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Recent studies of labour have clearly established that the capitalist state is very involved in the recruitment, relocation and retention of migrant labour forces. Most of the literature tends to analyze migrant labour within the broader social, political and economic context of expanding capitalism. Consequently, studies tend to focus on how the use of migrant labour is profitable to capitalism because it is cheap and easy to exploit. Such studies, however, neglect the ways in which the state actually intervenes in the labour market in order to facilitate the flow of migrant workers to places of employment. Therefore, this thesis explores the relationship between the migration of labour, the state and the reserve army of labour through an analysis of the Native migrant work force in the sugar beet industry in southern Alberta.

The article reviews the book, "La Culture inventée. Les stratégies culturelles aux 19e et 20e siècles," edited by Pierre Lanthier and Guido Rousseau.

This article uses a classical Marxist framework to study the consciousness and action of inside postal workers in Hamilton, Ontario during and after their participation in the 1987 strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). At the time of the strike the Hamilton Local of CUPW was 58 per cent women; the article includes a discussion of the impact of gender processes on women worker's consciousness and action. It also deals with three more general issues. First, through a discussion of conceptual issues and the presentation of a multi-level theoretical model, I offer advice on how to proceed with empirical research on strikes and class consciousness. Second, the "culture of solidarity" portrayal of strikers, as developed by Rick Fantasia, is criticized for presenting an over-integrated view of the participation and consciousness of strikers. I argue that one need not romanticize striking workers in order to be optimistic about the political role of the contemporary working class. This optimism must recognize that in a macro context of politico-economic stability, only a minority of a striking workforce can be expected to experience an expansion of generalized class consciousness. Third, I suggest that Marxist political action in the 1990s should concentrate on the development of generalized class consciousness, especially workers' positive sense of class unity, through the organization of local worker solidarity networks.

Cette étude fournit une synthèse des travaux effectués par des économistes sur le thème de la santé et de la sécurité du travail. Ces derniers ont surtout essayé d'évaluer les effets des différentes politiques adoptées par les gouvernements en tant au 'assureur et promoteur de la santé et sécurité au travail. Le texte tente également défaire le point sur la question de la substitution entre l'assurance-accident et l'assurance-chômage. À la lumière d'une comparaison internationale de la générosité de ces deux régimes d'assurance, des solutions de rechange sont proposées permettant de réduire l'incitation à la substitution.

The article reviews the book, "Entre voisins. La société paroissiale en milieu urbain: Saint-Pierre-Apôtre de Montréal, 1849-1930," by Lucia Ferretti.

L'objet de cet article est d'apporter des précisions sur les positions des dirigeants syndicaux locaux à l'égard des nouvelles formes d'organisation du travail. Les résultats de l'enquête par questionnaire auprès de dirigeants locaux de la FTQ, de la CSN et de la CSD démontrent que les positions varient selon la nature des nouvelles formes d'organisation du travail. De façon générale, les positions syndicales sont favorables et elles ont évolué en ce sens au cours des dernières années. La volonté de s'adapter à un environnement changeant, la position de la centrale syndicale et l'expérience passée sont les facteurs qui expliquent le mieux les variations des positions syndicales locales.

The article reviews the book, "Le Pouvoir et la Règle. Dynamiques de l'action organisée, " by Erhard Friedberg.

Brief obituary for Robert Kenney, who died in Toronto on Sept. 28, 1993 at age 88. A bibliophile with a longstanding commitment to Marxist philosophy, Kenney's collections of books, pamphlets, leaflets, and newspapers, as well as the personal papers of A.E. Smith, were donated to the the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. The Memorial University library has acquired 2,200 pamphlets in the English language representing an international spectrum of opinion include socialist, communist (the Canadian Communist Party is well-represented), trade unionist and anti-war. Saskatchewan labour collections assembled by the Saskatchewan provincial archives include union papers, strike files and secondary sources from the 1940s-1980s. The collection is named after Bob Hale, the former Canadian Labour Congress regional director for the Prairies. Takes note of forthcoming conferences and a newsletter on comparative industrial relations published at McMaster University.

