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Rebecca J. Scott and Jean M. Hebrard, Freedom Papers: An Atlantic Odyssey in the Age of Emancipation (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2012) AFTER A CHANCE DISCOVERY of a piece of [...]

AMIDST THE ECONOMIC crisis of 2009 and the loss of tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs, one key strategic challenge for Canadian labour is how to hold the line and [...]

Timothy J. Minchin, The Color of Work: The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Southern Paper Industry, 1945-1980 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 2001) IN THE COLOR OF [...]

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 200l) IN THE PAST FEW YEARS, a virtual publishing industry on the 'digital divide' has arisen. Academic books, research papers, government reports, private corporate position papers, [...]

THIS PAPER IS BASED ON work history interviews with a group of nine Toronto theatre workers covering a three-year period. During the interviews, participants did not spontaneously mention 13.1 per cent of their jobs in the creative cultural sector. Because forgotten work fails to register in surveys attempting to assess cultural workers' contributions to the economy or to ameliorate their precarious conditions, it is important to explore why and how such work could go unreported. We locate the forgetting of cultural work in relation to the complexity and stresses of cultural workers' schedules and to a discourse that opposes a devotion to art to the pursuit of money. Further, we explore how the participants' particular tendency to forget their shortest-term jobs is informed by another discourse that prioritizes the building of a goals-based, coherent résumé. Last, we suggest that their surprising propensity to also forget their longest-term jobs can be understood in reference to the 'piecework' model of cultural work and to a lack of socially supported remembering strategies. Based on these findings, we recommend improvements to the design of surveys on cultural workers' work history. CE DOCUMENT SE BASE sur des entrevues de l'histoire du travail avec un groupe de neufs travailleurs de théâtre à Toronto, qui ont eu lieu dans une période de trois ans. Pendant les entrevues, les participants n'ont pas mentionné spontanément 13,1 pour cent de leurs postes dans le secteur culturel créatif. Comme les travaux oubliés ne parviennent pas à s'inscrire dans les sondages visant à évaluer les contributions économiques des travailleurs culturels ou à améliorer les conditions précaires dans leurs milieux de travail, il est important d'évaluer pourquoi et comment les travaux en question pourraient passer sans être déclarés. On associe l'oublie des postes au secteur culturel avec les nombreuses complexitées et stresses quant aux horaires irréguliers, et à un discours opposant le dévouement à l'art à la poursuite de l'argent. De plus, nous explorons le raisonnement des participants de prendre en compte l'importance de leurs postes de plus courtes durées, afin de ne pas nuire à l'allure d'un résumé cohérant centré seulement sur les objectifs ambitieux. En dernier lieu, on déduit que la propensité étonnante d'oublier également leurs postes de plus longs termes est dû au modèle de << travail à la pièce >> et à un manque de stratégies socialement soutenus de mémoire. Avec ces résultats, nous recommandons des améliorations aux modèles de sondages sur l'historique de travail dans le secteur culturel., IN RECENT YEARS, EFFORTS HAVE BEEN MADE to amass reliable statistics about cultural workers' hours, pay rates, and other working conditions, both in order to understand the precariousness of cultural [...]

THIS PAPER CRITICALLY EXAMINES official statistics on workplace fatalities in Canada. Each year the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada reports on the number of workers who die from a work-related injury or illness/disease. The problem, however, is that these data report the number of deaths that were accepted for compensation; it is not a system for tracking all work-related deaths. Drawing from a range of data sources and employing a broad definition of what constitutes death at work we attempt to generate a more accurate estimate of the number of work-related fatalities in Canada. In so doing our goal is not to produce a definitive number of annual deaths at work--an impossibility given the paucity of data sources--but instead to challenge dominant ways of conceptualizing what constitutes a work-related fatality and thus contribute to ongoing efforts to raise academic, political, and public awareness about this important issue. In this sense our goal is to question whether official statistics regarding workplace fatalities are complete when set against a broader understanding of what constitutes death at work. CE DOCUMENT EXAMINE DE FACON critique les statistiques officielles sur les deces en milieu de travail au Canada. Chaque annee, l'Association des commissions des accidents du travail du Canada fait etat du nombre de travailleurs qui decedent d'une lesion ou d'une maladie liee au travail. Le probleme, cependant, est que ces donnees rapportent le nombre de deces acceptes pour indemnite; ce n'est pas un systeme de suivi de tous les deces lies au travail. A partir de diverses sources de donnees et en utilisant une definition large de la notion de deces au travail, nous tentons de generer une estimation plus precise du nombre de deces lies au travail au Canada. En ce faisant, notre objectif n'est pas de produire un nombre definitif de deces annuels au travail --une impossibilite compte tenu de la rarete des sources de donnees--mais de contester les manieres dominantes de conceptualiser ce qui constitue un deces en milieu de travail et en consequence contribue aux efforts continus de rehausser la sensibilisation academique, politique et publique a cette question importante. En ce sens, notre objectif est de determiner si les statistiques officielles concernant les deces en milieu de travail sont completes par rapport a une comprehension plus large de ce qui constitue la mort au travail., THE CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF WORKERS' Compensation Boards of Canada (AWCBC), comprising workers' compensation boards (WCBS) from each province and territory, annually publishes data on workplace fatalities across the country. (1) [...]

In 1853 the Brown Company was a small water-powered sawmill in Berlin, New Hampshire, but by the turn of the century it had become a highly successful lumber and paper-processing [...]

