Workers, Growers and Monopolists: The "Labour Problem" in the Alberta Beet Sugar Industry During the 1930s

[The article studies] the sugar beet workers of Southern Alberta and their attempt during the Depression to organize a trade union. Radical militants from the Farmers and Workers Unity Leagues organized the foreign born workers and in 1935 and 1936 led strikes which brought the "class struggle" to the farm gate. Observing the exploitative relationship which also existed between the beet growers and the Rogers Sugar Company, union leaders attempted to create a worker-grower movement against the Company. This proved an unrealizable goal, and the collaboration of growers, the sugar company and the state ultimately crushed the beet workers' union.