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Introduces five sets of documents that shed light on the early years of the Communist Party of Canada and the RCMP security apparatus that surveilled and infiltrated it. The materials include in-camera CPC bulletins and reports, transcripts of secret speeches by Pan-American Bureau agent Charles Scott to party members in Regina and Edmonton, RCMP correspondence with the UK's Special Branch, and RCMP security bulletins. The materials were released by the Public Record Office in London, England, and through a freedom-of-information request with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Concludes that the documents are indicative of the close relationship between Canadian and British security agencies and their joint preoccupation with the threat of international communism.

Announces the launch of the Canadian Committee on Labour History's website and Michael Lonardo's Canadian labour history bibliography (English only), with the latter on the website of Memorial University. Sean Cadigan has joined the editorial team as assistant editor and Andrew Parnaby is doing an internship as did his predecessor Michael Butt. Donations were also received to establish the Eugene Forsey Prize for student essays on labour and working-class history and to continue the work on labour education.

The editor apologizes for the deletion of figures as well as an error on page 126 of the article, "Strikes and Class Consciousness," published in the Fall 1994 issue.

The editor takes note of two papers published in the journal as well as editorial board members who received awards.

Reports that two recent journal articles have received awards. Corrects the omission of the cover credit as well as a line that was dropped from the article, "With Our Own Two Hands," both published in the previous issue.

Discusses the articles, research reports, document and critique sections, and review essays published in the issue. Three papers from the Canadian Committee on Labour History's symposium in June 1992 are also presented. A paper published in v. 25 of the journal has received an award. A correction is made to page 324 of the previous issue, for which the editor apologizes to the review writer.

The article notes various articles published in the issue including on state security repression, security, and intelligence during the Cold War, state intervention in labour relations, women's role in the labour movement in Canada, and the rise of the Knights of Labor and the Salvation Army in the context of late Victorian working-class culture in Ontario. Two award-winning papers that were originally published in Labour/Le Travail are also reported.

Takes note of articles published in the issue including on the unskilled, the labour/non-labour of women and children, Canadian job loss over the last 30 years, the attitude and ideological underpinning of labour history writing, and the relationship between academics and the labour movement. Discusses the transfer of Canadian Security Intelligence Service records to the National Archives, which had been long promised. Access, however, remains problematic. Explains the increased cost of the journal subscription and two minor corrections to the previous issue are noted, including a book review by VSP rather than BDP.

Describes a visit to the collection of radical pamphlets, primarily 20th-century and mainly Canadian, at the library of the University of Prince Edward Island. The materials were filed by title on two ranges of eight-foot steel shelves running at least 50 to 60 linear feet. Housed at UPEI since the late 1960s, the collection came as part of the library's purchase of the stock of the Blue Heron Book Store in Toronto, which had been run by the bibliographer, Peter Weinrich. Included are at least 62 titles that pertain to communist party leader Tim Buck. [Note: The collection was later transferred to the Memorial University library. See the article, "The International Labour and Radical History Pamphlet Collection at Memorial University of Newfoundland," by Michael Lonardo, published in the journal in Fall 1994.

Documents the exposure of Jack Esselwein, also known as Sergeant John Leopold, who, as an undercover operative of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, joined the Communist Party of Canada. His identity was revealed after a series of police raids on August 11, 1931, which led to the arrest of a number of leading Communists, including Tim Buck. Esselwein testified at the trial in November 1931 whereby the Communists were convicted and sentenced to penitentiary terms under the notorious section 98 of the criminal code. They had already discovered that Esselwein was a police spy. The Toronto Daily Star report (published November 13, 1931) on Esselwein's unmasking is included in the article.

