Winnipeg’s General Strike: Reports from the Front Lines

An exploration of the impact the media had on the most influential strike in Canadian history.

A strike gripped Winnipeg from May 15 to June 26, 1919. Some twenty-five thousand workers walked out, demanding better wages and union recognition. Red-fearing opponents insisted labour radicals were attempting to usurp constitutional authority and replace it with Bolshevism. Newspapers like the Manitoba Free Press claimed themselves political victims and warned of Soviet infiltration. Supporters of the general sympathetic strike like the Toronto Daily Star maintained that strikers were not Reds; they were workers fighting for their fair rights. What was really happening in Winnipeg? In an information age dominated by newspapers and magazines, the public turned to reporters and editors for answers.