Title: City on Strike
Author: Harriet Zaidman
Publisher: Red Deer Press
Year: 2019
195 pages
From the Back: City on Strike is set during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 when workers and soldiers returning from the First World War demand jobs, decent wages, and the right to organize. Many politicians and business leaders condemned strike organizers and, backed up by police, unleashed deadly violence against the strikers on a day now known as Bloody Saturday. City on Strike focuses on a 13-year-old boy and his younger sister who are part of a poor but hard-working immigrant family. Together with their neighbours, these siblings get drawn into the chaos that changed the city, and the country, forever.
Personal Thoughts: Learning about history, especially local history, is very important - both so that we know where we come from and also to hopefully not repeat harms of the past. Born and raised in Winnipeg, I was aware of the 1919 strike, the term "Bloody Saturday", and have seen many pictures of the overturned trolley car. However, I couldn't really tell you all of the details, only the end result of labour laws and unions. So when I came across this little book about the strike, I thought it might be an excellent way to find out a little bit more about my city's history. What I got was even better!
I don't know about you, but I much prefer learning about history through stories than through lists of facts. That's exactly what this book is - a story about young kids who experience the 1919 strike at the feet of their parents, a story about two boys from opposite sides of the poverty line who notice their differences but are friends anyway, a story about what it was like to live in a time where their were no labour laws, especially when it came to being an immigrant worker.
City on Strike is an excellent way to read a little about about a dangerous and violent time in Winnipeg's history through heart-warming story of love, friendship, and perseverance.
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