Robert B. Russell

Born in Scotland, Russell was raised in Glasgow and came to Canada in 1911. He moved to Winnipeg, and worked as a machinist in the Canadian Pacific Railway's Weston Shops. He was a member of the Machinists Union Local Lodge 122 in Winnipeg.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/russell_rb.shtml|title=Memorable Manitobans: Robert Boyd "R. B." Russell (1888-1964)|website=www.mhs.mb.ca|accessdate=Jan 9, 2020}} He also became a prominent member of the Socialist Party of Canada, which at the time represented the left-wing of the labour movement in Manitoba.{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Peter |url= |title=Canadian Marxists and the Search for a Third Way |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |year=1999 |isbn=9780773518483 |location= |pages=172–75 |access-date= |url-access=}}

In 1919, he attended the Western Labour Conference in Calgary, Alberta, which called for the replacement of narrow craft unionism with an industrial union known as the One Big Union. During the Winnipeg General Strike, he was prominent figure on the Strike Committee which managed most of the city's affairs.{{Cite book |last=Masters |first=Donald C. |url=https://archive.org/details/winnipeggenerals0000mast/page/44/mode/2up |title=The Winnipeg General Strike |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=1973 |pages=45–46 |access-date=2023-05-10 |url-access=registration}}Campbell, Canadian Marxists, pp. 187-88.

File:Winnipeg General Strike 1919 Leaders.webp

After the strike was suppressed, Russell and the other strike leaders were charged with seditious conspiracy. The star witness for the Crown was the undercover Mountie Frank Zaneth.{{sfn|Kealey|2000|p=25}} The first of the strikers to go on trial, he was sentenced to a two-year term at Stony Mountain Penitentiary.{{Cite book |last=McKay |first=Ian |url=https://archive.org/details/reasoningotherwi0000mcka/page/496/mode/2up |title=Reasoning Otherwise: Leftists and the People's Enlightenment in Canada, 1890-1920 |publisher=Between the Lines |year=2008 |pages=497–98 |isbn=9781897071496 |access-date=2023-05-10 |url-access=registration}} Many observers at the time, and many since, have regarded the trials as unjust and politically motivated.{{Cite journal |last=Walker |first=Jack |date=2019 |title=The Great Canadian Sedition Trials |url=https://themanitobalawjournal.com/volumes/ |journal=Manitoba Law Journal |edition= |volume=42 |issue=5}}{{Cite journal |last=Greening |first=E.W. |date=1965 |title=The Winnipeg Strike Trials |url=https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/027547ar |journal=Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=77–85 |doi=10.7202/027547ar|doi-access=free }}{{Cite book |last1=Kramer |first1=Reinhold |title=When the State Trembled: How A.J. Andrews and the Citizens' Committee Broke the Winnipeg General Strike |last2=Mitchell |first2=Tom |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2010 |pages=296–317 |chapter=Duty to God, Country, and Family: The Russell Trial |access-date= |chapter-url= |chapter-url-access=}}

The strike and the resulting arrests created a temporary climate of labour unity in the city.Epp‐Koop, Stefan. (2015) We’re Going to Run this City: Winnipeg’s Political Left after the General Strike. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. The SPC had previously opposed "popular front" campaigns with centrist labour parties, and Russell himself had argued in 1918 that it was pointless to elect labour representatives to capitalist legislatures. Nevertheless, the SPC agreed to field a United Labour slate for the 1920 provincial election.{{Cite book |last=Robin |first=Martin |url=https://archive.org/details/radicalpoliticsc0000robi/page/204/mode/2up |title=Radical Politics and Canadian Labour |publisher=Queen's University, Industrial Relations Centre |year=1968 |pages=205–07 |access-date=2023-05-11 |url-access=registration}} Russell, still serving his sentence, ran as an SPC candidate in the constituency of Winnipeg, which elected ten members by a single transferable ballot. He came close to being elected, finishing ninth on the first count and missing the tenth seat by only sixty-two votes on the final tally. Russell's fellow prisoner George Armstrong was elected, making him the only SPC member ever to serve in the Manitoba legislature.{{Cite web |last=Goldsborough |first=Gordon |date=2022-06-22 |title=Events in Manitoba History: Manitoba Provincial Election (1920) |url=https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/events/provincialelection1920.shtml |access-date=2023-05-11 |website=Manitoba Historical Society}}

Russell also ran for the Socialist Party of Canada in the 1921 federal election, contesting the single-member riding of Winnipeg North. He finished a close second, losing to Liberal Edward James McMurray by 715 votes.{{Cite web |title=Parlinfo: Elections and Ridings - General Election (1921-12-06) |url=https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/ElectionsRidings/Elections/Profile?election=1921-12-06 |access-date=2023-05-11 |website=Parliament of Canada}}

Russell returned to labour activism following his release from prison in 1922. He was selected as the leader of the Winnipeg's One Big Union, and held this position into the 1950s.Campbell, Canadian Marxists, pp. 190-219.

