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Topic: Winnipeg General Strike of 1919


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  Winnipeg General Strike
In Winnipeg on May 15, when negotiations broke down between management and labour in the building and metal trades, the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council called a general strike.
Opposition to the strike was organized by the Citizens' Committee of 1000, created shortly after the strike began by Winnipeg's most influential manufacturers, bankers and politicians.
Afraid that the strike would spark confrontations in other cities, the federal government decided to intervene; soon after the strike began, Senator Gideon Robertson, minister of labour, and Arthur MEIGHEN, minister of the interior and acting minister of justice, went to Winnipeg to meet with the Citizens' Committee.
www.canadianencyclopedia.ca /index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&ArticleId=A0008649   (602 words)

  
  The Winnipeg General Strike (1919): historical context, economic impact and related links
For more than six tense weeks in the spring of 1919, the residents of Winnipeg witnessed an unprecedented display of labour solidarity when local union and non-union workers from the private and public sectors paralyzed their city in a general strike.
The strike was sparked by a dispute between metal workers and their bosses; it quickly spread throughout the city’s working class, fanned by deeper discontents over inflation, unemployment and ideological ferment.
On June 17, 1919, several leaders of the Central Strike Committee were arrested and sent to a jail outside the city.
www.canadianeconomy.gc.ca /english/economy/1919Winnipeg_general_strike.html   (823 words)

  
  Winnipeg General Strike of 1919: Definition and Links by Encyclopedian.com
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 general strikes.
By June 17, 1919 the workers were gradually giving up and returning to their jobs.
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 [to intervene] and let the state do these things at the expense of Capital".
www.encyclopedian.com /wi/Winnipeg-General-Strike-of-1919.html   (547 words)

  
 Socialist History Project
For example, an account of the strike published by the BC Federation of Labour concludes by saying that as a result of this experience, strike leader J. Woodsworth went on to found the CCF, which later became the NDP.
Throughout the 1919 labor revolt, when general strikes were underway in a dozen or more cities from Vancouver BC to Amherst NS, the SPC’s weekly newspaper was largely devoted to the same routine expositions of Marxist theory it published before and after the strikes.
In Winnipeg, the ruling class demonstrated that it would not be passive in face of such a challenge to its power—it would not yield to the majority.
www.socialisthistory.ca /Docs/History/WinnipegStrike.htm   (2352 words)

  
 CM Magazine: On Strike: The Winnipeg General Strike, 1919. (The People's History of the West Series).
On Strike examines this struggle, chronicling the conditions and events leading to the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.
On May 1st, 1919, the building and metal trades, upon being denied the right to bargain collectively, went out on strike and urged workers throughout the city of Winnipeg to do the same.
The Winnipeg General Strike proved to be a turning point in labor relations.
umanitoba.ca /outreach/cm/vol7/no4/onstrike.html   (628 words)

  
 hisupdate27.htm
When the war ended and the troops stared returning home in 1919, jobs grew scarce and by the winter of 1919 unemployment was rising along with the cost of living all across Canada.
Within forty-eight hours, 35,000 workers were on strike in a city of 200,000--and police, firemen and postal workers were also ready to walk out.
In Toronto the Metal Trades Council proposed a national general strike, in Montreal the Trades and Labour Council protested and from Cape Breton the leader of the Canadian coal miners wired Ottawa pledging a strike by his members all across Canada.
www.iamawlodge1426.org /hisupdate27.htm   (1130 words)

  
 Winnipeg General Strike at CanadianIdentity.com
The governments campaign against immigrant minorities was ineffective at ending the general strike because the leadership and the majority of workers were citizens born in either Canada or Britain.
The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 was an important event in the history of Canada because it was a turning point.The strike was an illegal six week action fought by underprivileged Canadian Workers to have their right of collective bargaining recognized by the Canadian Government and by wealthy business owners.
The fear of revolution generated by the strike caused the government to overreact and allow the RCMP and a force of “special constables” to brutalize demonstrators and occupy the streets until the strike was defeated.
www.canadianidentity.com /w/winnipeggeneralstrike   (1264 words)

