"Not since the days of the Industrial Workers of the World, since the days
of Joe Hill and the battle for the eight-hour day, has a North American union
movement been so dedicated to the tradition of revolutionary syndicalism." -
Marcel Pepin (jailed President of the Confederation of National Trade Unions, 1972)
Thirty-two years ago one of the largest working class rebellions in North
American history exploded in Quebec. 300,000 workers participated in North
America's largest general strike to that date, radio stations were seized, factories
were occupied, and entire towns were brought under workers' control. What
made the rebellion possible was not only an explosive mix of economic exploitation,
national oppression, and government repression, but was also a strong, young,
and radicalized rank and file of the Quebec trade union movement.

The April 11th 1972 General Strike

On April 11, over 210,000 public sector workers struck against the government, and Quebec grounded to a halt.

The state chose to target the hospital workers, placing injunctions on 61 union hospitals. However, hospital workers defied the injunctions, stating that management was capable of providing essential services. The corporate media whipped up stories of patients being forced to sleep in their own urine.

Jailed

On April 19, nine days into the general strike, 13 low-paid hospital workers were jailed 6 months and fined $5000 (about a year's pay) for ignoring the injunctions. Their union was fined $70,600. A total 103 workers would be sentenced a total of 24 years and fined half a million dollars in the course of a few days.

Back to Work

On April 21, the government passed Bill 19 into law. Bill 19 in effect forced the unionized workers back to work, and banned fundamental trade union rights for a period of two years.

After an initial pledge of civil disobedience, and a hurried vote that over half of the workers didn't participate in, the trade union leadership of the common front recommended that their members return to work. The general strike was over.

Revenge

"We'll go to the court and I'll plead guilty with pride." - Louis Labarge, president of the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ).

The fact that bill 19 had defeated the general strike and made union action all but illegal wasn't enough for the state, they wanted revenge and to make an example of the trade union leadership.

After announcing that the hospital workers shouldn't have to be the only ones to face jail, Louis Labarge, Marcel Pepin, and Yvon Charbonneau, the leaders of the three unions confederations that formed the common front, were sentenced to a year in jail, as they had
all urged them to disobey the injunctions.

Revolt!

Within hours of the beginning of jail time for the 'big three' workers spontaneously started downing their tools and organizing their fellow workers in what became a full-fledged revolt by the working class.

The longshore workers were the first to walk off the job in Montreal, Quebec City and Trois-Rivieres, joined an hour later by 5000 teachers in Joliette, the Gaspe, Chicoutimi, I'Estrie, Sorel, Mont Laurier and the Mille Iles. CUPE maintenance workers set up picket lines, nurses and other hospital workers joined them on the picket lines.

That night in the town of Sept-Iles, on Quebec's isolated north shore, police tried to break up a workers' protest in front of the local courthouse and a fierce battle ensued - the revolt had begun.

Mass meetings were held late in the night and early in the morning, the workers' of Sept-Iles called a general strike idling all industry in the iron-ore port, taking control of the town, and seizing the local radio station.

In St. Jerome, an industrial area north of Montreal, 400 textile workers walked off the job and soon found themselves joined by bus drivers, metal plant workers, teachers, and white-collar workers. At the behest of unionized workers at the CKJL radio station the strike
committee seized the airwaves and broadcast union statements and revolutionary music.

Jean Labelle, a 28 year-old factory worker in St. Jerome offered a New York Times reporter a simple explanation: "What's our complaint? I guess the answer is that we're tired of being pushed around, and now, finally, we're pushing back. If we can show them, we're capable of anything."

By the next day 80,000 building trades workers were on strike; Mines at Thetford Mines, Asbestos, and Black Lake were struck; Workers shut down factories all across the province, including 23 at the St. Jerome Industrial Park alone.

The popularity of the strike, and the speed at which it spread without any union organization shows the vital importance of a combative rank and file, the same rank and file that was pushing the union leadership found itself in the driver's seat as the union officials found themselves being 'passed on the left' by a confident and angry working class. At the
height of the week-long strike it was estimated that over 300,000 workers were participating.

At FTQ headquarters in Montreal, one top official said that many of the union staff "Had underestimated the base, the rank and file." Even the outspoken president of the FTQ was shocked, "Louis Laberge called from jail saying he was expecting protests but nothing on
this scale."

The general strikes were spontaneous and self-organized. For example, the strike at the
Thetford mine started when a small group of workers walked off the job. Word spread through the mine and within two hours the strike was total.

In Chibougamau an angry group of women, some of them teachers and hospital workers, marched to one of the mines and pulled their husbands off the job. At the General Motors plant in Ste. Therese, autoworkers asked a few dozen workers from St. Jerome to set up picket lines at the plant during lunch hour. When they returned they refused to cross the St.
Jerome pickets and never went back to work.

Workers seized control of 22 radio stations across the province while forcing the anti-union capitalist newspapers to cease publishing. The battle for control of information was important, and the workers' showed astuteness, creativity and militancy in this fight. As
the news from the striking workers spread, so did the strike itself.

Over 300,000 rank and file workers had self-organized the largest general strike in North American history. The revolt was so widespread that the Quebec police knew they could not contain or repress it, and took a position of non-intervention in order not to provoke a
decisive clash that they predicted they would lose.

In the end the Government decided to negotiate a truce by releasing the jailed trade unionists and in return the three trade union centres agreed to tell their members to return to work.

La lutte continue

The working class, feeling victorious in forcing the unionists' release, but not enough to provoke a decisive struggle against the forces of the state returned to work ending the general strike, but not forgetting it and the workers' power they had briefly tasted.

The 1972 May revolt was a turning point in the workers' movement, not only in Quebec but one that was felt throughout Canada, that continues to echo to this day.

Quebec workers were the force behind the largest general strike in North America's history, the 1976 Canada wide general strike against wage controls by the federal government. Over 1.2 million workers from across Canada participated in the 1976 general strike putting to rest nationalist claims that workers in Quebec and English Canada could not join forces due to Anglo-chauvinism.

Today the labor movement in Quebec is in a familiar situation. A new (neo)-Liberal government in power is systematically dismantling the social programs, trade union rights, and other gains made by the workers' movement. The Quebec government is only the latest in a series of neo-liberal governments in the past 10 years have ravaged the working class across Canada.

If there is hope for an effective fight-back today it will start with rank and file Quebec workers taking control of their union movement and pushing it to general strikes once again.

Things are already moving in this direction, with both the FTQ and CSN discussing the option of an unlimited province-wide general strike and putting the question to their membership in late February 2004.

However, as history has shown us, the real strength of the workers' movement lies not with official calls for action by union leaders, but by a militant, self-organized, and radicalized rank and file.