ABSTRACT This paper examines the tension between macro level regulation and the rule breaking and rule following that happens at the workplace level. Using a comparative study of Canada, Norway, [...]

When I returned to Calgary after giving a version of this paper at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association this past May in St. Catherines, I opened my [...]

A clip circulating on the Internet of the announcement of new investment in Irving Pulp & Paper shows Jerry Dias, the national president of Unifor, at the mill in Saint [...]

DRAWING ON HISTORICAL SOURCES and interviews, this paper discusses several key forces that have shaped the development of the snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) fishery in Newfoundland. Once commonly discarded as a pest, snow crab has emerged as the economic foundation of many rural coastal communities since the cod moratorium of the early 1990s. While this fishery has brought unprecedented prosperity to some commercial fishers, it has also been prone to significant price fluctuations and the benefits accruing from it have not been widely shared. Accordingly, it has also been marked by frequent and often bitter conflicts between different crab fishing fleet sectors and between crab fishers, processing companies, and processing plant workers. These tensions reflect fundamentally different visions of how to sustain the fishery into the future and which priorities should decide who benefits most from the crab resource. S'APPUYANT SUR DES SOURCES HISTORIQUES et des entrevues, ce document traite de plusieurs forces cles qui ont faconne l'elaboration de la peche des crabes des neiges (Chionoecetes opilio) a Terre-Neuve. Une fois mis au rebut couramment comme un ravageur, le crabe des neiges est apparu comme le fondement economique de nombreuses communautes rurales cotieres depuis le moratoire sur la morue du debut des annees 1990. Bien que cette peche ait apporte une prosperite sans precedent pour certains pecheurs commerciaux, elle a egalement subi a des fluctuations importantes de prix et les avantages en decoulant n'ont pas ete partages largement. En consequence, elle a egalement ete marquee par des conflits frequents et souvent amers entre les secteurs differents des flottes de peche et entre les pecheurs de crabe, les usines de transformation des aliments, et les travailleurs desces usines de transformation. Ces tensions refletent des visions fondamentalement differentes sur la facon de soutenir la peche dans l'avenir et les priorites qui devraient decider qui profite le plus de la ressource en crabe., ON 2 JULY 1992, THE CANADIAN federal government imposed a moratorium on the commercial harvesting of cod and other groundfish species in several regions off the country's east coast. Remaining [...]

URANIUM MINERS IN ELLIOT LAKE went on a wildcat strike in 1974 to protest their occupational health concerns on the job after a spike in cancer cases. They learned that the provincial government had known of the poor working conditions causing their illnesses, but had not informed them of the dangers or acted to improve their situation. As a result of union and political pressure, the Ontario government created the Ham Commission to investigate and make recommendations. Its hearings revealed the industry's scandalous conditions, and its report eventually resulted in the Ontario Health and Safety (OHS) Act in Ontario. It did not cover the miners until 1984, so they worked through their internal health and safety committees to gain improvements in the work environment. Others have discussed this situation in relation to the emergence of the OHS and environmental movements. This paper discusses the events in terms of the mine owners' attitudes towards their employees, the industry's relationship to governments, and the impact of the uranium mining industry (part of the nuclear industry) on the local community and environment. LES MINEURSD' URANIUMA ELLIOT LAKE a entame une greve sauvageen 1974 pour manifester leurs preoccupations de la sante au travail apres une augmentation soudaine descas de cancer. Ils ont appris que le gouvernement provincial avait connu des mauvaises conditions de travail causant leurs maladies, mais ne les avait pas informes des dangers ni avait agi pour ameliorer leur situation. Par suite de la pression syndicale et politique, le gouvernement de l'Ontario a cree la Commission Ham pour enqueter et formuler des recommandations. Ses audiences ont revele des conditions scandaleuses de l'industrie, et son rapport a finalement abouti a l'adoption de la Loi de l'Ontario sur la sante et la securite au travail (SST) en Ontario. Cette loi ne couvrait pas les mineurs jusqu'en 1984, alors que ces derniers travaillaient au sein de sur leurs comites de sante et de securite internes pour obtenir des ameliorations dans l'environnement de travail. D'autres ont discute de cette situation par rapport a l'emergence de la SST et aux mouvements environnementaux. Cet article discute des evenements en terme d'attitudes des proprietaires de mines envers leurs employes, les relations de l'industrie aupres des gouvernements, et l'impact de l'industrie miniere de l'uranium (qui fait partie de l'industrie nucleaire) sur la communaute locale et l'environnement., The 1974 Wildcat Strike ON 18 APRIL 1974 ELLIOT LAKE uranium miners at Denison Mines staged a wildcat strike and picketed to protest their unhealthy working conditions. When an Ontario [...]

THIS PAPER CRITICALLY examines diversity management in a multinational forest company in Saskatchewan, Canada. Drawing on insights from intersectionality theory, ir highlights how white and Aboriginal women's experiences inform our [...]

