———-
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 20, 1919
Winnipeg, Manitoba – General Strike Growing Day by Day
From The Winnipeg Evening Tribune of May 15, 1919:
[Detail:]
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of May 16, 1919:
CANADIAN LABORERS, CLERKS AND MECHANICS WALK OUT
—–
Bosses’ Refusal to Recognize Union
Results in Walkout of 30,000.
Strikers Standing Pat.
—–(Special United Press Wire.)
Winnipeg, May 16.-More than 25,000 workers in almost every trade are striking in sympathy with the metal trades unionists here, paralyzing industry in the city. All firemen are out. The bakers have quit and bread supplies are nearly exhausted. The heat, light and water companies’ employes also have walked out.
Postmen have stopped work and telephones are idle. The only communication with the outside world is by irregular telegraphic service. Street cars ceased running yesterday and newspapers were forced to suspend when pressmen and stereotypers quit. Practically every restaurant in the city is closed. The policemen and railroad employes still remain on their jobs.
Sixty unions are said to be involved in the strike, which is not expected to be settled immediately, although the mayor and city officials are doing everything possible to end the metal trades walkout by arbitration.
Minister of Labor Robertson has been appealed to and replied that he couldn’t do anything in the absence of newspapers. The strike committee is considering the daily publication of the [Western] Labor News [as a Strike Bulletin], formerly issued weekly.
The policemen’s union will be called out, the strike leaders threatened, if there is any attempt at strike breaking.
———-
From the Western Labor News of May 16, 1919:
The following shows the votes of various Winnipeg unions on the issue of General Strike as of Wednesday morning, May 14-(Note: several Thousand additional votes have come into the strike committee over the past few days):
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of May 17, 1919:
WINNIPEG STRIKE IS GROWING
—–TELEGRAPHERS JOIN IN GENERAL STRIKE
——
Newspapers Forced to Suspend When the Web Pressmen
and Stereotypers Walk Out. Returned Soldiers Join
With Unions. No Street Cars Are Being Operated.
Fire Department Is Manned by Volunteers
—–[…..]
Winnipeg. May 17.-Bitter deadlock between union labor in Winnipeg and leading industrial employers, who refused to recognize the unions, continues today and although it was known that the general strike that began Wednesday morning was receiving the attention of federal, provincial and local officials, there were no signs today of any approach toward a settlement
[…..]
Telegraphers Out.
Union telegraphers of Winnipeg, voted to join the general strike at noon today. Press, broker and commercial operators all are affected. This means that Winnipeg will be isolated from the rest of the world by telegraph, telephone and mail.
Members of the general strike committee announced that the action of the telegraphers brought the total number of Winnipeg unions on strike, or ready to walk out the when the general committee orders, to 80. Several unions that voted to join the general movement have not been called out yet.
Newspapers Suspend.
Winnipeg newspapers were abruptly forced to suspend publication Friday [May 16], when the pressmen and stereotypers voted to join the ranks of some 30,0000 union men and women who have quit work in sympathy with the strike of the building and metal trades men.
Winnipeg is without telephone service, street cars, postal delivery or collection, newspapers, department store deliveries and scores of other metropolitan conveniences.
No Disorders.
The labor forces and returned soldiers are in complete control of commercial and industrial Winnipeg. Extraordinary quiet marked conditions in the downtown district and no disorder had been reported to the police or newspapers from any source.
[…..]
From Western Labor News, Special Strike Edition No.1 of May 17, 1919:
VETERANS DECLARE SYMPATHY
WITH PURPOSES OF STRIKE
—–
Rank and File Turn Down
Recommendation of Executives
—–Any hope that the employers may have entertained that the returned soldiers would in any way oppose labor in the present strike must have been dissipated by the mass meeting of veterans held in the Convention Hall of the Board of Trade Building last Thursday night [May 15th]. The meeting was called by the executives of the Great War Veterans, the Army and Navy Veterans Association, and the Imperial Veterans of Canada. After a stormy meeting the following resolution was passed unanimously:
That this meeting declares its full sympathy with the purposes of the present strike to meet the general condition of the people, and pledges itself to use every legitimate means to preserve law and order; and that after strike is settled labor and the returned soldiers get together and discuss the deportation of the enemy alien.
Note: emphasis added throughout.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Joe Hill, General Strike, Workers Awaken, LRSB Oct 1919
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=vTlRAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA6
The Winnipeg Evening Tribune
(Winnipeg, Manitoba)
-May 15, 1919
https://www.newspapers.com/image/44221626/
The Butte Daily Bulletin
(Butte, Montana)
-May 16, 1919
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045085/1919-05-16/ed-1/seq-1/
-May 17, 1919
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045085/1919-05-17/ed-1/seq-1/
The Winnipeg General Sympathetic Strike
May-June, 1919
-by the Defence Committee,
Delegates from Labor Organizations
of Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1920
https://archive.org/details/savingworldfromd00winn_0/page/n1
Re Strike Votes, from Western Labor News of May 16, 1919
https://archive.org/details/savingworldfromd00winn_0/page/44
https://archive.org/details/savingworldfromd00winn_0/page/46
From “Strike Bulletin” of May 17, 1919:
https://archive.org/details/savingworldfromd00winn_0/page/52
For photo of May 21st edition, see:
http://1919winnipeggeneralstrike.blogspot.com/2009_05_21_archive.html
See also:
The Winnipeg General Sympathetic Strike
May-June, 1919
-by the Defence Committee,
Delegates from Labor Organizations
of Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1920
Note: same as above, but easier to download and/or print.
http://debs.indstate.edu/w776s3_1920.pdf
1919
A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike
By Graphic History Collective and David Lester
Paperback / softback, 120 pages
ISBN 9781771134200
Published January 2019
https://btlbooks.com/book/winnipeg-general-strike
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pathé News No. 57-Winnipeg General Strike of 1919
Workers of the World, Awaken! – Magpie
Lyrics by Joe Hill