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Contents: Introduction -- The Congés de traite as a method to control the fur trade, 1681-1715 -- The institutionalization of the Congés, 1715-1768 -- The trade licences: a new instrument to control the fur trade, 1760-1790 -- The notorial contracts and private contracts, 1680-1821 -- A conservative estimate of the labour force -- Conclusion. Appendix: The diet of the Engagé.

The firat half of the nineteenth century witnessed the graduaI integration of Montreal garment production into the developing exchange economy, which resulted in the dismantling of the traditional artisanal organization of production and ushered in production for both retail and wholesale distribution,so that by 1860 a fledgling ready-made garment industry existed in the city. Between 1871 and 1901, the garment industry was the largest employer in the city, and one of the most important industries in terms of the of the value of' its production. Furthermore, Montreal held the position of Canadian garment capital throughout our period. Focussed primarily on the manufacture of men's wear, the garment industry in Montreal was heavily dominated by the largest wholesale manufacturers, who specialized in the production of low-priced, cheap quality garments which were aimed essentially at the rural labouring population and at shantymen of every province. The success of the city's ready-made garment producers can be explained both by tremendous expansion of the market for their goods, which occured in the second half of the nineteenth century, and by their ability to exploit a vast reserve of of essentially rural, semi-skilled labour. This situation of labour abundance made possible the organization of labour known as contracting or putting out, which remained the dominant mode of organization well into the twentieth century, and created dismal working conditions of long hours at extremely low wages for which the industry will always be remembered.

This study is an analysis of the changes in the social formations of the Inuit and Innut populations of northern Labrador as a consequence of interaction with Western capital, from approximately 1500 to the present. It is concluded that the significant changes which have taken place can only be explained'if they . are placed within a unified theoretical framework that combines both macro and micro levels of analysis. This requirement stems from the impact of the global nature of capital, and from the specific characteristics of the indigenous social formations in northern Labrador. To facilitate the analysis, the history of the penetration of capital into northern Labrador has been divided ioto political-economic periods: mercantile: 1500-1926, and welfare state: 1926-present. The former is further subdivided into two phases: the competitive phase: 1500-1763, during which no one European power held sway; and the monopoly phase, 1763-1926, during which either Britain or one of its colonies was jurally the sole European authority. Finally, the welfare period, 1916-present, which includes a transitional period, 1926-1942, is characterized by the increasing importance of wage labour and state agencies. Each of these periods is examined in terms of the internal and external relations between and amongst the European and native social formations which led to mutual modifications.

The task of this thesis is to show that from the nineteenth century to the present Catholic Scoial Teaching recognized increasingly the need for social justice in the areas of labour and society. In order to do this, I propose to research carefully the major official Church documents on Catholic social teaching on human labour from Pople Leo XIII’s Enevelical, Rerum Novarum (The Condition of Labour), 1891, up to Pope John II’s Enevelical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work), 1981. I will also attempt to define what Catholic Social Teaching is and explain what are the principles which make up the social teaching of the Catholic Church—principles which are drawn from scripture, concepts of natural law and the sciences. Reference will also be made to Karl marx where his philosophy on labour is applicable. To support the position of the Catholic Church in its teaching on social justice in the workplace while at the same time given that position clarity from my own point of view, I will speak briefly on my evolution as a worker, a union steward, and Catholic layman. I believe this is necessary because what I am today and how I feel about social justice (or the lack of it), especially in the workplace, has its roots in my early tradition and gradually evolved. Just as the Catholic Church in its writings down through the ages has consistently recognized the plight of the worker, I, too, as a worker, gradually became aware of many visible injustices in the workplace, although I was relatively powerless to do anything about them. In developing my thesis, I will draw upon my thirty-eight years’ experience as a member of Canada’s work-force, thirty-four of which were spent in the telecommunication field. By referring to specific work-related problems I encountered over the years, I will demonstrate why there is such a need for social justice in the workplace, and why I as both Catholic and worker ultimately became a strong advocate for some form of legal machinery to help resolve these problems. I will briefly touch on some incidents that immediately preceded the majority vote for the Communication Workers of Canada (CWC) as the bargaining agent for the Phone Company’s craft and clerical employees in place of the Employees’ Association. As one of the first union stewards and Chairman of the Political Action Committee for the CWC, I will relate a few of the many cases I resolved for fellow workers, in contrast with what the Association has been able to do for this group of workers. I will show why I agree wholeheartedly with the Catholic Church’s present position on and support of the trade union movement as a vehicle for social justice in the workplace. All of the Popes with whom I will be dealing, Leo XIII, Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II, called for social justice in the workplace and advocated unions as bargaining agents for the worker. Their writings and those of other brilliant Catholic churchmen and laymen demonstrate how the Catholic Church has evolved in the area of social justice and labour. It is this broader Catholic support which has allowed me to find my proper place as a worker advocate. Thus, autobiographical reflection will provide the impetus which inspired me to analyze the papal enevelicals of the Catholic Church.

