Today in Labor History May 15, 1919: Workers in Winnipeg, Canada, initiated a huge general strike involving 30,000 workers. The strike lasted until June 26th, when the Winnipeg Labor Council declared the strike over. During the strike, the Mounted Police tried repeatedly to violently suppress the workers. The workers called for a six-hour workday and a five-day work week. During the strike, virtually the entire workforce halted work. Even the local cops voted for the strike. However, the strike committee asked the cops and utility workers to stay on the job to help keep basic services functioning. They set up a huge public kitchen which served food to hundreds of people each day. The Winnipeg “Free Press” called the strikers bohunks, aliens and anarchists. The called in the Royal Mounted Police and arrested dozens of people, charging some with seditious conspiracy. On Bloody Saturday, June 21, the Mounties fired into the crowd, killing one and wounding thirty others. In May and June, General Strikes broke out in 30 other Canadian cities.
Haven't fully sorted out if I can make it to @pluralistic in #Winnipeg May 2, but if I do and anyone else from here is there, my profile pic is pretty accurate, come say hi if you feel like it. But also, don't feel obligated to do so.
Expect awkwardness at levels that my online persona might make surprising. Most likely I'll just grab my selfie with my fav author and flee quickly, but I'm very nice really, and will attempt to be zany for a few minutes on req. We all just mutants doing our best.
Some Saturday mornings, I look at the week's blogging and realize I have a lot more links saved up than I managed to write about this week, and then I do a linkdump. There've been 14 of these, and this is number 15:
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
This is terrible, of course, but because I'm an asshole I got distracted by the outrageous claim that this intersection is in the "Mathers neighbourhood" which I've never heard before in my 40 years of life. This is still River Heights. (paywalled, but the headline says enough, and the fact this got media attention implies it's a police matter, because pedestrians get hit all the time) https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/this-just-in/two-adults-child-struck-by-motorist-near-grant-avenue
@theynege Three people hit at 8:50AM - my first thought is asking "How does this happen?" But you just have to observe how people drive in Winnipeg. Outright aggression.
I've been walking a lot more and driving less and you are more likely to observe all the absolutely outrageous behaviour by drivers.