FRED GORDIENKO . Fred Gordienko was 29 years old when the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike broke out. He was employed at the CNR shops as a blacksmith and his whole shop of 50 men walked out in sympathy with building trades workers and the iron foundry workers, about two weeks after the strike started. Fred Gor- dienko collected money for the strike committee and was present during the bloody battle with the special police on June 2\st. After the strike was broken the CNR laid him off the job dn the pretext that he didn’t have naturalization papers. Many workers were put out of work because they “were Russians.” Gordienko laid the blame for the violence and the bloodshed squarely on on the Mounties and special po- lice. “There were about 20,000 people around City Hall. The soldiers who returned from the war were marching in support of the strike. A streetcar was driven right into the crowd — it was a provocation. The crowd removed the driver from the street car. Then the Mounted Police started galloping up and down Main Street from City Hall to Portage Ave. No one touched the Mounted Police. I was standing by the Imperial Bank and saw a horse slip and fall—then others fell, then the shooting started. One man was killed and another died later in hospital, many were injured.” After being “laid off” from the CNR, Fred Gordienko went to work at Mani- toba Bridge until 1932 when the depres- sion put most of the men out of work. The Manitoba Bridge wasn’t finally or- ganized as a closed shop until the out- break of the Second World War. Gordienko praised the strike leaders as “good working class trade union leaders.” His modest and simple ac- count of those exciting struggles is a vivid illustration of the militant work- ing class spirit that backed up the leaders and made it possible for the working people to maintain discipline ‘for seven weeks until boss violence broke the strike. om Recollections of those days 50 years ago... JOHN PETRUSHKA John Petrushka was 28 years old when the strike broke out. He was em- ployed at the Manitoba Bridge and Iron Works. He was a member of the strike committee of his union. When the strike was called, shop steward Petrushka was responsible for ensuring that every worker had left the plant. When he toured the plant he found three men who had to be convinced to leave. At the end of September after the strike was over Mr. Deacon, a former mayor of Winnipeg in 1912 and owner-mana- ger of the Manitoba Bridge and Iron Works, called Petrushka into his office. Deacon asked Petrushka if he was a member of the union. Petrushka an- swered that he was. Then Deacon accused him of calling the strike at the Manitoba Iron and Bridge. Petrush- ka denied this and said that the union called the strike, not one man. Deacon then accused Petrushka of telling the men to leave the plant, referring of course to Petrushka’s duties as shop- steward during the beginning of the strike. On this pretext Deacon told Pe- trushka that there was “no more job for you at my plant.” Many militants were victimized in this manner after the strike. Petrushka recalls the huge Victoria Park meetings of the strikers and workers after the riot act was read on June 21st. Petrushka, like Gordienko, blamed the RCMP for the violence. “When the demonstration came to City Hall the RCMP turned the horses into the people. When they got near Portage they began to shoot. My friend Didur got his leg broken in this,charge. After the shooting started and people were getting hurt they started to fight back and picked up anything they could find. Some policemen were hurt too and one was killed.” OLGA HUNKA Olga Hunka was a young woman in her early twenties when the Winnipeg General Strike broke out. “The strike did one wonderful thing for me,” she said. “It opened the door to under- standing what class struggle really means,” “The Women’s League of the One Big Union had a kitchen across the street from City Hall to feed the strik ers. One day I was asked to work in the kitchen and there I met Mrs. George Armstrong, the wife of a strike leader, and she asked me to join the Women’s League. I also met some women from the Liberty Temple (the progressive Jewish Organization in Winnipeg at that time). There I also met Mrs. Edith Hancox, a wonderful person who later became a member of ify - “ “> * PHOTO—MARY: JORDAN — the Communist Party and a leader of the unemployed.” “Many of us went from the OBU to the Communist Party when it was or- ganized, I recall Mrs. Hammond and Mrs. Emily Johnston besides Mrs. Han- cox.” “Mrs. Hancox and I and Leslie Mor- ris used to go collecting funds door to door in later years for famine relief to Soviet Russia. It was Mrs. Hancox and Leslie Morris who recruited me to the party.” Olga Hunka recalled the time when Mathew Popowich came to the Cen- tral Committee of the OBU requesting representation from the OBU on the Committee For Famine Relief for Soviet Russia. “I was nominated from the Women’s League of the OBU. Some women in the league didn’t like it but we went ahead and organized a big concert.” Olga Hunka, (in those early days Olga Tzurkalenko) said with pride, “My husband and I never missed a meeting in Victoria Park, we never missed a demonstration or march. We use to go to Victoria Park to the Labor Church on Sunday evenings to hear Bill Ivens, who had been a preacher in the Metho- dist Church, but who was kicked out for his support of the labor movement, I knew him personally. I also knew Fred Dixon and J. S. Woodsworth’s wife.” “The OBU only lasted five or six lm EDITH HANCOX years and most of the leaders became Social Democrats.” “But later on Rev. A. E. Smith joined us,” she said with some satisfaction. “And he later organized the Labor De fense League—I worked in that too. Olga Hunka ended her story with 4 wistful smile, “I would give anything to be twenty years younger, to be ” the struggle.” Olga Hunka and all those like her are still “in” the strug gle because their example provides 1 spiration to the younger people aroun them to honor and study the working class history they created and to com tinue fighting for the ideals they havé so faithfully defended.