On June 21 of that year, a streetcar filled with strike workers drove into the strike zone. The strike lasted for more than a month, leading to rising tensions between the city’s businesses and employees. 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. “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 streetcar is illuminated from within. 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. Winnipeg artists Noam Gonick and the late Bernie Miller created the public artwork, in collaboration with the Winnipeg Arts Council. 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.

Instal the new Strike