  
 1919: Winnipeg general strike | libcom.org
The immediate catalyst to the general strike was a conflict between the unions of building and metal workers, who had grouped together respectively under the Building and Metals Trades Councils, and their employers at the Winnipeg Builder's Exchange.
For six weeks during the summer of 1919, the working class of Winnipeg withdrew their labour from their employers and participated in the largest strike action in Canadian labour history, with support in the form of strikes and protests occurring across the whole of Canada, involving hundreds of thousands of workers.
Although defeated and demoralised, the strikers of Winnipeg who, instead of asking of their employers what was rightfully theirs, took strike action and demanded it, were instrumental in laying the foundations for the improvements in conditions, wages and union recognition rights which occurred in Canada over the next 30 years.
libcom.org /history/1919-winnipeg-general-strike   (1219 words)

  
 General strike at AllExperts
General strikes were frequent in Spain during the early twentieth century, where revolutionary anarcho-syndicalism was most popular.
The biggest general strike in recent European history – and the largest general wildcat strike ever – was May 1968 in France.
The term "general strike" is sometimes also applied to large-scale strikes of all of the workers in a particular industry, such as the Textile workers strike (1934).
en.allexperts.com /e/g/ge/general_strike.htm   (386 words)

  
 The 1919 Winnipeg General Strike
That I went to Winnipeg at the behest of a committee of workers as a spectator and in the week (approximately) I was there, sitting by invitation once with the Strike Committee, and addressing a few open-air gatherings, gave the authorities their chance and they took it.
To understand the Strike one should place it in the context of the social atmosphere of the country, the position of organized labor (especially in Western Canada), together with the political situation of that time.
The labor history since Winnipeg is replete with instances: the longshoremen of Vancouver - the then only remaining organized body of waterfront workers on the Pacific Coast in 1922; the strikes of miners and lumber workers; the Kirkland Land Strike of 1941.
www.worldsocialism.org /canada/winnipeg.general.strike.1969.v36n269.htm   (2536 words)

  
 Manitoba History: Review: Politics and Discourse: A Review of “1919: The Winnipeg General Strike: A Driving ...
All readers of “1919: The Winnipeg General Strike” might have benefitted from an elaboration of the businessmen’s and industrialists’ involvement in the city’s early development, their interrelationships with governments and each other, and the world view that motivated their economic and political activities.
Even if there were a general consensus as to the pertinent events in a series there would be little agreement as to how to, represent them, since events relating to an historical process seldom follow a linear path, while writers are forced by their medium to treat one event at a time.
The selfless dedication of the Strike leaders is indicated by an account of their work “until the wee small hours” and a “weary tramp homewards”; this contrasts with the “profiteering” of Canadian corporations during the war.
www.mhs.mb.ca /docs/mb_history/13/striketour.shtml   (3768 words)

  
 Spartanburg SC | GoUpstate.com | Spartanburg Herald-Journal
Winnipeg lies at the confluence of the Assiniboine River and Red River, which is also known as The Forks, and was a focal point on canoe river routes traveled by aboriginal peoples for thousands of years.
Winnipeg was briefly Canada's third-largest city (from 1910 until the 1930's), but, beginning in the 1970s, Winnipeg slowed in growth and by 2005 was only Canada's sixth largest city and ninth largest Census Metropolitan Area.
Winnipeg is situated just west of the longitudinal centre of Canada (also near the geographical centre of North America), and approximately 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of the border with the United States.
www.goupstate.com /apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS&template=wiki&text=Winnipeg   (5201 words)

