Winnipeg General Strike of 1919Activities & Teaching Strategies
The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 is a complex historical event where workers united to demand rights, but was met with government resistance. Active learning helps students grasp the human stakes, the power dynamics, and the long-term consequences through direct engagement with sources and perspectives that a lecture alone cannot match.
Learning Objectives
- 1Analyze primary source documents to identify the grievances of Winnipeg workers in 1919.
- 2Evaluate the effectiveness of the Winnipeg General Strike as a tool for achieving labour rights.
- 3Compare the government's response to the Winnipeg General Strike with contemporary labour disputes.
- 4Synthesize information from various sources to explain the long-term impact of the strike on Canadian labour legislation.
- 5Predict potential outcomes of labour disputes based on the historical precedents set by the Winnipeg General Strike.
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Role-Play: Strike Negotiations
Assign roles as strikers, business owners, citizens' committee members, and government officials. Provide historical quotes and demands; groups prepare arguments for 10 minutes, then negotiate in a central 'roundtable' for 20 minutes. Debrief on outcomes and real historical parallels.
Prepare & details
Analyze the connections between post-WWI conditions and the Winnipeg General Strike.
Facilitation Tip: In the Strike Negotiations role-play, assign clear roles with stakes (e.g., union leader, factory owner, government mediator) and provide time for each side to caucus before opening the floor for discussion.
Setup: Flat table or floor space for arranging hexagons
Materials: Pre-printed hexagon cards (15-25 per group), Large paper for final arrangement
Primary Source Gallery Walk
Display 8-10 sources like strike bulletins, government telegrams, and photos around the room. Pairs visit each station, note biases and perspectives in a graphic organizer, then share findings in a whole-class synthesis. Connect to key questions on causes and impacts.
Prepare & details
Evaluate the significance of the Winnipeg General Strike for Canadian labour rights.
Facilitation Tip: For the Primary Source Gallery Walk, space the sources around the room with guiding questions on each table, and set a timer for 5 minutes per station to keep the pace moving.
Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter
Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback
Formal Debate: Strike Success or Failure?
Divide class into two teams to argue for or against the strike's long-term success, using evidence on labour laws and public opinion. Prep with jigsaw research on impacts; 20-minute debate followed by vote and reflection on criteria for historical significance.
Prepare & details
Predict how the strike influenced future labour relations and social policy.
Facilitation Tip: During the Debate: Strike Success or Failure?, remind students to back arguments with evidence from the timeline or sources, and assign a timekeeper to ensure balanced speaking turns.
Setup: Two teams facing each other, audience seating for the rest
Materials: Debate proposition card, Research brief for each side, Judging rubric for audience, Timer
Timeline Build: WWI to Strike
Individuals research 3-5 events linking WWI conditions to the strike, then collaborate to sequence them on a shared digital or paper timeline. Add cause-effect arrows and quotes; present to class for peer feedback on connections.
Prepare & details
Analyze the connections between post-WWI conditions and the Winnipeg General Strike.
Facilitation Tip: In the Timeline Build activity, provide pre-printed event cards for key dates but leave blanks for students to fill in connections between postwar conditions and strike triggers.
Setup: Flat table or floor space for arranging hexagons
Materials: Pre-printed hexagon cards (15-25 per group), Large paper for final arrangement
Teaching This Topic
Teaching this topic works best when students confront the human element of history through role-play and primary sources, rather than memorizing dates. Avoid presenting the strike as a simple conflict between workers and bosses, as it involved unions, politicians, veterans, and even immigrants. Research suggests that when students embody different perspectives, they develop deeper empathy and retain the material longer, especially when they see how the strike’s legacy shaped modern labour laws.
What to Expect
By the end of these activities, students will articulate the causes and outcomes of the strike, evaluate the roles of different groups, and recognize its legacy in Canadian labour rights. They will also practice historical empathy by analyzing multiple viewpoints and debating ethical implications of collective action.
These activities are a starting point. A full mission is the experience.
- Complete facilitation script with teacher dialogue
- Printable student materials, ready for class
- Differentiation strategies for every learner
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Common MisconceptionDuring the Role-Play: Strike Negotiations activity, watch for students who assume the strike was only about metalworkers' wages. Redirect them by having the 'union leader' present a list of demands from multiple industries, including garment workers and delivery drivers, during the negotiation opening statements.
What to Teach Instead
In the Primary Source Gallery Walk, students will encounter demands from different unions in the Workers’ Committee bulletins and strike bulletins, which explicitly cite broader grievances like cost of living and union recognition. Use these to guide small-group discussions about why the strike grew beyond a single trade.
Common MisconceptionDuring the Debate: Strike Success or Failure? activity, watch for students who claim the government remained neutral. Interrupt the debate by having the 'government representative' read aloud the federal order-in-council authorizing the arrest of strike leaders, then ask the class to analyze the text for evidence of bias.
What to Teach Instead
During the Timeline Build activity, include a section on government responses such as the use of the Royal North-West Mounted Police and the arrest of leaders like J.S. Woodsworth. Have students place these events on the timeline and discuss how they shaped the strike’s outcome, correcting the misconception through chronological analysis.
Common MisconceptionDuring the Primary Source Gallery Walk activity, watch for students who conclude the strike achieved nothing. Direct them to the 1930s Labour Relations Acts displayed in the gallery, where they can read how reforms like collective bargaining rights emerged in later decades. Ask them to trace the causal link between the strike’s repression and eventual policy changes.
What to Teach Instead
After the Role-Play: Strike Negotiations, have students reflect in writing on the strike’s immediate effects by comparing the pre-strike demands with the outcomes described in the post-strike Royal Commission report, available in the gallery. Use this to shift the conversation from short-term losses to long-term shifts in labour rights.
Assessment Ideas
After the Timeline Build activity, facilitate a class discussion using the prompt: 'Considering the conditions after World War I, was the Winnipeg General Strike an inevitable outcome? Ask students to justify their answers with specific events from the timeline and primary sources.
During the Primary Source Gallery Walk, ask students to complete a quick-check worksheet where they identify the perspective of each source (striker, business owner, government official) and explain how it connects to the strike’s core issues. Collect these to assess understanding before moving to the debate.
After the Debate: Strike Success or Failure? activity, have students complete an exit-ticket answering: 'What is one lasting impact of the Winnipeg General Strike on Canadian labour rights, and why is it significant today?' Use these to identify which students grasp the long-term legacy and which need reinforcement.
Extensions & Scaffolding
- Challenge students who finish early to research how the Winnipeg General Strike compares to another major labour action in Canadian history, then present a short comparison to the class.
- For students who struggle, provide a partially completed timeline with key events filled in, asking them to add causes and effects using the primary sources from the gallery walk.
- Deeper exploration: Invite students to draft a newspaper editorial from 1919 either supporting or opposing the strike, using language and arguments from the primary sources they analyzed.
Key Vocabulary
| General Strike | A work stoppage called across multiple industries and trades within a city or region, intended to pressure employers and government. |
| Collective Bargaining | The process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at reaching agreements to regulate working conditions. |
| Inflation | A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money, often exacerbated by wartime spending and supply shortages. |
| Bloody Saturday | The violent climax of the Winnipeg General Strike on June 21, 1919, involving a confrontation between strikers and police that resulted in casualties. |
| Sympathy Strike | A strike where workers refuse to work in order to support another group of workers who are already on strike. |
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