the doctrine of

syndicalism Syndicalism is a Revolutionary politics, revolutionary current within the Left-wing politics, left-wing of the Labour movement, labor movement that seeks to unionize workers Industrial unionism, according to industry and advance their demands t ...

— the overthrow of

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...

in favor of rule by industrially-defined workers organizations.

Political career

O'Connor was the editor of the left wing ''Seattle Daily Call'' during its short-lived existence in 1917 and 1918. Thereafter, he took a position as the editor and business manager of the ''Farmer-Labor Call'' of

Centralia, Washington Centralia () is a city in Lewis County, Washington, United States. It is located along Interstate 5 near the midpoint between Seattle and Portland, Oregon. The city had a population of 18,183 at the 2020 census. Centralia is twinned with Cheh ...

. During the 1919 Seattle General Strike which shut down the city for nearly a week during the month of February, O'Connor played a role producing leaflets and agitating on behalf of the strike. His activities caught the attention of the authorities, which subsequently indicted him for

criminal anarchy In the United States, criminal anarchy is the crime of conspiracy to overthrow the government by force or violence, or by assassination of the executive head or of any of the executive officials of government, or by any unlawful means. The advocac ...

. O'Connor was never brought to trial, however, owing to the loss of a

test case In software engineering, a test case is a specification of the inputs, execution conditions, testing procedure, and expected results that define a single test to be executed to achieve a particular software testing objective, such as to exercise ...

by the state on a similar complaint. In 1921, O'Connor went to work as a department editor at the ''

Seattle Union Record The ''Seattle Union Record'' was a union-owned newspaper edited by Harry Ault. The paper was published weekly from February 20, 1900 to April 2, 1918 and was published daily from April 24, 1918 until it discontinued publication in 1928. In its ...

,'' a daily produced by the Seattle

labor movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

under the editorship of his friend E.B. "Harry" Ault. He stayed with this paper until 1924. In 1924, O'Connor left the ''Union Record'' to move to

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

to take a position as assistant editor of the ''Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers' Journal,'' the monthly magazine of the BLE. O'Connor next went to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1927 to head the New York bureau of the

Federated Press ''This is not to be confused with the independent, research-based organization of Toronto, Canada, also called that targets executives, lawyers, professionals.'' The Federated Press was a left wing news service, established in 1920, that provided ...

, a left wing press agency which supplied material to newspapers of the labor movement and left wing political organizations around the country. He remained in this position until 1930. When he joined the newspaper,

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938), ...

later realized that "Harvey O'Connor was then effective editor of the ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...

''."

Later years

In later years, O'Connor was a professional author, writing a number of non-fiction books accentuating the lifestyles of the rich and powerful and the difficult situation of the

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

for commercial publishers. Some of his publications include ''Mellon's Millions,'' ''The Astors,'' ''The Guggenheims,'' ''History of the Oil Workers International,'' and ''The Empire of Oil.'' O'Connor remained politically active throughout his life, serving as chairman of the

Emergency Civil Liberties Committee The National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (NECLC), until 1968 known as the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, was an organization formed in the United States in October 1951 by 150 educators and clergymen to advocate for the civil liberties ...

from 1954 to 1963 and as chairman of the National Committee to Abolish the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

in 1964. In 1964, O'Connor published his memoirs, regarded by historians as an important work detailing the history of the radical movement of Washington state during the first decades of the 20th century.

Personal and death

O'Connor married Jessie Lloyd O'Connor, a fellow journalist and social activist, born in Winnetka, Illinois on February 14, 1904, and granddaughter of

Henry Demarest Lloyd Henry Demarest Lloyd (May 1, 1847 – September 28, 1903) was a 19th-century American progressive political activist and pioneer muckraking journalist. He is best remembered for his exposés of the Standard Oil Company, which were written before ...

(1847–1903), a 19th-century American progressive political activist and pioneer muckraking journalist. On August 29, 1987, he died of heart failure at his home in

Little Compton, Rhode Island Little Compton is a coastal town in Newport County, Rhode Island, bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the Sakonnet River, on the north by the town of Tiverton, and on the east by the town of Westport, Massachusetts. The pop ...

. (Jesse died a little over a year later on December 24, 1988, in Fall River, Massachusetts.)

Legacy

O'Connor's papers reside at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

Works

* ''How Mellon Got Rich'' (New York:

International Publishers International Publishers is a book publishing company based in New York City, specializing in Marxism, Marxist works of economics, political science, and history. Company history Establishment International Publishers Company, Inc., was founded ...

, 1933) * ''Mellon's Millions, the Biography of a Fortune: The Life and Times of Andrew W. Mellon'' (New York: John Day Co., 1933) * ''Steel — Dictator'' (New York: John Day Co., 1935) * ''The Guggenheims: The Making of an American Dynasty'' (New York: Covici Friede, 1937) * ''The Astors'' (New York:

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

, 1941) * ''History of Oil Workers International Union (CIO)'' (Denver: Oil Workers International Union (CIO), 1950) * ''The Empire of Oil'' (New York:

Monthly Review Press The ''Monthly Review'', established in 1949, is an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. The publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States. History Establishment Following ...

, 1955) * ''For Abolition of the Inquisitorial Committees of Congress: A Pamphlet'' (New York:

, 1957) * ''New Light on Iraq'' (London: Union of Democratic Control, n.d. . 1958 * ''McCarthy Goes Marching On: An Appeal to the British Public'' (London: Union of Democratic Control, n.d. . 1960 * ''World Crisis in Oil'' (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1962) * ''Revolution in Seattle: A Memoir'' (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1964)