"The police beat them up just to keep warm": A Finnish-Canadian Communist Comments on Environmental Depredation and Capitalist Exploitation in Early 20th-Century British Columbia

Wilson introduces "Something From Canada" by Augusti Bernhard Mäkelä, the Finnish Marxist journalist and publicist. Originally published in 1913, Mäkelä's article bluntly condemns the capitalist exploitation of BC workers (including immigrant labour) and the pillaging of BC's resources. Mäkelä arrived in Canada from Finland in 1901 when he was nearly 40. Apart from a sojourn in Finland from 1907-10, he lived in the Finnish communal settlement of Sointula on Malcolm Island, British Columbia, until his death in 1932.