Hell's Alley
(Dramatization of events preceding to, and from "Bloody Saturday", June 21 1919, arising from the Winnipeg General Sympathetic Strike)
Note: I have taken a few liberties with the events of this time in order to best condense the events and feelings of the time. For example: Secretary of the Seattle Trades and Labor Council, James Duncan, had actually made his address a couple of weeks earlier. And those of the Central Strike Committee as were arrested had been arrested days earlier. So Sam Blumenburg, soldier Bray and Helen Armstrong would not be present. However, Helen did take lumps on occasion and is useful in conveying sentiments of Strike Committee. The Socialist, Blumenburg, was actually a dry cleaner but rates being written in, not just for his classic (genuine) one-liner but to show problems of "enemy aliens". The secret police reports are of various times and sometimes condensations of more than one report to give the idea of the hysteria and paranoia that existed in some official circles. Likewise with government officials. The beating is as nearly accurately reproduced as possible. There is some controversy as to whether the workers did or did not destroy some of the interior of the streetcar, so I left it out. They did not, as some historians have claimed, tip over the streetcar. They tried, but it was too heavy. So are a lot of things.
Larry Tickner
Cast, in order of appearance:
COMMENTARY: Relates happenings and statements of others away from scene. As he gives wide cross-section of views of various elements it is important that his face not reflect conflicting emotions and should be blanked out with makeup. It is occasionally necessary that he be able to call on a booming voice that will shake the rafters.
"WORKERS": All somewhat apolitical, reflecting the general situation of the time. The common headgear of workers, at the time, was the bowler hat. But as such is not likely to carry the desired impression upon today's audiences it is perhaps better that they wear tweed or cloth caps.
WORKER 1: Generally more than average social awareness. Experienced. Knows he is in a tough fight but prepared to hang in there no matter what.
WORKER 2: Considerably less aware, but not lacking in courage. Slight foreign accent.
WORKER 3: Probably would have given in at the first blush if not carried by the tide of determination amongst his peers.
WORKER 4: Highly idealistic (more than the others). Still retains the original religious fervor. Prepared to act first and think later.
(Soldiers all in uniform)
SOLDIER BRAY: Active supporter of the strike.
OTHER SOLDIERS: As many as can be comfortably accommodated on stage. An attempt to attain an approximate balance between them and workers.
HELEN ARMSTRONG: Wife of socialist and carpenter union organizer George Armstrong. A socialist speaker in her own right. A proud upright woman. Femininely attractive enough, but dressing in such a manner as to neither hide nor exploit the fact.
SAM BLUMENBERG: Socialist, slight Jewish accent, but quite articulate. Fellow metal worker with Russell.
JAMES DUNCAN: President of Seattle Labor Council. He is not unsympathetic to groundswell of need for industrial unions but is attempting to achieve it by reforming the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
MESSENGER BOY
ACT 1
(Open Set)
Market Square, opposite Winnipeg City Hall. Center stage is a raised platform suitable for speakers. There are a few chairs on the platform for the speakers. At extreme stage left and extreme downstage stands Commentary. He holds a scroll before himself. He can use it for cues, but it is preferred that he memorize his lines. He remains still when not speaking and when he speaks the "participating" players freeze, except where otherwise noted. (Note: All entrances and exits are made from amongst the audience.)
COMMENTARY: Saturday morning, June 21st, 1919. Market Square, opposite Winnipeg City Hall. The war to end all war is over. Wartime restrictions are still in effect. The Social Democratic Party has been declared illegal. The journal of the Socialist Party of Canada has been banned, as have the works of Marx and Darwin, and some of the plays of Gilbert and Sullivan. The men who fought four years for a "glorious new world" return to find it the same one they left — widespread unemployment, with all too familiar grinding poverty, aggravated by rampant wartime inflation. Nationwide discontent reflects itself, in Winnipeg, in the form of a six-week General Strike.
[Enter Worker 1. He briefly shuffles around at the base of the platform until he is joined by Worker 2.]
WORKER 2: Where's the Strike Committee?
WORKER l: Don't know. Guess we're a bit early.
WORKER 2: Storm bother your place much?
[Enter Worker 3]
WORKER l: Blew off a few shingles. Fixed them. But I sure don't want to see a storm like that again.
