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Labour/Le Travailleur

Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Volume 22, 1988

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/llt22rv01

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Publisher(s) Canadian Committee on Labour History

ISSN 0700-3862 (print) 1911-4842 (digital)

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Cite this article (1988). Reviews / Comptes Rendus. Labour/Le Travailleur, 22, 273–376.

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This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ REVŒWS/COMPTES RENDUS R. Cole Harris, ed, Historical Atlas of Canada, vol. 1, From the Beginning to 1800 by AlhnGtter/273 Bill Gillespie,/4 Class Act An Illustrated History of the Labour Movement in Newfoundland and Labrador by WJ.CCherwinski/274 Bryan D. Palmer, Solidarity: The Rise and Fall of an Opposition in British Columbia by Warren Magnusson / 277 Alan Metcalfe, Canada Leams to Play: The Emergence of Organized Sport, 1807-1914 by Geoffrey S. Smith /278 Dianne Newell, Technology on the Frontier: Mining in Old Ontario by Ian Radforth / 280 Briton Cooper Busdi, The War Against the Seals: A History of the North American Seal Fishery by Daniel Vickers/282 Charles M. Johnston, EC Drury: Agrarian Idealist by John English / 283 Desmond Morton and Glenn Wright, Winning the Second Battle: Canadian Veterans and the Return to Civilian Life 1915-1930 by Elizabeth Lees / 284 David Frank, Carol Ferguson, Richard Clair, Richard McQellan, Raymond Léger, comps., The New Brunswick Worker in the 20th Century/Les travailleurs au Nouveau-Brunswick au 20ieme siècle: A Reader's Guide/Un guide au Lecteur. A selective annotated bibliographyIbibUographie choisie et annotée by Graeme Wynn/286 George MacEachem, George MacEachem: An Autobiography, The Story of a Cape Breton Labour Radical, edited and introduced by David Frank and Don MacGillivray, by Nolan Reilly / 288 Jim Tester, et al., eds-, Sports Pioneers: A History of the Finnish-Canadian Amateur Sports Federation 1906-1986 by Peter Campbell / 289 Desmond Morton, The New Democrats 1961-1986: The Politics of Change by André Lamoureux / 291 Milda Danys, Lithuanian Immigration to Canada after the Second World War by John E Zuccbi / 294 C David Naylor, Private Practice: Canadian Medicine and the Politics of Health Insurance 1911-1966 by Wendy Mitchinson / 29S Cy Gonick, The Great Economic Debate: Failed Economics and a Future for Canada by Robert Malcolm Campbell/297 Don Wells, Soft Sell: "Quality of Working Life " Programs & the Productivity Race by Stan Marshall / 298 Katherine L. P. Lundy and Barbara Warme, eds., Work in the Canadian Context: Continuity Despite Change byJ.M.Pitsula/302 Susan G. Davis, Parades and Power: Street Theatre in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia by Chris Waters / 303 Stuart B. Kaufman, éd., et al, The Samuel Gompers Papers: The Making of a Union Leader, 1850-86, Volume I by Warren Van Tine / 305 Richard Jules Oestreicher, Solidarity and Fragmentation: Working People and Class Consciousness in Detroit, 1875-1900by Paul Krause / 307 Mary C Grimes, ed, The Knights in Fiction: Two Labor Novels of the 1880s by Graham Carr / 309 Patricia A. Cooper, Oice a Cigar Maker: Men, Women, and Work Culture in American Cigar Factories, 1900-1919 by Robert H. Babcock / 312 Serge Denis, Un Syndicalisme pure et simple: Mouvements Ouvriers et Pouvoir Politique Aux Etats-Unis, 1919-1939 by Stephen J. Scheinberg / 314 Michael Neuschatz, The Golden Sword: The Coming of Capitalism to the Colorado Mining Frontier by David Brundage/315 Roger D. Waldinger, Through the Eye of the Needle: Immigrants and Enterprise in New York's Garment Trades by Mercedes Steedman /316 Ronald Lawson, ed, 77K Tenant Movement in New York City, 1904-1984 by Michael 1. Doucet /319 Ruth Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography by Man Jo Buhle / 321 Alice Wexler, Emma Goldman in America by Sylvie Murray / 323 4 David Nasaw, Children of the City: At Work and At Play by John Buflen / 325 Eileen Boris, At and Labor. Ruskin, Morris and the Crafiman Ideal in America by Kstasay Cook./321 Victoria Byerly, Hard Fanes Cotton Mill Girls: Personal Histories ofWomanhood and Poverty in aie South by Maty Murphy/328 Gary Ross Mormino, Immigrants on the HUU Italian-Americans in St. Louis, 1882-1982 by Bruno Ramirez / 329 Elizabeth Ewen, Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars by Jean Lamarre / 330 Martin Cbemiack, The Hawk's Nest Incident: America's Worst Industrial Disaster by Michael Kazin/ 331 Archie Green, ed, Work's Many Voices by Neil V. Rosenberg / 333 Joan Thiisk, ed, The Agrarian History of England and Wales: Volume V. Part 1: Regional Farming Systems; Parti:Agrarian Change by David Levine /334 Jane Lewis, ed. Labour and love: Women's Experience of Home and Family, 1850-1940 by Bettina Bradbury /337 Deborah M. Valenze, Prophetic Sons and Daughters: Female Preaching and Popular Religion in Industrial England; and Logic Barrow, Independent Spirits: Spiritualism and English Plebeians, 1850-1910 by James Epstein /338 Ahm Howkins, Poor Labouring Men: Rural Radicalism in /Vor]b& i£39-/923 by Chad Garfield / 341 Nicholas Jones, Strikes and the Media: Communication and GM^ by Vincent Mosco/342 BemàiàQ^ciMriàMtàe]eiiKF\ge^Hisu^edehFor7wmondesOumei% /789-i°eWbyLivMjelde/344 Jacques Darns and Marcel Gibelin, June '36: Class Struggle and the Popular Front in France by Thomas Rutman/347 David Hanley, Keeping Left? Ceres and the French Socialist Party by Tony Judt/349 Barbara Framoi, At the Very Least She Pays the Rent: Women and German Industrialisation, 1871-1914 by Louise A. Tilly/ 350 Rudy Koshar, Social Life, Local Politics, and Nazism: Marburg, 1880-1935 by James N. Retalladc / 352 Allan Merson, Communist Resistance in Nazi Germany by Martin Kitchen /354 Andrei S. Markovits, The Politics of the West German Trade Unions: Strategies of Class and Interest Representation in Growth and Crisis by Udo Sautter/357 Richard Stourac and Kathleen McCœry,Theatre As A Weapon:Worken'7heatreintheSovietUnion, Germany and Britain 1917-1934 by Lorraine A. Brown / 358 Catherine heGtai^ Frontier Expansion and Peasant Protest in Columbia; iit^ljxm The Agrarian Question and the Peasant Movement in Columbia: Struggles of dut National Peasant Association 1967-1981 by Bob Sbenlon / 360 Alan Gilben and Peter M. Ward,//ou^, (te Sfciiea^cfe Poor: Po^W/Y^ Cities by Abigail B. Bakan / 362 Peter Wirm, Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism by Brian Loveman / 364 Chris De Bresson with Tim Petersen, Understanding Technological Change by James P. Hull / 367 Duncan Foley, Understanding Capital by Tracy Mott / 368 Paul D. Staudohar, The Sports Industry and Collective Bargaining by Hart Cantdon /370 Richard H. Hall, Dimensions of Work by Jerry P. White / 372 Charlotte Gold, Labor-Management Committees: Confrontation, Cooptation, or Cooperation?; and Mike Parker, Inside the Circle: A Union Guide toQWLby James Rinehart /373

5 REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS

R. Cole Harris, t&.,HistoricalAtlas of Canada, of these plates are based on considerable vol. 1, From the Beginning to 1800 (Toronto: original research and they present infor­ University of Toronto Press 1987). mation that cannot be found in any other secondary work. Their strong point is the CANADA, THEY SAY, is a country with lots wealth of detail, consistently and ap­ of geography and very little history and parently exhaustively presented. A series that may be why even the study of its past of fourteen maps by Conrad Heidenreich has, to a significant extent, been the work and Françoise Noel charting French com­ of geographers. Historical geography mercial and military penetration into the does seem to be a particularly well- western interior from 1634 to 1755 is a developed field in Canada; think of the good example. Not only do these plates important monographs it can boast, from show the different trading posts and canoe Andrew Hill Clark's Acadia and Cole routes, they also locate native trappers Harris's Seigneurial System to A.J. Ray's and commercial intermediaries and indi­ Indians in the Fur Trade and Graeme cate their wars and migrations. The com­ Wynn's Timber Colony. Thus it is fitting plex and shifting encounter of Europeans that the most ambitious and most success- and Indians can be traced here as the focal ful attempt in years to make sense of the points of diplomacy and exchange moved Canadian past should take the form of an from the Great Lakes into the upper Mis­ atlas. Not that the Historical Atlas is en­ sissippi and the eastern prairies. Other tirely the work of professional geog­ plates do an equally good job of raphers. This wonderfully collaborative reconstructing the Newfoundland cod undertaking includes contributions from fishery from the sixteenth century to the a number of distinguished historians and eighteenth. anthropologists (not to mention botanists, Indeed, it is difficult to single out any archaeologists, and others), but the particular sections of the atlas for special methods and approaches represented here praise. I myself was fascinated by an are primarily those of geography. entry on the pre-contact Coast Tsimshians Moreover, the themes the atlas deals with by George MacDonald, Gary Coupland, are those, such as population distribution and David Archer. One could spend hours on the land and trade patterns, that are on this one page absorbing all the infor­ suitable for cartographic treatment. mation on village layouts, trade routes, In this first volume, 69 plates portray and seasonal migration patterns. It is pos­ the development of the Northern half of sible to follow the Tsimshian as they North America from the ice ages down to move from their winter villages in what is the end of the eighteenth century. The now the Prince Rupert area, up to the Nass richly-coloured and cleverly-designed River for eulachon fishing in early spring, maps are supplemented by graphs, tables, then out to the western islands to gather pictures, and brief passages of text. Most seaweed in late spring and up the Skeena in summer and fall for trade and salmon Table of Contents for Reviews is on pp. 4 fishing, before returning to their main &5. 274 L*BOUR/LETRAVAIL homes for the season of socializing and take one example, has a symbol larger ceremonial activities. than that of Trois-Rivières whose popula­ The Historical Atlas is in some respects tion is given as 1500. Fredericton, popula­ a revisionist work. Quite deliberately, the tion 1000, Lunenburg, 500, and Shel- editors set out to redress some of the regional burne, 2000, all have circles with the and ethnic imbalances of previous surveys of same diameter. Halifax and Montreal also the Canadian past. The West, the Arctic, and have identical symbols although the the Atlantic regions get considerable, and former was supposed to have 8000 in­ well-deserved attention; in fact, I expect that habitants and the latter only 6000. To add many readers brought up on a diet of narrow­ to the confusion, the text (172) says that ly Laurentian history will find these the most Halifax was only "a little larger" than St. interesting parts of the work. Native peoples John's (population 3000), whereas the are not slighted either. Eighteen of the atlas's map suggests that the Nova Scotia capital 69 plates are devoted to the pre-historic was almost three times as populous! period and, even when Europeans do appear The other plates in the atlas cannot be on the stage, the Indians and Inuit are by no checked for consistency in this way, and means forgotten. They appear prominently in so we have to hope that the errors were many of the post-contact entries; even the limited to Plate 68 alone. The editors will map showing the growth of French-Canadian really have to go over the atlas very care­ settlement is labelled with scrupulous cor­ fully before it is reprinted and, in the rectness as "Resettling the St. Lawrence Val­ meantime, they would be well advised to ley." Yet the national scope of the atlas and, publish an errata. It would be a shame if a fortiori, Cole Harris's nationalistic and In- sloppy proof-reading were allowed to un­ nisian preface, fly in the face of the non-na­ dermine the credibility of this fascinating tional realities of native history. The pre-his- and very important work. lory maps all tend to point to the artificiality of any conception of "Canada" before the Allan Greer advent of the French. I make this observa­ tion, not as a criticism of the fine work set University of Toronto out in the pre-contact section; after all, the maps have to end somewhere and none of the Bill Gillespie, A Class Act: An Illustrated His­ contributors is rigid in their respect for the tory of the Labour Movement in Newfoundland forty-ninth parallel. It does suggest however and Labrador (St. John's: Newfoundland that there is some contradiction between Federation of Labour 1986). Cole Harris's desire to do right by the Indians and the patriotic themes that he stresses in ORGANIZED WORKERS have learned their summing up Volume 1. lesson the hard way. Too often they have lost the public relations war for the hearts In view of the time, money, and effort and minds of Canadians as they sat by and that went into the Historical Atlas of listened to Boards of Trade and Chambers Canada, it is surprising that so many errors of Commerce trumpet the virtues of the seem to have crept into its pages. Plate 68 by private sector as the "Builders of British Cole Harris and David Wood, one of the two Columbia," Winnipeg, Truro, or summary maps at the end of the volume, is wherever. This loss has cost labour dearly certainly a disaster from this point of view. since many of the more critical industrial Portraying eastern Canada in 1800, this entry disputes have been won and lost not at the provides, among other interesting data, bargaining table or the picket line but population figures for the cities of British through the behaviour of those affected, North America, as well as circles of different the buyers and users of goods and ser­ sizes to display the same information graphi­ vices. Traditional union methods such as cally. Unfortunately, either the numbers or union label campaigns, information pick­ the graphics are wrong in several cases. ets, and product boycotts have not worked Caughnawaga with a population of 900, to any better than carefully-reasoned ap- REVIEWS 275

peals based on individual and collective graphical errors the negative parallel does rights and human dignity. But recent not apply. In fact, A Class Act: An il­ dramatic footage shot during disputes lustrated History of the labour Movement across the country have clearly in Newfoundland and Labrador is ar­ demonstrated that labour will no longer guably the best of its kind. The author's be outmuscled to capture a place before background as a CBC journalist and com­ the cameras. mentator, as a committed NABET mem­ Labour has also learned that members ber, and as a long-time reporter on labour matter, and that potential members re­ matters, plus his academic credentials quire periodic evidence to convince them earned by writing a superior MA thesis on that belonging and contributing to collec­ the history of the provincial federation, is tive action is neither unique nor futile and amply evident throughout the text. that the principles they espouse and the Despite the title and the content of the amenities they enjoy cannot be taken for four-paragraph essay by Gregory Kealey granted. They were won, often at consid­ at the beginning, what Gillespie reveals is erable cost, and they are constantly under not a series of "epic struggles" between threat if vigilance is not exercised. For the forces of darkness and light but rather this reason over the past two decades a Whiggish story of working people who various provincial federations of labour responded to individual and immediate have sponsored the writing of histories of circumstances pragmatically, giving due their organizations, or of the provincial consideration to their unique society with labour movement which spawned them. its religious, economic, and social norms. The first such official history was Paul This pragmatism placed a permanent Phillips's No Power Greater, written for stamp on the movement's personality as the British Columbia Federation to it gradually accumulated its share of celebrate labour's centenary in that "firsts" and "greatests" to become the province in 1967. While seminal, the most highly organized labour force in book was also episodic and somewhat North America. shallow. Also disappointing is Warren While Gillespie's story begins with a Carragata's Alberta Labour: A Heritage sealers' strike in Carbonear in 1838 he Untold, written for the Alberta Federation admits that the incident was isolated and in 1979, whose glossy appearance hides that the centre of the activity was St. the fact that it fails to place the province's John's where a Mechanics' Society organized workers, then enjoying the emerged in 1827 to provide sickness and fruits of the energy boom, into their so­ death benefits for its members. However, cial, political, and economic context. a lethargic economy and isolation from In 198S, Doug Smith, a CBC jour­ "outside" influences impeded union nalist from Winnipeg, completed a book growth and only with increased in­ with a strangely church-like invocation dustrialization did the situation change in Let Us Rise, written to motivate unionists the 1890s, led by those who operated and affiliated with the Manitoba Federation to serviced the Dominion's railway. Their "pick up the torch" left by their predeces­ resistance to its neanderthal owner, sors in the class struggle. Yet, despite the Robert Reid, finally brought him to the considerable amount of secondary his­ table in the spring of 1918 after a long torical material available on Manitoba's strike. While the Newfoundland In­ movement, Smith's book is error-filled dustrial Workers' Association that and the narrative views the past simply in emerged from this struggle was the terms of good and bad guys. island's first national industrial union, Gillespie concludes that the most effec­ Bill Gillespie admits to using Smith's tive turn-of-the-century organization was book as a model, but, aside from his the Longshoreman's Protective Union book's inferior binding (the cover fell off which, through its grip on the economy of immediately) and the numerous typo­ 276 LABOUR/LETOAVAIL

the port city, eventually achieved a virtual relations. But the 1959 IWA strike monopoly on the waterfront. Elsewhere, the showed otherwise, to the aging numerous miners working for BESCO on politician's detriment. Meanwhile, the Bell Island were not as fortunate. The com­ growing strength of public sector unions pany retained the upper hand and repeated over the next four decades nationally attempts to organize proved futile. Neverthe­ meant that the level of organization in less, the growth of the movement continued Newfoundland and Labrador remained before World War I, but, as before, gains especially high because of the critical role were largely confined to St. John's and en­ that all levels of government played in the virons. province's economy. Consequently, on The Fishermen's Protective Union, the the 50th anniversary of the Federation's organization which, under the guidance of founding Gillespie is very upbeat as he the visionary William Coaker, successfully sees the labour movement regaining its challenged the economic control of the ascendancy on the Canadian scene, as­ island's merchantocracy before and during sisted by the organizing successes among the war, receives a chapter of its own from those employed in the fishery. Unfor­ Gillespie. Here again we are introduced to an tunately he was unable to anticipate the indigenous body created to meet a local need present struggle between the United Food since the FPU managed to join class con­ and Commercial Workers International sciousness with many of the features of Union and the Canadian Auto Workers, producers' cooperatives created on the which has the potential to cause the move­ prairies at about the same time. Although its ment serious damage. influence was considerable it was never fully While Gillespie has plenty to admire accepted, especially by the Catholic Church, about Newfoundland workers' ability to so it declined and was not effectively overcome heavy odds to create a trade replaced until the 1970s. union movement with such economic The depression decimated an already clout, his treatment is surprisingly half­ weak economy, but from these depths hearted. For example, even to the most emerged a renewed desire by workers lo ardent unionist a movement so devoid of resist employers' efforts to keep them sub­ discord must appear hollow. Moreover, servient. The Newfoundland Lumbermen's outside of the description of the picket Association was created among loggers cut­ line violence at Badger in 1959 A Class ting pulpwood for the mills at Grand Falls Act lacks the drama associated with and Corner Brook and they joined with people staking everything for a principle newly militant railway workers from across and personal security. However, the the island at Grand Falls in 1937 to form a photographs Gillespie has chosen make province-wide federation. The new central up for this deficiency as he takes the body initiated an organizing drive in the late reader on a guided tour of the "mines, 1930s but World War II and the resultant mills, and factories" as well as the stores, prosperity delayed the process, in Gillespie's wharves, and ship decks which have opinion, by deflecting workers' attention served as the Newfoundland workplace. from more important social and economic The selective skills of this visual prac­ concerns. But another aggressive campaign titioner capture not only the harsh en­ after the war left Newfoundland labour in the vironment but also the kinds of conditions enviable position of having twice as many which forced workers to seek change organized workers per capita as did Canada through organization. He sums up the to which the island was constitutionally process when he describes the joined in 1949. Federation's accomplishments in 1949: Gillespie views Confederation as a bless­ "For the most part the work had been done ing initially because Smallwood, the old so­ without help from outside. It was a com­ cial reformer, seemed willing to apply na­ bination of local persistence, imagination tional standards to the realm of industrial and common sense." This statement also REVIEWS 277

sums up the book and establishes its im­ gle of the working class; a hostility to portance. anything that would threaten the NDP or the established unions; a fear of disorder W.J.C. Cherwinski and of the rightist state that might exploit Memorial University of Newfoundland it. It was in the context of these commit­ ments that the Solidarity leadership took Bryan D. Palmer, Solidarity: The Rise and Fall up the struggle against Bennett's restraint of an Opposition in British Columbia (Van­programme. As Palmer indicates, the couver: New Star Books 1986). leaders were as anxious to contain popular protest as they were to reverse the A FEW DAYS AFTER the Bennett govern­ government's measures. Thus, it is hardly ment introduced its notorious 26 bills in surprising that they settled for so little in July 1983, someone mentioned to me that the end. there would be a protest rally that after­ Palmer's book is both a polemic and noon at the Memorial Arena in Victoria. an analysis. It is valuable on both counts, I had heard nothing about it; nor had I but one would have liked to have heard seen any publicity for it. However, I was more from Palmer the historian. The determined to be part of whatever protest analysis he offers is as rich and as fully there was, and made my way down to the documented as we have, but it might have Arena. I was not prepared for what I been fuller. It is based on a careful reading found: a huge, wonderfully varied crowd: of press accounts, interviews with some good humoured, but amazingly militant: (but not all) of the key participants, ex­ ready for a struggle, but looking for amination of some of their files, and con­ leadership. The speeches, mostly by siderable personal observation. Thanks to union leaders, expressed people's anger his careful research, Palmer is able to and determination, but gave little indica­ clarify some of the controversial events in tion of what was to be done. I left feeling the history of Solidarity: the formation of exhilarated by the show of solidarity and the Solidarity Coalition and Operation militancy, but sensing that the leaders Solidarity, the development of present had revealed a power that Solidarity's strategy, the sealing of the frightened and bewildered them. Kelowna Accord, the suspension of Solidarity Times. Throughout, he em­ My subsequent experiences of the phasizes the dominance of the labour Solidarity movement, from then until the "tops" and the complicity of the left in Kelowna Accord of November, were a their dominance. Although the account is repetition of that first rally: an unexpected generally convincing, one is left begging militancy and commitment among ordi­ for more information. There is very little, nary people; fear and irresolution among for instance, on the BCGEU, which was a leaders who were caught up in a struggle key actor in the November events. they did not understand and could not Palmer's concern to draw lessons from control. Bryan Palmer's account of the the events and criticize the strategies Solidarity movement — the account of a adopted gets in the way of giving a full participant/observer and a labour his­ account of people's motives and ac­ torian — helps make sense of these wide­ tivities. This book will be a valuable ly shared experiences. On his analysis, document, but evidently we will have to the fear and irresolution of the Solidarity wait for a later historian to give us a fuller leadership were the result of its organiza­ and more dispassionate account of the tional and ideological commitment to Solidarity movement. "social democracy" in its broadest sense. This commitment included many things: Palmer's polemic, like his history, is respect for the law and the legitimacy of satisfying up to a point. For those familiar existing institutions; a determination to with Trotskyist theory, the positions are separate the economic and political strug­ predictable: social democracy appears as 278 L^BOUR/LETRAVAIL

an antithesis of socialism; Stalinists — that the overwhelming view was that is, adherents of the Community Party of solidarity had to be maintained if the Canada — are excoriated for their oppor­ movement was to be effective. In this tunism and reformism; the broad left and its context, an organized opposition would associated social movements are exposed as have been silenced quickly. What, in naive and ineffectual; the case is made for a Palmer's view, ought to have happened, principled socialist opposition that would was simply impossible. lead the fight against the agencies of class Palmer's book is nonetheless a useful collaboration. corrective to more sentimental views of Solidarity. The Movement is dead in Without a coherent oppositional stance, without an organized presence and a program to galvanize B.C., and there is no evidence that it had people around, the "broad left" was handcuffed any significant effect on the provincial and inevitably ended up following the lead of one government. What effects it had on the or another organized currents: .... Ultimately the left are more difficult to determine. The only way the bureaucracy could have been forced exhilaration of struggle and the discovery off the treacherous path on which it was deter­ of solidarity are not to be discounted in mined to trample the movement was through the the formation of political consciousness. creation of a serious organized opposition within The Movement's failure did not erase the ranks that it necessarily had to pay some atten­ these positive effects. But the experience tion to, the economically powerful base of the of Solidarity also poses the dilemmas of trade union movement.(89) serious political struggle in an acute form. In effect, Palmer's argument is that those Palmer's analysis illuminates some of who ought to have known better were these dilemmas, but the solution he poses seduced by the appeal of solidarity into sup­ read too much like old formulas, drawn porting the labour bureaucracy, which was from the events of 1905 and 1917. We are bound by its organizational and ideological as distant now from those events as Marx commitments to betray the Solidarity Move­ was from the Great Revolution of 1789. It ment. Thus, the broad left collaborated in a is time we subjected the old revolutionary strategy which produced the Kelowna Ac­ formulas — Luxemburg's, Trotsky's, and cord, a "settlement" that not only delivered Gramsci's, as well as Lenin's — to as ruthless a criticism as Marx made of his much less than the Movement could have predecessor and as Palmer has made of obtained, but also assured the demise of the the labour bureaucrats. Movement itself. This was the only result the labour bureaucrats and social democrats could tolerate, but (according to Palmer) it Warren Magnusson was much less than Solidarity could have University of Victoria achieved. The familiarity of Palmer's general posi­ Alan Metcalfe, Canada Learns to Play: The tion takes nothing away from its persuasive­ Emergence of Organized Sport, 1807-1914 ness. His analysis of the leaders' efforts to (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1987). contain the Movement is acute. And his ar­ gument is convincing that much more could ALAN METCALFES PIONEERING have been obtained from the November monograph demonstrates that the mar­ strikes if the leaders had pursued their course riage between sport history and social his­ of action with conviction, trusted their own tory remains to be consummated. The followers, and developed a sensible bargain­ author admits this, rueing the lack of in­ ing strategy. What is much more doubtful is terest that social historians have that an organized opposition to the labour demonstrated in sport as a field worthy of bureaucrats could have been mounted within serious analysis, and the dearth of histori­ the framework of the Solidarity Movement. cal training possessed by most Canadian Of course, there were arguments about sport historians — coming as they do strategy and tactics, as Palmer reports, but usually from departments of physical and REVIEWS 279

health education. Metcalfe attempts to participation, and the emergence of or­ bridge this gap and to identify areas for ganizations to codify regulations, or­ future research as he charts the emergence ganize competition, and control sport. oforganized sport in this country from the Hence, he finds, developments in the early nineteenth century through the first nineteenth century did add up to some­ two decades of the twentieth century. thing new, something Canadian, albeit Organized sport, Metcalfe argues sen­ reflecting the British and Scots in­ sibly, comprises an integral part of heritance, as well as the ongoing cultural Canadian social history and possesses collision with developments in the United significant potential to illuminate that his­ States. tory. The author's approach is frankly The transformation of Canadian selective, emphasizing the emergence of sporting endeavour — from ritual to new sport forms within Canada as a direct record and from ill-determined to stand­ consequence of the immense changes oc­ ardized boundaries and durations — com­ curring during the aforementioned cen­ prises one of four major themes of the tury. He accords primary focus to the in­ book, as does Metcalfe's discussion of teraction of organized sport with several changes in competitive structures. Ra­ major influences upon Canadian society tionalized procedures and the creation of — the ethnic composition of the popula­ leagues and championship matches, the tion, demographic changes, the change­ author argues, provided the crucial vari­ over from a producer to consumer culture, able that distinguished preindustrial from the triangular relationship linking Canada modern sport. Such structuring of sport­ and Canadians to Britain and the United ing endeavour — a characteristic of the States, and, most significant, the pre­ general search for economic and social eminent role played by English-speaking order after 1880 — assumed that players middle-classes in Canada's urban centres. and spectators alike would have sufficient More than any other group, Canada's leisure time fpr sporting activity for the urban Anglophone males played a dis­ foreseeable future. Third, organized sport proportionate role in shaping organized in the nineteenth century became mass sport, just as they exerted preponderant sport, in the context of age, social, and impact upon class and labour formation occupational group participation and in within the volatile milieu wrought by the the growth of commercially defined spec­ convergence of urbanization and emerg­ tator sport. Finally, the modern identity of ing industrial capitalism. Metcalfe men­ Canadian sport owed much to the or­ tions, but does not emphasize, the impact ganizations that emerged after 1867 (The of regional variations in organized sport. National Lacrosse Association) to trans­ Nor does he accord much importance to form sporting endeavour from ad hoc the role of such other groups as French parochiality into a maze of national, Canadians, native Canadians, late- provincial, and local organizations. This nineteenth-century immigrants, and bureaucratization, buttressed by the mid­ women. He excludes these groups not be­ dle-class ideology of amateurism, imbued cause he considers them insignificant, but organized sport with its most durable because he deems them peripheral to his identification. central theme. Students of labour history will find For Metcalfe, the history oforganized much to ponder in Canada Learns to sport is a very exclusive phenomenon, Play. Metcalfe suggests that the amateur created by men whose sporting agendas sport that came to dominate Canadian cul­ much reflected their traditions, beliefs, ture was created by a group of men whose attitudes, and values. His definition — impact far outweighed its numerical size. with which some will quarrel — em­ The Anglophone commercial, mercantile, phasizes the evolving form of games, the and professional middle classes of structure of competition, the degree of Montreal and Toronto spread amateur 280 LABOURS TRAVAIL

sport to larger centres across Canada, and Geoffrey S. Smith thence to neighbouring communities. As Queen's University Canadian sport developed in a manner similar to other industrialized nation, it bor­ Dianne Newell, Technology on the Frontier: rowed its ideology basically from the British Mining in Old Ontario (Vancouver University isles, but its answers to practical questions of British Columbia Press 1986). came from the United States. Hence, "Canadian" organized sport was in this era UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA his­ — as it would remain — a hybrid. torian Dianne Newell takes as her topic The affinity of workingmen for baseball, the adoption of new technologies to the especially in urban Ontario, provided an in­ frontier conditions of the Ontario mining teresting insight into the clash between industry to 1890. Essentially she tells a defenders of amateurism and early profes­ success story, outlining the ways in which sionalism. Workingmen who played that mining interests within the province suc­ game were excluded from the network of ceeded in modifying or improving British elite sporting organizations that became the and American techniques or discovering genesis of the exclusive, private, modern- new ones peculiarly suited to the marginal day clubs. Workingmen often earned economy and particular resource con­ "wages" on the diamond, however, and be­ figurations of Ontario. came the bane of the amateur citadel — so In terms of organization, the book much so that at times they were blackballed moves from a general discussion to three just as certainly as they were for union ac­ case studies and then back to the general. tivities. Withal, they were merely tolerated. In her introductory chapter Newell out­ The middle-class drive for hegemony, with lines aspects of the historiography of its undeniable class discrimination, extended technology, mentioning several interna­ to the ball diamond, as it did to other sporting tional scholars, including H.J. Habakkuk, venues. Paul David, Nathan Rosenberg, and Allan Canada Learns to Play marks a needed Pred, as well as Canadian contributors addition to McClelland and Stewart's such as Harold Innis, Donald Paterson, Canadian Social History series. Metcalfe is and Richard Pomfret. The author places on occasion repetitive, and labour and social her own work within the emerging historians will no doubt lament his unwill­ mainstream. The history of Canadian ingness to engage more with questions of technology is seen as a series of innova­ theory; his omission of sustained treatment tive responses to particular engineering of groups that challenged and were stunted and economic circumstances and not as a by the primacy of bourgeois amateurism and failure to grasp opportunities. The un- its masculine biases; and his narrow defini­ evenness of the technological landscape tion of culture. at any given time is emphasized: neat Yet there is much of interest here, includ­ stages of development and smooth, auto­ ing a case study of Canadian lacrosse, assess­ matic processes of change are rejected. ments of this country's major sport forms Chapter 2 surveys the major and early sport bureaucrats, and the saga of breakthroughs in mining technology that Canada's forgotten national sport hero, Ed­ were copied, modified, or made by On- ward (Ned) Hanlan. Sport history in the tarians. We learn about the coming of United States recently passed through its such developments as the diamond drill "take-off stage. If Canadian historiography so crucial to prospecting and exploration, still trails its American counterpart in sophis­ compressed air drilling equipment widely tication by a decade or so, one may conclude adopted for extracting ores throughout that in achieving the goal he set for himself, the north, the Frue Vanner developed in Metcalfe has pushed this country's sport his­ Ontario to recover silver at Silver Islet, tory closer yet to the launching pad. and a refining process that deodorized Ontario oils so that they would be suitable REVIEWS 281

for illumination. In chapter 3 the author clear that the ore quality was second rate examines "diffusion mechanisms," dis­ and required much additional treatment at cussing the importation of skilled considerable cost. Despite remarkable workers, the establishment of metallurgi­ resourcefulness on the part of the innovat­ cal engineering programs in Canadian ing engineers and miners, profits and job universities, and the impact of technical security were delayed by problem after publications, both imported and locally problem. The company steamer broke produced. The following three chapters down in 18S3, delaying for an entire are case studies of mining developments winter the arrival of a new work force of within the Upper Great Lakes district, the Scots, and in the following year supplies Canadian Shield fringes of southeastern and the steamer itself were lost in a storm. Ontario, and the oil and salt mining areas Though there were profits in some years, of the southwestern peninsula. The final prospects appeared gloomy after copper chapter studies Ontario's mining patent prices on the international market plum­ record and, on the basis of Ontario find­ meted in the economic crash of 1873. In ings, speculates about "the relationship the end the copper mines of the district between invention and transitional never even began to approach the success economic development in small, open of neighbouring Michigan mines. societies." She concludes that technologi­ In other districts studied by Newell cal innovation occurred where possible the obstacles were different, but the inter­ and necessary, though this was no guaran­ est in technical innovation was equally tee of profits or longevity of operations. strong. In southeastern Ontario surface Techniques well suited to frontier Ontario showings of iron, gold, lead, mica, and were typically small-scale, tailored to apatite held out great promise. But despite local fuel sources and required little main­ creative tinkering with techniques, it tenance. generally proved unprofitable to mine the I found the most interesting chapter to small and often low-grade deposits, given be the one dealing with the copper, silver, low international prices and prohibitive and gold mines of the Upper Great lakes transportation costs. In the southwest, district, for there the challenges were shallow-lying and low-yield oilfields en­ enormous and the possible rewards espe­ couraged the persistence of pumping cially seductive. Take the case of copper techniques regarded as outmoded in other mining at Bruce Mines. The Montreal regions of North America. However, the Mining Company began operations in high sulphur content of the oil stimulated 1847, bringing in experienced Cornish inventiveness, for it was imperative to miners who sunk shafts and with their eliminate offensive odours if the oil was families established a permanent mining to win acceptance in the lucrative market community on the north shore of Lake for illuminating oils. In the salt mining Huron. But from its inception the under­ operations of the same district, we find a rare instance where, because of the nature taking was plagued by problems relating of the resource and climate, it proved best to geography, geology, and economics. to reject American techniques in favour of The remoteness of the area and the British ones. But despite the high-quality severity of the winters led to serious dif­ of the salt and the successful mining and ficulties* with the furnaces that roasted processing techniques, Ontario producers and smelted the ores. Coal had to be could not even compete in the domestic shipped all the way from Cleveland, market. Cheap English salt was shipped Ohio, and a brickworks constructed at the to Canada at remarkably low prices be­ site. The engine house collapsed under cause it was a backload cargo. Thus in mid-winter conditions, killing one man 1886, for instance, Canada imported six and disabling others. Cholera then stuck, million barrels of English salt, and On­ leaving tragedy and problems of labour tario produced only 300,000 barrels. supply in its wake. And before long it was 282 LABOUR/LETOAVAIL

Political economy, not a want of inventive­ contribution to the as yet scarcely mined ness, prevented the emergence of a strong history of technology in Canada. Labour nineteenth-century Ontario salt industry. historians will find much of interest in its These developments — and many more pages. There remains the task of explor­ — are outlined by Newell in succinct prose ing the dynamics of change in Ontario that is remarkably free of the kind of jargon mining technology from the perspective that mars many writings on technology and of the working class. economics. At times, however, the author's verbal economy is extreme. The uninitiated Ian Radforth will find it difficult to comprehend the his- University of Toronto toriographical discussion, and the complex, sophisticated arguments of leading his­ Briton Cooper Busch, The War Against the torians are sometimes reduced to a few cryp­ Seals: A History of the North American Seal tic words. Similarly, some of the descriptions Fishery (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University of equipment are so brief that it is impossible Press, 1985). to grasp the point being made. I hesitate to say that such passages should have been sig­ THIS BOOK HAS BEEN aptly titled, for it is, nificantly lengthened, however, for even as indeed, an encyclopedic chronicle of it now stands many readers who lack a pas­ North Americans' exploitation and often sion for machinery will find the going tough. near-extermination of the world's seal This raises a more serious criticism. population. Organized geographically Though there are gestures made in the direc­ around the animals themselves, it tion of social history, the book fails to pro­ recounts in interesting but relentless and vide sufficient discussion about how people grisly detail for one major herd after were affected by and responded to the dozens another the story of what the seals clearly of technological changes described. Readers experienced as an attack. Although in the of this journal will be especially disap­ course of the book, Briton Cooper Busch pointed by the brevity of the treatment given presents us with a great deal of valuable to workers. Our appetites are whetted, but information on the men who organized, not satisfied by the few remarks about the conducted, and purchased the products of Cornishmen who worked at Bruce Mines and this global huht, The War Against the Silver Islet or the dangers of gold mining Seals is at heart an ecological history. near Madoc. To be sure, this is partly a func­ Beginning in the high southern tion of the nature of the sources that have latitudes of the Indian, Atlantic, and survived and form the backbone of this Pacific oceans, Busch tells us first about study. Patent records, technical publications, the operations of New England sealers and government reports provide little infor­ against the dozens of different island mation about the impact of technological herds at the end of the eighteenth and the change. Even so, more might have been done beginning of the nineteenth centuries. with the materials consulted. The short treat­ Two detailed chapters follow on the harp ment Newell accords workers is also a func­ seals and their hunters in Newfoundland; tion of her perspective. Like others writing and a couple more describe the demise of in the mainstream of the history of technol­ the great herds of the North Pacific. Then ogy today, Newell stresses the myriad of the author considers a wide variety of economic, geographic, and other structural different marine mammals — mostly factors that affected the pace and course of seals but also walrus — that were hunted technological change. Workers comprise in the southern oceans in the later merely one such factor. Employee resistance nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. to technical innovations and managerial Finally, he concludes by taking the story strategies to reduce it are certainly not of sealing in Newfoundland and the Alas­ central to her analysis. kan Pribilofs down to its virtual abandon­ ment in response to environmentalist Technology on the Frontier is a valuable REVIEWS 283

pressure in the 1970s and 1980s. Memorial University of Newfoundland Busch's first concern is always to chart and explain the herd's demise. He Charles M. Johnston, ££ Drury: Agrarian divides the book into units of varying Idealist (Toronto: University of Toronto Press length that begin with a zoological inves­ 1986). tigation of the species in question and end with a quantitative estimation of the kill. RARELY HAS A DUSTJACKET photograph The human material in between is rich in captured the subject of the book so well. detail but serves primarily as a logical E.C. Drury stares impassively away from bridge: the explanation of destruction. the photographer, the collar tight, the hair Hence, although he carries his case quite neat and close, the forehead unfurrowed, completely, that the last two centuries the eyes expressionless; in short, every­ have not been happy ones for the seals, he thing so ordinary. Drury is scarcely an only touches on the questions of interest ideal subject for a biographer. He is hard to most historians — those concerning to like, his career was a shambles, and his man — in a conceptually incidental way. autobiography told a lot of his story albeit This is not to say that the cultural, obliquely. Nevertheless, Charles social, and economic dimensions of seal­ Johnston has written a biography that is ing are ignored. The author spends many worth reading because he has managed, pages on such topics as the profitability through remarkable research and a refusal of Alaskan sealing in the late nineteenth to take Drury at his own work, to place century, the paternalistic and even stifling Drury's career in a broader context. That rule of the United States government over context is the change in Ontario from an the seal-hunting Aleuts of the Pribilof Is­ agrarian to a largely industrial and urban lands, the meaning of the hunt within the society. culture and local economy of New­ Drury, in Johnston's view, chal­ foundland, and the recent world-wide lenged "the material values spawned by conflict between seals and environmen­ the modern industrial age." It is in this talists. Moreover, his treatment, based on sense that he was an idealist akin to those some original research and very wide late Victorian intellectuals who chal­ reading amongst secondary sources, is lenged "the utilitarian and mechanistic generally an informed and fair-minded order." Drury harked back to the values one. Thus, labour historians can make he identified with rural community life, connections, using his material, between and his legislative initiatives on the fami­ the declining mammalian resource base, ly reflected his deeply-held beliefs. Drury the "sweated" character of the industry, a may have seemed antique to many around pattern of labor recruitment focused on him, but he represented a tradition which North America'a geographical periphery deserves respect. (and even points abroad), and the general Johnston's argument, however, does failure of collective action amongst these not always rest easily upon his descrip­ hands. But in general, they will have to do tion of Drury's deeds. Drury, as J.J. Mor­ the work themselves, for it is not the rison charged at the time, did not himself panoply of common historiographical represent those on the back concession, problems that activate this book. the majority of farmers in the early 1920s, As an informative introduction to the whose agricultural techniques had ad­ history of any of the different hunts, The vanced little since Victorian days, but War Against the Seals is a useful rather those more prosperous farmers springboard. But since it is seals, the book whose practices were thoroughly is lean on analytic value to the majority of mechancial and utilitarian. He was an On­ historical readers. tario Agricultural College graduate, familiar with "scientific" techniques and Daniel Vickers closely linked with the urban financial 284 LABOUWLETRAVADL

structure which supported the modernization done. of Canadian agriculture. His own home, Johnston did not have the ideal sub­ "Crown Hill," had indoor plumbing and most ject for a biography. Drury is difficult to of the other accoutrements of the Rosedale love or hate and his career abounds with manor. Unlike most farmers, he already was disappointments. This is the definitive driving a car when he became premier in biography of Drury. It gently corrects 1919. In many ways, he represented politi­ Drury's autobiography and it places cally a world that was no longer his own. Drury within a recognizable setting. The contradictions in Drury's politics There is really no more to say about E.C. abound. He was a prohibitionist yet he com­ Drury but many questions remain about promised with the United Farmers of the sentiments, economic forces, and the Ontario's labour allies complained and ul­ societal divisions which carried this timately he strongly supported Mitch Hep­ curious man into the premier's chair. burn. He blamed his defeat upon the lack of integrity of his strongest opponents, J.J. John English Morrison of the UFO and Howard Ferguson University of Waterloo of the Tories. Yet his own record is blemished. Johnston clearly shows that Desmond Morton and Glenn Wright, Winning Orury was at best disingenuous in dealing the Second Battle: Canadian Veterans and the with the Smith-Jarvis scandal. Even more Return to Civilian Life 1915-1930 (Toronto: seriously, Drury could not be honest about University of Toronto Press 1987). the problem in his own memoirs when the "smoking gun" could be found by anyone THE DRAMA OF THE "GREAT WAR" of 1914- who cared to look. 1918 — the gory spectacle of a generation What E.C. Drury reveals is the divisions of young Canadians killed over posses­ within the Farmer-Labour government, sion of a few yards of muddy French ter- divisions which reflected socio-economic rain — still fascinates us, yet divisions within Ontario society in the post­ developments on the home front, though war era. Drury's contradictions are those of less well-known, were of more long-term the movement which thrust him into the significance. The state became a major premiership and which very soon under­ actor, organizing and regulating war mined the government which he led. The production and developing centralized contradictions are also a product of his own bureaucracies to deal with the victims of contrariness. The alliance with labour did the conflict. War industries could be have some common basis that shrewder readily dismantled and demobilization of leadership on both sides could have ex­ over a quarter of a million troops, al­ ploited to build a more enduring political though traumatic, was a short-term prob­ structure as was done in some European lem. Assimilating ex-soldiers into the societies and even in some American states. work force and caring for those disabled, But leadership was lacking and the differen­ widowed, or orphaned by the war a long- ces became more striking than the term responsibility and a formidable similarities. Even within the agrarian move­ financial burden. This book examines ment, Drury and Morrison managed to exag­ both the institutional response to the gerate the divisions except for a last minute problems of post-war reconstruction and compromise before the 1923 election, an the role of organized veterans in that tur­ election which an angered Drury called bulent era. While its analysis of the without consulting his cabinet or his caucus, former is insightful and illuminating, the much less the UFO executive. Perhaps, as book fails to do justice to the ideological Johnston argues, Drury accomplished more complexity of veterans' groups and large­ than we have realized but, on the basis of the ly ignores the ex-soldiers' potential for evidence in this book, one can surely argue revolution — a possibility much feared by that he did much less than he might have contemporary authorities. REVIEWS 285

