How The Capitalist State Crushed The Democratic Post-war Expectations of The Working Class. By TIM BUCK May 15 will be the fiftieth anniver- sary of the Great Winnipeg General Sympathetic Strike. The workers of the city, industrial workers and service employees, answered the call and stopped work at eleven in the morning literally “to a man”, They were joined by the post office employees, the fire- fighters and the municipal policemen. On the second day the telephone oper- ators and electrical workers came out. On the third day telegraph operators, commercial and brokerage and news agency employees joined the sympathy strike. It was supported actively by the majority of the returned men, then being demobilized after their gruelling service in the trenches and victory in the first world war. The sympathy strike was called in Support of workers who were already out. The workers of the Vulcan Iron- works had walked out on May 1 to compel that company to bargain col- lectively with the Metal Trades Coun- cil. The building trades workers struck after their employers told them that their demands were reasonable but that they, the employers, could not ne- gotiate about them. Small employers indicated that this stance had been adopted by their Building Trades Coun- cil, under the influence of other power- ful interests. Thus, the origin of the sympathy strike and the cause for which workers voted to join it was clearly a simple trade union demand; namely, the right to bargain collectively and gain higher wages, corresponding with promises made to them during the war. All of what until then had been “the normal activities” of the city came to a halt, including the deliveries of milk, bread, and coal. The Strike Committee organized essential services, such as delivery of milk and bread and other necessary supplies to hospitals, the city jail, and so on. Striking policemen organized voluntary service and there was perfect order in the city. Even misdemeanors and petty crimes declin- ed. Sick care and the provision of necessities in emergency cases was organized. The strike was a perfect example, perhaps the most perfect ever, of what the working class can accomplish sim- ply by folding its arms. THE SPONTANEOUS UPSURGE The Winnipeg Strike stands by itself as a classic example of working class solidarity, and the mass support that working class unity can attract. To understand it however, it is necessary to bear in mind the fact that there was at that time a spontaneous upsurge of militant demands among trade union- ists, and also among unorganized work- ers, for action to make into reality some of the lavish promises that had been made during “the war to make Canada a land fit for heroes”. All over Canada there were strikes or talk of strikes for the eight-hour day, to force employers to bargain col- lectively, and for wage increases. In Toronto, the police had been out on strike 100 percent in January. The Metal Trades Council had been engag- ed in a struggle to win the right to organize, collective bargaining, and higher wages, continuously since the beginning of the year. Its biggest single PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 25, 1969—Page 8 - ; rhe. PHOTO—BROWN BROS. effort was the great Massey-Harris strike. That was fought first of all to establish the right of the workers there to join unions. It did not succeed in breaking Massey’s Open Shop policy, instead hundreds of the most active workers did not get back to work, but failure did not dull the edge of the desire for the right to organize and bargain collectively. The May Day de- monstration held in the Mutual Street Arena, was the biggest and most mili- tant demonstration of the workers’ desire for action that had been witness- ed in Toronto in the memory of any- body living at that time. The demon- stration was organized by the trade union movement, with a special appeal to support the metal trades workers. In addition to the economic demands to which they pledged support, the 5,000 workers packed in the old Arena demanded that the Canadian govern- ment, and all the Allied governments, withdraw their troops from Soviet Russia. They cheered Lenin and the Soviet government, and they sang The Red Flag and The Internationale. What was happening in Toronto was happen- ing all over Canada. The only difference was that in most other places the work- ers were, if anything, even more mili- tant. On May 6 the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council called upon its affiliated locals to take a vote on the question of solidarity action with the metal trades and building trades workers. Its action was acclaimed by the rank and file membership. In their local union meet- ings they voted by overwhelming ma- jorities for the sympathetic strike. When the Call was issued they downed tools solid. In Brandon, a hundred or so miles west, the civic employees had been on strike. A few days before the sympa- thetic strike in Winnipeg, the Brandon City Council had granted the major paper: demands and the civic workers had returned to work triumphant. But, when the Winnipeg Strike Committee appealed to workers elsewhere for support, the civic employees of Bran- don held a special meeting and downed tools again, in support of their fellow workers in Winnipeg, in spite of the declaration by the City Council that it would cancel their recently won contract. Sympathetic strikes in support of the Winnipeg workers were called in a number of centres, the three biggest were in Toronto, Vancouver, and Dis- trict 18 of the United Mineworkers of America. Our strike in Toronto was only partially effective, about 12,000 came out. But the one in Vancouver tied up all the industry in that city. The miners of District 18 (Western Alberta and Eastern B.C.), brought coal production to a full stop. With varying degrees of effectiveness, strikes were called in support of the Winnipeg workers and the demands for the eight hour day, the right to organize and collective bargaining, in dozens of localities. For a while, Winnipeg was the centre of Canada-wide incipient working class revolt around demands for action: to implement the promises of the eight hour day, collective bar- gaining and higher wages, to withdraw Canadian troops from Soviet Russia, and to start the social reconstruction that had been promised during the war. The class struggle was at an unprece- dented level all over Canada. Many of us thought it would sharpen to a revo- lutionary situation. THE CAPITALIST COUNTER-OFFENSIVE The sympathetic strike was called on May 15. It was called by the Trades and Labor Council after its affiliated locals had voted overwhelmingly for that action. Events showed quite plain- Fred Dixon, the second editor of the Western Labor News, was charged with “publishing seditious libel" for writing in that "Grass will grow, the river will reach the sea, the boy will become a man and labor will come into its own."