THE ADVENT OF A MODERN workmen's compensation system in Ontario in the mid-1910s was a moment of significant gain for injured workers. With the passage of the 1915 Workmen's Compensation Act (WCA), injured workers would no longer have to rely on an uncertain, even hostile, judge and jury system to receive some form of compensation from their employers. The WCA was, however, a gendered, i.e., discriminatory, Statute. As the paper outlines, the 1915 WCA statutorily enshrined the assumptions of the day that women's paid work was of less value than that of men's. The situation remained uncontested until the 1970s, when a vibrant and politically influential injured workers' movement (IWM) emerged and, in small but important ways, began to challenge the gendered and racialized dimensions of the worker's compensation system. As it happened, the victories secured at this juncture by the IWM that impacted on women--both as injured workers and as wives, mothers, and widows of injured workers--proved to be more symbolic than material. For while a 1982 change in the name from 'Workmen's' to 'Workers Compensation Act' was symbolic of a formally gender neutral statute (continued with the passage of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act in 1997), women workers injured over the past two decades report that their claims are being processed by WCB officials who downplay the severity and the legitimacy of their injuries, on the one hand, and who circumscribe rehabilitation and job training programs with gendered notions that their jobs are secondary in importance to that of male members of their households, on the other hand. No longer totally ignored, injured women workers now confront a neo-liberal, increasingly welfarized workers' compensation system whose formal gender neutrality does not address entrenched labour market inequalities or the regulatory and processual discrepancies between laws and their application. L'ARRIVEE D'UN SYSTEME d'indemnisation des accidents du travail en Ontario au milieu des annees 1910 etait un moment de gain remarquable pour les travailleurs blesses. Grace a l'adoption de la 1915 Workmen's Compensation Act (Loi 1915 d'indemnisation des accidents du travail), les travailleurs blesses ne auraient plus besoin de dependre d'un juge et d'un systeme de jury incertain, et meme hostile, pour recevoir quelque sorte d'indemnite de leurs employeurs. Cette loi etait, pourtant, une loi discriminatoire contre les femmes. Comme l'article expose a grands traits, la Loi 1915 d'indemnisation des accidents du travail enchasse statutairement les suppositions du jour que le travail paye des femmes etait de valeur moindre que celui des hommes. La situation est restee incontestee jusqu'aux annees 1970, quand un mouvement de travailleurs blesses, vibrant et dote d'influence politique, est emerge et, de taille petite mais importante, a commence a mettre au defi les dimensions sexuelles et raciales du systeme d'indemnisation des accidents du travail. Cependant, il s'est trouve que les victoires saisies lors de cet incident par le mouvement de travailleurs blesses ayant un impact sur les femmes--en tant que femmes, meres et veuves des travailleurs blesses--etaient plutot symboliques que materielles. Car bien qu'un changement en 1982 du nom anglais de la loi: de 'Workmen's' a 'Workers Compensation Act' soit symbolique d'une loi de genre officiellement neutre (suivie du passage de la Loi sur la securite professionnelle et l'assurance contre les accidents du travail en 1997), les travailleuses blesses au cours des vingt dernieres annees ont signale que leurs demandes de prestations ont ete traitees par les responsables de la Commission des accidents du travail qui sous-estimaient la gravite et la legitimite de leurs blessures, d'un cote, et qui circonscrivaient les programmes de readaptation et formation a l'emploi avec des notions sexuelles que leurs travaux etaient secondaires en importance par rapport a ceux des hommes de leurs foyers, de l'autre cote. Les femmes blessees ne sont plus totalement ignorees; elles font maintenant face a un systeme d'indemnisation des accidents du travail neo-liberal qui ressemble de plus en plus au regime du bien-etre social, dont l'etat neutre officiel ne vise aucunes inegalites bien ancrees du marche du travail ni les contradictions de reglements et processus entre les lois et leur application., She's single, black, and pregnant, and she's on welfare. And all these things are mentioned. Well, black is not mentioned. She's from Ethiopia. But the fact that she's on welfare [...]

THE CANADIAN LABOUR REVOLT was about more than wages and working conditions. The year 1919 was also a moment of socialist possibility in which the Russian Revolution and the influence of Marx and Engels fuelled the revolutionary intent of a radicalizing Canadian working class. The idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat, long since lost in the shadow of Stalin's terror, fuelled this moment of socialist possibility. The longing for a workers' state was a nation-wide phenomenon, but it manifested itself more deeply and broadly in western Canada than in the east. West of the Great Lakes, the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat was hotly debated in the pages of socialist papers and in the halls of the labour movement. Knowledge of the debate concerning the dictatorship of the proletariat provides a more complete understanding of the labour revolt of 1919 and its legacy for Canadian history and the international left. LA REVOLTE DE LA MAIN-D'CEUVRE canadienne etait bien plus que pour les salaires et les conditions de travail. L'annee 1919 etait aussi un moment de possibilite socialiste dans laquelle la Revolution russe et l'influence de Marx et Engels ont alimente l'intention revolutionnaire d'une classe ouvriere canadienne radicalisee. L'idee de la dictature du proletariat, perdue depuis longtemps dans l'ombre de la terreur de Stalin, a alimente ce moment de possibilite socialiste. Le desir d'avoir un Etat des travailleurs etait un phenomene d'un bout a l'autre du pays, mais il s'est manifeste plus profondement et d'une plus grande envergure dans l'ouest du Canada que dans l'est. A l'ouest des Grands Lacs, le concept de la dictature du proletariat faisait l'objet de debats passionnes dans les pages de journaux socialistes et dans les salles de reunions du mouvement syndical. La connaissance de debats a l'egard de la dictature du proletariat aide a clarifier de facon plus complete la revolte de la main-d'oeuvre de 1919 et son heritage pour l'histoire canadienne et la gauche internationale., IN THE AFTERMATH of World War I the dictatorship of the proletariat became a key principle feeding the labour revolt of 1919. (1) In the late winter and spring of [...]

