Seattle in Mozambique: Third World Solidarity and the Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office

Diana Johnson analyzes multiracial coalition building in the Pacific Northwest during the mid-to-late twentieth century. From the 1970s onward, the intersection of deindustrialization, recession, racism, and globalization formed the backdrop for numerous racial justice organizations coming out of Seattle. Dr. Johnson will present a slice of this research in her paper entitled, “Seattle in Mozambique: Third World Solidarity and the Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office (LELO).” This paper illustrates how skilled trade workers of color in Seattle’s Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office defined, challenged, and shaped interrelations between the United States and locations in the Global South. Pulling back, LELO grew from the Seattle Third World Left. This movement encompassed many organizations of color fighting against capitalism, imperialism, and racism as intertwined with the revolutionary ideologies of movements in the Global South. By the 1980s, LELO faced funding cuts under the New Right and responded by moving their work abroad. They built upon a strong history of urban-rural, coalitional activism in the Pacific Northwest, led by Black, Latinx, and Asian American labor organizers, to erect an infrastructure build-up campaign in Mozambique. Their efforts countered Regan era foreign policy while viewing fund-raising and on-the-ground construction and farming work in Mozambique as an economic counter to the regional dominance of South Africa.