Richard "Rick" Rice was born in 1940 and grew up in Huntington Beach, California. Rice attended the University of California at Berkeley before moving to New York City and then to Seattle in the early 1970s. Rice was active in the student, anti-war, and civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
Rice's commitment to activism carried into his professional life. He worked as a bus driver for Metro Transit for four years, where he was an active union member in the Amalgamated Transit Union, Division 587, and served on a rank-and-file caucus committee. He participated in the 1974 Seattle Metro Transit strike. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Rice continued his activism in local organizations, including the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), the Venceremos Brigade, and the anti‑apartheid movement. During this period, he participated in weekly protests outside the South African consulate in Seattle. In the late 1980s, Rice served on the Issues Committee for the Washington State Rainbow Coalition, and later, in 1992, joined the Northwest Committee of Correspondence.
Activism was a shared commitment for Rice and his wife, Roselynn Harrell (also known as Rose Woodward), who was also a Seattle Metro driver and a social and labor activist. Harrell was involved in South Seattle Community College's Women's Employment Network and worked as a welder. Continuing their joint engagement, Rice and Harrell spent two years at a Uniroyal and Firestone tire plant in Long Beach, California, in an effort to organize it politically as an outgrowth of their activism as members of the socialist organization Line of March. This Marxist‑Leninist organization inspired many New Left student activists to become "proletarianized" workers who would find work in industry and radicalize other workers.
During the 1990s, Rice was active in the Seattle area efforts to create a Labor Party and attendeded conferences on behalf of the effort. Rice's second wife, Kate Thompson, is an artist and an activist; she was a co-founder and co-owner of Storefront Press in Seattle. As of 2014, Rice resides in Mexico.
This collection contains photographs, news clippings, interview transcripts, and flyers from the Rokha and Solidev workers' strikes in Tijuana in 1979; local labor publications (e.g. Counterbalance, published by the Ralph Cramden Caucus); flyers, newsletters, and correspondence from local activist groups such as Seattle-Daliwe Sister Community Project and the Seattle to Nicaragua Construction Brigade; meeting minutes, by-laws, notes, correspondence, and monthly newsletters from the Amalgamated Transit Union 587, the Washington State Rainbow Coalition, and the Northwest Committee of Correspondence; news clippings regarding the Seattle metro strike in 1974; and flyers from national organizations such as CISPIES (United States Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador).
Records are primarily in English with a portion in Spanish.
Open to all users.
To the extent that they own the copyright, the donor has transferred the copyright of the materials to the University of Washington; however, copyright in some items in this collection may be held by their respective creators. Users are responsible for researching copyright status before use.
Rick Rice via Carolyn Aamot, UW Libraries Gifts, 2012-09-01.
The collection was kept in the original order in which it was received. Titles provided by processor in brackets.
Activists for Independent Socialist Politics. 1995. "Independent Politics." ADORATSKY, Vladimir Viktorovich. 1940. Dialectical Materialism. The Theoretical Foundation of Marxism-Leninism. National Book Agency: Calcutta. American Society for Environmental History, and New Jersey Institute of Technology. 1995. "Environmental History Review : EHR : A Publication of the American Society for Environmental History." Black Panther Party Ministry of Information. 1980. "The Black Panther." Canadian Communist League (M-L), and Workers Communist Party (M-L) (Canada). "The Forge : Central Organ of the Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist).," 1979. "Draggin' the Line." 1973. Ediciones Historia y Sociedad. 1974. "Historia Y Sociedad." Alaska Common Ground Collective. n.d. "Common Ground." Free Press Collective (Seattle, Wash). "Washington Free Press.," 2009. No. 7-8,10,12-13,15,17. Harrington, Michael, Democratic Socialists of America, and Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (U.S.). 1979. "Democratic Left." Nexis Advance UK. International Socialists (U.S.), and Labor Education Association (Detroit, Mich). 1983. "Changes Socialist Monthly." Kahk, Juhan, and Karl Siilivask. 1985. History of the Estonian SSR. Tallinn: Perioodika. Keating, Edward M., ed. 1963. Ramparts. Menlo Park, Calif: Laymen's Press. Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee. "Communist Line.," 1976. No.2-3, 5-6, 8 "News for a People's World : Reporting for Social Change in Northern California." 1993. Vol. 2 No. 6-7. No Separate Peace. 1976. Seattle, Washington: [publisher not identified]. Oregon Coalition for Alternative Human Services, Cascadia Education Project, and Northwest Alliance for Alternative Media and Education. n.d. "The Portland Alliance." Pacific Northwest Research Center. 1979. Northwest Bulletin. Eugene, Or: Pacific Northwest Research Center. Partisan Party. 1971. "The Partisan Community News Service." Puget Sound Power and Light Company. n.d. Puget Power News. Bellevue, Wash: Puget Sound Power & Light Co. Rising Up Angry (Chicago, Ill). 1969. "Rising up Angry : A Revolutionary Organization Dedicated to Building a New Man, ...." "Seattle Community Catalyst.," 1993. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of California, publisher, Joseph A Blum, and Arlene Eisen Bergman. 1966. The Movement. Tacoma Independent. 1972. Tacoma, Wash: [Tacoma Independent]. Taxi Rank and File Coalition (New York, N.Y.). n.d. "The Hot Seat." Union WAGE (Organization). 1972. "Union W.A.G.E." "Unite!" 1979 Unzueta, Gerardo. 1969. Sobre El Problema Estudiantil-Popular : Cartas Desde La Prisión. México: Fondo de Cultura Popular. Voices of Revolt, a Series of Small Books in Which Are Collected the Outstanding Utterances of World Famous Leaders in Revolutionary Thought and Action. 1927. New York: International Publishers. Washington University. 1964. Trans-Action. Philadelphia, etc: Transaction, Inc, etc. Western Voice. [Publisher not identified], 1973
Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, Rick Rice Labor Ephemera and Publications Collection, 5827-001, [box number], [folder number].