WORKER 3: Blew a big piece off the roof of the Children's Hospital. What the hell? Strike or no strike we don't want to see children suffer. [Others nod in agreement] Me and a mate offered to fix it. Hospital
Director said he'd see us roast in hell first.
WORKER 2: What the hell's the matter with them? Why do they hate us so? Don't they see all we want is a decent living?
[Enter Worker 4]
WORKER 3: Don't know. Say we're all Bolshevik or Reds or something. Whatever that is. Enemy aliens getting German gold to ruin the country.
WORKER l: That's nothing. Been saying things like that about us for 20 years. Longer. Far as I can remember. Anything to keep our wages down. Been through it three times now. Try to get a union, decent wages. Each time, they use the police and scabs to break our strike — Courts to fine and imprison our union leaders. Forced to go back to work, at worse conditions. Alongside scabs. [Spits]
WORKER 4: But this time it is going to be different. We are better organized now. All workers together striking for each other. Worked last year. Got three wage settlements by threats of general strikes.
COMMENTARY: With the workers properly organized there is nothing they may not successfully demand from the capitalist, by means of a general strike.
WORKER 2: But without a general strike the metal masters beat the workers down within a month. That's why we had to support them this year. Make things better for all of us, too.
WORKER 3: But maybe we should not have all gone out. It's been 6 weeks now and things are getting bloody tough. Don't know if there will be enough food for my family.
WORKER l: Don't lose heart brother. The Strike Committee says that as long as there is one crust of bread amongst us we'll share it. We must be strong, to win.
WORKER 2: Why do the metal masters hold out so long? Even they admit the men cannot live on their present wages. Why can't they see the justice of our case?
WORKER l: We don't even get the minimum conditions just laid down by the League of Nations.
COMMENTARY: I worked hard to establish my business. As a logger. In the sawmills. Worked to get an engineering ticket. I alone am best qualified when and whom to hire and fire and how much an employee should be paid. And no bloody Red is going to tell me different.
WORKER 4: [In almost dreamy nostalgia] Remember, six weeks ago, when we came out? Labor Council called on all unions to support the Metal Trades. Eleven o'clock in the morning, as arranged, I took off my apron, put on my hat and left the job. The streets were full of people. 'Twas like a Roman holiday. Not just union people either. As many without unions came out in support of the metal workers' cause. Even soldiers changed over to our side.
WORKER 2: Even the Strike Committee was surprised. In the afternoon went to their favourite restaurant. It was closed, of course. [All laugh]
WORKER 4: Even police voted to come out.
WORKER l: Agreed with Strike Committee though. Stayed on to keep order. Even said they'd bust our heads if we got outa line. Never needed it though. Strike Committee cooperated to see everybody kept calm.
WORKER 3: [Apprehensively] But now they have fired all the police for being sympathetic to the strikers. Replaced them with boss's goon police.
WORKER 4: Dumb buggers are no good for anything anyway. Just say boo and they fall off their horses. Think we should run 'em outa town. Worse scab herders yet.
COMMENTARY: Sawing, sawing, sawing. What the hell we sawing up these old oxen yokes for anyway? We hire on to be policemen, not bloody woodcutters. [Pause] Don't know. Don't care. For six dollars a day I'll do anything. Don't need oxen yokes no more anyhow. Got tractors now.
[Immediately enter Soldier Bray. He is readily recognized and accepted by the workers. As he steps upon the platform other soldiers begin to mingle with the crowd.]
BRAY: Comrades, the soldiers are with you in your demands for collective bargaining. We also demand an allowance for returned soldiers.
WORKER l: How can we trust the soldiers? You have not always been with us.
BRAY: I know what you mean. Last winter some of us did act against workers. Beat up on foreigners. Even destroyed the Socialist Party's headquarters. We now know we were wrong. But we had been misled by newspaper nonsense that screamed about enemy aliens, red menace and such. Strikes financed by German gold.
COMMENTARY: Secret Police Agent 57, reporting from Vancouver, B.C. There is reason to believe Bolshevik agents have landed on our shores. 5,000 of them are training under arms in Canada and the United States. They have violet rays and know how to use them to blind people.
