STRIKE becomes a movie

The award-winning 2005 stage musical by Danny Schur & Rick Chafe becomes a major movie musical

Production Facts

• Stars signing on
• Shooting on location in Winnipeg, Canada in spring/summer, 2016
• Made-in-Manitoba production enjoys one of the highest labour tax credits of any jurisdiction
• Funded by Strike! Movie Limited Partnership
• Premiering in the first quarter of 2017

STRIKE MOVIE

STRIKE Tour 2014

May 25th 2014,  The 1919 Strike Tour last year took 35 people through highlights of what happened in 1919, with an eye to the social and economic conditions that laid the foundation for the strike. The presentation reflected on how the echoes and shadows of the General Strike can be heard and seen in Winnipeg of 2014.

It was 95 years ago when the workers of Winnipeg, with their supporters in the police and soldiers returning from the war, stood up in mass solidarity and brought the city to a stop. Their courage and sense of justice launched dynamics that serve the people of Winnipeg today!



Abut 40 history buffs ended the tour at the boutique hotel that now occupies the site of the original Victoria Park.

Victoria Park Memorial Update Sept 2010

Victoria Park Memorial

It was two years ago that our labour history proposal for rejuvenating the memory of Victoria Park was being prepared for Winnipeg City Hall presentation.

Since then;

The committee of Council responsible for planning and development selected a bid for a hotel complex to be built near the site from Senator Rod Zimmer.  It never got off the ground as Zimmer reportedly said the time was not right for getting the financial commitments needed to build the complex.

There was also some coverage in the press about a proposal to use the old pumping station (to the south of Victoria Park) as a farmers market but there has been no details shared publicly on what could develop.

The Red River Basin Commission also wanted the Harbour masters building also but apparently they could not raise the funds needed for a major office and information centre proposal they put forward. They were talking about a partnership with Senator Zimmer at one point but nothing came of it. The ED of the Commission claimed there was also room for our historical content, but he could never find the time to meet with us to talk about our contribution to their proposal.



Currently, there is a restaurant group that has an option on the Harbour Masters building, but no detail of who is involved and what could develop is being made public.

In the agreement to sell the land that was once Victoria Park to Sky Waterfront Condominiums, there was also a requirement that the new condominium building include some kind of commemoration of the park. This has not been done.

So it seems Victoria Park continues to be shunted into the dark corners of history. While our proposal may have been weak on financing and management, it was the best proposal so far for developing the area around Victoria Park so that all Winnipeggers could benefit.

We continue to monitor what CentreVenture is or is not doing with the land around Victoria Park.

Politics in the Park

 

Politics in the Park:

Winnipeg's Victoria Park During the General Strike

by Anna Penner,  Balmoral Hall, Winnipeg

Manitoba History, Number 40, Autumn / Winter 2000-2001

The following essay was the winner of the Manitoba Historical Society's 1999 Edward C. Shaw "Young Historians" Award.

Gray and empty, the old thermal power plant stands behind the Centennial Concert Hall. Each day hundreds of people drive past it, never even taking a second glance. It has been years since it operated, and today it stands waiting as the city decides what will happen with the land. However, beneath this desolate building, there was once a park which eighty-one years ago became the meeting place of thousands of workers fighting for their rights during The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. Although today the park has been destroyed, sacrificed in the desire for more building space, it is important to remember what it was and what it stood for. This park was Victoria Park, and during the six weeks of the General Strike, it became a place where the striking workers and their supporters could speak and be heard.

Victoria Park had been part of Winnipeg since 1900, when it had been named in honour of Queen Victoria. Located at the end of James Street, near the Old Labour Temple and two blocks from City Hall, the park was carefully tended, and a popular place, particularly in summer. One day after the Winnipeg General Strike began officially at 11:00 A.M. on the 15^th of May, 1919, on the morning of May 16^th, this peaceful park was filled with thousands of workers, all listening as Reverend William Ivens spoke. William Ivens was a socialist, who had been a minister until he was expelled from the ministry because he would not accept the authority of the Church. He was a member of the Central Strike Committee, had founded the Labour Church and was also the editor of the Daily Strike Bulletin. In his first speech at the park, Reverend Ivens urged the workers riot to give up their fight, saying "If you will but stand firm for a short time, we will bring them cringing on their knees to you saying: 'What shall we do to be saved?'" [1] He would repeat this message several times during the strike. In the six weeks of the Strike, every Sunday, Ivens would hold services of his Labour Church at the park. In these services news of the strike was relayed and prayers were said. Sounds of the workers singing the Labour Hymn could often be heard in Victoria Park: "When wilt thou save the people, Lord; O god of mercy, when?; The people, Lord, the people; Not crowns and thrones, but men." [2] This was the prayer of the thousands of families who gathered in the park to listen and to hope for their victory.

THE ANSON NORTHUP'S MAIDEN VOYAGE TO FORT GARRY

THE ANSON NORTHUP

by George Siamandas

On May 19, 1859 the Anson Northup became the first steamboat to successfully launch on the Red River reaching Fort Garry on June 10. It arose out of a sense of opportunity that St Paul Minnesota businessmen saw in the Red River district and the Canadian North West. They were encouraged by the Hudson Bay company's interest in pursuing this American route over their traditional Hudson Bay route. In January 1859 the St Paul Chamber of Commerce offered $1,000 to whoever could put the first riverboat on the Red and get it to Fort Garry. When the prize was raised to $2,000 Captain Anson Northup took on the challenge.