THIS PAPER EXAMINES the evolution of Ontario's tree planting industry and the segmentation of its labour force since the end of World War II. To do so, it draws upon [...]

ABSTRACTS / RESUMES BASED UPON THE PAYROLL and personnel files from two mining companies in Kirkland Lake, the Lake Shore Gold Mines and the Wright-Hargreaves Mines, this paper examines the [...]

As AN EXPLORATION of the childhood memories of working-class Ukrainians who grew up in Depression-era boarding houses (or houses with a few boarders) in Sudbury, Ontario, this paper treats the [...]

THIS PAPER FOCUSES ON the experiences of children and youth who were born into the Ukrainian Labour Farmer Temple Association (ULFTA) during the 1920s and 1930s. It examines the priorities [...]

ALTHOUGH SERVICE WORK occupies an increasingly central position in the Canadian labour market, its legacy of activism has largely been forgotten by scholars. This paper begins a reclamation of that [...]

THIS PAPER CONSIDERS the presence of Christianity in the labour movement in early 20th-century Ontario. During this period labour leaders were unquestionably disillusioned with the established churches and did not [...]

Introduction: Formal Organization, Protest Movements, and Informal Collectivities THIS PAPER IS BASED on the simple idea that it is time to re-visit some basic presumptions about worker organization that have [...]

THIS PAPER DISCUSSES the appropriation of a work of popular culture as a tactic in a politics of cultural hegemony. The work in question, Michel Tremblay's play Les Belles-Soeurs, is [...]

THIS PAPER PRESENTS a reinterpretation of the causes for the us Patriot movement of 1837-38, which rose up in support of the Canadian rebellion in Upper Canada (UC) initiated by [...]

THIS PAPER ANALYSES the travel writings composed by the oil drillers from Enniskillen township, in southwestern Ontario, to explain how they went about reinforcing the project of European capitalist imperialism [...]

IT IS EASY FOR HISTORIANS, and particularly for academics, to criticize the Harper government's attitude towards Canadian history. As is clear from this collection of papers, between (among other things) [...]

THE QUESTION OF THE TRANSITION to socialism has plagued Marxists since the 19th century. This paper investigates how two prominent British socialists in the 20th century -- E.P. Thompson and [...]

THIS PAPER COMMENCES with a suggestion that 'the British Marxists' may well be a more diverse group than has generally been recognized. It concerns itself with the formation of the [...]

Introduction WE OWE THE PUBLICATION of this document of a working man's life to Bill Webb, who in the 1960s encouraged his father, Arthur Webb, to take pencil to paper [...]

Akira Suzuki, ed., Cross-National Comparisons of Social Movement Unionism: Diversities of Labour Movement Revitalization in Japan, Korea and the United States (Bern: Peter Lang 2012) BASED ON PAPERS from a [...]

Introduction THE AIM OF THIS PAPER is to compare the experiences of Australian and Canadian unions during the 20th century. This comparison reveals many more similarities than differences. The similarities [...]

North of the Color Line: Sleeping Car Porters and the Battle Against Jim Crow on Canadian Rails, 1880-1920 THIS PAPER ANALYSES the evolution of Jim Crow employment patterns in the [...]

Laura Kalliomaa-Puha, ed., Perspectives of Equality: Work, Women, and Family in the Nordic Countries and EU (Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers, 2000) THIS IS A COLLECTION of conference papers focused [...]

In 1753, Voltaire offered a flippant and now well-known commentary on the origins of Canada: 'two or three merchants from Normandy, on the slight hope of a small commerce of [...]

Organisées au printemps 1971 pour dénoncer l'intervention américaine au Vietnam, les conférences indochinoises constituent l'une des plus importantes tentatives de coalitions féministes de l'époque. L'événement incarne le projet de bâtir une sororité globale. Bien qu'abondamment critiqué dans l'historiographie, cet idéal est rarement analysé dans toute son ambiguïté : cet article propose donc d'historiciser la sororité et de mettre en lumière la complexité de ses usages politiques. Tout en reconnaissant l'importance des conflits entourant ce projet, nous souhaitons justement comprendre pourquoi, malgré tout, celui-ci s'impose comme cadre de référence partagé par une si grande diversité de militantes au tournant des années 1970. Cette relecture des conférences indochinoises permet de proposer une définition plus souple de la sororité globale : les discours sur la question reflètent les tiraillements d'un mouvement mû par l'urgence d'articuler les différentes subjectivités des femmes pour organiser une opposition massive et efficace à la guerre du Vietnam. La sororité sert ainsi de cadre de référence fédérateur suffisamment malléable pour permettre à diverses conceptions du féminisme de coexister et de s'entrechoquer. Elle permet ainsi de baliser un terrain à partir duquel une solidarité féministe pluraliste et débattue peut se développer. Mots clefs : Féminisme, internationalisme; solidarité, sororité globale; anti- impérialisme, tiers-mondisme, Guerre du Vietnam, décolonisation Organized in the spring of 1971 to denounce American intervention in Vietnam, the Indochinese conferences constitute one of the most important attempts at feminist coalitions of the time. The event embodies the project of building a global sorority. Although abundantly criticized in historiography, this ideal is rarely analyzed in all its ambiguity: this article therefore proposes to historicize sorority and highlight the complexity of its political uses. While recognizing the importance of the conflicts surrounding this project, we wish to understand why, despite everything, it emerged as a frame of reference shared by such a wide diversity of activists at the beginning of the 1970s. This rereading of the Indochinese conferences makes it possible to propose a more flexible definition of global sorority: the speeches on the question reflect the tensions of a movement driven by the urgency of articulating the different subjectivities of women in order to organize a massive and effective opposition to the Vietnam War. Sorority thus serves as a unifying frame of reference that is sufficiently malleable to allow various conceptions of feminism to coexist and collide. It thus makes it possible to mark out a terrain from which a pluralist and debated feminist solidarity can develop. Keywords: Feminism, Internationalism, Solidarity, Global Sisterhood, Anti- imperialism, Third-worldism, Vietnam War, Decolonization, En avril 1971, deux vastes conférences indochinoises sont organisées à Toronto et à Vancouver. Dans chaque ville, environ six cents féministes canadiennes et états-uniennes sont réunies durant une semaine pour [...]