  
 Story:Start of 1919 Winnipeg General Strike - Canadawiki
On May 6, 1919 the WTLC met and decided to poll all of its members on whether or not to launch a city-wide general strike to support the metal and building trades workers.
The city police voted 149 to 11 for strike action, the fire-fighters 149 to 6, the water works employees 44 to 9, the postal workers 250 to 19, the cooks and waiters 278 to 0, and the tailors 155 to 13.
With this overwhelming mandate, the WTLC struck a Central Strike Committee to manage the walkout, and declared a general strike to begin on May 15, at 11:00 a.m.
canadawiki.org /index.php/Story:Start_of_1919_Winnipeg_General_Strike   (939 words)

  
 The Canadian Encyclopedia
An eerie calm descended on the streets of Winnipeg on the morning of May 15, 1919.
Now labour leaders were preaching the use of the “general” strike and “one big union” to fight for recognition and better wages.
The Strike Committee gathered in the grubby quarters of the Labour Temple, the Citizens’ Committee in the sumptuous rooms of the private Manitoba Club.
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com /index.cfm?PgNm=ArchivedFeatures&Params=A250   (705 words)

  
 New Page 1
Throughout the 1919 labor revolt, when general strikes were underway in a dozen or more cities from Vancouver BC to Amherst NS, the SPC’s weekly newspaper was largely devoted to the same routine expositions of Marxist theory it published before and after the strikes.
This is not a strike at all, in the ordinary sense of the term—it is Revolution.
Winnipeg, as a plain matter of fact, is governed by the Central Strike Committee of the Trades and Labor Councils.
www.socialistvoice.com /Soc-Voice/Soc-Voice-6.htm   (2403 words)

  
 Civilization.ca - Canadian labour history, 1850-1999 - Winnipeg general strike
The Winnipeg General Strike would last six weeks until it was finally brought to an end by the tragic events of Bloody Saturday.
In the spring of 1919, Winnipeg was a hot bed of militant unionism and radical politics.
The legacy of the 1919 revolt was a mixed one.
www.civilization.ca /hist/labour/labh22e.html   (1352 words)

  
 Michael Suddard's Homepage - Winnipeg General Strike: Unions vs. Government   (Site not responding. Last check: )
Therefore, the majority of veterans joined the strike movement because they were angered over the high unemployment rates and the prospect of a better future with the fight for job security, better wages and working conditions.
The federal government’s position was to portray the strike leaders as being crazy revolutionary idealists who wanted to rebel and overthrow the constitutional authority that the federal government possessed.
Therefore, a general strike provided this opportunity because it would force both the Trades and Labour Congress and the western business leaders to take notice and act on the union’s demands for a collective bargaining process.
www.michaelsuddard.com /winnipeggeneralstrike.html   (3228 words)

  
 Remembering the Winnipeg General Strike - "On This Day" - CBC Archives
The strike demands were the right to collective bargaining, a living wage, and an eight-hour day.
On June 17, ten strike leaders were arrested under the legislation that had been quickly passed in Parliament for that purpose.
Labour disruptions and demonstrations took place across the country in 1918 and 1919, and the uprising in Russia in 1917 had inspired trade unionists in Winnipeg and elsewhere.
archives.cbc.ca /IDC-1-73-717-4239-20/that_was_then/politics_economy/winnipeg_general_strike   (654 words)

  
 Winnipeg General Strike
There had been a brief General Strike during the month of May. Enemy aliens were once again singled out by spokesmen of the business community as the instigators of the continuing unrest.
Opposition to the strike was organized by the Citizens' Committee of One Thousand, created by Winnipeg’s most influential Anglo-Canadian manufacturers, bankers and politicians who viewed themselves as defenders of the Canadian way of life on the prairies (Bercuson, 1974).
Of equal significance was the decision on June 21 to release on ball Anglo-Saxon Winnipeg strike leaders, a gesture which was not extended to the four 'foreign' radicals who remained lodged in the Stoney Mountain penitentiary (Bumsted, 1994).
www.cupe1975.ca /bursary/burs4.html   (1900 words)