He campaigned again for the Manitoba legislature in the 1927 provincial election in the constituency of Assiniboia with the support of Manitoba's Independent Labour Party, falling by a narrow margin to Conservative candidate Joseph Cotter.{{Cite web |last=Goldsborough |first=Gordon |date=2022-06-22 |title=Events in Manitoba History: Manitoba Provincial Election (1927) |url=https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/events/provincialelection1927.shtml |access-date=2023-05-11 |website=Manitoba Historical Society}}

Russell died in Winnipeg on September 25, 1964.{{Cite web |title=Strike Leaders |url=http://1919strike.lib.umanitoba.ca/index.php/who-strike-leaders/ |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=University of Manitoba Library}}

R.B. Russell Vocational High School was named after him in 1966.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book | last = Bercuson |first=David Jay|date = 1978 | url = https://archive.org/details/foolswisemen0000berc |title = Fools and Wise Men: The Rise and Fall of the One Big Union |publisher = McGraw-Hill Ryerson| url-access = registration}}
• {{cite book | last = Campbell |first = J. Peter |date = 1999 | title = Canadian Marxists and the Search for a Third Way | publisher = McGill-Queen's University Press}}
• {{cite book | editor-last1 = Heron |editor-first1 = Craig |date= 1998 | title = The Workers' Revolt in Canada, 1917-1925 | publisher = University of Toronto Press}}
• {{cite book|last=Kealey|first=Gregory|chapter=Spymasters, Spies and their Subjects: The RCMP and Canadian State Repression, 1914-1939|pages=18–39|title=Whose National Security? Canadian State Surveillance and the Creation of Enemies|date=2000|editor=Dieter K. Buse |editor2=Gary William Kinsman |editor3=Mercedes Steedman|publisher=Between the Lines|chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/whosenationalsec0000unse/page/18/mode/2up |chapter-url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |last= Kramer |first = Reinhold |last2 = Mitchell |first2= Tom| date = 2010 |title = When the State Trembled: How A.J. Andrews and the Citizens' Committee Broke the Winnipeg General Strike | publisher = University of Toronto Press}}
• {{cite book | last = Masters |first = D.C. |date = 1950

| url = https://archive.org/details/winnipeggenerals0000mast_r1p2/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access = registration |title = The Winnipeg General Strike |publisher = University of Toronto Press}}

• {{cite book |last = McKay |first = Ian | title = Reasoning Otherwise: Leftists and the People's Enlightenment in Canada, 1890-1920 |date = 2008 |url = https://archive.org/details/reasoningotherwi0000mcka/mode/2up |url-access = registration |publisher = Between the Lines}}
• {{cite book |last = Osborne |first = Kenneth W. |title = R. B. Russell and the Labour Movement|url = https://archive.org/details/rbrusselllabourm0000osbo/page/12/mode/2up |url-access = registration |publisher = Book Society of Canada |date = 1978}}
• {{Cite book | last = Robin |first = Martin |date = 1968 | url = https://archive.org/details/radicalpoliticsc0000robi|url-access = registration |title = Radical Politics and Canadian Labour |publisher = Queen's University, Industrial Relations Centre}}

• [http://1919strike.lib.umanitoba.ca/ Unbreakable: The Spirit of the Strike.] University of Manitoba Libraries
• [https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/winnipegs-strike-leaders-from-1919/ Winnipeg's 1919 Strike Leaders.] CBC, 2019.

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Category:1888 births

Category:1964 deaths

Category:Socialist Party of Canada candidates in Manitoba provincial elections

Category:Canadian politicians convicted of crimes

Category:Canadian prisoners and detainees

Category:British emigrants to Canada

Category:Politicians from Glasgow

Category:One Big Union (Canada) members

Category:Trade unionists from Manitoba

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Category:People of the Winnipeg general strike

Category:Prisoners and detainees of Canada