Morton and Wright argue Great War Re-Establishment Department owned its veterans' needs were central to the forma- own artificial limb factory and refused tion of Canada's modern state amputees money to buy prostheses bureaucracies. Caring for the wounded manufactured by the private sector. and providing for the 60,000 widowed Government acknowledged only limited and orphaned and 70,000 with permanent responsibility for able bodied ex-ser­ disabilities made big demands on govern­ vicemen. Soldiers' settlement schemes ment funds and expertise. In this unprece­ provided free land, and low-interest loans dented situation "a small number of im­ for potential farmers. Although ap­ aginative and clear-sighted Canadians, plicants were carefully screened and virtually unknown to their contem­ given some direction and training, the poraries and wholly unknown to scheme fell victim to the post-war drop in posterity, created effective institutions farm prices. Most able bodied men, after and policies." In the post-war era, a short period of post-discharge pay and veterans, unlike their forerunners and the the government-run Employment poor and the sick of previous generations, Offices' help in locating suitable employ­ demanded that government make ment, were cut adrift in a society that had provision for their need as a right not a changed dramatically during the period of charity. The authors point to this claim for their military service. The product of entitlement as a major new development much careful research, Morton and in the nation's social awareness. Wright's detailed descriptions of programmes serving both disabled and If Canada could boast that her the able bodied ex-servicemen illustrate military hospitals, pensions, retraining the interaction between veteran's and reestablishment schemes were better demands, financial constraints, and than those in other countries, they none­ Canadian politicians' traditional reluc­ theless left much to be desired. Winning tance to assume social commitments. the Second Battle ascribes much of their character and rigid economy to Canadian While sensitive to the complexities of avoidance of the U.S. example. South of state bureaucracies, the book's analysis of the border an ill-considered Civil War veterans' groups is less perceptive. Its pension scheme had led to badly dis­ portrayal of Canadian servicemen's tributed and exorbitantly expensive pay­ groups as politically neutral denies class ments. Canada's massive Pension Board as an aspect of ex-soldier's experience, bureaucracy, which sought to remove the and in so doing ignores a great deal of the assessment and payment process from surviving evidence. In wartime men from political interference, became notoriously different backgrounds fought side by insensitive to individual hardships. There side, but there was little similarity be­ were also structural inequities. Canadian tween the experience of those who pensions were based on military pay returned to the insecurities of working- which in turn reflected rank. But as a class life and those who could look for­ private's $1.10 per day was considerably ward to continuation of secure middle- less than the civilian wage, a pension class employment, or a comfortable desk based on this ensured his pauperization in job in one of the new bureaucracies. Sol­ the post-war era. Economy led to careful diers returned to a society where class was selection of candidates for retraining an important aspect of the contemporary schemes. They were only available to the debate as workers from coast to coast disabled who could not return to their voiced their disenchantment with former occupations. Courses, such as capitalism and their desire for a new so­ those in movie projection, were vocation­ cial and economic order. Few were un­ al. Assistance to disabled veterans who touched by the ferment. In these cir­ needed to finish their university educa­ cumstances the Great War Veterans tion was given rarely and grudgingly. The Association's claim to stand above class 286 LABOUR/LETOAVAIL

or party was not, as Morton and Wright main­ d'histoire, Université du Nouveau-Brunswick tain, a position of neutrality, but rather a 1986). denial of, and opposition to, labour leaders' position. The authors' statement that IF ACADEMIC FIELDS may be likened to labour's overtures were rejected by veterans human lives — beginning with fanfare, is somewhat at variance with the events of growing with promise, expanding into re­ Winnipeg in June 1919 — the vigorous sup­ spectable middle age, and eventually port a large percentage of the city's ex-ser­ giving way to more vigorous successors vicemen gave to the strikers cannot be ex­ — the bibliographic period surely cor­ plained as due merely to the absence of for­ responds with the acne years. Bibliog­ eigners on the strike committee. Relaying raphies usually appear after a certain only the reactionary and nativist aspects of amount of learning has been done, but the larger veterans' organizations' official before maturity is gained. They generally pronouncement, the book ignores the heated indicate developing independence, ideological debates that took place at the coupled with anxiety about what the fu­ branch levels and the existence of left-wing, ture holds. In the attempt to order a world locally-based groups. perceived as ever more complex and chal­ Perhaps the authors' most important lenging, they list earlier achievements omission is an assessment of authorities' (often impressive, singly, yet hardly in­ fears of veterans. Could it be that the semi­ tegrated into a coherent "personality"). official status of the Great War Veterans with By thus "defining" a field, they purify its its Ottawa headquarters and representation identity, and they provide a staging post on parliamentary committees, reflected the from which scholars might embark on the authorities' perception of it as a conservative difficult road ahead. Yet they are, in a force, one which channelled ex- sense, as ephemeral as pimples, quickly servicemens' discontents down the path of outdated by the very growth they nativism and away from thoughts of revolu­ memorialize and help to foster. tion? Although the sources include the Reflecting the rise of new subfields records of the Department of Militia, they within traditional disciplines during the exclude those of the RNWMP and its succes­ last two decades, countless bibliographies sor, the RCMP. Both groups include security have appeared in recent years. Published surveillance estimates of the revolutionary by university presses between cloth potential of veterans and their organizations. covers, or mimeographed for limited cir­ The authors point out that their work is only culation, they have varied enormously in a beginning. Further research may lead to an price ($150.00 to $5.00), pretension, and analysis that reflects the social and ideologi­ utility. At worst, their compilers seem to cal complexity of veterans groups rather than have accepted the transitory nature of the rhetoric of their official leadership, and their contributions with bad grace, simply one which takes into account the fears of the spilling on to the page the contents of authorities. their file drawers. The results are all too familiar: madly scattered lists of sources Elizabeth Lees neither complete nor especially helpful, University of British Columbia barely organized according to temporal, topical and/or spatial categories. David Frank, Carol Ferguson, Richard Clair, The New Brunswick Worker is, in Richard McClellan, Raymond Léger, comps., The contrast, a model of what bibliographies New Brunswick Worker in the 20th CenturylLesca n and should be. In common with most travailleurs an Nouveau-Brunswick au 20ieme such works it seeks to identify what has siècle: A Reader's Guide/Un guide au lecteur. A been done, to legitimize the study of its selective annotated bibliography/bibliographie subject matter, and to provide a starting choisie et annotée (Fredericton: Department of His­ point for future research (that might, in tory, University of New Brunswick/Department this case, make the working-class ex- REVIEWS 287

perience a unifying theme in New sibility that today would be the day you Brunswick history). But it is successful would catch a few hundred pounds of rock because its scale is right and because its maple in the face, across your legs, or on compilers undertook the hard work of your feet". Elsewhere we encounter the reading, summarizing, and cataloguing stirring prose of Frank Hatheway, New the entries in their "reader's guide." Brunswick's most prominent turn-of-the- Limiting the bibliography to studies of century social reformer: "Adam with the twentieth-century workers in a single sweat upon his brow, leans on his spade: province allows for comprehensive Eve at the spindle watches her weary coverage of a great range of sources, from fingers. From the cities, from the farms, autobiographies through community his­ the workers look, hoping, wondering, as­ tories to theses and journalism. As the king 'Will we always be thus?'." Or, from authors point out, the most recent bibliog­ Poorhouse and Palace (Saint John 1900) raphy of Canadian Labour History lists the argument that government should only ten New Brunswick entries; theirs "make it extremely difficult for men to includes 245, culled from a longer list of become millionaires and yet comparative­ possible sources. Still this would be an ly easy for all men to have a comfortable amorphous mess without the annotations home, and enough income to ensure them — one per entry, each between SO and 500 against penury in their old age." Then we words in length, intended to convey both discover Hanks White, who spent the the flavour and the focus of that item. The Depression planting potatoes, wishing, usefulness of The New Brunswick Worker harvesting, trying to sell his crop, and is further enhanced by the index that cuts storing it in the hope that prices would across the alphabetical listing of works by improve; who was driven off the land by author, to give all entries on "accidents du hospital bills and disastrous contracts; travail," "Blacks Harbour," "fish-plant who dodged his creditors and worked workers," "travailleurs forestiers," awhile in the Mine Woods; and who "women," and 150 other topics. Further­ through it all survived to publish his more, each entry includes reference to at story, in California, in 1972, under the least one New Brunswick location at title Potatoes Without Gravy. which the item may be consulted. Prepared with the assistance of a Reading the bibliography, I am im­ Canadian Studies Research Tools Grant pressed by its range, by the glimpses that from the Social Sciences and Humanities it provides into the hard lives of New Research Council of Canada, distributed Brunswick men and women, and by the to schools and libraries across New indomitable spirit that rises time and Brunswick, and made available to union again from accounts of their experience. locals and labour councils in the province, Almost any small selection of entries this is a significant aid to regional reveals these characteristics. Item 243 is scholarship. Comparable companion a 1955 thesis: "A Study in Governmental volumes, on the nineteenth century and Conciliation Procedure in Labour Dis­ on the other Atlantic provinces, would be putes With Particular Reference to Ex­ equally invaluable. Copies of The New perience in New Brunswick." The next Brunswick Worker are available free of entry refers to an occasional series of charge while supplies last from David profiles of New Brunswick workers that Frank, Department of History, University appeared in The Plain Dealer in 1976 and of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B. 1977. Here we read of "Mary Boles, Can­ E3B 5 A3. No serious scholar of the twen­ nery Worker" and of a day's work at a tieth-century Maritimes should be wood veneer mill in the Stanley area: "Ex­ without one. haustion, monotony, long hours, no drinking water, a toilet room that had Graeme Wynn been spiked shut, and a distinct pos­ The University of British Columbia 288 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

George MacEachem, George MacEachem: An steelmill. The camaraderie he found there Autobiography, The Story of a Cape Breton Labouramon g the workers is effectively Radical, edited and introduced by David Frank and portrayed in the autobiography. But it is Don MacGillivray (Sydney: University College of not a romanticized description of these Cape Breton Press 1987). experiences. The consequences for Mac­ Eachem and his family of the heavy LABOUR HISTORIANS and others interested in drinking to which he was introduced in the history of industrial Cape Breton will this exclusively male culture are disturb­ welcome the publication of George Mac­ ing. MacEachern's depiction in these Eachem: An Autobiography. A leader in the early chapters of the arbitrary disciplining dramatic struggle to organize Sydney steel- and firing of the workers, their low wages, workers in the 1930s, MacEachem vividly and poor working conditions sets the describes these events and other episodes in stage for his excellent descriptions of the the history of the Cape Breton labour move­ steelworkers' organizing drive in the ment in which he has played so prominent a 1930s. rote. MacEachern's knowledge of labour his­ The Depression marked a turning tory is well known in Cape Breton; indeed, point in MacEachern's life. When laid-off researchers are routinely advised to "go talk in the early 1930s, he joined the local to George." Beginning in 1977, historians campaign to organize the unemployed. David Frank and Don MacGillivray heeded This activity was MacEachern's initiation this advice and initiated the first of what into labour organizing and communist would soon become many interviews with politics. Impressed by the communists he MacEachem. The document created through encountered in the relief associations and this process was supplemented with archival influenced by his reading of socialist records to produce an enormous manuscript literature, MacEachem joined the Com­ that MacEachem edited for publication with munist Party of Canada, in which he is Frank's and MacGillivray's assistance. This still active. MacEachern's party member­ process is carefully detailed by the editors in ship obviously influenced his personal an excellent introduction that confronts the and political decisions but little of this methodological concerns often directed information is revealed in the autobiog­ toward oral histories and provides a helpful raphy. The author is also silent on the historical context for MacEachern's life internal life of the party. These omissions story. will disappoint those readers interested in MacEachern's descriptions of his youth a history of the communist movement that in Sydney, where he was born in 1904, are reaches beyond its institutional develop­ enthralling. Life in the working-class neigh­ ment. Indeed, there is a noticeable change bourhoods located within the glow of the in emphasis in the autobiography at this steelmill's furnaces is presented in mar­ point. The author narrows his focus from velous detail. Especially interesting are the the broader working-class themes that en­ author's observations on education, religion, rich his description of his youth to a more entertainment, family, community, and class traditional emphasis on the evolution of loyalties. His description of gossip as "part labour institutions. MacEachem conse­ of the entertainment that made life liveable" quently reveals little on the relationship reminds historians that this is a subject that between his commitment to socialism and working-class cultural studies must not ig­ his personal life. The autobiography feels nore. incomplete without these recollections and it leaves one wishing to see the MacEachern's youth ended on Armistice portrait completed. Day in 1918 when he left school to find work to supplement the family income. He One of the most interesting sections "worked at jobs that were mainly long on in the book describes the formation in hours and short on pay" until 1922 when he 1936 of Local 1064 USWA by Mac­ was hired as a machinist's apprentice at the Eachem and other steelworkers. This ac- REVIEWS 289 count revises the standard description of autobiography. His depiction of working- these events that attributes the victory to class Cape Breton is fascinating and will Silby Barrett's organizing skills. Mac­ interest anyone researching Canadian Eachern demonstrates that local prepara­ labour history. It is also a model of co­ tions for the drive began at least eighteen operation between a labour activist and months before Barrett arrived in Sydney. academics that may stimulate others to Thus, the local that Barrett triumphantly initiate similar projects elsewhere in the delivered to the CIO in 1936 was not his country. personal creation, but the fruit of a long and considerable struggle by a committed Nolan Reilly group of Sydney steelworkers. The same University of Winnipeg can be said of the passing of the Nova Scotia Trade Union Act, for which Barrett Jim Tester, et aL, eds^ Sports Pioneers: A also has received credit. History of the Finnish-Canadian Amateur The ultimate tragedy of these events, Sports Federation 1906-1986 (Sudbury: Alerts though, is not that history books have AC Historical Committee 1986). ignored the role of the Cape Breton steel- workers and praised Barrett. It is that IN THE WAKE of the bitter Finnish Civil MacEachern and other founding members War of 1918 a group of Finnish of Local 1046 were driven from their emigrants, including a number of left in­ union by a vicious red-baiting campaign tellectuals, trade unionists, and world- orchestrated by Barrett and the anti-com­ class athletes, left their homeland and munist headquarters of the USWA in Pit­ made their way to Canada. One of the tsburgh. By 1942 the situation became so responses to their new home was to uncomfortable for MacEachern and recreate the vibrant organizational life Dorothy, his wife, that they left Cape they had left behind. The core of that Breton and temporarily settled in Pictou associational ethos was a combination of County. The reader benefits even from political and athletic activity with roots in this turn of events, however, for the Finnish labour movement of the late MacEachern's descriptions of labour 1800s. That movement, which called for relations in Pictour's shipbuilding in­ "a complete change of lifestyle, a new dustry during World War II are excellent. dignity for labour," combined exercise, At the end of the war MacEachern moved temperance, social and cultural activities, to the Toronto area where he continued workers' education, and a left critique of his union and communist organizing. In bourgeois society and values. It 1946 MacEachern, convinced that his flourished in Canada, and typified what loyalities lay with the Cape Breton labour movement, returned to Sydney, where he Sudbury labour historian Jim Tester calls continues to reside. He again immersed the Finnish "passion for social organiza­ himself in the local progressive move­ tion." ment, publicly debating anti-communists, Sports Pioneers represents three organizing garage mechanics, supporting years of diligent work by Sudbury area the CSU, and carrying the banner of the Finnish-Canadians to chronicle the Labour Progressive Party in the 1953 achievements of these early Finnish im­ federal election. These recollections offer migrants. Aided by local labour historian readers valuable insights into the early Jim Tester and Laurentian University his­ Cold War experience. A pessimism in­ tory professor Dr. Dieter Buse, the Alerts vades these reflections of the 1950s that AC Historical Committee has produced a is only partly mitigated in an epilogue that comprehensive and intimate portrait of reaffirms MacEachern's conviction that the Finnish experience in Canada, based progressive social change is still possible. on the stories of former Finnish athletes themselves. MacEachern has written an engaging The Finnish workers' sports move- 290 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

ment really got off the ground with the for­ and oral interviews which follow often mation of the Finnish-Canadian Sports fail to evoke the dedication to socialized Federation in 1925. This federation, af­ sport so evident in the pictures. This is filiated with the Finnish Organization of particularly true of the oral interviews, Canada (FOC), established a movement which could have provided important in­ which included sections in Ontario, Quebec, sights into the staying power of this par­ Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. Its ticipatory, non-professional, anti-bour­ growth was little less than phenomenal. In geois movement, and established mean­ the 1920s Sudbury boasted 12 local sports ingful links between the Finnish working clubs, with the Lakehead area supporting a class dedication to sport and the left further 13. The FOC had 80 branches, 70 politics of many of its leaders and rank- halls where social, cultural, athletic, and and-file participants. Instead, the inter­ political activities took place, and more than views concentrate almost exclusively on 20 athletic fields. individual achievements and individual Sports Pioneers contains a balance of participation. Individual competition was written and pictorial history. As a pictorial very important to Finnish athletes, but the history the book works admirably well. Federation's resistance to involvement of Photographs of mass gymnastic displays, its members in professional sports athletic fields blasted from the rock of the demonstrated that it was a competition Sudbury basin, and group photos prominent­ with ultimately communal, rather than ly featuring women and children as well as personal, goals. Fortunately, some of the men, provide frank testimony to a sports club histories are related by 'ordinary' movement based on family, community, and Finnish athletes who do emphasize that a social ethos. Perhaps the most evocative just participating, and being congratu­ photo features 22 Finnish athletes, male and lated no matter where you finished, was female, jammed into the back of a small stake its own reward. truck, leaving Toronto for Montreal to par­ The local club histories and oral inter­ ticipate in a 1932 track and field meet. In this views also fail to deal adequately with and many other pictures, the depth of the important political divisions which, par­ Finnish commitment to amateur sports vir­ ticularly in the 1920s and 1930s, often tually leaps off the page. Unlike so many marred that shared Finnish dedication to pictorial histories, which seem exhausted sports. Here Sports Pioneers simply ig­ after a single perusal, Sports Pioneers has the nores or glosses over the distinct progres­ ability to provide new insight or previously sive (Communist), moderate (social missed enjoyment even after a number of democratic), and conservative factions viewings. within the Finnish community. The book The written history is comprised largely does not deal directly with the role of of local club histories, taped interviews, and sports clubs set up by the moderate Fin­ an anecdotal selection of stories under the nish Canadian Worker-Farmer Organiza­ heading "People, Places and Happenings." tion, or by the Loyal Finns of Canada, in The body of the book is set up by Jirti Tester's order to draw support away from FOC introduction and a section on the Finnish sponsored clubs. The reader is left some­ background by Uno Korpi, taken from the what confused about the nature of the official history of the Finnish Labor Sports relationship between these clubs, and Federation. A more detailed section how that relationship evolved over time. describes the activities and development of One wonders if at least some of the fierce the Finnish-Canadian Workers Sports individual competitions which went on Federation of Canada, beginning in 1925 over the years might have had ideological with the founding of the Federation, and en­ overtones which added to the fierceness ding in 1983 with the decision to proceed of the wrestling match or swiftness of the with the FCASF history project. race. It is disappointing that the club histories Sports Pioneers leaves many ques- REVIEWS 291 tions unanswered. What role did left- maintenant parmi les références classi­ wing ideology play in helping to sustain ques sur l'histoire du NPD au Canada. La the Finnish sports movement? How deep­ présente publication est la troisième ly committed were rank-and-file Finns to édition d'un ouvrage paru pour la the Federation's radical politics? How did première fois en 1974 sould le titre "NDP: the composition of the movement change The Dream of Power." L'édition actuelle over time, in terms of the active role est une version augmentée des deux played by left-wing, moderate and con­ précédentes. Elle intègre 25 ans d'histoire servative Finns? Did second and third- du NPD au Canada. generation Finnish youth increasingly Professeur d'histoire à l'Université rebel against participation in a culture de Toronto, longtemps impliqué dans les which tended to mark them off from the rangs du NPD, particulièrement au début social, political, and cultural mainstream des années 1960, Desmond Morton traite of Canadian life? If the authors of Sports d'un parti qu'il connaît. Il ne cache pas Pioneers leave many of these questions non plus sa sympathie pour le NPD. La unanswered, it must be said in their force de l'ouvrage de Morton réside defence that they have launched boldly précisément dans sa capacité à présenter and with great compassion into the study une synthèse de l'évolution du parti of a long neglected aspect of our history, depuis sa fondation. Particulièrement au and left academic historians with these plan fédéral, en Ontario et dans les trois exciting avenues to follow. provinces de l'Ouest que sont le In a sense Sports Pioneers is a Manitoba, la Saskatchewan et la Colom­ frustrating book, because it poses so bie-Britannique. L'auteur retrace many enticing questions and provides too également quelques éléments de l'histoire few answers. Yet one can only marvel du NPD au Québec. Ce livre est centré sur how well this group of local historians has l'examen des performances du parti, captured the spirit and humanity of the notamment au plan électoral, et sur la vie Finnish commitment to amateur sports. interne du parti fédéral et des partis The Alerts AC Historical Committee has provinciaux affiliés. given us a fuller appreciation of the alter­ Le NPD, explique Morton, a brisé native culture Finnish-Canadians forged l'idée selon laquelle le socialisme in an age so often associated with the démocratique n'aurait pas de chance de arrival of a mass culture of consumerism développement et de survie en Amérique and apathy. The Finnish-Canadian du Nord. Les 25 ans d'histoire du NPD Amateur Sports Federation, which con­ prouvent le contraire. Depuis 1961, le tinued to hold Sports, Song, and Music NPD a formé des gouvernements dans Festivals into the 1970s, and is still work­ trois provinces et au Yukon. Il est aussi ing to preserve the contribution of Finns devenu un sérieux rival aux partis conser­ to Canadian society, is to be congratu­ vateur et libéral sur la scène fédérale. lated for providing us with a model of Aujourd'hui, le NPD est le produit de plus socialized sport to reflect upon in this age de 90 ans d'expérience et d'action politi­ of the spectator and the million dollar que dans les rangs du mouvement ouvrier. contract. Il s'appuie sur la population à moyen et à bas revenus, particulièrement sur la Peter Campbell population labourieuse. En bref, par son Queen's University livre, Desmond Morton cherche à démontrer en quoi le NPD demeure un Desmond Morton, The New Democrats 1961- parti politique crédible et solide, un rival 1986: The Politics of Change (Toronto: Copp menaçant pour les deux vieux partis, le Clark Pitman). parti le plus important à la gauche de l'échiquier politique. CE LIVRE DE DESMOND MORTON figure Le livre de Desmon Morton est divisé 292 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

en douze parties. crise constitutionnelle ébranle le parti. En Dans les premières sections de l'ouvrage 1967, le congrès fédéral adopte le prin­ (Backgrounds, Foundation et Setbacks), cipe d'un pour le Québec. l'auteur retrace les origines, les conditions de A compter de 1969, le Waffle se fondation et les premières performances du manifeste au sein du NPD. D'abord in­ NPD. Ce parti tire ses origines du Coopera­ fluent, ce mouvement radical de gauche tive Commonwealth Federation, fondé en connaît par la suite une baisse progressive 1932. Mais en dépit de victoires en Sas­ de son influence jusqu'à sa rupture katchewan, et un épisodique et relatif succès complète avec le parti. La période qui en Ontario, le CCF ne parvient pas à marque l'ouverture des années 1970 en s'imposer comme parti au plan pan- est une de forte popularité du NPD dans canadien. Dans l'après-guerre, le déclin l'Ouest canadien. La partie VI du livre s'amorce. Dans la recherche d'une solution, (Progress) relate cette période très impor­ les regards se tournent vers le modèle du tante de l'histoire du NPD. Successive­ Labour Party anglais qui trouve son appui ment, le NPD gagne trois élections principal dans les organisations syndicales. provinciales: au Manitoba (1969), en Sas­ En 1958, le Congrès du travail du Canada katchewan (1971) et en Colombie-Britan­ (CTC), de concert avec le CCF, donne le nique (1972). Mais ces succès ne connais­ coup d'envoi à la création d'un Nouveau sent pas leur contrepartie en Ontario et au Parti. En 1961, ce parti devient le Nouveau Québec. La section VII (Clarification) Parti Démocratique. A sa naissance, le NPD analyse la situation du parti dans ces deux reconnaît la "thèse des deux nations," un provinces au début des années 1970. En non-sens selon Morton. (25) Les premières Ontario, le parti est toujours divisé entre années sont marquées par les difficultés que l'aile dirigeante et le Waffle, et rencontre le parti à consolider ses assises. Au l'organisation ne parvient pas à gagner le Québec, la crise constitutionnelle support de la masse de la population s'enclenche. Le NPD nage dans le désert. Il laborieuse. Au Québec, la question na­ connaît un scission en 1963 et en sort tionale provoque une nouvelle crise dans davantage affaibli. En Ontario et en Colom­ les rangs du NPD-Québec. L'aile bie-Britannique, le NPD connaît des scores québécoise réclame la reconnaissance du décevants. En Saskatchewan, en 1963, le froit à l'autodétermination pour le successeur du CCF perd le pouvoir. Ces Québec, sans succès. Pour Morton, le difficultés de construction caractérisent le NPD-Québec s'avère alors une section début des années 1960. Par la suite, succède embarssante et source de troubles une période transitoire de consolidation. De ("troublesome" 23). multiples élections se succèdent et bientôt un Les parties VIII (Performance) et IX virage à gauche se manifeste. Les parties IV (Frustrations) traitent de la performance et V du livre (Elections et Conflicts), sont du NPD de 1972 à 1977. Une performance consacrées à cette période. Le NPD remporte relativement décevante. En 1972, aux plusieurs élections partielles en 1963. En élections fédérales, le NPD parvient à 1964, le NPD ontarien consolide ses assises. recueillir près de 18 pour cent des voix et Aux élections fédérales de 1965, le NPD 31 sièges. Détenant la balance du pouvoir connaît une légère croissance de son appui à Ottawa sous le gouvernement populaire. Au Québec, le aprti enregistre 12 minoritaire de P.E. Trudeau (1972-1974) pour cent du vote. Avec Robert Cliche, le et placé au pouvoir dans trois provinces, parti tente de prendre son envol. En vain. Le le NPD croit enfin être en mesure vote de 1965 reste sans lendemain. d'effectuer une percée significative. Mais Néanmoins, d'autres progrès se manifestent la stratégie d'appui au gouvernement en 1966, en Saskatchewan, en Ontario et en Trudeau et les concessions multipliées ne Alberta. donnent pas les résultats excomptés. En De 1967 à 1969, le NPD connaît un 1974, c'est la débâcle (169) au élections virage à gauche et des débats virulents. La fédérales. Parallèlement, dans les provin- REVIEWS 293 ces de l'Ouest et en Ontario, le NPD principales étapes de l'histoire du NPD. connaît certaines frustrations (partie IX). En particulier, le livre met en lumière le En Saskatchewan, le NPD réussit à se rôle clé des organisations syndicales dans maintenir au pouvoir (1975). Mais il perd la naissance et le développement du parti. le pouvoir en Colombie-Britannique la Le NPD y trouve là ses assises, ses forces même année et au Manitoba en 1977. En militantes et ses appuis populaires, en Ontario, la performance du NPD décline. plus de chercher appui chez la jeunesse et Les dernières parties du livre (Reap­ les femmes. Les hauts et les bas de praisal et Regionalism), sont consacrées l'histoire du NPD sont aussi bien au tournant des années 1980 où, explique identifiés, notamment la période des Morton, le parti tente d'effectuer une années 1970. On constate que lorsque le remontée. Après plusieurs déceptions, le NPD s'est appuyé fortement sur les or­ parti gagne légèrement du terrain aux ganisations syndicales et populaires et élections fédérales de 1980. Mais, con­ mis de l'avant son propre programme de state Morton, vingt ans après sa fonda­ réformes, les succès ont été marquants. A tion, le parti reste un parti régional, l'invers, lorsque les gouvernements néo­ concentré en Ontario et dans l'Ouest démocrates ont déçu et voire même canadien. (200) En 1980-1981, le NPD affronté leur propre base électorale, le est divisé au sujet du projet constitution­ prix payé a toujours été élevé (Colombie- nel du gouvernement Trudeau. L'aile Britannique, 1975; Saskatchewan, 1982). fédérale appuie le geste de Trudeau, tan­ D'autre part la débâcle de 1974 et les dis que l'aile québécoise s'y oppose et piétinements qui l'ont suivie sont qu'Allan Blakeney y ajoute sa propre particulièrement instructifs. La stratégie obstruction jusqu'au 5 novembre 1981, d'appui aux Libéraux au Parlement date où il se rallie à Trudeau. Mais cette fédéral a entraîné une baisse des appuis division au sein du NPD au sujet de la Loi électoraux du parti. Y aurait-il un consitituionnellede 1982, estime Morton, parallèle à établir avec la performance a entraîne peu de dommage électoral pour décevante du NPD aux élections ontarien- le NPD. Pourtant, au Québec, ces nes de 1987, après deux ans d'appui au événements provoquent de nouvelles gouvernement libéral de David Peterson secousses et l'organisation néo- qui a recueilli le bénéfice des quelques démocrate est presque réduite à néant. réformes exigées par le NPD? Enfin, en conclusion de son livre En terminant, une carence du livre (Prospects). Desmond Morton décelle tient à sa faiblesse dans le traitement de la une période de consolidation qui s'ouvre question nationale, qui reste la cause prin­ pour le NPD à compter de 1984. Au plan cipale de l'impasse du NPD au Québec. fédéral, les déboires du gouvernment Desmond Morton semble partager lés Mulroney ont entraîné un vaste mouve­ grandes orientations prises par le parti ment d'insatisfaction. Les sondages ont fédéral sur la question du Québec de 1961 témoigné de la popularité montante du à 1986. Mais aucune explication n'est NPD. Au plan provincial, le NPD a connu donnée sur l'incapacité du parti à quelques succès: des progrès à Terre- développer ses racines au Québec. Pour­ Neuve, une victoire au Yukon, une percée tant, en plus de la non-implication des en Alberta et une très bonne performance organisations syndicales (sauf pour la en Saskatchewan (qu'anticipait Morton FTQ pour un certain temps), l'attitude au moment de la publication de son livre). ultra-fédéraliste et l'opposition de la Cependant, comme on le sait, ces progrès direction fédérale du parti aux aspirations n'ont pas connu leur contrepartie en On­ nationales du peuple québécois y sont tario et au Nouveau-Brunswick. pour quelque chose. Les obstacles Tout compte fait, le livre de Desmond multipliés ont fait que les Québécois, bien Morton fournit à l'observateur un guide avant la fondation du Parti Québécois, précieux lui permattant de connaître les n'ont pas reconnu ce parti comme leur 294 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

parti. Depuis 1985, les attitudes se sont ganization to accept displaced persons. légèrement modifiées et des progrès se sont With the help of the Immigration and manifestés pour l'organisation québécoise Labour departments, Canada eventually sous la conduite de Jean-Paul Harney. En brought in, among other DPs, thousands tout état de cause, la prochaine période au of Lithuanians. Most instrumental to this Québec sera décisive pour l'avenir du parti programme was the Deputy Minister of tout entier. Nous verrons si le NPD restera Labour, Arthur McNamara. Under his un parti "régional" ou deviendra un parti guidance, the Department of Labour solidement implanté au Québec comme au agreed that men and women would be Canada anglais. allowed into the country for heavy and domestic labour. By resorting to the con­ André Lamoureux venient order-in-council, the government Collège André-Laurendeau admitted DPs on labour contracts for specific jobs. In this way, it was felt that Milda Danys, Lithuanian Immigration to Canadath e country might get first chance at the after the Second World War (Toronto: Multicul­ sturdiest immigrants. tural History Society of Ontario 1986). It was not only moral suasion that influenced the government to admit DPs; THIS BOOK, WHICH APPEARS in the Multicul­ so did various companies involved in tural History Society of Ontario's series forestry, mining, or in sugar beets, espe­ Studies in Ethnic and Immigration History, cially those that had depended on inter­ deals with Lithuanian displaced persons nees and German prisoners of war for the (DPs) in Canada from the mid-1940s until war effort and that no longer had those the mid-1950s, with a brief chapter on the cheap sources of labour. Therefore, a 1980s. Milda Danys has written a very sym­ selection team made up of Labour and pathetic volume based heavily on extensive Immigration officials picked candidates research in the Labour and Immigration from the camps in the British and departments' files in the National Archives American zones of occupied Germany, of Canada, as well as on oral testimonies basing their choices on the criteria of from about 200 Lithuanian Canadians. health and fitness as well as on the The volume is divided into three sec­ applicant's "suitability." tions. Part One is a background to the im­ Labour historians will find useful migration to Canada. A brief examination of those sections in the study which show the the Soviet and Nazi occupations during constant interplay between large and World War II is followed by a review of small resource companies on one side, Lithuanians in wartime Germany and in the and the Department of Labour on the DP camps. Danys uses oral testimony skill­ other, with regard to the DPs. Terms and fully to reconstruct the activities and the lengths of contracts, reimbursement of socio-economic life of the camps. Part Two passage to worksites, and working condi­ examines Canadian immigration and labour tions were perennial bones of contention policy and the arrival of Lithuanian DPs in between the two sides. The complex rela­ Canada under contract in forestry, mining, tions among the three parties stemmed domestic service, and agriculture. A final from the system of contracts: both the part deals with the post-contract phase. DPs and the resource companies signed When World War II came to an end, contracts with the federal government. about seven million people were stranded in Any labour tensions therefore recalled the Germany and Austria and by 1947 about one presence of the Department of Labour. million Eastern Europeans whose countries There was yet another element, the media. were dominated by the Soviets remained to The DPs after all were guinea pigs for the be settled. With its immense landscape and federal government's plans to open the sparse population, Canada was under pres­ immigration gates despite opposition sure from the International Refugee Or- from the labour movement and the REVIEWS 296

