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{{Short description|1919 strike in Canada}}
Canada's first and only ].
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox civil conflict
| title = Winnipeg General Strike
| partof = the ]
| image = WinnipegGeneralStrike.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Crowd gathered outside old City Hall during the Winnipeg general strike, June 21, 1919<!-- &nbsp; used to control the width of the infobox-->
| place = ]
| date = May 15 – June 26, 1919
| map_type =
| map_caption =
| map_size =
| coordinates =
| latitude =
| longitude =
| goals =
| methods = ], ], ]
| result =
| concessions =
| side1 = Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council
| side2 = * Citizens' Committee of One Thousand
* ]
| leadfigures1 = {{plainlist|
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
}}
| leadfigures2 = {{plainlist|
* ] (Acting Minister of Justice)
* ] (Minister of Labour)
* Charles F. Gray (Mayor of Winnipeg)
* A. J. Andrews
}}
| fatalities = 2
| injuries = 30
| arrests = 94
| casualties_label =
| sidebox = {{Campaignbox general strikes}}
}}


The '''Winnipeg General Strike''' of 1919 was one of the most famous and influential strikes in ].<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Reilly |first1=J. Nolan |last2=Skikavich |first2=Julia |author-link2= |last3=Baker |first3=Nathan |date=2021-07-09 |title=Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/winnipeg-general-strike |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia}}</ref> For six weeks, May 15 to June 26, more than 30,000 strikers brought economic activity to a standstill in ], Manitoba, which at the time was Canada's third largest city. In the short term, the strike ended in arrests, bloodshed and defeat, but in the long run it contributed to the development of a stronger ] and the tradition of ] politics in Canada.
After ] many Canadian soldiers returned home to find few opportunities. ] and working conditions were dismal and labor regulations were mostly non-existent. The ] revolution had just occured in ] and many workers saw this as an example of a successful ] revolution.


== Causes of the strike ==
In March 1919 labor delegates from across Western Canada convened in Calgary to form a branch of the "One Big Union", with the intention of overthrowing Canadian capitalism through a series of crippling ].
]


There were many background causes for the strike, most of them related to the prevailing social inequalities and the impoverished condition of the city's working class. Wages were low, prices were rising, employment was unstable, immigrants faced discrimination, housing and health conditions were poor. In addition, there was resentment of the enormous profits enjoyed by employers during the war. Soldiers returning from the war were determined to see improved social conditions and opportunities after their harrowing experiences overseas. Most workers did not have union representation, but many were influenced by the hope of achieving greater economic security through unions.<ref name= "Bumsted p. ">{{harvnb|Bumsted|1994|p=}}</ref>
At 11 AM on May 15, 1919 virtually the entire working population of Winnipeg walked off the job. 30,000 to 35,000 people were on strike in a city of 200,000. Even essential public employees such as firemen went on strike, but returned midway through the strike with the approval of the Strike Committee. The Winnipeg Police were technically on strike but remained on patrol in practice.


Many workers were also influenced by socialist ideas voiced by local reformers, radicals and revolutionaries. These attracted greater interest, especially among the large population of immigrants from Eastern Europe, after the Russian Revolution of 1917. A meeting of western labour delegates in Calgary in March 1919 adopted numerous radical resolutions, including support for a five-day week and a six-hour day. They also called for the establishment of a new union centre, the ], to promote class solidarity by uniting workers from all trades and industries in one organization. The idea that the OBU instigated the general strike is misleading, as the OBU was not formed until June 1919. However, the "one big union" idea contributed to the atmosphere of unrest.<ref>James Naylor, "Standing Together," ''Canada's History'' (April–May 2019), pp. 22–24.</ref> Similar volatile conditions existed elsewhere in Canada, and in other countries around the world, at the end of ], but the combination of circumstances in Winnipeg proved to be explosive.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Workers' Revolt in Canada, 1917–1925|last=Heron|first=Craig|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1998|location=Toronto}}</ref>
The strike was generally quite non-violent. Relations with police were tense but generally did not result in clashes, although a young boy was accidentally killed


The most immediate cause of the strike involved support for collective bargaining in the metal trades and building trades, where workers were attempting to negotiate contracts through their trades councils. When the Metal Trades Council and the Building Trades Council had both failed to secure contracts with employers by the end of April, they went on strike, the building trades on May 1 and the metal trades on May 2. Shortly afterwards, the situation was discussed at meetings of the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council, the umbrella body for the city's unions. The Labour Council decided to call on their 12,000 affiliated members to vote on a proposal for a general strike.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Confrontation at Winnipeg: Labour, Industrial Relations, and the General Strike|last=Bercuson|first=David|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|year=1974|location=Montreal|pages=109–112}}</ref> On a smaller scale, this tactic had achieved success for striking city workers a year earlier in 1918.<ref>Bercuson, ''Confrontation at Winnipeg'', pp. 58–65.</ref> Preliminary results of the vote among the Labour Council's member unions were announced on May 13. The outcome showed overwhelming support for a general strike, 8,667 to 645.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Winnipeg 1919|last=Penner|first=Norman|publisher=James Lorimer and Company|year=1973|location=Toronto|pages=43–44}}</ref> Ernest Robinson, secretary of the Labour Council, issued a statement that "every organization but one has voted in favour of the general strike" and that "all public utilities will be tied-up in order to enforce the principle of collective bargaining".<ref name= "Bumsted p. 28">{{harvnb|Bumsted|1994|p=28}}</ref> A Strike Committee was established, with delegates elected by the city's unions. The leadership included both moderate trade unionists, such as James Winning, a bricklayer who was president of the Trades and Labour Council, and socialists such as ], a machinist who favoured the OBU.
The newspapers were generally nothing short of hysterical. The ] front page proclaimed "Bolshevism Invades Canada". The Winnipeg Free Press called the strikers "bohunks", "aliens", and anarchists and ran cartoons depicting hooked-nosed Jewish radicals throwing bombs.


==1919 general strike==
A counter-strike Committee, the "Citizen's Committee of One Thousand" was created by Winnipeg's wealthy elite. The Committee declared the strike to be a violent, revolutionary conspiracy by a small group of foreigners. On June 17 the Committee dismissed most of the city's 200 police, replacing them with their own militia. Federal troops were positined outside the city and federal police were sent in.


