Lesson One
-
The Group of 7 and Lord Beaverbrook
Outcomes (SWBAT)
 identify the effects the influenza epidemic had in 1918-1919
 interpret several paintings from WWI, painted by Canadians who would
later form the “Group of Seven”, as primary source documents
 define the terms communism, collective bargaining, & socialism
 identify the conditions facing returning soldiers after WWI ended and
connect this with the rise in labour unions
 identify the key factors that led to unrest between labour and employers,
culminating in the Winnipeg General Strike and its link to the
development of Socialist parties in Canada.
Activities
1.
Influenza epidemic of 1918.
2.
Lord Beaverbrook – Max Aitken. Slideshow of WWI paintings by Canadian
artists.
3.
Quick facts – 1920 PPT
4.
Discuss unions and collective bargaining. What are they?
5.
Read Winnipeg General Strike as a lead in to worker unrest in 1919.
6.
Show segment on Winnipeg General Strike from Canada, A People’s
History to further understanding.
7.
Post lesson responder questions
Materials
1.
slideshow of WWI Canadian artwork
2.
1920 fact sheet / economic theory definitions
3.
1920 events PPT
4.
Reading – Winnipeg General Strike
5.
Canada, A People’s History DVD from library
Max Aitken
Somebody once asked him if "Max" was short for Maximilian. He said it was short
for Maximultimillion.
Multimillionaire, press baron and entrepreneur extraordinaire, Max Aitken was, in
his time, the most powerful Canadian on the world stage.
He is the stuff of legend. The Canadian-born son of a Presbyterian minister,
Aitken didn't start off as a tycoon. At age 20, he was flat broke, running a
bowling alley in Canada.
By age 32, he was living the high life in London as a multimillionaire, a knight
and a member of the British parliament.
Aitken eventually climbed to the heights of the British aristocracy--taking the title
Lord Beaverbrook, befriending Winston Churchill and building the world's
greatest newspaper empire. Not bad for a kid from New Castle, New Brunswick!
He had an insatiable appetite for money, power and women!
-bought and sold control of the Rolls Royce automobile company
-known as the “First Baron of Fleet Street (home to the British press)” whose
newspapers could make or break a man!
H.G. Wells as saying of Beaverbrook: "If Max ever gets to Heaven, he won't last
long. He will be chucked out for trying to pull off a merger between Heaven and
Hell after having secured a controlling interest in key subsidiary companies in
both places, of course."
Beaverbrook wrote “only paintings could provide the most permanent and vital
form in which the great deeds of the Canadian Nation in the war could be
enshrined for posterity”.
The Spanish Flu Pandemic was a pandemic in 1918 and 1919 caused by an
unusually severe and deadly strain. In the 18 months of the pandemic, 50 million
to 100 million people worldwide were killed.
The Allies of WWI called it the "Spanish Flu". This was mainly because the
pandemic received greater press attention in Spain than in the rest of the world,
as Spain was not involved in the war and there was no wartime censorship in
Spain.
The virus was believed to have died off after 18 months. However, recently
(2006), scientists have used tissue samples from frozen victims to reproduce the
virus for study.
The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic is not known, but is
estimated at 2.5 – 5% of the human population, with 20% of the world
population suffering from the disease to some extent. Influenza may have killed
as many as 25 million in its first 25 weeks; in contrast, AIDS killed 25 million in
its first 25 years. Influenza spread across the world, killing more than 25 million
in six months; some estimates put the total killed at over twice that number,
possibly even 100 million.
While World War I didn't cause the flu, the close quarters and mass movement
of troops quickened its spread. It has been speculated that the soldiers' immune
systems were weakened by the stresses of combat and chemical attacks,
increasing their susceptibility to the disease.
Quick Facts – year 1920!
8 Chicago White Sox players are caught betting on their own team in the World
Series – to win the bet they had to lose against Cincinnatti. These 8 players
(including Shoeless Joe Jackson) were banned from ever playing the game again.