Canadian public in general. Repre­ helpful material here on the post-war sentatives from the Labour Department period. made regular visits to campsites to ease tensions or to quell unrest, and they did John E. Zucchi their best to keep reporters from par­ McGill University ticular work camps. Most of all the Labour Department kept its plans to im­ C. David Naylor, Private Practice: Canadian port and place thousands of DPs at Medicine and the Politics of Health Insurance worksites across the country quiet. 1911-1966 (Kingston and Montreal: McGill- There were internal tensions among Queen's University Press 1986). the Lithuanians as well. New Lithuanians complained to the Labour Department THIS BOOK IS THE MOST in-depth study of about "old Lithuanian" foremen. The lat­ the medical profession and its attitudes ter, who were often socialist sym­ toward health insurance written to date. pathizers, had seniority on the job, usual­ Given the recent doctors' strike in the ly as foremen, and they viewed the new province of Ontario and physicians' at­ Lithuanian refugees from Soviet rule as tempts elsewhere to continue extra bill­ little better than Nazis. The conflicts con­ ing, the question can be asked why so tinued as the new immigration grew and many physicians have not been able to the DPs moved from the worksites to accept the medicare legislation which was urban centres. In one instance in put into place two decades ago. Naylor's Montreal, New Lithuanians protesting the book helps explain that inability. Soviet occupation of their homeland Naylor's focus is on the medical clashed with Old Lithuanians having a profession as an interest group and, as a picnic at Ville LaSalle. This reader would result, the study is replete with descrip­ have appreciated a clearer analysis of tions of Canadian Medical Association these tensions. Instead it seems that meetings and policy statements. In­ Danys tries almost to assuage both sides dividuals do not really emerge in the book by stating that there were divisions but except in the role of bureaucrats. Neither that the Old Lithuanians "showed a is the role of the public per se discussed remarkable generosity of spirit" towards except when it coalesces into either a sup­ the newcomers (228). This is probably porting or an opposing lobby group. true, but it hardly allows the reader to What emerges from the study is a understand the tensions. profession that dislikes interference in the Lithuanian Immigration to Canada is doctor/patient relationship, which it an informative book and contains a great views as essentially private and in­ deal of interesting material. The style is dividual. It is a relationship entered into lively; the constant references, however, freely by both parties and it is this to documents in the departments of Im­ freedom which many practitioners migration and Labour in Ottawa is disrup­ believe a government medicare scheme tive. The reader is worn by lengthy quota­ undermines. However, the relationship tions from bureaucratic letters, and by between doctor and patient is never really numerous allusions to files in the various equal, for individuals only become departments and the materials contained patients when they are ill and feel they are in those files. As a result the volume is in need of some kind of medical assis­ lengthy: it could probably have been shor­ tance. At this point in time, they are vul­ tened by about 20 per cent. The last three nerable and probably do not see themsel­ chapters, though interesting in themsel­ ves as entering into the relationship freely ves, are really a coda to the book. None­ but through necessity. theless, this is a fine study and a good The profession's attitude toward state introduction to the DP immigration to this intervention in medicine has not always country. Labour historians will find much been constant. In the nineteenth century, 296 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

it was more than willing to see the state the profession felt it was entitled to con­ intervene to raise the standards of hospitals, tinue this approach if the government was medical education, and public health. This going to guarantee payment for the poor. was especially true when the state endorsed However, it was an issue which was regular practitioners against irregular ones central to physicians' opposition to such as midwives. However, when private medicare. Linked to the obvious groups wanted to intervene, the profession economic self-interest of such a position was less than entranced by the idea. This was was an overwhelming fear that if the not common but it did occur especially government became the intermediary be­ through working-class fraternal and tween patient and physician, it would in­ benevolent societies. What upset physicians terfere with the kind and quality of medi­ most about such arrangements was the cal service provided. removal of fee-for-service by either capita­ Naylor's analysis of the profession's tion fees or salaries. Indeed, this is still an position throughout the years under study issue about which the profession feels is always thoughtful and balanced. He strongly. notes when self-interest becomes upper­ There was some interest in government most but he also is able to delve beneath health initiatives at the end of World War I the self-interest and see how the profes­ especially as the population was becoming sion coupled it with its perception of the accustomed to an interventionist govern­ nature of medical practice. His study is ment. Public health practitioners were also particularly good in clarifying the com­ intrigued by the notion of state intervention plexity of negotiations from the 1940s in health. Unlike their colleagues in private onward. It was in the forties that the medi­ practice, they were already on salary and cal profession and the government consequently did not see government par­ worked hand in hand to devise a health ticipation in health care as a threat to their insurance scheme. The medical status. However, the interest did not seem to profession's motivation was clear. It translate into anything concrete and the recognized the inevitability of some kind 1920s saw a decline in discussions about of scheme and was determined to have as state and private health schemes. much say in its formulation as possible. As is well-known, interest increased Unfortunately, the Liberal Government once again in the depression years of the under Mackenzie King delayed a decision 1930s. In many communities, doctors were and soon the profession was withdrawing placed on salary to ensure that medical care support. Throughout the 1950s and early for the poor would be available. The profes­ 1960s, it instead endorsed private in­ sion had little difficulty accepting this inter­ surance schemes, first those run by vention for many of its members were find­ physicians which were essentially non­ ing it difficult to make ends meet as their profit and later profit based ones run by patients became increasingly unable to pay insurance companies. Indeed, by the time them for their services. The CM A went so far that medicare was implemented, the as to endorse a health insurance scheme. One profession was giving more support to the of the major stipulations of such a scheme, latter since it saw the non-profit schemes however, was that it only be compulsory for as a vehicle for government use when and those who were indigent. The government if it introduced a national health insurance would guarantee payment for those in­ scheme. dividuals, but for those who could afford to Naylor concludes his book by arguing pay the medical profession preferred to con­ that the medical profession was an effec­ tinue using a sliding scale of fees through tive lobbying force. Over the years, prac­ which practitioners charged the wealthy titioners came to support the CMA in more. This is what the profession had long greater numbers and thus strengthened it been doing in order to subsidize medical care accordingly. It was able to maintain an of the poor. It is difficult to understand why independence under the Canadian REVIEWS 297

medicare scheme which practitioners in are delineated in precise fashion. Chapter Britain were unable to do. He even points 10 includes an excellent presentation of out that fee-for-service is probably more the dismal condition of Canada's in­ entrenched in our system than in the dustrial sector. Chapters 12, 13 and 15 United States where privately run health provide a concise, comprehensible "mini- care facilities, which hire salaried prac­ course" in Marxist economics. A history titioners, are growing apace. of the "capitalist state" is neatly told in Chapter 14. The Chapter 17 discussion of Wendy Mitchinson the impact of the new technology on University of Waterloo employment and demand is especially good. Cy Gonick, The Great Economic Debate: Other dimensions of the book are not Failed Economics and a Future for Canadaa s compelling. The book is very long and (Toronto: James Lorimer and Company 1987). is recommended only as a text. Readers must wade through 300 pages before dis­ THE PURPOSE OF THIS immensely readable covering an explanation of the present book is to review the crisis in economic economic crisis. The scope and strategy thought as a way of understanding the of the book make the main line of argu­ present crisis in the capitalist economy. In ment hard to follow. For example, the the process, the author shows a tremen­ economics of the New Right is presented dous grasp of a broad scope of issues, in three different ways in different places, including: the relationship between ideol­ first as ideology (Part I), then as theory ogy and economics in the history of (Part III), then finally in concrete histori­ economic thought (Part I), the rise and fall cal terms (Part VI), making it hard to of Keynesianism and its replacement by connect the pieces. The Part I discussion monetarism (Parts II, III), the advent of of the relationship between ideology and post-Keynesianism (Part IV), Marxist economics is not particularly strong. The economics (Part V), and the causes of connection between ideology and the postwar economic prosperity, the crash, adoption of, say, supply side economics and the limits to capitalist recovery (Part in 1975 or non-radical policy in 1945, is VI). That all of these issues are dealt with not at all clear. in one book should prove useful to in­ The author's treatment of Keynes is structors in schools and workshops, who schizophrenic. He admires his "vision," have always had difficulty in finding an his radical critique of capitalism, his alternative to mainstream textbooks and policy alternatives. But he also criticizes commentaries. As an introduction to radi­ Keynes's political and economic naivete, cal political economy, this is the best sur­ the internal contradictions in his analysis, vey that has been produced in Canada. his construction of a grand illusion. Why, Particular sections of the book war­ then, is anyone surprised at, or scandal­ rant special attention. Chapter 2 treats the ized by, the fact that the "radical" Macdonald Commission as an ideological Keynesian prescription was not applied exercise in generating consent. Chapter 3 by capitalist governments? Post- summarizes convincingly the "supply- Keynesians like Joan Robinson, side" character of postwar economic Galbraith, and Thurow — the "true" fol­ policy in Canada. Chapters 6 and 7 offer lowers — are treated similarly. Their a particularly good and accessible ex­ ideas were rejected only in North America planation and critique of monetarism and and England, where weak anti-capitalist supply side economics. Alternative and strong liberal sentiments capitalist policies — such as incomes predominated. Gonick simply ignores the policy, industrial policy, and industrial relationship between ideological condi­ democracy — are explored in Chapters 9 tions and policy choices in Canada and to 11, and their structural and class limits elsewhere in the immediate postwar 298 L^BOUR/LETRAVAIL

period. Ironically, Gonick effectively ment of the Kondratieff long wave of criticizes post-Keynesian measures such as prosperity is disappointing. For much of incomes and industrial policy by showing the book, postwar prosperity is presented how their use has perpetuated the uneven as a kind of deus ex machina in explaining distribution of wealth and ownership and co- a way why capitalism remained healthy opted labour. He thereby inadvertently estab- even in the absence of the application of lishes the fact that "non-bastard" the Keynesian vision. The explanation of Keynesianism cannot be operationalized this cycle of prosperity is fairly descrip­ under capitalist conditions. tive, however. The positing as determin­ The casting of Swedish, German, and ing factors of the international economic other European experiences in a totally nega­ order and profit conditions is accurate, tive light is too ungenerous. Can it be argued but is somewhat removed from the book's that workers in Europe are worse off because theoretical framework. Marxist scholar­ their governments did not pursue North ship in Canada has yet to produce a con­ American-type economic policies? Has vincing explanation of the upward and nothing been gained from these experiences? downward movements of the postwar Surely the strength of the New Right in North long cycle. This is critical, inasmuch as America and England is precisely the result the treatment of fundamental technologi­ of the absence of these kinds of socializing cal change must be addressed with con­ and learning experiences and institutional siderable dialectical subtlety. Fundamen­ innovations undergone elsewhere. Gonick is tal changes in the means of production correct in concluding that Keynesianism was have always generated corresponding important in ideological rather than policy changes in the organization of production terms in Canada. But it must also be assessed and work, as well as in the arrangements in terms of the policies that were not enacted. of finance, the law, state policy, ideology, The postwar settlement in Canada was etc. Appropriate political and labour profoundly conservative because the responses to these changes must be con­ legitimacy of liberalism and capitalism was structed on a holistic, theoretical treat­ retained and indeed strengthened. There was ment of the nature of these changes in the no ideological reconstruction, no institution­ means of production. al re-arrangements, no social experiments of Cy Gonick has produced a very useful the sort which would lay the foundation for book to assist in understanding the uncer­ the "participatory socialist" strategy that tainty in economic analysis and the per­ Gonick proposes in his Afterword. Instead, sistence of the economic crisis. The study the New Right builds on an ideological past reflects the strengths of the Marxist politi­ and institutional arrangements that were cal economy tradition in Canada. His suc­ never really challenged or transformed. cessor volume on economic policy alter­ In this context Gonick's treatment of the natives is eagerly awaited. impact of technology is incomplete. For ex­ ample, he only hints at the impact of what Robert Malcolm Campbell was the ideologically attractive hyper- Trent University rationality of Keynesianism. The postwar domination of "progressivism" built on con­ Don Wells, Soft Sell: "Quality of Working Life " ceptions of new kinds of knowledge (collec­ Programs & the Productivity Race (Ottawa: tive) and new kinds of agents (bureaucracy) Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 1986). to contain market irrationality. This crippled socialism ideologically. When economic THE LAST DECADE has witnessed an ex­ conditions deteriorated, its false claims also plosion of rhetoric from managements, laid the basis for the alliance of Friedmanite management consultants, and govern­ economics and Christian fundamentalism in ments about the benefits of Quality of an anti-rationality revolt. Working Life (QWL) programs for both The absence of a full, theoretical treat­ workers and management. The literature REVIEWS 299 examining the effectiveness of QWL is assured through what one QWL consult­ dominated by evaluations conducted ant for Plant B called "a lot of climate-set­ from a managerial perspective. In con­ ting" in "Co-operative Decision-making trast to this literature Don Wells brings a Groups" (CDMs). In Plant A it took the refreshing alternate analysis and view­ form of orientation sessions which in­ point which is unapologetically from a cluded rather thinly veiled threats that if labour point of view. His central concern productivity did not increase then the cost is to uncover the impact of QWL on would be jobs. Labour-management co­ workers and their unions. In other words, operation was to be the key to ensuring what is the reality of QWL for workers? job security. To say that Wells is skeptical of QWL In point of fact, QWL was spurred on programs would be an understatement. in both plants by the threat of job loss. He sees them as "Trojan Horses" which Management's desire to be ever more offer increased workers' participation and competitive lead the way in their attempt democracy, increased job satisfaction, in­ to sell QWL to the workers. At first blush creased workers' control over jobs, and what choice do workers have? When jobs increased job security but contain instead are at stake workers become more recep­ the mechanisms through which manage­ tive to proposed solutions no matter who ment is able to solidify its control over proposes them. Plant A is "part of a major workers. Furthermore, management is industry in crisis" and Plant B was in the able to obtain the voluntary co-operation midst of "continuing massive layoffs." of workers in order to meet management However, such threats do pose problems goals. Wells succeeds in substantiating for management. It may make workers this view through a systematic and more receptive to QWL, but it also makes thorough investigation of attempts to in­ it much more difficult for management to troduce QWL into two unnamed in­ deliver on its promises of job security. dustrial plants. The strength of Wells' study lies in its Management does not enter into analysis of the goals of management and QWL haphazardly or unprepared. The the real consequences of QWL for sites and the personnel were carefully workers. Management's goals were not selected to ensure a maximum likelihood the openly-stated goals of QWL, but were of success. In Plant A the collective agree­ goals beneficial to management in the ment provided for the implementation of form of increased control over workers. QWL and the union leadership was in­ Wells argues convincingly that manage­ strumental in establishing a steering com­ ment wanted: (1) to have a controlled mittee to achieve that end. In Plant B delegation of authority to a few workers management, in consultation with QWL in order to establish self-supervision and consultants, established the structure of peer pressure as a means for increasing the program well in advance of consulting productivity; (2) to unlock workers' own with the workers or their unions. In either knowledge of the labour process such that case, the end result is the same — the it could be utilized to management's ad­ implementation of QWL is from the top vantage; (3) to promote work-group down. This irony does not go unnoticed cohesion and efficiency so that the work­ by Wells and he expands upon it by draw­ groups could be pitted against each other ing our attention repeatedly to the in a productivity race; and (4) to promote predominant managerial orientation of workers' identity with the product of their QWL. While QWL promises to improve labour in the hopes that increased job workers' lives on the job, its actual struc­ satisfaction and loyalty would result. In ture meets managerial goals by estab­ sum, the argument is that QWL serves as lishing decision-making frameworks and the veneer for management's bid to con­ problem-solving techniques. This is a quer the "last frontier" in the on-going peculiarly managerial orientation and is battle for control in the workplace. "The 300 L\BOURA£TRAVAIL

important point that top management has resentative the membership seeks out to grasped ... is that this last frontier can be resolve workplace problems. Overall, crossed only with the voluntary co-operation then, the union comes to play a lesser role of workers." in workplace relations even to the extent What do workers get for their voluntary of losing some of its legitimacy and con­ co-operation? According to Wells, not much. stituency. Only a few workers directly involved in the Perhaps the most insidious side to QWL process gain any increase in discre­ QWL is that it provides a cover for the tionary authority or increased participation. implementation of a secondary level of The Quality Boosters in Plant A gained in human relations reforms. These reforms this respect but the associated cost was their are not part of the QWL program per se increasingly contradictory position within but are part of an "entrenched process far the work-group. They had to reconcile their beyond the original programs." Even positions as part supervisors and part after the pilot projects in Plant A were workers. The expected increase in job satis­ dead (the union withdrew), the secondary faction for ordinary workers did not QWL continued to diffuse throughout the materialize. Wells argues there is a tem­ plant. The creation of "Quality Boosters" porary Hawthorne effect only. However, the was the central feature. They had some lack of a payoff in terms of job satisfaction degree of discretionary authority and is a relatively minor matter considering the served to supervise groups of workers. other attendant consequences of QWL. This program seems to work well for Work-group cohesion serves as a case in management as they can divest some of point. From a labour point of view an in­ their responsibility for supervision and crease in cohesion may seem to be a desirable for cajoling productivity increases to a outcome. Unfortunately, the coincident member of the work-group. The Quality deterioration of plant-wide solidarity more Boosters have a certain prestige and are than offsets any benefits. QWL pits work­ usually workers who are seen to have groups against one another in an effort to leadership qualities. They are "a new first spur productivity and inter-group relations line of supervision." suffer. Any resistance that may arise from Plant B had a similar diffusion of increased work-group cohesion to manage­ secondary QWL throughout the plant. ment intransigency is severely eroded by the The style of management changed to divisions at the plant level. These divisions reflect a more human relations approach. are of a serious nature for the union because Supervision was on a more friendly basis it affects organized resistance more than it in an attempt to improve rapport. Super­ affects individual resistance. visors were trained to use more co-opera­ For the union the impact of QWL is par­ tive approaches in motivating workers. ticularly threatening. Such programs often This approach is fairly typical of human constitute "an end run around the union" in relations reforms which include the use of that they most often fall outside of the col­ suggestion boxes and greater attention to lective bargaining framework. What workers' personal lives. management will not provide in collective To the uninitiated these may seem bargaining they will proffer in QWL like desirable reforms. As Wells says, programs, but of course these deals may be "The name alone — Quality of Working withdrawn unilaterally and arbitrarily. Life — makes it sound as if unionists Moreover QWL leads workers to be com­ would be insane to turn down this new placent about their contract to the extent that nirvana of work. Those who oppose QWL contract provisions are no longer policed ef­ can easily be made to look arrogant, cruel, fectively. If that is not enough, QWL ignorant, and smug about the serious threatens to circumvent the established shop problems people face at work." Yet op­ steward structure. Worker representatives in pose it they must. The broader process of the projects supplant the steward as the rep­ QWL slips outside of the safety net of REVIEWS 301 collective bargaining and workers be­ nity" clause that the steelworkers have in come entrapped within the framework of the can industry. The wording of this a managerial point of view. They find clause is not provided but it should be in themselves thinking about the workplace, order to give us an explicit illustration of the labour process, and industrial rela­ what can be done. We can then decide for tions in the same manner as management ourselves whether it is appropriate or does. This alone should give pause for needs to be modified to suit the specific reflection. situation. The final chapter provides a good out­ A second weakness arises out of his line of strategies for those confronted analysis of the diffusion of the secondary with a QWL program and its human rela­ human relations reforms. Wells takes tions baggage. Wells warns unionists to considerable pains to note that QWL regard QWL "as part of a broader programs have a very slow rate of dif­ management strategy." Given the fusion beyond the confines of the original relationship between QWL itself and the projects. Yet the external baggage of broader QWL process, this seems like human relations seems to spread quite sound advice. Not only must workers be rapidly throughout the plant without the aware that it is part of a broader strategy guidance of the QWL framework. Why? but they need to determine the specifics Wells argues that union consent to QWL of that strategy. The fine words and ap­ legitimizes the other human relations pealing concepts of the QWL supporters reforms. He says that "these changes were must be stripped away to reveal the stark not generally questioned by workers part­ reality of what the program will actually ly because of the positive experience of be like and how it will affect mechanisms the pilot projects." Yet this explanation is already in place to protect workers' inconsistent with his evidence and with rights. Moreover, unions need to mount the thrust of his argument. After all, the public relations campaigns partly to union withdrew from the pilot projects in counteract management and government Plant A. In various places Wells notes: public relations and partly to keep their "an overwhelming majority of the mem­ own membership informed about whether bership and the local leadership were op­ QWL is living up to its promises. Union posed to this kind of co-operation"; "a education needs to be directed toward strong majority voted to withdraw"; and developing a more united and active "the decision to pull out of the pilot membership base. It may then be possible projects was enormously popular across to circumvent the broader QWL process most of the plant." The pilot projects, at through pressure to include QWL within least as he presents them, hardly seem to collective bargaining, and through the ex­ be "positive experiences." posure of management hypocrisy in cases where demands are refused in bargaining The diffusion of QWL and related but proffered in QWL. human relations reforms in Plant B has not been rapid in either case. The reason The strengths of Soft Sell are many seems to be that the plant is in such and the weaknesses are few. It would have serious economic difficulty that all con­ been helpful if Wells had included an cerned are resigned that no amount of appendix on resource materials for those tinkering will save it. In any case, the who need to amass information to fulfill central question about the differing rates the call for more education. Materials of diffusion for QWL proper and human from a labour point of view may be few relations reforms has to be addressed. A in number but this makes it all the more more in-depth analysis of this serious necessary. Such resources need not be issue is necessary. detailed studies such as Wells's but may Soft Sell is written for a popular (tar­ be short and labour oriented. For ex­ geted to labour activists) rather than an ample, Wells refers to a "justice and dig­ academic audience. It is devoid of foot- 3Q2 LABOURyLETRAVAIL

notes and references. Many academics will tried with some success to present a com­ regard this as an unpardonable sin but it does prehensive picture of the various ap­ make the studies extremely readable and proaches and methodologies used to avoids much of the dross of more serious study work in Canada. Inevitably there scholarly attempts. Aside from the lack of are gaps. As far as this anthology is con­ resource material for those faced with the cerned, the prairies might as well not be prospect of QWL, these omissions are really part of Canada. There are articles about of little consequence. The uniquely labour the British Columbia forestry industry, perspective of these studies makes them a the segmentation of the workforce in the most welcome contribution to a body of Maritimes, the printers of Toronto, asbes­ literature already dominated by the bon mots tos workers in Quebec, Newfoundland's of QWL centres and management consult­ offshore oil drillers, Yukon miners, Por­ ants. For workers interested in the impact of tuguese and Italian immigrants in Toron­ QWL on workplace relations, for unionists to, and medical students in Hamilton, but interested in its impact on workplace no mention of farmers or any other group solidarity and on the dangers for union of workers located in the prairie provin­ leadership, and for academics studying and ces. teaching industrial relations, this work In addition to geographical selec­ provides valuable insights from a genuinely tivity, the essays do not touch on some alternative perspective. obvious themes. Although one of the ar­ ticles discusses the historical background Stan Marshall of the interventions of the federal govern­ Labour College of Canada ment in the labour market, unemployment insurance, and income support, the role of Katherine L.P. Lundy and Barbara Warme, eds., provincial governments, which bear the Work in the Canadian Context: Continuity Despiteprimar y responsibility for labour legisla­ Change (Toronto: Butlerworths 1986). tion, is ignored. The omission is par­ ticularly unfortunate given the impor­ THIS ANTHOLOGY OF 19 ESSAYS examines tance of the political arena at the provin­ work in Canada from a variety of perspec­ cial level in determining the conditions tives. The essays are arranged under five and terms of work. A discussion of this themes: Work and the Political Economy, dimension of the struggle for control of dealing with the implications for Canadian the workplace is especially timely when workers of such structural conditions as an right-of-centre governments in various over-reliance upon staples and the high de­ provinces are engaged in rolling back gree of foreign ownership and control of the gains many workers had assumed were economy; Changes in Work and Work Rela­ permanently won. tions, focusing on historical changes in the Other gaps might be cited. While work environment brought about by factors female workers are well-represented, the like technological innovation; Conflicts of section on women and work constituting Interest, highlighting the opposed interests 102 pages of the 369-page volume, there of capitalists and workers; Women and is no room for such groups as native Work, examining the problems confronting Canadians, youth, and the unemployed. and sometimes overcome by female workers; Of course, no anthology will satisfy every and Manipulating Occupational Fate, il­ need and taste, and Lundy and Warme lustrating individual and collective strategies have managed to put together a fairly in­ to obtain work or entry to a profession. clusive and representative set of essays. This organizational scheme differs from The editors have also taken pains to point the one used in the first edition of the book, out the thematic relationships linking the published in 1981. Also, ten new essays have individual pieces. been added to the nine which were retained Among the ten essays appearing in from the original volume. The editors have the second edition but not the first, Leslie REVIEWS 303

E. Martin's "Women Workers in a Mas­ Susan G. Davis, Parades and Power: Street culine Domain: Jobs and Gender in a Theatre in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia Yukon Mine" is outstanding. Martin (Philadelphia: Temple University Press 1986). worked as a labourer at the Faro open pit lead/zinc/silver mine and carried out in- IN 1832 PMLADELPH1ANS STAGED a centen­ depth interviews with the other 27 women nial celebration of George Washington's in the 581 -person workforce. She found birthday. On the surface the celebration that women adapted successfully to the was "a simple representation of consen­ tough masculine work culture by aggres­ sus and unity, [of] shared pride and sively standing up for their rights. patriotism."(4) But underneath it repre­ Women workers most often regarded sented a selected version of local social themselves, and were regarded by others, relations, for it excluded blacks, women, as mineworkers first and foremost: and many workers: these individuals, if drillers, pit labourers, equipment they celebrated the day at all, did so in operators, and so on, rather than as their own way, separate from the larger "women in men's jobs." Moreover, social drama. As such, the day's fes­ women enjoyed the working conditions, tivities tell us as much about class rela­ particularly the camaraderie with fellow tions and competing visions of the new workers, the physical challenges, and the republic in the early national period as high pay. One woman pit labourer pithily they do about the history of parades them­ summed up her feelings with the com­ selves. Thus Susan Davis calls her book ment: "I hate typing and all that crap!" Parades and Power, and she emphasizes the way in which parades in pre-Civil War If Martin's essay stands as an ex­ Philadelphia were shaped by relations of ample of imaginative and lucid scholar­ power, and, at the same time, are highly ship, Robert A. Stebbins' "Careers in revealing of them. Professional Football: Maintenance and Decline," occupies the other end of the The period Davis focuses on, 1790- scale. Stebbins studies not only objective 1860, is an interesting one, a unique his­ career histories of professional football torical moment in which the last vestiges players, but also how careers are ex­ of a popular and populist series of public perienced and interpreted subjectively by rituals coexisted with newer attempts to the players themselves. He reports that all stage both semi-official and alternative eight of the interviewees who had played visions of the republic in the streets of in the Grey Cup game define it as a Philadelphia. Take Independence Day, "thrill." He solemnly informs us that July 4, for example. On that occasion the "place kickers are judged by the number city's elite sponsored gentlemanly of field goals and conversions they make, ceremonies, private parties and dinners, punters by the average number of yards along with orderly street dramas. their punts travel, cornerbacks and defen­ Meanwhile, Philadelphia's workers ig­ sive halfbacks by their number of inter­ nored these attempts to develop rituals of ceptions and the average number of yards national identity and purpose and instead they return the ball, etc." made use of the occasion as a day of On the whole, however, the 19 essays licence, striking fear into the soul of the in Work in the Canadian Context are a city's elite. On other occasions good introduction and overview of the Philadelphia's volunteer militias subject. The book will stimulate the mounted public displays in an attempt to general reader and serve well as an under­ present themselves as universal defenders graduate textbook. of the public interest. Inspired by the democratic ethos of the Revolution, still J.M. Pitsula other citizens mocked these efforts, University of Regina developing street burlesques which not only parodied elite values but publically 3ML^BOUR/LETRAVAIL

dramatized their own disaffection. Other struggled to give public form to Moreover, as Philadelphia's industry their own, particular version of social developed, and as the distribution of wealth order and republican values. In the United in the city grew more lopsided, the increas­ States, then — much more than in Europe ing tension between masters and men led to — parades were more diffuse, capable of spontaneous strike parades, a new kind of addressing larger questions about the na­ public street theatre which worried ture of power, the sources of legitimacy profoundly the moral guardians of the city. and the criteria for belonging. Parades in Although this is one of the first books to Philadelphia were thus indicative of the focus on nineteenth-century parades, street attempts made by Americans of various theatre, public ceremonies, and social rituals social strata to work out their relationship in the United States, numerous studies of with each other in a volatile period of such phenomena in Europe have appeared. It state-formation and industrial growth. is to these works that Davis is often indebted. Parades and Power is eclectic in its She suggests, for example, that anti-in­ theoretical and methodological assump­ dustrial Luddite demonstrations in Britain tions. The book is often inspired by Eric inspired non-elite street dramas in Philadel­ Hobsbawm's and Terence Ranger's phia, and she is also at pains to show how analysis of The Invention of Tradition, European charivaris in general, and British and it offers a superb analysis of the con­ forms of public protest in particular, had flict between various attempted "official" their parallels in Philadelphia. The parallels inventions of tradition by Philadelphia's are certain noticeable, although the actual elite and a more unofficial vernacular connections between the forms of popular process of "traditionalizing." And it is protest that took place on the two continents also inspired by folklore studies, socio- are often developed inadequately. linguistics, Mikhail Bakhtin's analysis of What differentiated street theatre in the carnivalesque, the anthropological nineteenth-century Europe from that of the studies of Emile Durkheim and Victor United States was the extent to which the Turner, and the Marxist cultural analysis United States lacked any focused and nation­ of Raymond Williams. At times interest­ ally-orchestrated attempt to develop civic ing use is made of borrowed concepts, but rituals which might serve to unite disparate in places mere lip-service is paid to them social groups. As early as the 1790s, the and they remain of little help in decipher­ revolutionary elite in France was eager to ing Philadelphia's unfolding street construct a new model of national identity, theatre. The reader is constantly reminded while, as T.J. Clark has demonstrated, the of the need to pay attention to the context revolutionaries of 1848 were also eager to of the parade structures examined, al­ establish the legitimacy of the new French though the constant reference to context republic through icons, images, and public is often as annoying as it is meaningless. displays of national, revolutionary unity. Statements such as "the range of mean­ And in Britain, according to David Can- ings [parades] could be used to communi­ nadine, the late nineteenth-century jubilees cate was constrained by society and of Queen Victoria were public occasions on politics," (6) for example, remain un­ which workers in particular were offered a necessarily vague. vision of citizenship in the hopes that iden­ While this is a study of parades, tification with the nation might supplant public ceremonies, and street theatre, it is identification with class. But, at least before also a study of the uses of public space. If the Civil War, the United States was a nation the author's lack of engagement with the which lacked these concerted efforts to theory she borrows often remains develop a national identity through public problematic, her analysis of public space ceremonies. Some of the nation's defenders as contested terrain is superb. As claimed that such rituals and ceremonies Philadelphia's elites became more and were inappropriate to the new republic. more worried about non-elite uses of the REVIEWS 305

public arena, so social conflict in the city begun 1973 by Stuart B. Kaufman of the was manifested in battles around the uses University of Maryland. Tbe goal of the of public space for purposes of self- larger project is to assemble the total cor­ promotion and national identification. It pus of Gompers documents in a com­ is, in the final analysis, a tribute to this prehensive microfilm and a selective book that, in describing the tense and printed edition. The Making of a Union often'bitter conflicts over the public stag­ Leader, then, is the first of the selected ing of various street- dramas, it manages editions. It is the editors' hope that the to capture the extraordinary fluidity of printed volumes will be viewed as "a form social conditions in the first 70 years of of literature rather than simply a compen­ the republican experiment in the United dium of historical documents."(xxii) Par­ States. ticularly in the volume under review, the editors include a significant proportion of Chris Waters "non-Gompers" material and strive to Harvard University combine "the methods of the 'old' trade union history with the insights of the Stuart B. Kaufman, et al., eds., The Samuel 'new' labor history" (xviii) in order to Gompers Papers: The Making of a Union convey context and "a sense of the un­ folding of events over time."(xxiii) The Leader, 1850-86, Volume I (Urbana: Univer­ editors should be congratulated for ac­ sity of Illinois Press 1986). complishing this aim. RECENTLY, IN EDITING a collection of es­ Kaufman and his associates have says for the University of Illinois Press, I wisely avoided editorial comments that witnessed one of the more subtle aspects would place their enterprise amidst the involved in establishing a person's place ongoing historiographie debate regarding in history. Several of the collection's the character and achievements of authors had made reference to Samuel Gompers, the Cigarmakers, and the AFL. Gompers in the possessive case, but they In one eleven-line note at the end of the chose to ignore the press's instructions to "Introduction" the editors advise readers write "Gompers's", preferring instead where to look for a range of views. "Gompers' ...." Their protest against Throughout the remainder of the volume changing their ways compelled the copy interpretations by John R. Commons, editor to raise the issue at a staff meeting. Daniel Bell, Bernard Mandel, Philip Apparently after a long debate, a new Foner, and others of the man and the policy was established that henceforth movement receive scant attention. Samuel Gompers would join Moses and Readers interested in finding out how the Jesus in being allowed to deviate from documents presented redefine the picture grammatical standards applied to others. painted by various historians will need to Along with the stylistic advantages of the do that work themselves. decision, one can strain to find symbolic This is not to say that the volume meaning in the elevating of Gompers to lacks a point of view. The editorial es­ such exalted company. Clearly, if labour says, which draw heavily on Gompers' scholars were forced to designate one in­ own Seventy Years of Life and Labor dividual as playing the pivotal role in (1925) to provide background informa­ shaping the American labour movement tion, and the array of carefully selected they would express near unanimity for documents combine to give us an under­ Samuel Gompers. standable but complex picture. This The Making of a Union Leader, 1850- volume covers the first 36 years of 86 is the first volume of a projected Gompers' life, a time when he was an twelve-volume series entitled The Samuel energetic, dedicated, driven young man Gompers Papers. The Papers are them­ with a high self-esteem. Yet, regardless of selves but an aspect of a larger project, Gompers' personal ambitions, during 306 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

these years he also displayed a genuine sen­ revealing of the many documents in­ sitivity to the conditions of working people, cluded in this volume. In it, Hillmann gained from his own life-experiences as well rejects the Lassallean's political focus as from his study of theorists such as Marx and champions the role trade unions can and Lassalle. play in the emancipation of the working Born in London's East End in 18S0, class. In essence, Hillmann contends that forced by family circumstances to go to work a soundly managed union, free from at the age often and to immigrate to America direct political ties, pursuing concrete ob­ at fourteen, witness to the disruptive conse­ jectives such as shorter hours, higher quences of mechanization and the reor­ wages, and better working conditions, ganization of work through the tenement could provide "the elementary schooling house system, Gompers reflects in this and drill exercises of the proletariat." period an all inclusive outlook and not the Hillmann's ideas, conclude Kaufman and narrow skill-craft perspective of his latter company, "became the pillars of years. In 1872, for instance, he joined with Gompers' trade union philosophy." Adolph Strasser in forming the United Cigar- Many of the documents in this makers for the unskilled Germans and volume suggest Gompers' efforts to put Bohemians who were not allowed admit­ his principles into practice. They also hint tance into the Cigarmakers International at the conservatizing tendencies inherent Union (CMIU). Later when the United in such a philosophy, as Gompers fights Cigarmakers merge into the CMIU as Local to develop the highly structured unions 144, Gompers made this body his home. out of which so much is expected. These Similarly, in his three days of testimony bureaucratic impulses, however, are only before the Education and labor Committee of subthemes in the 1880s and not at the the U.S. Senate in August, 1883, Gompers heart of the CMIU's conflict with District dwelled on the working conditions of not just Assembly 49 of the Knights of Labor, or cigar markers, but also of freight-handlers, the Federation of Organized Trades and street car-drivers, tailoresses, tobacco strip­ Labor Unions' differences with the larger pers, shop girls, messenger boys, newsboys, Order. This first volume of the Gompers bootblacks, and steamboat hands. At this papers ends with the founding in Decem­ point in his life he shows extensive concern ber 1886 of the American Federation of for the problems of working women, perhaps Labor. reflecting a sensitivity developed from work­ ing alongside large numbers of women in the The general picture of young cigar shops. Gompers that emerges from this volume seems not far different from that found in The radicalism that Gompers espoused Stuart Kaufman's Samuel Gompers and during his earlier years was, then, informed the Origins of the American Federation of by his personal experiences, but it was also Labor, 1848-1896 (1973) or the defined by the particular theoretical ideas forthcoming essay by John H.M. Laslett, with which he came into association. In his "Samuel Gompers and the Rise of reading and discussions, Gompers gravitated American Business Unionism" (in Mel- toward a brand of radical thought circulating vyn Dubofsky and Warren Van Tine, in the 1870s among the Marxist trade union Labor Leaders in America). All agree that wing of the First International in New York Gompers was a committed young man, City. This orientation was clearly presented concerned about the well-being of his fel­ in the 1873 pamphlet Praktische Eman- low workers', attracted to radical ideas, zipationswinke (Practical Suggestions for but also an organizational builder and Emancipation) by the Saxony socialist Carl potential bureaucrat. It will remain for the Hillmann. In his autobiography, Gompers future volumes in the series to trace praises this pamphlet for revealing to him Gompers' maturation into a more conser­ "the fundamental possibilities of the trade vative business unionist. union." The pamphlet was for me the most REVIEWS 307

Warren Van Tine and not merely in name." The Ohio State University As Oestreicher's important study shows, this also was the project of Richard Jules Oestreicher, Solidarity and Frag­ thousands of U.S. workers who contested mentation: Working People and Class Con­the "competitive wage system" in the late sciousness in Detroit, 1875-1900 (Urbana: nineteenth century. These workers strove University of Illinois Press 1986). to make Lincoln's pronouncement that man comes "before the dollar" a reality. FROM RECONSTRUCTION into the 1890s, Precisely how to accomplish this task, the experience of industrial conflict and however, was something about which the effort to build unions and create an labour insurgents of the Gilded Age were independent labour politics defined the not clear. Oestreicher notes: "the spirit of contours of United States history for the movement was experimental; people thousands. During these years, U.S. considered a great variety of ideas and workers fought what amounted to a con­ practical proposals to see which would stant battle against their employers. work."(132) As Oestreicher kncws only Richard Oestreicher's study of Detroit too well, this kind of ideological eclec­ adds to a growing body of scholarship ticism reflected both strengths and weak­ which shows that at stake in the conflict nesses. Purposeful ambiguity could be between workers and employers was useful in recruiting; it could help cement nothing less than the very meaning of a movement that sought to attract workers democracy in the U.S. from a wide diversity of backgrounds. But Although Oestreicher's study does the story that Oestreicher tells is in large not directly address the question, it is measure one that documents the unfor­ important to note that the sources of this tunate triumph of this diversity over the conflict were deep. Indeed, they are to be idea of labour solidarity. Indeed, the great found not merely in the American past, strength of Oestreicher's study is that it but in "the great transformation" of excavates in superlative detail the Western culture that marked its passage dynamics of the collapse of labour insur­ to capitalism and found full-blown ex­ gency in Detroit. Moreover, Oestreicher's pression in the Industrial Revolution. argument holds implications for how this Along with the ideas that the right to question was played out on a national unlimited private property is inviolable scale. and that human beings are economic crea­ The process of fragmentation, as tures whose labour is but a commodity, Oestreicher explains it, found expression the principal ideological bequest of the in a deadly internecine battle among four revolution was the proposition that the groups of workers: craft conservatives, untrammeled pursuit of personal gain German socialists, independent radicals, redounds to the benefit of all. and artisan reformers. At times, the in­ Opposition to these beliefs and to the fighting looked like a left-right war; in social relations associated with them, of truth, the situation was more complicated. course, also was part of the legacy of the To be sure, the process of fragmentation Industrial Revolution. In the U.S., ar­ involved the all-too-familiar conflict be­ tisans and small farmers, who led the first tween the Knights of Labor and craft generation of opponents, looked to the unions. But the destructive cleavages republican tradition to define and within the Detroit labour movement owed legitimize their criticisms and aspira­ much more to the shifting alliances of tions. These first adversaries of Oestreicher's four groups of workers as capitalism saw a discrepancy between they confronted three question — republican ideas and daily experience; politics, trade unionism, and the they strove, as one U.S. historian has put Haymarket defendants — all in the imme­ it, to make the country "a republic in fact diate aftermath of 1886, the year of 308 lABOUR/UETOAVAIL labor's "Great Upheaval." solidarity in the city. Oestreicher sets up his account of the As Oestreicher explains it, the 1886 demise of labour solidarity by showing that, jurisdictional dispute involving the cigar- in general, each of the four groups of workers makers drove the already wary craft con­ drew their constituents from a single set of servatives out of the Knights; but the economic circumstances and a unique politi­ decisive factor in the fragmentation cal culture. The craft workers, mostly Irish process was the shift of the two "left" or native-born "Americans," regarded class factions to the camp of the craft unions. solidarity as a threat to their interests and And in Oestreicher's view, it was therefore advocated a conservative politics. Powderly's red-baiting (he even claimed Despite the conservatism of many craftsmen, that "anarchists" were out to assassinate however, the left in Detroit labour politics him!) that forced the labour left in Detroit also was craft-based: it was the German craft into an alliance with the conservative workers who created the Socialist Labor craft unions against the Knights. The left Party. Also on the left were the independent sided with the craft conservatives not so radicals — led by Joseph Labadie and Judson much because the left was interested in Grenell — who accepted the socialist criti­ preserving craft rights, but because the que of capitalism, but considered the Ger­ craft conservatives were opposing the mans ineffectual. Almost all of these workers Powderly-backed "reformers" in Detroit. were native-born, British, or Canadian, and To be sure, "independent radicals" their radicalism was anchored in republican such as Labadie moved into this alliance thought. (Oestreicher asserts that the absence only with great reluctance — and, as it of primary sources on Canadians in Detroit turned out, with good reason. For they may have skewed aspects of his study.) were soon to be outgunned in the craft- Finally, the artisan reformers, employed dominated AFL. With the national or­ mainly in "marginal" crafts and located to ganization of the Knights on the brink of the right of Labadie and other "independent" collapse in 1887 — again, thanks largely leftists, campaigned against the concentra­ to the wizardry of Powderly — the "sub­ tion of corporate power, but defended those culture of opposition," as Oestreicher "honorable" employers who "respected" ar­ terms it, was doomed in — and well tisanal rights. beyond — Detroit. For the factional strug­ Prior to 1886, the Knights of Labor were gles wrecked the organizational in­ able to maintain peace among the four groups frastructure of what had been an expand­ of workers. But the labour movement's very ing oppositional subculture. Oestreicher success in that year (Oestreicher gives a rich explains: account of this in his chapter entitled "A Summer of Possibilities: May to Labor Day, Thousands of workers were beginning to look at their own experiences and formulate a criti­ 1886") exacerbated the underlying divisions que of the industrial system, bu! people who within the movement. More deadly, how­ came from diverse cultural backgrounds and ever, was the jurisdictional dispute involving varying economic circumstances could not act the International Cigarmakers Union and the together without formal vehicles for discus­ Knights — a dispute which factionalized the sion, cooperation, and mobilization. Factional house of labour not only in Detroit. Terrence battles destroyed those vehicles. Without a Powderly, the grand master workman of the broad array of formal institutions, the labor Knights, precipitated this dispute. And in movement had no way to integrate the Oestreicher's view, it was Powderly's gut­ thousands of new recruits into a stable alterna­ tive (or complement) to the ethnic cultures to less ineptitude regarding the question of which they still belonged. The surge of the clemency for the Haymarket defendants that mid-1880s could not lead to a permanent held the most onerous implications for realignment of working-class loyalties without labour solidarity in Detroit. Indeed, that integration.(179) Powderly's role in the Haymarket affair trig­ gered the final disintegration of labour Out of his confrontation with Gilded- REVIEWS 3t»