===Organization===
The majority of the strikers were ], not ]. They wanted to amend the system, not destroy it and build a new one. By June 17, 1919 the workers were gradually giving up and returning to their jobs.
At 11 am on Thursday, May&nbsp;15, 1919, virtually the entire working population of Winnipeg went on strike. Somewhere around 30,000 workers in the public and private sectors walked off their jobs, and the city experienced a sudden cessation of many normal activities. The Strike Committee requested the police force, who had voted in favour of the strike, to remain on duty. Workers at the city waterworks also remained on the job to provide service at reduced pressure. Union membership had increased substantially during the spring of 1919, but most of the people who came out in support of the general strike were not union members. For instance, the first to leave work, at 7:00&nbsp;a.m., were the telephone operators, the so-called "hello girls" at the city telephone exchanges, who were not at this time union members. Also on the first day of the strike, the major organizations of returned soldiers announced their support and were active throughout the six weeks of the strike.<ref name= "Bumsted p. 29">{{harvnb|Bumsted|1994|p=29}}</ref>


In the early days of the strike, according to historian David Bercuson, "The atmosphere was almost festive, the belief in ultimate victory strong."<ref>Bercuson, ''Confrontation at Winnipeg'', p. 116.</ref> Participants assembled in city parks to listen to speakers report on the progress of the strike and discuss the many related social reform issues of the time. To ensure that strikers were kept informed of developments, the Strike Committee also published a daily ''Strike Bulletin''. This newspaper urged the strikers to remain peaceable as well as idle: "The only thing the workers have to do to win this strike is to do nothing. Just eat, sleep, play, love, laugh, and look at the sun{{nbsp}}... Our fight consists of doing no fighting."<ref>Quoted by Kenneth McNaught, ''A Prophet in Politics: A Biography of J.S. Woodsworth'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1959), p. 121.</ref>
That day the Federal government stormed the city, arresting ten strike leaders and arbitrarily deporting Eastern European immigrants. Three days later angered strikers massed in Market Square and the Mayor read the ]. The Federal police fired into the crowd. One striker was killed, another mortally wounded, and dozens were wounded. The strike had been broken.


Women leaders played an important part in building solidarity among the strikers. Experienced organizers such as ], one of two women on the Strike Committee, encouraged young working women to join the strike and often spoke on street corners and at public meetings. The Women's Labour League raised money to help women workers pay rent. They also set up a kitchen where hundreds of meals were served every day.<ref name= "Kelly p.20-26">{{harvnb|Kelly|2016|pp=20–26}}</ref> On June 12 a "ladies day" was held at Victoria Park, where women occupied seats of honour to cheer a speech by ] promoting the emancipation of women and the equality of the sexes.<ref>Mary Horodyski, "Women and the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919," ''Manitoba History'' 11 (Spring 1986), pp. 28–37.</ref> An emerging working-class activist named ], who became a notable defender of the city's dispossessed during the 1920s, is the only woman reported as a speaker at the huge outdoor gatherings at Victoria Park.<ref>David Thompson, "More Sugar, Less Salt: Edith Hancox and the Passionate Mobilization of the Dispossessed, 1919–1928," ''Labour/Le Travail'' 85 (Spring 2020), pp. 127–163. </ref>
The head of the Royal Commission which investigated the strike found that the strike was not a criminal conspiracy by foreigners and suggested that "if Capital does not provide enough to assure Labour a contented existence...Government might find it necessary and let the state do these things at the expense of Capital".


Negotiations between members of the Strike Committee, city council and local businesses produced an arrangement to continue milk and bread deliveries. To make it clear that the delivery men were not strikebreakers, a small poster was printed for display on their wagons reading "PERMITTED BY AUTHORITY OF STRIKE COMMITTEE." Although the cards were suggested by management, they were also attacked as evidence that the Strike Committee was taking control of the city.<ref>Penner, ''Winnipeg 1919'', pp. 48–52.</ref>
Canada's Liberal party, fearing the growing support for hard left elements, pledged to enact labor reforms. In this way the Winnipeg General Strike can be said to have resulted in much improved working conditions for millions of Canadians. J.S. Wordsworth, a strike leader who was briefly imprisoned, would go on to found Canada's first socialist political party.

===Opposition===
]
] Front Cover June 9, 1919]]
In a city divided on class lines, opposition to the strike was led by a group of local businessmen and professionals who described themselves as the Citizens' Committee of One Thousand. From their headquarters in the Board of Trade building, they encouraged employers not to give in to the strikers and attempted to stir up resentment of "alien" immigrants, who, they charged, were the principal leaders of the strike. They also put pressure on governments to take action against the strike. They published a newspaper, ''The Winnipeg Citizen'', that claimed that "the so-called general strike is in reality revolution – or a daring attempt to overthrow the present industrial and governmental system."<ref>D.C. Masters, ''The Winnipeg General Strike'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1950), p. 66.</ref>

At the end of the first week of the strike, two federal cabinet ministers arrived in Winnipeg to assess the situation, acting Minister of Justice ] and Minister of Labour ]. They refused to meet with the Strike Committee, but consulted with the Citizens' Committee, who greatly influenced their conclusions. Meighen issued a statement that the strike was "a cloak for something far deeper—an effort to 'overturn' the proper authority". Robertson reported back to Ottawa that "the motive behind this strike undoubtedly was the overthrow of Constitutional Government."<ref name= "Bumsted p. 37-39">{{harvnb|Bumsted|1994|pp=37–39}}</ref> They warned striking postal workers, who were federal employees, to return to work or lose their jobs. &nbsp;At this time, they also authorized the local government to use the armed forces and the Royal Northwest Mounted Police as needed. In preparation for arrests, at the beginning of June, and on the advice of one of the leaders of the Citizens' Committee, A.J. Andrews, the federal government amended the Immigration Act to allow for the deportation without trial of any British citizens not born in Canada who were charged with seditious activity.<ref name= "Bumsted p. 47-48">{{harvnb|Bumsted|1994|pp=47–48}}</ref>

The municipal government also took action. As large numbers of veterans were holding marches in the streets in support of the strike, on June 5 Mayor Charles F. Gray announced a ban on public demonstrations.<ref>Masters, ''Winnipeg General Strike'', p. 90.</ref> On June 9 the city also dismissed almost the entire police force for refusing to sign a pledge promising to neither belong to a union nor participate in a sympathetic strike. With the assistance of the Citizens' Committee, the city police were replaced with a large body of untrained but better paid special constables who patrolled the streets with clubs. Within hours, one of the special constables, a much-medalled World War I veteran ], charged into a gathering of strikers and was dragged off his horse and severely pummelled. This led to claims that he was attacked by "enemy ruffians".<ref name= "Bumsted p. 50-52">{{harvnb|Bumsted|1994|pp=50–52}}</ref>