The making of Canada has been told as the history of two grand founding peoples--French and English--coming to a new world and building something of it and of themselves. While [...]

Thousands of children and youth across the country took to the streets for two weeks in spring 1947 to protest a three-cent increase in the price of chocolate bars. The protest initially generated enthusiastic press coverage and had widespread popular support, but when the National Federation of Labor Youth (NFLY), the Communist Party's youth organization, announced its support, anti-communists in the press and the community red-baited the protesters. The campaign quickly lost momentum, which anti-communists attributed to the presence of Communists but was more likely due to their own red-baiting attacks in the press. Some of these protests were spontaneous reactions to a 40 per cent increase in the price of candy bars, while others were led or inspired by NFLY. Either way, the countrywide mobilization of thousands of children and youth marks a turning point in the history of Canada's left. Erupting in tandem with a nationwide strike of industrial workers and protests of activist consumers demanding greater economic security and a more responsive state, the children's chocolate bar protest provides a window on this critical moment in the class struggle. The attacks on this popular protest at the moment that the long run of community- based militancy was about to be demonized, delegitimated, and silenced by red-baiting marks a significant milestone in Canada's Cold War. In addition to adding the youngsters' challenge to capital and the state to the history of the popular left, the event contributes to the growing literature on children and youth engaged in political protest, while their creative protest strategies offer a youthful dimension to the study of performance activism. Keywords: Communist youth, children, protest, boycotts, performance activism, class struggle, prices, chocolate Des milliers d'enfants et de jeunes à travers le pays sont descendus dans la rue pendant deux semaines au printemps 1947 pour protester contre une augmentation de trois cents du prix des barres chocolatées. La manifestation a d'abord suscité une couverture médiatique enthousiaste et a bénéficié d'un large soutien populaire, mais lorsque la Fédération nationale de la jeunesse ouvrière (NFLY), l'organisation de jeunesse du Parti communiste, a annoncé son soutien, les anticommunistes de la presse et de la communauté ont attaqué les manifestants. La campagne a rapidement perdu de son élan, ce que les anticommunistes ont attribué à la présence des communistes, mais plus probablement était le résultat de leurs propres attaques dans la presse. Certaines de ces manifestations étaient des réactions spontanées à une augmentation de 40 pour cent du prix des barres chocolatées, tandis que d'autres étaient dirigées ou inspirées par la NFLY. Quoi qu'il en soit, la mobilisation à l'échelle nationale de milliers d'enfants et de jeunes marque un tournant dans l'histoire de la gauche canadienne. Déclenchant en même temps qu'une grève nationale des travailleurs de l'industrie et des protestations de consommateurs activistes réclamant une plus grande sécurité économique et un État plus réactif, la manifestation des barres chocolatées des enfants offre une fenêtre sur ce moment critique de la lutte des classes. Les attaques contre cette protestation populaire au moment où le militantisme communautaire de longue date était sur le point d'être diabolisé, délégitimé et réduit au silence par des attaques anticommunistes, marquent une étape importante dans la guerre froide au Canada. En plus d'ajouter le défi des jeunes au capital et à l'histoire de la gauche populaire, l'événement contribue à la littérature croissante sur les enfants et les jeunes engagés dans la protestation politique, tandis que leurs stratégies de protestation créatives offrent une dimension juvénile à l'étude de l'activisme de performance. Mots clefs : Jeunesses communistes, enfants, protestation, boycotts, militantisme de performance, lutte des classe, prix, chocolat, In mid-April 1947, Canadian confectionary manufacturers across the board raised the list price of chocolate bars from five to eight cents. Political watchers had been predicting the increase for weeks, [...]

