Talk:Winnipeg general strike

Untitled
The article seems to be completely messed up. Why does the majority of the article discuss strike actions in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada when the article is about the strike that occurred in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada? It makes no sense! This would be like have the majority of the article about the Hurricane Katrina Disaster in New Orleans explaining the 1907 Earthquake in San Francisco. --Jason Savage  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.188.168.12 (talk) 16:29, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Something useful to say? --Alexwcovington 06:25, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Whatcha talking about?--Lucky13pjn 15:32, Jun 16, 2004 (UTC)

I dunno. I learned a bit about the strike in a Canadian history class I took at the University of North Dakota. It's a decent article overall, but I think there could be more depth. --Alexwcovington 18:44, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Then by all means, write away. You probably know more about the strike than I do, which is sad considering I am Canadian. ;)--Lucky13pjn 23:08, Jun 16, 2004 (UTC)

The small section about the One Big Union in this artical is a bit misleading as the One Big Union was not organized until after the general strike was over. Therefore, historians generally agree that the One Big Union did not influence the general strike. 12:49, March 13, 2006 (UTC)

Numbers for deaths & injuries on Bloody Saturday
I have looked at a couple of sources, including Canadian History for Dummies and the Canadian Museum of Civilization website and I can not find a reference that 94 were injured. Where did this number come from? I will update the stats to reflect what I have been able to find. -- JamesTeterenko 04:20, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

The article, as it exists so far, doesn't include information on riots, skirmishes, and beatings by the 'special constables'. It also includes nothing on the role of the RCMP in the whole affair -- a very dark chapter in the RCMP's history. I studied this particular strike in University in depth as part of a large treatise on organizational development. I'll dig up the facts and update this wiki. It is a fascinating seminal/germinal event in Canadian social development.

204.10.59.203 (talk) 19:00, 24 August 2008 (UTC)Matthew Simon.

Wasn't there a Winnipeg Manifesto?
Or "something"; I remember one of our diehard NDPer schoolteachers talking about strike, and that there was a manifesto or constitution or something, published in several languages, implying the potential creation of a worker's republic. I know this must have been a fringe element only, judging by the article overleaf, but I'm curious as to which languages and what was in it. On the other hand, there's lots of bowdlerized/toned-down Canadian history all over Wiki...or was this teacher just raving in technicolour?Skookum1 16:29, 22 July 2006 (UTC)


 * An organization called the "Winnipeg Soviet" was proclaimed (a Soviet is a council of workers), but Google has only a few oblique references to the term. I don't believe it was actually proclaimed as a republic, but the potential was there. I'll add some information to the article when I get good refs, but your teacher was not raving in technicolour. Eleland 20:03, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

accident?
"a young boy was accidentally killed early in the strike". what kind of accident? Jackzhp 00:21, 2 August 2007 (UTC)kNEVER THOUGHT IT WAS A BOY... thought it was a blacksmith... i dunno though...

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the . Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

Move to Winnipeg General Strike. As for the "1919" part, it doesn't seem mandatory per Naming_conventions (events) and Naming_conventions_(numbers_and_dates)—actually, it seems to be discouraged if there's a common name. Duja ► 11:52, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

1919 Winnipeg general strike → Winnipeg General Strike — This event is always uppercased in credible publications, which treat it as a proper noun the same way other significant conflicts, such as the Cold War are treated as proper nouns. —bobanny 07:43, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Survey

 * Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with  or  , then sign your comment with  . Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's naming conventions.


 * Support. I have always seen it with caps.  I also note that the Canadian Press Stylebook (ISBN 0-920009-32-8) requires that it be capitalized (page 212).  BTW, the title does not require "1919", but at the very least the title should not commence with 1919!  Skeezix1000 14:25, 9 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Support. The usual way the strike is referred to in my experience is the Winnipeg General Strike.  (I'm originally from Winnipeg, in case that counts in the discussion.)  Wanderer57 17:22, 9 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Support It's an important Canadian event, like the Great Flag Debate. We seem to like our important events capitalized, and the Win Gen Strike was important. -Royalguard11 (T·R!) 18:09, 9 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Support I originally used the "1919" phrasing on the basis that General strike listed strikes that way; the proposed move is in line with WP naming policy. The sources do seem to weigh heavily in favour of Capitalizing Every Word, so we should do it that way. &lt; el eland / talk  edits &gt; 17:50, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Support. The capitalization seems the common practice and the 1919 at the start is not necessary given that there has only been one strike. It is also extremely odd-looking. --Slp1 00:00, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Discussion