The local newspapers, the '']'' and '']'', had lost the majority of their employees due to the strike, but once they were able to resume publication, they took a decidedly anti-strike stance. The ''Winnipeg Free Press'' called the strikers "]", "aliens", and "anarchists" and ran cartoons depicting radicals throwing bombs. These anti-strike views influenced the opinions of some Winnipeg residents and contributed to the deepening atmosphere of crisis.<ref>Mitchell, Tom and James Naylor, "The Prairies: In the Eye of the Storm." In ''The Workers' Revolt in Canada, 1917–1925'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998) pp. 176–180.</ref>

A plan to offer a modified form of collective bargaining to the Metal Trades Council was in the works at the middle of the month, but any efforts at compromise were ended by a series of arrests on charges of seditious conspiracy. In the early morning hours of June 17, the RNWMP apprehended several prominent leaders of the strike, including ], ], ], ], ] and ]. In addition, ], a Vancouver union organizer who was returning from Winnipeg, was arrested in Calgary. R. J. Johns, of Winnipeg, was in Montreal and not arrested at this time. With the exception of Armstrong, who was Canadian-born, they were all British immigrants. Several foreign-born socialists, including Sam Blumenberg, Max Charitonoff and Solomon Almazoff were also arrested, as was Oscar Schoppelrei, an American-born Canadian war veteran of German ethnic origin.<ref>Reinhold Kramer and Tom Mitchell, ''When the State Trembled: How A.J. Andrews and the Citizens’ Committee Broke the Winnipeg General Strike'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010), pp, 163–166. &nbsp;</ref>] action in Winnipeg during the strike]]

===Bloody Saturday===
]
]
The climax of the strike came a few days later, on Saturday, June 21, which was soon known as Bloody Saturday. To protest against the arrest of the strike leaders, the returned soldiers had announced a demonstration in the form of a "silent parade" on Main Street for Saturday afternoon. Crowds assembled in the thousands in the streets around City Hall. When the soldiers refused to call off the demonstration, Mayor Gray requested assistance from the RNWMP, who entered into the crowds on horseback, wielding clubs in an attempt to disperse the assembly. A streetcar operated by a strikebreaker attempted to travel south on Main Street towards Portage Avenue but was stopped and tipped off the tracks and briefly set on fire.<ref name="Masters 83, 107">Masters, ''Winnipeg General Strike'', pp. 83–88, 107–108.</ref>

After the Mayor read the ], the Mounties entered the fray again, this time discharging their .45 revolvers in three separate volleys. About 120 shots were fired. One man, Mike Sokolowski, was killed on the spot. Another, Steve Szczerbanowicz, died later from his wounds. Hospitals reported about 30 injuries, mainly from police gunfire. Others were tended to by friends and family. As the crowds were chased into sidestreets and broken up, some 80 people were arrested by the "specials" and military patrols that took over the downtown area.<ref name="Masters 83, 107"/>

When the ''Strike Bulletin'' published its account of the events of Bloody Saturday, the editors, J.S. Woodsworth and ], were arrested and charged with seditious libel. They had published articles with headings such as "Kaiserism in Canada" and "The British Way". The charges against Woodsworth included his quotation of a verse from Isaiah: "]." Further publication of the newspaper was suppressed.<ref>Penner, ''Winnipeg 1919'', pp. 207–215.</ref>

These events broke the confidence of the Strike Committee, and on June 25, they announced the end of the strike for 11:00&nbsp;a.m. the next day. After six weeks, workers drifted back to their jobs, but many were blacklisted or otherwise punished for participating in the strike.<ref name= "Bumsted p. 58">{{harvnb|Bumsted|1994|p=58}}</ref>

===Role in the labour revolt===
In May and June 1919, general strikes broke out in as many as thirty other cities, from Amherst, Nova Scotia, to Victoria, British Columbia. Some of these strikes were protests against local conditions; some were in solidarity with the Winnipeg strikers; some arose from both causes.<ref>Naylor, "Standing Together", pp. 26–27.</ref>

==Aftermath==
==="State trials" and deportations===
Eight of the strike leaders were brought to trial on charges of seditious conspiracy. The evidence against them focused less on their actions than on their socialist ideas, which were seen as the root cause of the unrest that led to the general strike. Under arrangements accepted (and paid for) by the federal government, the prosecution was conducted by Andrews and other "legal gentlemen" who were active in the Citizens' Committee during the strike.<ref name="LabourLeTravail1">{{citation|author1-last=Mitchell|author1-first=Tom|title='Legal Gentlemen Appointed by the Federal Government': the Canadian State, the Citizens' Committee of 1000, and Winnipeg's Seditious Conspiracy Trials of 1919–1920|journal=]|volume=53|date=Spring 2004|pages=9–46|url=http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/LLT/article/viewFile/5337/6206|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517135239/http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/LLT/article/viewFile/5337/6206|archive-date=2014-05-17|url-status=unfit|quote=The prosecution was undertaken by leading members of the Citizens' Committee of 1000's legal committee, including A J. Andrews, Isaac Pitblado, Travers Sweatman, and J.B. Coyne, under provisions of the Criminal Code that allowed for prosecutions by private citizens or organizations, subject to the consent of the Attorney General of Manitoba. For their efforts, the federal government paid Andrews, Pitblado, Coyne, and Sweatman handsomely.}}</ref>{{rp|page=13}}

Seven of the accused (Armstrong, Bray, Ivens, Johns, Pritchard, Russell and Queen) were found guilty by the largely rural juries selected for the trials. Most were sentenced to one-year sentences, but Russell was sentenced to two years and Bray, who was convicted on a lesser charge, was sentenced to six months. (As well, John Farnell, who had filled the void left in the leadership of pro-strike returned soldiers after Bray's arrest, was sentenced to nine months in prison. He was released three months early, due to his wife's illness.)<ref>Edmonton Bulletin, August 5, 1920</ref>

Heaps conducted his own defence. He was acquitted on all charges. Dixon, who was charged with seditious libel, delivered a strong defence of the right to free speech as an essential element of the British tradition. After forty hours of deliberation, the largely urban jury acquitted him. This result caused the prosecution to abandon the similar charges against Woodsworth.<ref name="Bumsted p. 66-69">{{harvnb|Bumsted|1994|pp=66–69}}</ref>

