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The Morning After

The Morning After. Life after WWI. 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). Issues at home after WWI.

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The Morning After

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  1. The Morning After Life after WWI

  2. 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)

  3. 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

  4. Winnipeg General Strike (1919) • Winnipeg • Largest Western City & Capital of Saskatchewan

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. 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”

  10. 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

  11. Summary of the WGS • Winnipeg in a fragile state, unhappy masses • Workers strike to protest unrest • City grinds to a halt • Citizen’s Committee of 1000 opposes • Bloody Saturday - violence erupts • Workers return back to work

  12. WGS Provocative Question • Were the workers justified in their decision to strike?

  13. 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

  14. 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 Farmersparties 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)

  15. vs. • Activity • If you were a wealthy businessman who wanted to make more profits, write your viewson 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?

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