What were we

fighting for?

Where is the brave new world we were

promised?

True or False
Many families were in desperate financial
shape in 1918
True: The combined death toll of war and
influenza significantly reduced the
workforce. It left thousands of families
without a primary wage earner and
orphaned thousands of children.

True or False
While it was frustrating to wait in Europe, returning
soldiers were safe from hardship once they returned
home.
False: Given the sacrifices they made, returning
soldiers found it difficult to accept the conditions
facing them when they returned from the front.
Returning soldiers faced factories closing down,
prices going up and difficulty gaining employment.
False: Many soldiers that survived fighting overseas
succumbed to illness once resettled in Canada and
inadvertently killed thousands of family members
who welcomed them home but perished soon after
their arrival.

True or False
War had been good for women (at least
where it related to voting rights)
True: By 1920, most of the property and
income restrictions on voting had been
swept away and after in 1921 most women
could vote

True or False
Male workers were in a good situation now
that there was not a total war where the
home front economic activities were
directed to supporting the front and they
could focus on earning money safely
False: In Canada, higher profits for a few
happened alongside low wages, repressive
working conditions and spiralling costs of
living for many
Strikes and economic hardship were
prominent features of life in the 1920s.

True or False
The authorities took rational and pragmatic
views on the difficult economic situations
and the frustration workers were feeling
False: Canadian authorities were in the grip
of a Red Scare. The Bolshevik revolution in
Russia established a new communist
government. Canadian and American
governments, as well as industry and
business leaders, feared the influence of
communism would lead to a Bolshevik
revolution.

Consider the Cousins

The unrest among Russian
factory workers developed
into 3500 strikes between
January and July 1914.
During the war, exhausted
and starving working
women successfully led
poorly paid and underfed
workers in a bid to
overthrow the royal
regime. After civil war a
communist government
was established.

Red Scare
Being concerned about Bolshevism was not
entirely unreasonable for the authorities in
Canada
It is true that many labour unions in Canadas
west were aligned with leftist ideas and called for
socialist reforms of government and the uprising
in Russia in 1917 had inspired trade unionists in
Winnipeg and elsewhere in Canada
But much of the strife and conflict that happened
between Canadian workers and authorities grew
out of the violent and panicked reactions of the
established authorities

Labour in Canada
At the Western Labour Conference of March
1919 the One Big Union was founded.
o One Big Union was an organization intended to
represent all Canadian workers. The goal was to
influence government and industry through
peaceful means.

The Winnipeg General strike was

emblematic of the political and economic
tensions in Canada
o 15 May 1919 metal and building workers went on strike
demanding, higher wages, a shorter working week, and the
right to collective bargaining.
o Although only 12 000 workers in Winnipeg belonged to any
kind of union 30 000 people walked off the job.

May 1919
The Trades and Labour Council formed a
General Strike Committee and called for
widespread action since the metal workers
were being ignored
o On May 21 the Trades and Labour Council formed a General
Strike Committee.

When the Committee took upon itself the

power to provide basic services, the press
all over North America declared that this
was proof that the strikers were trying to
establish a Soviet style government and
seemed proof of a Bolshevik conspiracy

Winnipeg General Strike:

Establishment reactions
The Citizens Committee of One Thousand
was organized in response to the strike. It
was made up of business leaders,
politicians and industrialists who viewed
the strike action as a genuine threat of
Bolshevik revolution. The goal was to crush
the strike and discredit the strike leaders.
The anti-strike Winnipeg Free Press
published an editorial that compared
striking milk truck drivers and bakers to
German bombers, branding them "babykillers" because of their participation.

"Bloody Saturday"
When it was clear to Winnipeg authorities that the
local police sympathised with the strikers the NWMP
were called in to maintain order.
21 June 1919 - War veterans had organized a protest
parade for the arrest of the strike leaders but chaos
broke out after the city's mayor read the Riot Act to
the crowd. Police on horseback both militia and
Mounties charged the protesters, swinging bats as
they passed through the crowd. On a second charge
they began firing their revolvers. Two strikers were
killed and about 30 were wounded. Many strikers were
arrested.

It became violent

Reverberations
The strike committee agreed to end the
general strike on June 26.
o Though their demands for fairer wages and hours
hadn't been met, workers did accomplish some of their
goals.
o Legislation was enacted to allow collective bargaining,
strikers were guaranteed their jobs back, and
employers agreed to recognize unions.

Were the strikers actions

worthwhile?
Read pages 62, 64 and 65 and do a quick PMI
(Plus/Minus/Interesting) evaluating the position in
preparation for discussing as a class.

CBC digital archive

Listen to the radio report and see if you can
discover what is significant about the
measures that the federal government took in
response to the Winnipeg General Strike
Remember that the government response
included amending the Immigration Act in
order to allow individuals involved in the
strike to be deported. Also, the Criminal Code
was changed to criminalize any organization
that intended to bring about governmental,
industrial or economic change.