“Outside Agitators and Ungrateful Kids”: The Making of the Working Class in Rural Newfoundland By © Mitchell S. Fournie A Thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Anthropology Memorial University of Newfoundland June 2014 St. John‘s, Newfoundland ABSTRACT The 1971 Burgeo strike was a central moment in the development of working- class consciousness in Newfoundland. Combining archival sources with the author‘s own field interviews, this thesis illustrates how the development of industrial production during the two and a half decades after the Second World War generated a corresponding shift in the society and culture of rural Newfoundland. The resulting narrative demonstrates a model of class formation in the ―industrial villages‖ of outport Newfoundland. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is dedicated to my supervisor August Carbonella. He took a chance on an unknown kid, accepted him into the MA program at Memorial University and patiently spent three years focusing this kid‘s simplistic and youthful enthusiasm for agitation towards the eternal struggle to shorten the working day. Any substance, insight, clarity or coherence achieved here is due to him. To the Department of Anthropology at the Memorial University of Newfoundland: August Carbonella, Rex Clark, Reade Davis, Wayne Fife, Kathy Gordon, Sharon Roseman, Mark Tate, Robin Whitaker. To my seminar leaders: Sharon Roseman, Kathy Gordon, August Carbonella, Rex Clark. For the rides home after class: Reade Davis, Robin Whitaker. For the office space: Graduate Student‘s Union, Memorial University of Newfoundland. For the teaching assistantships: August Carbonella, Rex Clark, Robin Whitaker, Kathy Gordon. For the salary/research grants: School of Graduate Studies, Department of Anthropology, Institute of Social and Economic Research. For help with anything and everything: Tina Scott, Mark Tate. For the behind-the-scenes people who subsidized the making of this whole thing: Gillian Fournie, Jane Fournie, Eric Fournie. For letting me beat them in basketball: Nathan Mine-Goldring, David Cooney, Angelina Leggo (I hope your new baby will be wonderful), Nehraz Mahmud. And to the people whose story I have borrowed here: Burgeo, the southwest coast and the outports of rural Newfoundland. iii Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ONE ―The fish stinks but the money‘s clean‖: MODERNITY TWO ―Well working conditions were so that we didn‘t know much different, until someone told us‖: CAPITAL THREE ―Every fisherman is a tradesmen. And you‘ve got to get that into your skulls tonight‖: LABOUR FOUR ―They would take him up in their arms and carry him around but now they want him out‖: CLASS FIVE ―The truth once and for all about whether Joey is for the fishermen or for the businessmen‖: CLASS CONSCIOUNESS CONCLUSION: The Making and Unmaking of the Twentieth Century‘s Great Industrial Working-Class References Cited iv Table of Contents ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………...….iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………...……….iv List of Figures………………………………………………………………………...…..ix List of Abbreviations………………………………………………………………….…..x INTRODUCTION 0.1.0. – Introduction……………………………………………………………….1 0.2.0. – THEORY: The ‗character‘ of class struggle……………………………...4 0.3.0. – METHODOLOGY: Historical Ethnography……………………………..7 0.4.0. – LITERATURE: The Particularities of the Newfoundland Experience…11 0.5.0. – Outline of the Chapters….………………………………………………15 0.6.0. – CONCLUSION: The 1971 Burgeo strike and the Making of the Working Class in Rural Newfoundland…….………………….………...18 ONE “The fish stinks but the money‟s clean”: MODERNITY 1.1.0. – Introduction………………………………………………………..…….21 1.2.0. – THEORY: Society and the Industrial Revolution………………………24 1.3.0. – LITERATURE: Industry, Capital, Ideology & the making of the ―New Commercial Fish Monarchies‖…………..………………………..28 1.4.0. – Burgeo, the southwest coast and the standards of living debate……….30 1.5.0. – The resilience of the village household…………………………………34 1.6.0. – The atrophy of the village household……………………………………38 1.7.0. – The ―industrial village‖ of outport Newfoundland: Class………………43 1.8.0. – The ―industrial village‖ of outport Newfoundland: Society……………49 1.9.0. – CONCLUSION: Class and Society……………………………………..53 TWO “Well working conditions were so that we didn‟t know much different, until someone told us”: CAPITAL 2.1.0. – Introduction...……………………………………………………………56 2.2.0. – THEORY: Culture and the Industrial Revolution………...………….…59 2.3.0. – LITERATURE: The making of the ‗Multi-plant Family Firms‖...