The article reviews the book, "Mères et travailleuses. De l'exception à la règle," by Renée B. Dandurand and Francine Descarries.

The article reviews the book, "London in the Age of Industrialisation: Entrepreneurs, Labour Force and Living Conditions, 1700-1850," by L. D. Schwarz.

This essay attempts to explain why the Scots Canadians of Québec's upper St. Francis district protected the fugitive, Donald Morrison, against the full force of the law in 1888-89. It rejects the proposition that ethnic tensions were a major factor, arguing instead that Morrison conforms to Eric Hobsbawm's definition of a primitive rebel. With the railway undermining the local subsistence-oriented economy and encouraging families to migrate from the district, the Highland community was facing a survival crisis which it would ultimately lose. The Megantic Outlaw affair therefore represented a final defiant and largely symbolic stand on the part of a tightly-knit rural community succumbing to the forces of industrial capitalism.

Describes the collection of over 2,200 pamphlets as well as a number of books that was received from the University of Prince Edward Island Library in 1992, which in turn had been acquired as part of a purchase of the stock of the Blue Heron Bookstore in Toronto in 1970. The holdings include pamphlets by Tim Buck and other leading Canadian communists as well as a range of leftist literature from the US, UK, Soviet Union, and China. Other significant holdings of radical/left literature at the Queen Elizabeth II Library are also described. {Note: The pamphlet collection has since been digitized and may be searched at: https://collections.mun.ca/digital/collection/radical]

The article reviews the book, "Profit Sharing : Does it Make a Difference?," by Douglas L. Kruse.

The article reviews the book, "Tangled Webs of History: Indians and the Law in Canada's Pacific Coast Fisheries," by Dianne Newell.

The article reviews the book, "Militant Workers: Labour and Class Conflict on the Clyde, 1900-1950," edited by Robert Duncan and Arthur McIvor.

The article reviews the book, "Emptying Their Nets: Small Capital and Rural Industrialization in the Nova Scotia Fishing Industry," by Richard Apostle and Gene Barrett.

The article reviews the book, "To Save Ourselves: The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of New York," by Renqiu Yu.

In compliance with the Third Period "line" of the Communist International (Comintern), the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) launched The Workers' Unity League (WUL) as a centre of "revolutionary" or "red" unionism in December 1929. Until it was "liquidated" during the winter of 1935-6, the WUL had a significance in Canada's Depression labour struggles far outweighing its maximum membership of between 30,000 and 40,000; a significance, moreover, that has yet to be fully acknowledged or analysed. This article seeks to look beyond the conventional view that presents the CPC as a Comintern cipher and the WUL (when it is considered at all) as a "sectarian", "adventurist", "ultra-left" organisation with no real interest in building stable labour unions. While there is no doubt that the two most crucial decisions concerning the WUL — to create it and to liquidate it — were taken in Moscow, neither the Comintern nor the CPC leadership in Toronto was in a position to supervise the implementation of the Third Period line on the ground. Within the broad parameters of the line, local organisers tended to operate as "good trade unionists" rather than "good bolsheviks", using every available opportunity to modify and adapt tactics to local realities. They used their room for manoeuvre to considerable effect, especially during the economic and political upturn of 1933-34, when the WUL led a majority of all strikes and established union bases in a host of hitherto unorganised or weakly organised industries. At the height of its power, however, the WUL knew that it had barely dented the essential mass production industries — auto, steel, rubber, farm machinery. This fact, coupled with the experience of defeat in several key strikes,forced the party to reconsider the WUL's future. Whether the WUL could have survived as part of a national union centre remains open to question. Indisputably, the Comintern terminated that option in 1935.

The article reviews the book, "'Nations Are Built of Babies': Saving Ontario Mothers and Children 1900-1940," by Cynthia R. Comacchio.