The thesis addresses the problem of Arthur W. Puttee's 1918 breach with the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council after twenty years of work within the labour move¡ent as a journalist and politician. The breach is accounted for through an exploration of the ideology that underlay his political decisions. Structured biographically, the thesis uses various primary sources, most notably Puttee's weekly newspaper, the Voice, and his speeches as a labour member of parliament, to trace a continuity in his beliefs from the beginning of his career in the 1890s to its end in 1918. The concept of "labourism", recently elaborated by Craig Heron to describe the ideology of Canadian craftsworkers who worked for independent political action by labour, is used to characterize Puttee's beliefs. The study reveals a central contradiction in Puttee's labourism. He challenged many aspects of the emerging system of monopoly capitalism and demanded for labour the right as producers of wealth to full democratic representation in government. He was opposed to monopoly, the crude exploitation of workers, and government by "special interests" rather than the "people". But Puttee had no systematic critique of capitalist social relations and believed that labour constituted only one segment of a businessmen, and "fair" employers. He viewed the state as ideally the instrument for the will of the "people" and the defender of the "public'' interest. This contradiction in Puttee's beliefs became most apparent in the radicalized la­bour atmosphere of 1918, when, as a labour member of Winni­peg City Council, he opposed a general strike of unionized city workers in the name of the broader public interest he sought to represent broader community of producers that included farmers, small businessmen, and "fair" employers. He viewed the state as ideally the instrument for the will of the "people" and the defender of the "public interest." This contradiction in Puttee's beliefs became most apparent in the radicalized labour atmosphere of 1918, when as a labour member of Winnipeg City Council, he opposed a general strike of unionized city workers in the name of the broader public interest he sought to represent.

This thesis studies the changing work of women during the Second World War and examines their life outside of work in the Ottawa community. Nine women were interviewed to understand the transition experienced by women during the war. The experiences of these women are placed within the context of the political and social developments of the 1930's and 1940's. Through these women's lives we can examine the transition from domestic service to clerical work and the impact this had on women's lives. It was during the war that women emerged as the majority of clerical workers in Canada and accelerated a growing trend of women working in the paid labour force. While the trend towards women working had begun in the post World War I era, the national mobilization during the war was unprecedented in Canadian history and opened new job opportunities for women.While the new job opportunities for women represented an improvement in wages and working conditions from domestic service, clerical work soon emerged as another job ghetto for women which did not allow women the opportunity for advancement. In these jobs women, especially married women, faced many barriers and the conditions at work and outside of work are explored.

The Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor was the most significant labor organization in nineteenth century North America. Part trade union, part social reform movement, the Knights organized hundreds of thousands of workers across the continent, and initiated countless major strikes, particularly during the 1880's. The Knights were the first major union to attempt to make unions accessible to a broad range of workers. At a time when most unions were the preserve of highly skilled, white, male workers, the Knights organized blacks, some immigrants and women. This thesis examines the relationship between women and the Knights of Labor in Ontario in the 1880's. The Knights organized women workers, and they also supported an impressive 'feminist' platform of social reform. They endorsed every major feminist demand in the nineteenth century, from suffrage to temperance to equal pay. In Canada, they campaigned successfully for the first sexual harassment legislation. This platform is particularly significant when set next to prevailing restrictive notions of femininity and 'true womanhood'. Yet the Knights were also a male dominated organization. While the 'space' they opened for working class women was important, it was not without its own set of limitations and restrictions. Within the context of contemporary debates about the intersections of class and gender, this thesis examines the contradictions and tension in the Order's feminist ideology.

This thesis examines textile workers, unions and their strikes at Cornwall, Sherbrooke and St. Gregoire de Montmorency from 1936 to 1939. Via a community study approach, several themes important to textile unionism in particular and industrial unionism in general will be covered. All three places were mill towns. How did this affect political, financial and moral support? How did the corporate structure of the firms involved influence the outcome of the strikes? Were there differences between workers in terms of militancy and their reactions to unionism? What was the role of women at the rank-and-file and leadership levels in the union? --Excerpt.

