Bloody Saturday

On June 21, 1919, six weeks into the Winnipeg General Strike, thousands gathered on Main Street near City Hall in solidarity with returned World War I soldiers protesting the arrest of strike organizers. Inspired by labour struggles across North America and on the heels of the Russian Revolution, 35,000 workers had been striking for the right to collective bargaining and decent wages in a peaceful protest. That day, a strikebreaker drove a streetcar down Main Street, provoking the crowd to push it off its tracks and set it on fire. The North-West Mounted Police charged and shot dead one worker, Mike Sokolowski, and wounded another, Mike Schezerbanowicz, who died later. Special constables hired to replace the pro-strike police force attacked workers in Hell’s Alley, hospitalizing 27.

Manitoba · Canada