Winnipeg Free Press

204 984 2499 Daniel.Blaikie@parl.gc.ca The Public Service Alliance of Canada stands in solidarity with working people in Canada and around the world. We remember the sacrifice of those brave trade unionists who fought for dignity and a better life in the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. STANDING IN SOLIDARITY prairies.psac.com "So these women were determined, and you saw in the North End among the more central and eastern European immigrant areas that there was that same kind of social solidarity. Retail stores stopped trying to deliver in those areas. And that was primarily the militancy of the women." Co-author with his wife Sharon Reilly of 1919 Winnipeg General Strike Driving and Walking Tour: 100th Anniversary Edition, Reilly says they made a point of highlighting the role of women throughout the guide — women like Edith Hancox, who succeeded Armstrong as president of the Women's Labour League, and Katherine Queen, an advocate for birth control and equal pay for equal work. While Winnipeg director Paula Kelly's 2001 documentary The Notorious Mrs. Armstrong brought her story into the light, many women's stories are still unknown. What is known is that many of them were in crisis in 1919, at the end of the First World War. "Women were put in an unbelievably vulnerable position if they were married with children and their spouse died, because they then had no income," Reilly says. They might find a low-paying job, but many had to place their children with family members or even orphanages because they couldn't afford to keep them. "Women like Helen Armstrong … are fighting tooth and nail for programs like mothers' allowance," Reilly says. "And she's going before the government demanding that women's working conditions be improved because they are so appalling." Reilly says many middle-class feminists of the day, including Nellie McClung, didn't support the union movement. Armstrong organized women in department stores and other businesses, harassed "scabs" who replaced striking workers and generally earned her "notorious" reputation. "She campaigns for the betterment of women's lives, but she also is very clear that her goal is the betterment of the lives of all working people. She supports the union movement, she actually is a union organizer," he says. "During the General Strike, no one is arrested more often than Helen Armstrong." Reilly says when he published the first edition of the tour guide in 1985, not a lot had been written about women and the General Strike. But they are front and centre in the second edition. He and Sharon Reilly included three pages that deal specifically with women's experiences, and they chose photographs to show that women were present and active in the strike, shoulder-to- shoulder with men. "Really to understand the Winnipeg General Strike, it's a community strike — it really is, and it wouldn't have lasted six weeks if it hadn't been a community strike." ❚ "There's a report of a wagon driver saying, 'I met these women,' and he said, 'I've never been so scared in my life. They used language that I have never heard in my life before and I will never, even when the strike is over, I will never go back into these neighbourhoods in my life.' Opposite page: Women are prominent in a crowd gathered at Portage Avenue and Main Street in June 1919. The photo from the Winnipeg Free Press archives also appears in 1919 Winnipeg General Strike Driving and Walking Tour: 100th Anniversary Edition. Above, a poster for Winnipeg filmmaker Paula Kelly's 2001 documentary The Notorious Mrs. Armstrong.

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