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The article reviews the book, "Into the Hurricane: Attacking Socialism and the CCF," by John Boyko.

The article reviews the book, "The Corporation As Family: The Gendering of Corporate Welfare, 1890-1930," by Nikki Mandel.

The article focuses on the Canadian political party the British Columbia Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (BC/CCF) and how it contributed to a political left-wing social movement for Canada's working class during the 1930s. The author argues that while the BC/CCF had populist beginnings, it was truly a socialist party. He discusses how the BC/CCF impacted Canadian politics during the interwar years, argues that the party created an anti-liberal movement, and explores the BC/CCF's relationship to the Socialist Party of Canada.

The article reviews several books including "Labor Visions and State Power: The Origins of Business Unionism in the United States," by Victoria C. Hattam, "The Experience of Workers in the United States With Democracy and the Free Market During the Nineteenth Century," by David Montgomery and "The State and Labor in Modern America," by Melvyn Dubofsky.

The article reviews the book, "The Rise of the Labour Party, 1893-1931," by Gordon Phillips.

This article reviews the book, "British Workers and the Independent Labour Party, 1888-1906," by David Howell.

Almost a century before the New Democratic Party rode the first "orange wave," their predecessors imagined a movement that could rally Canadians against economic insecurity, win access to necessary services such as health care, and confront the threat of war. The party they built during the Great Depression, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), permanently transformed the country's politics. Past histories have described the CCF as social democrats guided by middle-class intellectuals, a party which shied away from labour radicalism and communist agitation. James Naylor's assiduous research tells a very different story: a CCF created by working-class activists steeped in Marxist ideology who sought to create a movement that would be both loyal to its socialist principles and appealing to the wider electorate. The Fate of Labour Socialism is a fundamental reexamination of the CCF and Canadian working-class politics in the 1930s, one that will help historians better understand Canada's political, intellectual, and labour history. --Publisher's description.

The article reviews the book, "Rebel Youth: 1960s Labour Unrest; Young Workers, and New Leftists in English Canada," by Ian Milligan.

The article reviews the book, "A Lost Life: Three Studies in Socialism and Nationalism," by David Howell.

Slightly more than a decade ago "the new working-class history" emerged in Canada. It was an occasion marked by considerable enthusiasm as ringing manifestos promised "to bring back ordinary working people from their long exile on the margins of Canadian history". Existing institutional histories of trade unions and industrial relations, it was pointed out, told us remarkably little about the experience of workers or, in more general terms, about the nature of social class in Canadian history. On the basis of this critique of the existing historiography, a new generation of working-class historians set out an ambitious agenda. --From author's introduction

James Naylor traces the transformation of class relations in the industrial cities of southern Ontario, examining the character of the regional labour movement, the nature of employer and state response, and the reasons for the failure of labour's "new democracy." --Publisher's description. Inside front-cover summary: The period during and after the First World War was marked by tremendous labour unrest, not only in Winnipeg where the general strike of 1919 was a watershed, but across the country. James Naylor focuses on southern Ontario, in the industrial heartland of Canada, as a key to understanding the character of this phase of labour history. In the 1919 provincial election, the Independent Labor Party of Ontario swept most of the province's industrial constituencies outside Toronto and formed a coalition government with the organized farmer. Strike activity soared to unprecedented levels. The Toronto Trades Council organized a general strike, and new forms of industrial unionism began to emerge. If these events lacked some of the drama of those in the West, they reflect both an increasingly articulate working-class view of democracy and labour's determination not to be overlooked in the postwar reconstruction. Naylor examines a number of issues: the nature of working-class views of democracy and the state; the role of women in these movements; the logic participation in the electoral process; the dynamic between 'industrial' and 'political' activity in the context of a liberal-democratic system. He also considers the responses of employers and government with a view to undertanding the 'negotiated' character of postwar reconstruction in the context of social classes.

The 1919 Winnipeg General Strike remains an unparalleled moment of solidarity among canadian workers.

The article reviews the book, "After Populism: The Agrarian Left on the Northern Plains, 1900-1960," by William C. Pratt.

Severe critique of the documentary, "Prairie Fire: The Winnipeg General Strike" (1999). Concludes that the film is a historiographic and cinematic failure.

Introduction and text of a speech that was to be given in 1970 at the University of Winnipeg by socialist politician and publicist William "Bill" Pritchard (1888-1981), who was a leading defendant at the sedition trial held in the aftermath of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.

For six weeks in the early summer of 1919, Winnipeg, then the largest city in the Canadian Prairies, was shut down by a general strike. More than 30,000 of the city's workers walked off their jobs in a test of strength that was to prove the focal point of a labor explosion that was national and international in scope. The strike was provoked by the refusal of employers to recognize and bargain with the metal and building trades federations of unions. The Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council organized a poll of its affiliates' members, and a general strike was approved by a vote of 11,112 to 524. The response to the strike call on May 15 was overwhelming. Not only did organized workers respond solidly, shutting down factories, newspapers, telephones, and streetcars, but thousands of unorganized workers joined them. The city fell silent....

Canada’s largest and most famous example of class conflict, the Winnipeg General Strike, redefined local, national, and international conversations around class, politics, region, ethnicity, and gender. The Strike’s centenary occasioned a re-examination of this critical moment in working-class history, when 300 social justice activists, organizers, scholars, trade unionists, artists, and labour rights advocates gathered in Winnipeg in 2019. Probing the meaning of the General Strike in new and innovative ways, For a Better World includes a selection of contributions from the conference as well as others’ explorations of the character of class confrontation in the aftermath of the First World War. Editors Naylor, Hinther, and Mochoruk depict key events of 1919, detailing the dynamic and complex historiography of the Strike and the larger Workers’ Revolt that reverberated around the world and shaped the century following the war. The chapters delve into intersections of race, class, and gender. Settler colonialism’s impact on the conflict is also examined. Placing the struggle in Winnipeg within a broader national and international context, several contributors explore parallel strikes in Edmonton, Crowsnest Pass, Montreal, Kansas City, and Seattle. For a Better World interrogates types of commemoration and remembrance, current legacies of the Strike, and its ongoing influence. Together, the essays in this collection demonstrate that the Winnipeg General Strike continues to mobilize—revealing our radical past and helping us to think imaginatively about collective action in the future. --Publisher's description