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This book sets out to present the economic and social writings of Colin McKay, a pioneer Marxian sociologist and economist in Canada (and no relation to the author), and to place McKay in the context of the international socialist tradition. The manuscript takes the form of an extensive biographical essay, five substantive sections that present and examine McKay's thought both thematically and chronologically, and a concluding essay that places McKay's thought in the context of contemporary discussions with regard to the "decline of Marx" in the late 20th century. Colin McKays's life and work determines the scope of the manuscript, but since this "life and work" extended to subjects as varies as the limitations of Kantian philosophy and the design of North Atlantic schooners, the book is rather less narrow than it might appear at first. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book "Home to Work: Motherhood and the Politics of Industrial Homework in the United States," Eileen Boris.

The article reviews the book, "Under the Stars: Essays on Labor Relations in Arts and Entertainment," edited by Lois S. Gray and Ronald L. Seeber.

The article reviews the book "The Marxists and the Jewish Question: The History of a Debate (1843-1943)," by Enzo Traverso.

Dans quelle mesure le Code civil du Québec de 1994 retient-il une nouvelle conception du salarié ? Les treize dispositions (articles 2085 à 2097 C.c.Q.) qui traitent directement du salarié et de l'employeur sont-elles à ce point différentes qu'il nous faudrait reconsidérer les bases juridiques de la relation de travail ? Pour répondre à de telles questions, l'auteur rappelle la conception du salarié retenue au Code civil du Bas-Canada (1866) de manière à mieux saisir l'importance des modifications apportées en 1994. En un deuxième temps, une analyse critique de ces treize dispositions nouvelles lui permet de distinguer ce qui serait vraiment nouveau et aussi ce qui lui apparaît comme de simples mises en forme de l'état du droit au moment de cette codification. En cette période de changements profonds des «modes d'emploi», il importe de saisir la portée réelle ou virtuelle de toutes les modifications effectuées à la définition du salarié, base fondamentale du droit du travail.

An important new critique of Marx's labour theory of value. Using the fishing industry in British Columbia as a case study, Alicja Muszynski explores how Marx's labour theory of value can be applied to a specific industry and the creation of a specific labour force. She reworks Marx's theory in order to incorporate race and gender as principles that not only created a proletarianized labour force but also legitimized the payment of low wages to particular groups. Cheap Wage Labour is the first analysis of shore work and shore-workers in British Columbia from the 1860s to the mid-1980s. Muszynski provides an interpretation of the events that led to the creation of a cheap wage labour force of shoreworkers, shows how they organized within the framework of the fishermen's union (the UFAWU), and explains how as a consequence their numbers steadily shrank until today they represent only a small portion of the labour force. She looks at factors contributing to the destruction of First Nations culture and economy, such as the displacement of aboriginal peoples from key fishing sites and from working in the salmon canneries, and examines the structure and patterns of Chinese and Japanese immigration and the development of the capitalist class and the white working class. Cheap Wage Labour situates the history of B.C. shoreworkers within the much larger and complex historical enterprise of industrialization, patriarchy, colonialism, and imperialism and provides keen insights into the current fisheries crisis on the West Coast. --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction: The Problematic -- Marx's Labour Theory of Value: A Critique -- Patriarchy and Capitalism -- The First Nations, Property Rights, and Salmon Canning -- The Dialectics of Cheap Wage Labour -- Organized Resistance: The United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union -- -- State, Labour, and Capital -- Conclusion: Marx's Labour Theory of Value Reconsidered -- Appendix: J.H. Todd & Sons Ltd.

The article reviews the book, "Modern Capitalism: Privatization, Employee Ownership and Industrial Democracy," by Nicholas V. Gianaris.

The article reviews the book "The Limits of Affluence: Welfare in Ontario 1920-1970," by James Struthers.

n the Skin of a Lion is a love story and an irresistible mystery set in the turbulent, muscular new world of Toronto in the 20s and 30s. Michael Ondaatje entwines adventure, romance and history, real and invented, enmeshing us in the lives of the immigrants who built the city and those who dreamed it into being: the politically powerful, the anarchists, bridge builders and tunnellers, a vanished millionaire and his mistress, a rescued nun and a thief who leads a charmed life. This is a haunting tale of passion, privilege and biting physical labour, of men and women moved by compassion and driven by the power of dreams—sometimes even to murder. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "Un État réduit? A Down-Sized State?," edited by Robert Bernier and James Iain Gow.

The article reviews the book, "Forging American Communism: The Life of William Z. Foster," by Edward P. Johanningsmeier.

This speculative essay presents a preliminary statement on the paradoxical character of 19th-century class formation in the two white settler dominions of Canada and Australia. Outposts of empire, these social formations were early regarded with disdain, the one a classic mercantilist harvester of fish, fur, and wood, the other a dumping ground for convicts. By the mid-to-late 19th-century, however, Canada and Australia were the richest of colonies. Within their distinctive cultures and political economies, both supposedly dominated by staples, emerged working classes that were simultaneously combatative and accommodated. By the 1880s impressive organizational gains had been registered by labour in both countries, but the achievements of class were conditioned by particular relations of fragmentation, including those of 'race' and gender.

Changing Women, Changing History is a bibliographic guide to the scholarship, both English and French, on Canadian's women's history. Organized under broad subject headings, and accompanied by author and subject indices it is accessible and comprehensive. [Includes sections on Families/Life stages, Unions/Labour activism, and Work/Economy.] --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book "Separate Spheres: Women's Worlds in the 19th-Century Maritimes," by Janet Guildford and Suzanne Morton.

The article reviews the book "Radicals of the Worst Sort: Laboring Women in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1860-1912," by Ardis Cameron.

The article reviews the book, "La judiciarisation de l'arbitrage de grief," by Rodrigue Blouin.

The article reviews the book, "100 Public Sector Collective Bargaining in Canada: Beginning of the End or End of the Beginning," by Gene Swimmer and Mark Thompson.

The article reviews the book, "Human Resource Management: A Critical Text," edited by John Storey.

This thesis using a case study approach examines the migration and employment strategies of illegal migrants in the labour market in Montreal. The migratory flows discussed are permanent in nature. The thesis also examines the role of networks in initiating the migration process and in securing employment in Montreal. It includes an examination of the conditions of employment and the sectors of employment. It argues that illegal migrants work in the secondary labour market, that is on the fringes of the formal economy or in the informal economy. Income disparities between North and South countries ensure that migrants continue to live and work illegally in Montreal. This raises a discussion of the strategies used by migrants to change their status to a legal status. The thesis discusses the experiences of both women and men. It posits the view that women are migrant workers in their own right and not only as dependents of male migrants. This is attributed to the increase in service sector jobs and the increased demand for paid domestic labor in the Canadian economy. It is concluded that immigration policies allow and maintain illegal migration and that there is a demand for this kind of labour in the Montreal economy. Furthermore, illegal migrants fulfill a particular labour market need.

The article reviews the book "By the Sweat of the Brow: Literature and Labor in Antebellum America," by Nicholas K. Bromell.