  
 CM Magazine: On Strike: The Winnipeg General Strike, 1919. (The People's History of the West Series).
On Strike examines this struggle, chronicling the conditions and events leading to the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.
On May 1st, 1919, the building and metal trades, upon being denied the right to bargain collectively, went out on strike and urged workers throughout the city of Winnipeg to do the same.
The Winnipeg General Strike proved to be a turning point in labor relations.
www.umanitoba.ca /outreach/cm/vol7/no4/onstrike.html   (628 words)

  
 The Winnipeg General Strike
The general strike officially began on May 15, 1919, at 11 o'clock and thousands of non-unionized workers joined the strikers.
It is believed that the strike was a pretext for the advancement of the communist movement.
The general strike ended on June 26 at 11 o'clock after the strike committee told its supporters that the next battle would be waged on a political level; this would begin with the dispatch of several labour representatives to all levels of government.
www.histori.ca /peace/page.do?pageID=347   (639 words)

  
 Manitoba History: The Third Force: Returned Soldiers in the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919
Although the Strike was for wages and working conditions, it was no accident that it should occur just after World War I. These problems had always existed, but the war served to suppress and later to aggravate them.
Scholarship on the Winnipeg strike does not have a convenient place for the returning soldiers, who for the most part seem to be a relatively faceless mass of men of confusing beliefs and sentiments.
Winnipeg, with its 67.4% British population, had sent the highest proportion of soldiers in Canada to war.
www.mhs.mb.ca /docs/mb_history/34/thirdforce.shtml   (4688 words)

  
 1919 Winnipeg General Strike
The Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council responded to the conflict by calling for a vote on a general strike in support of the right to unionize and bargain with employers, a living wage and an eight-hour day.
Right from the very day the strike leaders were arrested there were suspicions that the purpose of the heavy-handed intervention of the state in the strike was intended to bring the working classes of Winnipeg and Canada to heel, to remind them that in the grand scheme of things labour was subordinate to capital.
The provincial Attorney General, T.H. Johnson, who was responsible to protect Manitobans from malicious prosecutions stood aside lending the Citizens Committee the use of the authority and prestige of the Crown in its campaign against Canadian workers in the courts.
www.mfl.mb.ca /a38.shtml   (1402 words)

  
 Street scene during the Winnipeg General Strike, 1919 - The Canadian West - Exhibitions - Library and Archives Canada
By the spring of 1919, the city of Winnipeg was polarized into two camps  -  business and labour  -  with the latter growing in militancy and radicalism.
On May 1, 1919, workers in the metal and building trades in Winnipeg, under the leadership of the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council, went on strike to press for recognition of the right to organize and the right to bargain collectively about their wages and working conditions.
On May 15, the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council called for a general strike of workers in nearly every sector of Winnipeg, and Canada's third largest city was shut down for six weeks in the most complete general strike in Canadian history.
www.collectionscanada.ca /05/0529/052930/05293052_e.html   (351 words)

  
 Winnipeg General Strike
In the city of Winnipeg, the financial centre of western Canada and its largest city, the result was a general strike.
problems which led to the strike and the strike in the context of western protest movements, and examine the primary documents relating to the formation of the One Big Union.
Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper to explain why you think the Winnipeg strikers were or were not justified in their actions.
www.saskschools.ca /curr_content/history_30/module3/activity3b_3.html   (253 words)

  
 History 30: Canadian Studies Curriculum Guide - Unit Three: External Forces and Domestic Realities   (Site not responding. Last check: )
Of the numerous strikes during 1919, the Winnipeg General Strike was the largest and was to affect profoundly the attitudes of organized labour.
Striking postal workers were dismissed as were 240 Winnipeg policemen suspected of being sympathetic to the strikers.
Rather than ending the strike, the arrest of several strike leaders produced an angry reaction and renewed determination on the part of the strikers.
www.sasked.gov.sk.ca /docs/history30/u3ct9.html   (446 words)

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