There have never been more favourable conditions for drawing Indigenous workers into the unionized building trades. The construction industry needs to replenish and diversify its overwhelmingly white, male, and aging workforce to meet skilled labour demands in the next few decades, when major civil infrastructure, mining, and green energy developments are expected to occur in northern Indigenous territories. These projects will be mandated by impact benefit agreements to employ a significant number of Indigenous workers who will first need to be trained. At the same time, Indigenous peoples are the fastest-growing population in Canada and have shown a propensity for pursuing trades education. In recent years, Ontario's largest building trade unions have taken significant steps to recruit, train, and employ northern Indigenous workers, including in Nunavut. In collaboration with various stakeholders, the unions' efforts are starting to show positive results. But are their methods and goals informed by decolonization, reconciliation, and Indigenization? This article reflects on this question while examining the case of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 793, which has been a leader among building trades unions when it comes to establishing relationships with Indigenous partners, training Indigenous workers, and contributing to their economic self-determination. Keywords: Indigenous, building trades, employment equity, trade unions, skills training, community benefits, apprenticeships, decolonization, reconciliation, Indigenization Il n'y a jamais eu de conditions aussi favorables pour attirer les travailleurs autochtones vers les métiers du bâtiment syndiqués. L'industrie de la construction doit reconstituer et diversifier sa main-d'oeuvre majoritairement blanche, masculine et vieillissante pour répondre à la demande de main-d'oeuvre qualifiée au cours des prochaines décennies, alors que d'importants développements d'infrastructures civiles, d'exploitation minière et d'énergie verte devraient se produire dans les territoires autochtones du Nord. Ces projets seront mandatés par les ententes sur les répercussions et les avantages pour employer un nombre important de travailleurs autochtones qui devront d'abord être formés. Parallèlement, les peuples autochtones constituent la population qui connaît la croissance la plus rapide au Canada et ont montré une volonté à poursuivre des études dans les métiers. Ces dernières années, les plus grands syndicats du bâtiment de l'Ontario ont pris des mesures importantes pour recruter, former et employer des travailleurs autochtones du Nord, y compris au Nunavut. En collaboration avec diverses parties prenantes, les efforts des syndicats commencent à porter leurs fruits. Mais leurs méthodes et leurs objectifs sont-ils influencés par la décolonisation, la réconciliation et l'indigénisation? Cet article réfléchit à cette question en examinant le cas de la section locale 793 de l'Union internationale des ingénieurs d'exploitation, qui a été chef de file parmi les syndicats du bâtiment lorsqu'il s'agit d'établir des relations avec des partenaires autochtones, de former des travailleurs autochtones et de contribuer à leur autonomie économique. Mots clefs : Autochtones, métiers de la construction, équité en emploi, syndicats, formation professionnelle, bénéfices communautaires, apprentissage, décolonisation, réconciliation, autochtonisation, There have never been more favourable conditions for drawing Indigenous workers into the unionized building trades in Ontario. The construction industry in the province will have to train and hire [...]

The acclaimed novelist, poet, satirist, relentless oppositionist, and defender of all outsiders Ishmael Reed once proclaimed that 'writin' is fightin'.' (1) I am sure the essay that hagwil hayetsk/Charles Menzies [...]

Although counterintuitive for many academics and lay people alike, the Canadian environmental movement has long included significant engagement from organized labour. More surprising, perhaps, the most dedicated labour environmentalists came from unions representing workers in the auto, steel, mining, chemical, and oil industries. This was certainly the case in Alberta during the 1970s. There, the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) used their outsized influence within the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) to conjoin growing concern about occupational health and safety with developing awareness about air and water pollution beyond the workplace. Drawing on fonds at the University of Calgary Glenbow Archives, Provincial Archives of Alberta, and Library and Archives Canada, this article chronicles and assesses efforts by OCAW officials within the AFL to introduce and sustain a labour environmentalist agenda. It also makes an argument for historians interested in the origins and evolution of the Canadian environmental movement to pay closer attention to organized labour. Keywords: labour, environment, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers, Alberta Federation of Labour, Canadian Labour Congress, Save Tomorrow Oppose Pollution, Neil Reimer, Reg Basken, Jim MacDonald Bien que cela soit contre-intuitif pour de nombreux universitaires et profanes, le mouvement environnemental canadien inclut depuis longtemps un engagement important de la part des syndicats. Plus surprenant, peut-être, les écologistes les plus dévoués provenaient de syndicats qui représentaient les travailleurs des industries de l'automobile, de l'acier, des mines, de la chimie et du pétrole. C'était certainement le cas en Alberta dans les années 1970. Là-bas, les travailleurs du secteur pétrolier, chimique et atomique (OCAW) ont utilisé leur influence démesurée au sein de la Fédération du travail de l'Alberta (AFL) pour conjuguer les préoccupations croissantes concernant la santé et la sécurité au travail à la sensibilisation à la pollution de l'air et de l'eau au-delà du lieu de travail. S'appuyant sur des fonds des archives Glenbow de l'Université de Calgary, des Archives provinciales de l'Alberta et de la Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, cet article relate et évalue les efforts déployés par les responsables de l'OCAW au sein de l'AFL pour introduire et maintenir un programme environnementaliste syndical. Cela incite également les historiens intéressés aux origines et à l'évolution du mouvement environnemental canadien à accorder une plus grande attention au mouvement syndical. Mots clefs : Syndicalisme, environnement, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers, Fédération du travail de l'Alberta, Congrès du travail du Canada, Save Tomorrow Oppose Pollution, Neil Reimer, Reg Basken, Jim MacDonald, In the early part of December 1969, Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) president and Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) organizer Roy Jamha directed executive secretary Eugene Mitchell to ask [...]

Nelson Thibault, one of the postwar presidents of Sudbury's Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (MMSW) Local 598, played a significant role in pushing the union to provide members with a [...]

Veronica Strong-Boag, Professor Emérita, University of British Columbia In the 1960s, Natalie Zemon Davis joined with her good friend Jill Ker Conway to bring feminism to History at the University [...]

Sheryllynne Heggerty, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times: Living the British Empire in Jamaica, 1756 (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2023) On 21 December 1756, the Europa--a modestly-sized merchant ship on [...]

Andrew C. McKevitt, Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture & Control in Cold War America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2023) The history of gun ownership and use has [...]

