Grit and Working Class Solidarity, Podcast Ep. 20
The 1919 Winnipeg General Strike is widely commemorated as a landmark moment in Canadian labour history. In Vancouver, 10,000 workers joined a sympathy strike, staying off the job for nearly a month. In this episode of the On the Line podcast, host Rod Mickleburgh traces the origins of this solidarity to the post WWI environment of inflation, unemployment, and political discontent. These pressures contributed to the rise of the One Big Union (OBU), which promoted industrial unionism and general strikes as tools for systemic change.
Publication date: April 5, 2023
Podcast length: 19:26
Hosted by: Rod Mickleburgh
Research and writing by: Patricia Wejr and Rod Mickleburgh
Production by: John Mabbott
The Vancouver strike had a distinctively radical character to it. Unlike in Winnipeg, Vancouver’s action was not a response to local employer disputes but rather a direct act of solidarity, accompanied by its own set of demands. These included reinstatement of dismissed postal workers, pensions for veterans, calls for shorter working hours, and the nationalization of food storage plants.
Solidarity was at an all-time high, with workers from nearly every industry participating. From railway workers to brewery employees and more, ten thousand Vancouver workers joined the strike and stayed off the job for a month. Union typesetters stayed on the job, reasoning that the news was essential to the strikers, but when the Vancouver Sun published a series of anti-union editorials, the printers shut the paper down for five days. 325 women telephone operators held out two weeks longer than any other group, a valiant act commended by the BC Federationist for its resolve and principle. Indigenous athletes helped raise strike relief funds through a lacrosse match which was attended by a record crowd.
Archival audio from socialist and union leader William Pritchard provides firsthand commentary on the era’s labour radicalism, while later interviews with participants like seafarer Jimmy O’Donnell lend personal perspective to the events.