Street scene during the Winnipeg General Strike, 1919 - The Canadian West - Exhibitions

In March 1919, western labour organizers, encouraged in part by the success of the Russian Revolution, met in Calgary at the Western Labour Conference. At this conference, western union representatives discussed the idea of a new militant industrial union - One Big Union - that would organize all workers in all industries into a single union that would be able to call general strikes to enforce workers' demands. Although the One Big Union played no direct part in the famous "confrontation at Winnipeg," the federal government feared that the Red Revolution was at hand. When labour's discontent culminated in violence in the streets of Winnipeg in the spring of 1919, the federal government did nothing short of panic.

By the spring of 1919, the city of Winnipeg was polarized into two camps - business and labour - with the latter growing in militancy and radicalism. On May 1, 1919, workers in the metal and building trades in Winnipeg, under the leadership of the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council, went on strike to press for recognition of the right to organize and the right to bargain collectively about their wages and working conditions. On May 15, the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council called for a general strike of workers in nearly every sector of Winnipeg, and Canada's third largest city was shut down for six weeks in the most complete general strike in Canadian history. Thirty-five thousand workers - 12,000 of whom did not belong to a union - left their jobs. Over 22,000 workers answered the strike call within the first 24 hours. Factories, stores, restaurants and offices closed. Elevators and streetcars stopped running, firemen left their posts, telephone, telegraph, and postal systems shut down. Even police voted to join the strike, although the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council decided it was best for the police to remain on the job to prevent the breakdown of the social fabric. This was a demonstration of labour solidarity unparalleled in Canadian history.