This article places the labor contracts signed in Tennessee by landowners and freedmen at the center of a study of a paradox of freedom in the United States. The text argues that freedmen's health--which included medical care, sustenance, and physical protection --was negotiated during and after the Civil War with the goal of subjugating the interests of blacks, the state, and landowners to an ideal of social relations of production governed by freedom, law, and the market. Through an examination of labor contracts and their medical clauses, the article revisits the medical-political approach that has repeatedly led historians to the failure of Reconstruction. It also places the black family in the process of emancipation and production through contracts and a rereading of the 'culture of dissemblance' proposed by historian Darlene Clark Hine over thirty years ago. Finally, the article moves away from a reading that reduces contracts to the oppression blacks faced after the Civil War. As additional input, the article invites an examination of the debates over citizenship that followed the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. Keywords: freedom, Reconstruction, contracts, work, health, family, African Americans Dans cet article, les contrats de travail signes au Tennessee par les proprietaires fonciers et les affranchis sont places au centre d'une etude sur un paradoxe de la liberte aux Etats-Unis. Nous soutenons l'idee que la sante des affranchis--qui comprend les soins medicaux, la subsistance et la protection physique--se negocie durant et apres la guerre de Secession dans le but d'assujettir les interets des Noirs, de l'Etat et des proprietaires terriens a un ideal de relations sociales de production regi par la liberte, le droit et le marche. En examinant les contrats de travail et leurs clauses medicales, nous revisitons l'approche medicopolitique qui a maintes FOIs conduit les historiens a la these de l'echec de la Reconstruction. Nous placons aussi la famille noire dans le processus d'emancipation et de production par la voie des contrats et d'une relecture de la << culture de la dissimulation >> proposee par l'historienne Darlene Clark Hine il y a plus de trente ans. Enfin, nous nous eloignons d'une lecture qui reduit les contrats a la seule oppression dont etaient victimes les Noirs apres la guerre de Secession. En complement, nous invitons le lecteur a examiner les debats sur la citoyennete qui ont suivi la ratification du treizieme amendement. Mots clefs : emancipation, Reconstruction, contrats, travail, sante, famille, Noirs, DANS CET ARTICLE, NOUS EXAMINONS les origines d'un paradoxe de la liberte aux Etats-Unis en tentant de repondre a deux questions : Pourquoi le gouvernement federal, par l'entremise de son [...]

In the 1970s, women in Toronto created the Waitresses Action Committee to protest the introduction of a 'differential' or lower minimum wage for wait staff serving alcohol. Their campaign was part of their broader feminist critique of women's exploitation and the gendered and sexualized nature of waitressing. Influenced by their origins in the Wages for Housework campaign, they stressed the linkages between women's unpaid work in the home and the workplace. Their campaign eschewed worksite organizing for an occupational mobilization outside of the established unions; they used petitions, publicity, and alliances with sympathizers to try to stop the rollback in their wages. They were successful in mobilizing support but not in altering the government's decisioji. Nonetheless, their spirited campaign publicized new feminist perspectives on women's gendered and sexualized labour, and it contributed to the ongoing labour feminist project of enhancing working-class women's equality, dignity, and economic autonomy. An analysis of their mobilization also helps to enrich and complicate our understanding of labour and socialist feminism in this period. Keywords: waitress organizing, second-wave feminism, Wages for Housework, minimum-wage laws Dans les annees 1970, les femmes de Toronto ont cree le Waitresses Action Committee pour protester contre l'introduction d'un salaire minimum << differentiel >> ou inferieur pour les serveurs servant de l'alcool. Leur campagne faisait partie de leur critique feministe plus large de l'exploitation des femmes et de la nature genree et sexualisee de la serveuse. Influencees par leurs origines dans la campagne Wages for Housework, elles ont souligne les liens entre le travail non remunere des femmes a la maison et sur le lieu de travail. Leur campagne a evite l'organisation des chantiers pour une mobilisation professionnelle en dehors des syndicats etablis; elles ont utilise des petitions, de la publicite et des alliances avec des sympathisants pour tenter d'arreter la baisse de leurs salaires. Elles ont reussi a mobiliser un soutien, mais pas a modifier la decision du gouvernement. Neanmoins, leur campagne animee a fait connaitre de nouvelles perspectives feministes sur le travail sexue et sexualise des femmes, et elle a contribue au projet feministe syndical en cours visant a renforcer l'egalite, la dignite et l'autonomie economique des femmes de la classe ouvriere. L'analyse de leur mobilisation contribue egalement a enrichir et a compliquer notre comprehension du feminisme ouvrier et socialiste de cette periode. Mots clefs : syndicalisation des serveuses, feminisme de deuxieme vague, salaire au travail menager, lois sur le salaire minimum, OVER THE 20TH CENTURY, waitressing became a well-established occupation for women, though they faced stringent prohibitions and regulations specifying if and where they could serve alcohol. When the last moralistic [...]

