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From 1942 to 1951, the British Columbia District Council of the International Woodworkers of America (IWA) was embroiled in a battle for political control. The lines of conflict were drawn between a left-wing "Red Bloc" and an anti-communist "White Bloc." By the early 1950s the left wing had been defeated. Irving Abella has explained the demise of the Left through reference to errors made by communist leaders and reference to the native B.C. lumber workers' disdain for communist trade unionism. This article challenges Abella on both counts. The article situates the anti-communist movement in the political currents extant in Canada at the time and concludes that the secession of the left-led B.C. District from the International in 1948 was less a failure of leadership than it was a last-ditch attempt to preserve the District's autonomy. The article argues that the rank-and-file did not abandon its communist leaders but was forcefully separated from its leaders by the anti-communist movement within the CCL-CIO and by the repressive power of the State.

This article reviews the book, "Something to GuardL The Stormy Life of the National Guardian, 1948-1967," by Cedric Belfrage and James Aronson.

This article reviews the book, "The Miracle of the Empty Beds: A History of Tuberculosis in Canada," by G.J. Wherrett.

This article reviews the book, "'Dangerous Foreigners:' European Immigrant Workers and Labour Radicalism in Canada, 1896-1932," by Donald Avery.

Reports that a national inventory of oral history collections is underway by the Sound Archives of the Public Archives of Canada in cooperation with the Canadian Oral History Association. Takes note of papers given by Paul Thompson, Gilbert Levine and Jim Turk at the annual conference of the Canadian Oral History Association held on June 2-4, 1980, in Montreal.

This article reviews the book, "The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution," by Gary B. Nash.

This article reviews the book, "Economic Development in the Philadelphia Region, 1810-1850," by Diane Undstrom.

This article reviews the book, "Grass-Roots Socialism: Radical Movements in the Southwest, 1895-1943," by James R. Green.

This article reviews the books, "Leisure and the Changing City, 1870-1914," by H.E. Meller, and "Leisure and Class in Victorian England: Rational Recreation and the Contest for Control, 1830-1885," by Peter Bailey.

This article reviews the book, "Minnesota Farmer-Laborism: The Third-Party Alternative," by Millard L. Gieske.

This paper examines the transformation of the Toronto metal trades in the period from the 1890s through to World War I, a period which is characterized as a "second industrial revolution." The second industrial revolution dramatically intensified and expanded the processes unleashed during the first industrial revolution, which situated production in factories, harnessed mechanical power to production, and subjected labour power to capitalist discipline. The second industrial revolution, particularly because it was identified with the rise of integrated monopoly corporations, reduced the power and status of skilled tradesmen. Nevertheless, in the period before World War I, neither managerial nor technical innovations were able to obliterate the artisanal heritage of the metal industry. This uneven development of the industry accounted for the unstable and contradictory patterns of work organization, skill preservation, industrial conflict, worker militance, and radicalism that prevailed in the industry.

Government run employment agencies are usually regarded as a feature of the modem welfare state. Their appearance in Canada before World War I, however, was not really due to welfare-related concerns. By far the most extensive operations were the immigration services of the federal and various provincial governments. Other labour exchanges were started by Ontario and Quebec, but remained insignificant political ventures. During the war, when the demand for manpower could not be satisfied, the provincial networks grew in importance. The federal government contemplated increasing its own endeavours, but it took the threat of social unrest at the end of hostilities to persuade it to create the Employment Service of Canada.

This article reviews the book, "Japanese Marxist: A Portrait of Kawakami Hajime, 1879-1946," by Gail Lee Bernstein.

This article reviews the book, "Prairie Capitalism: Power and Influence in the New West," by John Richards and Larry Pratt.

Introduces three documents from the Stanyan Ropeworks in Halifax from the 1840s: terms of an indentured apprenticeship; terms and regulations of the Stanyan Ropeworks; and payroll lists. Provides a history of the establishment, which was founded in 1826-27 by merchant capitalists Temple and Lewis Piers, who recruited Scottish spinners and their families to serve as the workforce. The business closed in the mid-1850s shortly after it was sold. Concludes that the documents are indicative of a key transitional stage between the 18th century artisanal workshop and the Victorian factory.

This article reviews the book, "Socialism in Canada: A Study of the CCF-NDP in Federal and Provincial Politics," by Ivan Avakumovic.

Discusses papers given at the conference, Class and Culture: Dimensions of Canada's Labour Past, held at McGill University, March 7-8, 1980. Highlights the contrasting views of David Bercuson and Gregory Kealey on class and culture. Argues that there should have been greater focus at the conference on the relationship between class and culture, including a theoretical analysis of the concept of working-class culture. Comments on papers on the Cape Breton and Alberta mining industries, ethnicity and class, the role and practice of the legal system in the 18th and 19th centuries, and social structure and mobility in rural Canada. Concludes that, overall, the conference was a great success.

In March 1892, the conductors and trainmen's unions on the CPR's Western Division won a week-long strike and a signed contract, the first on the CPR. The walk-out was forced upon the unions by company president Van Home's decision to drive them off the CPR by administering "loyalty" oaths to company trainmen and conductors. During the strike, the company's extensive use of anti-American propaganda against the two international unions made the question of international unionism a key issue in the dispute. The unions won the strike because almost all the conductors and trainmen on the Eastern Division heeded the strike call, contrary to Van Home's expectations, and because they proved, by shutting down adjacent divisions, that they could turn the strike into a nationwide tie-up if necessary. Recognizing that breaking the strike under these circumstances would be unnecessarily costly. Van Home capitulated. The strike is historically significant, first, because it marked the beginning of modem union recognition and collective bargaining on the cpr — and subsequently on other Canadian railways — and second, because it noticeably strengthened the position of international craft unions on Canadian railways.

The article reviews and comments on "A Shopkeeper's Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837," by Paul E. Johnson, "Crusade in the City: Revivalism in Nineteenth Century Philadelphia," by Marion L. Bell, "Transatlantic Revivalism: Popular Evangelicalism in Britain and America, 1790-1865," by Richard Carwardine, "Religion and Respectability: Sunday Schools and Working Class Culture, 1780-1850," by Thomas W. Laqueur, "Revivals, Awakenings and Reform: An Essay on Religion and Social Change in America, 1607-1977," by William G. McLoughlin, "Gospel Hymns and Social Religion: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century Revivalism," by Sandra S. Sizer, "Rockdale: The Growth of an American Village in the Early Industrial Revolution," by Anthony F.C. Wallace, "Vision of the Disinherited: the Making of American Pentecostalism," by Robert M. Anderson, and "The Second Coming: Popular Millenarianism, 1780-1850," by J.F.C. Harrison.

This article reviews the book, "Ethnic Radicals," edited by J. Donald Wilson and Jorgen Dahlie.