BRAY: [Continuing] Then the Union members convinced us your interests are our interests. That is why we are here today, to stage another parade. When the soldiers' support is shown the justice of our case will be seen and we will win.
[Most of crowd obviously restless and leaning towards action.]
WORKER l: [As he speaks Helen Armstrong mounts the platform.] But the Mayor has forbidden more parades. And the Strike Committee says we should avoid confrontation. [Quoting the Strike Committee] The best thing to do is nothing. Go to the beach. Make love.
HELEN: That's right Comrades, I beg you wait for the advice of the Strike Committee. They should have been here by now. I was to have met my husband . . .
WORKER 4: We can't wait any longer. It's been six weeks now.
HELEN: Wait. Here comes Sam Blumenburg. [As Sam mounts platform] He's on the Strike Committee.
SAM: Sorry I'm late. I was to bring a visiting speaker but he didn't show up.
SOLDIER 2: [In a badgering manner but the rest not too sympathetic with him.] You sound like an enemy alien. How do we know the papers aren't right? How do we know you ain't gettin' German gold?
SAM: [Not in any way intimidated, scoffingly laughs.] What is this enemy alien? And German gold? Workers see damn little gold of any kind. In my country it was very bad — very poor. Then the Canadian government says, Come to Canada, Land of Big Opportunity. Shows a poster; Woman with a nice white apron, waving to husband coming in from field. So I come. What do I find. All the good land gone. Even farmers who have it can hardly make a living. Long unemployment lines. Miserably low wages. Then I get a job with Bob Russell. He says he wants to make a union that gets good wages for everybody. Not just craftsman. I think, maybe this is the big opportunity government talks about.
SOLDIER 2: Russell's a socialist. How do we know you are not using the strike to make a revolution, like the papers say?
SAM: You crazy? Socialism could never happen that way. Sure Bob wants a new society. Me too. One with no money, no wages, everything free. But it can only come by majority action. Right now all we want is enough wages so we can live to see that day.
SOLDIER 2: Hah, what country do you come from?
SAM: [With all the confidence of someone who had dealt successfully with the question many times before] ... It is not necessary to ask where I come from. My face is the map of Palestine and my nose is Mount Zion. [All laugh and that ends the matter].
[Enter James Duncan. He takes to the platform as he is welcomed by Blumenburg.]
SAM: Here is the visiting speaker I was to meet. James Duncan of the Seattle Labor Council.
[A lot of booing and hissing from those in attendance. But sentiment not shared by Bray, Blumenburg or Helen Armstrong.]
WORKER 4: Yankee Craft Union Snob.
BRAY: Wait. Let's hear what the man has to say. [All quieten.]
DUNCAN: Brothers and Sisters. I am sorry I am late. Got a bad time from the border guards. Said if I'd been a day later they wouldn't have had to let me through at all.
COMMENTARY: Honorable gentlemen of the house. The legislation before you will permit us to scourge the country of the enemy alien red menace once and for all. It will permit us to deport any of them. Reds of any kind, even British born reds, without trial. And once again make our country free. [Speaking rapidly] House of Commons: First Reading — all in favor say aye. Second Reading: all in favor say aye. Third Reading: all in favor say aye. Senate: First Reading — all in favor say aye. Second Reading— all in favor say aye. Third Reading — all in favor say aye. Signed by the Governor-General Total time elapsed 40 minutes
DUNCAN: I understand your sentiments. They are not unlike my own. [As he speaks the crowd begins to warm to him giving each other nudges and nods of approval]. We have just had a general strike in Seattle for almost the same reasons as yours — low wages and refusal of the employers to recognize joint industrial bargaining. I am now on my way to the AFL Convention. [Boos and hisses]. If I cannot get them to reform their organization to embrace all workers I will join with you to help found one big union to represent all workers. [Enthusiastic cheers from all and applause from those sharing the platform] I wish I could stay longer and help your strike but I am late and must go to the AFL Convention. My heart is with you. [Exits to applause].
BRAY: Hear that, comrades. Our case is just. Workers everywhere are sympathetic to us. Many are striking in support for us.
COMMENTARY: Secret Police Agent 98 reporting from Ferni, B.C. You do not have to worry about the union leaders here becoming revolutionary. They don't want to lose their soft and cushy jobs.
