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This article offers a preliminary theoretical statement on the law as a set of boundaries constraining class struggle in the interests of capitalist authority. But those boundaries are not forever fixed, and are constantly evolving through the pressures exerted on them by active working-class resistance, some of which takes the form of overt civil disobedience. To illustrate this process, the author explores the ways in which specific moments of labour upheaval in 1886, 1919, 1937, and 1946 conditioned the eventual making of industrial legality. When this legality unravelled in the post-World War II period, workers were left vulnerable and their trade union leaders increasingly trapped in an ossified understanding of the rules of labour-capital-state relations, rules that had long been abandoned by other players on the unequal field of class relations. The article closes by arguing for the necessity of the workers' movement recovering its civil disobedience heritage.

[E]xplores the human dimensions of plant relocation, sordid corporate practices, and ultimately, the corrosive cultural effects of corporate boosterism. A vivid, hard-hitting expose of big business in a small Ontario community. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1960s," by Maurice Isserman.

This article reviews the book, "The Retreat From Class: A New 'True' Socialism," by Ellen Meiksins Wood.

[This book] is a study of continuity and change in the lives of skilled workers in Hamilton, Ontario, during a period of economic trans­formation. Bryan D. Palmer shows how the disruptive influence of devel­ oping industrial capitalism was counterbalanced by the stabilizing effect of the associational life of the workingman, ranging from the fraternal order and the mechanics' institute to the baseball diamond and the "rough music" of the charivari. On the basis of this social and cultural solidarity, Hamilton's craftsmen fought for and achieved a measure of autonomy on the shop-floor through the practice of workers' control. Working-class thought proved equally adaptable, moving away from the producer ideol­ogy and its manufacturer-mechanic alliance toward a recognition of class polarization. Making ample use of contemporary evidence in newspapers, labour journals, and unpublished correspondence, the author discusses such major developments in the class conflict as the nine-hour movement of 1872, the dramatic emergence of the Knights of Labor, and the begin­nings of craft unionism after 1890. He finds that the concept of a labour aristocracy has litlle meaning in Hamilton, where skilled workers were the culling edge of the working-class movement, involved in issues which directly related to the experience of their less-skilled brethren. More remarkable than the final attainment of capitalist control of the work­ place, he concludes, are the long-continued resistance of the Hamilton workers and their success in retaining much of their power in the pre­-World War I years. --Publisher's description

The article reviews the book, "The Red Thread: The Passaic Textile Strike," by Jacob A. Zumoff.

Working Class Experience is a sweeping and sympathetic study of the development of the Canadian working class since 1800. Beginning with a substantial and provocative introduction that discusses the historiography of the Canadian working class, the book goes on to establish a general framework for analysis of what ultimately is a social history of Canada. Dividing the years into seven periods in the evolution of class struggle, it beings each chapter with an assessment of that period's prevailing economic and social context, followed by an examination of the many factors affecting the working class during that period. Written in a colourful and sometimes irreverent style, Working Class Experience focuses on the processes by which working people moved, and were moved, off the land and into the factories and other workplaces during the Industrial and post-Industrial Revolutions in Canada. Drawing on much recent work on contemporary capitalism, Working Class Experience offers a significant explanation of the malaise in current labour and management relations and speculates on its significance for progressive change in Canadian Life. --Description at Goodreads

An illustrated, life-and times portrait of Mike Davis (1946-2022), the American writer, activist, urban theorist, and historian.

The article reviews the book, "Civilization: From Enlightenment Philosophy to Canadian History," by Elsbeth A. Heaman.