This thesis is a case study of the Solidarity Coalition, a social protest movement which united labour and community groups In opposition to right-wing restraint legislation. It considers why this unprecedented extra parliamentary force failed to persuade the government to withdraw the offending legislation and attempts to explain the dominance of the labour agenda in the modest successes it did achieve. Interviews with participants in the Coalition and other significant political actors provide the information used in the analysis of this protest phenomena. The thesis incorporates a detailed study of the evolution of the Coalition and its organizational structure and Internal processes within the context of the larger political system and with reference to theoretical literature concerning protest movements. I argue that the emergence of the Coalition as a diverse and broad based movement in reaction to a right wing attack on the social contract is predictable, however, the outcomes of the protest action are less so. Analysis of the Coalition suggests that organizational contradictions within its structure, external and unforseen circumstances, and the strength of government intransigence were influential factors shaping both the development of the protest movement and the outcomes of its actions. The commitment to common cause, fuelled by moral outrage and espoused by labour and community groups, was not sufficient to withstand the divisive tendencies inherent in the structure of the Coalition, or the Inertia that must be overcome by large groups to achieve collective goods. Labour proved to be the more powerful actor within the Coalition due to its financial and organizational resources and its significant noticeabilIty factor as a member of the CoalItion. I argue that consistent with the theory of the logic of collective action that the labour agenda eventually dominated within the Coalition, influencing the parameters of the settlement achieved, and in part, accounting for the failure of the Coalition to meet Its collective goal of withdrawal of the restraint legislation.

Much Marxist literature on industrialization has assumed that production has been carried out on an increasingly large-scale, centralized basis since the nineteenth century, and that as workers become concentrated together in production, and as the labour process becomes more uniform, there is a homogenization of the working class . This thesis challenges these assumptions and attempts to develop a critical, Marxist anthropology of industry and labour through an examination of the clothing industry and clothing workers in Quebec. In the 19th century the clothing industry in Quebec developed largely on the basis of outwork and sub-contracting. This hindered the development of large-scale factory production, and created a fragmerited, dispersed labour force. ln the 1930s, clothing workers responded to the decentralization of production and intense competition between clothing manufacturers by organizing unions, but these tended to reinforce the occupational, gender and ethnic divisions within the labour force. These dynamics are examined in their contemporacy form in the context of a clothing factory where the production process is sub-divided into distinct phases which separate workers by gender, occupational category, and department. Workers reinforce this fragmentation by defining their interests on the basis of their occupational group. Within the largest group, the female sewing machine operators, competition between individual operators combines with an informal ethnic division of labour to further separate workers from one another. Analysis of the structure of the clothing industry shows that not aIl capitalist production is increasingly large-scale or centralized. And rather than being increasingly homogeneous, the clothing proletariat is is marked by a nincreasingly hierarchical and heterogeneous organnization.

Unemployment in Vancouver, Canada, during the Great Depression posed a significant threat' to the continuation of political and social norm. The emergence of a large body of workers without jobs, many of whom could vote at the civic level, demanded the attention and intervention of private and government agencies. The response of the City of Varcouver and two major Christian denominations to the unemployment crisis is the subject of this thesis, The documentary evidence utilized came mainly from collections at the Vancouver School of Theology, the Catholic Charities and the City of Vancouver Archives. The inadequacy and abuse of contemporary statistical resources perpetuated a view of the unemployed that emphasizod their potential for social disruption. Despite the fact that most of Vancouver's jobless citizens were permanent residents, community leaders and rglief planners took their cues from the single unemployed transients, a group that was pore likely to derail revolutionary ideas with an extension of its limited relief programmes, However, both church and state were constrained by the shortage of money. Consequently, in the absence of a strong social work ideology, relief was more a reflection of political and fiscal considerations than of the shifting needs of the unemployed. Relief was, simply put, the least expensive means of reintegrating the dispossessed into the established social milieu.