BRAY: Vancouver is out, Calgary is out, Lethbridge, Edmonton —
COMMENTARY: Dear Mr Prime Minister, as your Minister of Labour I must respectfully advise that, this is not an opportune time to make a declaration in favor of the principle of collective bargaining as it would be grasped as an excuse by the strikers to claim they had forced the government and thereby proved success of the sympathetic strike.
BRAY: Saskatoon is out, Regina, Prince Albert, Brandon, Port Arthur, Fort William, Toronto.
COMMENTARY: Edmonton out two weeks — Vancouver a month.
WORKER 3: [Apprehensively.] But there is talk of getting scabs to run the streetcars, If that happens the strike is broken.
WORKER 4: Don't worry Comrade. [He uses this address for the first time, reflecting the increased pitch of anxiety.] We know how to look after scabs.
COMMENTARY: Secret Agent 67, reporting from Calgary: What the new union policy will be, will depend on how dangerous things may be to their personal liberty. Already their fear is making them hesitant and, as far as possible, they will tone down their program. I recommend reformed labor laws, which would meet with the approval of the Conservative labor element, aiming at the elimination of basic grievances and a satisfactory settlement to the returned soldiers and simultaneously the deportation of alien trouble makers. Decisive and concerted arrest of the leaders, a quick trial with a sentence making release or confinement dependent upon their future policy.
BRAY: Comrades, it is time to begin our parade.
HELEN: No, no. Wait for the Strike Committee [Blumenburg nods, in agreement.]
COMMENTARY: [Continuing] Unionism, rightly organized, is the very basis of national unity and strength. Especially will this be proved when the inevitable international complications ensue. With regard to this new movement, only two courses are open — either crush it ruthlessly or reform the labor laws of the country [while Commentary is finishing a boy messenger hands Helen a note and hastens nervously away.]
HELEN: [Upon reading the note shrieks] God! They've arrested my husband. They're arresting the whole Strike Committee. [In her sobbing grief she awakens to the danger to Sam.] Oh, Sam they'll be after you too. You have no family to hold you. Run!
SAM: No, I must stay with my Comrades and help the strike.
.HELEN: [Bray and the crowd showing sympathy and anxiety for Sam.] Don't be a fool. You're the only one on the Strike Committee without an English background. They are deporting foreigners who didn't even have anything to do with organizing the strike. You can't help us from jail or deported. Run .. . run! [Hesitantly and reluctantly Sam exits to the well wishes of the crowd.]
COMMENTARY: Sam Blumenburg escapes to the United States where he is active in Socialist and labor organisations for the rest of his life.
BRAY: Now the soldiers are in charge. We will begin our parade. [Steps from the platform to take his place at the head of forming parade.]
HELEN: No! No! Wait!
WORKER 4: [They are all in an ugly mood.] I'm bloody tired of waiting. [Helen runs beseechingly from one to another. Her helplessness is symbolized by lack of dialogue. Each pushes her gently but firmly aside.]
WORKER 3: Look! Here come the mounties. [Note: the ensuing confrontation with police is somewhat pantomimed. Crowd begins mocking and jeering. Mockingly hold their backs upright, stiff and hands in front as though holding horses reigns. As the mounties "go through" the crowd turns in unison to watch them pass (a bit of choreographic talent needed here). Helen, and to some extent Bray, are not out of agreement with the sentiments expressed but their apprehension shows as things begin to get more and more out of control.]
WORKER 1: Bloody mechanical men!
WORKER 2: Can't you understand the workers' needs?
WORKER 4: [As they pass through] Bloody scab herders! [All looking down the street.]
BRAY: [In relief] They're gone. Now we can begin.
COMMENTARY: [In a voice that rattles the rafters] COMPANEEE! Fall in! [Following lower volume but with military precisioness]. Ninetieth Winnipeg Rifles ready for action at a moment's notice, Suh! 100th Winnipeg Grenadiers, ready at a moment's notice, Suh! 106th Infantary ready at a moment's notice, Suh! 79 Cameron Highlanders, ready at a moment's notice, Suh! Twenty machine guns on mobilized units. Ready at a moment's notice, Suh!
