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As Canadian workers, the labour movement, and scholars confront a new millennium, new opportunities and new challenges loom large. This volume, which mirrors Labour/Le Travail Volume 46, commissions a number of articles addressing themes that will be of consequence as we enter the 21st century. The articles that appear in this collection are authored by some of the more prominent social scientists working in the field of labour-related studies, among them Desmond Morton, Ian McKay, Joan Sangster, Cynthia Comacchio, David Frank, and Jacques Rouillard. Their writing appears in the book, grouped in a series of thematic sections: institutions and ideas; gender, sexuality and family; Quebec and the national question; culture; and workers and the state. Topics such as Canadian socialism, pivotal events such as the 1949 Asbestos strike, and important cultural undertakings, such as working-class representations on film and video, are addressed. Historiographical controversies and debates associated with the relations of women’s and working-class histories or different generational styles associated with the presentation of labour’s past are surveyed. This is an issue all interested in Canadian society and its development will not want to miss. --Publisher's description

Hard Work: The Making of Labor History, by Melvyn Dubofsky, is reviewed.

The article reviews the book, "Red Chicago: American Communism at Its Grassroots, 1928-1935," by Randi Storch.

The article reviews the book, "The Other Quiet Revolution: National Identities in English Canada, 1945-1971," by José E. Igartua.

The article reviews the book, "The Sweetest Dream: Love, Lies, & Assassination," by Lillian Pollak.

The article reviews the book, "Dog Days: James P. Cannon vs. Max Shachtman in the Communist League of America, 1931-1933," by Prometheus Research Library Staff.

The introduction discusses the 50th anniversary volume of Labour/Le Travail and explains the journal's ongoing efforts to cover the labour studies field.

This paper commences with a suggestion that “the British Marxists” may well be a more diverse group than has generally been recognized. It concerns itself with the formation of the first British New Left in the1950s. The content of the E.P. Thompson and John Saville edited journal, The New Reasoner is examined, with attention paid to the publication’s internationalism, its use of critical social science, the accent placed on culture, and the stress on organization. To the extent that The New Reasoner failed in its in tended aim of building and sustaining a New Left, the paper closes with some suggestions about the implications of this failure, especially as it related to E.P. Thompson’s historiographical contributions, in which the influence of The Making of the English Working Class (London 1963) loomed large.

The study of he working class and commitment to its causes is central to what this journal is about. Three men who made significant contributions to working class life over the course of the last century, but whose personal efforts, sadly and to our collective loss, came to an end in the year 2000, merit our attention. Marcel Pepin, a vibrant voice in the modern history of Quebec's union movement and former leader of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CNTU/CSN), died 6 March 2000. ...On 15 June 2000 another advocate of Canadian workers, especially those incarcerated in homelessness and poverty, Norman N. Feltes, died. ...Jack Scott was a revolutionary of the 20th century who had hope for the 21st. He no doubt understood, however, that others would be making history in the new millennium, and his contributions had already been made. He died as the century closed, on 30 December 2000.

The article pays homage to the life and work of Jack Scott.

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.

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.

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 presents a comparison of the working classes in Canada and the U.S. It states that a smaller low-wage manufacturing sector exists in Canada where workers are permanently trapped in poverty. The similarity of the levels and nature of unionization and attitudes toward social provisioning between the two countries are also mentioned.

This text is a collection of classic and contemporary articles exploring the nature of work in Canadian history from the late eighteenth century to the current day. Class relations and labour form the core of the volume, but attention will also be paid to the state and its relations with workers both formal and informal. The volume is designed as a core text for classes in Canadian labour/working-class history, taught out of history and labour studies departments. --Publisher's description

The notebook opens with "Representations of a Radical Historian," a review of "You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train," a documentary on Howard Zinn by Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller (78 minutes, colour, (Brooklyn 2004)). In the second part, entitled "System Failure: The Breakdown of the Post-War Settlement and the Politics of Labour in Our Time," Bryan D. Palmer presents a revised version of an "educational and agitational address" given to the Alberta Federation of Labour's membership forum on 7 May 2004 in the aftermath of the British Columbia hospital and long-term care workers' strike.