In the case of the "foreigners" arrested on June 17, there were no criminal proceedings. The attempt to deport Almazoff failed, and Charitonoff appealed successfully against a deportation order. Blumenberg and Schoppelrei were deported on technical grounds related to their original entry into the country.<ref>Kramer and Mitchell, ''When the State Trembled'', pp. 283–287.</ref> Blumenberg found his feet in the U.S., organizing workers in the Duluth area and even running for municipal office there on the socialist platform. <ref>Masters, The Winnipeg General Strike, p. 150</ref>

===Political impact===
A provincial royal commission headed by H.A. Robson investigated the strike. The report deplored sympathetic strikes but concluded that the Winnipeg strike was not a criminal conspiracy by foreigners and stated that "if Capital does not provide enough to assure Labour a contented existence{{nbsp}}... then the Government might find it necessary to step in and let the state do these things at the expense of Capital."<ref>Justice H. A. Robson's report, quoted in {{cite book
| last = Fudge
| first = Judy
| author-link = Judy Fudge
|author2=Tucker, Eric
| title = Labour Before the Law: The Regulation of Workers' Collective Action in Canada, 1900–1948
| year = 2004
| publisher = University of Toronto Press
| location = Toronto
| isbn = 0-8020-3793-3
| pages = 112
}}</ref>

The impact of the strike was evident in subsequent elections. Labour had elected some representatives prior to the strike but the number significantly increased afterwards at all three levels of government.

While awaiting trial, Queen was re-elected to the Winnipeg City council.<ref>Edmonton Bulletin, Nov. 29, 1919</ref> While serving out their sentences in prison, Armstrong, Ivens and Queen were elected to the Manitoba legislature. Queen later served seven terms as mayor of Winnipeg.<ref>Bumsted, ''Dictionary of Manitoba Biography'', pp. 9, 120–121, 205.</ref>

Woodsworth was elected as a Labour Member of Parliament from Winnipeg in 1921 and was repeatedly re-elected until his death in 1942. In 1932 he helped found and became leader of the ], a forerunner of the ]. That party was elected to provincial government in Saskatchewan in 1944 and in Manitoba in 1969.<ref>{{cite book|last=Young|first=Walter D.|url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofpartyna0000youn|title=The anatomy of a party: the national CCF 1932–61|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1969|location=Toronto|page=|url-access=registration}}</ref> Heaps was elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Winnipeg North in 1925 and re-elected until 1940.<ref name="Bumsted p. 107-108">{{harvnb|Bumsted|1994|pp=107–108}}</ref>
===Strike's impact on unions===
Organized labour built on the legacy of the strike to strengthen the union movement and to pursue formal collective bargaining rights. The One Big Union flourished briefly, achieving its greatest popularity in 1920. This was followed by the rise of new industrial unions in the 1930s. The renewed poverty and insecurity of the Great Depression led to a long period of labour militancy across Canada in the 1940s, when union membership increased substantially. By the end of that decade, a formal industrial relations regime was established in Canadian law that provided some security for unions and their members but also threatened to limit the scope of their activity.<ref>Judy Fudge and Eric Tucker, ''Labour before the Law: The Regulation of Workers' Collective Action in Canada, 1900–1948'' (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 302–305.</ref>

==Historiography==
]

Discussion of the Winnipeg General Strike often begins with whether it was a conspiracy to overthrow the government or a fight for union recognition and a living wage. Given the scale of the strike and its political impact, it was difficult to consider it only an ordinary collective bargaining dispute.<ref>Kenneth McNaught and David J. Bercuson, ''The Winnipeg Strike: 1919'' (Toronto: Longman Canada, 1974), pp. 99–124.</ref> This led some historians to study local labour relations in detail,<ref>Bercuson, ''Confrontation at Winnipeg''.</ref> while others examined the nature of labour reform and radical activism in western Canada.<ref>A. Ross McCormack, ''Reformers, Rebels, and Revolutionaries: The Western Canadian Radical Movement, 1899–1919'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977).</ref> Churches, immigrants, women, soldiers, and municipal politics have also been the subject of study.<ref name="Bumsted p. "/> The "red scare" promoted by business and government spokesmen attracted attention, as did the legal manoeuvres that led to the arrest and conviction of prominent strike supporters on charges of sedition.<ref>Kramer and Mitchell, ''When the State Trembled.''</ref>

While some historians regarded the strike as a western labour revolt rooted in unique conditions in western Canada, others have pointed to widespread labour unrest across Canada, both in 1919 itself <ref>Gregory S. Kealey, "1919: The Canadian Labour Revolt," ''Labour/Le Travail'', 13 (Spring 1984), pp. 11–44.</ref> and also during the years from 1917 to 1925.<ref>Heron, ''The Workers' Revolt in Canada.''</ref> Recent accounts of the strike have also noted that most strikers were not union members, suggesting that the events might be described as an urban rebellion against the failings of the capitalist social order as it existed at the end of World War I.<ref>Graphic History Collective and David Lester, ''1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike'' (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2019).</ref>

==Commemorations in popular culture==

Shortly after the strike, two novels, ]'s ''To Him that Hath'' (Toronto, 1921) and ]'s ''The Magpie'' (Toronto, 1923), explored some of the labour and social themes raised by the strike. ''Fox'', a 1991 novel by author ], is a work of historical fiction about the events leading up to and following the strike. In 2019, ] released ''Papergirl,'' a young adult novel by Melinda McCracken about a girl who distributes the strikers' newspaper.<ref>{{cite web |title=Papergirl |url=https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/papergirl |website=Fernwood Publishing |access-date=2 April 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Petz|first=Sarah|date=May 5, 2019|title=Daughter of late Winnipeg writer revives long lost novel on 1919 General Strike|work=]|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/papergirl-winnipeg-general-strike-novel-1.5123695}}</ref> In the same year, ''1919 A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike'' was published by the Graphic History Collective.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Graphic History Collective |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1080207708 |title=1919 : a graphic history of the Winnipeg General Strike |date=2019 |others=David Lester, Translated as: Graphic History Collective |isbn=978-1-77113-420-0 |location=Toronto |oclc=1080207708}}</ref>

