We're Going to Run This City ― Winnipeg's Political Left After the General Strike

Stefan Epp-Koop’s We’re Going to Run This City: Winnipeg’s Political Left After the General Strike explores the dynamic political movement that came out of the largest labor protest in Canadian history and the ramifications for Winnipeg throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Few have studied the political Left at the municipal level—even though it was at this grassroots level that many people participated in political activities and it was at this time the struggles between Left and Right were played out.

Winnipeg was divided between the political descendants of the General Strike's Citizen’s Committee of 1000, the conservative business elite who advocated for minimal government and low taxes, and parties on the political left. The Independent Labour Party and the Communist Party of Canada had numerous ties to the 1919 strikers and, although they were often in conflict with each other, both put forward platforms focused on the city’s working class.

The political strength of the Left would ebb and flow throughout the 1920s and 1930s but peaked in the mid-1930s when the ILP’s John Queen became mayor and the two parties on the Left combined to hold a majority of council seats. Astonishingly, Winnipeg was governed by a mayor who had served jail time for his role in the General Strike.

Stefan Epp-Koop received an MA from Queens University, has won numerous awards for his scholarly work, and is the program director of Food Matters Manitoba.