Did you know that Lethbridge used to have a specific location where the working class would meet for solidarity actions?
It was a lot at what is now 2 Avenue South, between 3 and 4 Street South and behind the Arlington Hotel, which later became the Bridge Inn. It is now occupied by the Stringham law office.
According to Lethbridge Place Names and Points of Interest, published by the Lethbridge Historical Society, summarized Red Square as follows:
This designation was given in the 1930s to the empty lot south of the Arlington Hotel (now the Bridge Inn). It was the meeting place of the unemployed, who held rallies there to discuss their many legitimate grievances. Local critics tended to see Communist influences at work in every such gathering, hence the meeting place was dubbed Red Square. It was a time when the more fortunate members of Canadian society blamed the unemployed for their lack of work and the poor for their poverty.
Red Square was a place for local communists to gather, as demonstrated in this brief note on page 7 of the 5 August 1935 issue of The Lethbridge Herald.
Communists Will Open Campaign Headquarters
The 21st anniversary of Great Britain’s entry into the war was made the opportunity for a meeting by the Lethbridge section of the Communist party of Canada at Red Square on Sunday afternoon in the way of a demonstration against “Imperialistic War and the Menace of Fascism”. The meeting was addressed by Comrades Young and Guyse. It was announced that the Communist party will be opening committee rooms in the Alberta block for the purposes of the elections, though nothing was said as to nominating a candidate.
In addition to communists meeting at Red Square, protests and parades would be launched from there and May Day celebrations would be held there.
For example, here is a notice of a May Day gathering. It appeared on page 7 in 30 April 1937 issue of the Lethbridge Herald.
May Day Mass Meeting Planned On Red Square
Folders have been circulated in the city announcing a mass meeting on Red Square, behind the Arlington Hotel on May Day, Saturday. The meeting will staritat 2 p.m. and workers, farmers and business people are invited lo attend and demonstrate their solidarity with their fellow workers.
Corey Campbell of Calgary, Jack Green of the Fourth Council, and Petr Meronik. president of the Beet Workers Industrial Union of Canada, will address the gathering on provincial political matters and other topics.
People also used Red Square to protest war, as demonstrated from this Here is a notice from page 6 of the 4 August 1933 issue of The Lethbridge Herald:
Anti-War Meeting On Red Square
Bills have been posted announcing that Harvey Murphy, well-known Alberta “Red” agitator, will address an open air meeting on “Red Square” this (Friday) afternoon at three o’clock. The gathering has been called as an anti-war mass meeting, on the 19th anniversary of the declaration of the Great War.
An information display at the northeast corner of 2 Avenue and 3 Street South is all that exists in that space to remind us of Lethbridge’s communist and labour history at Red Square.
