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The article reviews the book, "Maritime Radical: The Life and Times of Roscoe Fillmore," by Nicholas Fillmore.
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The article reviews the book, "Class, Community and the Labour Movement: Wales and Canada, 1850-1930," edited by Deian R. Hopkin and Gregory S. Kealey, with an introduction by David Montgomery.
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The Amalgamated Mine Workers of Nova Scotia (AMW) was a Communist-led union of coal miners that broke away from the established United Mine Workers of America (UMW) in the early depression years, at a time when only Communists called for trade-union militance. The new union adopted principles of extreme rank-and-file democracy and radical resistance to company demands for wage cuts. It held the allegiance of the majority of miners in the province for several years, but its rival, the UMW, was supported by the coal company and the government. Moreover, the AMW never carried out its threats of a district strike to win recognition. After several years of the dual union situation, the miners saw the necessity of unity in confrontations with the company. In addition, the UMW was resurgent in the United States and had begun to take a more militant stance. Finally, changes in the policy of the Communist Party caused it to press for reunification. In rejoining the UMW, however, the miners were obliged to surrender many of their aspirations for district autonomy and inner-union democracy.
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Cape Breton, the site of major strikes during the 1920s, remained a hotbed of political radicalism and trade union militancy for many years. In the 1930s the Communist Party had considerable influence, and most of the coal miners joined the Amalgamated Mine Workers of Nova Scotia, a CP-led breakaway from the United Mine Workers of America. Ideological opposition to the columnists was spearheaded by the Catholic-inspired Antigonish Co-operative Movement, but this did not prevent the communist leader, J. B. McLachlan, from getting substantial votes in elections. The change of communist policy to the "united front" weakened the party's influence, although communists and the officers of the re-united miners' union were able to help the Sydney steelworkers finally establish a union, and to successfully press the provincial government to pass the 1937 Trade Union Act. Left and right in Cape Breton were also able to work together during the 1937 provincial election. The unity line of the communists, along with the impact of the Antigonish movement on Catholic voters, prepared the way for the UMW affiliation to the CCF in 1938, and during the CCFers won the local seats in both the federal and provincial legislatures. However, the CCF could never win elections elsewhere in the Maritimes, and the move of CCF policies to the right in the post-war years only served to gradually undermine its support in Cape Breton. In the UMW the dissatisfaction of the miners with their bureaucratic officers brought about the 1941 slowdown, one of the most costly wartime industrial disputes, and productivity fell. The union policies advocated by the CCF (and the CP during the war), helped end opposition to the mechanization of the mines. Following defeat in the 1947 strike, the miners had to accept modernization on the company's terms, although this meant the loss of jobs. The steelworkers' union won a national strike in 1946, but thereafter was unable to hold wage rates for Sydney at a level equal to those paid in Ontario steel plants. The militancy and radicalism of the miners and steelworkers of earlier years had almost completely disappeared by 1950. Dramatic anti-communist episodes in both the steelworkers' and miners' unions in the 1949-50 period marked the triumph of union bureaucrats and Cold War politicians over radicalism in Cape Breton.
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The origins of the modern system of industrial relations in Canada as seen in the key struggles and compromises with the power of employers and governments in the province of Nova Scotia. Focusing on changes in coal-mining, fishing and the public sector, this collection offers a challenging case study in Canadian labour history. --Publisher's description
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