At the "Challenging Labour" / «Le défi du travail» conference held at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, in October 2022, two plenary sessions invited scholars to engage in a dialogue on important historical and theoretical issues in the field of labour and working-class history/studies. One of these, on the entanglement of capitalism and colonialism, featured a paper delivered by Bryan D. Palmer and a response from hagwil hayetsk (Charles Menzies). These presentations are revised for publication here along with a rejoinder from Palmer in what is Labour/Le Travail's first "Forum" section. The aim of this section is to foster conversation, with scholars meaningfully engaging with each other's work across disciplinary, methodological, theoretical, or other kinds of differences in approach and understanding. The merit of this kind of dialogue is well demonstrated here by Palmer and hayetsk, and the editors would invite more such conversations for publication in this section in future issues. --Editors' introduction

Responds to hagwil hayetsk/Charles Menzie's paper, "Capitalism and Colonialism," published in the same issue.

The editor pays tribute to managing editor Irene Whitfield, who retired after 25 years' service. Josephine Thompson has succeeded her in various capacities.

The article discusses communism in Canada. The study of communism is stated to have generated less new work and little controversy. Issues concerning bureaucratism of Comintern, Stalinization and transformation of the Left in 1920s are explored by comparing the political histories of Maurice Spector and James P. Cannon. In late 1928, Spector and Cannon abandoned Stalinism and embraced Trotskyism. The efforts made by Spector and Cannon to keep alive the revolutionary potential of Bolshevism highlights the importance of the subjective realm in the construction of a left opposition.

The article reviews the book, "Spectres of 1919: Class and Nation in the Making of the New Negro," by Barbara Foley.

A eulogy is provided for the Canadian labour leader and social activist Madeleine Parent.

Introduces articles in the issue including on the Knights of Labor in Quebec, a 1913 protest by Jewish students against antisemitic remarks at Aberdeen School in Montreal, and a tribute to the labour activist and organizer, Madeleine Parent.

Expresses appreciation to the editorial team. Calls attention to the forthcoming special edition on the millennium. Introduces "Presentations," a new section of the journal devoted to discussion of labour and its various audiences. Highlights the symposium in honour of French labour historian Marianne Debouzy.

Introduces the special volume that marks the millennium, including the painting, "Labouring the Millennium," by Ellison Robertson, commissioned by Labour/Le Travail and reproduced on the cover.

The article briefly reviews "Socialist Realist Painting," by Matthew Cullerne Bown, "The Cold War and the University: Toward an Intellectual History of the Postwar Years," edited by André Schiffrin, "On History," by Eric Hobsbawm, "Writing on the Line: 20th Century Working Class Women Writers," by Sarah Richardson, Mcrylyn Cherry, Sammy Palfrey, and Gail Chester, "Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor," by James C. Docherty, "Protest, Power, and Change: An Encyclopedia of Nonviolent Action from ACT-UP to Women's Suffrage," edited by Roger S. Powers and William B. Vogele, "Organizing Dissent: Contemporary Social Movements in Theory and Practice," edited by William K. Carroll, "Communism in America: A History in Documents," edited by Albert Fried, "Artisans into Workers: Labor in Nineteenth-Century America," by Bruce Laurie, "Hollywood as Historian: American Film in Cultural Context," revised edition, edited by Peter C. Rollins, "The History of Canadian Business, 1867-1914," by R.T. Naylor, and "The Communist Manifesto," [150th anniversary edition, published by Monthly Review Press] by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

The article briefly reviews "Possible Worlds: Experiments in British Columbia," by AH Brown, "The Crest of the Mountain: The Rise of CUPE Local Five in Hamilton," by Ed Thomas, "Free to All: Carnegie Libraries and American Culture, 1890-1920," by Abigail A. Van Slyck, "North American Auto Unions in Crisis: Lean Production as Contested Terrain," edited by William C. Green and Ernest J. Yanaretla, "Trade Union Politics: American Unions and Economic Change 1960s-1990s," edited by Glenn Perusek and Kent Worcester, "Social Work in Practice," by Gerald A.J. de Montigny, "Engineering Labour: Technical Workers in Comparative Perspective," edited by Peter Meiksins and Chris Smith, "Miners, Unions, and Politics, 1910-1947," edited by lan Campbell, Nina Fishman and David Howell, "Gender and Class in Modern Europe," edited by Laura L. Frader and Sonya O. Rose.