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[This book] focuses on six important - but largely unknown - strikes where Canadian workers fought the combined forces of capital and government for basic union rights and for decent wages and working conditions. The strikes described - the Winnipeg 1919 general strike, Estevan 1931, Stratford 1933, Oshawa 1937, the Ford Windsor strike of 1945, and Asbestos 1949 - were all major events in Canadian labour and political history. They demonstrate the strength of the labour movement, and they show the willingness of governments to use police, troops, intimidation and violence in attempts to break strikes and crush unions. --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction. The Winnipeg General Strike / David Bercuson -- Estevan, 1931 / S.D. Hanson -- Aid to the civil power: the Stratford strike of 1933 / Desmond Morton -- Oshawa 1937 / Irving M. Abella -- Ford, Windsor, 1945 / David Moulton -- Asbestos 1949 / Fraser Isbester.

This article reviews the book, "Joe Rapoport: The Life of a Jewish Radical," edited by Kenneth Kann.

This is neither a history of the Canadian Congress of Labour nor of the CIO in Canada, but rather a study of the interaction of the two. Two basic conflicts - one internal, the other external - pervaded this relationship: the internal struggle of both organizations to rid themselves of their Communist-dominated affiliates, and the external battle of the Congress, and to a lesser etent of its CIO affiliates, to achieve and defend their autonomy in the face of the aggressive incursions of the American unions to the south. A corollary to this latter conflict was the desperate struggle of the Congress to maintain its authority over its international affiliates. These two themes - the internal threat from the Communists and the external threat from the Americans - dominate the entire history of the Congress from its creation in 1940. Besides these two issues, all others seem insigificant. ...This study is based largely on the files of the Canadian Labour Congress and its affiliates. Interviews have filled in whatever information was not available in this voluminous correspondence. --From author's preface

To the historian, oral history is a useful tool; to the labour historian it is an essential one. Unlike his colleagues in political, diplomatic and business history, the historian of the labour movement has few written documents on which to rely. Few of the important decisions and events in the' history of the trade union movement in Canada were ever recorded in print, and those that were, soon were discarded: memories of those decisions and events remain the private preserve of the men and women who were integrally involved. Only the oral historian can unearth many of these recollections; only oral history can fill many of the gaps in the history of the Canadian labour movement. --Introduction

If, as Sir Wilfrid Laurier said, the twentieth century would be the century of Canada, by the end of the first decade of the new century it was already apparent that it would not be the century of the Canadian working man. The twentieth century ushered in the great Canadian boom.The twentieth century ushered in the great Canadian boom. And boom conditions produced a boom psychology. Nothing could stop Canada. Incredible industrial expansion; two new transcontinental railways pushing across the West; seemingly unstoppable floods of capital and immigrants pouring into the country; these were the hallmark of the decade. Indeed, everyone seemed to be prospering. Everyone, that is, but the Canadian worker. To him the twentieth century ushered in no new changes - or at least, no changes for the better. His conditions of work were still appalling, and his wages--though somewhat higher--could not keep up with spiralling living costs. Indeed, the influx of hundreds of thousands of hungry, penniless immigrants even made it difficult to hold a job. And what jobs? Stuffy, unventilated factories; sixty hours a week; back-breaking work; all for a dollar a day. These were the conditions of work for the men, women and children of Canada. And a dollar a day was considered excellent pay for the thousands of boys and girls, some not yet in their teens, who were forced to find jobs. --Introduction

Provides an introduction to an autobiographical account of the life of Joshua Gershman, a Jewish Communist (1903-1988). Follows his life and the development of his ideals, and discusses his thoughts on various events. Discusses the connections between Jewish labour and socialism. Examines the conflicts between Jewish labour and Communism. Discusses tensions within Communism. Gershman resigned from the Communist Party of Canada in October 1977.

This anthology consists largely of eyewitness accounts of - and often by - the working men, women, and children of Canada. Beyond the institutional history of trade unions and labour partiees are massive changes in patterns of thought, economic life, standards of living, and conditions of work. In these primary sources, we may glimpse these changes, see their impact in human terms, and hear the voices of the unorganized, the unemployed, and the oppressed, as well as those of union officials and skilled workers with hopes of rapid upward mobility. Most significantly, these documents suggest not only new directions for the student of Canadian social history, but also major revisions of some traditional assumptions of the historian. These readings - most taken from rare, out-of-print, or previously unavailable documents -- tell of life and work in an industrializing, expanding Canada; of conditions in mines, factories, farms and lumber camps; of the cruel exploitation of women and immigrant workers; and of the great migration in these years from country to city. They represent almost all the provinces and range over conditions in Victorian times to those faced today by field labour and immigrant men and women in modern sweatshops. In their own words, describing their dailly confrtontation with life, we can listen to a Calgary charwoman, a Japanese fisherman, a Cape Breton miner, a Jewish ragpicker, an Italian railroad worker, a Quebec garment worker, a Ukrainian farm-boy, and scores of others. Here is the most vivid account yet of the problem faced by Canadian workers, both native and immigrant; of their distinctive attitudes and traditions; and, above all, of their courage and bitter struggle for equality and a better life. The book as a whole is an important contribution to the movement in recent years to deepen and broaden our labour history. -- Publisher's description. Partial contents note: Introduction (pages 1-2) -- Working conditions, 1900-1918 (pages 3- 75) -- Poverty, home life, and leisure (pages 76-150) -- Women's work (pages 151- 215) -- Working conditions and the rise of the CIO (pages 216-306) -- Bibliographical note (pages 307-310).

Examines critically three core `premises of Canadian labour historiography, namely that American unions had to move into Canada to establish a strong, viable labour movement, that the contribution of the Communist Party of Canada was largely negative; and that the relationship between the CIO and its Canadian affiliate, the Canadian Congress of Labour, was based on equality and autonomy.