Among remembrances of this event in Canadian popular culture is the song "In Winnipeg" by musician ], included in the album ''Canada Needs You Volume Two''. In 2005, Danny Schur created a musical called '']'' based on the event.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.strikemusical.com|title=Strike: The Musical}}</ref> A film version called '']'' was scheduled for release in 2019 and premiered on September 10, 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldwideentertainmenttv.com/stand-movie-musical-at-tiff-press-release/|title=STAND! MOVIE MUSICAL DURING TIFF – PRESS RELEASE}}</ref> Many of the famous photographs of the strike were by Winnipeg photographer ].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Memorable Manitobans: Lewis Benjamin 'Lou' Foote (1873–1957)|url=http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/foote_lb.shtml|access-date=2022-01-18|website=]}}</ref> In Winnipeg, there are several memorials and monuments commemorating the strike.<ref>"Tipping Point" and "Taking to the Streets," ''Canada's History'' (April–May 2019), pp. 31, 50–51.</ref>

==See also==
* ]
* ]
* ]

==References==
===Notes===
{{reflist}}
===Bibliography===
* {{cite book |last=Bumsted|first=J. M. | title = The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919: An Illustrated History|year=1994| publisher = Watson & Dwyer| isbn= 9780920486405 }}
* {{cite web |last=Kelly|first=Paula |date=January 9, 2016|url = https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/women/looking-for-mrs-armstrong|title =Looking for Mrs. Armstrong|publisher = ] vol 82 No. 3| access-date = July 4, 2019 }}
* Renaud, Matthew, comp. (2019). Published in v. 42, no. 5, of the ; the issue is entitled ''The Great Canadian Sedition Trials'', 2nd ed., 2019.

==Further reading==
* Balawyder, Aloysius, ed. '']'' (Copp-Clark Publishing, 1967)
* Bercuson, David. '']'' (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1990)
* Bumsted, J.M. ''The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919: An Illustrated History'' (Winnipeg: Watson & Dyer, 1994)
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IyZ389DiOlgC |title=Dictionary of Manitoba Biography |last=Bumsted |first=J.M. |year=1999 |isbn=0887551696 |publisher=University of Manitoba Press |access-date=December 31, 2012 }}
* Epp-Koop, Stephan. ''We're Going to Run this City: Winnipeg's Political Left after the General Strike'' (University of Manitoba Press, 2015)
* Friesen, Gerald. "." ''Labour/Le Travail'' (1976) 1 pp.&nbsp;139–157.
* Graphic History Collective and David Lester, ''1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike'' (Between the Lines, 2019)
* Heron, Craig, ed. '']'' (University of Toronto Press, 1998)
* Kealey, Gregory S. "," ''Labour / Le Travail,'' 13 (Spring 1984), pp.&nbsp;11–44
* Kelly, Paula. ''Canada's History,'' vol. 82, no. 3 (June–July 2002), pp. 20–26.
* Kramer, Reinhold, and Tom Mitchell. '']'' (University of Toronto Press, 2010)
* Masters, Donald Campbell. '']'' (University of Toronto Press, 1950)
* McCormack, A. Ross. ''Reformers, Rebels, and Revolutionaries The Western Canadian Radical Movement 1899–1919'' (University of Toronto Press, 1977)
* McNaught, Kenneth and David J. Bercuson. ''The Winnipeg Strike: 1919'' (Longman Canada, 1974)
* Mitchell, Tom, "Strike or Revolution? Hugh Robson’s Inquiry and the Winnipeg General Strike,” The Manitoba Law Journal, 42, 2, 2019.
* Korneski, Kurt. "," ''Labour / Le Travail,'' 45 (Spring 2000), pp.&nbsp;259–266.
* Penner, Norman, ed. '']'' (James Lorimer and Company, 1973)
* Stace, Trevor. "Remembering and Forgetting Winnipeg: Making History on the Strike of 1919." ''Constellations'' (2014) 5#1 on the historiography of 1919; .
* Wiseman, Nelson. '']'' (University of Manitoba Press, 1983)

==External links==
{{Commons category|Winnipeg General Strike}}
* University of Calgary Archives and Special Collections
* University of Manitoba Libraries
* —Film produced by the Manitoba Labour Education Centre in 1994; YouTube
* Darren Bernhardt, CBC, 2019.
* Travis Tomchuk, Canadian Museum of Human Rights, 2019.

{{Notable labour disputes in Canada}}
{{Authority control}}

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Latest revision as of 15:03, 22 January 2025

1919 strike in Canada

Winnipeg General Strike
Part of the Canadian Labour Revolt
Crowd gathered outside old City Hall during the Winnipeg general strike, June 21, 1919
DateMay 15 – June 26, 1919
LocationWinnipeg
MethodsStrikes, protests, demonstrations
Parties
Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council
Lead figures
Casualties
Death(s)2
Injuries30
Arrested94
General strikes
1800s
1900s
2000s

The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 was one of the most famous and influential strikes in Canadian history. For six weeks, May 15 to June 26, more than 30,000 strikers brought economic activity to a standstill in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which at the time was Canada's third largest city. In the short term, the strike ended in arrests, bloodshed and defeat, but in the long run it contributed to the development of a stronger labour movement and the tradition of social democratic politics in Canada.

Causes of the strike

Newsreel footage of the Winnipeg general strike of 1919

There were many background causes for the strike, most of them related to the prevailing social inequalities and the impoverished condition of the city's working class. Wages were low, prices were rising, employment was unstable, immigrants faced discrimination, housing and health conditions were poor. In addition, there was resentment of the enormous profits enjoyed by employers during the war. Soldiers returning from the war were determined to see improved social conditions and opportunities after their harrowing experiences overseas. Most workers did not have union representation, but many were influenced by the hope of achieving greater economic security through unions.

Many workers were also influenced by socialist ideas voiced by local reformers, radicals and revolutionaries. These attracted greater interest, especially among the large population of immigrants from Eastern Europe, after the Russian Revolution of 1917. A meeting of western labour delegates in Calgary in March 1919 adopted numerous radical resolutions, including support for a five-day week and a six-hour day. They also called for the establishment of a new union centre, the One Big Union, to promote class solidarity by uniting workers from all trades and industries in one organization. The idea that the OBU instigated the general strike is misleading, as the OBU was not formed until June 1919. However, the "one big union" idea contributed to the atmosphere of unrest. Similar volatile conditions existed elsewhere in Canada, and in other countries around the world, at the end of World War I, but the combination of circumstances in Winnipeg proved to be explosive.