HELEN: [Looking in direction of mounties.] Wait, they're turning. They're coming back. [Crowd all jeer as they part ranks as though horses going between them. As the eyes of the crowd follow the mounties away. Worker 4 picks up a rock and makes ready to throw it after the mounties. Helen tries to stop him but is brushed aside. The others aghast, at first, but then start picking up rocks and hurling them after the mounties. All except Helen and Bray, curse the mounties as they pass.]
BRAY: [As things get out of hand.] Let's not lose control of ourselves. Let's be orderly.
Worker 3: [In relief] They're gone.
WORKER 2: Here comes a streetcar.
[They all crowd around. Helen and Bray are quite helpless now. Worker 4 jumps as though to grab the trolley line.]
WORKER 4: I've got the trolley cord. It's stopping!
[Helen and Bray have the same feeling toward the scab but do not take part in what follows, for slightly different reasons. The crowd make actions that indicate pulling the scab out of the streetcar. They make a cordon, ironically similar to the one the mounties passed through. They in turn take a punch at the scab and shout obscenities at him as he runs the gauntlet and runs away. There is a great amount of noise from crowd.]
HELEN: Listen! The mayor's reading something.
WORKER 3: Who can hear?
WORKER 4: Who cares anyway. Bloody boss's stooge.
COMMENTARY: In the name of the security and protection of the King all herein assembled are instructed to disperse .. . [Drowned out by the noise.]
HELEN: The mounties are returning. They have their revolvers out.
COMMENTARY: [Military voice] At the READY . . . AIM . . . FIRE! [Pause] [regular voice] One bystander is killed instantly.
[All paralyze looking in direction of Worker 2 as he holds his leg in pain. Half crawling to extreme stage right where he lays down dying. Remains there for remainder of scene.]
WORKER 2: Hide me. No, do not call the doctor. I am foreign born. They will deport me. [Dies]
COMMENTARY: Dead of gangrene. [Now all begin to jerk and fall as though being shot and clubbed and trampled by horses. Helen goes to the help of a half-dazed worker.]
HELEN: Here Comrade. I'll help you. [Screams in pain as head jerks back from clubbing. Arises from momentary unconsciousness] Run! .. . Run!
[As commentary speaks all in unison go through a slow motion act of running. First stage front then left, then right, raising their hands in horror at what they "see" in each street.]
COMMENTARY: Blockaded across each street are the special police. In the right hand of each is half an oxen yoke. In the other hand some have revolvers.
[All go through action of being clubbed, being shot; falling; getting up; stumbling in every direction.]
HELEN: [Half dazed] Come Comrades. Hide in this alley. We'll be safe here. [All go to centre stage stage and crouch as though hiding.]
COMMENTARY: Mommy. Why do people call that little street hell's alley? Come along dear. Don't ask such things.
[In a few moments they are startled by something at stage left.]
ALL: The goon police!
[They all retreat to stage right but again are confronted.]
COMMENTARY: At each end of the alley cordons of special police, clubs in hand.
[They all go through action of being beaten.]
WORKER 4: [Going through action of fighting back]. Fucking bastards!
[But he is clubbed from one side and then another. Crumples unconscious, as they all do, in tortured heaps.]
COMMENTARY: Scourge the streets! Find them, find them! Punish! Punish! Punish! Beat! Beat! Beat! Law and Order! Law and Order! [Slight pause].
[As strikers begin crawling off stage helping each other, carrying the unconscious and the dead worker, Commentary continues.]
We return to work like whipped dogs. Work alongside scabs. Lose seniority. Pensions. Sign allegiance oath. [With vengeance] Sign! Sign! Sign! [Some exiting workers resentfully go through action of signing. Some spit in hatred.] Some are permanently blacklisted. [Slight pause] Troops arrive to take over the streets . .. Trucks with mounted machine guns patrol back and forth. But the streets are empty of strikers. Bloody Saturday is over.
ACT 2
COMMENTARY: Same qualification as Commentary in first act [could be same performer but recommend the part be divided.]
JUDGE: Complete with those mysterious robes they are prone to wear.
[Commentary 2 assumes the same position as Act 1. The judge is at his bench fiddling with papers as Commentary speaks.]