 * There seems to be a consensus on capitalizing the title. I agree with Skeezix1000 however that "1919" is unecessary, so I'm leaving this request up because only an administrator can move it to Winnipeg General Strike. I'm guessing it's the result of someone wanting all general strike articles standardized, but methinks that's not a good enough reason for mucking with a well established name. bobanny 18:03, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * The title should reflect the most commonly used name for the topic, and "Winnipeg General Strike" is the term used for the event. The dab is completely unnecessary.  And, frankly, the title struck me as odd because no one refers to it as the "1919 Winnipeg General Strike".  Skeezix1000 17:01, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the . Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

How's that again?
Quoting article:

"With the cost of living rising due to the inflation caused by World War I, the City of Winnipeg's teamsters, electrical workers, water works employees and office workers approached City Council in April 1919 for a wage increase. Their proposal was rejected and City Council offered the four departments war bonuses, with a promise to revisit the topic after the war."

A promise to "revisit the topic after the war" doesn't make sense, IMO. April 1919 WAS "after the war".

Wanderer57 (talk) 03:33, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Also, later in the article (Aftermath section): "Charitonoff were scheduled for deportation, however, only Blumenberg was deported, after he voluntarily left for the United States."

If Blumenberg left voluntarily, he was not deported.

Wanderer57 (talk) 03:46, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Also, from the lead section: "The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 was one of the most influential strikes in Canadian history as it was the first organized large scale strike in history...."

Is this intended to mean the "first organized large scale strike" in world history or in Canada's history?

Thanks, Wanderer57 (talk) 13:57, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Line in intro
This line in the intro:

"Although many Canadian companies had enjoyed enormous profits on World War I contracts, wages and working conditions were dismal and labour regulations were mostly non-existent."

gives me pause. While it may be demonstrable that labour regulations were "mostly non-existant" (although it hasn't been shown in this article) saying working conditions were dismal seems like a judgment call and a matter of opinion, which is not how an article should be written. If examples of poor working conditions exist, they should be stated as the facts they are, not described in vague, condemning language. Does anyone disagree? Can I remove the sentence or modify it to be less opinion based? TastyCakes (talk) 14:55, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Please change the entry which states that JS Woodsworth was sentenced to a year in prison as a result of the Winnipeg Strike. Fact was that the charges against Woodsworth were withdrawn after Fred Dixon's trial. Woodsworth was elected to the Canadian Federal Parliament as the representative for Winnipeg North Centre in the election following the strike. Greatstuffa1 (talk) 02:12, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

problems:
The "causes" section seems to suggest that the strike began with electrical workers fighting with the city, however from everything I've read this is not the case. According to most of the literature I've seen it was started by the Metal Trades Council and the Winnipeg Building Trades Council both of whom were fighting for the right of collective bargaining.

Haikud&#39;etat (talk) 01:50, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Add to section "Commemorations in Popular Culture"?
Note that there used to be popular rock band known as 'One Big Union' that toured around mid-Canada in the late 1980's and early 90's. The band took its name from the strike. The leader and singer of this band, Trevor Hayhurst, eventually changed his surname to "Hurst" and formed 'Econoline Crush'. (89.241.229.243 (talk) 20:12, 9 December 2010 (UTC))

Add to subsection "Violence"?
The section on “Violence” can be expanded, especially with the recent article in the Winnipeg Free Press “History Revisited: New Photos of the Winnipeg General Strike Offer Different Perspective on Seminal Event” (September 29, 2011). The article discusses what ignited the violence on Bloody Saturday (the mounted-police or the strikers attacking the streetcar) from the perspective of newly uncovered photographs in the Manitoba Archives. Should this subsection be updated? MXYXYM (talk) 18:20, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Article needs more references
There are a number of paragraphs in the article that have no or very few citations. Specifically, in the following sections: Please do not remove the maintenance tag until these issues have been resolved. Thanks. — howcheng  {chat} 08:14, 19 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Cause
 * Settlement
 * Organization
 * Opposition
 * Aftermath
 * Role of women
 * Historiography

Protest
.In the section re Bloody Sunday I have changed this CED (Concise Oxford Dictionary defines protest when used intransitively as make a protest against an action, proposal etc usually followed by “against” “at” “about” etc. It can also be used transitively sometimes followed by “that” and means “affirm” Thus to “protest the faith of Jesus Christ” means to affirm the truth of that faith. “To protest that Darwin’s theory of Evolution is true,” means exactly that the speaker or writer believes the theory to be valid and accurate. Protest can therefore be positive rather than negative and it seems to me to be dangerous to use a sentence like “He protested abortion” without adding the words “against or “in favour of” after the word protest. .E