Movies to watch  “8 Men Out” & “Field of Dreams”
The “Band-Aid” is invented by Earle Dickson. His wife was constantly cutting and
burning herself in the kitchen, so he would get cotton, stick it on the wound and
then tape it on the skin. It dawned on him that it would be easier to make a
bunch at once, ready to use… so he found linen and put it over the sticky part of
the tape to keep it from losing its glue. He happened to work for Johnson &
Johnson, and showed his bosses the idea…
WINNIPEG GENERAL STRIKE
World War I ended in 1918. Times were hard for Canadian workers. People
were angry that corporations had made huge profits during the war while others
suffered. Prices were rising much faster than wages. Jobs were hard to find.
The government made organizing hard for unions and radical groups by keeping
wartime orders limiting free speech and assembly. Some left-wing organizations
were made illegal. Many workers saw the Russian Revolution as the beginning
of the end of class exploitation. The idea of workers overthrowing their
oppressors was attractive to many.
On May 15, 1918, Winnipeg workers – union members and unorganized workers
– went on strike. They shut down Canada’s third largest city for six weeks.
Workers went on strike for recognition of their unions and the right to bargain
collectively for their wages and working conditions.
Factories, stores, restaurants, offices, public transportation, fire departments,
newspapers, telephone, postal system – everything stopped. The Winnipeg
General Strike was the most complete general strike in North American history.
Thousand of war veterans demonstrated in support of the strikers. Many strikes
and demonstrations took place in other cities across Canada.
The government and businesses saw the strike as the beginning of a worker
revolution. Winnipeg business people organized the “Committee of 1000” to
oppose the strike. The government promised to use all resources, military,
financial and legislative, to crush the strike. Armoured cars, troops, and
machine-gun units were moved to Winnipeg. The strike leaders were arrested
and threatened with deportation. The police violently attacked a peaceful
Winnipeg parade of strikers and war veterans. Dozens of people were injured.
The strike was smashed.
In the provincial election after the strike, 11 labour representatives were elected.
Three of those elected were strike leaders still in jail. Many labour
representatives were elected to Winnipeg City Council as well. The following
year, J.S. Woodsworth was elected to the House of Commons. He had been
arrested but never went to trial for his involvement in the strike. In 1933
Woodsworth helped to establish the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, a
political party sympathetic to workers, farmers and the poor.
THE DAY WINNIPEG STOPPED
On May 15, 1919, Winnipeg stopped working. It was the first day of the
Winnipeg General Strike, the climax of many years of workers’ frustration and
anger. First the metal workers walked out; their bosses had refused to give
them a raise, a nine-hour day, and union recognition. Then the firemen, postal
workers and telephone operators struck. They were joined by office clerks,
railway workers, streetcar drivers and conductors, delivery people and garbage
collectors. In all but two of the 96 unions in Winnipeg, every member walked off
the job. Thousands of World War I veterans demonstrated in support of the
strikers. Tens of thousands of workers in BC, Albera, Ontario and the Atlantic
provinces staged sympathy strikes. Even the Winnipeg policemen publicly
supported the strikers. All 240, including the chief, were fired, and a special
force of 2000 untrained and strike constables took over.
Late on the night of June 6, the federal cabinet rammed through a change in the
immigration act permitting the arrest and deportation of “enemy aliens”. One
June 18, six British-born strike leaders and a few strikers born in other European
countries (who were later deported) were arrested and taken to Stony Mountain
Penitentiary. The workers and many thousand of non-union people who
supported them were outraged. They held a parade and rally the following
Saturday, June 21. On that day, “Bloody Saturday”, the Winnipeg General Strike
exploded in riots, violence and death. A troop of Mounties galloped again and
again into the crowd, firing their guns. The special constables, swinging baseball
bats, came behind them, forcing the workers in to the back streets. By nightfall,
one person was dead, on was dying and more than a hundred were injured.
In one way, the Winnipeg General Strike failed. The workers had gained nothing
and lost much (including, in many cases, their jobs). Winnipeg unions were
nearly destroyed. But, in another way, the strike succeeded. In the years that
followed many of the strikers’ demands became law, and many of the strike
leaders were elected to the provincial and federal governments. One of those
leaders was J.S. Woodsworth. In 1933 he founded a new political party, the CCF
– Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. The CCF was sympathetic to
workers, farmers and the poor; it later became the New Democratic Party
(NDP). And in 1969, 50 years after the Winnipeg General Strike, Manitoba
elected an NDP government. The workers had won at last.