The Morning After

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The Morning After

• Life after WWI

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Learning Goals

• Understand the economic struggles that led to a
  workers revolt in the Winnipeg General Strike
  (K/U)
• Understand the agrarian cultivation of land
  discontent of farmers following the war (K/U)

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Issues at home after WWI

• Inflation during the war years meant decreased
  real wages
• Average familys purchasing power was less
• Increased unemployment as 500,000 veterans
  returned from overseas
• Prosperity eventually returned by the mid-1920s

4
Winnipeg General Strike (1919)

• Winnipeg
• Largest Western City Capital of Saskatchewan

5
The Lead Up

• Soldiers
• Lack of govt aid (pension, medical)
• Few jobs
• Resented rich employers (factory owners)
• Workers
• Poor pay
• Poor conditions
• Influenza (Flu) Epidemic
• Passed along CPR
• Hit Winnipeg hard
• Communist Influences
• Russian Revolution (1919)
• Workers Unite!
• No private ownership
• High Russian Population

6
Workers Rights in 1919

• No minimum wage
• British Columbia adopted the Mens Minimum Wage
  Act in 1925, making it the first province to
  legislate a minimum wage for male workers
• 2012 minimum wage in Ontario is 10.25 and the
  lowest in Canada is 9.00 in the Yukon
• Low salaries
• No benefits
• No collective bargaining

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Rules of the Workplace (Cigar Factory)

• 10 hrs make up a day's work
• No one is allowed to stop work during working
  hours
• All employees to be search before leaving the
  factory
• Loud or profane talking strictly prohibited.
• All employees wasting or dropping tobacco on the
  floor will be fined for each offence.
• Hair combing not allowed in the factory

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Winnipeg General Strike

• Dispute over wages and collective bargaining
  rights in the building and metal trades
• 35,000 workers belonging to 50 different unions
  left their jobs

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Citizen Committee of 1000

• Business leaders, politicians,factory owners
• Create Special Police Force
• Arrest strike leaders
• Fire civic workers
• Sedition threatening the state
• By the time the strike ended (six days after
  Bloody Saturday), 7 of the strikes leaders had
  been charged with seditious conspiracy

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Bloody Saturday (June 21, 1919)

• Climax of the strike clash between committees
  special police (N.W.M.P.) and strikers
• Deaths of 2 marchers
• Injury of 34 others
• Arrest of another 80

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Summary of the WGS

1. Winnipeg in a fragile state, unhappy masses
2. Workers strike to protest unrest
3. City grinds to a halt
4. Citizens Committee of 1000 opposes
5. Bloody Saturday - violence erupts
6. Workers return back to work

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WGS Provocative Question

• Were the workers justified in their decision to
  strike?

17
Agrarian Discontent

• Farmers were
• Concerned about rural depopulation
• Anxious to see fed. govt do something about
  tariffs
• Angry at fed. govts refusal to honour its
  promise to exempt farmers songs from
  conscription

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Effects of agrarian discontent

• Agrarian discontent led to formation of United
  Farmers of Ontario (UFO) who swept the October
  1919 provincial election in Ontario
• United Farmers parties formed government in
  Alberta in 1921 and became official opposition in
  other prairie provinces
• In next session of federal Parliament, several
  western members of the union government joined
  forces with a group of Liberals and created a
  farmers representatives under leadership of
  Thomas A. Crerar (National Progressive Party)

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vs.

• Activity
• If you were a wealthy businessman who wanted to
  make more profits, write your views on the
  Winnipeg General Strike. If you were a worker and
  were not able to afford basic necessities, write
  your views on the Winnipeg General Strike.
• Who would you vote for in the federal election of
  1921?