'Bloody Saturday' art installation to keep strike history 'alive for next 100 years'

Strike art installation opens Friday An art installation marking 100 years since the Winnipeg General Strike opens on the anniversary of Bloody Saturday.

A tipped over, burning street car began the deadly violence on June 21, 1919, and now a new permanent art installation will be a reminder of Winnipeg’s “Bloody Saturday” for the next 100 years.

Winnipeg artists Noam Gonick and the late Bernie Miller created the public artwork, in collaboration with the Winnipeg Arts Council. The art piece is a sunken, stainless steel street car tipped over at a 20 degree angle located in Pantages Theatre Plaza right on Main Street at Market Avenue. The streetcar is illuminated from within.

“It looks like a replica of the turn-of-the-century street car that was tipped during the ultimate moments of the Winnipeg General Strike 100 years ago,” says the Winnipeg Art Council’s Tamara Rae Biebrich.

The Winnipeg General Strike began on May 15, 1919, when 35,000 workers walked off the job to fight for better pay and working conditions. The strike lasted for more than a month, leading to rising tensions between the city’s businesses and employees. On June 21 of that year, a streetcar filled with strike workers drove into the strike zone. Rae Biebrich says that’s when violence broke out.

“A strike breaker drove the streetcar through the crowd and then the crowd kind of erupted in response to the strike breakers driving the car in,” says Rae Biebrich. “They rocked the streetcar tipping it off the tracks and set it on fire.”

Rae Biebrich says special constables and North West Mounted Police opened fire on the crowd killing two strikers. The strike ended after that day.

Gonick has always been interested in the Winnipeg General Strike, making a short film about the event years ago.

“What really got me about the 1919 General Strike is that the people of Winnipeg responded en masse, 35,000 strong,” says Gonick. “When that streetcar came rolling down the track and it was driven by strike workers, the people got in the way to stop it, they tipped it over, they burned it and they said, ‘Enough’s enough.’”

The art installation will be officially unveiled to the public in a special ceremony at 9 p.m. Friday. Gonick says the piece will stay on-site permanently.

“It can serve as a bit of a teaching tool to keep the history of the strike alive for the next 100 years,” says Gonick.

That was also the goal of the Winnipeg Arts Council.

“That is such an important Winnipeg story that kind of defines the characteristics of Winnipeg,” says Rae Biebrich. “It will remind people of their Winnipeg history, have them learn about it and talk about these issues that were relevant 100 years ago and are still relevant today.”