Age Detroit, Oestreicher has fashioned a expression." For a time, Detroit workers convincing argument that traces the tri­ succeeded in creating such vehicles. umph of "pure and simple unionism" on "But," Oestreicher's conclusion states, the local level. But Oestreicher's study "through their own actions they also suggests an important link between helped to destroy the vehicles which had developments in Detroit and in the nation­ suggested new possibilities, and thereby al arena. The story of this triumph in cities helped to limit those possibilities. Per­ and towns across the U.S. differed in haps there is a lesson there."(253) detail, of course. Nonetheless, the It would have been helpful if theoretical model that Oestreicher puts Oestreicher had spelled out what this les­ forward also may prove suggestive to son was. My guess is that the lesson in­ labour historians who understand that the volves the formidable question of why received categories of Marxist analysis some Detroit workers helped destroy the can bring little light to bear on the ques­ vehicles that suggested an alternative to tion of why "pure and simple unionism" industrial capitalism. Oestreicher, of triumphed all across the U.S. course, provides some clues to an answer In Oestreicher's view, the story of in his discussion of "craft conservatives," labour in Detroit cannot be understood by "artisan reformers," and the deadly "per­ way of simple recourse to "classical Mar­ sonal ambition and jealousy," as the xism, with its emphasis on proletarianiza­ Detroit Advance and Labor Leaf once put tion as a result of the development of it, that deflected many labor leaders from productive forces ..." (xviii) and a conse­ their original insurgent course. Why so quent development in "class conscious­ many U.S. workers also opted for the ness." About this, Oestreicher — and main chance, though, strikes me as the other labour historians who are well overarching problem. And one that labour versed in their E.P. Thompson — are most historians have barely begun to address. assuredly correct. But this kind of "clas­ sical Marxism" is by now a kind of red Paul Krause herring: we know that "culture," for all its University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill non-specificity as an analytic category, also has played a role in the triumph and Mary C. Grimes, éd., The Knights in Fiction: consolidation of industrial capitalism. At Two Labor Novels of the 1880s (Urbana: his best, Oestreicher understands this, and University of Illinois Press 1986). has incorporated into his narrative the in­ sights of Barrington Moore, Jr., and THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR CUT an odd figure others who have been particularly sensi­ in working-class historiography. Long tive to the public and private sources of dismissed by historians as a passive, obedience and revolt. flaky, and ineffectual movement that was For all his criticism of "classical Mar­ peripheral to the concerns of most xism," and despite an elegant argument labourers, the Knights are now dubbed as that social change in Detroit produced the the major authors of working-class forma­ intertwining tendencies of solidarity and tion in industrial America. One factor in fragmentation, Oestreicher's study still this reinterpretation is the development of seems to carry with it a chunk of classical a cultural approach to labour history that Marxism's theoretical baggage: namely, recognizes the relevance of the Order to an unspoken expectation that workers working-class values and behavior, rather should have achieved "class conscious­ than simply assessing its record in in­ ness." To be sure, this expectation is dustrial disputes. The University of Il­ never louder than a whisper in linois Press has enriched further the Oestreicher's book. As he explains, class cultural history of the Knights by reprint­ consciousness is indeed a project; it is ing two novels about them that were "dependant upon concrete vehicles for originally serialized in the American 310 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

popular press of the 1880s. over the dead plasterer's daughter. The Both Larry Locke, Man of Iron, or, A gray dawn of morning discovered the Fight for Fortune: A Story of Labor and beautiful girl on her knees, clasping to her Capital (1883-84), by Frederick Whittaker, breast that paper token of humanity's a middle-class pulp writer, and Breaking the greatest brotherhood."(126) Chains: A Story of the Present Industrial Overshadowing Gantt's specific con­ Struggle (1887), by T. Fulton Gantt, a rail­ cern with the Knights is the larger strug­ wayman, labour lawyer, and member of the gle between labour and capital which is Knights, are significant for their sympathetic the central motif of the novel. In Gantt's treatment of the Knights, for their vivid view this struggle is ultimately moral in portrayal of working-class life, and for their nature, and the dichotomy between the representation of nineteenth-century two groups is both crude and absolute. American attitudes toward issues such as Except for the "filthy, festering" (47) heroism and feminism. Yet while these Chinese, all the working-class characters novels are useful in a documentary sense in Breaking the Chains are virtuous and because of their social authenticity, their dis­ pure. By contrast, the archetypes of busi­ similar achievements as literary texts also ness and political power are invariably speak to the methodological issues involved cretinous and corrupt. Significantly, the in the writing of working-class cultural his­ differences between these two groups are tory. played out in a domestic drama that over­ Gantt's novel, in particular, suffers from shadows the story of the boycott. the kind of structural weaknesses that give Echoing the political resonance of proletarian fiction a bad name. Strong on Lincoln's "house divided" speech, and Victorian morality and Knights of Labor drawing on the social currency of Henry dogma, but weak in terms of plot and char­ George's critique of property, Gantt acterization, Breaking the Chains is a makes the image of "Two Houses On One zealous and propagandistic work that often Lot" the controlling metaphor of the lapses from fictional form. Set in novel. One house is the extravagant man­ Washington D.C., the social drama of the sion inherited by Captain Arthur Barnum, novel concerns a successful boycott led by a real estate tycoon and scion of an ex- the Knights against a local newspaper. At a slaveholding family. Emblematic of un­ time when many Americans were wary of the earned wealth and exploitation, the man­ Knights' secrecy and feared that they were sion is perfectly suited to Barnum's per­ committed to radical goals, Gantt sought to sonality. Just as the walls of the mansion demystify the Order by describing its byzan­ conceal an opium den inside, so Barnum's tine administrative structure, and by em­ public show of temperance and discipline phasizing the dignity and intelligence of its is a front for his lechery and dissipation. members. Unfortunately, Gantt chose to The moral degradation of this lifestyle is make these points by lecturing his readers made all the more striking by comparison rather than appealing to their imaginations. with the modest, sober, and intellectual Several passages in the novel go into great atmosphere of the working-class house detail about the Order but contribute nothing next door. Formerly slave quarters, the to the development of the story; other seg­ Simpson home is a haven of domesticity ments work at cross-purposes to the plot. and a center of social interaction for the When the father of Maud Simpson, the Knights. The climax of the novel occurs book's protagonist, is killed in a job acci­ when Maud leaves that working-class dent, the tragedy of the moment is reduced to milieu to work for Barnum in his man­ absurdity by Gantt's insistence on explain­ sion. Shortly after Maud takes up her post ing the benefits of a Knights' insurance as governess Barnum tries to rape her, and policy: "Her brain whirled. What might not his attack is only foiled by the timely be done with $500. The noble and holy order arrival of Harry Wallace, a plumber and of the Knights of Labor was still watching member of the Knights who is Maud's REVIEWS 311 friend. Although this portion of the narra­ of strikes and its broad sympathy towards tive is not especially well-written, its organized labour. Like Gantt, Whittaker symbolism is obvious: the attempted rape offers a message of reassurance to mid­ is both an assault on feminine virtue and dle-class readers about the character of the integrity of labour. the Knights, while encouraging workers As Mary Grimes and David to recognize that organization and Montgomery point out in their respective solidarity are essential to the improve­ commentaries on Gantt's novel, this con­ ment of their conditions. Unlike Gantt, nection between femininity and labour is however, Whittaker's analysis is based on intriguing. Maud is clearly intended to a view of society that goes beyond a seem the "perfect heroine" (Grimes, 21) simple equation of class and morality. of the Knights, a representative of the Although individual characters in Order's openness and of the wider role Larry Locke conform to the stereotypes of women deserve to play in American good and evil that are the stock-in-trade society. And yet, like the feminization of of pulp fiction, these attributes are not nineteenth-century American culture as a uniformly extended along class lines. whole, Maud is a more ambiguous char­ There are some honest capitalists in acter than she first appears. Not only does Whittaker's novel, and there are also she perform traditional female work as a flaws and sources of dissension within the clerk and governess, she is also the per­ ranks of labour, including unresolved ten­ sonification of domestic virtue who sions between the striking steelworkers derives moral authority from her roles as and unemployed tramps. The apparent daughter, wife, and American beauty. validity of Whittaker's viewpoint is also Gantt's opening description of Maud is enhanced by the realism of his charac­ revealing: "Maud Simpson, aged about terization. Whereas workers in Breaking 20, perhaps looked her best as she the Chains spend much of their time in prepared the evening meal — a little over Platonic dialogue, the characters in Larry medium height, finely proportioned."(36) Locke are visceral and active as well as Significantly, in the concluding episode intelligent: they sweat and bleed and toil, of the novel, she marries Harry in a and in general experience a range and partnership that is truly union made. intensity of emotions of which Maud and Noting that "Maud Simpson is no more," Harry are only theoretically aware. Gantt closes the book with a classic This is especially true of the book's domestic image of "Mr. and Mrs. protagonist, Larry, whose private strug­ Simpson," "standing in the doorway, gle to complete the mortgage on his hand in hand,... their house a rendezvous property — Henry George again — is an for earnest men and women struggling for important sub-plot of the story. From the the elevation of their class."(133) standpoint of cultural history, however, By comparison with Breaking the Larry is also significant because Chains, Larry Locke, Man of Iron is a American folklore is filled with working- polished novel. Moreover, precisely be­ class heroes just like him. The orphan cause Whittaker is more committed to who makes good, the honest workingman literature as art, his novel is arguably who labours to support a wife and kid, the more evocative of labour's position in rugged individual who stands up for his industrial society. Loosely based upon an rights, the champion of the disinherited, actual steelworkers' strike in Pittsburgh, the good citizen who retains his faith in Larry Locke describes the role of the justice even when the law seems arrayed Knights in organizing workers in the fic­ against him, Larry is the embodiment of tional city of Holesburg. Distinctive from the richest myths in white, male, mainstream American fiction in its choice American culture. of subject matter, Whittaker's novel is Yet close scrutiny reveals that, like doubly unusual for its favorable portrayal Maud, Larry is a more ambivalent hero 312 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

than his creator perhaps intended. No amount "WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS," Woodrow of sympathy for Larry's plight can obscure Wilson's vice-president once told the the fact that he is an extraordinarily violent Senate, "is a good five-cent cigar." While man — admittedly, a trait he shares with the president was shaping the postwar many American leading men. No one gets world at Versailles his second-in-com­ killed in the novel, but it's not for lack of mand left only this flippant remark to trying: the "fight for fortune" is exactly what posterity. Now we learn that the comment it says. What is perhaps more significant, was both timely and prescient because for though, is the paradoxical image of Larry nearly two decades tobacco capitalists that emerges from his incorruptible sense of had been trying to invent a machine that class-consciousness. When his friend, the would manufacture just such an inexpen­ patrician mineowner Paul Van Beaver, offers sive smoke from quality leaf. Finally in Larry a partnership in the mine, Larry 1919 AMF came up with the device that responds: "No, Mr. Paul,... a workman I am, gave Wilson's vice-president what he and always shall be. The Knights of Labor wanted. But it also wiped out a whole way made me what 1 am, and if 1 was to go back of life and work. on them now, and join the bosses, I know I In this exhaustively researched, fine­ couldn't stand the pressure that would be ly crafted, and sensitively-written study, brought to bear on me to think capital and Patricia Cooper breathes life into that labor were enemies."(325) At one level a world which the cigarmakers had created solemn oath of class pride, this statement can and which AMF's machinery soon also be read, more negatively, as an affirma­ destroyed. She appears to have unearthed tion of social obedience, a signal that Larry everything remotely related to the in­ knows his place. Many transformations are dustry from business publications to visible in Larry through the course of the government reports, newspapers, trade- novel, but one of the subtlest is in his union records, and even some FBI files. relationship to "Mr. Paul." Brash and cocky The oral interviews alone make the book at the outset, Larry is almost subservient enjoyable as well as convincing. toward Van Beaver at the end, an attitude At the turn of the century cigarmaking which is in marked contrast to his behavior was an overwhelmingly male craft seg­ with the other mineowners. mented into four major markets — Clear In summary, both Larry Locke, Man of Havanas, Seed and Havanas, five-cent Iron and Breaking the Chains are useful ar­ cigars, and stogies. Remaining aloof from tifacts of the literature of nineteenth-century the rest of the industry, Cuban emigres in labour. Important in illuminating the strug­ Tampa rolled the expensive Clear gle of the Knights of Labor for public accep­ Havanas. Stogies, the cheapest cigars, tance in the 1880s, these novels have a wider were made mostly by women in the Pit­ significance to cultural historians in terms of tsburgh and Wheeling region. Cooper the social values they convey, and in helping focuses on Seed and Havana cigars (ten to locate fiction by and about workers in cents and up) and the five-cent cigar sec­ relation to American literature generally. It tors. It was here that the predominantly can only be hoped that the republication of male cigar makers and their famous or­ more such works will soon follow. ganization, the Cigar Makers Internation­ al Union (CMIU), held sway. Because the Graham Carr industry remained decentralized and Concordia University highly competitive, the CMIU exerted a stranglehold over the work process in Patricia A. Cooper, Once a Cigar Maker: Men, these two branches of the trade for rough­ Women, and Work Culture in American Cigarly three decades after 1880. During this Factories, 1900-1919 (Urbana and Chicago: period under-capitalized employers ran University of Illinois Press 1987). small craft shops that depended upon local markets and were in no position to REVIEWS 313

hire time-study people or to implement ever, signified their deep interest in Taylor's management theories. preserving a degree of male Cooper focuses in particular upon the privilege."(117) If the author had been work culture that emerged in these cigar practicing the "old" labor history, she shops. "1 found a coherent system of ideas would have stopped there for lack of ad­ and practices forged in the context of the ditional evidence. But by pluck and luck work process itself, through which she located two score elderly women workers modified, mediated, and resisted cigar makers to interview about condi­ the limits of their jobs." Working in close tions in the emerging cigar factories of the proximity to each other without the early twentieth century and garnered deafening roar of machinery, cigarmakers enough material for three full chapters on were a very sociable bunch. They dressed them. Employers, bent on reducing the nattily, wearing their neckties at their authority of the CMIU, set up factories in bench, and prided themselves upon their Pennsylvania and Ohio where large pools skill and speed. Traditionally they held of young, single, immigrant women back three cigars a day for their own use. sought work. While the women did not (or Tramping, a rite of passage for most could not) share the men's wanderlust, young cigarmakers, helped build strong they participated in their own rich, work- feelings of mutual aid and contributed to and community-based associational life an open and trusting atmosphere. Dis­ reinforced by the team system and ethnic gruntled cigarmakers often chose to set up or family bonds. Her analysis of both their own one-man "buckeye" shops, men's and women's work culture is keeping their union cards without having stimulating and provocative although oc­ to take further guff from a boss. casionally suffering from tunnel vision. For instance, portions of the cigar "Tragically," Cooper argues, "the makers' work culture, notably tramping, very strength of cigar makers' work cul­ were shared by many other skilled ture proved to be their downfall." As craftsmen. She overlooks the link be­ employers gradually introduced tween high turnover rates and the intro­ machinery, sub-divided the work process, duction of welfare capitalism in many of and consolidated their operations so as to the cigar factories. By treating women serve a national market, skilled male workers separately (chapter 8), she ini­ craftsmen were displaced by young im­ tially distorts the differences between migrant women. "Unable to open their women's and men's work cultures. For­ doors to women team workers or to con­ tunately, in late chapters she takes pains front the vast changes in the industry," the to delineate those workplace-centered author concludes, "union cigar makers areas of experience which cut across guaranteed their own demise and the con­ gender divisions. sequent collapse of their work culture." Cooper's analysis of the role of gender in At the end of World War I, both men the cigarmakers' labour process is the and women cigar makers waged unremit­ book's single most valuable contribution ting struggle for higher wages, shorter and is required reading even for those hours, and respect for their traditional scholars ordinarily repelled by tobacco — prerogatives. Most were lost, including or by Samuel Gompers, North America's one in Boston to a firm which adopted the most famous cigar maker. new continuous-flow machinery devised Few historians would deny that craft by AMF. Using the same equipment unions were bastions of masculinity. But during the 1920s General Cigar Corpora­ Cooper goes considerably further: "Male tion marketed the first national brand of unionists viewed the expansion of female five-cent cigar. By the end of the next employment in the industry as a kind of decade five-cent cigars manufactured by economic threat, yes. Their policies and women tending automatic machines ac­ reactions to women cigar makers, how­ counted for more than 80 per cent of U.S. 314 L4B0UR/LETRAVAIL

cigar production. Wilson's vice-president party is difficult to judge. The author, lived just long enough to see that the country however, has made no attempt to assess got a "good," machine-made five-cent cigar the class consciousness of American whether it needed it or not. workers. His choice was to write political This volume is one of the best of the crop history but if we are to judge whether in the "new labour history." there was an adequate base for a labour party movement, the answers are not to be Robert H. Babcock found in the doctrines of leftist sects or University of Maine the words of trade union leaders. It is insufficient to assume, as Denis does, that Serge Denis, Un Syndicalisme pure et simple: the growth of industrial unionism is in Mouvements Ouvriers et Pouvoir Politique Auxitsel f a measure of class consciousness Etats-Unis, 1919-1939 (Montreal: Boreal 1986). that could have been translated into politi­ cal terms. Perhaps those militant labour ONCE MORE, a scholar returns to the nagging and radical leaders of the 1930s, who es­ question: why is there no socialism in chewed a labour party, may have known America? This time Serge Denis, a professor American workers better than Denis does. of Political Science at the University of Ot­ The author does not choose to deal tawa, attempts to answer his own particular with the many structural and cultural ex­ version, in the somewhat more restrictive planations of American society. Scholars form of why there was no development of a who have taken these approaches such as significant labour party in the United States Louis Hartz and Richard Hofstadter and in the 1930s. many others do not appear in his bibliog­ This work cannot be termed an original raphy . Thus one finds no discussion of the research effort, since no archival sources and particular problems of third parties in the only scattered published primary sources American system or of the dominance of have been consulted; nor is this a work of liberal ideology in American life. The broad synthesis. Denis leans heavily on a author does briefly raise the issue of so­ variety of secondary sources to produce a cial mobility but seemingly without the rather eclectic narrative of trade union, radi­ benefit of having read Stephan cal, and political developments. He supplies Thernstrom and other specialists in the us with much detail on the internal politics field. For that matter, he has not consulted of various radical sects such as the Com­ Dubofsky and Van Tine's scholarly munist, Socialist, and Socialist Workers par­ (1977) study of John L. Lewis, but relies ties. Denis also surveys the familiar develop­ on Saul Alinsky's older, popular treat­ ment of the AFL bureaucracy and the rise of ment. the CIO industrial unions. His objective is to There are two final issues to be raised. show the supposed failure of the left to pur­ First, the failure of the United States to sue the organization of a genuine labour turn left in the 1930s might be set along party, as well as to argue that Franklin D. side its success in not turning to the right Roosevelt and John L. Lewis were both for­ — to fascism. That was not an incon­ midable opponents of labour party efforts. siderable achievement given the balance Denis believes that the 1930s offered a mo­ of forces within the United States and as ment when American capitalism was in measured against the fate of other in­ crisis, when the worker's class conscious­ dustrialized nations. Second, while one ness was appropriately high but an oppor­ may share his regret that the United States tunity was missed. He laments this failure to has no labour party, Denis's optimism develop a labour party not only for American about such political formations seems un­ society but for the sake of the world. warranted. He suggests that a genuine Whether the social and political atmos­ labour party might have prevented a phere of the 1930s offered a unique oppor­ Watergate and even changed the shape of tunity to lay the foundations for a labour the world. This is more than the author's REVIEWS 315

privileged conclusions because it exag­ and detailed narrative of this critical con­ gerates the difference between the United flict and for this reason alone the book is States an the West European nations. Un­ highly welcome. fortunately, the Democratic party of the Neuschatz, however, has greater am­ United States is most often separated bitions. This is a work of Marxist histori­ from European social democracy not by cal sociology, seeking to locate "what ap­ an ideological ocean but by a semantic pears at first as an isolated and narrows. An American labour party, if it idiosyncratic explosion of labor strife" was possible, if it could have achieved within the broad contours of capitalist some level of success, would not have development in the American West. guaranteed either a socialist United States Above all, it is the rise and decline of the or a better world. WFM's radicalism that interests Neus­ chatz and his eyes are as much on the Stephen J. Scheinberg present as on the past. "By reaching back Concordia University to a time and place where, at least for a brief period, a viable political challenge Michael Neuschatz, The Golden Sword: The to capitalist structures of rule emerged Coming of Capitalism to the Colorado Miningfro m a militant labor union, we can begin to identify and examine the conditions Frontier (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press that foster and hinder such develop­ 1986). ments." ONLY A HANDFUL OF MOMENTS in North The early chapters of the book focus American labour history have matched on the rapid growth of the WFM in the either the drama or the significance of state in the 1890s. The relatively Colorado's early twentieth-century egalitarian social structure of the early "labour wars." Marked by the declaration mining camps and Colorado's populist of martial law in the gold towns of Cripple political tradition helped pave the way for Creek and Telluride, the shutting down of the union. When combined with a labour pro-union newspapers, the arrest of union shortage stemming from the rapid leaders, and the deportation of hundreds development of gold mining in the later of miners, the events of 1903-04 drew 1890s, the situation was ideal for national attention and led more than one unionization. Though Neuschatz main­ worker to ask, "Is Colorado in America?" tains that the WFM's goals were "strictly The strikes provided a near death blow to economic, albeit militantly so" in this the radical Western Federation of Miners, period, he also argues that a "social while turning a number of its leading ac­ vacuum" in the still new mining towns tivists, notably Vincent St. John and "Big allowed the WFM to take on a number of Bill" Haywood, towards the creation of a important social functions (education, broader radical labour organization, the entertainment, etc.) and thus to emerge as Industrial Workers of the World. an implicit "dual power" in a number of But despite their importance in work­ communities. ing-class history, these events have not This situation would not last long. received much scholarly attention. Mel- Neuschatz shows clearly that the same vyn Dubofsky's discussion of the dynamic of economic growth that brought Colorado struggle in his history of the leverage to the WFM also triggered a WW,We Shall Be All (1969), is stimulat­ massive flow of outside capital into the ing but brief; George Suggs's fine study region. This led to a wave of business of Colorado's War on Militant Unionism consolidations and technological (1972) focuses more on the anti-labour developments that gave owners the power administration of Governor James H. to challenge the union. But as employer Peabody than on workers. In The Golden resistance to WFM demands increased, Sword, Michael Neuschatz offers a clear the union transformed itself, moving from 316 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL simple economic militancy to political light of recent studies which have radicalism. The transformation of the WFM, provided fine-grained analyses of the tex­ reflected in its organization of the broad- ture of working-class ideology or have based Western Labor Union in 1897 and its drawn out the complex implications of endorsement of socialism in 1901, led to an militant craft unionism, Neuschatz's equally important shift in the owners' camp. simple distinction between economic Where they had earlier sought to resist new militancy and anti-capitalist radicalism union demands, they now embarked on an does not seem very illuminating. all-out effort to destroy the radical Federa­ Nonetheless, the book has much to tion. offer labour historians. Particularly valu­ In his discussion of the ensuing strikes, able are Neuschatz's attention to which occupies most of the second half of the employer strategies and intra-capitalist book, Neuschatz makes a number of impor­ conflicts, his discussion of the uses of tant contributions. He persuasively interprets state power, and his analysis of large pat­ the strikes not as the result of conflict over terns of economic growth. These have not the eight-hour day, the ostensible issue in been dominant issues in many recent dispute, but as a life-and-death struggle for working-class studies and it is instructive political hegemony in Colorado and the West to find them so well handled here. Even as a whole. He also convincingly delineates more impressive is Neuschatz's effort to tensions within the employers' camp, espe­ grapple with what was distinctively cially those between eastern investors, local "western" about western labour history. capitalists, and the Peabody administration. His points about the endemic shortage of Though all three shared an interest in labour in the West and the "social destroying labour radicalism, outside inves­ vacuum" in mining camps, while not tors were fearful that the wholesale destruc­ strikingly original in themselves, are ef­ tion of the union might have long-term ad­ fectively linked to the distinctive pattern verse effects on profits. Meanwhile Peabody, of labour organization in the region. The for all the brutality of his policies, needed to book is essential reading for those inter­ consider the political effects of his actions in ested in western labour history and has a way that local capitalists did not. It was the much to offer historians of other regions latter who, according to Neuschatz, provided as well. the most active anti-union force, organizing the so-called "Citizens Alliances," leading mob actions against miners, and forcing pro David Brundage union merchants and municipal officials into University of California Santa Cruz line. Roger D. Waldinger, Through the Eye of the Like some other examples of historical Needle: Immigrants and Enterprise in New sociology, The Golden Sword relies more on York's Garment Trades (New York: New York a reading of older secondary works than on University Press 1986). deep research in primary sources. As a result, the book is sometimes thin on issues of con­ IN YET ANOTHER ATTEMPT to explain the cern to labour historians. For example, the social forces that influence the distribu­ heavily immigrant character of the mining tion of immigrants in specific sectors of workforce, while noted, is not discussed sys­ the capitalist economy, Waldinger has tematically, a point which partly undermines married the cultural theories of ethnic the analysis of the WFM's social functions. studies to the economic theories of dual No evidence on rank-and-file opinion is labour markets. While his effort is presented and, as a result, comments made laudable, it offers the reader few new in­ on this subject are unconvincing. Most sights into either garment industry problematic for a book concerned with economics or ethnic enterprise. The labour radicalism, the precise character of weakness lies primarily in the narrow the WFM's ideology is never assayed. In focus of the work. By concentrating his REVIEWS 317

analysis on the social and cultural at­ academics and as historian Joan Wallach tributes of immigrant contractors and Scott has cautioned in the Radical History manufacturers he has lost sight of the par­ Review: "Gender must be understood not ticular form that the extraction of surplus just as a physical or social fact, but as a value has taken in these small shops way of organizing and talking about where continued dependence on cheap power; not only the relations between female labour rather than specific ethnic men and women, but also between the qualities of the entrepreneurs have always powerful and non-powerful," it is incum­ determined success or failure. Waldinger bent upon progressive-minded hypothesises: "Immigrant firms enjoy a sociologists and historians to be con­ competitive advantage in small business scious of the significance of gender rela­ industries because the social structure of tions in their work. In the case of the ethnic community provides a Waldinger's study of immigrant mechanism of connecting organizations enterprise the omission is inexcusable. to individuals and stabilizing these In fact the gender of the workforce is relationships. "(15) To prove his point he an important component of the recruit­ has focussed his research on an industry ment process. The seasonal character of he knows well, the New York needle the trade, which he gives as an important trades. reason for the growth of contract shops, Waldinger's acquaintance with the also plays an important role in recruit­ trade goes back to 1975, when as an or­ ment of women workers. Married women ganizer and labour educator for the with families can often only find work in ILGWU, he began work with the industry. seasonal trades, and since over half of the After several years of graduate study on women in the American labour force are immigrant enterprise, he again returned to married and their number continues to work in the industry: "1 began to work for grow, the presence of married women in the union as a consultant; and, without the garment shops will continue to be rupturing ties to the ILGWU, later worked significant. The fact that immigrants for the employers' association and for the come in two sexes and that contract shops city of New York as a consultant on a have made extensive use of kin connec­ number of projects related to the garment tions and patriarchal power relationships, industry."(16) Through the assistance of is hardly addressed in the text. union, management, and government Most of the research on ethnicity and Waldinger has been able to gather data enterprise has concentrated on examining from a large variety of sources: un­ the specific characteristics and actions of published union documentation of wages immigrant groups that have made them and conditions in contract shops; mem­ "successful" in the Western cultural bership rolls of union locals, allowing milieu. This work has focused on social him access to some 100 Hispanic garment and cultural variables that have aided the workers; and surveys and interviews with immigrants in their struggle to "make it" 136 immigrant contract shop owners and in America. Waldinger reviews many of 35 New York-headquartered manufac­ the components of effective integration turers. Yet after such advantages as these citing the works of Ivan Light (1972) and we could expect more than the book has Edna Bonacich (1973, 1980) as seminal offered us. works in the field of ethnic enterprise. But In an industry which employs almost what he does is in many ways more inter­ exclusively female labour (comprising esting, for he goes beyond both cultural 80-83 per cent of the workforce), he has and social theories of immigrant managed to write without a single refer­ enterprise to suggest instead that such ence to either class or gender. Today, theories have ignored the economic con­ when the political issues of gender are text of ethnic enterprise and have failed to continually on the minds of many examine the "relationship between 318 LABOURyLETRAVAIL

immigrant's ethnic resources and the re­ found itself squeezed on one side by the quirements of the industries in which their large retail firms and on the other by the businesses grow."(IS) continued monopoly concentration in the Much of Waldinger's thinking on the textile sector, efforts to extend technol­ subject of immigrant enterprise has taken ogy and to standardize production, while direction from the work of M. Piore. In Birds they have met with some success in keep­ of Passage (1979) Piore suggested that the ing labour costs down, have only been secondary labour market's low status, dead successful in those sectors of the trade end and poorly paying jobs are seen as unat­ where commodity products cater to tractive to native workers forcing employers regular and steady demand. It is in the to turn to immigrants to fill the jobs. Wal- search for ways to keep those labour costs dinger points out that in the garment industry down that the ongoing symbiotic relation­ low wages have caused most of the tradition­ ship between the large manufacturers and al workers to leave the trade resulting in the small contract firms can be under­ shortage of labour in the industry since stood. Unfortunately Waldinger shows World War II. As a result, the central prob­ only a limited understanding of the lem in the garment industry has become the relationship between small contract shops recruitment and training of new workers. and large-scale manufacture. Into this gap has come the immigrant In fact what Waldinger has docu­ entrepreneur: with his family connections mented is the process of restructuring the and ethnic community ties he has been able New York trade. The production process to recruit new workers. Waldinger suggests has been reorganized to meet the specific that, "Whereas natives shun secondary jobs demands for the industry's varied whenever possible, immigrants accept these products. Large standardized shops have same conditions." The explanation, accord­ grown up in sectors of the trade where ing to Waldinger, "lies in the expectations style change is limited, (men's clothing, and orientations of immigrant workers." Be­ sportswear, underwear), while the cause many immigrant workers see themsel­ production of highly seasonal and vari­ ves as temporary workers, they are "indif­ able commodities such as women's outer­ ferent to the issue of upward mobility and wear, in particular dresses, has relied on unconcerned with the instability of employ­ smaller firms and contract shops, con­ ment conditions that trouble native centrated in New York. "Market segmen­ workers." The powerless position of im­ tation is inexorably squeezing out the migrant workers, however, is not even con­ middle-sized producer, leaving smaller, sidered, nor does Waldinger address the par­ flexibly organized firms to absorb the in­ ticular vulnerability of 'illegal' immigrants. stability of the market," observes Wal­ Waldinger has become so enamoured with dinger as he explains why garment shops the functional aspects of immigrant continue to survive in Manhattan.(95) But enterprise he has lost sight of social and this process of market segmentation is not economic conditions in the trade. new to the industry, for as long as ready- After outlining the economic history of made clothing has been made in the the New York trade — taking the reader United States the size and nature of the through a brief history of its growth, the production unit has been determined by development of large firms during the 1970s, the type of product and the demand that and the re-emergence of contract shops in existed for it. New York — he concludes that the continued A system of contract shops has al­ existence of small contract shops in garment ways flourished as a part of the garment manufacturing in New York is a direct result industry, their presence noted by his­ of immigrant enterprise. Yet there are other torians of the industry as early as the ways of looking at and explaining the 1880s and 1890s. They have provided the proliferation of small-scale production. trade with a reserve pool of labour that As the clothing industry has increasingly could be drawn upon during rush seasons REVIEWS 319 in the industry. To the contractor shops not tell the reader when he is referring to goes the honour of developing the sweat­ immigrant entrepreneurs who work as ing system, for these enclaves set the pat­ contractors or when he is referring to tern of extreme exploitation of women those who are manufacturers. and children in the trade. In a trade which The latter chapters of the book ex­ required production to move from only a plore conditions under which immigrant few garments a week to several thousand firms have been able to prosper and which garments a day these small shops served ethnic groups are more successful than an important role. Contractors were an others. At one point he makes a loose essential element in a trade reliant on comparison of the failure rates of native flexibility as they provide back up for and immigrant firms and notes that im­ overflows of production demand during migrant firms fail more frequently, he the rush season, and produced short runs concludes that the reason for this is the of specific styles not anticipated by larger fact that immigrant firms are mainly new manufacturers prior to the season. Here firms and as such failure is more likely, immigrant contract shops have found but while "older entrepreneurs may be their home, producing highly seasonal losing some of their competitive edge, fashion items at the lowest wages pos­ their experience and knowledge of the sible, defining immigrant women as the market, and ties to customers and sup­ sub-proletariat of the New York rag trade. pliers are assets that still work to their Surely this factor warrants a place in any advantage."(134) But since the failure analysis of the "success" of immigrant rate in contract shops is likely to be higher enterprise. The ethnicity of immigrant than other forms of production units, un­ groups associated with the super exploita­ less we know which of the firms are inside tion of labour in the trade may have manufacturers and which are contract changed over the last hundred years, but shops, this evidence has little sig­ little else about the nature of expropria­ nificance. Again ethnicity has provided a tion of surplus value has altered. To way of obscuring reality rather than en­ analyze successfully the New York trade hancing it. it is important to separate the components of the industry in terms of their produc­ Because Waldinger has failed to un­ tion process rather than their ethnicity. derstand the continued relationship be­ tween small contract shops and larger At times Waldinger tends to treat both manufacturers, he has not been able to contract shops and manufacturers as explain effectively the presence of im­ equivalents, but contractors are not migrant workers and entrepreneurs in the manufacturers in the real sense. In fact trade. The ability of immigrants to exploit contract shops have become little more their own kin and kind has given them than outside workshops for large continued advantage in the trade, but this manufacturing and retail firms. Contract is not a new phenomenon: only the eth­ shops provide the "path of entry for ... nicity has changed. What Waldinger of­ new immigrants." Waldinger notes that fers us is a limited explanation as to why immigrant firms are "the reactive and sub­ particular ethnic groups seem to have ordinate partners to the manufacturers been more successful in this exploitation with whom they are engaged in a division than others, but in the process he has told of labor, because manufacturer/contractor us very little about the political and linkages are unstable, reflecting New economic realities of the trade. York's role as a spot market for late- developing demand."(148) This relation­ Mercedes Steedman ship would have been an important one to Sudbury explore, but instead Waldinger continues to intcchange the two types of production Ronald Lawson, éd., The Tenant Movement in units as if they were equivalents and does New York City, 1904-1984 (New Brunswick: 320 I^BOUR/LETRAVAIL

Rutgers University Press 1986). ing for many New Yorkers has created a series of housing crises in the primarily WHILE MANY SCHOLARS have shown interest rental metropolis throughout this century. in the question of tenure patterns in urban Tenant response to these conditions North America, most of their attention has began with sporadic rent strikes in build­ been focused upon the ownership side of this ings populated largely by poor, left-wing issue. The volume under review here Jewish residents and progressed to a level provides a welcome perspective on the rental of organization that included component of housing tenure. Based on the metropolitan, state, and national tenant results of a multidisciplinary investigation of bodies that employed a wide range of tenancy in New York that was directed by the tactics (lobbying for legislation such as editor and funded with a $200,000 grant from rent control, court battles, building take­ the Center for Metropolitan Studies at the overs, and the formation of neighbour­ National Institute of Mental health, the hood planning groups). By the 1970s volume represents a sweeping yet cohesive tenant activists included in their number examination of tenant activism in North many members of the middle class who America's largest city. It serves as a useful sought both to conserve neighbourhoods addition to our comprehension of several im­ and to protect themselves from escalating portant aspects of the tenure question. rents and deteriorating conditions. Research for the book involved the To someone such as myself who is analysis of fairly traditional primary sources used to conducting research on the small that were abundant for the New York area — city of Hamilton, Ontario, the statistics newspapers (both English and foreign-lan­ associated with New York's housing guage), tenant-group minutes, government problems are staggering — 103,000 tene­ records, and personal interviews with many ment buildings to be inspected in 1916, of those who were involved in the move­ 500 buildings organized for a rent strike ment. These sources have been carefully in 1919, over 400,000 apartment units mined to provide an interesting and detailed added to the city's housing stock in the story of tenant activism in New York be­ 1920s, more than 40,000 units removed tween 1904 and 1984. The volume contains from that stock between 1933 and 1936 both an introduction and a pictorial history due to demolition, abandonment, and compiled by the editor along with five sub­ conversion to other land uses. By 1965 stantive chapters which examine the tenant the New York City Housing Authority movement in a chronological fashion — pre- was landlord to over one-half million World War I (Jenna Weissman Joselit), the people in more than 100 projects and had 1920s (Joseph A. Spencer), the Depression a waiting list of more than 100,000 years (Mark Naison), 1943-1971 (Joel families. In 1966 there were 781,000 Schwartz), and 1970-1984 (Ronald Lawson). registered building code complaints in The flow and sense of continuity within the New York City. While New York is an volume are admirable for a work of this type. eye-opening setting for the study of the What emerges from a reading of The Tenant twentieth-century tenant movement, one Movement is a very definite sense of the is left with a sense of the uniqueness of evolution of tenant activism in New York that locale. We still need research into from rather tentative beginnings to a tenancy and tenant activism in smaller phenomenon that possessed "diversity, cities before any theories concerning the sophistication, and power" (271) by the mid tenant movement can be developed. To 1980s. As Lawson notes in his introduction, what extent, for example, is the New York "the history of the tenant movement [in New experience relevant to tenants in Bal­ York] affirms popular insurgency even under timore and Calgary? difficult conditions."(7) Due to the nature of the tenant move­ The fail ure of the private housing market ment in New York, this book should be of to provide appropriate and affordable hous­ considerable interest to historians of REVIEWS 321 various stripes. The role of women in president of the National Woman's Chris­ New York's tenant movement, for ex­ tian Temperance Union during its most ample, was prominent throughout most of significant years in the late nineteenth the period examined. To a large extent, century. For nearly two decades she moreover, this movement was spear­ headed the largest women's organization headed by an ethnic response to big-city in the United States, one claiming by life, especially by Jews, Blacks, and 1890 nearly 200,000 dues-paying mem­ Hispanics. Students of housing policy bers and countless supporters. Willard formulation also will be interested in the used both her position and popularity to story told in this volume, for there is rich broaden the scope of WCTU activism and detail here concerning both legislation to build alliances with other progressive and lobbying. Finally, interesting paral­ forces, including the Knights of Labor, lels between worker/manager relations Prohibitionists, and Populists. With skill­ and landlord/tenant relations are drawn in ful tactical manoeuvres, she overcame several places which should be of interest conservative opposition to women's to labour historians. enfranchisement and made the WCTU the era's largest woman suffrage society. Her The Tenant Movement is not without interests ranged widely, from collective a few minor problems. While it contains housekeeping to nationalization of the 30 very good photographs, maps are total­ railroads, and she gained audiences for ly absent. Those without a very detailed such controversial ideas where others knowledge of New York's neighbour­ failed repeatedly. On the day of her hoods may find the numerous place refer­ funeral, flags across the country were ences rather confusing. The use of lowered, and a nation mourned. In acronyms, while unavoidable in a study Chicago, crowds endured the seasonal such as this, seemed excessive and numb­ February cold as they waited to pay last ing to this reviewer. Perhaps an index of respects; in one day a procession of these should have been included to com­ 30,000 filed past her coffin. plement the useful indices of names and subjects that were provided. Finally, a A sad commentary on the selectivity concluding chapter to summarize the of our historical memories, Ruth Bordin major findings of the research would have must begin her book by justifying its ex­ been helpful. istence. It is not simply that nearly a half All in all, this a useful collection and century has passed since the publication case study. It is not very theoretical; but of a full-length biography of Frances Wil­ a second volume is promised by Lawson lard, although such an explanation should to address these concerns. I hope that this satisfy earnest scholars. Or, that Bordin second volume materializes. Much more recently, gained access to 40-volumes of work on the obverse of homeownership is original sources, including diaries, which needed if we are to more fully understand had been unavailable since the early part the meaning of tenure in urban North of this century. Rather, Bordin's most America. convincing reason is simple: scarcely anyone today knows who Frances Willard Michael J. Doucet was or why she should be remembered. Ryerson Polytechnical Institute That the most celebrated and influential woman in North America should fade so completely from the historical record is truly astounding. With ample reason and Ruth Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography new resources, then, Bordin set herself to (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina restore a remarkable chapter in Press 1986). nineteenth-century history. A few misconceptions also needed FRANCES WILLARD (1839-98) served as correcting. Willard's first biographer, her 322 LABOUR/LETOAVAIL

devoted companion Anna A. Gordon, pub­ convention of the Knights of Labor. lished a volume certain to enshrine the Grand Master Workman Terence Powder- beloved "St. Frances" among her temperance ly cordially accepted its greetings and followers. Gordon's The Beautiful Life of noted, nonplussed, that the temperance Frances Willard (1898) made its subject ap­ women were the first outsiders to be ad­ pear, albeit in a very respectful way, mitted to a Knights' convention. monomaniacal about the evils of alcohol. No There was some basis for this friendly one questioned — or, indeed, paid much at­ exchange. Powderly advocated tention to — this interpretation until 1944, temperance, and the Knights barred mem­ when Mary Earhart published her very con­ bership to anyone involved in the liquor troversial Frances Willard: From Prayers to trade. Longtime supporters of the prin­ Politics. Earhart brazenly contended that ciple of equal pay for equal work, the Willard opportunistically used temperance Knights by this time were also organizing to pave the way for other political campaigns women into local assemblies. Yet, as Bor­ as well as to accrue power for herself. Al­ din points out, Willard chose a very though Earhart admired Willard's tactical peculiar moment to act. The middle clas­ genius, she drew virtually a machiavellian ses, including many WCTU members, caricature of the nineteenth-century leader. were still reeling from the Haymarket Bordin's interpretation is itself decided­ bombing a few weeks earlier and, despite ly more temperate. She appreciates both Powderly's disassociation from the Willard's shrewd political sensibility and the events, extending little sympathy to the sincerity of her dedication to the cause of labour movement. Willard, Bordin ex­ temperance. In our own times, when alcohol plains, risked losing the favour of her and drug abuse is once again a public issue, constituency but seemed able to look the earlier reformers regain a degree of beyond the immediate tragedy to the legitimacy. As a consequence Bordin is able tremendous upsurge in labour organizing to deal straightforwardly with Willard's un­ during the previous year. Apparently un­ derstanding of the social and medical effects daunted by criticism, Willard became an of alcoholism, which included, of course, actual member of the Knights of Labor. domestic violence and premature death. Bor­ Willard's appeal to Terence Powderly din also emphasizes that Willard, like many foreshadowed a series of grand political reformers of her time, adopted a sociological manoeuvers as well as her increasing con­ perspective on the issue, and saw in­ cern with basic issues of political temperance, not as the cause of social disor­ economy. In passing, Bordin lays to rest der or individual dissolution, but as the result Earhart's earlier claim that Willard nur­ of some larger systemic problem. For this tured a romantic fantasy about the great reason, Bordin explains, Willard advocated labour leader. In its place we gain an temperance yet searched for a solution along understanding of Willard's political other, broader avenues. evolution during a crucial period in U.S. Once she became president of the Na­ history, her infatuation with Bellamy tional WCTU in 1879, Willard began to test Nationalism, and total allegiance to the political winds and to search for allies. Christian socialism. The Prohibition party, which claimed one In 1890, at the height of her career, million supporters, seemed the most con­ Willard tested her political acumen in yet genial bedfellow and easily won recognition another dramatic play. Populists were from the non-voting women of the forging a major third-party movement, temperance ranks. Alliances with other or­ displacing the Prohibitionists as a con­ ganizations and movement proved, however, tending force to the Democrats and more problematic. Republicans. Willard knew that ties be­ Willard's overture to the Knights of tween farmers' alliances and temperance Labor is a case in point. In May, 1886, a advocates had been strong since the mid- WCTU delegation appeared at the national 18 70s, and as president of the WCTU she REVIEWS 323 foresaw a role for herself during this im­ monplace moral precepts. With the defeat portant political realignment. Her expec­ of Populism, this sensibility passed away tation were not unfounded. In 1892 she or lingered among only the most romantic invited leading reformers to an unofficial and archaic visionaries of the twentieth- meeting in Chicago where they would century. From our modern perspective it draft, in effect, the platform of the newly- undoubtedly strikes us a century later as, founded People's party. if nothing else, odd. But to dismiss rather Like many of her contemporaries — than to understand the significance of and many historians today — Willard morality to the rhetoric of nineteenth-cen­ believed that the flurry of political ac­ tury reform is to narrow the scope of his­ tivity following Haymarket and cresting torical inquiry. in the Populist movement was bringing As historians have aptly documented, U.S. political history to a turning point. the idea of women's superiority was the She sought, therefore, to unite all progres­ cornerstone of nineteenth-century con­ sive forces under the banner of the ceptions of private morality. Willard took People's party and to ensure a place for this popular idea and reshaped it to justify her own constituency of activist women. and to demand women's increasing par­ Like others, she was destined to be disap­ ticipation in the public sphere. Bordin pointed. Fusion was not on the agenda, thus argues convincingly that the and Willard's favoured planks of temperance leader was "a synthesizer, an temperance and woman suffrage accommodator, an innovator at the same provoked strong opposition from time. Willard was able to take cultural southern and German-American values almost universally accepted as delegates and were scrapped. being women's special province — for Bordin narrates this episode by focus­ example, the nurturant home — and trans­ ing not on Willard's failures but on her form them into a political arsenal to be ability to intervene at such a pivotal point used to advance women's rights and so­ in U.S. history. "No American woman cial and economic position." Her ability before her," Bordin asserts, "had to do so is key to both her success and demonstrated such influence in control­ ultimate failure, as well as her disap­ ling the direction of an important political pearance from historical memory. movement." Willard did represent, of To miss Willard's important con­ course, hundreds of thousands of women, tribution is to pass over a remarkable but, it should be remembered, these chapter in women's political history. Too women were disfranchised and necessari­ often, the struggle for enfranchisement ly peripheral to the concerns of a political has circumscribed our understanding of party. Yet, Bordin explains, Willard em­ nineteenth-century women's activism. bodied the spirit of moral superiority as­ Bordin demonstrates so ably that the sociated with nineteenth-century century's most influential woman, a lead­ femininity. "When the political issue was ing suffragist in her own right, appeared a moral one," Bordin writes, "the position on virtually all major political fronts. taken on it by women could not be ig­ nored, especially by men of reform prin­ Mari Jo Buhle ciples who were cloaking their own Brown University causes in moral righteousness." With this insightful interpretation, Alice Wexler, Emma Goldman in America Bordin delivers an important message to (Boston: Beacon Press 1984). scholars of nineteenth-century political history. In an era of boundless vision, of ARDENTE PROPAGANDISTE de la liberté de persistent faith in "the good time com­ parole, partisane de l'amour libre et ing," even the most hard-nosed activist oratrice hors pair, Emma Goldman a adhered, at least publicly, to com­ marqué l'imagination de ses contem- 334 MBOUR/LETOAVAIL

