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Here is the populist anthology that touches the heart of North American life, a collection that achieves in poetry what Stud Terkel's Working did in prose. Its wide appeal is obvious. Included are 200 selections by 90 Canadian and American writers, from foundry workers and short-order cooks to the likes of Joyce Carol Oates, Patrick Lane, Pier Giorgio di Cicco and Wayman himself. --Publisher's description

Ce conflit impliquant surtout des travailleurs irlandais dura plusieurs mois; il fut marqué par des émeutes sanglantes qui firent au moins six morts. Le rappel des événements est suivi des témoignages recueillis par les commissaires chargés de l'enquête et du rapport officiel rédigé par ces derniers. Cette façon de procéder de l'auteur permet de porter un jugement éclairé sur la condition ouvrière au Québec au siècle dernier. --Résumé de l'éditeur

This book is an insightful and detailed analysis of Canadian labour relations policy at the beginning of the 20th century, and of the formulation of distinctive features which still characterize it today. The development and reception of this policy are explained as a product of ideological and economic forces. These include the impact of international unionism on the Canadian working class, the emergence of scientific management in business ideology, and the special role of the state in economic development and the mediation of class relationships. The ideas and career of Mackenzie King, including his 'new liberalism,' and his activities in regard to the Department of Labour are examined, revealing how he moulded Canada's official position in the relations between capital and labour. With a focus on King's intellectual qualities in an international context, the author brings out another dimension, portraying him as Canada's first practising social scientist. The book examines implementation of policy through an analysis of the work of the Department of Labour through detailed case studies of government interventions in industrial disputes. The initial acceptance of the labour relations policy by the labour movement is explained and its repudiation in 1911 is examined against a background of setbacks which reflected its practical limits as much as its philosophical orientation. The result is a study which moves beyond a particular concern with labour policy to illuminate the contours of Canadian life in a crucial period of national development. --Publisher's description

This is a bibliography of sources for research into the history of women workers and their activity as trade unionists in British Columbia. It spans an eighteen-year period, from 1930 to 1948. During these years dramatic changes occurred in the position of women within production as well as in strategies and strengths of the organized labour movement. --Introduction

[This book] is written in a way consistent with some of the fundamental concerns of Marxism. The contributions are from individuals who, according to conventional classifications, can be described as anthropologists, historians, political economists, and sociologists. ...Although the articles are grouped under the headings class, state, ideology and change, the concerns of many span more than one of these categories. In addition, the articles deal with matters of fundamental concern to Canadians: the question of unequal exchanges among regions, Canadian and Quebec nationalism, the ideological mechanisms that support the unequal treatment of women, deindustrialization, and so on. A final section of the book focuses on indigenous Canadian political economy tradition and Marxism. --Editor's preface

Fernand Harvey a réaménagé en profondeur le recueil de textes publié en 1973 sous le titre Aspects historiques du mouvement ouvrier au Québec. L'approche adoptée est plus thématique que chronologique. Sans prétendre être une histoire complète du mouvement ouvrier, cet ouvrage ne couvre pas moins les différentes périodes de cette histoire et aborde des thèmes essentiels à la compréhension de l'évolution historique de ce mouvement. --Publisher's description (Google Books)

Toronto's Industrial Revolution of the 1850s and 1860s transformed the city's economy and created a distinct working class. This book examines the workers' role in the transition to industrial capitalism and traces the emergence of a strong trade union movement in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Immigrant workers were already organized along ethnic lines and vol­untary societies like the Orange Order played an informal but active part in the broad pattern of social change. Artisan groups were more directly instrumental in developing strategies to cope with the new pressures of industrial capitalism. In the period covered by this book Toronto's moul­ders and printers maintained and even strengthened the traditions of work­ers' control in the shop. The shoemakers and coopers were less successful, but the lessons of their defeats made them important early members of the Knights of Labor in the 1880s.The Knights of Labor gave new direction to labour organization. Ttiey recruited all workers regardless of skill, sex, creed, or race, and spear­headed the direct involvement of Toronto workers in electoral politics. The final chapters of the book trace the tortured path of working class politics from the early activities of the Orange Order to the emergence of a vibrant minority socialist tradition. Between I867 and I892 Toronto workers established a strong institu­tional base for the new struggles between craft unionism and monopoly capitalism in the early twentieth century and Kealey's detailed study of its development adds a new and important dimension to our understanding of Canadian labour history. -- Publisher's description.

Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews, this book describes the work women do in their homes, caring for children and partners, and maintaining the house. It shows how their lives are shaped by domestic responsibilities and challenges the ways in which their work is neither recognized nor valued. Arguing that the work they do is socially necessary and central to the economy, it calls for a transformation of current social and economic relations. -- Publisher's description (2009 reprint).

