William Ivens (June 28, 1878 – June 20, 1957) was a religious and political figure in Manitoba, Canada. He was a leading figure in the Winnipeg General Strike, and subsequently served as a Labour member of the Manitoba legislature from 1920 to 1936.
Early life
William Ivens was born in 1878 at Barford, in Warwickshire, England, to William Henry Ivens and Sarah Willis. He was the second eldest of seven siblings and was from a family who were actively involved in the local community.
William emigrated to Canada in 1896 He wrote for the school newspaper Vox Wesleyana and a poem published in a 1906 edition demonstrates his early and emerging political views. Titled ‘the Three Voices’, it was concerned with unproductive, hedonistic and materialistic lifestyles. William graduated from Wesley College in 1906 with a Bachelor of Arts, then in 1907 with a Bachelor of Divinity.
He then attended the University of Manitoba in 1909, gaining a Master of Arts degree in political economy The Labour church held meetings on Sunday evenings and rapidly grew in popularity, attracting over 4,000 mostly working class parishioners in just six months. In January 1919, the Church opened the pulpit to women.
Ivens was directly involved in labour activism during this period. He was employed as an organiser for the Dominion Labour Party, and attempted to build local networks of support in a speaking tour of western Canada. Upon his return to Winnipeg, he assumed the editorship of the Western Labour News, a newspaper published by the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council. He wrote numerous articles in support of the strikers.
The Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand also created their own paper during the strike, the Winnipeg Citizen, advertising itself as being printed to keep the inhabitants who weren't involved in the Strike informed. It printed articles which referred to William and four other key figures of the labour movement as ‘the red five’ or ‘anarchists.’ William himself wrote that the Winnipeg Citizen published ‘vile and pernicious propaganda’ and joked that they thought he was a Russian spy called ‘Ivens the Terrible.’
Reverend Ivens preached services of his church for the six weeks of the strike with an estimated 171 sermons. Ivens was arrested on charges of seditious libel and conspiracy at 2am during an overnight raid on the 17th of June. The day after William's arrest, his devastated wife Louisa addressed crowds of striking workers at the Labour Temple. James Shaver Woodsworth, another Methodist minister and labour activist, took over Iven's positions following the arrest. This prison was 75 miles away from Winnipeg and could only be accessed by train.
William made a four-hour address to the jury at his trial and used the occasion to publicise and justify his views. Although it is unlikely that his editorials constituted sedition by the standards of the age,
Political career
While still in prison,
William was released on bail from prison on 29 February 1921, to cheering crowds of supporters, and by 4 March 1921 he was already in the Legislature taking part in debates. In 1926 he argued against capital punishment and in 1928 he supported a bill to introduce old age pensions.
In late 1920, the DLP split into two factions via a fallout over the Winnipeg General Strike. Dixon, Ivens, Woodsworth and most others on the left of the DLP founded the new Independent Labour Party of Manitoba (ILP) in November 1920. William was re-elected in the provincial election of 1922, He attempted a comeback in the election of 1941 as a candidate of the Manitoba Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, but was unsuccessful.
By the late 1920s, attendance at the Canadian Labour Churches has dwindled significantly and it was eventually superseded by a weekly Labour forum. William was a frequent guest speaker there. He published numerous pamphlets in the 1930s and 1940s on a wide variety of topics from the dangers of European fascism to concerns about local working conditions.
In addition to his political and religious careers, Ivens also received a chiropractor's certificate from the Manitoba School of Chiropractic in 1925 and practiced in the field. His body was repatriated to Canada and he was interred in Elmwood Cemetery in Winnipeg, on 12 July 1957.
Ivens worked to create a better life for the working class of Manitoba. He preached within his Labour Church, supported strikers and worked as a politician to make change.