The most immediate cause of the strike involved support for collective bargaining in the metal trades and building trades, where workers were attempting to negotiate contracts through their trades councils. When the Metal Trades Council and the Building Trades Council had both failed to secure contracts with employers by the end of April, they went on strike, the building trades on May 1 and the metal trades on May 2. Shortly afterwards, the situation was discussed at meetings of the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council, the umbrella body for the city's unions. The Labour Council decided to call on their 12,000 affiliated members to vote on a proposal for a general strike. On a smaller scale, this tactic had achieved success for striking city workers a year earlier in 1918. Preliminary results of the vote among the Labour Council's member unions were announced on May 13. The outcome showed overwhelming support for a general strike, 8,667 to 645. Ernest Robinson, secretary of the Labour Council, issued a statement that "every organization but one has voted in favour of the general strike" and that "all public utilities will be tied-up in order to enforce the principle of collective bargaining". A Strike Committee was established, with delegates elected by the city's unions. The leadership included both moderate trade unionists, such as James Winning, a bricklayer who was president of the Trades and Labour Council, and socialists such as R.B. Russell, a machinist who favoured the OBU.

1919 general strike

Organization

At 11 am on Thursday, May 15, 1919, virtually the entire working population of Winnipeg went on strike. Somewhere around 30,000 workers in the public and private sectors walked off their jobs, and the city experienced a sudden cessation of many normal activities. The Strike Committee requested the police force, who had voted in favour of the strike, to remain on duty. Workers at the city waterworks also remained on the job to provide service at reduced pressure. Union membership had increased substantially during the spring of 1919, but most of the people who came out in support of the general strike were not union members. For instance, the first to leave work, at 7:00 a.m., were the telephone operators, the so-called "hello girls" at the city telephone exchanges, who were not at this time union members. Also on the first day of the strike, the major organizations of returned soldiers announced their support and were active throughout the six weeks of the strike.

In the early days of the strike, according to historian David Bercuson, "The atmosphere was almost festive, the belief in ultimate victory strong." Participants assembled in city parks to listen to speakers report on the progress of the strike and discuss the many related social reform issues of the time. To ensure that strikers were kept informed of developments, the Strike Committee also published a daily Strike Bulletin. This newspaper urged the strikers to remain peaceable as well as idle: "The only thing the workers have to do to win this strike is to do nothing. Just eat, sleep, play, love, laugh, and look at the sun ... Our fight consists of doing no fighting."

Women leaders played an important part in building solidarity among the strikers. Experienced organizers such as Helen "Ma" Armstrong, one of two women on the Strike Committee, encouraged young working women to join the strike and often spoke on street corners and at public meetings. The Women's Labour League raised money to help women workers pay rent. They also set up a kitchen where hundreds of meals were served every day. On June 12 a "ladies day" was held at Victoria Park, where women occupied seats of honour to cheer a speech by J.S. Woodsworth promoting the emancipation of women and the equality of the sexes. An emerging working-class activist named Edith Hancox, who became a notable defender of the city's dispossessed during the 1920s, is the only woman reported as a speaker at the huge outdoor gatherings at Victoria Park.

Negotiations between members of the Strike Committee, city council and local businesses produced an arrangement to continue milk and bread deliveries. To make it clear that the delivery men were not strikebreakers, a small poster was printed for display on their wagons reading "PERMITTED BY AUTHORITY OF STRIKE COMMITTEE." Although the cards were suggested by management, they were also attacked as evidence that the Strike Committee was taking control of the city.

Opposition

B&W photo of a protest banner
Anti-strike banner used in loyalist veterans parade during the 1919 Winnipeg general strike
B&W Newspaper front cover
Winnipeg Telegram Front Cover June 9, 1919

In a city divided on class lines, opposition to the strike was led by a group of local businessmen and professionals who described themselves as the Citizens' Committee of One Thousand. From their headquarters in the Board of Trade building, they encouraged employers not to give in to the strikers and attempted to stir up resentment of "alien" immigrants, who, they charged, were the principal leaders of the strike. They also put pressure on governments to take action against the strike. They published a newspaper, The Winnipeg Citizen, that claimed that "the so-called general strike is in reality revolution – or a daring attempt to overthrow the present industrial and governmental system."

At the end of the first week of the strike, two federal cabinet ministers arrived in Winnipeg to assess the situation, acting Minister of Justice Arthur Meighen and Minister of Labour Gideon Robertson. They refused to meet with the Strike Committee, but consulted with the Citizens' Committee, who greatly influenced their conclusions. Meighen issued a statement that the strike was "a cloak for something far deeper—an effort to 'overturn' the proper authority". Robertson reported back to Ottawa that "the motive behind this strike undoubtedly was the overthrow of Constitutional Government." They warned striking postal workers, who were federal employees, to return to work or lose their jobs.  At this time, they also authorized the local government to use the armed forces and the Royal Northwest Mounted Police as needed. In preparation for arrests, at the beginning of June, and on the advice of one of the leaders of the Citizens' Committee, A.J. Andrews, the federal government amended the Immigration Act to allow for the deportation without trial of any British citizens not born in Canada who were charged with seditious activity.

The municipal government also took action. As large numbers of veterans were holding marches in the streets in support of the strike, on June 5 Mayor Charles F. Gray announced a ban on public demonstrations. On June 9 the city also dismissed almost the entire police force for refusing to sign a pledge promising to neither belong to a union nor participate in a sympathetic strike. With the assistance of the Citizens' Committee, the city police were replaced with a large body of untrained but better paid special constables who patrolled the streets with clubs. Within hours, one of the special constables, a much-medalled World War I veteran Frederick Coppins, charged into a gathering of strikers and was dragged off his horse and severely pummelled. This led to claims that he was attacked by "enemy ruffians".

The local newspapers, the Winnipeg Free Press and Winnipeg Tribune, had lost the majority of their employees due to the strike, but once they were able to resume publication, they took a decidedly anti-strike stance. The Winnipeg Free Press called the strikers "bohunks", "aliens", and "anarchists" and ran cartoons depicting radicals throwing bombs. These anti-strike views influenced the opinions of some Winnipeg residents and contributed to the deepening atmosphere of crisis.

A plan to offer a modified form of collective bargaining to the Metal Trades Council was in the works at the middle of the month, but any efforts at compromise were ended by a series of arrests on charges of seditious conspiracy. In the early morning hours of June 17, the RNWMP apprehended several prominent leaders of the strike, including George Armstrong, Roger Bray, Abraham Heaps, William Ivens, R.B. Russell and John Queen. In addition, Bill Pritchard, a Vancouver union organizer who was returning from Winnipeg, was arrested in Calgary. R. J. Johns, of Winnipeg, was in Montreal and not arrested at this time. With the exception of Armstrong, who was Canadian-born, they were all British immigrants. Several foreign-born socialists, including Sam Blumenberg, Max Charitonoff and Solomon Almazoff were also arrested, as was Oscar Schoppelrei, an American-born Canadian war veteran of German ethnic origin.