COMMENTARY: History books will largely by-pass the participants in the events of these days. Worse. Some will write in heroes who had very little to do with the struggle. This is not to say there were not key martyrs and heroes. There were. And their bravery and suffering matched any. But the genuine ones would not have had it that they were so heavily written in, nor that the rest be so easily passed over.
JUDGE: [Forcefully banging his gavel] Order in the court!
COMMENTARY: Many "aliens" have been deported. The vast majority of them are unknown to the strike leaders. Those of British backgrounds get a trial. As to fairness? The trial is by a jury. The jurists are mostly farmers with little in common with the accused. It is doubted, by many, that a similar jury could be found anywhere else in the country.
JUDGE: The seven of you: A.A. Heaps; Reverend Wm. Ivens; R.E. Bray; George Armstrong; John Queen; R.J. Johns; W.A. Pritchard, have been jointly charged on six counts of seditious conspiracy which we have spent these many weeks reviewing but may be briefly summarized as follows:
Count 1: A general form of seditious conspiracy to bring hatred and contempt to excite disaffection against the government, the laws and the constitution and generally to promote ill-will and hostility amongst the people and between classes.
Count 2: Seditious conspiracy in overt acts; in the calling of seditious socialist meetings and distribution of seditious socialist literature; Participation in the founding of the One Big Union with syndicalist objectives; The prosecution of an illegal strike, to discommode and inconvenience the inhabitants of Winnipeg and the paralyzing of all industries and business in Winnipeg and endangering the lives, health, safety and property of said inhabitants.
Count 3: Seditious conspiracy to carry into effect a seditious intention to endanger human life and to cause serious bodily injury and to expose valuable property to destruction and serious injury.
Count 4: Seditious conspiracy to organize an unlawful combination or association or associations of workmen and employees to get demands by unlawful general strikes which were intended to be a step in a revolution against the constituted form of government in Canada.
Count 5: Seditious conspiracy to undermine and destroy confidence in the government, laws and constitution. To persuade workmen to form unlawful associations for the purposes of obtaining control of all industries and of obtaining the property rightfully belonging to other persons.
Count 6: Seditious conspiracy to unlawfully bring about changes in the constitution and to enforce the "Soviet" form of government in Canada through means similar to those used in Russia.
Count 7: Committing a common nuisance by use of an unlawful general sympathetic strike in which various employees walked out illegally and which endangered the lives, health, safety, property and comfort of the public and obstructed the exercise and enjoyment of rights common to all His Majesty's subjects.
 |
| Aug 1, 1919: The Winnipeg Eight at Vaughan Street Jail |
JUDGE: I have the jury's verdict before me. [pause] A.A. Heaps. Not guilty on all seven counts.
COMMENTARY: A labor alderman in the City of Winnipeg. Member of the Strike Committee. Upholsterer by trade. Only one of the seven to be acquitted on all seven counts. Defended himself. His address to the jury took all of one day.
JUDGE: Reverend William Ivens. Guilty on all seven counts. Sentence: one year in Manitoba Prison Farm.
COMMENTARY: Had been ousted from the Methodist church for his pacifist views. Subsequently founded a labor church in the Winnipeg Trades and Labor hall. At the time of his arrest was editor of the Western Labor News. Defended himself. His address to the jury took 14 hours. While in prison, elected to the legislature for the Independent Labor Party, where he served 16 years.
JUDGE: R.E. Bray. On six counts of seditious conspiracy, not guilty. On the charge of committing a common nuisance, Guilty. Sentence: six months in the Manitoba Prison Farm.
COMMENTARY: Soldier. Member of the Strike Committee. Representative from the Soldiers Committee. Philosophically a pacifist. Only joined the army to get work. Subsequently becomes an organiser for the newly-founded One Big Union. Spends his reclining years in Vancouver growing gladiolas.
JUDGE: George Armstrong. Guilty on all seven counts. Sentence: one year in the Manitoba Prison Farm.
COMMENTARY: Member of the Strike Committee. Member and one-time organizer of the United Brotherhood of Carpenter and Joiners of America. Prominent lecturer for the Socialist Party of Canada. While in prison elected to the Manitoba Legislature on a reformist ticket. Subsequently returns to write and speak for the Socialist Party in relative obscurity.
JUDGE: John Queen. Guilty on all seven counts. Sentence: one year in Manitoba Prison Farm.
