The Battle at Old Market Square was an anti-fascist protest on 5 June 1934 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Members of the Canadian Nationalist Party (CNP) planned a rally in Winnipeg's Exchange District, attended by an estimated 75 to 100 sympathizers of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The event was "a public provocation aimed at the organized labor movement, Jews, and minority communities". The rally prompted 500 protesters from various anti-fascist groups to converge on Old Market Square; at least 20 Nationalist members were injured and seven were arrested when police arrived to subdue the crowd.
The conflict "demonstrated the successful and deeply rooted popular resistance to fascist provocations" in Winnipeg: the CNP held no further public meetings and "no fascist group in the city would ever find itself in a position to mount such public campaigns of discrimination".
References
- Ryan Thorpe (19 November 2021). "Inside the war on hate". Winnipeg Free Press.
- ^ Helmut-Harry Loewen (2009). "Battle at Old Market Square, Winnipeg, 1934". International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest. Blackwell – via Canadian Anti-racism Network.
Further reading
- Gord Hill (2019). "Battle of Old Market Square". briarpatch. 48 (4): 21.