#1919 strike

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A hundred years ago, Ethel Barrymore was instrumental in the 1919 Actor's Equity Strike, getting rights and pensions for elderly and infirm actors, at great personal cost.

She would be ashamed that Drew is a scab.

Ethel Barrymore - Wikipedia

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30 August 1919 - One Big Union Bulletin

In additional late-summer Winnipeg General Strike coverage, we have the above bulletin (thanks to the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections) released by the Winnipeg Central Labor Council of the One Big Union. The Council was in the midst of planning a parade and picnic in City Park for Labor Day on 1 September 1919.

The front page includes a satirical poem, and some pro-strike commentary on the end of the strike and the fact that eight men, strike leaders and/or supporters, were still imprisoned at the provincial jail (”Manitoba Provincial Gaol”). A note on a special supplement with labor day parade details is included, though the supplement is not available to us. The second page includes commentary on protesting, trade, and critiques of government leaders taking certain actions for money.

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5 June 1919 - Newspapers of the Winnipeg General Strike

The Western Labor News dedicated the front page of their 5 June 1919 issue to presentations given in Winnipeg by James A. Duncan of Seattle, along with the formal support given for the General Strike by the Great War Veterans Association in Winnipeg. Alternately, the Winnipeg Telegram, promoted their cause under a headline that highlighted war veterans volunteering as special constables, and the related street fighting that took place while these volunteers were arriving to be sworn in. The Winnipeg Tribune noted that the returned Soldiers Loyalist Association of Winnipeg were the primary group whose members were volunteering to join up as constables. 

The coverage from this date highlights the ongoing ways in which the patriotism and loyalty of war veterans was being used to leverage support by both pro-strike and anti-strike groups.

The Winnipeg Citizen placed on their front page an essay stating that strikers stopping the delivery of milk was “an attempt at willful murder” of children, while the Winnipeg Telegram and Winnipeg Tribune wrote about the City of Winnipeg’s actions to provide bread and milk.

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Women of Canada! - Helen Armstrong and the Women of the Winnipeg General Strike

Winnipeg’s women played an essential role in the general strike. They were the first to walk off the job at the start of the sympathetic strike on 15 May 1919, and they worked alongside strike organizers throughout the general strike.

It’s impossible to do any research on the Winnipeg General Strike without running into commentary on Helen Armstrong. The “Notorious Mrs. Armstrong” was a leader in Winnipeg’s labour movement before, during, and after the strike. Before the strike Armstrong led Winnipeg’s Labor League  (referenced in the article above) where she advocated for and negotiated on behalf of women workers. She campaigned for a minimum wage for women, and during the First World War she was vocally anti-conscription.

Armstrong was a member of the male-dominated Strike Committee, and the force behind the Labor Cafe - a soup kitchen she established to feed both striking women, or women impacted the strike. Armstrong was the most-arrested person during the general strike; including a charge of “disorderly conduct” she received on the first day of the strike.

Armstrong was known for "harassing” people who crossed picket lines, and for “encouraging“ women to boycott businesses where the staff were striking. This put her at odds with ‘scabs’, women that crossed picket lines to replace striking workers. Female replacement workers were vilified by strikers, while being celebrated as “paid volunteers” by employers and anti-strike proponents. She also encouraged striking women to target those still working, something that earned her a few arrests.

Armstrong worked throughout the strike to organize women workers, and to encourage women to support the strike efforts. She was targeted by anti-strike publications - particularly the Winnipeg Citizen - and her work as an advocate for women’s labour rights made her a target of criticism throughout her life.

Images from the Archives of Manitoba’s Helen Armstrong fonds, via the CBC article “The Wild Woman of the Winnipeg General Strike”.

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23 May 1919 - Newspapers of the Winnipeg General Strike

The Winnipeg Citizen from the 23rd of May 1919 included some interesting Strike updates (pages images above via the University of Calgary). While obviously anti-strike, it included a recount of a meeting on the evening of 22 May 1919. The meeting was intended for the anti-strike Committee of One Thousand and their supporters, however many of those participated in the strike attended and made their feelings known in response to statements made by the speakers. The article is meant to cast derision on the interruptions, yet it provides the reader with a sense of the attitudes and feelings of those on strike, as well as giving evidence of their participation in public meetings covering anti-strike action.

The Citizen also directly responds to “the organ of the Strike Committee”, that being the Western Labour news, seen here thanks to the University of Calgary. The strike run of that paper is also available through the University of Manitoba, and Christian Cassidy’s Winnipeg General Strike 90th anniversary blog does an excellent job of pulling material from both the Western Labour News and the Winnipeg Citizen - well worth a read! The 23 May 1919 coverage is here.

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27 August 1919 - Strikers Defense Bulletin

In a brief return to our Winnipeg General Strike coverage, we would like to draw your attention to this issue of the Strikers Defense Bulletin; available through the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.

This paper published articles covering the aftermath of the strike. Specifically, this issue provides update a few crucial updates and analyses. People who participated in the general strike were discriminated against, needing to move out of Winnipeg to find work. The recently passed amended Immigration Act was critiqued, rightly, as discriminatory against anyone that those in positions of power considered “undesirable”. Updates were provided on the status of the arrested strike leaders.

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30 May 1919 - Newspapers of the Winnipeg General Strike

In addition to their ongoing defense of the strikers demands - the right of collective bargaining, a living wage, and the newly added “reinstatement of all Strikers” - the 30 May 1919 issue of the Western Labor News critiqued coverage of the Strike by Winnipeg’s major papers. The Western Labor News wrote hopefully that the Manitoba Free Press seemed to be coming around to the strikers’ position. The Winnipeg Telegram was (correctly) pegged as a conservative publication that the Labour News claimed favoured the views of a minority of elites over the rights of Winnipeg’s citizens.

On this day of the Winnipeg General Strike approximately 2000 “pro-strike veterans” marched to the Manitoba Legislative Building demanding that the provincial government make collective bargaining “compulsory”. They also demanded the the city revoke their demand that local police officers sign an oath of loyalty. The Winnipeg Tribune, which throughout WWI had consistently demanded respect and recognition of sacrifice for soldiers and veterans through their reporting, devoted a good portion of their front page to the veteran’s protest.

The Winnipeg Telegram also reported on the veteran’s march and demands to government. The Winnipeg Citizen used the entire front page (of the four page publication) for an editorial which claimed that collective bargaining - the lack of which was one of the driving forces of the strike - had not been “challenged by the employers”.

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26 June 1919 - Newspapers of the Winnipeg General Strike

The Enlightener was published again on this day by the “Press Committee” - really the Strike Committee publishing under a different name after the suppression of the Western Labor News. The Enlightener published an article on the dissatisfaction of striking workers over the end of the strike, and reported that the Railway and Civic Teamsters planned to remain on strike. The paper provided updates on the cases against Helen Armstrong and J. S. Woodsworth. A note on the character and non-violent participation of Mike Sokolowski - who was killed during the Bloody Saturday riots - was printed on the front page.

The Winnipeg Telegram reported that in the immediate aftermath of the strike there was a “rush” by “street car men, telephone operators, [and] milk cart drivers” to return to work. The paper printed a statement on the conclusion strike by Premier Norris where he called the sympathetic general strike “wrong and futile” claiming that labour had learned their lesson and that a similar strike was “not likely to recur in the future”.

The Winnipeg Tribune ran a front page article with the headline: “Strike Over, City Returns to Normal”. “Winnipeg’s herself again” opened the article which went on to report that many strikers were permanently out of work. The same article reported that a provincial commission would be appointed to investigate the “causes and effects of the strike”.