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1946 Strike

Entertainment

The picket lines did more than just prevent people and goods from moving across them. They were also social spaces. Meals, entertainment, games, and evening dances occurred on the lines, to boost morale, and provide relief from the long, hot, vigilant days of the strike.  

Workers playing checkers to pass the time at the picket encampment, Burlington and Wilcox Streets (Courtesy McMaster School of Labour Studies)
Group of men playing Bocce in the unpaved streets.
A game of bocce helps picketers pass the time as they guard the Manchester Gate at the northernmost tip of the Brightside neighborhood. (Source: United Steelworkers of America. Local 1005 McClure Fonds; Courtesy of William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, McMaster University)
Dressed up at the Wilcox Gate picket line. (Source: United Steelworkers of America. Local 1005 McClure Fonds: Courtesy of William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, McMaster University)
Bill and Wanda Scandlan got married on the picket line. He oversaw entertainment on the picket line, which included the bringing the well-known folk singer Pete Seeger to sing for picketers. (Courtesy McMaster School of Labour Studies,LS632)

Listen: Strike Flatbed Entertainment. Click the play circle below.

Show/Hide Transcript

Speaker 1:    

I thought it was during the 46 strike, that they had a flatbed truck trailer and they used that flatbed truck trailer as a stage, and on that stage were, you know folk singers and entertainers… 

Speaker 2:    

That’s at the end of Manchester. 

Speaker 3:    

The end of Manchester. 

Speaker 2:    

Manchester. 

Speaker 1:    

At the Manchester Gate. 

Speaker 3:    

… yeah, yeah, yeah.  

Speaker 1:    

Okay, well then, my location is wrong. 

Speaker 3:    

Manchester Gates, yeah. There was a gate there. 

Yeah. Yeah. 

Speaker 1:    

When that truck was there, when that flatbed truck was there at the Manchester Gates, who were the entertainers? 

Speaker 2:    

Oh, I don’t remember the entertainers. 

 

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