The Morning After

Life after WWI

Learning Goals

1) Understand the economic struggles that led to a workers revolt in the Winnipeg General Strike (K/U)

2) Understand the agrarian [cultivation of land] discontent of farmers following the war (K/U)

Issues at home after WWI• Inflation during the war years meant

decreased real wages– Average family’s purchasing power was

less

• Increased unemployment as 500,000 veterans returned from overseas

• Prosperity eventually returned by the mid-1920s

Winnipeg General Strike (1919)

• Winnipeg– Largest Western City & Capital of

Saskatchewan

The Lead Up• Soldiers

– Lack of gov’t 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)

• “Worker’s Unite!”• No private ownership

– High Russian Population

Workers’ Rights in 1919• No minimum wage

– British Columbia adopted the Men’s 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

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

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

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

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 strike’s leaders had been charged with “seditious conspiracy”

Bloody Saturday (June 21, 1919)

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

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) Citizen’s Committee of 1000 opposes

5) Bloody Saturday - violence erupts

6) Workers return back to work

WGS Provocative Question

•Were the workers justified in their decision to strike?

Agrarian Discontent• Farmers were

– Concerned about rural depopulation– Anxious to see fed. gov’t do something

about tariffs– Angry at fed. gov’t’s refusal to honour its

promise to exempt farmers’ songs from conscription

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

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)

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?

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.