RNWMP action in Winnipeg during the strike

Bloody Saturday

B&W people on the street
Winnipeg general strike turns into a riot.
B&W people on the street
Crowds on the street

The climax of the strike came a few days later, on Saturday, June 21, which was soon known as Bloody Saturday. To protest against the arrest of the strike leaders, the returned soldiers had announced a demonstration in the form of a "silent parade" on Main Street for Saturday afternoon. Crowds assembled in the thousands in the streets around City Hall. When the soldiers refused to call off the demonstration, Mayor Gray requested assistance from the RNWMP, who entered into the crowds on horseback, wielding clubs in an attempt to disperse the assembly. A streetcar operated by a strikebreaker attempted to travel south on Main Street towards Portage Avenue but was stopped and tipped off the tracks and briefly set on fire.

After the Mayor read the Riot Act, the Mounties entered the fray again, this time discharging their .45 revolvers in three separate volleys. About 120 shots were fired. One man, Mike Sokolowski, was killed on the spot. Another, Steve Szczerbanowicz, died later from his wounds. Hospitals reported about 30 injuries, mainly from police gunfire. Others were tended to by friends and family. As the crowds were chased into sidestreets and broken up, some 80 people were arrested by the "specials" and military patrols that took over the downtown area.

When the Strike Bulletin published its account of the events of Bloody Saturday, the editors, J.S. Woodsworth and Fred J. Dixon, were arrested and charged with seditious libel. They had published articles with headings such as "Kaiserism in Canada" and "The British Way". The charges against Woodsworth included his quotation of a verse from Isaiah: "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees." Further publication of the newspaper was suppressed.

These events broke the confidence of the Strike Committee, and on June 25, they announced the end of the strike for 11:00 a.m. the next day. After six weeks, workers drifted back to their jobs, but many were blacklisted or otherwise punished for participating in the strike.

Role in the labour revolt

In May and June 1919, general strikes broke out in as many as thirty other cities, from Amherst, Nova Scotia, to Victoria, British Columbia. Some of these strikes were protests against local conditions; some were in solidarity with the Winnipeg strikers; some arose from both causes.

Aftermath

"State trials" and deportations

Eight of the strike leaders were brought to trial on charges of seditious conspiracy. The evidence against them focused less on their actions than on their socialist ideas, which were seen as the root cause of the unrest that led to the general strike. Under arrangements accepted (and paid for) by the federal government, the prosecution was conducted by Andrews and other "legal gentlemen" who were active in the Citizens' Committee during the strike.

Seven of the accused (Armstrong, Bray, Ivens, Johns, Pritchard, Russell and Queen) were found guilty by the largely rural juries selected for the trials. Most were sentenced to one-year sentences, but Russell was sentenced to two years and Bray, who was convicted on a lesser charge, was sentenced to six months. (As well, John Farnell, who had filled the void left in the leadership of pro-strike returned soldiers after Bray's arrest, was sentenced to nine months in prison. He was released three months early, due to his wife's illness.)

Heaps conducted his own defence. He was acquitted on all charges. Dixon, who was charged with seditious libel, delivered a strong defence of the right to free speech as an essential element of the British tradition. After forty hours of deliberation, the largely urban jury acquitted him. This result caused the prosecution to abandon the similar charges against Woodsworth.

In the case of the "foreigners" arrested on June 17, there were no criminal proceedings. The attempt to deport Almazoff failed, and Charitonoff appealed successfully against a deportation order. Blumenberg and Schoppelrei were deported on technical grounds related to their original entry into the country. Blumenberg found his feet in the U.S., organizing workers in the Duluth area and even running for municipal office there on the socialist platform.

Political impact

A provincial royal commission headed by H.A. Robson investigated the strike. The report deplored sympathetic strikes but concluded that the Winnipeg strike was not a criminal conspiracy by foreigners and stated that "if Capital does not provide enough to assure Labour a contented existence ... then the Government might find it necessary to step in and let the state do these things at the expense of Capital."

The impact of the strike was evident in subsequent elections. Labour had elected some representatives prior to the strike but the number significantly increased afterwards at all three levels of government.

While awaiting trial, Queen was re-elected to the Winnipeg City council. While serving out their sentences in prison, Armstrong, Ivens and Queen were elected to the Manitoba legislature. Queen later served seven terms as mayor of Winnipeg.

Woodsworth was elected as a Labour Member of Parliament from Winnipeg in 1921 and was repeatedly re-elected until his death in 1942. In 1932 he helped found and became leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, a forerunner of the New Democratic Party. That party was elected to provincial government in Saskatchewan in 1944 and in Manitoba in 1969. Heaps was elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Winnipeg North in 1925 and re-elected until 1940.

Strike's impact on unions

Organized labour built on the legacy of the strike to strengthen the union movement and to pursue formal collective bargaining rights. The One Big Union flourished briefly, achieving its greatest popularity in 1920. This was followed by the rise of new industrial unions in the 1930s. The renewed poverty and insecurity of the Great Depression led to a long period of labour militancy across Canada in the 1940s, when union membership increased substantially. By the end of that decade, a formal industrial relations regime was established in Canadian law that provided some security for unions and their members but also threatened to limit the scope of their activity.

Historiography

Partially overturned streetcar during the strike

Discussion of the Winnipeg General Strike often begins with whether it was a conspiracy to overthrow the government or a fight for union recognition and a living wage. Given the scale of the strike and its political impact, it was difficult to consider it only an ordinary collective bargaining dispute. This led some historians to study local labour relations in detail, while others examined the nature of labour reform and radical activism in western Canada. Churches, immigrants, women, soldiers, and municipal politics have also been the subject of study. The "red scare" promoted by business and government spokesmen attracted attention, as did the legal manoeuvres that led to the arrest and conviction of prominent strike supporters on charges of sedition.

While some historians regarded the strike as a western labour revolt rooted in unique conditions in western Canada, others have pointed to widespread labour unrest across Canada, both in 1919 itself and also during the years from 1917 to 1925. Recent accounts of the strike have also noted that most strikers were not union members, suggesting that the events might be described as an urban rebellion against the failings of the capitalist social order as it existed at the end of World War I.

