After about twenty people had filed through, Mrs. Armstrong pulled away from George’s side and walked onto the street, fanning her nose. She saw the girls watching and smiled.
“My rabble rouser and my papergirl! How lovely of you to come meet the returning heroes. I hate to tell them, but they stink to high heaven. I’m so happy to see George, but I need a little break! Mary, while I have you, let me ask how things went at the meeting last night.”
Cassie smiled as Mary updated Mrs. Armstrong on union business. Mrs. Smith had become one of the most active members of the Women’s Labour League, representing textile workers. Mary went to every meeting alongside her, taking notes and talking to the girls closer to her own age than her mother’s.
Once they were finished the update, Mrs. Armstrong said, “Girls, I could use your help. Come with me.”
They wove their way past the exhausted but happy-looking men and the thousand well-wishers shaking their hands.
“Right here,” said Mrs. Armstrong, pausing by a metal barrel. “Can you gather a few twigs and some newspapers and get a nice fire going in here?”
“It is a cold day, isn’t it?” said Cassie. “Is this to keep the men warm?”
Mrs. Armstrong smiled ruefully. “Oh goodness, they’ve been working outside for a year; I’m sure they’re warm enough. No, this is so that Mr. Armstrong has somewhere to burn those godawful clothes before he comes back into my house.”
As Cassie and Mary laughed, another voice came from behind them.
“What’s so funny? You need some help there?”
It was Freddy, with a hat pulled down over his eyes. He had to keep a low profile in this crowd.
Cassie didn’t see a lot of Freddy these days. He was busy, still working for the fat cats, still planning to be rich himself one day. Now he was in charge of the paperboys instead of spending his days on the streets. He was making a little more money, and his family was eating a little bit better.
And he was slowly, secretly, working to unionize his paperboys.
Cassie watched as Mary warmly greeted her previous enemy. She watched as Mrs. Armstrong extended her hand to say hello to one of her newest allies. She looked up at the men and women, the boys and girls, waiting on this cold day to greet and thank their heroes, and she felt the strength that came from being with this enormous crowd who all believed in the same thing. She hummed the simple notes of “Solidarity Forever” as she pulled out her notebook again.
Would there ever be justice for all these people? Maybe in her lifetime, and maybe not. But as Cassie recorded this moment in words, observing the passion and determination thrumming through the crowd, she felt another kind of power, one that no one could take from this papergirl.
It was the power of a truth being shared.
AFTERWORD
The 1919 Winnipeg General Strike was one of the most influential strikes in Canadian history and set the groundwork for positive change for workers. It involved thirty thousand workers and inspired sympathy strikes in many Canadian cities, from Amherst, Nova Scotia, all the way to Victoria, British Columbia. Workers around the world were inspired by the strength displayed in Winnipeg. Girls and women played important roles in the strike, but their history has been left out of many accounts of the strike.
The path from the strike to workers’ rights wasn’t short or straightforward. It took almost three decades after the strike for Canadian workers to win the right to representation by a union and collective bargaining rights. Some say that means the strike wasn’t a success.
But others argue that even if the strike didn’t meet all its immediate objectives, it served as a powerful source of inspiration — for people a hundred years ago, and for us, a century later. And we can honour the bravery of those thirty thousand workers by continuing to seek labour rights and justice.
A NOTE ON SOURCES
To supplement the research in Melinda McCracken’s original manuscript, I turned mainly to primary sources, looking at the archived newspapers in the University of Manitoba’s digital collections
The website of the Manitoba Historical Society provided priceless research and context, including correspondence from A.J. Andrews to Arthur Meighan during the strike itself. I also found a treasure trove of information about Helen Armstrong in the excellent documentary The Notorious Mrs. Armstrong, written and directed by Paula Kelly. Along with many details about Helen Armstrong’s life and the strike itself, this documentary includes anecdotes about Helen Armstrong taking children to sing at the penitentiary, which I used as inspiration for a chapter in this book, and her burning her husband’s clothes after he was released from prison, before she’d let him into their house. Of course, Helen Armstrong and all the other historical figures who appear in this book are fictionalized.
EDUCATIONAL AND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
For a teacher/student guide and activities, a photo gallery and other resources related Papergirl and the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, go to
Papergirl Page 11