United Aircraft: deux mots qui évoquent l'une des périodes les plus girses de l'histoire du Québec. Les premiers, les travailleurs de cette entreprise se battent pour l'indexation des salaries au coût de la vie. Cet ouvrage réalisé après cueillette, classement et dépouillement des sources écrites tant syndicales de patronales et des articles de journaux, avant et après la grève, relate l'histoire encore toute brûlante d'actualité de ce conflit majeure. ---Résumé de l'éditeur

First published in 1980, Rick Salutin's biography captures Kent Rowley's unforgettable personality and details his life struggle: an epic tale in which one man's life intersects with all the major issues of his time. Kent Rowley's remarkable odyssey through Canadian history began with a Montreal high school strike. In the depths of the Depression he organized office workers. He was interned under the War Measures Act in 1940, emerging from jail to take on Premier Maurice Duplessis and the textile giants of Quebec alongside Madeleine Parent, a brilliant and influential union organizer. He survived fifteen years in the wilderness during the Cold War; and his stubborn opposition to international unions culminated in the founding, in 1968, of the Confederation of Canadian Unions dedicated to fight for independent Canadian trade unionism. Kent Rowley is a brilliant examination of the career of one of the great figures of Canadian labour history. --Publisher's description

The writers came together in the fall of 1977 to carry forward the discussion of domestic labour that began with such a promise in the late 1960s. In so doing, we hoped to develop the Marxist theory of women's oppression that is essential in the struggle for women's liberation. --From Editor's introduction

This work is founded on the extensive working files of John Battye and Gregory Kealey, to which were added references pirated from other bibliographies, items accumulated from computer-assisted literature searches, and literary débris collected by methodical screening of such collections as Canadiana, Library of Congress Books: Subjects, and the Canadian Periodical Index. --Introduction

Beginning with the founding of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670, the fur trade dominated the development of the Canadian west. Although detailed accounts of the fur-trade era have appeared, until recently the rich social history has been ignored. In this book, the fur trade is examined not simply as an economic activity but as a social and cultural complex that was to survive for nearly two centuries. The author traces the development of a mutual dependency between Indian and European traders at the economic level that evolved into a significant cultural exchange as well. Marriages of fur traders to Indian women created bonds that helped advance trade relations. As a result of these "many tender ties," there emerged a unique society derived from both Indian and European culture. -- Publisher's description.

The deplorable exploitation of immigrant workers from the 1890s to the Depression is documented in this vivid account of Canada's early immigration policies. Transported by boxcar and often herded at gun point, these "men in sheepskin coats" were lured from Central and Eastern Europe by promises of shared wealth in a veritable promised land. Their backbreakaing labour in industry and agriculture directly furthered Canada's economic development, transportation lines, and land settlement. But their status, as detailed here with public records, newspaper accounts, and private correspondence was little above that of slave labour. Professor Avery records the immigrants' poor working conditions, bad pay, violent treatment at the hands of challenged authorities, and wholesale deportation when work became scrace. Recounted as well as their hostile reception by British Canadian, the government neglect of immigrant assimilation programs, and the workers' ultimate recourse to radical ethnic and political organization to better their lot. --Publisher's description

In 1976, a group of women bankers decided to organize their workplace. The banks were enraged. When they decided to do it themselves, the big unions were upstaged. Over the next two years, nearly a thousand bank employees in western Canada participated in a unionizing drive that challenged not only the banks but organizated labour's approach to a workplace that they had long considered beyond their range of union activity. This is the story of the United Bank Workers of SORWUC (Service, Office and Retail Workers of Canada). With honesty and humour, the clerks and tellers of the UBW tell why they decided to take on the banks and what happened when they did. --Publisher's description

History has traditionally taken the working man for granted, ignoring the fact that without his labour there would be no history. As this book shows, the history of working people in Canada is colourful, exciting and filled with many dramatic characters and events well worth discovering. Alberta Labour traces the growth of union organizations in Alberta like the Knights of Labour in the 1880s, the legendary Wobblies, the abortive One Big Union and finally the Alberta Federation of Labour, founded in 1912, which today represents and fights for the labouring men and women of the province. This history, the first of its kind, has been compiled from interviews with union members, original letters and documents, and contemporary newspapers and magazines. The text is illustrated with over 90 full-page photographs, most of them never published before, depicting labour at work in Alberta from its origins to the present day. --Publisher's description

Illustrated history based on research, interviews and recollections made by members of the Carpenter Pensioners Association of British Columbia. Foreword by Arnold Smith.

Along with J.S. Woodsworth, William Irvine was one of the pioneers of socialism in Canada, a member of the radical Ginger Group, progenitor of the C.C.F. and N.D.P. In the wake of the First World War Irvine struggled relentlessly to organize Alberta farmers for political action. Elected to Parliament in 1921, he along with close friend Woodsworth were the sole labour representatives in the House: they worked incessantly against the monopoly power of large corporations and financial institutions. Together they laid the basis for a socialist challenge to the Eastern-dominated, two-party system in Canada. William Irvine: The Life of a Prairie Radical chronicles his immense contribution to the search for political alternatives in this country, a contribution that can still be felt in Canadian politics today. --Publisher's description