Towards a History of Workers As Environmentalists in British Columbia and Beyond
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“When Blue is Green”: Towards a History of Workers as Environmentalists in British Columbia and Beyond by John Henry Harter M.A., Simon Fraser University, 2001 B.A., University of Victoria, 1997 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History Faculty of Arts and Sciences © John Henry Harter 2019 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2019 Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Approval Name: John-Henry Harter Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title: “When Blue is Green”: Towards a History of Workers as Environmentalists in British Columbia and Beyond Examining Committee: Chair: Mary-Ellen Kelm Professor Mark Leier Senior Supervisor Professor Roxanne Panchasi Supervisor Associate Professor Stephen Collis Internal Examiner Professor Department of English Sean T. Cadigan External Examiner Professor Department of History Memorial University of Newfoundland Date Defended/Approved: December 3, 2019 ii Abstract This dissertation examines the history of working-class environmentalism. It investigates the relationship between work and the environment and between workers and environmentalists. It presents five case studies that focus on the relationship between workers and the environment in British Columbia from the 1930s to the present, with particular emphasis on the forestry industry. Each case study examines how the interests of workers both intersect and conflict with the interests of environmentalists and how this intersection of interests presented itself throughout the twentieth and twenty- first centuries. Additionally, this dissertation examines how the working class has historically been constructed as the adversary of nature or wilderness and aims to explore how the working class, resource workers in particular, have come to symbolize that adversarial relationship. As well, it hopes to answer more epistemological questions about why working class environmentalism has not entered our lexicon and how lacking a sense of the working-class environmentalist serves to shape a discourse in which the history of worker environmentalism has been largely passed over. This study also explores how the collective memory of environmentalism has been constructed to exclude notions of class, and thus how environmentalism and the working class have been constructed as mutually exclusive categories. While this dissertation explores the exclusion of working class environmentalism it also attempts to write the worker-environmentalist back into history and show how teaching working class and labour history can help remedy this exclusion. Keywords: Labour; Environmentalism; Environmental discourses; Working Class; British Columbia; Environmental Justice iii Dedication To my Mom iv Acknowledgements This dissertation has seen many transformations over time and was made all the better by all those who supported me along the way. First, I want to thank my committee. Mark Leier was everything you could want in a supervisor and more. Mark helped not just with the intellectual work of the dissertation but also in the more mundane and material concerns of life. I am pretty sure much of it was above and beyond the call of duty. I really can’t thank him enough. My committee was amazing and made the defence an actual fun and enjoyable experience. Roxanne Panchasi was a wonderful supervisor who offered insightful challenges to my work during the defence. Stephen Collis and Sean T. Cadigan were equally insightful and intellectually challenging as examiners. Mary-Ellen Kelm was an excellent chair. I also want to thank Tina Loo and Lawrin Armstrong for doing fields with me at the beginning stages of this project. I thank my comrades, co-workers, and colleagues along the way who helped inform and inspire this work, especially Nancy Janovicek, Julia Smith, Andrea Samoil, and Dale McCartney. From my MA days Michelle Bogdan, Matt Barlow, and Jennifer Whiteside. Working for the Teaching Support Staff Union was equally important in my thinking on issues of class and teaching as was Labour Studies and director Kendra Strauss. The SFU history department is blessed with remarkable staff and Judi Fraser, Tessa Wright, and Ruth Anderson were all enormously helpful on this journey. They all contribute to a uniquely positive work culture in the department. Thanks also to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and Simon Fraser University for the financial support. I couldn’t have done it without the love and support of my family. My children Laura, John, Theresa-Anne, and Linda lived through this dissertation as much as I did. Thanks also to my grandchildren James, Katherine, and Ben for making the world a brighter place. Finnegan and Tracker also played key roles in the final stretch of the dissertation. Lee-Anne Vera Clarke is my partner in life and has somehow supported every weird and wacky thing I have ever done, including doing my PhD while working full time and raising our family. She is truly an amazing human and I am lucky to be married to such a person. Thanks so much Lee-Anne. Love you forever. v Table of Contents Approval .......................................................................................................................... ii Abstract .......................................................................................................................... iii Dedication ...................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ................................................................................................................. vii List of Figures................................................................................................................ viii Chapter 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2. Woodworkers as Environmentalists, 1937-1957 .................................. 23 Chapter 3. Saving the Environment One Worker at a Time ................................... 48 Chapter 4. Sharing the Environment ....................................................................... 71 Chapter 5. Alliances both Lost and Found ............................................................. 97 Chapter 6. Workers, the Environment, and Historical Memory ........................... 115 Chapter 7. Role-playing Revolution: A Way Forward .......................................... 150 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 182 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 187 Appendix List of Heritage Minutes ..................................................................... 215 vi List of Tables Table 1. Canadian Government Donations to Historica Canada, 2006-2020...... 132 Table 2. Corporate and Foundation Donors to Historica Canada, 2016 ............. 135 Table 3. Individual Donors to Historica Canada, 2016 ........................................ 136 Table 4. Characteristics of Games, Role-Plays and Simulations ........................ 157 vii List of Figures Figure 1. Editorial Cartoon, B.C. Lumber Worker, March 20, 1952. ....................... 41 Figure 2. Map: Skagit Valley Provincial Park, BC Parks ........................................ 61 Figure 3. Greenpeace Role-play Handounts ....................................................... 159 Figure 4. Green City Role-play Handouts ............................................................ 170 viii Chapter 1. Introduction The conflict between loggers and environmentalists is a common theme in the recent history of British Columbia, and much has been made of the so-called “war in the woods.” “War in the woods” has become the media’s shorthand for most environmental disputes and often frames the story as a struggle between workers and environmentalists. It was used in relation to the Walbran Valley protests and then to describe the protests over Clayoquot Sound.1 However, this shorthand simplifies a complicated relationship between workers and the environment. Focusing solely on the struggles between workers and environmentalists both obscures common interests between the two groups and ignores worker-based activism on behalf of the environment. The history of worker-based activism on behalf of the environment, which I call worker environmentalism in this dissertation, has often been overlooked and at times misrepresented. Richard White, in his article “Are You an Environmentalist or Do You Work for a Living?” suggests that environmentalists do not adequately consider work in their understanding of environmental issues. He argues, "Most environmentalists disdain and distrust those who most obviously work in nature. Environmentalists have come to associate work—particularly heavy bodily labor, blue-collar work—with environmental 1 For examples of how “War in the Woods” has been used over time, see Julia Prinselaar, “Forward-Thinking Forestry—Clayoquot Sound’s War in the Woods,” Watershed