This study of canal and railway labourers on Canada's public works provides a detailed analysis of an important segment of the developing industrial working class during the years of transition to industrial capitalism. By examining changes in the industry, the composition of the workforce, and the labourers' behaviour and perceptions of that behaviour, it traces both the process of class formation and the growth of class tensions. Beginning with an analysis of the public contract system, it defines the nature of the relationship between contractors and governments and traces the impact of the technological revolution and the growth of a body of indigenous contractors within the industry. Despite important advances within the industry, work on construction sites changed little, continuing to depend primarily on the energies of unskilled labourers who enjoyed little material reward for their back-breaking and dangerous labour. The forty-year period, however, witnessed a significant change in the composition of the workforce. Migrants from within Canada displaced Irish immigrants as the major source of unskilled labour, and the workforce on construction sites became increasingly ethnically heterogeneous. This change in the composition of the workforce effected a modification of the stereotype of the unruly, drunken, and violent public works labourer.;Labourer's perceptions of themselves also changed during these years. In the early years of construction strong factional, ethnic, and sectarian bonds generated violent conflict amongst the diverse groups brought together in the workplace. At the same time such bonds were a powerful source of unity during the frequent strikes waged by the Irish labourers who dominated the workforce. Over the period the basis of identification shifted from ethnicity to class. The easing of tensions between ethnic groups and the unity of the various ethnic groups during frequent strikes demonstrated an increasing ability to unite in pursuit of common class interests. Although the labourers remained outside formal union structures, they sustained an aggressive struggle with employers and acquired the experience of militance and solidarity on which the working class movement of future decades could build.

The family economy of the working class in the period of early industrial capitalism is examined in this thesis. Changes in the involvement of family members in wage labour, in education, in non-wage and domestic labour at home as well as in patterns of marriage, childbearing and residential arrangements are assessed. Analysis is based on data collected from the manuscript censuses for two working class Montreal wards, Ste. Anne and St. Jacques between 1861 and 1881. This is complemented by information from other contemporary quantitative and descriptive sources. The roles of fathers, children and mothers are examined in separate chapters for age and gender combined with class position to determine people's roles in the family and in the wider economy. Within the working class, the level and regularity of men's wages set the contours of the family economy conditioning the need for and the nature of other survival strategies. Differences of around 25 cents a day translated over a year into the possibility of divergent standards of living, roughly dividing the working class into separate, identifiable fractions. Each favoured particular survival strategies and exhibited different patterns of family labour commitment, marriage, reproduction and residence. Over this period the contours of working class youth were reshaped. Growing numbers of children aged six to twelve attended school. An increasing proportion of older children were drawn into wage labour. Boys were more likely to work for wages than girls. Girls worked in a narrower range of jobs and for a shorter span of their lives. On marriage most ceased wage earning. With whatever money others earned, they tried to ensure that the family's wage labourers faced each day sufficiently fed, clothed and rested to work. And, in abysmal living conditions they produced and socialized the next generation of workers. Occasionally seeking wage labour themselves, raising animals or gardens, or sharing their homes helped some women to come closer to balancing family budgets. Working class women remained, however, both economically and legally dependent on their husbands. This dependence was highlighted in the problems that widows faced when they tried to raise and feed a fatherless family.

This thesis presents an examination of the processes surrounding the subordination of nursing labour in Canadian hospitals during the nineteenth century. Special emphasis is placed on the appropriation by hospitals of, first, the nursing practices of female lay practitioners, and second, the knowledge and skills which lay at the heart of those practices. In addition, the conditions of female labour at the end, of the nineteenth century are examined in order to explain why women subordinated their labour to hospitals.

In 1919, Canada, by virtue of its central role in the conduct of World War I, took its place as a member of the international community in the League of Nations and in the first representative body for world labour, the International Labour Organization. This thesis examines Canada's relations with the I.L.O. in the interwar period (1919-1940). It is hypothesized that Canada's role in the I.L.O. in this period reflected not the concerns and ideals of the organization per se, but rather the political and constitutional goals of the Dominion government. Consequently, social reform in Canada, as implied in the principles of the constitution of the I.L.O., was usually of secondary importance to the governments of Canada during this period, and especially to Canadian industry, which were often united in thwarting the efforts of Canadian labour and the I.L.O. to influence social reform in Canada. Indeed, both Canadian governments and industry, came to recognize in the constitutional issue a useful vehicle to slow down the pace of social reform during this period....