porains. Mais derrière le personnage public fait, cette biographie dépasse le cadre de femme forte, implacable et austère, c'est d'une vie pour couvrir un pan de l'histoire le heminement du'une femme passionnée, du mouvement révolutionnaire aux Etats- marquée de contradictions et secouée par des Unis. Cette mise en perspective permet en incertitudes, que reconstitue Alice Wexler outre deévaluer l'impact réel qu'aura dans sa biographie. En se basant sur une Goldman sur le mouvement correspondance franche et abondante laissée révolutionnaire américain. Constatant un par Goldman elle-même, l'auteure nous isolement progressif de Goldman à propose de délaisser l'image mythique en­ l'intérieur même de la communauté anar­ tourant la vie de cette grande dame publique chiste et analysant d'un oeil critique le pour en dresser un portrait davantage "his­ cuite de la personnalité qu'elle développe torique." autour d'elle, la biographe conclut à un L'ouvrage est construit de façon échec relatif de Goldman, qui "n'a pas chronologique. Dans la première partie Wex­ réussi à bâtir un mouvement anarchiste ler y décrit les événements qui ont puissant aux Etats-Unis." Mais comme le transformé le "grand idéal" de liberté et de souligne elle-même l'auteure, les faib­ justice d'Emma en activisme politique. lesses du mouvement anarchiste aux Influencée par le populisme russe et ses Etats-Unis ne peuvent être attribuées uni­ heroines, révoltée contre la discrimination et quement à Goldman. 11 est par ailleurs l'oppression exercée à l'endroit de la certain que celle-ci a été d'un apport communauté juive dans son pays natal, indéniable à la tradition révolutionnaire Emma arrive aux États-Unis dans un climat américaine. de tensions sociales intenses. La pendaison L'analyse critique que fait Wexler des des anarchistes suite à l'affaire du prises de position de Goldman donne à cet Haymarket Square en 1887 sera l'élément ouvrage un ton juste. Cette critique per­ déclencheur de son engagement anarchiste. cutante s'exprime entre autres, à l'endroit Wexler décrit cet engagement initial comme de l'engagement "féministe" de un élan passionné, davantage émotionnel que Goldman. Comme la liberté sexuelle est rationnel. Le sens du théâtre et du martyre un aspect central de la pensée de que l'auteure dénote alors chez Goldman, l'anarchiste, et parce que selon elle ce reste présent dans toute la description qu'elle sont les femmes qui souffrent le plus de fait de la vie de l'anarchiste. répression sexuelle, elle sera amenée à La dernière partie de l'ouvrage est défendre la cause des femmes. Mais, son- consacrée aux circonstances qui ont mis fin ligne Wexler, c'est en conformité à son à la carrière politique d'Emma Goldman aux opposition farouche à toute forme de Etats-Unis. Condamnée pour son opposition répression que Goldman s'engage dans à l'effort de guerre, quoique fondamentale­ cette lutte. Plus tard, elle endossera ment poursuivie pour ses idées anarchistes, également la lutte pour le contrôle des Goldman est emprisonnée en 1918. En naissances, mais encore une fois c'est au décembre 1919 elle est déportée. Fuyant nom de la liberté de choix et de la liberté l'intolérance et la répression, elle avait quitté de parole qu'elle le fait. D'autre part, la Russie en 1886 pour une "terre de liberté." Wexler n'hésite pas à souligner les gran­ Après trente ans d'activités politiques, c'est des qualités d'oratrice de Goldman: son avec regret qu'elle quitte ce, charisme, sa voix, la clarté de ses qu'ironiquement, elle considère être demonstrations et le ton juste qu'elle devenue "l'Amérique tsariste." L'essentiel savait à tout coup trouver, ont fait d'elle de l'ouvrage porte sur ses trente années un des pesonnages publics les plus en passées aux Etats-Unis. vues de l'époque. Le récit de Wexler dénote un souci con­ Si ce souci d'évaluer d'un oeil criti­ stant de situer l'activisme de Goldman dans que la pensée politique de Goldman est le contexte du mouvement anarchiste efficace, le découpage chronologique que américain et de la gauche de l'époque. De ce Wexler choisit pour traiter certains REVIEWS 325 thèmes ne donne pas toujours les meil­ l'objet, qu'elle l'aurait défendu avec une leurs résultats. Ainsi, alors qu'un traite­ telle intransigeance. Ces analyses ment thématique aurait permi de mieux psychologiques ne m'ont pas semblé des cerner les changements qui se produisent plus convaincantes. Mais règle générale, dans la pensée de l'anarchiste, Wexler l'approche de Wexler qui met en lumière aborde la théorie politique de Goldman des facteurs personnels et souvent impul­ dans trois chapitres distincts et non sifs derrière des gestes politiques permet consécutifs. De même, les deux chapitres de relativiser certaines positions publi­ qui portent principalement sur la violence ques de Goldman. Son sens du tragique auraient gagnés à être combinés. Traitant par exemple, a pu donner une dimension d'abord de l'attentat manqué de Berkman exagérée à sa position sur la violence. en 1892, l'auteure insiste sur le "senti­ En illustrant les contradictions exis­ ment de culpabilité" qu'aurait ressenti tant entre la vie privée et les positions Goldman face à l'emprisonnement de son publiques d'Emma Goldman, l'auteure compagnon pour expliquer la fidélité ébrèche le mythe entourant cette grande avec laquelle elle le défendra. Plus loin, anarchiste. Consacrant un chapitre entier Wexler évoque un motif semblable pour à la relation qu'Emma aura avec Ben Reit- expliquer la défense inconditionnelle que man ("la grande passion de sa vie"), fait Goldman de l'attentat de Czolgosk en l'auteure met en lumière la dépendance 1901. En effet, bien qu'elle n'ait jamais émotionnelle dans laquelle se trouve prise préconisé la violence (elle s'appliquait Goldman en contradictions avec sa plutôt à défendre le terrorisme, le théorie sur l'amour libre. Déchirée entre présentant comme un dernier recours con­ l'idéal victorien de sacrifice, de soumis­ tre l'oppression), Czolgosk avait déclaré sion et de dépendance, et l'image de la s'être inspiré de ses propos. Ce geste avait suscité une vive réaction anti-anarchiste "nouvelle femme" véhiculée au début du et avait été unanimement condamné dans siècle, Wexler propose que Goldman le milieu. Un traitement condensé de cette aurait simplement vécu de façon plus question aurait évité certaines répétitions, "dramatique" une contradiction à laquelle tout en permettant de mieux mettre en plusieurs femmes de son époque ont dû évidence les changements de positions faire face. qui s'effectuent au sein de la communauté Cette biographie d'Emma Goldman anarchiste à l'égard de la violence. possède de grandes qualités. Alice Wex­ ler nous propose ici une lecture critique Mais là où cet ouvrage se distingue, de la carrière politque de Goldman aux c'est sans doute dans la façon dont États-Unis. Dans cet ouvrage, Goldman l'auteure relie les positions politiques et n'est ni encensée, ni condamnée. Ses la vie privée de Goldman. Wexler utilise positions politiques, que les aléas de sa le privé pour apporter un éclairage vie privée servent à mieux comprendre, nouveau sur la vie publicque de Goldman. sont analysées en étroites relations avec Elle fait un usage abondant de ce procédé, le contexte social et politique de qui sauf dans certains cas, est assez ef­ l'époque. Wexler évite ainsi les pièges ficace. que trop souvent caractérisent ce genre A quelques reprises, l'auteure évoque historique. l'isolement dont Goldman aurait souffert dans son enfance pour expliquer Sylvie Murray l'intensité avec laquelle elle se jette dans Université de Quebec à Montréal la vie publique. De la même façon, Wex­ ler avance que c'est en partie parce que David Nasaw, Children of the City: At Work Goldman se serait identifiée à Czolgosk, and At Play (New York: Oxford University retrouvant dans son attentat ses propres Press 1986). fantasmes de violence et ressentant per­ sonnellement le rejet unanime dont il a été ANYONE WHO HAS WATCHED LATE-NIGHT 326 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

television — and that certainly includes most York newsboys' strike of July 1899 academics — is familiar with the cinematic which forced a settlement from publishers portrayal of the street-wise newsboy and the Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph smart-mouthed bootblack. Unfortunately, Hearst. Nasaw states that this unique era these fascinating characters appear more fre­ of children's control of the streets lasted quently on the silver screen than they do until 1918-19, at which time adults and between the covers of scholarly monographs. technology displaced the young street In Children of the City, David Nasaw offers traders. Before this occurred, however, a rare look at the conditions, activities, and street children developed a permanent thoughts of youngsters who spent substantial taste for the new varieties of food, portions of their childhood on the streets of clothes, and entertainment found in candy American cities during the first two decades stores, vaudeville theatres, and nick­ of this century. Against a colourful backdrop elodeons. Although this behaviour of emerging urban culture, Nasaw presents aroused the concerns of both reformers his subjects as America's first large group of and parents, Nasaw maintains that street city-raised citizens who through their own children were neither as naive nor corrup­ initiative and determination carved out a tible as most adults believed. space of their own initiative and determina­ In his conclusions, Nasaw argues that tion carved out a space of their own amidst street children reflected the exploding slum conditions and a ruthlessly competitive consumerism of urban culture — espe­ social system. What emerges is an intimate, cially the search for entertainment — and insightful portrait of working-class children carried this trait into their adult lives. Fur­ who managed to make important economic thermore, the author contends that these contributions to their families while partak­ youngsters eventually exerted an in­ ing in the new and wondrous consumer offer­ fluence on American culture out of ings of early twentieth-century cities. proportion to their numbers, particularly Among a variety of sources, the author relies in the field of entertainment, where most heavily on the public and private papers Nasaw claims their impact was "both of social reformers and autobiographical ac­ profound and predominant."(199) Once counts of well-known American celebrities, again, the author refers to Milton Berle, such as Milton Berle, George Burns, and the George Burns, and the Marx Brothers, Marx Brothers. The study also contains some among others, as examples. More sig­ striking photographic evidence, courtesy of nificantly, Nasaw argues that as adults his Lewis Hine and other socially-conscious subjects fit comfortably into the American photographers. American mainstream as the result of an As the subtitle suggests, the book con­ unshakeable faith in their country's centrates primarily on two areas of children's political, economic, and social system activities — work and play. Nasaw contends that had been forged during their years on that the tradition of youngsters working on the streets. Unfortunately, this experience city streets flourished during the first two led to a type of tunnel-vision that decades of this century, even though these prevented the street children from recog­ same years witnessed a decline in child nizing the shortcomings of the American labour in industrial and commercial estab­ way in the latter stages of their lives. The lishments. Unlike their nineteenth-century author laments that this style of thinking counterparts, however, twentieth-century now serves as a barrier to new strategies child street traders enjoyed a certain degree for a more productive and just American of autonomy and security. The newsboys, for society. instance, played a key role in the newspaper Some of Nasaw's conclusions follow business and brought order, hierarchy, and logically from his interesting narrative; co-operation to the streets through their self- others, however, are quite surprising and motivated organizations. One of the book's warrant closer examination. The author highlights is a delightful account of the New describes the subjects of his book as "a REVIEWS 327 privileged group of youngsters, street children accepted the tenets of privileged at play and at work."(47) Ac­ capitalism, not out of free choice, but cording to Nasaw, the "social relations of because the self-seeking, competitive na­ the marketplace, as the children ex­ ture of life on the streets offered no other perienced them, were not particularly option but to follow the capitalist path if onerous or exploitative" and definitely one was to survive in the city. In this rose above the "routinized hell" to which sense, these children are not flag-waving nineteenth-century factory children had advocates of capitalism, but its powerless been subjected.(61,47) As well, twen­ victims. To his credit, Nasaw admits that tieth-century children spent more of their this blind faith in capitalism no longer earnings on themselves because im­ represents a sensible approach to contem­ proved social conditions lessened the im­ porary social problems. It need be noted, portance of their economic contributions however, that other observers of to their families. Nasaw provides no hard capitalism recognized its shortcomings economic data to sustain his case and un­ long before the current recession arrived. derstates the conditions of child labour Despite these curious musings near the and the continuing desperation of some end of the book, Nasaw has taken impor­ working-class families, especially im­ tant early steps toward understanding a migrants, that stretched their resources to previous stage of the life cycle rarely seen the limit to meet the demands of urban in conventional works. Still, a critical life. It is difficult to believe that many reader cannot help but form the impres­ street children who suffered the capri- sion that this could have been a more ciousness of both the weather and a com- valuable study had the author paid more petitive market-place consistently attention to Karl Marx, and less to regarded their work as "almost a pleasant Groucho Marx. interlude between a day's confinement in school and an evening in cramped quarters at home.'"(p. 47) Moreover, hints John Bullen of a harsher view surface in other parts of University of Ottawa the study. Some grocery-store delivery boys, Nasaw reveals, accepted their pay Eileen Boris, Art and Labor. Ruskin, Morris in food, a practice that suggests the dire and the Craftman Ideal in America (Philadel­ conditions of their families. In this area, phia: Temple University Press 1986). it is possible that the author leaned too heavily on the overly-romantic and nos­ THE CRAFTMAN IDEAL IN AMERICA was talgic reminiscences of show-business "the impulse to reunite art and labor" ac­ personalities. cording to the social philosophies of John Ruskin and William Morris-. It was a A more contentious part of Nasaw's noble ideal, but hardly an effective conclusions is his belief that the street strategy for the creation of a socialist children easily and willingly accepted society. And, as Eileen Boris argues, in its American capitalism as the best of all American version the craftman ideal was possible worlds. The streets not only quickly corrupted by the consumerist served as an agent of the American melt­ values of the dominant middle classes of ing pot, according to the author, but they capitalist society. In her view this is ex­ also taught the children "to put their faith plained by the shift in leadership of the in the American dream, Horatio Alger arts and crafts movement "from those style."(60) This analysis raises some with a vision of an alternative organiza­ serious questions. Certainly some former tion of production to those whose concern street children must have surfaced in radi­ focussed on the arts themselves." Art for cal unions and political groups in the politics was replaced by art for art's sake. 1930s, although Nasaw ignores this pos­ While Boris's exploration of the arts sibility. It can also be argued that the and crafts movement in the United States 328 D\BOUR/LETRAVAIL

contains much that is interesting for the cul­ North Carolina, summing up the lives of tural historian, it is in places tedious and women mill workers in the southern ultimately leaves the impression of a poten­ United States. In Hard Times Cotton Mill tially useful article blown up into a rather Girls Victoria Byerly records the voices thin book. Her chapter on the transfer of the of 20 southern women, some black, some ideas of Ruskin and Morris to the United white, all poor in material goods, all rich States is careful and interesting. The descrip­ in spirit. tion of the arts and crafts organizations is From the first paragraph of Byerly's unnecessarily detailed. More valuable is the introduction, when she tells us that four account of the introduction of practical arts generations of women in her family have and manual training into the school system, worked in the Amazon Cotton Mill, we and the discussion of the role of women in are swept into a book whose voice carries the arts and crafts movement. The chapter on the drama of authenticity. The book is the back-to-the-land movement and its divided into five sections covering: farm relationship to arts and crafts is suggestive life; childhood; marriage, motherhood, but seems too removed from the more and work; the black experience in what general agrarian tradition and the conser­ until recently was a predominantly white vationist ethic in the United States to be industry; and struggles for change in the convincing. mills. These oral histories include the Least satisfactory of all, I think, is the stories of white girls who began working rather pretentious attempt to make more of a in the mills in the early part of the twen­ silk purse out of a sow's ear than is sensible. tieth century, as well as the recollections By that I mean that the author begins by of some of the first black women hired by overestimating the significance of the Rus- the industry in the 1960s. kin-Morris movement as an aspect of "social It is overwhelmingly a story of hard struggle" and in doing so inevitably exag­ times. Parents sent children to the fields gerates the degree to which it "degenerates" as soon as they were tall enough to handle into mere "crafts for crafts' sake" reinforcing a hoe and strong enough to drag a sack "the dominant social order." In fact, as a and pick cotton. For these children the form of social criticism or social comment mill promised better times — at least the arts and crafts movement was always more cash and a subsidized mill house. marginal and ineffectual in Great Britain and But toil in the mills proved no easier than in the United States. That indeed may even in the fields. Byerly's narrators tell of be the meaning of the rather curious final constant efforts to speed-up and stretch­ sentence with which Boris concludes her out the work, of arbitrary, abusive laborious book: "Put into practice, the vision bossmen, of hot, damp, lint-laden air that of Ruskin and Morris lost its Utopian power; filled workers' lungs and sapped their as a vision, however, the craftman ideal has strength. For black women it is a story of retained an emancipatory potential for the low paying domestic work. individual, if not the society." So much for Byerly's book is particularly valuable the socialism of wall paper design. for revealing the race relations of the cot­ ton mill world. Only a few black men Ramsay Cook worked in the mills prior to the civil rights York University movement, but the mill village system provided thousands of jobs for black Victoria Byerly, Hard Times Cotton Mill Girls: women who kept house for white families Personal Histories of Womanhood and Poverty in whose husband, wife, and children all the South (Ithaca, NY: ILR Press 1986). worked in the mill. When mill work opened up to blacks in the 1960s these "JUST WORK AND RAISE YOUR younguns was women and their children poured into the all we had time to do," remembered Gladys mills. Bearing the lessons of the civil Griffin, a textile worker from Greensboro, rights movement, they were often at the REVIEWS 329 forefront of the unionization campaigns sentence does convey the spirit that per­ of the 1970s. vades this most welcome piece of histori­ The hard times of these women, black cal scholarship. He started his research and white, were aggravated by men. The moved by the sadness that yet another stories are startlingly repetitive in their Italian-American ethnic community had accounts of deserting fathers, callous entered into its twilight era; but almost ten boyfriends, and abusive husbands who years and hundreds of interviews later he contributed little or nothing to the family. had unearthed a rich and complex history In narrative after narrative the inde­ that makes our knowledge of the Italian- pendence women sought by earning American experience more solid and wages in the mill was finally achieved late more sophisticated. in life when they gave up on marriage and The St. Louis neighbourhood that decided to live alone or with only the Mormino has studied — known as "The support of their children. Hill" — has been for nearly a century a Byerly introduces each section of the symbol of Italianness in the region. In­ narratives with a general overview that deed, Mormino may very well have gives some historical and statistical back­ singled out the one Italian-American ground to the events women relate. These neighbourhood out of the hundreds are at times the weakest part of the book, emerging in the twentieth-century suffering — perhaps inevitably, because American landscape that proved to be the of their brevity — from overgeneraliza- most cohesive and the most resilient in the tion and occasionally from unfounded face of the sweeping urban and social claims. For instance, she refers to "the transformations engendered by industrial mill owners' absolute control of the life. The author finds the explanations for workers' cultural and institutional life." this peculiar kind of performance in the But other studies of textile workers and topographical configuration of the neigh­ her own narrators testify to the many bourhood, which tended to isolate it from ways in which workers created their own the greater St. Louis; but also in the type cultural spaces, especially through music, of employment market — dominated by food, and the church. And while she the clay and brick industries — which claims that "it was not uncommon for attracted the early Italian settlers. For the white women to be jealous of the amount thousands of Italian newcomers who fol­ of time black women spent with their lowed, joining migration chains first from children in their homes," no woman's nar­ Lombardy and then from Sicily, the low- rative in the book substantiates these feel­ paid jobs and the repressive conditions ings. imposed by that industry constituted their But these are minor points in a work entry — and often their life-long stay — that eloquently presents an intimate view into the American dream. Indeed, judging of southern working-class women's lives. from the information and data on the work experience in chapter 4, cohesiveness and Mary Murphy resilience appear to have been more University of North Carolina synonymous with entrapment than with working-class fulfillment. But of course Gary Ross Mormino, Immigrants on the Hill: there is the "ethnic variable" that comes into the picture, and the author invokes it Italian-Americans in SL Louis, 1882-1982 (Ur- in order to argue the primacy of bana: University of Illinois Press 1986). immigrants' traditional values such as family unity and neighbourhood stability, "ARMED WITH TAPE RECORDER," Gary and their role in producing a version of Mormino tells us in the introduction to his "the good life" that was at variance with book, "I set out in 1973 to find remnants that espoused by labour militants and of a fallen civilization." The latter term political activists. may be somewhat exaggerated, but the 330 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

Ethnicity — though never defined — is patriotic rituals. But more than rituals, clearly the leitmotif of this book. It finds its Mormino found that the Hill produced historical expression in the intracommunal one of the highest per-neighbourhood rivalry between the Lombard and the Sicilian rates of enlistment in the entire country. contingent of Hill's Italians; in the types of Italian parents, wives, and sister clearly voluntary associations they created; in the had a stake in the outcome of the war, and centrality of church life; in the kind of civic perhaps this emotional involvement more and political leadership emerging in the than anything else helped forge a senti­ neighbourhood, and in several other aspects ment of Americanness out of which a of community life. Readers will learn a lot redefined ethnicity came into being. about the working of ethnicity in Mormino's Mormino has done a great job probing original treatment of prohibition and how the memories of hundreds of Hill resi­ Italian immigrants capitalized on that crisis dents, and in weaving into an evolving in American public morals to increment their scenario important aspects of their men­ family revenue, and in the process, give rise tality. By so doing, he has shown how to a sort of cottage industry. They may have important oral history can be if properly even received the blessing of their parish handled. But his work is more than "an priest, for when in January 1921 their church oral history." He has done his historical building burned to the ground, there was a homework quite well using all the acces­ strong suspicion in the neighbourhood that sible archival and statistical documenta­ the fire had been set by the accidental ex­ tion to back up his arguments. Moreover, plosion of a vat of moonshine in the church he constantly places his findings in the rectory. Mormino adds: "Even if the story is context of the large immigration histori­ apocryphal, the fact that so many people cal literature, which allows him to cast his believe it is true authenticates the subject into a solid comparative perspec­ legend."(129) tive. And last, but not least, Mormino is In another important section of the book an excellent writer: he knows when and we are given a rare view of how ethnicity where to insert the right quotation; he found expression in the formal political knows how to simplify abstract theoreti­ arena. Mormino's account of the alliance cal debates; and he knows how to make "a forged between Hill's leaders and the local fallen civilization" come alive and be­ Democratic machine is often reminiscent of come a source of scholarly inspiration. some of William Kennedy's novels set in pre-World War II Albany, N.Y. Readers, Bruno Ramirez however, may be disappointed by the Université de Montréal author's hasty treatment of the fascist issue, and the effects it may have had on the emerg­ Elizabeth Ewen, Immigrant Women in the Land ing political culture of Hill's Italians. It al­ of Dollars (New York: Monthly Review Press most seems that Mormino was saving some 1985). of his best cards for the following chapter, devoted to the impact of WWII on the Au TOURNANT DU SIÈCLE, des millions neighbourhood's life and sentiments. This d'Européens immigrent vers les Etats- chapter may be viewed as an important addi­ Unis, répondant en masse au "mythe de la tion to Studs Turkel's oral history of the war richesse" véhiculé par l'Amérique. Ils (The Good War). If, in fact, divided allegian­ quittent ainsi leur village rural pour aller ces had troubled the ethnic consciousness of s'installer dans les grandes villes many an Italian, the war effort seems to have américaines. acted as a sort of "moment of truth."The fact Ce phénomène des migrations inter­ that Italy was an enemy country did not nationales qui caractérise cette période prevent Hill's Italians from giving nous est déjà familier par la parution de wholehearted support to the war objectives plusieurs études portant sur le phénomène and from producing their own brand of global. L'intérêt du livre d'Elizabeth REVIEWS 331

Ewen tient du fait qu'il examine plus maintenir vivantes les traditions culturel­ précisément un aspect moins bien connu les, et du refus des filles, en rupture avec de cette expérience migratoire, soit la le monde ancien, accaparées par les réalité des femmes immigrantes. En met­ valeurs du nouveau monde, d'y souscrire tant l'accent sur l'expérience des femmes automatiquement. juives d'Europe de l'Est et du Sud de En examinant la vie de deux l'Italie que l'immigration a amenés avec générations de femmes (mères et filles) leurment familleont dans le Lower East Ewen saisit la dynamique de Side de New-York, E. Ewen nous fait l'américanisation dont les incursions partager la réalité quotidienne de ces fem­ dans la vie familiale des immigrants sont mes. quotidiennes. La mère, isolée dans son Ewen démontre bien la situation travail domestique, aux prises avec des ambiguë dans laquelle se retrouvent ces problèmes d'économie familiale, voit ses immigrantes. Elevées en Europe, initiées enfants (ses filles), avec lesquels elle à la vie quotidienne dans une société maintient pourtant une relation patriarcale qui définit le rôle des femmes privilégiée, non seulement s'éloigner de et où la famille et la communauté con­ la culture traditionnelle, mais souscrire à stituent les bases sociales, ces femmes, des éléments culturels nouveaux et les via l'immigration, sont propulsées dans intégrer à la vie familiale. un monde urbain et industriel qui exerce Ewen souligne enfin que malgré ces sur elles des pressions sociales, et tend à perturbations profondes dans la dynami­ redéfinir la vie quotidienne et à modifier que familiale, le militantisme des femmes leur culture traditionnelle. est toujours vivant, surtout lorsqui'il y va L'auteur retrace les efforts de la survie de leur famille, notamment en d'adaptation de la femme immigrante, 1917 lors d'émeutes alimentaires et de pilier de la vie familiale, protectrice des boycott à New-York contre la hausse des valeurs traditionnelles, gardienne de la prix de la viande, et où les femmes im­ culture, tant dans la sphère privée migrantes étaient au premier plan. Ce d'activité que dans la sphère publique, militantisme représente, en quelque sorte, démontrant que la vie des femmes im­ la réponse des femmes immigrantes à migrantes fut partagée entre l'acceptation l'américanisation. de certaines nouvelles valeurs et la En ce sens, le mérite du livre de Ewen résistance à plusieurs autres. tient au fait qu'il met l'accent non seule­ En fait, Ewen identifie les problèmes ment sur un aspect significatif du et ensions dus au passage de la famille phénomène migratoire dans son ensemble d'un lieu de production à un lieu de con­ mais aussi qu'il révèle les difficultés sommation, et des perturbations que ce d'adaptation des femmes en tant changement entraîne dans la dynamique qu'immigrantes et en tant que mères. familiale. L'auteur met aprticulièrement Jean Lamarre l'accent sur les tensions qui se créent dans Université de Montréal les relations mère-filles. Dans le pays d'origine, le rôle tenu par la mère consiste Martin Chemiack, The Hawk's Nest Incident: à transmettre à ses filles les principes de America's Worst Industrial Disaster (Yale devoir et de responsabilité au sein de la University Press 1986). famille et de la communauté. Aux Etats- Unis, les jeunes filles sont influencées par OF THE MANY GAPS in our knowledge of leur nouvel environnement via l'école, les workers' history, that of industrial health sorties, les libertés, et sont plus réticentes is perhaps the most surprising. We know à accepter ce rôle traditionnel. En fait, ce that accidents and disease have always conflit multi-dimensionnel entre mères et stalked the process of production. Histori­ filles tient de la volonté de la mère de cal narratives are routinely sprinklid with 332 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

grim vignettes about factory fires, limbs and vals to hose down the thick clouds of digits caught in machinery, and the chemical silica dust the pneumatic drill created. hazards of coal mines and hat factories, cot­ "Wet drilling" was performed only when ton mills and oil refineries. But most his­ state inspectors made an infrequent visit. torians relate such details in an anecdotal At other times, workers, most of whom manner, implying, in passing, that they are were far from home and had no alternative proof either of the endemic inhumanity of way to make a living, had to breathe air capitalism or that they show how far we have filled with particles that destroyed their come since the dark days when wage-earners lungs at a rapid rate. No official death had to risk their lives to earn a living. Each total was ever assembled, but Cherniack, view is an unexamined reflection of the after a careful reconstruction, estimates author's own ideology; neither gives the sub­ that, "Within five years after its comple­ ject the research and interpretive acuity it tion, the Hawk's Nest Tunnel ... claimed deserves. a total of 764 victims to silicosis, or to Thus, this slim book by a professor of other less provocatively named causes of occupational medicine is a rare event. What death from dusty lungs."(104) Martin Cherniack, M.D. has produced is Why did the disaster not become a more an epidemiological report than a work cause célèbre"} A long series of trials was of history about an industrial debacle that inconclusive, and a short hearing into the took place in West Virginia in the early matter by a minor congressional subcom­ 1930s. Unapologetically, he admits to doing mittee yielded a strong condemnation of no oral interviews and attempting no the employers but a predictable lack of sociological analysis. He does, however, publicity. Cherniack, despite his reluc­ provide a subtle, precise, and fascinating ac­ tance to do social history, offers some count of the little-known construction good explanations for the relative silence: project that became the deadliest job in the tunnel was built in a remote, rural United States history. area; most surviving workers dispersed In 1930, the Union Carbide Corporation soon after they completed the project. hired the contracting firm of Rinehart and Union Carbide and the lobby of profes­ Dennis to drill a tunnel three miles long that sional engineers convinced leading would transport water from the New River to newspapers that the death toll was quite a hydroelectric plant at Hawk's Nest, deep in low and that critics were alarmists out to the mountains of West Virginia. The contrac­ damage the reputation of American in­ tor immediately began to recruit workers dustry (two writers from New Masses, the from the South to augment the sparse supply unofficial literary journal of the Com­ of local labour. Following a predictable pat­ munist Party, did investigate and report tern, whites took most of the skilled jobs as on the tragedy). foremen and heavy equipment operators, Finally, and here Cherniack sheds his while blacks made up three-quarters of the scientific tone and becomes passionate, 3,000 men who moved earth inside the tunnel most West Virginians did not spend time for an average wage of thirty cents an hour. worrying about the fate of anonymous Rinehart and Dennis had an excellent prior black "outsiders." Most silicosis sufferers reputation for both speed and efficiency; and never saw one of the few hospital beds in the Hawk's Nest project seemed to confirm the Hawk's Nest area. A number of it. The tunnel was completed in less than two labourers who were too sick to work were years, repaid its investment in nine (half evicted from their company-owned tents what Union Carbide had predicted), and con­ and literally went behind a rock to die. tinues in operation today. Within its self-imposed limits, this The human cost, however, was out­ study is an almost complete success. Be­ rageous. In their rush to finish ahead of cause Union Carbide refused to allow schedule, the contractor had neglected to Cherniack to see its corporate records or order foremen to stop work at regular inter­ data on individual tunnel workers, the REVIEWS 333

portrait of the company's role is sketchy. in that format, often with explanatory Trial records and newspaper reports fail notes, they have been created, in most to capture the texture of work on the cases, by and for those who study and are Hawk's Nest project and to divulge advocates of the working classes rather whatever reluctance labourers may have than by and for the rank and file themsel­ had to continue digging while their lungs ves. While Green's albums also have a deteriorated. didactic goal, it is to present another kind But the unresolved questions are real­ of music. They anthologize a fundamen­ ly larger ones for labour and economic tally different class of recordings, those historians to pursue. Under what cir­ originally issued on 45s — the little cumstances do "incidents" such as the one record with the big hole in the middle — at Hawk's Nest occur? How do local com­ which, Green and other folklorists agree, munities respond to death on the job, both are the modern equivalent of the broad­ when it is episodic and when it is routine side. Broadsides and songsters like the (as in the coal industry)? Have all types Wobblies' Little Red Songbook have of construction work been prey to above- played an important role in labour strug­ average rates of accidents and disease? gles, particularly on the picket lines. But What do the conflicts between and among in order to present them on record, one employers, workers, and their respective must re-create the song in performance. government allies over safety and com­ Not so with these modern broadsides: pensation reveal about changing public they contain texts with music as original­ attitudes toward health and the evolving ly conceived and performed by their com­ nature of state power? Cherniack has ac­ posers. These albums contain 32 songs complished a small job with admirable produced by working-class people for precision. But the bigger tasks remain un­ their co-workers, neighbours, and com­ done. munity between 1950 and 1985. Green has reissued them "as oral/aural docu­ ments ... commenting upon work's com­ Michael Kazin plex meaning." American University In their original form these recordings Archie Green, éd., Work's Many Voices 2 Discs, were not meant for library shelves or JEMF 110-111. (El Cerrito, CA., 1986). teaching modules. As Green points out, many were "destined only for radio or SUBTITLED -SONGS OF WORK REISSUED." jukebox play with no attempt at public this set of two record albums was edited sale." Even those that were sold publicly by the dean of labour folklore scholars, saw limited circulation. While we think of Archie Green. Green, best known for his the phonograph record as one of the icons Only a Miner (Urbana 1971), a collection of international mass culture, 45s like this of studies of coal mining songs on record, were manufactured typically in small has produced here what he calls a "labor- numbers, much like the songsters and lore vocumentary." "Laborlore" is his broadsides. If they were heard on radio, it coinage: "the expressive culture of work­ was the local programming, not the net­ ing people." "Vocumentary" was coined work show; if they were in a jukebox, it in 1959 by folk speech historian Peter was the tavern or restaurant in the Tamony to describe his research into the workers' neighbourhood. esoteric language of blues and hobo Stressing the pluralism of cultures songs. Hence the focus of these albums is and philosophies found in these record­ on the language and related expressive ings, Green has included a wide variety of codes used by workers to portray, in song, music. "Songs of labor," he points out, their experiences in the workplace. "are kaleidoscopic statements of identity Most records which document labour — anger in neglect, shame in poverty, songs have been albums. Specially edited humor in situation, pride in skill, ap- 334IABOUR/LETRAVAIL

preciation in custom, strength in numbers." folk, and ethnic musics: Down Home Some of the 45s Green has located — and Music, 10341 San Pablo Avenue, El Cer- located is the right word, for these records rito, California 94530. They belong in are often ephemeral — deal with specific your library. instances of labour strife, like Marta Lopez's "Corrido De La Huelga," recorded in a small Neil V. Rosenberg Phoenix, Arizona studio and issued on an Memorial University of Newfoundland unnumbered "Lopez" label. It was written as a solidarity ballad at the beginning of the Joan Thirsk, éd., The Agrarian History of 1983 Phelps Dodge copper strike at Clifton England and Wales: Volume V. Part 1: and Morenci, Arizona. Others, like the Regional Farming Systems; Part 2: Agrarian Wright Brothers' "Island Creek Mine Fire," Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University describing the March 1960 Holden, West Press 1985). Virginia event, narrate industrial disaster. Several labour leaders — Jimmy Hoffa and THESE TWO VERY LARGE VOLUMES repre­ Walter Reuther — are remembered in song. sent the culmination of ten years research Among the Canadian and American ethnic by a team of nineteen specialists. It is a groups represented are Cajuns, New­ formidable achievement. And a fitting foundlanders, Afro-Americans, and a host of follow-up to the justly-celebrated others. In addition to songs from industrial Volume IV, 1500-1640, which must be workers, there are representations from other one of the most quoted "committee texts" working groups such as teachers and cable ever published. Inevitably, therefore, car operators. comparisons with the earlier work intrude The recordings present as great a themselves into consideration of this spectrum aurally as they do culturally and volume. philosophically. While over half can be fitted Volume IV was of particular interest under the rubric of country music, there is to scholars interested in the genesis of considerable variety of sound and meaning agricultural capitalism because of Alan even in that category. Also heard are blues, Everitt's splendid, seventy-page essay on rock and roll, and a number of regional and "Farm Labourers." In this successor- ethnic styles. Green's brief notes give the volume, alas, there is nothing similar; salient information about the songs, and labour is not completely ignored but translations for the non-English texts are rather it is not considered separate from provided. But there is plenty of room here for wages and prices or landlord policies. further analysis and research for those who This volume, then, is of an altogether would understand the meaning of expressive more managerial or entrepreneurial culture in its various relationships with thrust. Yet even given this predilection on labour. the part of Thirsk's research équipe, it is Many of songs seem disarmingly simple more than a little strange that there is no on first hearing, but they are, one realizes on sustained consideration and discussion of further listening, distillations of complex the size of farming units. I was surprised personal histories, musical and textually rich at this omission because it is in this period with meaning. An end in Green's work is to (1640-1750) that one can find the demise offer those who seek to understand the con­ of the peasantry and the lineaments of the nections between expressive culture and really large farms that were to be the out­ labour life an entree to the subject. Labour standing characteristic of English farm­ historians should hear, use, and build on the ing practices in the period of the In­ data presented on these records. These al­ dustrial Revolution. In mid-nineteenth bums, like the records they anthologize, can­ century Bedfordshire, for instance, farms not be found in most record stores. But they of over 100 acres accounted for 90.3 per can be purchased from one of the largest mail cent of the land and the really big farms order distributors of blues, jazz, country, of over 300 acres occupied 42.8 per cent. REVIEWS 335

