Working Class And Elites Of The Winnipeg General Strike In Canada

Before the Winnipeg General strike, there was a meeting of labor unions in Alberta. Many representatives from workers unions in Winnipeg attended the meeting and were in favor of the One Big Union. Another worker's rights influence before the Winnipeg General Strike was the creation of Western Labor News. This was a news outlet that, unlike others in Canada at the time, frequently published stories about workers struggles and uprisings in other parts of the world such as the United States, and Europe, or more specifically Russia.1 The Winnipeg General Strike originally started with separate industry workers unions beginning strikes of their own. Eventually a Strike Committee was formed and called a general strike for all unionized workers.

The strike had opposition from the municipal and federal governments alike; as well as many capitalists and other powerful people within the city. The leaders of the municipal government of Winnipeg, such as Mayor Charles Grey, were sympathetic to labor issues but opposed the General Strike because they thought it undermined the power of the government.6 Even though the mayor may have supported labor issues, he was not willing to let the unelected leaders of the General Strike to put in place rules to what businesses could operate in the city, which illustrates the disconnect between the working class and elites of Winnipeg. The federal government also opposed the general strike. During the strike, the minister of the interior, Arthur Meighn, called in the military to Winnipeg to help control the striking workers. On June twenty first, also known as “Bloody Saturday”, the rallying strikers tipped over and burned a streetcar that was not operating under the approval of the strike committee.7 The operation of the streetcar without the approval of the strike committee was a blatant disregard of the striking workers cause, which then turned the strikers justifiably violent, although they did wait to tip the car till everyone had exited the vehicle. After rally ensued, Winnipeg mayor, Charles Gray read aloud the Riot Act, and sent out a force of armed men, consisting of the militia and Royal Northwest Mounted Police to squash the rally, in the end one striker died, and many more were injured.8 The use of federal troops to put down a rally of upset strikers in Winnipeg is just another example of how far the federal government was willing to go to end the general strike. Another group in opposition to the strike was the Committee of one thousand. The Committee of one thousand was an organization of mostly wealthy Winnipeg elites that tried to undermine the