Broadway and Garry

Take time to view the mural during events at the Union Centre at 275 Broadway on April 28th (National Day of Mourning) and May 24th (Heritage of Relentless Struggle: The Radical Jewish Tradition)

Artist/Muralist Charlie Johnston’s Strike! mural is an expression of the grassroots uprising in the fight for workers’ rights. Today’s rights are built up from that singular event.

In the artwork, past and present coexist with strike signs as ‘ghost signs’ and vintage photo references juxtaposed against heroic renditions of representatives of working-class people from across the decades. The background transitions from grayscale to orange, symbolizing the rise of the labour movement.

Here is the Strike mural Cast of characters, clockwise from left to right (on the full mural)

1-Millie the Machinist, hard working gitterdone gal of the 40’s 50’s & 60’s (see image detail above)

Unsung heroine, Canadian equivalent to Rosie the Riveter, and Turner of the Wheel of Change/time. Her gentle but mighty grip moves the masses towards self actualization. In honour of my mother Mildred, who was a hard working woman from these times

2-Fernando- 80’s networker dude. Represents the white collar labourers, his role in the design is to listen.

3- Aja Orisha- Aja is an Orisha, (or a human recognized as a Goddess). She is a powerful Goddess of Healing, also known as the spirit of the forest and herbal healers in Santerian religious practice. An homage to the Black Lives Matter movement, and the nurses who have given & sacrificed the most during the pandemic. She is given the place of greatest honour

4-Ceres/Cerise- Roman Goddess of agriculture, fertility, grains, the harvest, motherhood, the earth, and cultivated crops. (see image detail above)

5- Allan W- Aboriginal man at work, both learned and strong, literally a ‘man of letters’ half in the spirit world of ghost signs and ancestors, half in the physical world- digging in, marked by an aboriginal eagle tattoo. Named after the knowledge keeper Jeannie Whitebird’s father (see image detail above)

6-Stanley- postcolonial working class Canadian man only identifiable by his Anglo Saxon complexion and his left ear. His job is to sublimate his ego, listen, and dig up the dirt- the news of the day. In honour of my father who worked in construction

7-Charlie the painter- That’s me! this turn of the century Sign Writer is the giver of voice, the one who holds the ladder so that the front line workers of today may rise up to a higher standard- a real idea man!

Bottom row left to right-

8- Marshall McLuhan- the medium is the message

9- Robert & Douglas- their friendship would last a lifetime, forged in the fires of the Winnipeg General Strike. Their children would marry. Their grandchildren, named after them, would become iconic Canuck brethren Bob & Doug Mackenzie. Good day, eh?!

10-Fitzpatrick- the original avenger

11-Tommy Douglas- Canadian socialist legend