Remembering the turmoil of 1919

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/01/2019 (2503 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some years stand out in the history of the 20th century more than others. Among them are 1914, when the First World War began; 1939 and 1945, the start and end of the Second World War; and 1968, for the conflict within the United States about the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

So, too, it was a century ago in 1919, a year of turmoil and confrontation in Winnipeg and Canada, and the rest of the western world.

In Europe and North America, there was a decisive showdown between capital andlabour, and manager and worker. It was a clash between the unregulated world of the 19th century, in which labour was a commodity to be exploited, to the more modern, complex world of the early 20th century, when workers not only questioned their place in society, but also demanded change. The end of the First World War, with its severe economic dislocation and social upheaval, as soldiers came home only to find their jobs taken by women and foreigners, exacerbated the situation.

Adding to this was the Bolshevik-led Revolution in Russia in October 1917, with its initial promise for a glorious Communist future. Vladimir Lenin’s success in eliminating capitalism and establishing a so-called “dictatorship of the proletariat” loomed large.

Everywhere there was panic and fear about the imminent revolution. Few events in the 20th century frightened the ruling classes in western Europe and North America as much as the Russian Revolution did. Bolsheviks were atheists and free thinkers. They had “wild eyes,” “long, bushy hair” and wore “tattered clothes.” They denied God and held a bomb in one hand and a dagger in the other; they advocated “free love” and were intent on destroying everything sacred in western society. Their every move occupied the “peacemakers” at the Paris treaty talks at the end of the First World War.

Winston Churchill, Britain’s secretary of state for war in early 1919, reaffirmed in a speech in London what everyone else was thinking. “Of all the tyrannies in history,” he declared, “the Bolshevik tyranny is the worst, the most destructive, the most degrading.” He held this view for the rest of his days.

Communists in Germany, Austria and Hungary had attempted, with limited success, to emulate Lenin and Leon Trotsky in a revolutionary takeover. Radicals in France and Italy were also active. In an open letter, Lenin wrote to American workers in August 1918, urging them “to revolt against (their) rulers.” Then, at the Third International Congress (also called the Comintern) convened by Lenin in March 1919, it was declared in a manifesto that “the aim of the International Communist Party is to overthrow it and raise in its place the structure of the socialist order.”

That same month, labourites and socialists from Winnipeg and across the country met in Calgary to advocate for the establishment of the One Big Union, or O.B.U., with the aim of linking political power with industrial unionism.

Socialists, communists and anarchists, from New York’s Lower East Side to Winnipeg’s North End, had cheered the events in Russia. Because, as one Canadian immigrant put it, the Bolsheviks’ success meant in the long run, “equal rights for men and women, no child labour, no poverty, misery and degradation, no prostitution, no mortgages on farms, no revolting bills for machinery to keep peasants poor till the grave, no sweatshops, no long hours of heavy toil for a meagre existence but an equal opportunity for all.”

The First World War and the Russian Revolution were only catalysts. The roots of the 1919 struggle and its aftermath started half a century earlier when the nascent working class began to challenge its position in the capitalist system. In time, workers across North America demanded fairer wages, better working conditions, shorter hours and, most of all, recognition for their unions. The battle was not easily won. At every step of the way, employers from New York to Winnipeg stubbornly resisted change. Unions were evil, they argued, collective bargaining destructive, and it was their God-given right to make as much money as they could.

The workers would not surrender and created large trade associations such as the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to reform the system from within. Others, like the members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), imbued with the spirit of the new “isms” — socialism, communism and anarchism — wanted an immediate transformation and were prepared to use violence to achieve their goals, if necessary.

In early May 1919, the focus of this struggle was Winnipeg and the General Strike, when about 30,000 workers walked off their jobs, bringing the city to a near-standstill for about six weeks. The labour confrontation — whose centennial will be marked in the spring — received much attention across the western world. The workers essentially wanted respect for their unions, collective bargaining and better working conditions. The business owners, backed by the government, believed that a Soviet-style revolution was underway and used every means at their disposal to crush the workers’ resolve.

The powers that be were successful in ending the strike. But the celebrated labour action had demonstrated that change to the way industry was conducted in Canada was inevitable.

Now & Then is a column in which historian Allan Levine puts the events of today in a historical context. His most recent book is Seeking the Fabled City: The Canadian Jewish Experience.