Hey Winnipeg!

Home
Backwards, Forwards
Tall Grass
For The Birds
Share The Land
Harvest Moon
Hey Winnipeg!
Cross-Canada Checkup
The Prairie Gardener
The Mask and The Mirror
Morningside
Acadian Driftwood
The Band
Manitobaside
The Ghost of Charron Lake
The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
In The Red River Valley

Living Prairie Museum

A City Where The Prairie Begins

Marchers in support of Winnipeg Strike 1919

The Winnipeg General Strike, 15 May-25 June 1919, was Canada's best-known general strike. Massive unemployment and inflation, the success of the Russian Revolution (1917), a wave of strikes across Canada and rising Revolutionary Industrial Unionism all contributed to postwar labour unrest. In Mar 1919 in Calgary western labour leaders met to discuss the creation of One Big Union. 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.
At stake were the principle of collective bargaining, better wages and the improvement of often dreadful working conditions. Within hours almost 30 000 workers had left their jobs. The almost unanimous response by working men and women closed the city's factories, crippled its retail trade and stopped the trains. Public-sector employees such as policemen, firemen, postal workers, telephone operators and employees of waterworks and other utilities joined the workers of private industry in an impressive display of working-class solidarity. The strike was co-ordinated by the Central Strike Committee, composed of delegates elected from each of the unions affiliated with the WTLC. The committee bargained with employers on behalf of the workers and co-ordinated the provision of essential services.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. Rather than giving the strikers' demands any serious consideration, the Citizens' Committee, with the support of Winnipeg's leading newspapers, declared the strike a revolutionary conspiracy led by a small group of "alien scum." The available evidence failed to support its charges that the strike was initiated by European workers and Bolsheviks, but the Citizens' Committee used these unsubstantiated charges to block any conciliation efforts by the workers. 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. They refused requests from the Central Strike Committee for a similar hearing. On their advice, the federal government swiftly supported the employers, and federal employees were ordered to return to work immediately or face dismissal. The Immigration Act was amended so that British-born immigrants could be deported, and the Criminal Code's definition of sedition was broadened. On June 17 the government arrested 10 leaders of the Central Strike Committee and 2 propagandists from the newly formed One Big Union. Four days later, a charge by Royal North-West Mounted Police into a crowd of strikers resulted in 30 casualties, including one death. "Bloody Saturday" ended with federal troops occupying the city's streets. Six of the labour leaders were released, but Fred Dixon and
J.S. Woodsworth were arrested. Faced with the combined forces of the government and the employers, the strikers decided to return to work on June 25.
The General Strike left a legacy of bitterness and controversy. In a wave of increased unionism and militancy across Canada, sympathetic strikes erupted in centres from Amherst, NS, to Victoria, BC. Seven of the arrested leaders were unfairly convicted of a conspiracy to overthrow the government and sentenced to jail terms from 6 months to 2 years; the charges against J.S. Woodsworth were dropped. Almost 3 decades passed before Canadian workers secured union recognition and collective bargaining.

The Exchange District, Winnipeg

home to a rich collection of
primates and other animals.
From the endangered
Lion-Tailed Macaque
to the Black and White Lemur

soon to be at The Forks in
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Through this exhibit, you will
 be introduced to the Archives’ unique
collection of documents, photographs,
maps and artifacts – and the stories
 they tell about Winnipeg’s
 first fifty years.
 

Prairie Theatre Exchange was born
 out of the community thirty years ago,
through the combination of a
defined need and a group of
volunteers determined to create
the answer to that need.

Guy Maddin and the
Winnipeg Film Group
Guy Maddin may be one of Canada's
best-known unknown filmmakers.
From his early, improbable success
with "Tales From the Gimli Hospital",
the director has relied on near-extinct
film techniques to convey
both a heavy dose of melodrama
and a sly sense of
humour. Maddin now works with
international stars,
but his humble origins
are with the Winnipeg Film Group — a
filmmakers' co-op that, over 30 years,
has brought global acclaim to many
 Manitoba moviemakers.

Enriching the Human
Experience by Teaching,
Creating & Performing
Outstanding Dance.
a sixty-five year history
of excellence

said to be the birth of the
Metis Nation.this battle is still
reported as a massacre!
the Seven Oaks area is now part
of Winnipeg

This remarkable group of
commercial buildings vividly
illustrates Winnipeg's
 transformation between 1878
and 1913 from a modest pioneer
settlement to western Canada's
largest metropolitan centre

Virtual Heritage Winnipeg

For over 57 years the
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
has delighted audiences with its
innovative programming and
musical excellence

Prairie Dog Central

Manitoba Life and Times

The Prairie Dog Guide website
is ©2005/2006/2007

sam-and-lizzie
All Rights Reserved