COMMENTARY: A silver-tongued labor orator. Alderman of the city of Winnipeg. Advertising Manager of the Western Labor News. While in prison, elected to the Manitoba Legislature and subsequently reelected the rest of his life. Serves seven terms as the mayor of Winnipeg.
JUDGE: R.F. Johns. Guilty on all seven counts. Sentence: one year in the Manitoba Prison Farm.
COMMENTARY: Railroad machinist. Active member of the Socialist Party of Canada. During entire strike was in Eastern Canada involved in other union activities. His imprisonment results in an undue strain on his wife causing him to drop all Socialist activities. He returns to school to become a machinist teacher and ultimately the Manitoba Director of Technical Education.
JUDGE: William A. Pritchard. Guilty on all seven counts. Sentence: one year in the Manitoba Prison Farm.
COMMENTARY: Vancouver organizer for the longshoremen's union. In Winnipeg on a four-day visit as executive representative of the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council. A prominent speaker for the Socialist Party of Canada. His address to the jury, two days, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. each, becomes a classic in judicial circles. Pressures from his imprisonment have tragic effects upon his family. He is subsequently several times elected the Reeve of Burnaby and is a key factor in the founding of the reformist British Columbia CCF Party. For this latter act some of his fellow socialists never forgave him. In 1979 three years before his death at the age of 93, in his home in Los Angeles he wrote "Had the government carried out its initial move there would not have been any trial. . . Andrews, principal counsel for the crown went one evening to the Penitentiary and announced: By tomorrow you will all be deported to Britain — wives and children to follow. . . . But Armstrong at once called out: Hey, Alfie! What are you going to do with me? Send me to Alaska? He was born in York, Toronto. This put the kibosh on the hurriedly devised scheme."
COMMENTARY: Two others are tried separately.
JUDGE: F. .J. Dixon. For your part in writing and circulating articles in the Western Labor News you are hereby charged with seditious libel.
COMMENTARY: A labor member of the Provincial legislature, undertook the publication of Western Labor News when the others were arrested. Made a stellar performance of conducting his own defence and despite hostile charge from the judge, after 40 hours the jury rendered a verdict of not guilty.
COMMENTARY: R.B. Russell is charged on six counts of seditious conspiracy and one count of common nuisance.
JUDGE: R.B. Russell. Guilty on all seven counts. Sentence: two years in Stoney Mountain Penitentiary.
COMMENTARY: Secretary of Canadian Railroad Machinists. Esteemed to be leader of the strike. Prominent member of the Socialist Party of Canada for which he runs while in prison. He is narrowly defeated by fellow strike supporter, Dixon, on the second count of a preferential ballot. Labor throughout the world demands a pardon for him as far away as Glasgow, Scotland, threaten a general strike if he is not released. He is pardoned. Upon release, he becomes secretary and main organizer for the newly founded One Big Union. It is Russell's expressed intention to fight for workers on the industrial field, while at the same time educate them in socialist ideas for the ultimate abolition of capitalism. For a while the OBU makes an impressive impact upon labor scene; its presence being felt in a wide spectrum, including Nova Scotia miners, textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in New York and San Francisco and amongst western lumber workers. For fifteen years it publishes a weekly journal with union business interspersed with socialist theory. But the writing is on the wall. The OBU has to fight on too many fronts: employers with an understandable mutual antagonism; government; police; and other unions — first there is the international craft unions, then the international industrial unions — and the Communist Party, whose worm-within and Moscow-obedience policy is scorned by the OBU. Ultimately the OBU withers to a mere Winnipeg base. After 43 years, at the founding of the Canadian Labor Congress in 1962 what remained of it is officially disbanded. On Labor Day 1964, four weeks before his death, Bob Russell is officially recognised as the father of labor in Manitoba. A school and a wing of a children's hospital are named after him. [Pause]
In the words of Pritchard at the time ". . . in my own mind I rest assured that the historian of the future will drive the knife of critical research into the very bowels of the bogey that has been conjured forth out of the imagination of certain legal luminaries of this city; and placing everything in its proper position will appreciate at their worth each fact and each factor; and will appreciate at their proper worth all those persons who have become part and parcel of what has been conceded to be the greatest case in the history of Canada."