To put this farm size in perspective one sociation of historical sensibility that the needs to also keep in view the fact that authorial combination can resolutely these large Bedfordshire farms, worked stick to its tunnel vision of the rural past. by wage labour, were averaging gangs of This work, then, is a very great disap­ 22.8 adult male labourers apiece. In com­ pointment to those who see English his­ parative terms, this average was an tory as something more than the develop­ enterprize that was about five times as ment of a small island off the north-west large as the U.S. southern slaveholding coast of Europe. It smacks of that 'little agricultural unit. (Those 22.8 adult male England' mentality that is rigorously labourers had uncounted wives and pruning the past of all its interest for those children whereas the American living in the present and concerned about slaveholdings included both women and the future. Of course, that is not to say that children.) From the perspective of a the volumes under review are uninterest­ labour historian, then, this volume is ing but rather that their audience is likely seriously deficient in not considering this to be limited to specialists rather than aspect of capital formation — and its cor­ reaching out to those for whom English relative class formation. Unfortunately, capitalism is a problem to be explained, there is more to add to this litany. There not merely lavishly praised as "improve­ is no sustained discussion of common ment". Yet what else can one expect from rights — what Daniel Defoe called "the a mentality which could write "The im­ patrimony of the poor" — while the portance of customary tenures in hamper­ agricultural origins of industrialization ing enclosure and in delaying the are given equally short shrift. development of leases aimed at improve­ Amazingly, in view of Peter Linden's ment, therefore, can hardly be over­ recent réévaluation of Gregory King's stated." (V/l, 9; my italics !) Quite ob­ famous later seventeenth-century social viously this book is aimed at an audience statistics, the interconnection of a which is well acquainted with the semi­ 'portfolio' of income flows is hardly con­ otics of the new revisionism. sidered. Since the Lindert revision of Having made my disappointment King has shown us that even by consider­ with the committee's conceptualization ing the occupations of dead men — not of its subject quite clear, let me now turn the occupations of living men, women, to some of the positive achievements of and children — England was substantial­ this work. And, I should hasten to point ly more industrial than heretofore com­ out, there are many. The book is excep­ monly presumed, one would have thought tionally good on the techniques of that this aspect of the industrialization agricultural production, both within the process would have been highlighted. various farming regions and across the The more so because it was on account of length and breadth of the national rural the interconnection between agriculture economy. There is no doubt regarding the and industry — nowhere more than on mastery of the hodge-podge of local sys­ and around the coalfields, often in the tems of production, illuminated by persons of the great landowners themsel­ profuse examples. Basing their descrip­ ves and none more than the Lambtons of tions on lengthy and close reading of County Durham, the family of Radical source materials, the authors show how Jack — that English capitalism was so each of the twelve sub-regions were them­ much more vibrant than its neighbours selves subdivided and crosscut by some­ and that the English capitalist class was thing like eighteen "farming types." In so much more wealthy. Yet Thirsk's theory there could have been as many as volume resolutely turns its back on this 216 local ecologies although in practice aspect of English history and in so doing there were only about a quarter as many. deprecates the importance of agrarian his­ Nonetheless, the existence of some fifty tory itself. It is only by the deepest dis­ different agricultural economies must be 336 L\BOUR/LETOAVAIL

of concern to those who would want a neat profitability per acre which is not the typology. Yet, the absolute bewildering most effective measure except in the nar­ variety is to be expected from the wide range rowest technical sense. The general con­ of climatic, geographical, and geological clusion is that during this long deflation­ conditions of England and Wales. ary cycle, 1640-1750, the flat demand for There is, however, the temptation of slit­ agricultural products — itself a result of ting one's throat with Occam's razor and zero population growth — was abetted by simply agreeing that in this variety no technical improvements to bring much generalization is possible. That seems to be more cereal and livestock products onto the thrust of the first volume of this work in the market. It was thus a comparatively that it gives pride of place to the explication good time for labour although, of course, of these mini-ecologies at the expense of the one has to stress that with these benefits larger political economy within which they brought forth by capitalist expansion flourished. This approach to historical there were costs. Peter Bowden is not so knowledge is encyclopedic, not critical. The sensitive to this point. first volume is recursive; it reiterates in If it was a comparatively good time twelve essays the local historical experiences for labourers, it was a much better time of population growth, geological charac­ for the large landowners whose grip on teristics, climate, technical changes in both the land became more secure as their field systems and production inputs, crop­ numbers were thinned by low replace­ ping patterns, livestock types and the ratios ment rates. Estate management became of different breeds, cursory consideration of more "scientific" as landowners turned to agricultural production for industrial proces­ long-term strategies which would secure ses, as well as slight indication of the balance their families against the depredations of between subsistence and commercial im­ either inflation or an incompetent incum­ peratives among the primary producers. In bent. Christopher Clay's long chapter on all, however, the first volume is charac­ estate management displays a sure grasp terized by its tendency to synchronic, as op­ of its subject and great familiarity with posed to diachronic, explanation. For all but the few hundred families who dominated the most devoted local historian, it is hard rural England in these years. going. Joan Thirsk's chapters on agricultural The second volume is much more inter­ policy and, especially, on agricultural in­ esting. It covers — for both the regional and novations and their diffusion, exemplify national economies — topics such as prices the command over the subject which we which were roughly stable with all products have come to associate with her writings. changing only 2 per cent as grain prices were Situating these innovations within the soft and livestock prices rose by 17 per cent, debate concerning the "agricultural wages which rose by about 11.6 per cent in revolution," Thirsk cautiously seconds money terms although no attempt is made to many of the hypotheses put forward by quantify the cost to labourers of lost common Eric Kerridge concerning the precocity of rights, seasonal and annual price movements changes in cropping patterns and other which tended to become less volatile, rents production routines. She is much more which were stable in contrast to the earlier cautious than Kerridge, however, in period and which reflected the co-ordination pointing out the piecemeal nature of of landlord-tenant strategies of profit op­ change in the flat market conditions of timization in place of the earlier attempts to this period. Thirsk, then, gives us an early cope with the inflation of the Renaissance. agricultural revolution in the acquisition Costs for different types of operations are of new techniques but takes it away in the explicated with great skill but profit es­ ways in which these changes were timates are less successful in that there is no adopted. serious analysis of farm sizes so that it is John Chartres' chapter on the market­ impossible to do more than indicate ing of agricultural produce takes up a REVIEWS 337

recent trend in the historiography of the (Oxford: Blackwell 1986). period and lays emphasis on the increas­ ing complexity of consumers and con­ THIS PATH-BREAKJNO COLLECTION of es­ sumption patterns. In place of the says on diverse aspects of women's ex­ medieval economy in which choices were perience of home and family between limited to a narrow range of goods, the 1850 and 1940 should serve as an inspira­ commercial economy of the early modern tion to Canadian historians in the fields of period was brisk and diversified. Indeed, working-class and women's history. this demand-induced growth was of great Here, I think, we begin to see the past interest to contemporaries who saw in it world of women as it was in its daily one of the mainsprings of growth and contours, in its more representative change; in a wide variety of more recent forms, in contrast to the world early analyses of the English economy in the feminist historians made which, some­ 1640-1750 period this feature is becom­ times hampered by male views of history ing emphasized. Chartres is very good at and society, grasped only those aspects explicating the growth of this sophisti­ which touched the public sphere. In the cated market and its extension right down process, we gain a greater understanding to the very bottom of the social scale. of the role of both middle and working- Once again, however, while the author class women in the family and in the pays great attention to the benefits of economy. economic "improvement" he is reluctant The introduction and the very or­ to devote equal space to its costs. So, the ganization of the book are characterized "moral economy" is given little space by an insistence on the differences be­ beyond an obligatory nod in E.P. tween middle and working-class Thompson's direction (472); a very great women's experiences. Editor Jane Lewis deal more is said to round out the picture suggests "that nineteenth and twentieth- of commodity speculation against which century working-class women ex­ the moral economy was protesting. Its perienced a much less severe separation concentration was so marked that in most between productive and reproductive markets a half-dozen merchants control­ work than did middle-class women, be­ led almost the whole commerce. Other cause they were much more likely to be chapters on rural building and market gar­ engaged in paid employment before mar­ dening confirm this picture of broadly- riage and when the family economy based affluence for those with either rent­ demanded it thereafter.(3) While the al or working capital who benefitted as a major focus of the articles is on the home result of the diversification of the rural and family, in contrast to its companion economy and its increasingly complex volume Unequal Opportunities: division of labour. Women's Employment in England 1800- It is a pity that labour is so thoroughly 1918, edited by Angela V. Jones, overlooked. One wonders what Bertolt women's work is never absent from con­ Brecht's labourer would have made of sideration. The ten articles are divided this economic history of rural capitalism into five sections dealing with childhood, before the Industrial Revolution. mothering, the theory and practice of sex So many reports, and marriage, compatibility and tension So many questions. in marriage, and the family economy. In Indeed. those on childhood, mothering, and com­ patibility in marriage one article deals David Levine with the working class, while the other Ontario Institute for Studies in Education treats middle-class women. At times the working class are treated as too undif­ Jane Lewis, éd., Labour and Love: Women's ferentiated. In the introduction, for ex­ Experience of Home and Family, 1850-1940ample , the "working-class wife" seems 338 LABOUR/LETKAVAIL

too homogeneous a category. The same working-class women's "range of choices might be said for Ellen Ross's article, where and expectations," yet at the same time in examining the cases of very poor women they try to unravel not only what women the experience of the most vulnerable frac­ did but what it meant to them. Drawing on tions of the working class is highlighted. oral history, unpublished minutes and let­ In most of the articles there is a sincere ters, innovative linking of interviews and concern to avoid seeing proscriptions as manuscript censuses, autobiographies, reality and to reconstruct working-class hospital and school records, these his­ women's own ideology, standards, and prac­ torians have succeeded in the task of put­ tice of motherhood, domestic labour, and ting women into family history and of child raising. In Ellen Ross's "Labour and showing the extent to which women's Love: Rediscovering London's Working- worlds were oriented around the fami­ Class Mothers, 1870-1918," she tries to ly .(19) The essays are interesting, easy to decipher the meaning of love for working- read, and should be enjoyed by historians class women, arguing, quite fairly, I think, and the general public alike. that working class mothers expressed their love in work for the family.(85) How this Bettina Bradbury work was reshaped and some of their domes­ Université de Montréal tic authority undermined by state interven­ tion is ably surveyed in Jane Lewis's "The Deborah M. Valenze, Prophetic Sons and Working-Class Wife and Mother and State Daughters: Female Preaching and Popular Intervention." All the articles except that of Religion in Industrial England (Princeton: Prin­ Gittens interpret the predominant sexual ceton University Press 1985); and Logie Bar- division of labour in which the wife was row, Independent Spirits: Spiritualism and primarily responsible for domestic labour, English Plebeians, 1850-1910 (London: Rout- the man for wage labour, as a working-class ledge and Kegan Paul 1986). ideal, with its own characteristics and not one that was simply imposed by the middle BY DIRECTING ATTENTION to plebeians class. who have been either ignored or mar­ The articles successfully go beyond a ginalized in historical writings, both simple description of women's roles as Deborah Valenze and Logie Barrow have budget managers to unravel the diverse written books that enlarge our vision of strategies and even subterfuges which popular belief in nineteenth-century women used in their struggle to balance England. Valenze gives a historical voice budgets and control their domain — the to the female preachers of early household. Women's pivotal position in the nineteenth-century Methodism, while family economy is examined in different Barrow invites readers to take seriously ways in Pat Ayers' and Jan Lambertz's "Mar­ an odd assortment of spiritualists, crystal- riage Relations, Money, and Domestic ball gazers, phreno-mesmerists, medical Violence in Working-Class Liverpool, 1919- botanists, and others. Both authors enable 39," Elizabeth Roberts's "Women's us to think in new ways about important Strategies, 1890-1940," and in Diana questions of popular belief and culture. Gittins's "Marital Status, Work and Kinship, The question of the relationship be­ 1850-1930." Ayers and Lambertz provide a tween evangelical religion and working- fascinating picture of the myriad of ways of class politics is hardly unexplored terrain. shading from the "respectable" to the "unac­ Both Elie Halévy and G.M. Young em­ ceptable" in which women dealt with the phasised the conservative influence of precarious employment structure which religion in the late eighteenth and early Liverpool's economy offered their husbands. nineteenth-centuries. In The Making of The historians do not romanticise or try the English Working Class Edward to impose twentieth-century ideas of libera­ Thompson challenged orthodox inter­ tion. They clearly recognize the limits on pretations of popular religion, depicting a REVIEWS 339

critical struggle between the radical in­ female preaching. Whereas Wesley had heritors of seventeenth-century dissent condoned women speaking publicly in and proponents of normative religious the case of "extraordinary call," by the practice. As Valenze comments, how­ early nineteenth century over-riding con­ ever, religion ultimately remained a func­ cern for middle-class "respectability" tion of politics: Thompson "breathed new brought an end to Wesleyan tolerance for life into Halévy's thesis by identifying female evangelism. It was outside the religious revivalism with political reac­ ranks of Wesleyanism that female preach­ tion. "(5) While uncovering millenarian ing thrived. Female preaching was often strains resistant to such hegemonic sway, at the heart of a vigorous brand of work­ Thompson maintained that popular ing-class Methodism, along with cottage religion, particularly Methodism, was preaching and emotion-charged camp part of a complex process through which meetings. Religion based on cottage working people were disciplined and prayer meetings and visitation offered reshaped to meet the needs of industrial- cultural space for female messengers of capitalist development. Valenze takes the Lord. Like Primitive Methodist camp issue with this view. She maintains that meetings which in form openly defied rather than acquiescing to the imperatives "restrictions of time, space, liturgy and of the new industrial order, sectarian leadership," female preaching "subverted Methodists struggled to control and at Wesleyan attempts to control popular times to resist change. Valenze writes: evangelicalism. "(91 -2) "Their religious ethos was rooted in the Valenze situates her analysis within a old world of work, not the new ... For broad social and economic context. In these labourers, religion became a means both rural and industrial communities cot­ of overturning middle-class ideals of tage religion embraced an idealized piety, reciprocity, and progress."(6) vision of the home as a place of final Valenze's attempt to "uncover the refuge. This idealization often occurred sacred world view of labourers" is based precisely at the moment when domestic on a reconstruction of cottage religion. As security was being undermined. The con­ Wesleyan Methodism moved from the trasting images of domestic security and humble surroundings of its birth — cot­ of pilgrimage found in sectarian tages, barns, sheds, dye-houses — to the Methodists hymns reflect, therefore, a more respectable, less intimate and more sense of uprootedness common among controlled space of newly built chapels, working people. Sectarian Methodism the cottage remained the central location often preserved aspects of an older, more for various popular sects: Independent rural-based culture. Valenze notes, for in­ Methodists, Primitive Methodists, Bible stance, the correspondence between the Christians, Quaker Methodists, Female rituals of Primitive Methodism in in­ Revivalists. The cottage household was dustrializing Derbyshire and the old, rural central to the lives of large numbers of calendar of customs familiar to labouring men, women and children, giving in­ people. Female preachers, in particular, tegrated meaning to their religion, family, appealed to older styles and values. "Far and work. Sectarian Methodism from condemning folk culture and replac­ promoted "an old-fashioned religion" that ing it with 'modern' religion, the (female) preserved "primitive" aspects of be­ missionaries exploited every opportunity haviour and belief among labourers.(87) it gave to recruit converts."(138) Thus, The rigorous faith of the Old Testament Elizabeth Smith founded a society at was preferred to the "moralistic evan­ Peasemore, (Berkshire) in response to an gelicalism" of the New Testament. invitation from a woman who wanted her No aspect of sectarian Methodist fortune told. More often she answered practice was more stridently at odds with calls from the sick in need of her powers emerging Victorian convention than of female healing. Using scores of 340 L^BOUR/LETRAVAIL obscure memoirs and surprisingly full hungry for new world systems and eager obituaries published in sectarian Methodist to construct their own structures of under­ journals, Valenze has brought to light the standing. Mid-century converts to the lives of such remarkable women as Elizabeth spiritualist ranks had often been involved Smith, Ann Mason, and Ann Carter. The in various radical or millenarian move­ complexities of cultural interpretation are ments, particularly Owenite socialism. thus confronted with intelligence and im­ Robert Owen himself became a agination throughout this ambitious study, spiritualist in the early 1850s. Barrow although at certain points pretensions per­ maintains, however, that it makes less haps outrun the evidence. Readers may feel, sense to consider lines of descent than for instance, that they have gotten something "points of blur and tension" between less than the "cosmic structure" of popular Owenism, herbalism, Swedenbor- religion in the fishing-village of Filey, gianism, mesmerism, infidelism. Char­ (Yorkshire). tism and other "-isms." Spiritualism takes By mid-century cottage religion and its place, therefore, within the range of female preaching were on the wane due to radical mutations that constituted the gradual social changes as well as changes in fragmented vision of the post-Chartist sect organization. Within this altered setting period. the meaning of "domesticity" lost its defen­ By the late nineteenth century, the sive and oppositional tones. The blurring of spiritualist "movement" claimed 10,000 crucial boundaries, so essential to the female adherents. The geographical base of preachers of the early nineteenth century, plebeian spiritualism remained was no longer possible as the public and predominantly northern and Pennine. domestic spheres were given sharper defini­ Barrow notes that this was also the centre tion within both middle-class and sectarian of support for the emergent Independent religious culture. Labour Party and the Labour Churches, The blurring, as well as the transcending, commenting that the "broad ethos of both of boundaries is a central theme of Logie these institutions was close so that of Barrow's fascinating study of plebeian plebeian spiritualism."(104) While spiritualists. In broad terms this book is evidence for such political connections about the "culture of self-educating British (particularly of any direct sort) remains people of humble birth during the nineteenth thin, Barrow is able to show closer and and early twentieth centuries." Most fun­ more direct links between spiritualists damentally, it is "an argument about when and secularists. He argues that in com­ and how widely knowledge can be acces­ plex, sometimes contradictory ways sible," (xi) and also about what counts as spiritualism and secularism preserved in "knowledge." The study investigates the altered forms aspects of Owenite mil- fluid boundaries between various cultural lenarianism, thus linking the socialism of oppositions: elite and popular, learned and the 1830s and 1840s to the "new autodidact, scientific and non-scientific, socialism" of 1880s and 1890s. professional and amateur, religious and in­ Rationalist faith in endless human fidel. What seems remarkable was the open­ progress was projected into the next ness of these boundaries during the second world, and the time-scale for millenarian half of the nineteenth century. transformation was expanded. Thus one London spiritualist, who saw socialism as Spiritualism, the belief that centers on part of spiritualism, thought that purported conversations with the "spirits" of socialism would "probably take about physically dead people, had its nineteenth- five-million years" to come.(113) What century origins in America. More important remains unclear, however, is how for Barrow's argument, is how this belief widespread or powerful an influence Bar­ was assimilated at mid-century in Britain. He row wants to claim for late Victorian argues that spiritualism appealed to working- spiritualism. It may also seem more class and lower middle-class autodidacts REVIEWS 341

plausible to view plebeian spiritualism as James Epstein a complex manifestation of a broader Vanderbilt University process of working-class depolitization than as a repository for latent socialist Alun Howkins, Poor Labouring Men: Rural belief. Radicalism in Norfolk 1870-1923 (London: At the heart of Barrow's book is a Routledge & Kegan Paul 1974). long and arresting chapter on the problem of "democratic epistemology" — that is IN THIS ENGAGING BUT FRUSTRATING "a definition of knowledge as open to book, Alun Howkins offers an un­ anybody."(146) Barrow sees many self- abashedly sympathetic study of educated plebeians of the nineteenth cen­ farmworkers and labour organization in tury "as in thunderous revolt against one area of late nineteenth and early twen- hierarchical epistemologies," — although tieth-century England. The engaging as the author argues the "democratic" aspect of the book is its multifaceted at­ knowledge of the spiritualist, herbalist, tention to a long-neglected subject. mesmerist, and phrenologist was "about Despite constant reminders about the to be outflanked by increasingly hierar­ quantitative importance of rural society, chical sciences."(156-7) None the less, especially until the twentieth century, re­ medical botantists like John Skelton searchers continue to focus on cities as (shoemaker, former Chartist leader, and the predominant setting of historical republican activist) kept the orthodox change. This preoccupation has not been medical profession under constant fire. altered by the massive effort during recent One of the strengths of Barrow's study is decades to reconstruct the experience of his demonstration of the interconnections the historically anonymous. As Howkins between a wide range of heterodox remarks, scholars characteristically con­ knowledge. During the late nineteenth tinue to define rural history as agricultural and early twentieth centuries, spiritualist history, limiting their attention to Lyceums offered an impressive selection economic rather than social phenomena. of heterodox learning in an effort to train This tendency is also evident among a new generation of self-educators. labour historians, including those who Barrow's independent spirits are al­ have explored beyond union activities in most exclusively male, as was plebeian search of the cultural experience of autodidact culture more generally. At the workers. very end of his book, however, Barrow In contrast, Howkins focuses directly alludes, almost in passing, to the impor­ on the history of the rural poor, attempt­ tant role of women as mediums and sug­ ing to explain the development of gests that in this semi-public role women radicalism in terms of the character and might sometimes have been licensed to structure of work and family life. By ex­ behave in "unladylike" ways. Readers in­ amining the evolution of Norfolk where terested in the ways in which female the National Union of Agricultural and mediums might have subversively Allied Workers grew out of local union restructured accepted notions of female activities begun in the 1870s, the author illness, passivity, silence, and functional attempts to explain the texture and timing sexuality should turn to Alex Owen's of rural labour organization. Howkins ar­ recent article "Women and nineteenth gues that, throughout the years under century spiritualism: Strategies in the study, rural society was consistently char­ subversion of femininity" (in Jim acterized by conflict between "master and Obelkevich, Lyndal Roper and Raphael man" but that its context evolved from a Samuel, eds., Disciplines of Faith), which local to national arena. Village associa­ offers interesting points of juncture be­ tions (often related to the chapel) gave tween both works under review. way to the larger labour movement which came to accept the establishment of wage 342 I^BCXJWLETRAVAIL

rates by a national government board. How- evidence, most notably the local press, kins clearly prefers the 1860-1900 period of which permits narration of union activity local consciousness when "intensely and, less effectively, the evolution of as- democratic" and "flexible" (178) associa­ sociational life. But the result will not be tions, often spear-headed by labouring radi­ convincing except to those already con­ cal Methodists, promoted the material and vinced. Recollections of twenty-four political position of rural workers. The workers about the post-1910 period, and nationalization of perspective and organiza­ the perception of various village jour­ tion after 1900 had certain advantages for nalists do not make for a "detailed study workers but also made unions increasingly of one group within rural society over a insensitive to and inappropriate for the com­ period of change."(xiii) Despite Alun plexity of their specific needs. This book Howkins' admirable intentions, the poor thus argues against an image of chapel as labouring men of Norfolk (and women anti-labour, and local as primitive. The result and children it could be added) have not is a refreshing and provocative study which yet been rescued from historical can be read profitably by a wide range of anonymity. historians. But the book is, indeed, frustrating. Chad Gaffield Howkins is truly cavalier in his treatment of University of Ottawa evidence. No attempt is made to identify the strengths and weaknesses of sources nor to Nicholas Jones, Strikes and the Media: Com­ specify and analyse contradictory data. The munication and Conflict (Oxford: Basil Black- author presents a coherent story in which the well 1986). omnipresent inconsistencies and vagaries of the historical process fall by the wayside. MEDIA SCHOLARS ARE PAYING increasing Most important, Howkins emphasizes the attention to the impact of print, broadcast­ need to view workers in the context of family ing, and telecommunications systems on and community but then retreats from a industrial relations. Sara Douglas in the serious investigation of the changing struc­ United States, Graham Knight in Canada, tures within which ideas and ambitions the Glasgow Group in Britain and Hans evolved during the decades under investiga­ Friedrich Foltin in West Germany, among tion. The author devotes only one chapter to others, have identified the roots of cor­ Norfolk's historical context despite his per­ porate bias in the media. Their analyses ception of dramatic change in rural draw on political economic forces such as radicalism. Moreover, this chapter treats the corporate concentration and micropoliti- entire period as one piece and, astonishingly, cal processes of defining and gathering bases much of the discussion on recollec­ "news" to show why labour is covered so tions of former Norfolk workers. Oral badly, when it is covered at all. history's sudden popularity in the 1960s, This book is unique in that it offers near death in the 1970s, and renaissance in the views of a journalist, the labour cor­ the 1980s have involved substantial respondent for BBC Radio News, on how methodological discussion but even the most the media covered one of the more fervent supporters have not suggested that celebrated industrial disputes, the 1984 individuals perceive clearly and remember strike of the National Union of accurately structural change. Even if they Mineworkers against the National Coal did, Howkins' interviewees were mostly Board. born after 1900 and thus began their working In his conclusion, Jones tells us that lives only at the very end of the book's "of all the reasons for writing this book, chronological focus. From cover to cover, one of the strongest has been the urge to however, Howkins uses their testimony to try to answer some of the criticisms made fuel his argument about the entire 1870-1923 of journalists." It is fortunate that this period. The author certainly does use other statement appears at the end of the book REVIEWS 343 because it might put off some readers born American executive who moved anticipating pages of self-serving from Steel to head the National Coal apologetic. It is even more fortunate that Board. Macgregor had a tougher time the book is not mainly a response to the with coal because the miners' union took criticisms of reporters. Rather, it is an explicit stand against pit closures. primarily about the ways management is Jones spends the remainder of the book on using traditional media and new technol­ the clash between the Union and the ogy to carry out a conservative industrial Board and eventually between the Union strategy not unfamiliar to Canadians, and the government, which decided about Americans, and many Europeans: halfway through the strike to make this a eliminate jobs, cut wages, diminish union test of Thatcher's ability to defeat "the power, and overwhelm the opposition in enemy within." industrial disputes. Jones' analysis of media use in the Jones begins by showing how several miners' strike is especially valuable be­ companies, particularly in nationalized cause it comes from an experienced jour- industries, used media as one among a nalist who has little sympathy for number of anti-union weapons. British Scargill's brand of tough, personal union Ley land made media an integral part of leadership. What stands out, however, is the "BL Recovery Plan" to close all or not the criticism of Scargill, but the over­ part of 13 factories and eliminate 23,000 whelming power of the government to use jobs in two years. BL was careful to work most of the press as the transmission belt on broadcasting media, showing off their to carry on its attack against the union. photogenic President in a style that Jones is careful to point out that govern­ Ronald Reagan had made famous, the ment manipulation took some care and press conference on the run. BL also skill. The Secretary of State for Energy wrote and telephoned workers in their took over the attack when the Coal Board homes where family pressures more easi­ faltered (Macgregor spent too much time ly outweigh the need for worker playing to the cameras), and used effec­ solidarity. BL boasted that it could reach tively a wide range of media tactics. 150,000 workers in 24 hours. By 1982 the These included timing news releases for company had far fewer workers to reach; the better Sunday edition coverage, its workforce was down 47 per cent from avoiding industrial correspondents who 1977 to 91,400. were more sympathetic to the union posi­ British Rail used similar tactics, ad­ tion, and spending massive amounts of ding one that has proven particularly ef­ money (over three and one-half million fective. It advertised a Freefone number pounds on newspaper ads alone during that workers could call to receive, without the strike) to fight the union. charge and in anonymity, information on These actions were important, but the company's position. At its peak given the clear support for Thatcherism during a strike against BR, the company on Fleet Street, editors were more than received 10,000 calls a week. willing to cooperate with the government Employing a tactic pioneered by IBM public relations campaign. Things were in its anti-union campaigns, British Steel so bad at the Sunday Times that the made extensive use of video, distributing newspaper's labour editor asked to have mainly on cassette, short, personal state­ his name removed from several stories ments intended to ease worker and middle which were rewritten to support the management concerns about layoffs. government's position. The Union simply There was indeed good reason for uneasi­ did not have the resources to match ness. Between 1977 and 1982 BS cut its Whitehall and Fleet Street. workforce by 52 per cent. This makes all the more remarkable The cuts were directed by British the solidarity that the Union was able to Steel's head Ian Macgregor, a Scottish- achieve over the year-long strike. Fully 344 I^BOUR/LETRAVAEL

seven months into the strike there were over history of education in our century is writ­ one hundred pits where not a single miner ten as if these systems do not exist. had worked since the strike began. The Pedagogical debate and the sociology of Union made its share of mistakes, which education generally exclude this aspects Jones recounts. Given the lack of resources, of the educational system entirely. This is however, it is hard to find as much fault as a trend we find in the whole western in­ Jones does with the Union's inability to dustrialised world. make good use of the media. Scargill's An important piece of work has ap­ ability to turn every media experience into an peared in France by the philosopher. Ber­ expression of class struggle must have con­ nard Chariot, and the sociologist, tributed to the Union's solidarity. Neverthe­ Madeleine Figeât, which traces the his­ less, Scargill may have made the mistake that tory of workers' education from the Gitlin pointed to in his analysis of the media French Revolution to our times. This is a and the student movement of the 1960s: the multidisciplinary book, which integrates temptation to play to the cameras can take the pedagogy, economics, sociology, history, place of other essential, though more prosaic, and political science. organizing activities. The work opens by delineating Though he is concerned about how several important perspectives concern­ media use and coverage is influencing in­ ing research and debate on education and dustrial relations, Jones recognizes that the schooling. The research work, which media did not defeat the mine workers. covers two centuries, is mainly a Rather, media were used as part of a multi- documentary analysis of original texts, faceted government effort to break the union. mainly found in the national library in This included huge outlays to transfer from Paris. The authors had access to the coal- to oil-fired power stations and thereby French national archives, official docu­ undermine the Union's expectation that ments, bulletins on education, govern­ "General Winter" would bring power cuts ment circulars and articles in periodicals, and a Union victory. The Coal Board also although material from the later twen­ enticed strikers back to the pits with pay tieth-century period has been difficult to bonuses. compile. What the writers have chosen to Jones concludes with examples of how do is to present the laws, institutions, and unions have learned from the miners' defeat the official documents which are the basis and are beginning to make better use of the for vocational education in France. They media. Notwithstanding this evidence, his are not, however, writing the history of own somewhat restrained presentation of vocational education from a traditional what happens when capital and the state are point of view. They do not simply want to closely aligned and committed to using the describe, but rather to understand two press to defeat a determined "enemy" makes hundred years of this vast set of multidis­ one less than hopeful that countervailing ciplinary factors. They thus had to go pressures can achieve much success. beyond the traditional dichotomies to which psychopedagogical analysis generally tries to reduce the problems of Vincent Mosco education; human being/machine, general Queen's University education/special education, work/educa­ tion. In order to seek a deeper under­ Bernard Chariot and Madeleine Figeât, Histoire de standing the writers found it necessary to la Formation des Ouvriers, 1789-1984 (Paris: see the educational problems as condi­ Minerve 1985). tioned by the social relations of labour market development, the need for labour THE VOCATIONAL SCHOOL and the appren­ power, salary scales, the classification ticeship system which train students for the and the mobility of labour, and the class manual labour market are areas to which struggle between the bourgeoisie and the researchers have paid little attention, and the REVIEWS 345

proletariat. They look into the contradic­ labour, specialization and child labour. tions in the bourgeoisie, for example, and They also show how this degradation also explore the internal competition and stands in relation to the development of different political outlooks within the capitalism in the small industries, which working class as they took place in real have to reorganise in order to survive. political events. But the relations between economy Chariot's and Figeat's first argument and education are not automatic. The con­ consists of tracing the historical stages of tradictions are solved in different ways in development of technical and vocational different places. Neither the bourgeoisie education; looking at the degradation of nor the working class are monolithic. vocational training over the course of the Chariot and Figeât argue clearly that con­ nineteenth century, and then at the origins tradictions exist within the classes. For of a surge of philanthropical courses for example, the factory owner in Alsace, apprentices. They point out that the who relied heavily upon child labour, ideological was just as important as the demanded at the same time legal action to technical and pedagogical sides of this forbid child labour. The authors fail to project, both for the bourgeoisie and the explain that this contradiction is quite labour movement. logical. In Marx's terms: "Child labour is A well-known contradiction in this inefficient but as long as my competitors history is whether the workers should get use it — I must use it." If child labour is their education in the workshop of the outlawed, the capitalists, not as individual factory or at school. Should vocational competitors, but in total, would all face training keep its autonomy or be in­ the same, regulated, competitive situa­ tegrated in the ordinary school system? tion; that is, so long as such all-encom­ The prolongation of compulsory school­ passing legislation did not exist, each ing and the establishing of comprehensive employer was forced, by the competition schools in 19S9 and 1963 ended the of the market place, to exploit child autonomy of vocational education. These labour. If such legislation was passed they measures were meant to secure a voca­ could all be protected against the effects tional education in the school system for of the profit differential that, hitherto, had all young people, but resulted in a reinfor­ been associated with the use or non-use of cement of existing prejudices which con­ child labour. tinue to assail manual labour and voca­ The authors also point out that owners tional training. This policy innovation, in of capital opposed those rules and regula­ a word, creates a multitude of social tions of the feudal system which hindered problems. After 1975 the idea of educa­ the efficiency of their enterprise. Laws tion in the factories rises again with the about apprenticeship come to an end in concept of variation. The authorities the last part of the 1900. In 1937, the craft wanted to try to solve the problems in the sectors managed to reestablish an appren­ school system by letting the students ticeship law in France. spend part of the time at school and part The final issue stressed by Chariot of the time on the factory floor. and Figeât is the need to view the The second component of this study development of workers' education in the is that workers' education is systematical- light of the ongoing ideological debate in ly viewed in relation to national, French society. From the last part of the economic, and social development. Char- eighteenth century the bourgeoisie was lot and Figeât show how the degradation split over the question of how to educate of the apprenticeship system is not an "le peuple," how to mould and form the autonomous process, but a reflection of worker. Training the "good" worker, the degradation of manual labour, of the whose moral and ideological stance has transition from crafts production to in­ been, if anything, more important than his dustrial production, with its division of or her skills and technical qualities, is 346 Ij^BOUR/LETRAVAIL central: the bourgeoisie wants mild and of capital seek to limit the workers' modest workers while the labour movement education to what is strictly necessary, desires its members to be disciplined and while at the same time, throughout the responsible. On the basis of these require­ whole historical period of capitalism in ments a consensus is established between the France, they complain about the lack of progressive bourgeoisie and the labour skills in the work force. movement, an agreement that the primary The strategy of the bourgeoisie, in school shall consist largely of moral educa­ relation to this second dominant feature, tion for the worker. Yet differences are there: has developed along several axes. The demand for a vocational education in the first moves around the general education school system comes from the bosom of the of the future worker. The writers expected bourgeoisie, while the labour movement, that the concern of the owners of capital with its priority on syndicalism, looks upon would have been primarily around the the factory floor as the place to train the questions of vocational training, but they youth. found a strong bourgeois engagement in The writers explore the internal con­ general education for the people. They tradictions in the bourgeoisie and the internal were concerned that the school should contradictions in the labour movement con­ form qualities and fundamental cerning these questions. They point out the capabilities in the youth, which would complexity in these phenomena, while at the give them the possibilities to adjust to the same time stressing that the complexity is not conditions of production in the modern chaotic. They show in their conclusion three industrial epoch and consolidate a stable dominant features which have ruled the working class ideologically integrated in development of workers' education in the modern industrial epoch. France. A second important goal for the The first feature is the competition in the owners of capital has been to bring about labour market, which influences directly the and maintain streaming in the school sys­ form and condition of education. It is the tem in order to supply industry with un­ general competition between adult and skilled labour power. The fragmentation youngster, men and women, the French-born of tasks and the transfer of knowledge and the immigrant, city and countryside; and from human beings to the machines then the specific competition between dif­ created a lot of unattractive jobs. This ferent types of skilled labour. The young kind of labour is often provided by im­ ones who present themselves on the labour migrants and women, who submit to market are potential competitors to adult racist and sexist exploitation. Further it labour power. In times of high unemploy­ has also been necessary to recruit young ment the competition is vigorous. But even people for such tasks. In order to fulfil in period with full employment, as in the last this demand it was important to stream the part of the nineteenth century, youth became children as they moved through the a real threat to adult workers. The factory school system. By means of this stream­ owners used the young against the qualified ing the prospective labour force was dif­ workers, who were a solid part of their ferentiated and classified. One stream has enterprises and part of labour unions with been kept in readiness for unskilled work, traditions of struggle. Factory owners looked while another becomes qualified to fulfil upon the young as a reservoir of labour labour speciality requirements. power which they could adjust to new work­ The third dominant feature of the ing methods and new ways of organising and development of workers' education is the exploiting labour power. increasing role of the state in education The second dominant feature in the after the Second World War. Today the development of workers' education in direct struggle around educational ques­ France is what Chariot and Figeât call "mal­ tions is taking place through conflict be­ thusianisme patronal," by which the owners tween contradictory interest groups près- REVIEWS 347

suring and lobbying the state apparatus. the Spanish workers' movement is well Chariot and Figeât point out that in known, the parallel, but less dramatic, these ideological debates it is always the demise of the French popular front (which male workers that are talked about, not paved the way for Vichy), has been large­ the women workers. The women workers ly ignored. June '36: Class Struggle and are, just like the youth, objects and instru­ the Popular Front in France is a study of ments in the class struggle between capi­ the cataclysmic strike wave which accom­ tal and labour and in this struggle there is panied the electoral victory of the popular a sexist ideology which manifests itself in front, its eventual demobilization, and ul­ not recognizing women workers' timate defeat. Originally published in qualifications. 1952 in France, and then re-issued in I have tried to emphasize the essential 1972, this important book has finally been features of this unique piece of work. My translated into English. major critical comment is that we get to The effects of the great depression of know much more of the thinking of the the 1930s were the same in France as in bourgeoisie than of the labour organiza­ the rest of the industrialized world. tions. One reason might be that the labour Wages fell, the ranks of the unemployed organizations have been less preoccupied swelled, and the loss of confidence in the with these matters than have members of old order led to significant growth for the bourgeoisie in France. Another side of organizations on both extremes of the it is that the bourgeoisie leaves more political spectrum. documentary records. In February 1934 a violent provoca­ An understanding of these tion by a few thousand fascists and phenomena within the education of the royalists in front of the Chamber of working class is a necessary component Deputies in Paris precipitated a in the overall pedagogical and sociologi­ governmental crisis which toppled the cal understanding of education in general. discredited Radical administration and In the economic era in which we now live, replaced it with a "strong" bonapartist and with the impact of the technological regime. The French working class revolution in production, it is absolutely responded to this lurch to the right with a necessary to deepen our understanding of massive one-day general strike, sup­ the appearance and development of voca­ ported by both Communist and Socialist tional training, and to regard this unions. This unity in action provided a phenomena against the background of springboard for the creation of the economic, technological, social, and Popular Front, an electoral alliance political developments of the era. negotiated between the leaders of the two workers' parties and the Radicals (the Liv Mjelde "democratic" party of French im­ Oslo, Norway perialism). The French capitalists responded to Jacques Danos and Marcel Gibelin, June '36: the victory of the Popular Front in the Class Struggle and the Popular Front in Franceelectio n of 3 May 1936 by immediately (London: Bookmarks 1986). beginning to send their assets out of the country. The workers, imagining that they IN 1936 POPULAR FRONT GOVERNMENTS — now had friends in high places, went on coalitions between the Socialist and Com­ the offensive. In mid-May workers began munist parties and bourgeois political for­ to seize key industrial premises, par­ mations — were elected in both Spain and ticularly engineering factories, initially to France. What was seen at the time by press demands for better wages and work­ many as a big step to the left was to end ing conditions. In a matter of a month in bitter defeat in both countries. Yet French industry was gripped by a massive while the story of Franco's triumph over strike wave involving two million 348 HBOUR/LETRAVAIL

workers. Citroen, Fiat, Renault, and virtually Maurice Thorez explained that, "There every other big factory around Paris were was a risk that the Popular Front might occupied and the strike quickly spread to the break up. Was the working class about to smaller plants and to the provinces. cut itself off from the mass of the people As the strike movement gained momen­ in struggle?" Rather than betray the al­ tum it drew support from broader layers of liance with the "progressive" wing of the the population. Some small shopkeepers capitalists upon which the Popular Front began to offer the strikers a 15 per cent dis­ was premised, Thorez pronounced that count as a demonstration of solidarity. "we must know how to end a strike." Uniformed soldiers joined demonstrations in Communist Party members in the plants, support of the strikers. The movement began many of whom had played leading roles to acquire a political dimension which went in the struggle to that point, were ordered beyond simple bread and butter trade to bring the movement to an end. This was unionism. The inchoate impulse of the mas­ accompanied by violent denunciations of ses of French proletarians for some kind of militants who sought to carry the struggle fundamental social transformation was sym­ further, as provocateurs, fascists, and/or bolized by the red flags which fluttered anarchists and Trotskyists. By mid-July above the occupied factories. In some the strike wave receded and the country regions delegates from the various striking began to return to normal. factories began to meet together in local The gains of June 1936 proved his­ committees to coordinate their actions — torically transitory, as the capitalists em­ thus taking the first step toward the estab­ barked almost immediately on a cam­ lishment of dual power. paign of take-backs. Within two years the The big bourgeoisie was terrified by the wage gains were offset by price hikes. depth of the labour revolt and agreed willing­ The shorter work week was similarly ly to major economic concessions as the eroded by successive "modifications." price for reestablishing their rule on the shop Thousands of militants were sacked. floor. Yet even with this cooperation Leon Union membership, which had mush­ Blum, the socialist premier who presided roomed from under a million to five mil­ over the popular front, and his allies had lion, declined to less than two million by considerable difficulty putting a lid on the 1939. The only significant lasting gain of explosion of militancy at the base. Blum and the strike was the establishment of a paid the union leadership first attempted to im­ holiday for the working class. pose a set of uniform demands on the rank- Danos and Gibelin carefully docu­ and-file revolt. On 7 June the employers as­ ment the entire course of the struggle and sociation, the government and the union tops sketch the debates in the French left signed the "Matignon agreement," which in­ which accompanied it. In drawing the les­ cluded collective contracts and union rights sons of the experience, the authors quote (previously unheard of in most French in­ from a 1938 pamphlet produced by mem­ dustry); a forty-hour week with no loss in bers of a white-collar union in the en­ pay; paid holidays and wage hikes officially gineering industry: set between 7 and 15 per cent. This was the standard package, but in many cases the The experience of the Popular From in power employers had to offer substantially more. confirmed that no government could carry out Piece work was eliminated in many factories policies within the existing system which did not fit in with the vital interests of the in­ and pay differentials between skilled and un­ dustrial and financial oligarchies, which did skilled were significantly reduced. This par­ not indeed safeguard those interests.(219) ticularly benefitted women workers. With the signing of the Matignon agree­ Whether or not June 1936 could have ment the workers' "leaders" set themselves culminated in a successful seizure of the task of reigning in the movement. In his power by the French working class is, in autobiography Communist Party chieftain the opinion of the authors, an open ques- REVIEWS 349

