thumb|300px|crowd gathered outside old city hall during the winnipeg general strike, june 21, 1919 the winnipeg general strike of 1919 was one of the most influential strikes in canadian history, and became the platform for future labour reforms. although many canadian companies had enjoyed enormous profits on world war i contracts, wages and working conditions were dismal and labour regulations were mostly non-existent. in march 1919 labour delegates from across western canada convened in calgary to form a branch of the "one big union", otherwise known as "the great fist", with the intention of earning rights for canadian workers through a series of strikes. a drastic amount of men and women- some unionised and some not- were all of different trades of skill and from different ethnic backgrounds shared class solidarity of inequality in canada and wanted to achieve what was essential for themselves. ==history== ===background=== the immediate post-war period in canada was not a time of peace. social tensions grew as soldiers returned home to find large numbers of immigrants crowded into cities and working at their former jobs. high rates of unemployment among returned soldiers compounded their resentment towards the immigrants. along with the soldiers, the spanish influenza was brought back from europe creating a mass illness within the country. canadian prime minister robert borden attended the paris peace conference that concluded the great war and was concerned primarily for his government, due to the russian revolution that began more than a year before the settlement and concern that bolshevism would potentially spread to north america.bumsted, j. m. (1994). the winnipeg general strike reconsidered. beaver, 74(3), 27. canadaâs large immigrant population was thought to hold strong bolshevist leanings. their fears of a possible uprising led to increased efforts to control radicals and immigrants at home. threats and incidents of strike action, which could be considered radical criticism, were thought to require prompt, harsh responses. ===cause=== soldiers returned home desiring jobs and a normal lifestyle again only to find factories shutting down, soaring unemployment rates, increasing bankruptcies and immigrants taking over the veterans' former jobs, which caused social tensions. the cost of living was raised due to the inflation caused by world war i makin
1919_in_Canada 1919_labor_disputes_and_strikes 1919_riots General_strikes History_of_Winnipeg Labour_disputes_in_Canada Riots_and_civil_disorder_in_Canada