Winnipeg Free Press

1919 - 2019: A CENTURY OF SOLIDARITY The Lessons and Legacy of the Winnipeg General Strike A century on, it's hard to fathom the immediate impact of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. In sympathy with building and metal workers who had walked off the job on May 1 and May 2, respectively, 30,000 men and women — the majority of whom were not union members — left their posts on May 15. While the official start was set for 11 a.m., some 500 telephone operators — known at the time as "Hello Girls" — hung up their headsets at 7 a.m., followed by postal workers, shop clerks, streetcar operators, factory and bakery workers and even, for a short time, firefighters. Winnipeg police remained on the job, but the force was fired en masse three weeks later when members refused to sign a no- strike pledge. Given that the population of the day stood at less than 180,000 men, women and children, it was a staggering show of solidarity. "They agreed with the call for more reasonable hours of work, for a living wage, for union recognition, for respect for workers," says Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck. "And sympathy strikes broke out across the country as well — it wasn't just Winnipeg. And it wasn't just union members, that's one of the most interesting things." Essentially born of a class struggle, unrest had been brewing for some time before the strike began. Following on the heels of a depression, the First World War brought austerity measures along with recovery, and wages remained stagnant while inflation was rampant. Unemployment was high and the gap between the rich and the poor was growing wider. Just two years after the Russian Revolution, business elites and government officials saw socialist movements as a "Bolshevik" threat, and they stoked tensions between "aliens" and returning soldiers, some of whom resented Jewish, Ukrainian and Polish immigrants who did have jobs. The fuse was laid, and the spark was lit when employers refused to recognize workers in the metal and building trades who had organized together. "After months of trying to get recognition they went on strike, and they asked others to walk out with them. The Winnipeg Trades & Labour Council had a vote and 8,667 people said, 'Yes let's go on strike with them,' and 645 voted no," Rebeck says. "By May 15, when they walked off the job, 20,000 non-union workers walked off the job with them, because people had had enough." The strike lasted for six weeks, until a violent confrontation on Bloody Saturday, June 21. In response to the June 17 arrests of 10 strikers, and a newly declared ban on public demonstrations, pro-strike war veterans organized a silent parade on Main Street, which drew thousands of supporters and spectators. When a southbound streetcar appeared, headed toward the crowd, strikers knocked it off its tracks, smashed its windows and set it on fire. Replacement "police specials," armed soldiers and North-West Mounted Police charged the crowd, cornering hundreds of them in what became known as Hell's Alley, between Market and James avenues, and shooting several people along Main Street. Dozens of men, women and children were injured, and two men were fatally shot; Mike Sokolowski died at the scene and Steven Schezerbanowes succumbed to gangrene a few days later. When anti-strike soldiers with machine guns began patrolling the streets, veterans on the pro-strike side who understood the danger to all civilians advocated for an end to the strike. It was officially called off on June 26, but not before labour activists secured a promise from then-Premier Tobias Norris to call a royal commission, which ultimately concluded there was a need to establish fair working conditions and improve wages. "Things started to change," Rebeck says. "There are a lot of benefits that we all enjoy today that found their origins as part of the legacy of the strike that we're quite proud of. They didn't achieve many of the goals of the strike at the time, but it changed the fabric of our society by politicizing the public in a way that they hadn't been before, and every government at all three levels changed in the next election. Many strike leaders were elected — some while still in jail for being a strike leader." After J.S. Woodsworth condemned both the June 17 arrests of strike leaders and the violence of Bloody Saturday as "Kaiserism" in a labour newspaper, he was charged with seditious libel. Two years later, he was elected to the House of Commons, and he went on to help form the Co-operative Commonwealth Strike leader Roger Bray addresses a crowd at Victoria Park. Below: Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck. "To go six weeks where things were extremely cut back and people were standing in solidarity shoulder to shoulder and just leaning on each other; to be able to stand strong and continue that strike is a pretty amazing piece of history." A Brief History: TIMELINE OF THE 1919 WINNIPEG GENERAL STRIKE 1918 DECEMBER 22 Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council (WTLC) meeting at Walker Theatre protests the anti- labour War Measures Act. 1919 JANUARY 10 Socialist Party of Canada meeting at Majestic Theatre calls for end of capitalism. MARCH 13 At the Western Labour Conference in Calgary, delegates vote to form a revolutionary One Big Union. MAY 1 Aer months of negotiations, all unions belonging to the Building Trades Council in Winnipeg go on strike. MAY 2 Metal Trades Council workers call a strike. MAY 6 In light of the refusal of employers to bargain with the Building Trades Council and the Metal Trades Council, the WTLC resolves to poll affiliates on a general sympathetic strike. MAY 13 Results of the WTLC general strike vote are overwhelming supportive: 8,667 for, and 645 against. A Strike Committee is formed with representation from every union. MAY 15 The Winnipeg General Strike begins. The first to walk out are the "Hello Girls" — Winnipeg's telephone operators. By 11 a.m., 30,000 union and non-union workers have walked off the job. MAY 16 Winnipeg's business community forms the Citizens' Committee of 1000 to oppose the strike. MAY 17 The Strike Committee requests a meeting with the City of Winnipeg to discuss maintenance of essential services. The Strike Committee goes on to issue authorization cards for essential services such as milk deliveries. MAY 22 Arthur Meighen, Acting Minister of Justice, and Senator Gideon Robertson, Minister of Labour, arrive in Winnipeg. MAY 25 Senator Robertson orders postal employees to return to work. The province and city issue similar orders to their employees. A meeting of 5,000 strikers at Victoria Park rejects these ultimatums. MAY 30 City police are ordered to sign an anti-union pledge. They refuse, but promise to uphold law and order. MAY 31, JUNE 1 & JUNE 3 Thousands of returned soldiers take part in a march in solidarity with the strike. JUNE 3 The Citizens' Committee of 1000 calls for deportation of "aliens," claiming the General Strike is the result of agitation from immigrants — ads are placed in Winnipeg daily papers calling for "alien" deportation. Sympathetic strikes are held in Brandon, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Amherst, N.S. JUNE 4 & 5 Anti-strike veterans parade. JUNE 6 The federal government amends the Immigration Act to allow for the deportation, without trial, of anyone not born in Canada accused of sedition. JUNE 8 Labour activist J.S. Woodsworth returns to Winnipeg and addresses 10,000 workers. JUNE 9 Winnipeg's Mayor Charles Gray fires the entire city police force for refusing to renounce the union and strike, and hires "Specials" to replace them. The Specials are recruited and paid for by the Citizens' Committee of 1000 and are armed with baseball bats. JUNE 16-17 Metal-trades employers propose a settlement to the strike. At the same time, the North- West Mounted Police raid labour halls and strike leaders' homes, arresting 10 leaders of the Central Strike Committee. JUNE 18 It's announced that arrested strike leaders will be held for deportation proceedings and will also be denied bail. 2 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS - SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2019 2 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS - SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2019

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