Introduces the Communist writer, educator, and activist Margaret Fairley, who in the 1950s edited a book of Canadian oral labour history that was left unfinished. The book, entitled "With Our Own Hands," included three manuscripts - memoirs of Claude Theodore, Peter Cordoni, and A.J. MacDonald - that are published for the first time. Collectively, they shed light on the largely rural, immigrant, working-class experience of Canada in the early 20th century. MacDonald's reminiscences also describe life in the village of Cadott, Wisconsin, in the 1890s, before the family moved to Alberta. The manuscripts are located at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto.

The article briefly reviews "A Differerent Kind of State? Popular Power and Democratic Administration," edited by Gregory Albo, David Langille. and Leo Panitch, "Belonging: The Meaning and Future of Canadian Citizenship," edited by William Kaplan, "Policing Canada's Century: A History of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police," by Greg Marquis, "Aberhart: Outpourings and Replies," edited by David R. Elliott, "The Voyages of Jacques Cartier," by Ramsay Cook, "Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth Century Montreal," by Louise Dechtne, "New England Planters in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, 1759-1800," compiled by Judith A. Norton, "Creed and Culture: The Place of English-Speaking Carholics in Canadian Society, 1750-1930," edited by Terrence Murphy and Gerald Stortz, "While the Women Only Wept: Loyalist Refugee Women in Eastern Ontario," by Janice Potter-MacKinnon, "Cultivation and Culture: Labor and the Shaping of Slave Life in the Americas," edited by Ira Berlin and Philip D. Morgan, "Farm to Factory: Women 's Letters, 1830-1860," edited by Thomas Dublin, "Gender and American History Since 1890," edited by Barbara Melosh, "Industrial Democracy in America: The Ambiguous Legacy," edited by Nelson Lichtenstein and Howell John Harris, "Race in America: The Struggle for Equality" edited by Herbert Hill and Jamcs E. Jones, Jr., "The Land and the Loom: Peasants and Profit in Northern France, 1680-1800," by Liana Vardi, "Harold Laski: A Political Biography," by Michael Newman, "Socialist Parties and the Question of Europe in the 1950s," edited by Richard T. Griffiths, "Keeping Heads Above Water: Salvadorean Refugees in Costa Rica," by Tanya Basok, "The Althusserian Legacy," edited by E. Ann Kaplan and Michael Sprinker, "Capitalism Versus Anti-Capitalism: The Triumph of Ricardian over Marxist Political Economy," by Paul Fabra, and "Labor Demand," by Daniel S. Hamemesh / reviews by Bryan D. Palmer -- "Tramps, Workmates and Revolutionaries: Working-Class Stories of the 1920s," edited by H. Gustav Klaus / review by Gregory S. Kealey.

Bryan Palmer is succeeding Gregory Kealey, who is stepping down as editor after 21 years. Mark Leier is succeeding Palmer as the book review editor; Palmer had held the post for nearly 15 years. In turn, Andrew Parnaby and Richard Rennie are the new co-editors of the Notebook, succeeding Leier. Andrée Lévesque continues as the French book review editor. Various editorial board changes are noted. As incoming editor, Palmer offers a reflection on the journal and its path forward.

The article briefly reviews "The Formation of Labour Movements, 1870-1914: An International Perspective," edited by Marcel Van Der Linden,and Jurgen Rojahn, "Reluctant Icon: Gladstone, Bulgaria, and the Working Classes, 1856-1878," by Ann Pottinger Saab, "On the Move: Essays in Labour and Transport History Presented to Philip Bagwell," edited by Chris Wrigley and John Shepherd, "Regulating a New Economy: Public Policy and Economic Change in America, 1900-1933," by Morton Keller, "The Nature of Work: Sociological Perspectives," edited by Kai Erickson and Steven Peter Vallas, "Repression and Recovery: Modern American Poetry and the Politics of Cultural Memory, 1910-1945," by Cary Nelson, "The Arbitration of Rights Disputes in the Public Sector," by Clarence R. Deitsch and David A. Dills, "Women, Employment and the Family in the International Division of Labour," edited by Sharon Stichter and Jane L. Parpart, "History from South Africa: Alternative Visions and Practices," edited by Joshua Brown et al., "Arbitration Discharge: Grievances in Ontario : Outcomes and Reinstatement Experiences," by Peter J. Barnacle, "Labour Arbitration Yearbook, 1991, Volume 1," edited by William Kaplan, Jeffrey Sack, and Morley Gunderson, "Class War: A Decade of Disorder," edited by Ian Bone, Alan Pullen and Tim Scargill, "Taylorism Transformed: Scientific Management Theory Since 1945," Stephen P. Waring, and "Women Workers and Global Restructuring," edited by Kathryn Ward / reviews by Bryan D. Palmer -- "Foreign Language Literature on the Nordic Labour Movements," edited by Marianne Bagge Hansen and Gerd Callesen / review by Gregory S. Kealey.

