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  • Discusses the International Brotherhood of Pulp-Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers Union, which escaped the anti-Communist purge of the labour movement during the 1940s and 50s. Provides background on the purges and raids of unions, as well as the intense battles at Canadian labour congresses, during the McCarthyist period, Focuses on the conflict inside the US-dominated international pulp and paper workers, with left-leaning Canadian dissidents demanding greater union democracy, more services for dues, and autonomy for locals. The struggle ultimately ended in schism, with the certification of the Pulp and Paper Workers of Canada in 1965.

  • Canadians might expect that a history of Canada's participation in the Cold War would be a self-congratulatory exercise in documenting the liberality and moderation of Canada set against the rapacious purges of the McCarthy era in the United States. Though Reg Whitaker and Gary Marcuse agree that there is some evidence for Canadian moderation, they argue that the smug Canadian self-image is exaggerated. Cold War Canada digs past the official moderation and uncovers a systematic state-sponsored repression of communists and the Left directed at civil servants, scientists, trade unionists, and political activists. Unlike the United States, Canada's purges were shrouded in secrecy imposed by the government and avidly supported by the RCMP security service. Whitaker and Marcuse manage to reconstruct several of the significant anti-communist campaigns. Using declassified documents, interviews, and extensive archival sources, the authors reconstruct the Gouzenko spy scandal, trace the growth of security screening of civil servants, and re-examine purges in the National Film Board and the trade unions, attacks on peace activist James G. Endicott, and the trials of Canadian diplomat Herbert Norman. Based on these examples Whitaker and Marcuse outline the creation of Canada's Cold War policy, the emergence of the new security state, and the alignment of Canada with the United States in the global Cold War. They demonstrate that Canada did take a different approach toward the threat of communism, but argue that the secret repression and silent purges used to stifle dissent and debate about Canada's own role in the Cold War had a chilling effect on the practice of liberal democracy and undermined Canadian political and economic sovereignty. --Publisher's description

Last update from database: 9/30/24, 4:10 AM (UTC)

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