The Communist Party of Canada's (CPC) attempts to operate the United Front tactics laid down by Lenin and the Comintern in 1920-22 foundered on the CPC's failure to come to terms with the profound character of labour's post-war defeat or with its own marginality. The task of creating a mass party capable of leading, in the not-too-distant future, a revolutionary struggle for power encouraged the CPC to ignore the laborious and modest process of building support around small workplace issues and to prefer working through a spurious united front organization, the Trade Union Educational League, which was little more than a mouthpiece for a succession of abstract propaganda campaigns. When none of these propelled the party to mass status, but rather drove a wedge between it and the Trades and Labour Congress, the ground was prepared for acceptance of the diametrically opposite tactics of the "Third Period", which with much justice have been criticised for their political stupidity. The tardiness with which the CPC applied them underlined the fact that, however much the leaders of the labour movement might have "betrayed" the rank and file, it was hard to see them as "social fascists" who had to be combatted with even more vigour than that usually reserved for the bosses. From the beginning, when they terminated an interesting alliance between the CPC and national unionism, to the end, when they retarded the CPC's recognition of the possibilities opened up by the emergence of the CIO, these tactics had negative consequences. Yet they also helped bring limited political gains for the CPC, which entered the latter half of the 1930s stronger than it had ever been, and organizational advances for the Canadian working class, in the shape of at least the first few bricks in the foundations of mass industrial unionism. In addition, the complementary unemployed movement mobilized tens of thousands of workers and their families against the asperities of the depression. By 1936, the CPC had undeniably "carved out" for itself, a decent niche in the labour movement.

This thesis examines the role of women in Canadian socialist parties from the 1920's to the post-World War II period, by focusing on women involved in the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the primary manifestations of organized socialism during these years. Concentrating on two regions, Ontario and the West, the thesis explores three major themes: the distinct role women played within each Party, the Party's view of the woman question, and the construction of women's committees within each Party. The thesis explains why women were drawn to the socialist movement, assesses the successes and failures of each Party's program for women's equality, and suggests how and when feminist and socialist ideas intersected within the Canadian Left. The written history of the Canadian Left has largely neglected socialists' views of the woman question and women's role in the CPC and CCF. Although 'women were concentrated in less powerful positions, they did play an important, and distinctive, role in the making of Canadian socialism. Moreover, attention to women's social and economic inequality was a concern of Canadian socialists. Between 1920 and 1950, however, women's emancipation was never a priority for socialists. This thesis explains some of the reasons, both internal and external to the movement, for the secondary status of the woman question. Because the CCF and CPC emerged from different ideological traditions, their views of the woman question varied, and this thesis contrasts the two Parties' definition of women's issues and their commitment to women's emancipation. At the same time, there were some similarities between the two Parties, such as their attempts to link women's maternal and domestic roles with their political consciousness. The thesis also suggests ways on which socialists' ideas resembled the earlier ideology of womanhood and reform termed 'maternal feminism' and how their ideas, shaped by a different class perspective and social context, differed from the earlier feminists.

This social history traces the English-language Canadian labour press from 1842 to 1900. It focuses on the role labour newspapers played in battling the appalling social conditions of Victorian Canada,and analyzes their successes and failures in trying to improve the lives of working-c1ass Canadians. Although the original theoretical framework called for a survey of the effects of labour journalism on the passage of progressive social legislation, little such legislation appeared on statute books before 1900.The thesis therefore attempts to show how the papers presented social issues in housing, health, welfare, employment,social security and several other key social development areas,through the use of anecdotal evidence and, the critical assessment of the opinions of historians. The underlying theoretical assumption of the thesis was that labour papers would provide a progressive view on all social issues.Although this image did not always prove true, the thesis does unearth evidence of the role of the labour press in the development of a mass working-clas sconsciousness and the creation of a unique working-class culture.The thesis further attempts to show how labour editors of the late 1800s were the pioneers of a radical intellectual and journalistic tradition which found expression in the weekly journals that represented the fledgling Canadian labour movement.

This thesis originated in my curiosity over the last decade or more, as to the fate of the "golden age" of labour radicalism in Winnipeg after the First World War. As a radical and trade unionist I wanted to understand why this radicalism declined so drastically over the half century to the leve1s it existed in the city's unions in 1969 when I first got involved in the labour movement. The logical place to start looking for answers was the decade following the general strike and preceding the depression of the thirties. In researching and writing this thesis I have found some answers, although they have seldom been simple, about the effects of the twenties on union radicalism. The task has been made more difficult and at the same time more stimulating by the almost total lack of work by labour historians on the twenties. To the extent that the period has been dealt with at all it was as a prelude to the great depression and the rise of the C.I.O. in Canada, or as a postscript to work on labour and radicalism before and during the post war upsurge and in Winnipeg, the general strike...

British Columbia has an undistinguished history of racial discrimination against ethnic minorities, most notably against "Asiatics", such as the Chinese, the Japanese and East Indians. Members of these "visible" minorities were allowed into the province in the past as cheap labo