Commemorations in popular culture

Shortly after the strike, two novels, Ralph Connor's To Him that Hath (Toronto, 1921) and Douglas Durkin's The Magpie (Toronto, 1923), explored some of the labour and social themes raised by the strike. Fox, a 1991 novel by author Margaret Sweatman, is a work of historical fiction about the events leading up to and following the strike. In 2019, Fernwood Publishing released Papergirl, a young adult novel by Melinda McCracken about a girl who distributes the strikers' newspaper. In the same year, 1919 A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike was published by the Graphic History Collective.

Among remembrances of this event in Canadian popular culture is the song "In Winnipeg" by musician Mike Ford, included in the album Canada Needs You Volume Two. In 2005, Danny Schur created a musical called Strike! based on the event. A film version called Stand! was scheduled for release in 2019 and premiered on September 10, 2019. Many of the famous photographs of the strike were by Winnipeg photographer L. B. Foote. In Winnipeg, there are several memorials and monuments commemorating the strike.

See also

References

Notes

  1. Reilly, J. Nolan; Skikavich, Julia; Baker, Nathan (July 9, 2021). "Winnipeg General Strike of 1919". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  2. ^ Bumsted 1994
  3. James Naylor, "Standing Together," Canada's History (April–May 2019), pp. 22–24.
  4. Heron, Craig (1998). The Workers' Revolt in Canada, 1917–1925. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
  5. Bercuson, David (1974). Confrontation at Winnipeg: Labour, Industrial Relations, and the General Strike. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 109–112.
  6. Bercuson, Confrontation at Winnipeg, pp. 58–65.
  7. Penner, Norman (1973). Winnipeg 1919. Toronto: James Lorimer and Company. pp. 43–44.
  8. Bumsted 1994, p. 28
  9. Bumsted 1994, p. 29
  10. Bercuson, Confrontation at Winnipeg, p. 116.
  11. Quoted by Kenneth McNaught, A Prophet in Politics: A Biography of J.S. Woodsworth (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1959), p. 121.
  12. Kelly 2016, pp. 20–26
  13. Mary Horodyski, "Women and the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919," Manitoba History 11 (Spring 1986), pp. 28–37.
  14. David Thompson, "More Sugar, Less Salt: Edith Hancox and the Passionate Mobilization of the Dispossessed, 1919–1928," Labour/Le Travail 85 (Spring 2020), pp. 127–163.
  15. Penner, Winnipeg 1919, pp. 48–52.
  16. D.C. Masters, The Winnipeg General Strike (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1950), p. 66.
  17. Bumsted 1994, pp. 37–39
  18. Bumsted 1994, pp. 47–48
  19. Masters, Winnipeg General Strike, p. 90.
  20. Bumsted 1994, pp. 50–52
  21. Mitchell, Tom and James Naylor, "The Prairies: In the Eye of the Storm." In The Workers' Revolt in Canada, 1917–1925 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998) pp. 176–180.
  22. Reinhold Kramer and Tom Mitchell, When the State Trembled: How A.J. Andrews and the Citizens’ Committee Broke the Winnipeg General Strike (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010), pp, 163–166.  
  23. ^ Masters, Winnipeg General Strike, pp. 83–88, 107–108.
  24. Penner, Winnipeg 1919, pp. 207–215.
  25. Bumsted 1994, p. 58
  26. Naylor, "Standing Together", pp. 26–27.
  27. Mitchell, Tom (Spring 2004), "'Legal Gentlemen Appointed by the Federal Government': the Canadian State, the Citizens' Committee of 1000, and Winnipeg's Seditious Conspiracy Trials of 1919–1920", Labour/Le Travail, 53: 9–46, archived from the original on May 17, 2014, The prosecution was undertaken by leading members of the Citizens' Committee of 1000's legal committee, including A J. Andrews, Isaac Pitblado, Travers Sweatman, and J.B. Coyne, under provisions of the Criminal Code that allowed for prosecutions by private citizens or organizations, subject to the consent of the Attorney General of Manitoba. For their efforts, the federal government paid Andrews, Pitblado, Coyne, and Sweatman handsomely.
  28. Edmonton Bulletin, August 5, 1920
  29. Bumsted 1994, pp. 66–69
  30. Kramer and Mitchell, When the State Trembled, pp. 283–287.
  31. Masters, The Winnipeg General Strike, p. 150
  32. Justice H. A. Robson's report, quoted in Fudge, Judy; Tucker, Eric (2004). Labour Before the Law: The Regulation of Workers' Collective Action in Canada, 1900–1948. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 112. ISBN 0-8020-3793-3.
  33. Edmonton Bulletin, Nov. 29, 1919
  34. Bumsted, Dictionary of Manitoba Biography, pp. 9, 120–121, 205.
  35. Young, Walter D. (1969). The anatomy of a party: the national CCF 1932–61. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 31.
  36. Bumsted 1994, pp. 107–108
  37. Judy Fudge and Eric Tucker, Labour before the Law: The Regulation of Workers' Collective Action in Canada, 1900–1948 (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 302–305.
  38. Kenneth McNaught and David J. Bercuson, The Winnipeg Strike: 1919 (Toronto: Longman Canada, 1974), pp. 99–124.
  39. Bercuson, Confrontation at Winnipeg.
  40. A. Ross McCormack, Reformers, Rebels, and Revolutionaries: The Western Canadian Radical Movement, 1899–1919 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977).
  41. Kramer and Mitchell, When the State Trembled.
  42. Gregory S. Kealey, "1919: The Canadian Labour Revolt," Labour/Le Travail, 13 (Spring 1984), pp. 11–44.
  43. Heron, The Workers' Revolt in Canada.
  44. Graphic History Collective and David Lester, 1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2019).
  45. "Papergirl". Fernwood Publishing. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
  46. Petz, Sarah (May 5, 2019). "Daughter of late Winnipeg writer revives long lost novel on 1919 General Strike". CBC News.
  47. Graphic History Collective (2019). 1919 : a graphic history of the Winnipeg General Strike. David Lester, Translated as: Graphic History Collective. Toronto. ISBN 978-1-77113-420-0. OCLC 1080207708.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  48. "Strike: The Musical".
  49. "STAND! MOVIE MUSICAL DURING TIFF – PRESS RELEASE".
  50. "Memorable Manitobans: Lewis Benjamin 'Lou' Foote (1873–1957)". Manitoba Historical Society. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  51. "Tipping Point" and "Taking to the Streets," Canada's History (April–May 2019), pp. 31, 50–51.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Strikes and other labour disputes in Canada
Early
1918–1925 Labour Revolt
Great Depression era
Postwar era
21st century
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