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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.

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.