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Winnipeg General Strike 1919

            The Winnipeg General Strike has been one of the most intensively studied episodes in Canadian History. It was an important development in the building of the democratic socialist movement in Canada. In the larger sense this seemingly isolated event had been building for many years and a wide set of circumstances contributed to the strike ranging from international stresses to local fustrations. Internationaly the European situation was a stressor, the Great War had only just ended and the revolution in Russia was still occurring. The situation at home had been altered by the war experience. The workers purchasing power had been weakened due to inflation and profiteering. The employers had attempted degrade craft skills. The discontent with the governments elitist attitude all led to a surge of labor militancy. The labor movement more than doubled in size between 1916 to 1919 (Bumstead, 1994). With most of the workers unhappy with the relative conservativism of the Trades and Labor Congress, which that at the time primarily consisted of craft unions, the dissidents formed the One Big Union in March of 1919. The One Big Union had been inspired by the Russian Revolution and with a solid socialist leadership was quickly able to claim the majority of the western Canadian and Northern Ontario labor movement within its ranks. .
             Throughout 1917 and 1918 anti-alien sentiment continued to grow. The Conscription Crisis, the Wartime Elections Act and the Dominion Election of 1917 significantly demonstrated the differences between the Anglo-Canadian and foreign elements in Canadian society. In Winnipeg, both the Telegram and Free Press supported the disenfranchisement of enemy alien voters to ensure the forces of "justice and democracy" would emerge triumphant from the Dominion Election (Bercuson, 1974). Growing industrial unrest particularly in western Canada provided an additional reason for the Anglo-Canadians to demand greater control of the alien community.


Essays Related to Winnipeg General Strike 1919

1. The Winnipeg General Strike: Businessmen Unite

At 11:00 AM, May 15, 1919, the metalworker and builders union walked out. Soon they were followed by police, firefighters, telegraph, and telephone operators. All told, 30 000 people joined the Winnipeg General Strike. The business and government officials were upset by the control the strikers had of the city; they set up a committee to counteract the strikers, calling themselves the "Citizens Committee of ... One Thousand- to keep the public utilities running. They were also fiercely determined to break the strike. The government fired police and brought in ... that unions led to communism...

  • Word Count: 2550
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography
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2. The Winnipeg General Strike

... the Canadian labour movement's long and continuing history of struggles to establish its trade-union rights, no episode was more spectacular, explosive or meaningful than the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. General strikes by definition involve working-class confrontations with authority and produce a massive disruption of society while paralysing economic life. They are "cataclysmic events [and] by ... their nature, unlikely to be created in a day."1 The Winnipeg General Strike had many roots, including class polarization, working conditions and socialist ideas. The labour relations c...

  • Word Count: 1993
  • Approx Pages: 8
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  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919

... mail services, taxis, newspapers, restaurants, and retail stores. Surprisingly, even the police and firefighting forces had joined the strike3. For 6 weeks, the City of Winnipeg was crippled. But what really caused the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919? A wide variety of factors influenced workers to stand up to the government. The main factors included workers wanting better working conditions and wages, negotiations between management ... class. These jobs, however, were also low-paying, along with being in very dirty, and often downright unethical conditions. Therefore, poor working con...

  • Word Count: 926
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

4. The Winnipeg General Strike

The Winnipeg General Strike began promptly at 11:00 a.m., Thursday, May 15th, 1919 during this time between 30,000 to 35,000 Winnipeg workers (in a city of 200,000) walked out on a general strike, although over half were not union members. Work immediately ceased at the big railway shops and yards across the city, while all factory production stopped. Winnipeg had no mail, streetcars, taxis, newspapers, telegrams, telephones, gasoline ... items they obtained on the battlefield. Soldiers too were dissatisfied with the businessmen and industrialists, creating more wide spread support for the wo...

  • Word Count: 963
  • Approx Pages: 4
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5. The 1920's, Were They Really Roaring

... English-speaking Canadians; cultural and religious practises were banned, as was speaking in their own language. Black people were also discriminated against as well, the were forced to work as general labourers, janitors, waiters, barbers, and porters, and the job of security guard was only to be filled by a black person. Canadian courts actually tried to defend racism; in ... time for economic recovery there still was some economic turmoil in that period. In May 1919, labour unrest climaxed in Winnipeg. Metal workers, with over thirty thousand supporters held a six week strike in Winni...

  • Word Count: 1149
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6. Canada - The Maturity of a Nation

... more mature country. Canadian workers have achieved the rights they have been fighting for since many years. Firstly In May 1919, the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council called for a general strike which would lead to more attention given to workers and their rights. More than 30,000 workers from different occupations ... , both public and private sector, across the city walk off their jobs, crippling the city. The strike ends June 25, but not ... strikers, resulting in 30 casualties and one death. James Shaver Woodsworth was a Protestant minister and social activist who joined the strike, ...

  • Word Count: 2050
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