The Rossland Evening World, a four-page daily dedicated to the mineworkers of British Columbia's bustling West Kootenay mining town of Rossland, first appeared on May Day 1901--just in time to do battle with local mine owners in the historic 1900-01 miners' strike. The World may have owed its existence in part to William 'Big Bill' Haywood, a founder of the militant Western Federation of Miners (wfm) and the Industrial Workers of the World. On visiting the town and the prospectors' camp in the 1890s, Haywood saw that Rossland would soon grow into a thriving Pacific Northwest mountain community with a steady increase in WFM membership. He encouraged the miners to form WFM Local 38, possibly the first WFM local in Canada, and soon a dozen Kootenay locals formed WFM District Association 6. A WFM grant followed to help launch the local and the new daily. Amid growing frustration with bad working conditions and mine owners' refusal to recognize the wfm, the World became a welcome sister to the WFM's Miners' Magazine, dedicating itself to 'the Interests of Organized Labor.' By the fall of 1900, the strike of 1,400 miners was on, and the World published news and analysis throughout the region. Ultimately the strike was lost, but the World carried on until 1904. As its legacy, it showed how a daily newspaper could help build community support and provide a defence for the local unionized workforce. Keywords: Rossland, Kootenay, mining, labour journalism, 1901 strike, shorter hours, Wobblies, Big Bill Haywood, Western Federation of Miners Le Rossland Evening World, un quotidien de quatre pages dedie aux mineurs de la ville miniere animee de West Kootenay, en Colombie-Britannique, est apparu pour la premiere fois le 1er mai 1901--juste a temps pour se battre avec les proprietaires de mines locaux dans la greve historique des mineurs de 1900-01. Le World doit peut-etre son existence en partie a William <> Haywood, un fondateur de la militante Western Federation of Miners (wfm) et de l'Industrial Workers of the World. En visitant la ville et le camp des prospecteurs dans les annees 1890, Haywood a vu que Rossland deviendrait bientot une communaute de montagne prospere du nord-ouest du Pacifique avec une augmentation constante du nombre de membres de WFM. Il a encourage les mineurs a former la section locale 38 de wfm, peut-etre la premiere section locale de WFM au Canada, et bientot une douzaine de sections locales de Kootenay ont forme l'association de district 6 de WFM. Une subvention de WFM a suivi pour aider a lancer la section locale et le nouveau quotidien. Au milieu de la frustration croissante face aux mauvaises conditions de travail et au refus des proprietaires de mines de reconnaitre le wfm, le World est devenu publication soeur bienvenue du Miners' Magazine du wfm, se consacrant aux << interets du travail organise >>. A l'automne 1900, la greve de 1 400 mineurs etait en cours et le World publiait des nouvelles et des analyses dans toute la region. En fin de compte, la greve a ete perdue, mais le World a continue jusqu'en 1904. En tant qu'heritage, il a montre comment un quotidien pouvait aider a renforcer le soutien de la communaute et a defendre la main-d'oeuvre locale syndiquee. Mots clefs : Rossland, Kootenay, industrie miniere, journalisme syndical, greve de 1901, reduction du temps de travail, Wobblies, Big Bill Haywood, Western Federation of Miners, 'No political movement can be healthy unless it has its own press.' --James Weinstein, founder, In These Times THE ROSSLAND EVENING WORLD first appeared on May Day 1901 as a [...]

The Lingan strike of 1882-83 was the last in a series of strikes over a two-decade period on Cape Breton Island's Sydney coalfield. With the use of untapped local sources, this article reconstructs the history of this understudied strike within a broader history of social relations on the coalfield. The migration of labourers from the island's backland farms--predominantly from Highland enclave settlements--to the coal mines played a decisive role in shaping the era's new coal mining villages and the character of social conflict. By the early 1880s, structural change associated with National Policy industrialism was eroding the old authority of the coal operators, and miners embraced the Provincial Workmen's Association (pwa) to advance their claims in long-standing and highly localized contestations. Ultimately the coal communities themselves imposed the emergent trade unionism. The Lingan strike marked a transition to a new political order on the coalfield, structured by the place of the coal mines within the wider Cape Breton countryside and built upon a powerful localism and moral economy that recast the public sphere and the miners' place in it. Keywords: coal, mining, labour, strikes, riots, moral economy, capitalism, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia La greve de Lingan de 1882-1883 etait la derniere d'une serie de greves sur une periode de deux decennies dans le bassin houiller de Sydney, sur l'ile du Cap-Breton. S'appuyant sur des sources locales inexploitees, cet article reconstruit l'histoire de cette greve peu etudiee dans une histoire plus large des relations sociales sur le bassin houiller. La migration des ouvriers des fermes de l'arriere-pays de l'ile--principalement des colonies d'enclaves des Highlands--vers les mines de charbon a joue un role decisif dans la formation des nouveaux villages miniers de l'epoque et le caractere du conflit social. Au debut des annees 1880, le changement structurel associe a l'industrialisme de la politique nationale erodait l'ancienne autorite des exploitants de charbon, et les mineurs ont adopte la Provincial Workmen's Association (pwa) pour faire valoir leurs revendications dans le cadre de contestations de longue date et tres localisees. En fin de compte, les communautes charbonnieres elles-memes ont impose le syndicalisme naissant. La greve de Lingan a marque une transition vers un nouvel ordre politique sur le bassin houiller, structure par la place des mines de charbon dans la campagne elargie du Cap-Breton et construit sur un localisme puissant et une economie morale qui refondent la sphere publique et la place des mineurs dans celle-ci. Mots clefs : charbon, mines, travail, greves, emeutes, economie morale, capitalisme, Cape Breton, Nouvelle-Ecosse, ON 19 MARCH 1883, UNION MINERS from various collieries across Cape Breton Island's Sydney coalfield descended upon the mining village of Lingan, where the London-based General Mining Association (GMA) had [...]