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Tom Monto

Pantheon of Alberta Reformers - Joe and Sarah Knight

Joe and Sarah Knight were leaders of the Edmonton left in the 1910s.


I will provide larger biographies of them later but here is a piece I found.


Edmonton Bulletin June 18, 1917

"Soldiers seize socialist anti-conscription meeting held in Bijou Theatre"

Officials and members of the Great War Veterans Association were a large and hostile part of the audience of the socialist meeting.

Socialist speaker Joe Knight was allowed to speak until he spoke against conscription.

then the GWVA people stormed the stage and took over the speechifying.

The meeting was then soon ended with the obligatory singing of God Save the King. Obligatory as anyone who did not bare head and sing was persuaded to do so.


That was sort of thing that hpappened during the war.


The Wobblies were also banned at this time, but the idea of labour solidarity and strength cannot be killed as easy as that. It was reborn in 1918 under the name "One Big Union".


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