tion. They make a convincing case that in the case of the supporters of Michel the reason that the struggle remained en­ Rocard). CERES was led and dominated tirely within the bounds of "the existing by Jean-Pierre Chevènement, a clever system" was the commitment of the exist­ technocrat from Belfort, and shared his ing leadership of the mass organizations desire for a renewal of French socialism of the class to the strategy of the popular along marxist but non-Communist lines, front and the preservation of capitalist freed from the stain of compromise and hegemony. opportunism associated with the reign of Guy Mollet in the fifties and sixties. Thomas Rutman Beyond this, the rest is a matter of Toronto political intrigue, shifting alliances, doctrinal debates, and the political genius David Haniey, Keeping Left? Ceres and ate of Mitterrand, who kept the support of French Socialist Party (Manchester: CERES during his rise to power without Manchester University Press 1986). ever fully endorsing the left-wing plat­ form they proposed. Haniey, however, THIS BOOK IS, according to its sub-title, a makes it all both more complicated and contribution to the study of fractionalism less interesting than it might have been. in political parties. One would need to be He projects the fractional divisions of the a specialist in such matters to judge how PS back into the earlier history of French far it meets that description, and this socialism, in order presumably to suggest reviewer is not qualified to comment. Ex­ something fundamental, or structurally cept, that is, to suggest that if this is the endemic, about fractional division in level of analytical sophistication at which French radical politics. This is silly. The such matters are habitually discussed, French Socialist movement was always then it is not a very demanding occupa­ deeply divided (though not much more so tion. As a contribution to the recent his­ than the Italian, or the British). But to tory of French Socialism, however, the build these divisions into the pre-history book is informative within its self-im­ of modern "fractions" is unnecessary. The posed limits, but not much more. PS has the sort of divisions it does be­ Hanley's subject is CERES (the cause it began life as an alliance, and Centre d'études, de recherches, et could only be sustained through a con­ d'éducation socialiste), a left-wing study- stitution which allowed and even en­ cum-pressure group formed within the couraged the existence of different opinions. The old SFIO deliberately dis­ old SFIO in the 1960s but best known for couraged such expression of differences, its role within the Parti Socialiste during the better to present itself as a united party its resurgence in the 1970s. It is one of a against the Radicals (before 1914) and the number of such groups (tendances is the Communists (after 1920). To construct official term) within the party, separated some sort of general thesis which incor­ by ideological and tactical disagreements. porates all such divergences within the Since the birth of the PS in 1971 these official umbrella movements of the tendances have formed themselves socialist Left is to propose a theory of around a variety of alliances in support of political parties to the effect that they are programmes and personalities, although combinations of persons of different always,with a majority in support of the opinions. This is doubtless true, but hard­ line pursued by the leadership, first of ly news. Mitterrand, latterly of Lionel Jospin. In some cases (for example, the group as­ What is peculiar about the internal sociated with the former prime minister divisions within the various movements Pierre Mauroy), they represent a holdover of French Socialism is the role that has from a strand of the old SFIO, in others been played by ideology. Haniey grudg­ they support new persons and policies (as ingly acknowledges this, admitting that 350 LâfiOUR/LETRAVAIL

he has had to discuss ideology "more than we sume full familiarity on the part of the should have liked." This is another instance reader with all the players in the French of silliness. CERES was all about ideology political game. The student or general — indeed, it was about little else. reader seeking to learn about the French Chevènement and his peers were of that Socialist movement in the 1970s should generation (he was born in 1939) for whom seek out the introductory book by David the doctrinal language of socialism was of Bell and Byron Criddle (The French consuming importance; hence the willing­ Socialist Party). It is hard to know to ness to support Mitterrand in return for his whom to recommend Mr. Hanley's study. lip-service to their doctrinal preferences. In Perhaps it will be of interest to students this respect CERES was in direct line of of Fractionalism, for whom its inade­ descent from Marceau Pivert, Marcel Déat, quacy as a study of Socialism in France Jules Guesde and Jean Allemane, all of them will be a matter of unconcern. at one time leaders of a 'fraction' and all supremely concerned with the primacy of Tony Judt socialist doctrine. If you are not willing to New York University recognize and discuss the importance of ideology in intra-Socialist divisions in Barbara Franzoi,/4/ the Very Least She Pays the France (even if that ideology is frequently Rent: Women and German Industrialization, serving cynical political ends as well) then it 1871-1914 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press might be advisable to study factionalism in 1986). some less doctrinally-sensitive political cul­ ture. FAMILY AND INDIVIDUAL NEEDS. Barbara I have written of CERES in the past Franzoi tells us, were the chief reasons tense. It still exists, of course, but its leader that women worked in turn-of-the-cen- Chevènement is now busily cultivating the tury imperial Germany. There were many middle ground as a prelude to running for the poorly-paid jobs for women because leadership of his party and country alike. Not employers in some industries were cut­ all of his tendance welcomes this develop­ ting costs by keeping wages low and ment, but on the whole they reflect the sea- avoiding any long-term commitment to change in the French left, in their loss of their workers. Under these unpromising programmatic confidence. Hanley, in a post­ conditions, Franzoi nevertheless insists script, notes this change, but fails (under­ that "women interacting] with paid labor standably) to recognize that it constitutes asserted a certain measure of control in further evidence against his approach, show­ manipulating work choices to fit the cir­ ing how the fractionalist configurations of cumstances of their lives."(12) Further, the PS in the 1970s were the product of she adds, "Tracing their participation in passing circumstances. They were also, it the labor force indicates that women had might be noted, the special achievement not more success in modifying their work op­ only of Mitterrand but also of Chevènement tions than in altering their family respon­ himself, a decidedly opportunistic character sibilities. "(13) who was once a student enthusiast for the Franzoi's study is a serious contribu­ hard Right and only switched to the SFIO tion to women's history that illuminates a when he came to see it as a bird ripe for little-known case. Its argument, however, fractionalist plucking. Between the sig­ is sometimes forced, sometimes unclear nificance of ideological configurations and or even contradictory. Her evidence the role of personality, Hanley's watered- (based entirely upon published sources), down functionalist account seems uncon­ gathered as it is on a national basis, and vincing. It is also poorly constructed — no- dependent on the interests and questions one who did not already know everything I of investigators of the period, frequently have written in this review would make much is inadequate for the ends to which Fran­ sense of the material, which appears to as­ zoi puts it. Nevertheless, a depressing pic- REVIEWS 351 ture of poor women's work in Germany wage differentials. Under these cir­ emerges, embodied strikingly in the cumstances, wages did not even cover evocative photographs which illustrate women workers' reproduction; such the study. wages were not incentives to work but The methodological discussion in stopgaps to starvation. Because of the Chapter I makes a strong case that al­ highly skewed distribution of men and though married women's work in industry women workers across industries, how­ increased, there was no proportionate in­ ever, it is difficult to interpret wage dif­ crease in factory labour, as contem­ ferentials between industries. poraries believed. Rather, it was women's Despite her generally perceptive in­ employment in home-based industry that terpretation, Franzoi sometimes misses increased. Franzoi's regional and in­ the point, as in this sentence: "Why were dustrial comparisons are helpful, but this women workers reluctant to pursue a bet­ discussion cries out for maps and more ter wage through better job preparation?" geographic context. Franzoi here expands This reduction of the problem to one of her argument about the fit between certain individual choice or rational decision industries' strategy of hiring women be­ makes no sense, given her own evidence. cause of new technologies and efforts to Surely she exaggerates when she con­ cut costs in a highly competitive cludes, "The significant point is that economy, and (married) women's needs women workers did have the opportunity for jobs they could handle along with to choose, and the pattern of their work household responsibilities. It is difficult, experience proved that they exercised that if not impossible, to untangle the effects option. Job changes were frequent; in­ of supply and demand here. However, dustry changes were not unusual."(52-53) Franzoi's evidence shows not (as she Her evidence: several biographies show­ believes) whether women went to work ing mobility indeed — for example, from because of need or opportunity, but why wallpaper factory to domestic service to the occupational distribution of married newspaper delivery to a print shop and women changed over the period. An in­ back at last to a wallpaper factory. She dustrial restructuring that increased the gives no evidence about the reasons for proportionate importance of heavy in­ job changing; it could as well be lay offs dustry as compared to textiles, and the as choice. Further, a choice that means growth of several consumer industries walking out when conditions are in­ (clothing and tobacco) lay behind this tolerable is not much of a choice. change. The textile industry concentrated As elsewhere in Europe, Franzoi in factories and home production virtual­ shows that protective legislation often ly disappeared. Growth in the tobacco and meant that women worked in unregulated clothing industries was the outcome of industries, those that sought cheap labour. investment decisions by entrepreneurs Her examination of the relationships be­ who took account of newly available tween work and family elaborates on the women's labour and organized their argument that as daughters and as wives, production accordingly. Franzoi is cor­ German women most often worked in rect that from women's point of view, response to family need. Their family these jobs represented continuity in their responsibilities both determined when work experience, but the jobs did not ap­ women worked over their life cycle, but pear simply because women wanted them. also in what kind of jobs. In this way, Jobs were created by employers who saw women made a vital contribution to their women as desireable cheap workers in the family economies even though they newly reorganized and rapidly growing earned little claim on the distribution of clothing and tobacco industries. family resources by so doing. A look at Franzoi's data on wages, skills, and home work leads Franzoi to conclude that mobility show some remarkably large despite its real drawbacks — such as poor 3S2 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

pay and the encumbering of family living conditions, is not very persuasive. space with work materials and tools — "it In its demonstration of the relation­ was an acceptable way for women to in­ ship of changes in women's work patterns tegrate work and family."(140) and industrial restructuring, this study Franzoi concludes with an examination joins an important new interpretation laid of Socialist and Christian labour organiza­ out by Charles Sabel and Jonathan Zeitlin tions and women. She finds that Socialist in "Historical Alternatives to Mass unions were committed to male dominance; Production: Politics, Markets and Tech­ despite their "egalitarian principles, [they] nology in Nineteenth-Century In­ could not move very far beyond a traditional dustrialization" (Past and Present, 108, definition of women as properly wives, 1985). It contributes thus both to mothers and economic helpmates."(158) women's history and to an emerging Even feminist activists "insisted on equal revision of the history of industrial opportunity not because women were equal, capitalism. but because they were complementary to men."(150) Women Socialists and unionists Louise A. Tilly were not successful in reaching women New School for Social Research workers partly, according to Franzoi, be­ cause they were too abstract in their argu­ Rudy Koshar, Social Life, Local Politics, and ments, but also, she believes, because they Nazism: Marburg, 1880-1935 (Chapel Hill: were contemptuous of ordinary women. The University of North Carolina Press 1986). Christian labour leaders were more success­ ful, but at some cost. They preached not THE GREAT CRIMES OF HISTORY, no less simple submission but the mutual interests of than those of detective fiction, require workers and employers. Such a message motive, opportunity, and a modus operan­ surely had little impact on the cost-conscious di. Scholars are now in little doubt about companies that sought women workers be­ the demented hatreds that inspired Hitler cause they did not have to pay them a living to unleash terror, devastation, and wage. Franzoi shows that the Christian genocide on Germany and the world. By unions offered social support services and contrast, the long-term evolution of Ger­ spiritual comfort to working women. Hence, man society and politics that produced the despite the anti-women's-work ideology of potentiality of a fascist dictatorship con­ the religious unions, women joined them, she tinues to attract contentious debate. In concludes, "to somehow combine the con­ this breathtakingly ambitious book, Rudy tradictions of ideology and reality."( 174) Koshar indicates that one might begin to This book's shortcomings are partly a solve this mystery by emphasizing "op­ consequence of its sources, both highly ag­ portunity and capacity to mobilize" as gregated and relatively nonspecified. Fran­ crucial determinants of the Nazis' suc­ zoi could have gained insights, I believe, by cess: "We need to know more about the comparing the extremes — any group of mechanics of local protest in Germany — women workers that may have had more about what mobilization required — leverage in the labour market, that perhaps before we can develop a more deeply tex­ organized collectively more often, or even tured explanation for why mobilization earned a stronger position in their families. occurred in the first place."(274) It is on In England, Lancashire textile workers, and the trail of this explanation that Koshar in France, tobacco workers, were such cases. leads his enchanted readers — figurative­ Examining such special cases could suggest ly and literally — through the historic the conditions under which women, even back alleys of what at first appears to be though restricted to segregated jobs, might a typically sleepy town in Hesse. have either more autonomy or better wages. Why Marburg? It does not take the Certainly Franzoi's insistence on choice, author long to convince his readers that when it results in neither better wages or "Marburg was peculiar, but it was not an REVIEWS 353

island."(19) With a population that num­ they existed. His long chronological bered only 28,439 in the early 1930s, scope permits him "to reconsider relation­ Marburg provided Koshar with a locality ships between prior traditions and the rise which was neither so small that its politics of nazism" yielding the important con­ lacked the complexity of larger urban clusion that the socio-political functions centres, nor so immense that its organiza­ performed by the old Imperial elites and tional life defied reconstruction. Koshar those of the Weimar and Nazi eras were deftly avoids the mistake of claiming that fundamentally different^ 10) Most impor­ Marburg was entirely typical of the mid­ tant of all, his snapshots of Marburg's dle-sized German cities of the day. In fact teeming social world at crucial points in the city's lack of heavy industry forces its history capture the features of the Ger­ the author to concede on a number of man Vereinsmensch (organizational man) occasions that the conflicts between in hitherto unknown detail. From address Communism, Social Democracy, and books and club registers, police reports Nazism can best be explored elsewhere. and personal interviews, Verein newslet­ Marburg's dependence on retail trade and ters and Nazi Festschriften, Koshar has governmental business was unusually built his case with great care. His "conser­ heavy, further skewing the material con­ vative approach" regarding the compila­ cerns, social contacts, and political sym­ tion of data makes his study eminently pathies of its citizens. And its reliance on reliable, even though (or because) he the university made Marburg much more analysed his findings without transferring politically volatile than most other the information to computer records. As university towns (68 per cent of Koshar comments with self-effacing un­ Marburg's Nazi members in 1930 were derstatement rarely found among master students). Yet as a vehicle to explore sleuths, "my more artisanal approach to Protestant bourgeois organizational life, the data gave me a good sense of the one can hardly conceive of a more texture of social networks."(288) suitable locality than Marburg. For here a Koshar's exhaustive investigation of "medieval and village-like impression" the social and political affiliations of belied the existence of a wide array of Marburg's citizenry and his style of ar­ voluntary associations (Vereine), includ­ gumentation demand an unusually close ing professional and occupational groups; reading. (There is little chance that this veterans' clubs; women's clubs, gymnas­ book will supplant William Sheridan tics, sharpshooting, and other sports Allen's more lively treatment of Nor- clubs; song clubs; and fraternities and theim on undergraduate booklists). At other student organizations. In 1913 one times such a reading is made more dif­ voluntary organization existed for every ficult by the over-abundance of vague 99 citizens of Marburg. terms like "social resiliency," "shared so­ Koshar uses the tools most ap­ cial life," "disengagement," and even the propriate to the detective tale he is telling; verb "to hegemonize."(101) One term in he even supplies an appendix on sources particular — "apoliticism" — must be to reveal all in a final summing-up. But located precisely within the context of this is much more than another lesson in Koshar's analysis. Apoliticism does not investigative detail, for one avowed pur­ connote an "unpolitical" stance but, quite pose of this book is to move beyond the the contrary, went hand in hand with in­ question, "Who Voted for Hitler?" creasing politicization of the populace. Koshar's broadly Gramscian perspective "Apoliticism — expressed in personalis- allows him to integrate his themes of tic traditions of local politics, in an un­ political mobilization, hegemony, and the spoken and commonsensical distaste for relationship between the "seemingly un­ mass parties, or in attempts to devise local political institutions" of civil society and alternatives to national parties — ration­ the changing political systems in which alized and gave meaning" to the Marburg 354IWBOUR/LETRAVAIL

Bûrgertum.(90) According to Koshar, some contemporaries and later historians apolitical attitudes had been brewing since theorized." Moreover, far from painting trie nineteenth century but became a poison the usual scenario of fanatic Nazi party only in the 1920s, when increased oppor­ members burrowing their way into local tunities for social organization arose. (This associations as part of a carefully was also the time when the organizing talents thought-out conspiracy against the of the Socialists in Marburg most obviously Weimar Republic, the author asserts that, showed themselves inferior to those of their individually, party members were well in­ bourgeois counterparts). However, one thing tegrated into bourgeois organizational that must be understood from the outset — life before the NSDAP's electoral and here Koshar unfortunately leaves room breakthrough in 1930. These were the for confusion — is that apoliticism "Nazi joiners," men and women who were benefitted anti-democratic, anti-Socialist, affiliated with non-Nazi groups before the and anti-liberal tendencies throughout the NSDAP became a mass movement. It is period covered in this book. In particular, not necessary to follow up all the tanta­ plans for the "unification of all patriotic for­ lizing leads provided in Koshar's tables ces without regard for their party political depicting the cross-affiliations of these stance" pre-date the admittedly novel Ger­ "unauthorized facilitators of German fas­ man Fatherland Party in 1917; if such lan­ cism" — these "opinion makers, string guage was indeed "an ideological toggle pullers, and culture brokers" — to see that switch fostering popular enthusiasms for na­ they helped create "a coalition between tional solidarity," (146) surely Bismarck and activists and joiners" which provided for a host of nationalist demagogues had left successful political mobilization of the their fingerprints on that switch long before masses.(283-4) 1900. Because Koshar tends to forget the Ironically, the Nazis never succeeded potency of pre-1914 calls for anti-Socialist in creating a genuine sense of community solidarity and the national Volk community, after Hitler's seizure of power in 1933. he comes rather suddenly to the same con­ Once in control, the NSDAP was essen­ clusion reached by a Marburg history student tially "selling an entertainment package in 1920, that an apolitical interest in "peace to its members, just as social Vereine had and order" might entail shooting Spar- done since the late nineteenth century. tacists.(152) This fell far short of educating adherents Koshar is more original and his analysis in a deep or lasting manner."(208) It was more assured when he turns to the immediate left to post-war Germans to re-examine origins of Nazism in small-town Germany. the mysteries of organizational life in a Most academic visitors to this unfamiliar democratic setting. It was they, far more world have supposed that NSDAP members than any visitor to Marburg, who were in the 1920s were simply the alienated youth strangers in a strange land. of the post-war era, socially adrift and unen­ cumbered by earlier political traditions. James N. Retallack Koshar does not deny the revolutionary tac­ University of Toronto tics that made Nazi mobilization so success­ ful. But he also shows that, at least ir. Mar­ Allan Merson, Communist Resistance in Nazi burg, "the early NSDAP was a mix of Germany (London: Lawrence and Wishart, paramilitary league and Stammtisch rather 1985). than a political party," (181) that is, that it more easily exploited existing social WHEREAS IN THE WEST, with a few notable matrices and drew upon older strains of anti- exceptions, works on the German resis­ party sentiment than has commonly been tance to Nazism have concentrated on the believed. The author's conclusion is that efforts of conservatives, the military and early Nazis "were hardly unable to adjust to churchmen, in the GDR a mass of material the conventions of bourgeois society, as has appeared on virtually every aspect of REVIEWS 355 the Communist resistance. Allan Merson were "social fascists." The dogma of so­ has made an admirable summary of this cial fascism was mind-bogglingly crude work, and presents the current party line and politically disastrous, although Allan in a moderately digestible form. The tale Merson stoutly maintains that "there was he has to tell is a profoundly depressing more than a grain of truth to it," suggest­ saga of political blindness, needless ing that some Social Democratic leaders sacrifice, and betrayed idealism made all tried to deal with Hitler in 1933 while the more disheartening by the author's remaining curiously reluctant to name dogged efforts to excuse the inexcusable names. Even after Hitler came to power and salvage whatever possible from the the communists clung to this absurd no­ German communists' follies. tion with criminal perversity, even claim­ During the war the German resistance ing that the SPD was the "chief social was something of a nuisance to the allies. support of bourgeois rule." Whilst the The existence of "good Germans," SPD was destroyed, and many members whether of the left or the right, was likely were forced into exile or rotted in con­ to make the task of imposing terms on a centration camps, the KPD and the Com­ defeated country more complicated. For intern still insisted that they were the prin­ this reason the British government were cipal support of German fascism. rather relieved to see Hitler slaughter Along with the social fascism theory those who were directly or indirectly in­ the Communists managed to convince volved in the plot on his life on 20 July themselves that fascism was the death 1944. The Soviets similarly shed no tears agony of the capitalist beast and that so­ for their German comrades who died by cial revolution was nigh. Nazism could the thousands at the hands of their ruth­ thus be welcomed as exposing the true less prosecutors. Nor did they life a hand nature of social democracy and as herald­ to save the KPD's leader, Ernst ing the Red Dawn. The SPD turned sharp­ Thàlmann, a man so awful that even our ly left in 1933 and approached the KPD devout author has to confess that his place to discuss the possibilities of common in history is still a matter of some dispute. action again National Socialism, but the Once the Cold War got going all this had KPD demanded that the SPD should made to change. In the GDR the Communist a humiliating confession of their many resistance was put on display as the firm errors before any hands were shaken. The anti-fascist foundation of the new state. In SPD understandably refused, and the the Federal Republic the non-communist Communists continued to harbour the il­ resistance was seen as part of a lusion that they would be able to build up democratic and anti-totalitarian tradition a mass movement capable of overthrow­ to which Bonn was the proud heir. This ing the Nazi regime. book is intended to provide further In the first months of the Third Reich evidence for the purity of the pedigree of the KPD produced vast amounts of litera­ the East German regime, and fails as any ture at great personal risk and in increas­ such enterprise is bound to do. But as a ingly difficult circumstances. But none of short account of the Communist resis­ this material had the slightest effect since tance it is interesting and valuable. it called for a communist revolution in The basis of all the mistakes made by Germany, the last thing that anyone the KPD was the total inability of com­ wanted. Great was the sigh of relief when munists to understand the nature of fas­ Hitler announced in 1934 that there would cism and how it should be combatted. In be no more revolutions in Germany for the Comintern's crude world view there one thousand years. Our author desperate­ were only two possible options: either ly tries to defend this policy, but has to proletarian revolution or fascism. Since fall back on the rather lame argument that social democrats opposed the idea of a other parties did not do much better. communist controlled revolution they Gradually the Comintern dropped its 356 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL ultra left line and began to suggest a popular "an accelerated movement towards front against fascism. It was all too little and socialism." much loo late. By the time that the popular "Resistance" is a strong and active front line was finally adopted at the Seventh word and it is very dubious whether much Congress in 1935 the leadership of the KPD of what is described in this book is worthy was in Moscow, out of touch with the rank of the title. Handing out leaflets, painting and file in Germany who continued in their graffiti, and attending clandestine meet­ bad old ways, earning stern reprimands from ings is dissent, possibly opposition, but the ECCI for their sectarianism. That the hardly resistance. Curiously enough those party was out of touch with the leadership who were most effective are hardly men­ was, at least in the short run, a good thing. tioned. Harro Schulze-Boysen, Arvid That there was any opposition at all to the Harnack, and the Red Orchestra are Nazis from the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in treated as peripheral figures. The totally 1939 to the launching of Operation Barbaros- preposterous suggestion is made that sa in June 1941 was due to the fact that the "many Western writers" (none are of German Communists were blissfully ig­ course mentioned) suggest that the Red norant of the extent of the pro-Nazi efforts fo Orchestra was "uniquely treasonable or the Soviets. This shameful episode is ex­ unpatriotic." Such extraordinary state­ cused by trotting out the shop worn argument ments are presumably designed to avoid that "the western powers tried to steer Hitler the embarrassing question of what hap­ eastwards" — a convenient myth, but one for pened to the members of the Red Or­ which there is not a shred of evidence. But chestra who were fortunate enough to sur­ there is a hint that all was not quite well when vive. They too ended up in the Gulag this sordid period is coyly summed up by along with the anti-fascist Soviet talking of the "ambiguities of the early war prisoners of war who bravely did what years." pitifully little they could do to topple the Third Reich. The ambiguities continued after June 1941. In Germany the communists refused to The German Communists organized go along with the rightist line adopted by the and against enormous odds remained Comintern and later by the National Com­ politically active throughout the Third mittee for a Free Germany (NKFD). They Reich. Their political vision was warped wanted to replace the Nazi dictatorship with and myopic but they clung to it the dictatorship of the proletariat, and did not courageously. In the concentration camps wish to put up with an intermediate period of their organizational strengths and their popular front government. Thousands of firm beliefs enabled them to help many these party activists were rounded up by the unfortunates survive. For this they Gestapo after the attempt on Hitler's life in deserve to be remembered in gratitude. July 1944 and in August that year Thalmann Far from becoming the founding fathers was murdered. This made the task of impos­ of the German Democratic Republic as ing the Moscow line on the East German this book would have us believe, many of Communists all the easier. Those who did them were profoundly alienated from the not toe the line were denounced as sectarians version of socialism that was served up to and petty bourgeois egalitarians and were them at the point of Soviet bayonets and rewarded for their years of anti-fascist ac­ joined in the "attempted fascist rebellion" tivity with the dubious hospitality of Soviet against the Ulbricht regime in June 1953. and East German jails. The brutal imposition Party history is of course not concerned of a Moscow-style communist dictatorship in with such "subjective" truths nor with the the Soviet occupation zone is described as an immensity of these human tragedies, but act of self defence when the "Western Allan Merson is a good enough historian Powers divided Germany and drove the to allow the facts he presents to contradict Communists out of state governments in the his thesis and to sound distinctly embar­ Western zones." This forced the Soviets to rassed when repeating some of the more REVIEWS 357 inane assertions the party line demands. to the outside observer the (nearly) all- For this reason the story he has to tell is embracing German Trade Union Federa­ often inspiring, but more often profound­ tion (DGB) may appear to be the obvious ly depressing. subject of investigation, the fact that many of the political and most of the Martin Kitchen economic trade union activities in West Simon Fraser University Germany occur on the level of the par­ ticular 17 unions makes an overall treat­ Andrei S. Markovits, The Politics of the West ment well-nigh impossible. Markovits German Trade Unions: Strategies of Class andha s solved the dilemma by dealing with Interest Representation in Growth and Crisisth e DGB and general developments on (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press about 150 pages and dedicating the 1986). remaining two thirds of the text to four specific unions. His selections are for­ SINCE ITS INCEPTION in the early 1950s, tunate. The metalworkers' union was the the West German economic "miracle" has most obvious choice. Not only do its more continued virtually unabated. It is than two-and-a-half million members generally acknowledged that among the render it the largest labour union in the various factors contributing to this non-communist world, but its powerful development, the peculiar nature of Ger­ wage policies, its leading role in the for­ man labour relations has played an essen­ mulation of new concepts regarding col­ tial role. In contrast to the political and lective bargaining issues, and the inten­ strictly economic spheres, however, for sity of its political involvement warrant which comprehensive and good treat­ its universal recognition as the first ments abound, the field of industrial rela­ among equals within the DGB. Not its tions has as yet witnessed relatively few match numberwise, but similarly pushy attempts at achieving an adequate syn­ and, furthermore, fully aware of its "aris­ thesis. The book of Andrei S. Markovits, tocratic" status as the oldest (since 1865) who teaches political science at Boston German trade federation, the printers' University, constitutes an effort in this union rightly also deserves attention as direction. As stated in the introduction, one of the "activist" aggressively reform- the goal is even somewhat more am­ minded unions. To illustrate the "accom- bitious, namely to demonstrate that modationist" or right-wing orientation, "without a strong, organized labor move­ Markovits presents the chemical workers ment the Federal Republic would not only and the construction workers. While the be a much less prosperous country ... but former's union is remarkable because of — more significantly — it would not the shift in political outlook and direction boast one of the most stable democratic from left to right which it underwent over policies in the world." It does not really the decades, it is the latter's leadership in detract from the author's merits if one the search for "social partnership," par­ finds that this link between labour tially conceived as a means to overcome strength and prosperity /stability does not the handicap of a weak organization appear to be fully established in the text, making a more confrontational stance im­ and be it only because there were simply possible, which qualifies it for exemplary not enough pages available for the pur­ treatment. pose. What the book does give, however, is a detailed picture of the West German The non-specialist's main interest, labour relations scene and its major politi­ however, will be attracted by the more cal ramifications from the end of World general first part of the work, which offers War II to the early 1980s. a fairly detailed overview of the history of industrial relations from the imperial Even within these more limited con­ period onwards, with primary emphasis fines the task is a formidable one. While on the time since 1945. The author aptly 358 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

explores the wide range of organizational Markovits, of course, cannot claim to and political problems that collective labour be the first to formulate these insights. He action confronted. Among the questions has to be commended, though, not only which arose over the decades, some of them for presenting them in a lucid manner free with existential urgency, were those of of narrow doctrinarianism, but also for whether to organize along political lines or showing that these principles never did to represent employees in a non-partisan, and do not now constitute a solid institu­ "unitary" way; whether to centralize bargain­ tional structure. They rather provide the ing action or to decentralize it according to framework within which the quasi-cor- more syndicalist models; and how to find a poratist arrangements have developed useful demarcation between industry level which are characteristic of the West Ger­ and company/plant level negotiations. man labour context. While not a historical Markovits examines the different factors that work in the exact sense of the word, this led to the settlement of these questions, book is certainly the most informative basing his analysis on a wealth of primary treatment of its subject presently avail­ documents found in German archives and able in English to the historically inter­ labour publications, as well as on a wide ested reader. range of secondary material. What emerges is a variegated and palpable picture of the Udo Sautter interaction between the unions and the in­ University of Windsor stitutional structures and environmental con­ ditions that constitute the West German Richard Stourac and Kathleen McCreery, political economy. Theatre as a Weapon: Workers ' Theatre in the The book does a good job in outlining the Soviet Union, Germany and Britain 1917-1934 justification for and consequences of the (London and New York: Routledge and Kegan various guidelines that informed German Paul 1986). unionism after World War II. Of the main principles the most significant was certainly THIS VOLUME IS A WELCOME ADDITION to that of unitarianism, that is the creation of the spate of recently-published books on one single organization encompassing the Workers' Theatre in Canada, Britain, and entire labour scene. (In 1980 the DGB com­ the United States. Carefully researched prised over 83 per cent of all unionized and keenly argued, it sets out "to mend the workers.) But of almost equal importance for broken tradition" in workers' theatre by the relatively scarce occurrence of work offering meticulously detailed informa­ stoppages due to labour strife was the adop­ tion and a wealth of photographs about tion of industrial unionism, meaning that all the large and immensely popular theatri­ organized workers in a given plant, regard­ cal movements that existed in the 1920s less of their various occupations, have to and 1930s. Meant to inform contem­ belong to the same union. A federal structure porary groups currently performing plays leaving considerable autonomy to individual for working-class audiences, the book unions granted the necessary leeway for the asks the big questions about aesthetics pursuit of specific goals. Common to all and with special skill focuses the discus­ unions, however, was and still is a generally sion ont the social-political context of the strong reliance on legal guarantees to protect work under discussion. Not only do the the interests of their members through authors provide an invaluable history of reform legislation, labour courts, and other the three movements, from the living agencies of state power. Moreover, labour newspapers of the Blue Blouse to the shares with the employer the conviction that complex montages of the Red settlements concerning wages and working Megaphone, they concentrate on those conditions are exclusively the domain of the theatrical methods that contributed to the "social partners," keeping government out of formation of class and revolutionary con­ direct involvement. sciousness. For they encourage readers of REVIEWS 359 their book interested in politics to ex­ tures developed to make possible a more amine the role of art and culture in shap­ complex portrayal of a subject, a neces­ ing consciousness. sary step if the audience were to be "edu­ Making use of a variety of largely cated" not just harangued. unpublished sources, the book traces the In the Soviet Union the Blue Blouse political and theatrical evolution of the had garnered broad-based support workers' theatres in the three countries, throughout the country without ever be­ pointing out that in each case the groups coming the agitprop arm of the Party. In developed as a consequence of a political fact, the government's financial support event, in Russia the Revolution, in Ger­ for the State Theatres used up most of the many the defeated November Revolution, resources allocated for the theatre, leav­ and in Britain the defeat of the General ing the Blue Blouse and the theatrical left Strike. In their view, the critical issue to struggle in a hostile environment not quickly became the relationship of the unlike the capitalist societies. While the workers' theatres to the revolutionary government encouraged the transition party itself. For it was the party's assess­ from agitational form to a more sophisti­ ment of the political situation which the cated form of propaganda, the workers' theatre group had to dramatize. The party theatres were slow to comply even though also determined which audiences were they agreed a transition was needed. The targeted and in what context the perfor­ authors contend that the Party's hostility mances took place, the preparation and to experimentation virtually put an end to follow up, not to mention the party's at­ the search for unconventional forms, a titude about the efficacy of cultural ac­ proclivity which ultimately expressed it­ tivity and cultural heritage in any form. In self in the codification of Social Realism. all of the countries the relationship was a problematic one, and the authors place In Germany and Britain the prolonged much of the blame on the Communist use of agitational forms was the result, at Party for the actual demise of the least initially, of the firmly-held belief in workers' theatre. While they are quick to the early collapse of capitalism. In both say that theirs is not an argument for keep­ countries the groups were content to per­ ing political theatre separate from revolu­ form for Party audiences and sym­ tionary organizations, they are concerned pathizers which hardly encouraged the that a Marxist aesthetic, cultural, and groups to hone their theatrical tools. ideological theory be developed to assess During the Popular Front years when the the importance and implications of the Party finally changed its cultural course, agitprop from itself, thus giving the politi­ their approach is deemed, by the authors, cal theatre a more satisfactory theoretical as superficial. As a consequence, in both base. Such a theory would enable the the USSR and in Britain most agitprop political organizations to provide more groups seldom got beyond agitational effective support ot their groups, and it reviews based on simple juxtaposition, would also help the grounds hold on to although no one seems to deny the spec­ their artistic and political objectives. For tacular qualities of the Blue Blouse, without the artistic achievement, the which owed a considerable debt to authors insist, political theatre is negli­ Meyerhold. But for the groups in Russia gible or even negative, and here is where and Britain to go beyond a reflection of Stourac and McCreery feel the workers' the class struggle and produce a play theatre of their era failed. Inability to dramatizing a complex political argu­ move away from strictly agitational forms ment, they required a new dramatic form, and to develop viable "political forms for one that would educate the audience en- political content" doomed workers' joyably, help them to think dialectically. theatre to mindless theatrical repetition. and give them the intellectual tools which Only in Germany were dramatic struc­ they could apply to other subjects, a tall order which required a playwright. But 360 L\BOUR/LETRAVAIL

these are the objective goals the authors set Life is cheap in Columbia. Twenty dollars for these companies. (U.S., of course) buys a hit. According to In Germany it was Piscator who did pro­ recent reports, over 11,000 Columbians vide the new theatrical models and techni­ were assassinated last year "making mur­ ques. From his work with the Dadaist move­ der the number one cause of death for ment he was able to explore and develop his males between the ages of 15 and 44." conception of a theatrical montage. While he Most of these killings were carried out by went on to attain even greater flexibility with members of Columbia's 137 paramilitary the form using slides and film, these complex groups, 376 private security companies, montages required theatrical machinery and and the un-numbered factions of profes­ were not suitable for the mobile troupes like sional killers, kidnappers, and drug run­ the Red Megaphone and Performance ners. Many were carried out with some Troupe South-West, which worked coopera­ form of government complicity. tively with a playwright who was account­ Neither the scale nor the viciousness able to them. This kind of working arrange­ of today's violence in Columbia are new. ment meant that specific policies could be At least twice before — first in the addressed, as well as the economic, political, Columbian "War of a Thousand Days" at and ideological sources of Fascism. the end of the last century and more While clearly not all groups, even in Ger­ recently during the "Violencia" of the late many, were able to reach a sophisticated 1940s and 50s — Columbian society has level of achievement in the propagandistic entered into a vortex of anarchic violence. montage, one respects the authors for hold­ The complexity of these social explosions ing up this standard as a necessary stage in into which were blended class warfare, the political and theatrical development of murderous political factionalism, oppor­ the workers' movement. But one must also tunistic aggrandizement, and the settling be allowed to revel in the unmatched luxury of personal feuds had daunted the at­ of having information about these groups tempts of historians and social scientists sketched out and illustrated in such detail in to provide an explanation of either their this volume. The descriptions of the workers' brutality or meaning. troupes in the body of the work and the In fairness to the authors of the two supplementary information in the appen­ books under review, it must be stated that dices make this volume an incomparable ref­ neither takes the explanation of these erence tool, a valuable treatise on dramatic episodic horrors of Columbia society as form, and an all-too-brief glimpse at a its main concern. Indeed, both authors remarkably rich vein of theatrical heritage concentrate on issues and periods which which transcends national boundaries. are for the most part located between these periodic explosions. Yet, it is clear Lorraine A. Brown that for both LeGrand and Zamosc the George Mason University problems posed by the cataclysmic out­ breaks of Columbia violence are never far Catherine LeGrand, Frontier Expansion and removed. Peasant Protest in Columbia (Albuquerque: LeGrand's study is first and foremost University of New Mexico Press 1986). a work of historical revision based on a major new source for the study of Colum­ Leon Zamosc, The Agrarian Question and the bia history, the Public Land Correspon­ Peasant Movement in Columbia: Struggles of thedenc e of the Columbia National Archive. National Peasant Association 1967-1981 In place of an earlier uncritical history (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University which portrayed settlement of the Colum­ Press and United Nations Research Institute for bian frontier as Horatio Alger gone Latin, Social Development 1986). LeGrand shows how a nascent Columbian capitalist class manipulated both land law ACCUMULATE! REFORM! REPRESS! and land hunger to assist in the process of REVIEWS 361 primary accumulation in the context of an of personal strategies of accumulation export-oriented agricultural boom. which involved them as individuals in A two-fold problem confronted complicated cross-class political allian­ Columbia's would-be agrarian capitalists ces and antagonisms. These in turn both in the latter half of the nineteenth century. meshed and clashed with an increasingly Although open land was in abundance on elaborate number of paths to capitalist the Columbian frontier, such land was accumulation in Columbia as the import quite literally valueless in the absence of substitution economy came to overlay the labour to both tame and work it. Labour, earlier export-oriented agrarian regime. primarily in the form of freed slaves and Although LeGrand eschews any other remnants of the break-up of direct confrontation with the cataclysm of Hispanic colonialism, had to be brought the "Violencia," she does provide the to the land. The strategy adopted was one beginnings of a basis for its comprehen­ which seemingly offered, under a series sion. To put matters schematically, the of laws passed in the 1870s and 80s, clear "Violencia" constitutes a period in which title to anyone who colonized the land intra-ruling class divisions under pressure frontier. I say "seemingly" because as Le- from below exploded into a period of Grand forcefully argues, few who settled simultaneous civil and class warfare, the the new land were ever able to gain such great duration of which reflected, in turn, a title. Nor, in the eyes of land speculators the inability of any combination of ruling and would-be planters, were they ever or subordinate class elements to gain a intended to do so. decisive advantage. The promise of land in the context of Although its focus is more precisely a state which vacillated between the the period from 1967 to 1981, Leon short-term demands of intendant agrarian Zamosc's study commences with the end accumulators and a longer-term strategy of the "Violencia," an end which was only of peasant-based export growth set the achieved via an agreement among stage for a long confrontation between Columbia's rulers which attempted to peasant "colonos" and agrarian capitalists abolish politics per se through a rotation which would shape Columbian history of office-holding between Columbia's throughout the twentieth century. Rather two principal ruling-class parties. A cru­ than the simple tale of peasants making cial element in this attempt to re-establish good, LeGrand demonstrates how the ruling-class hegemony was the need to conflict over land was linked to changes re-assert dominance over Columbia's occurring elsewhere in the Columbian rural small-holders through a policy of economy. In particular, she shows how in programmatic rural development. the context of the mid-1930s rise of Development, as Zamosc tell us, was not policies directed toward industrial import merely an attempt to "buy off" rural dis­ substitution, the state finally attempted to content but reflected a further shift in move decisively to confirm the rights of Columbian capitalism's evolution. For by big agrarian capital and how, far from the 1960s, import substitution had begun quelling agrarian unrest, this action to reach its limits and was beginning to precipitated a continuation and renewal of give way to the growing dominance of an such conflict. export-oriented manufacturing strategy. Once brought to the frontier for the In this context the new policy of rural purposes of valorization, rural small­ development, itself a part of the larger holders resisted all attempts at appropria­ "Alliance for Progress" strategy, was tion by Columbia's capitalist class. How­ designed to meet the twin goals of provid­ ever, as LeGrand shows, they did so in ing cheap wage goods — in particular ways which were congruent not with any food — and splitting rural small holders simply theorized schema of self-con­ from any potentially broad based scious class action, but with a myriad set "worker/peasant" alliance. 362 l^BOUR/LETRAVAIL

As Zamosc details, by providing incen­ review to address this question which is tives to small holder assertion and accumula­ the greatest charge which can be leveled tion it directly challenged elements of the against their otherwise admirable studies. rural latifundocracy and thus reawakened Capital's demand for an evermore mobile intra-ruling class political antagonisms work-force alone has made a specifically which had been papered over by the post- "rural" history increasingly problematic. Violencia settlement. More importantly, this The recognition by writers such as Gavin development from above generated a Smith and Mike Cowen on class forma­ renewed reassertion of small-holder land tion in Peru and Kenya that the life his­ rights from below through the mechanism of tories and personal strategies of ac­ the state-created National Peasants' Associa­ cumulation of those at the bottom tion (ANUC). Rather than being the simple transcend urbanity and rurality has made tool of government strategy, ANUC itself it untenable. As Columbia hurtles into a became contested terrain in the 1960s and new round of social barbarism the need 1970s. Moreover, as the industrial export for scholarship which makes sense of strategy matured the goal of breaking urban Columbia society as a whole becomes in­ union power through migration into the cities creasingly more desperate. It is to the task began to conflict with the small-holder based of creating such a scholarship that Le- development. This latter conflict, along with Grand and Zamosc must now turn. the general threat to property inherent in ANUC-led land invasions of rural capitalist Bob Shenton holdings prompted a closer alliance between Toronto rural and urban ruling-class elements. The threat of the government sponsored Alan Gilbert and Peter M. Ward, Housing, the "green revolution" turning "red" prompted a State and the Poor: Policy and Practice in new policy of agrarian counter reform Three Latin American Cities (Cambridge: reminiscent of that of the 1930s. Central to Cambridge University Press 1985). this policy of reform was the attempt to reas­ sert state control over ANUC. This reasser­ IN THE THREE MAJOR LATIN AMERICAN tion of state power strengthened the tendency cities of Bogota, Mexico City, and Valen­ of the "peasants'" movement to fracture cia, access to land, the quality of housing along both political lines as well as along services and the degree of local com­ other faults created by the various strategies munity control can only be understood as of small-holder accumulation. This fractur­ issues of economic and political power. ing was in turn accelerated by the growing This, in a nutshell, is the argument presence of various, originally urban, leftist developed in this study. parties and tendencies. Zamosc deals harshly In a detailed, carefully constructed with these groups and at times comes close narrative, the authors demonstrate the to arguing that they were the central element powerful, co-optive function of the in the demise, by 1981, of ANUC as a force capitalist state in each of these case for peasant resistance. However, it is clear studies. Three major cities in the largest that a number of these groups were clearly of Latin America's non-military states (at attempting to build the broad based the time of research) were selected for the worker/peasant alliance which the Colum­ purpose of a survey-based comparative bian ruling classes feared. analysis. Relying primarily on the method The failure of the Columbian left to build of face-to-face household interviews the a movement that unites the rural and urban survey, conducted between 1978 and working classes is itself a reflection of an 1980, "was designed to provide informa­ intellectual failure to create an analysis of tion about the origins, socio-economic Columbian society which is capable of unit­ characteristics, political attitudes and ing city and country. It is, in turn the failure housing responses of low-income popula­ of the authors whose two works are under tions in each city."(23) REVIEWS 363

