The Winnipeg General
Strike
The Winnipeg General Strike
- Background
The Winnipeg General
Strike - A Canadian Revolution???
Background
Russian
Revolution
- 1917
- conditions for most people bad
- effects of war
- hunger
- poverty
- shortage of fuel
- A strike
- early March 1917
- workers in a munitions factory in Petrograd
- men had been laid off
- riots in streets
Expanded strike
- within a week 300,000 on strike
- marchers called for overthrow of the autocracy
- called for downfall of the Tsar
- some troops would not disperse the crowds; they refused
- Tsar ordered suppression of strike by force
- loyal soldiers opened fire, killed 40 civilians
- soldiers shooting at soldiers
- 200,000 soldiers joined protest
- Law courts burned; attacks on police stations
- 587 demonstrators, 655 soldiers, 73 policemen killed
- The Aurora
- cruiser / battleship in Petrograd
- captain murdered by own sailors
- 40 officers nearby also murdered
- Formation of a Provisional Government by the Dumas or
parliament
- Bolshevik Party
- socialists with leaders in exile
- called for “Dictatorship of the Proletariat”
- Menshevik Party
- Social Democrats
- held the majority
- Tsar informed only he could solve problem
- military recommended he abdicate
- abdicated mid March, but assigned brother Michael as
new Tsar
- Michael resigned the following day
- recognized anti-Tsarist mood
- Provisional Government attempted to form a democracy
- intended to continue war against Germany
- Lenin, leader of Bolsheviks, intended to traveled from
Switzerland to Britain to Russia
- Britain wouldn’t allow it
- Germany facilitated it, even though a revolution might
threaten all monarchies
- other Bolshevik leaders, in exile in Siberia and Sweden,
came to Petrograd (Stalin)
- On return to Russia, Lenin predicted “civil war
throughout Europe”
- “Long live the worldwide socialist
revolution”
- Menshivek members began to support Bolshevik call for
government of the people
- Collapse of Russian army on eastern front
- Balfour Declaration of favour for Jewish homeland, in
November 1917, partly intended to strengthen Jewish support for
continuing war in Russia
- millions of Jews in Russia, many in Petrograd
- too late to affect war outcome
- Tsar and family executed July 1918
- On-going civil war between Reds (Bolsheviks) and Whites
(former soldiers loyal to the Tsar and former government)
- Eventual domination by Lenin and Bolsheviks forms
Communist government of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (until 1991)
German Revolution
- Anti-war sentiment throughout Germany
- attempt to move troops from eastern front to western
front on November 2, 1918
- troops mutinied rather than go into war zone
- in Berlin tens of thousands of workers demonstrated against
war and the monarchy
- train junctions seized by revolutionaries
- attempt to suppress revolution failed when ten German
divisions of troops refused to move
- Social Democrats took over Bavarian “parliament”
and declared Bavarian Socialist Republic
- some of the leaders were Jews
- Encouragement of Kaiser to resign, November 8
- eleven German cities now flying the red flag of
socialism
- Kaiser intended to raise troops to regain Germany, but
was advised the army would not obey such orders
- Declaration of a German Soviet Republic
- Kaiser resigns as monarch on November 9, 1918
- Army attacks Bolsheviks in Berlin and most of Germany
- Communists in Munich, Bavaria drive off attacking army
of Germany
- execution by Germans of eight Red Army soldiers
- Revolutionaries look for hostages; particular but
unsuccessful search for corporal of Bavarian Infantry Regiment, a noted
anti-communist orator
- Adolf Hitler
- German army victorious after 1000 soldiers and
civilians killed in Munich
Austro- Hungarian Revolution, March/April 1919
- demonstration begun by the unemployed
- joined by repatriated prisoners and war invalids
- barricades set up by demonstrators
- police fired on demonstrators
- attempt to burn down parliament building
- revolution failed
A Canadian Revolution???
At end of World War I
- returning soldiers did not find a better Canada
- war factories closing down
- bankruptcies
- unemployment
- some jobs had gone to immigrants
- some got jobs back at expense of women replacements
- wages were low
- cost of living was rising
- high demand for goods formerly rationed
- rents high
- housing in short supply
Winnipeg, 1919
- attempts by metal and building trades workers to
bargain collectively with employers
- flat refusal to negotiate by employers
- Metal and building trades workers walked off jobs, May
1, 1919
- demand higher
wages
- demand shorter work week
- demand right to bargain collectively through unions
- Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council
- voted for a general strike of all workers
- in support of demands of metal and building trades
workers
- 15,000 walked off their jobs on May 15th
- 30,000 by noon (city population 200,000)
- leaders declared no violent confrontations
- attempt to remove any excuse for martial law
- supported by many veterans angry at working conditions
on return to jobs or without employment
- need throughout city for vital supplies
- milk
- bread
- ice (remember no electric refrigeration
- these delivered “by authority of the Strike
Committee”
- taken as a sign by authorities that a revolution in
progress
- business leaders
- opposed to strike
- formed “Committee of One Thousand”
- citizens who took on vital tasks
- volunteer fire fighting
- pumping gas
- volunteer police (with clubs and bats) to replace
police removed as sympathetic to strikers
Mayor of Winnipeg asked Ottawa for help
- Federal government
- feared spread of strike to other cities
- sympathy strike in Vancouver on June 3rd
- feared breakdown of national railway system
- feared this was beginning of a revolution
- believed enemy alien socialists -- perhaps Bolsheviks
-- behind strike
- prepared laws to deport revolutionaries without trial
- told postal employees to go back to work or lose jobs
and pensions
- sent secret shipments of machine guns to Winnipeg
- sent reinforcements for North-west Mounted Police and
army
- Violence began
- Veterans and workers in support of and against strike
organized mass parades and demonstrations
Riot of June 10th
- “special” police on horseback with
clubs charged crowd
- crowd fought back with stones, bricks, bottles
- strike leaders arrested and sent to penitentiary
- all British or Canadian
- March on June 21st (Bloody Sunday)
- to protest arrests
- pro-strike veterans
- 6,000 gathered in front of city hall
- Riot Act read, but not heard by all
- demonstrators tipped over a tram (electric streetcar)
- response by mounted police
- charged into crowd shooting live ammunition
- two strikers died
- thirty injured
- many arrested
- patrol of streets/ armed cars
Aftermath
- Short term
- workers returned to work on June 25th under threat of
losing jobs
- union leaders charged with sedition
- Union movement set back
- many, especially non-unionized, lost jobs
- disillusionment about unions
- union membership dropped by 100,000 across Canada by
1920
- many forced to sign waiver they would not join unions
- many lost pension rights
- deeper division between working and business classes
- Longer term
- long term bitterness between workers and employers
- Royal Commission found grievances valid
- desire for reform of working conditions
- average families gradually had more to spend
- increase in consumerism
- still considerable hard work and poverty for many
- immigrants from eastern Europe or Russia accused of
being socialist revolutionaries
- restrictions on immigration
- continued fear of communism
13 March 1919 – (during Winnipeg Strike)
- Western Labour Conference
- proclaimed support for Bolshevik and other left wing
revolutions
- formed a revolutionary industrial union, called the One
Big Union
- One Big Union formed in June 1919
- 50,000 members in 1920
- eventually diminished in numbers
- absorbed by Canadian Labour Congress in 1956