The article briefly reviews "Love A Solidarity: A Pictorial History of the NDP, by Cameron Smith, "Industrial Relations in Canadian Industry," edited by Richard P. Chaykowski and Anil Verma, "Reaction and Reform: The Politics of the Conservative Party under R. B. Bennett, 1927-1938," by Larry A. Glassford, "The Un-Canadians: True Stories of the Blacklist Era," by Len Scher, "History of Canadian Youth and Childhood: A Bibliography," by Neil Sutherland, Jean Barman and Linda L. Hale, "The Little Slaves of the Harp: Italian Child Street Musicians in Nineteenth-Century Paris, London, and New York," by John E. Zucchi, "In the Floating Army: F.C. Mills on Itinerant Life in California, 1914, by Gregory R. Woirol, "Visions of a New Industrial Order: Social Science and Labor Theory in America's Progressive Era," by Clarence E. Wunderlin, Jr., "The Lost World of the Craft Printer," by Maggie Holtzberg-Call, "The Trucker's World: Risk, Safety, and Mobility," by J. Peter Rothe, "Avoiding the Cracks: A Guide to the Workers ' Compensation System," by Anne Tramposh, "Feminism and the Women's Movement: Dynamics of Change in Social Movement Ideology and Activism," by Barbara Ryan, "Ethnic Minorities and Industrial Change in Europe and North America," edited by Malcolm Cross, "English and French Towns in Feudal Society: A Comparative Approach," by R.H. Hilton, "The Education of Desire: Marxists and the Writing of History," by Harvey J. Kaye, "White, Male and Middle Class: Explorations in Feminism and History," by Catherine Hall, "William Cobbett and Rural Popular Culture," by Ian Dyck, "European Labour Politics from 1900 to the Depression," by Dick Geary, "Women of the Praia: Work and Lives in a Portuguese Coastal Community," by Sally Cole, "New Trends in Employment Practices: An International Survey," by Walter Galenson, "Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life: A South African Autobiography," by Emma Mashinini, "Status Influences in Third World Labor Markets: Caste, Gender, and Custom," edited by James G. Scoville, ,"Labor and Economic Growth in Five Asian Countries," by Walter Galenson / reviews by Bryan D. Palmer -- "The Labor Process and Control of Labor: The Changing Nature of Work Relations in the Late Twentieth Century," edited by Berch Berberoglu, "Culture and the Labour Movement: Essays in New Zealand Labour History," edited by John E. Martin and Kerry Taylor / reviews by Gregory S. Kealey.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Immigration and Labour: Australia and Canada Compared" published in "Labour/Le Travail."

Introduced by Pierre Berton, the article presents socialist journalist Phillips Thompson's eclectic musings on labour and land reform, banking, the money system, and capitalism. Written in 1888-89, Thompson's journal reflects his visit to the UK during this period, where met with Peter Kropotkin and heard a speech by William Morris. Henry George appears in the entries, and there are quotations from a variety of sources including William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Martineau. The journal manuscript is kept at Library Archives Canada with the Thomas Phillips Thompson papers.