Breaking down the findings into three vices are included in the price to be paid sections — land, servicing and com­ for state tolerance. munity organization — for each city and Where then does all this lead? Gilbert under each category, the conclusions the and Ward claim to be concerned to place researchers drew were essentially the their findings in a much wider context of same. No amount of state intervention, social, economic, and political relations, state planning, or state support for work­ not only on a community and national ing-class and peasant residents was scale, but an international one. To do this provided unless a) it was so compelled as requires some theoretical dexterity, and it a result of struggle from below, and b) in is here that this study falls tragically flat. the long run it served a co-opting function The authors follow in the marxist tradi­ designed to prevent further struggle. tion which sees the state as "an outcome Take the example of access to land. In of the class structure of society and of the the majority of cases in Bogota, Mexico role that the society performs in the inter­ City, and Valencia, the poor can only ac­ national division of labour."(3) However, quire land through illegal means. In they shy away from an explicitly marxist Bogota, land invasionsperse are unusual, theoretical paradigm, preferring instead though this is not so in all Colombian to attempt to combine aspects of what i'ies. Instead, lands fringing on the city they describe as literal, instrumentalist, .. c illegally subdivided into small plots and structuralist approaches to incor­ by maverick petty capitalists and sold porate specific variations in state action. cheaply to local residents. It is estimated The effort may be a noble one, but the that 59 per cent of the population of theoretical eclecticism fails to reveal the Bogota have acquired lands in this man­ new and subtle insights the authors are so ner. In Mexico City, squatting is the most concerned to highlight. common means for the poor to obtain Throughout the work, hypothetical land, both through gradual occupations questions are posed which in fact can only and rapid, organized invasion. Some 30 appear banal in the context. For example, per cent of low income housing has been in considering the relative weight of local secured through squatting. And in Valen­ community control in state decision cia, it is estimated that about 45 per cent making, the authors attempt to answer the of the city's land has been invaded by following questions: "Is the state basical­ organized movements of the homeless. ly sympathetic, attempting to help the These in themselves are interesting facts, poor as much as it can with limited resour­ but the more notable one is the ces, or is it concerned with maximizing widespread inability of the local social control by containing demand authorities to enforce the law against making to acceptable (and probably low) these illegal forms of land holding. levels?"(174) The conclusion they draw The specific reasons for the inability should come as no surprise to anyone of each local section of the state and familiar with, and sympathetic to, the ruling class to move against land piracy, basic premises of a class analysis of the squatting, and invasion is analysed in state: maximization of social control is detail by Gilbert and Ward. Corporate the order of the day. The data presented, profit, local corruption, patronage, and, however, is nonetheless fascinating in its most importantly, the relative strength detail and persuasiveness. and organization of the local occupying Where the study ends, is in fact where forces, combine in various ways to it could have more valuably begun. While mitigate against state control. But the theoretical creativity is crucial in assess­ state ultimately gains by turning a blind ing new and changing circumstances, the eye. Promises of residential votes, cam­ essential contours of capitalism as a sys­ paigns of local leaders to secure political tem have remained remarkably intact favour, and chronically poor housing ser­ since Marx and Engels uncovered its 364IABOUR/LETOAVAIL

basic laws of motion. Indeed, as far back as 1930s until the late 1980s. Capturing this 1887, Engels described a process of transfor­ reflection for the reader is a central pur­ mation taking place in Germany which Gil­ pose of Winn's book, which was con­ bert and Ward might have found strikingly ceived as an effort to integrate worker relevant to their own research on contem­ experiences with a more general inter­ porary Latin America: pretation of Chilean history. Winn tells the reader at the outset that, "(TJhrough The period in which a country with an old culture the local history of the Yarur mill, I real­ makes such a transition from manufacture and ized, much of the modern history of Chile small-scale production lo large-scale industry ... could be illuminated."(viii) is at the same time predominantly a period of 'housing shortage'. On the one hand, masses of Based upon a large number of inter­ rural workers are suddenly drawn into ihe big views with members of the Yarur family, towns, which develop into industrial centres; on with workers, union leaders, politicians, the other hand, the building arrangement of lhese and government officials, upon access to old towns does not any longer conform to the government documents and company conditions of the new large-scale industry and the records, and upon Winn's thorough corresponding traffic; streets are widened and new familiarity with an extensive literature on ones cut through, and railways are run right across Chilean labour relations and politics, them. At the very time when workers are stream­ ing into the towns in masses, workers' dwellings Weavers of Revolution immerses the are pulled down on a large scale. reader in the intricacies of the creation, evolution, and eventual political sym­ Rather than setting up a show case bolism of the Yarur textile industry. academic study, the research summarized in Palestinian immigrant Juan Yarur came to Gilbert's and Ward's book could have been Chile by way of Bolivia and founded a presented as a damning presentation of the family firm that eventually became the co-optive powers of the capitalist state in the cornerstone of a business empire. By the Latin American region, even in countries time of his death in 1954, Yarur "had with non-military, so-called "democratic" become a Chilean legend, a Palestinian traditions. If read in this light, despite the Horatio Alger, who had 'made his stated aims of the authors, it is a welcome America' in Santiago."(21) contribution to our understanding of one im­ The brilliant successes of Juan Yarur, portant aspect of the class struggle in a very made possible by his business genius, an volatile region of the world today. authoritarian, personalistic, and pater­ nalistic style of personnel management, Abigail B. Bakan and, most importantly, his cultivation of Queen's University political contacts at all levels and within most political parties and government Peter Winn, Weavers of Revolution; The Yaruragencies , were left vulnerable with the Workers and Chile's Road lo Socialism (New patriarch's death in 1954. Changes in York: Oxford University Press 1986). Chilean politics and economic cir­ cumstances challenged Juan Yarur's heirs PETER WINN'S MULTIGENERATIONAL STORY in the 1960s and 1970s — although they of the Yarur textile workers in Santiago, even contributed to electoral campaigns Chile is an exceptionally well-written, ab­ of leftist candidates like Salvador Allende sorbing, provocative, and innovative study who gained the presidency in 1970. of the relationship between national politics, In April, 1971, after prior consult­ family-based entrepreneurship, and work­ ation with key government officials, the ing-class experience. It is a story that workers in the Yarur textile factory provides fascinating insight into almost 50 ousted owners and managers, and an­ years of Chilean history and that reflects the nounced their desire to incorporate the complexity, contradictions, expectancy, joy, firm into the "social area" of the Chilean and tragedy of Chilean national life from the economy. This event occurred in the con- REVIEWS 365 text of the recent installation of a coalition fascinating, the central thesis of a government headed by a Socialist presi­ "revolution from above" in conflict with dent who had proclaimed his intention to a "revolution from below" implies a take Chile down a "peaceful road to sometimes too categorical interpretation socialism." The workers' seizure of the of the role and character of the Chilean factory represented a challenge to Presi­ state, of the complexity of divisions dent Salavador Allende's efforts to or­ within the working-class organizations, chestrate government-directed social and and also of the Allende presidency. political change. It also challenged the Whereas Winn juxtaposes the workers' rights of private properly and angered the "revolution from below" with Allende's political opposition to the Popular Unity "revolution from above," his own coalition that Allende headed. description of a movement "begun Much of Winn's book is dedicated to clandestinely by a few frightened a detailed narrative of the events leading workers," (199) at least suggests a slight­ up to the workers' seizure of the Yarur ly different story — one more consistent factory in 1971 and the development of with Winn's earlier characterization of a relations between the new workers' "Popular Unity political strategy that enterprise and the Popular Unity govern­ counted heavily on economic success to ment from 1971 until the military coup of build an electoral majority for 1973. As the first group of workers in socialism."(73) Chile to inaugurate a system of worker This different story would depict participation, the workers of Ex-Yarur, worker efforts to organize a union in the according to Winn, had taken over a Yarur factory and challenge management declining industry and in less than seven­ in the context of the installation of an teen months "turned it around."(212) The avowedly nationalist and reformist Yarur workers "had not only 'liberated' government coalition headed by a their own mill but had also inaugurated a Socialist president. Confused com­ new phase of the revolutionary munication among different groups of process."(228) workers, union leaders, party leaders, Winn sees in the workers' movement government officials, and factory owners and the "revolution from below" the hope resulted in the seizure of the Yarur factory for Chile's future, while "Allende's when some workers believed prior, if decision after October 1972 to rely on the tacit, government approval had been pacifying power of the army, instead of secured, and, more generally, when on the revolutionary potential of the mo­ workers believed that the president was bilized working class, would prove fatal "someone who would protect us."(101) to the revolution."(240) This interpreta­ Thus, divisions within the Popular Unity tion coincides with the views of many on government and unauthorized initiatives the left in Chile, but remains as specula­ by key government personnel encouraged tive as the interpretation of more conser­ worker activism. The activism, itself, vative and also Communist critics who contributed to a workers' movement with blamed the Left Revolutionary Move­ an increasing momentum. Ultimately, ment (MIR), militant socialists, and President Allende reluctantly sides with others for preventing early accommoda­ the more militant members of his coali­ tion with Christian Democrats and other tion in this episode and supported the centrists in an effort to carry out more worker takeover of the factory. gradually the Popular Unity program and Chilean workers and rural labourers, to prevent the military coup in 1973 including tenant farmers and sharecrop­ which inaugurated a brutal regime of in­ pers, had experienced somewhat similar stitutionalized terror and repression. circumstances in the late 1930s, from If Winn's history of the Yarur factory 1946-1947, and from 1964-1967. In the and of the working class experience is past, mobilization of labour had also 366IABOUR/LETOAVAIL

resulted from populist rhetoric and initia­ "Behind the bayonets of the Chilean tives from reformist national governments. army, an industrial discipline even more The interaction of local worker actions and authoritarian and oppressive than the old encouragement of popular activism by order was imposed on the Yarur government officials and nongovernment mill."(250) When Amador Yarur again movements and parties had challenged the took charge of the mill in early 1974 stability of Chilean politics — leading usual­ "most of the workers who had led the ly to the repression and/or curtailment of movement to seize and socialize the in­ popular and labour activism. Indeed, what dustry were missing from his restored Winn called the "hallmark of the revolution mill. Some of them were dead or had from below, the tomas" (seizures of farms, 'disappeared'; others were imprisoned or vacant land, or workplaces to achieve a had gone underground.... Even those who variety of different objectives) was not a retained their jobs found their real wages novelty in the early 1970s. Tomas had oc­ cut in half and their families reduced to a curred in urban and rural settings over many 'diet of bread, onions and tea.'"(252) years, with increasing frequency during the This outcome was the result of both 1960s. external and internal opposition to the The bombastic rhetoric of some mem­ Popular Unity coalition. Reformist bers of the Allende coalition after 1970 and nationalist policies, accompanied by the supportive ambience created by the revolutionary rhetoric, left radicalized tolerant and redistributionist policies of the labour and community organizations ex­ Popular Unity administration encouraged posed to counterrevolutionary violence. renewal of popular movements, including The Yarur workers, like other worker and labour. As in the past, a tip in the balance of community organizations, had been control of the State apparatus, which had "protected" by the government's decision been contested by the political right, center not to enforce existing laws and not to and left since the 1930s, proved conducive to repress popular movements rather than by a variety of popular movements and labour their own armed militia or autonomous conflicts. There was neither a revolution power. Perhaps such autonomous power from below nor a revolution from above, but might have developed over time, but rather an intensification of the struggle for when the coup quickly ousted the Popular control of the institutions of the Chilean Unity government the "revolution from State and for redefinition of the role of capi­ below" proved both politically and tal and labour within Chilean society which militarily fragile. had cyclically threatened the Chilean politi­ Even for those, like myself, who do cal system. not entirely share Winn's interpretation The Allende administration's explicit of the events he reports, this book is an determination not to decide the issue through important beginning for Chilean history coercive demobilization — both as a result "from the bottom up," for a labour history of the intensity of popular mobilization and integrated into national and regional his­ as a result of internal divisions within the tory. It is also an example of explicitly coalition — left the military, and the social partisan, committed history — a history base of opposition, still a political majority of real people experiencing real exhilara­ in 1973 (as indicated in the congressional tion and suffering real tragedy — often elections in March, 1973), as the final ar­ for reasons beyond their control. I read biter. Winn concludes correctly that by mid- Winn's book at one sitting. I have since 1972 the democratic road to socialism read it twice more. There is much to be seemed blocked. A little more than a year learned from it. later, in the aftermath of the military coup that ended the Popular Unity experiment. Brian Loveman many of the union and worker leaders at San Diego State University Ex-Yarur were arrested, tortured, or killed. REVIEWS 367

Chris De Bresson with Jim Petersen, Under­ Technology, De Bresson insists, is standing Technological Change (Montreal: not hardward; it is a body of knowledge. Black rose Books 1987). People, not machines, posses this knowledge. Thus technological change is CHRIS DE BRESSON. AN ECONOMIST best possible, indeed common, without any known for his studies of the Bombardier change in hardware. That knowledge is company, and his collaborator Jim Peter­ implemented by production workers who sen, an historian of technology who has can attempt to resist it, modify it, reject it. worked in industry as a machinist, have It is workers most familiar with technol­ given us a short book packed with good ogy in production who best understand material and insight. The volume's 270 how it can be improved, though who will pages are organized into 15 chapters, in­ derive the benefits of such improvements cluding figures and illustrations, a long is more problematic. Through their appendix, glossary, and indexes. Most workers learning-by-doing firms reap chapters include "Checklists For Review" enormous gains in productivity. Indeed, highlighting issues and suitable as well the greatest productivity gains from a new for classroom discussion questions. Each technology come not with its initial intro­ chapter also includes references and sug­ duction but its subsequent improvement. gestions for further reading, an oc­ The importance, therefore, of cumulative, casionally idiosyncratic combination of incremental, technological change deser­ the best available current material and ves to be stressed, as does the degree of outdated standard works. While the main creativity involved in applying technol­ text is relatively brief, it brims over, so ogy in a specific setting. filled with case studies, anecdotes, and De Bresson adds his voice to the analysis that the reader comes away with swelling chorus of critics of simplistic the impression of having enjoyed a much notions of 'deskilling'. Technological longer book. change has not taken away workers' skills The title is too inclusive. In fact this but altered the types, levels, and mix of book is chiefly concerned with the tech­ skills in various work settings. In par­ nology of the workplace, in particular the ticular, it has altered the proximate con­ technology of industrial production in a trol of the sub-processes of production as context of an advanced capitalist the loci of technical knowledge about economy. Explicitly, the book is intended production have shifted. both as a handbook for workers confront­ Understanding Technological ing technical change in the workplace and Change also deals effectively, if less ex­ as a text for a college-level course. tensively, with a host of other important Above all, this book argues the an­ issues. These include the role of public tithesis of technological determinism. bodies, the diffusion of knowledge, Human decisions determine both the regulation, and the coexistence of older range of technological options presented with new technologies, usually much and the final choice made from among more rationally-motivated than an those options. Technological change is "obstinate" resistance to change. the product of choices by and struggles Probably the strongest section of the among social groups. Technology does book is chapter seven on Innovation. De not do anything, rather, in every case, Bresson's argument is tight and percep­ "people are always acting through a tech­ tive. His model, at one level, is simple. nical means."(163) De Bresson argues, Innovation is demand driven and closely with great effect, that shedding the no­ linked to savings possible from factor tions of determinism and technological substitution. But this is an economist's autonomy is a prerequisite to thinking abstraction, and the real world is more about how to control technology for more complex. Technological change is socially desirable outcomes. focussed by specific problems requiring 368 L^BOUR/LETRAVAIL

specific technical solutions, as well as by "between technical options suggested by larger economic imperatives. Returning private developers" and "favoured again to the theme of technology as decentralized access to electric power at knowledge and the importance of the flows fair prices" is bizarre.(130) Some might of such knowledge, De Bresson discusses the argue that Chaptal, not Leblanc, was the advantages of well-developed channels of first to expand "laboratory experiments communication regarding technical matters into full-fledged industrial production between sellers and buyers. He pays atten­ processes."(99) The author's assertion tion to marketing and not just production in that technical knowledge is never lost is the innovative process. Recent studies of not true. Techniques known to earlier such diverse products as sewing machines generations of workers and transmitted (Thomson), artificial rubber (Smith), and orally has in many instances been lost. whole log hydraulic barkers (Griffin) con­ But to concentrate on these shortcom­ firm that the after-sales flow of technical ings is to fail to see the forest for the information is an often critical aspect of suc­ budworms. This is a very good book in­ cessful innovations. deed. While addressed to workers, it will Certainly this book is not without its doubtless find greater use as a text for problems. As a general text for a wide technology and society courses. Though audience, the writing is occasionally banal. not without flaws, it is one of the best The off-putting first sentence of the preface available treatments of such a topic in a announces, "Because our world is so com­ Canadian context. If I were asked to plex, it is difficult to fully understand the recommend a text for a "Technology in phenomenon of technical change."(ix) De Canadian Society" course I would men­ Bresson is in fact a more careful writer than tion this book first and unhesitatingly. the split infinitive suggests. Black Rose also seems to take a somewhat anarchic approach James P. Hull to book production and design. A reference University of Toronto on page 42 to "the following graphs" is not followed by graphs. They appear two pages Duncan Foley, Understanding Capital later and lacking an explanatory key. On (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press page 74 "the following illustrations" of hay 1986). cutting implements is followed instead by illustrations of ploughs, the hay cutting tools IN THE PREFACE TO THIS STUDY Duncan appearing on page 77. Foley tells us that the book "is intended Specialists will find a number of De to be a guide to fundamental passages in Bresson's statements questionable at least, if Marx's writings on economics and to the not erroneous. He refers to the Pulp and overall structure of Marx's economic Paper Research Institute of Canada when he ideas." References to relevant sections of means the Canadian Pulp and Paper Associa­ Capital are provided throughout the text, tion. Lumping together the Ford Model T and and suggestions for further reading both Singer sewing machines in a discussion of from Capital and modern secondary standardization and mass production ignores literature are given in an Appendix. Foley crucial distinctions, as recent work by Houn- states that the book does not "argue for a shell has demonstrated convincingly. De particular interpretation. But the reader Bresson halts his discussion of productivity should know that I take a controversial gains at Ford during Model T production and unconventional stand on the treat­ before the fiasco of the changeover to the ment of prices and labor values, the value Model A. This both undermines his argument of labor-power, and what I call the value and is simply not playing fair with the reader. of money and unequal exchange."(vii) I The statement of "Darwin's theories" (156) do not see this as causing problems in the is not simplification. It is wrong. To assert understanding of Karl Marx's economics that Adam Beck's Ontario Hydro arbitrated save in one area, the notion of labour REVIEWS 3f» values as determining relative prices. quite good. I like as well his discussion of Foley's treatment leaves much less of a the division of surplus value among profit role for the labour theory of value as a of enterprise, commercial profit, interest, determination of relative prices than I and rent, though I believe his treatment of believe Marx himself wanted. I find interest and rent leave out some argu­ Foley's treatment more congenial be­ ments in Marx about how the distribution cause I believe it helps us see what is of wealth and property affect the deter­ really significant about Marx's work as mination of the magnitudes of interest and distinguished from slavish adherence to rent. I also like his treatment of Marx's ways of thinking which Marx largely took use of the dialectical method, though I over from classical political economy too would like some of the points made to be uncritically. developed more. Perhaps only a book- The appreciation of what I see to be length confrontation of dialectics with the real thrust of the Marxian method of positivism would satisfy me, though. doing economics is the major strength of Not surprisingly, given Foley's back­ the book. If I were teaching a course on ground as a monetary economist, the most Marx's economics, I would seriously con­ insightful and novel part of the book is sider assigning this book. I do not see it that dealing with monetary theory. The is as replacing what I still consider to be analysis of Marx's theory of money vs. the best textbook on Marx, Paul Sweezy's the quantity theory and the role of hoards Theory of Capitalist Development, but I and credit in Marx's theory summarize do think that it supplements Sweezy's the fruit of years of important work by book well, being stronger on material Foley in this area. where Sweezy is more sketchy and vice Most of the problems I have with the versa. Foley's presentation is clear and book come in the sections on the tendency well-written. Those of us who have had of the rate of profit to fall and crisis the privilege of sitting in one of his class­ theory. This is because I find these areas rooms will readily attest to his ability, to be the weakest in Marx himself. I agree exemplified again here, to explain com­ with Josef Steindl's critique of Marx's plex material understandably. approach to both of these issues, and I The book covers all of the important wish Steindl's analysis was brought to topics in Marx's economics. It does not bear by Foley. Steindl's and Michal discuss extensions of Marxian economics Kalecki's work on pricing and accumula­ after Marx, such as the theory of im­ tion also are modern treatments consistent perialism or monopoly capitalism. Some with Marxian ideas of exploitation, fall­ modern treatments of Marx's ideas are ing profits, and capitalist crises that mentioned where appropriate to the ex­ deserve mention in the body of Foley's planation of those ideas. text. Foley develops well the argument that Foley himself argues that the labour labour produces value in a capitalist theory of value is really the idea that total economy and that the appropriation of value added represents total social labour that value by labour and by various group­ time expended and that it should not be ings of capital is due to ownership condi­ confused with the notion of equal ex­ tions which are systematically change of labour values. He also holds reproduced by the system. His presenta­ that the value of labour-power equals the tion of Marx's notion of the fetishism of money wage times the value of money commodities and his insightful remarks rather than the labour value of the not only contrasting the marxian theory workers' consumption bundle. Thus with the neoclassical theory of profits but Foley's analysis of Marx, as mentioned also pointing out why mystifications above, frees itself from adherence to about the origin of profits (and interest) labour values as having much to do with are easily produced by the system are the determination of relative prices and 370 L\BOURUETRAVAIL

treats the wage bargain as in terms of money the average sports fan. rather than real wages. Foley goes on to say, My initial optimism soon gave way to "In fact, from this point of view the equaliza­ disappointment. Staudohar ignores the tion of the rate of profit is irrelevant. subtleties of the labour process of profes­ Whatever market prices happen to be, even sional athletes and implicitly supports the if competition among capitals fails in impor­ position that unionization has had a nega­ tant ways, the labor theory of value is an tive consequence on professional team accurate and powerful account of the ag­ sports. This is evident immediately from gregate relations of capitalist produc­ the outset, with Staudohar's adoption of tion. "(103-4) This is perhaps a deviation the "separate from life" thesis about sport. from the letter of Marx but a logical exten­ The raison d'être of sports participa­ sion of the spirit of Marx. I applaud it and tion, the argument goes, is freedom from note that it leads right into Kalecki. restraint, the pursuit of physical and men­ Where Foley does mention Kalecki, it is tal innovation and creativity. Sports pro­ to discuss the idea of the political business vide escape from the workaday world. cycle, and here I find Foley's interpretation Staudohar invites his readers to think and criticism to miss Kalecki's point quite back to a period of American history (for seriously. My only other complaint along he is ultimately writing for the American these lines is that I feel that Marx's distinc­ sports fan) when players were players, tion between productive vs. unproductive they did not earn more than the President labor could be made more clear by introduc­ of the United States, when drug usage was ing Sweezy's and Paul Baran's idea of the unknown among athletes, and there was "absorption" of surplus by unproductive no need for collective bargaining. Having spending. This would also be a way to men­ set the scene, Staudohar then introduces tion Baran and Sweezy's Monopoly Capital, his theoretical position, the industrial also inappropriately neglected in the book, relations model of John Dunlop. This is even in the discussion of centralization and the second disappointing aspect of this concentration. book. I could pick a few more nits, as could any The model is clearly simplistic and scholar of Marx, but my judgment of the suggests that those fundamental ques­ book on the whole is very favorable. A tions concerning the labour process (how beginning student of Marx would find it is work to be organized, who will perform helpful, and even an older hand like me it, what standards of discipline apply'.') gained some new insights from reading it. are shared equally by the "actors" — Duncan Foley has dedicated this book to his management, workers, and government. students, and as a long-term member of that Nowhere is the notion of unequal dis­ group, I feel he has done us quite an honor. tribution of power within an industrial- capitalist economy introduced. Staudohar Tracy Mott argues instead that decisions are "deter­ University of Colorado, Boulder mined by the larger society" and that strategies for action "are based in large Paul D. Staudohar, The Sports Industry and Col­ part on changes in the environment."(5) lective Bargaining (Ithaca, NY: ILR Press 1986). By ignoring the unequal distribution of economic power within the profes­ THIS IS ONE OF THE FEW BOOKS which have sional sports organization, Staudohar been written on the topic of professional regresses to "gossipy" descriptive case sports and the unionization of athletes. As studies of collective bargaining in such, I was interested in learning how the baseball, football, basketball, and hock­ author would deal with the labour process as ey. He attempts to appear objective, chas­ it relates to sport, how he would deal with the tizing the owners here for their chattel often emotive and volatile issue of unioniza­ attitudes concerning the players, the tion of athletes, while still writing a book for players there for their unrealistic REVIEWS 371 demands. But underlying all of this, I market. But he appears ignorant of the sense a lack of sympathy for unionized nuances of the Canadian state, its invol­ athletes. Staudohar lauds hockey's Alan vement in sport, and the cultural differen­ Eagleson for his "reasonable" approach in ces which exist between Canada and the bargaining where other union negotiators United States. For example, Staudohar as­ have been much more confrontational serts: "Perhaps because of the distinctive, (for example, baseball's Marvin Miller). international setting for hockey, neither Moreover, he is prone to describe collec­ government seems inclined to intrude on tive bargaining in a less than objective developments in the sport."(125) This fashion. Thus, "workers are permitted to quite simply is incorrect. The federal unionize" (my emphasis) and strikes and government, through its arms-length or­ picketing are deemed "pressure tac- ganization, Hockey Canada, has at­ tics."(10) tempted to marry public and private busi­ Over and above the simplistic ness interests in an attempt to maximize theoretical analysis and absence of any the performance of Canadian hockey discussion on the inequity of power, teams in international competition. In Staudohar is disappointing because he fact, Canada withdrew from international fails to deal adequately with the hockey in the 1970s when reinstated phenomenon of corporate interlocking. amateurs (former professionals) were The majority of sports franchises are part prohibited from playing in international of a much larger corporate empire, with amateur competitions. Further, the obvious connections between sport, the federal and provincial governments have media, and entertainment industries. By put pressure on the professional teams to not discussing these important interlocks, decrease the violence within the game. the reader may assume that the owner of Historically the Canadian state has taken a sports franchise cannot afford to pay a more aggressive interventionist stance large salaries or improve working condi­ into areas of sport than Staudohar ap­ tions for the employees. In reality, the preciates. sports team may be little more than a This ignorance of Canada is further public relations loss-leader for the con­ demonstrated by Staudohar's comment glomerate. A franchise might also be pur­ which ends the chapter on hockey: "Al­ chased for its tax benefit potential. After though hockey players are relative unedu­ all, professional sports teams are one of cated as professional athletes go, they ap­ the few industrial which can depreciate pear to recognize the dangers of using the human assets (the players). To suggest hard drugs. But, despite what seems to be that management cannot afford to a lower incidence of hard drug usage by negotiate seriously the salary and work­ hockey players, labor management in the ing conditions of the athlete is to ignore sport might do well to establish a drug this interlocking structure. Such are the control program along the lines of basket­ general disappointments which I have ball and baseball."(144) Such statements with this book. Given the cultural impor­ illustrate Staudohar's lack of knowledge tance which is granted to ice hockey in of the culture from which hockey players Canadian society, perhaps it is ap­ come. First, the junior A hockey appren­ propriate to look specifically at the case ticeship program encourages athletes to study of this sport. remain in school. Some do drop out but Staudohar quite correctly points out most are as well-educated as those that hockey is not as attractive a com­ American scholarship athletes who spend modity as other sports he considers be­ more time on the playing field or gym­ cause it enjoys only regional interest in nasium than they do in the classroom. If the United States. Consequently, NHL they are less-educated it should also be hockey has been unsuccessful in gaining noted that they are drafted into the profes­ access to the major American television sional teams at a much younger age (18 372 LAB0UR/LETRAVA1L

years). But more important, Staudohar does ing human capital and other individual not address the systemic nature of profes­ characteristics; (4) The gender dimension sional sporting work which encourages ex­ which is examined with a focus on status perimentation in drugs — steroids for and income attainment; (5) The age strength and increased muscle mass, dimension concerns itself with the life painkillers and amphetamines to play while cycle examining youth and work through hurt and to give the spectator the "good per­ to careers in the later part of the cycle; (6) formance" game after game, as well as the The race and ethnic dimension parallels recreational use of drugs. One wonders the gender chapter looking at patterns of whether the management-promoted drug discrimination which affect status and in­ control programmes have been developed to come attainment; (7) The organizational protect an investment or to help individual dimension attempts to describe status and athletes with a personal problem. income attainment in terms of labour I am not particularly impressed with this markets. In the work setting Hall looks at book. Some of the tables provide valuable attempts to restructure work through in­ data for those interested in labour relations itiatives such as job redesign; (8) The and sport. But the shortcomings are power dimension looks at democracy in paramount. I came away with little the workplace, workers' control, unions, knowledge about the organization of profes­ and labour relations; (9) The institutional sional athletes' unions, how they differ from brings in public policy. The book also has those of other labour groups, or whether col­ two introductory chapters that define lective bargaining has been attempted in the work and describe the many forms that individual sports like tennis or golf, and work takes. among the small but active group of female In each of the chapters Hall marshals professional athletes. I would have expected an extensive amount of recent literature in some discussion of these, and other issues, in many catagories, each described relative­ a book "written for the sports fan who wants ly clearly. For the undergraduate and to know more about labor relations."(vii) graduate student alike the book is a readable introduction to the non-marxist Hart Cantelon corpus of American literature on work. Queen's University It is reasonable to assess the book using Hall's own stated aims. The litera­ Richard H. Hall, Dimensions of Work (Beverly ture review is assembled and integrated in Hills: Sage Publications 1986). a very understandable manner. However, there are serious problems. The choice of THIS BOOK IS AN AMBITIOUS ATTEMPT to literature is dramatically 'Ameri-centric'. bring together the recent literature on work. There are virtually no articles drawn from Hall sets himself two tasks. The first is to either the Canadian or British sociology review the major literature, integrating and of work literature. Hall claims that the interpreting it. The second is to extend our United States " ... is where the bulk of the understanding of the many dimensions of literature is situated." This is a serious work. In order to accomplish this, Professor shortcoming. Hall dissects the concept of work into nine The second task Professor Hall set for dimensions. These include: (1) The in­ himself was to enhance our knowledge by dividual where he concentrates on the mean­ interpreting, applying, and extending the ings people attach to work, their commitment studies reviewed. This task is not success­ to work, and the problems of alienation and fully accomplished in any satisfying way. job satisfaction; (2) The horizontal where we The coverage is often superficial, touch­ are introduced to the division of labour based ing on a myriad of secondary issues but on the dictionary of occupational titles and never venturing into controversial issues labour markets; (3) The vertical where status or "cutting edge" debates. Several chap­ and income attainment are examined utiliz­ ters, notably "Forms of Work" and REVIEWS 373

"Gender," become shopping lists of con­ gender income gap figures which show an cepts coming one after another with little increase in discrimination at this level. attention to unifying them or integrating In general I can recommend the book them around problems facing the dis­ as a good source-book for the student who cipline. wishes an introduction to a broad sweep A second problem, in terms of of American literature. It is a guide to the broadening knowledge, is that a whole literature, for practitioners, so long as school of thought is avoided. The people note the absence of certain materialist, conflict approach (particular­ paradigms and the many debates within ly Marxist) is ignored. This leaves a blind and between those paradigms. spot in terms of many serious and inter­ esting debates. The coverage given to Jerry P. White marxist or socialist-feminist studies on McMaster University gender is illustrative of this problem. In the Gender chapter Hall's only comment Charlotte Gold, Labor-Management Commit­ is: tees: Confrontation, Cooptation, or Coopera­ tion? (Ithaca, New York: ILR Press 1986); An abundant number of explanations regard­ Mike Parker, Inside the Circle: A Union Guide ing discrimination and segregation are avail­ able. These range from Marxist analysis of to QWL (Boston: South End Press 1985). women as part of the oppressed and exploited class controlled by capitalists to blaming the AMONG THE STRATEGIES ADOPTED by victim .... Solkoloff (1980) argues that both North American corporations to enhance patriarchy and capitalism explain women's their competitiveness and profitability, positions .... The evidence is less than compell­ none has attracted more attention and yet ing that both industries and men are united in remains so poorly understood as Quality opposition to lessening the levels of dis­ of Worklife (QWL) programmes. These crimination and segregation. two books, one written from a shop floor Ignoring whole schools of thought perspective and the other a standard reduces the richness of the explanation. academic undertaking, are devoted to il­ By downplaying the Marxist and luminating QWL, especially forms of socialist-feminist sociology Hall loses workers' participation instituted by recent developments around the inter- management. Gold's monograph is a sur­ penetration of production and reproduc­ vey of the field. She examines trends in tion. implementation, summarizes labour and management attitudes toward QWL, In this chapter, as with others, one gives brief descriptions of existing feels a timelessness. The sweep of history programs, and evaluates their effective­ that is part of the process of creating the ness. This information is packed into 51 present condition is left virtually un­ pages, so most of the topics receive only touched. We are left with several ex­ a once-over-lightly treatment. As a result, amples of how things are but little discus­ the book's usefulness will be restricted sion of why. Hall makes a statement, mainly to neophytes to the field who are based on the studies he did cover, that seeking a general idea of what it's all discrimination against women "has about. In contrast, Inside the Circle decreased dramatically in recent provides a profound and disturbing years."(217) The reality is that where portrayal of QWL. Parker is a skilled segregation still exists, where equal pay worker, union activist, and frequent con­ is not common, where the double day tributor to Labor Notes, a Detroit publica­ exists and sexual harassment is rampant, tion dedicated to developing a more it is hardly advisable to say discrimina­ democratic, socially conscious, and tion is dramatically decreased. Such a militant labour movement. Based in part statement does not even reflect the recent on first-hand experience (his own and 374 LABOUR/LETRAVAIL

other workers) with OWL, Parker penetrates together to achieve the same goals. These relentlessly the "everybody wins" rhetoric of social-psychological processes of per­ OWL. He demonstrates with powerful logic suasion are supplemented by the QWL and evidence that the interests of workers argument that employment stabilization and unions are seriously jeopardized by depends on workers in a particular plant OWL and offers sound advice on how to deal cooperating with management to outdo with it. the competition. As a "highly sophisti­ Both authors cite figures showing a cated form of attitude and behavior growing propensity of U.S. companies to modification," OWL encourages workers adopt participatory mechanisms. They agree to identify with and assume management that the ultimate source of this escalating perspectives and, correlatively, weakens trend was the economic crisis of the mid- workers' identification with the union. 1970s, which prompted corporate executives Processes of indoctrination operate to experiment with techniques for promoting within an atmosphere of good will, labour-management cooperation. The pur­ mutual trust, and shared interests that not poses of participation, Gold tells us, are "to only is contrived but belied by corporate take advantage of employees' capabilities, practice: OWL is billed as making work involve workers in decisions affecting their more satisfying, but QWL companies are jobs, and provide employees with greater rationalizing and deskilling work. The identification with organizational goals in an Reagan administration, which crushed effort to improve the overall efficiency of the PATCO and is notoriously anti-union, firm." Parker is more blunt, maintaining that promotes labour-management coopera­ OWL is a method of neutralizing, undermin­ tion through QWL. General Motors in­ ing, or destroying unions. QWL also is used stalls participatory programs as it plans to to appropriate workers' knowledge, extract chop 80,000 workers from its payrolls in contract concessions, eliminate resistance to U.S. plants. Ford's Milpitas, California new technology and work methods, and plant and its Michigan Casting Center, obliterate job and craft classifications to give both of which had model QWL programs, management a freer hand in allocating work. were closed down — victims of market­ While Gold simply cites some unionists' ing and outsourcing decisions. Apart beliefs that QWL threatens unions, Parker from this failure to stabilize employment, provides a sustained analysis (with many ex­ a QWL-generated enterprise conscious­ amples) of how OWL can undermine exist­ ness sets in motion a cycle of deepening ing unions or insulate non-union firms from concession on wages and working condi­ being organized. Both writers point out that tions and weakens the labour movement. participatory programs like Quality Control The thorny question of separating is­ circles probably violate a section of the Na­ sues handled by collective bargaining and tional Labor Relations Act that prohibits issues dealt with by QWL organs is employers from circumventing unions, al­ treated superficially by Gold, who sug­ though their legality has not yet been tested. gests that such segregation is possible. Parker insists that it is impossible and Parker spares no effort in revealing why even undesirable to keep these spheres workers are attracted to QWL. The most per­ apart. He argues that separation renders suasive selling point is the alleged capacity unions less and less relevant to workers' of QWL to preserve jobs. Another powerful needs, because as joint committees deal appeal is the participation process itself, with issues like technological change, which entails rewards such as group iden­ work rules, and environmental problems tification and personal recognition. the union comes to be viewed by the rank Managers deal with workers on a first-name and file as an organization which is only basis, workers' ideas are never criticized in active when contracts have expired. Con­ joint meetings, and employees, at all levels sider the union's dilemma: "If the union of the enterprise are defined in the terminol­ insists on separation but allows QWL to ogy of QWL as family members, all pulling REVIEWS 375

handle 'environmental issues,' union theless, the distinct impression is left that leaders and established union procedures durable QWL programs are rare; most can be undercut. If it steps in and forbids programs last no longer than the crisis a QWL circle to work on a bargaining that engendered them. Parker agrees, but issue, then the union adopts the role of the he adds that evaluative efforts often are bureaucratic outsider jealous that the distorted and unreliable because they are membership might accomplish something conducted by individuals (e.g., consult­ and make the union officers look bad. If ants) with a vested interest in successful the union leaves the groups to work only outcomes. Favorable results attributed to on management problems, it is inviting QWL, Parker maintains, often are due to the groups to turn into junior manage­ circumstances external to the programs, ment, and possibly take actions which especially threats of job loss. It is this seriously harm central union objectives concern that frequently lies behind a such as job security." The union also is union's decision to enter into a coopera­ compromised when talented workers are tive relationship with the employer. appointed as QWL facilitators who Parker presents intriguing data showing receive management training and often that one auto plant's celebrated decline in are cut off from union advice and support. grievances (a barometer of the state of In some General Motors plants, for ex­ labour-management relations) actually ample, there are as many QWL appointees occurred before the implementation of a as union representatives, a situation con­ massive QWL project. It is somewhat ducive to creating divisions within the puzzling to read most of Parker's book membership. and then find out that most QWL Parker's opposition to QWL is based programs are ineffective and fragile. But on his analysis of actual programs and on Parker backs off from this initial assess­ his believe that the job of the union is to ment by arguing that "the real results of defend and advance workers' interests, QWL are usually weakened unions, con­ not to increase company profits, market cessions, and a smooth introduction of share, or reputation. Workers' interests new technology"; these outcomes are can be best realized by building a united rarely examined in evaluative research and militant labour movement. Still, conducted by QWL proponents. Parker Parker recognizes that it is not always also insists that QWL has the potential to possible for a union to reject QWL, and do great harm to workers and unions, and he suggests steps a union can take to this potential grows as the programs be­ neutralize QWL or even to make it work come more sophisticated. Still, if read by for the union. To do this, however, re­ itself this chapter raises nagging doubts, quires enormous effort, organization, and suggested by Parker himself, about the resources, implying that the best strategy real source of labour-management col­ for the union is to stay away from QWL laboration. Is it QWL, fear of job loss, or in the first place. Of course, if a union some combination of both? does succeed in shaping the character of It is worth mentioning that neither QWL, management will terminate the author considers, except incidentally, a program, since it is not achieving the second major type of QWL — job company's goals. redesign. Unlike participatory techni­ Are participatory programs really ques, job redesign is not used by manage­ responsible for improvements in job satis­ ment to shape workers' consciousness faction, productivity, and labour-manage­ and promote cooperation and diligence. ment relations? Gold's evaluation is in­ Rather, through such measures as job con­ conclusive. This is attributed in part to solidation, redesign programs can speed­ measurement difficulties faced by up work and eliminate labour — without evaluators and in part to the anecdotal altering workers' attitudes. character of much of the evidence. Never­ The hard, practical questions that 376L\BOUR/LETRAVAIL

workers and union officials should ask about the most systematic and informative treat­ QWL — for example, who benefits and how ment of QWL participatory programs — remain unanswered in Gold's monograph. available. It is hard for workers and their Criticism of or praise for QWL takes the representatives to oppose "reforms" form of opinions expressed by managers or promising to save jobs, improve relation­ unionists, and Gold offers an inadequate ships with management, and make work evaluation of the validity of these opinions. more gratifying, but Parker's book will There is little in the empirical materials or arm the "targets" of QWL with the infor­ Gold's analyses of them to allow one to con­ mation and rationale they need to do clude that labour-management cooperative precisely this. schemes are either good or bad. In Parker's case the old saying, "experience is the best James Rinehart teacher," is right on, for Inside the Circle is University of Western Ontario

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