…......62 2.4.0. – The Families of the Firms: Clientage……………………………………65 2.5.0. – The Firms of the Families: Employment………………………………..69 2.6.0. – The making of the patron-client society in the industrial village……….73 2.7.0. – The erosion of the patron-client society in the industrial village……….78 v 2.8.0. – CONCLUSION: Accumulation and the social relations of production…83 THREE “Every fisherman is a tradesmen. And you‟ve got to get that into your skulls tonight”: LABOUR 3.1.0 – Introduction………………………………………………………………86 3.2.0 – THEORY: The Labour Movement and the Industrial Revolution………90 3.3.0 – LITERATURE: The making and unmaking of the ―post-war settlement.94 3.4.0 – The Newfoundland ‗fisherman‘s‘ union: Breaking the settlement………98 3.5.0 – Civil Rights: Re-making the settlement………………………………...103 3.6.0 – ―What do you call a fisherman‖: The new settlement………………….108 3.7.0 – CONCLUSION: The working class and the labour movement………..114 FOUR “They would take him up in their arms and carry him around but now they want him out”: CLASS 4.1.0. – Introduction………………………………………...…………………..117 4.2.0. – THEORY: Class and the Industrial Revolution...……………………...120 4.3.0. – LITERATURE: Community organizing and the unmaking of the industrial village………………………………………………………...123 4.4.0. – Community Organizing and the making of the working class in rural Newfoundland………………….………………………………125 4.5.0. – Re-making class: Production………………………………...………...131 4.6.0. – Re-making class: Redistribution……………………………...………..135 4.7.0. – Re-making class: Community…………………………………...……..138 4.8.0. – Re-making class: Consciousness…………………………………...….143 4.9.0. – CONCLUSION: Class and consciousness…………………………......148 FIVE “The truth once and for all about whether Joey is for the fishermen or for the businessmen”: CLASS CONSCIOUSNOUS 5.1.0. – Introduction……………………...……………………………………..151 5.2.0. – THEORY: Class Consciousness and the Industrial Revolution……….155 5.3.0. – LITERATURE: Merchants, Fisherfolk and the ‗character‘ of class struggle in outport Newfoundland………………………………..158 5.4.0. – The labour movement and consciousness……………………………...160 5.5.0. – ‗Civil‘ politics and consciousness……………………………………...165 5.6.0. – Class Consciousness…………………………………………………...169 5.6.0. – CONCLUSION: Revolution and Reform……………………………...173 CONCLUSION The Making and Unmaking of the Twentieth Century‟s Great Industrial Working class vi 6.1.0 – Dispossession and Proletarian Class Formation………………………..177 6.2.0 – Capitalist Accumulation and the Social Relations of Production……...180 6.3.0 – Working class Formation and the Organized Labour Movement……..182 6.4.0 – Class Struggle and History……………………………………………...185 vii List of Figures Figure 0.1.0 – Burgeo, 1971………..……………………………………………………..x Figure 1.1.0 – The Netherton.……………………………………………………………47 Figure 1.2.0 – Burgeo, circa 1966…..……………………………………………………56 Figure 1.3.0 – The Burgeo archipelago….………………………………………………58 Figure 2.1.0 – Burgeo, circa 1970………..………………………………………………77 Figure 2.2.0 – ―It‘s freshest when frozen‖ …………..………………..…………………82 Figure 2.3.0 – The Lakes……………...…………………………………………………87 Figure 3.1.0 – ‗Fishermen‘ circa 1969 – 1971…..……………………………………...117 Figure 4.1.0 – Burgeo, 1971…..………………………………………………………..140 Figure 4.2.0 – July 15, 1971…..………………………………………………………..152 Figure 5.1.0 – June 9, 1971...…………………………………………………………...173 Figure 5.2.0 – July 16, 1971…..………………………………………………………..178 viii List of Abbreviations CBC – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation DN – The Daily News ET – The Evening Telegram NFFAWU – Newfoundland Fish Food and Allied Workers Union ix Figure 0.1.0 – Burgeo, 1971. Union Forum x INTRODUCTION The first step in community organization is community disorganization. The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization. Present arrangements must be disorganized if they are to be displaced by new patterns that provide opportunities for citizen‘s participation. All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new. - Saul Alinsky (1971: 116). 0.1.0. – Introduction Centered across the front page of the July 15th, 1971 edition of St. John‘s daily newspaper The Evening Telegram was a picture of Newfoundland‘s newest political actors. ―Never again will we beg,‖ read one of the homemade placards being held up by the men picketing the Burgeo fish processing plant. ―On strike for freedom‖ was written across another. ―Get off your knees. It feels good.‖ ―All we ask for are our rights. Our lawful rights to have a union.‖ ―Give us the respect we deserve.‖ In the process of being united over the previous twenty-five years as a store shopping, corporately employed and factory-working proletariat, so too had the people of rural Newfoundland come to recognize themselves as part of an international working class. For every protest, revolt, strike and election unfolding across the island in 1971 that found its rationale