This volume consists of 16 essays that examine key events of the Winnipeg General Strike in Canada in 1919 within the broader context of mass strikes and revolutions at the end of World War I in the Americas. Historians and other researchers from Canada and the US describe the historiography of the strike and the evolution of perceptions of it; the issue of indigenous peoples' labor and the strike in the context of settler-indigenous relations; the participation of pro-strike soldier activists; the dynamics of Winnipeg's Jewish community during the strike; developments in Edmonton and Crowsnest Pass in relation to it; the civic workers' strike and unemployed workers' struggles in Montreal in 1918 in comparison to the Winnipeg strike; the 1918 Kansas City Strike, the Seattle General Strike, and workers’ movements throughout the Americas; the role of capital and the state in dealing with labor in Canada; the public history of the Winnipeg General Strike; productions and installations for its 100th anniversary; and its legacy for the 21st century. Distributed in the US by Longleaf Services Inc. Annotation ©2022 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Canada’s largest and most famous example of class conflict, the Winnipeg General Strike, redefined local, national, and international conversations around class, politics, region, ethnicity, and gender. The Strike’s centenary occasioned a re-examination of this critical moment in working-class history, when 300 social justice activists, organizers, scholars, trade unionists, artists, and labour rights advocates gathered in Winnipeg in 2019.
Probing the meaning of the General Strike in new and innovative ways, For a Better World includes a selection of contributions from the conference as well as others’ explorations of the character of class confrontation in the aftermath of the First World War. Editors Naylor, Hinther, and Mochoruk depict key events of 1919, detailing the dynamic and complex historiography of the Strike and the larger Workers’ Revolt that reverberated around the world and shaped the century following the war. The chapters delve into intersections of race, class, and gender. Settler colonialism’s impact on the conflict is also examined. Placing the struggle in Winnipeg within a broader national and international context, several contributors explore parallel strikes in Edmonton, Crowsnest Pass, Montreal, Kansas City, and Seattle.
For a Better World interrogates types of commemoration and remembrance, current legacies of the Strike, and its ongoing influence. Together, the essays in this collection demonstrate that the Winnipeg General Strike continues to mobilize—revealing our radical past and helping us to think imaginatively about collective action in the future.
?Canada’s most famous example of class conflict, the Winnipeg General Strike, redefined conversations around class, politics, region, ethnicity, and gender. For a Better World interrogates types of commemoration, current legacies of the Strike, and its ongoing influence.
