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Labour/Le Travailleur

Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Volume 23, 1989

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Éditeur(s) Canadian Committee on Labour History

ISSN 0700-3862 (imprimé) 1911-4842 (numérique)

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Citer cet article (1989). Reviews / Comptes Rendus. Labour/Le Travailleur, 23, 269–394.

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Bruce Curtis, Building the Educational State: Canada West, 1836-1871 by Phillip McCann / 269 Marta Danylewycz, Taking the Veil: An Alternative to Marriage, Motherhood, and Spinsterhood in Quebec, 1840-1920 by Chad Gaffield / 271 Bruce S. Elliott. Irish Migrants in the Canadas: A New Approach by J.I. Little / 272 Lynne Bowen, Tliree Dollar Dreams by William J. Burrill / 275 Conseil des travailleuses et travailleurs du Montréal métropolitain, Cent ans de solidarité. Histoire du CTM1886-1986 by André E. LeBlanc / 276 Claudette Lacelle, Urban Domestic Servants in 19th-century Canada/Les domestiques en milieu urbain Canadian au XIXe siècle by Bettina Bradbury / 278 William Eklund. Builders of Canada: History of the Finnish Organization in Canada, 1911-1971 by J. Donald Wilson / 280 Gilbert Van&sse, Histoire de la Fédération des travailleurs du papier et de la forêt (CSN). Tome 1 (1907-1958) by Camille Legendre / 282 Thomas P. Socknat, Witness Against War: Pacifism in Canada, 1900-1945 by Robert Malcolmson / 286 Sandra Djwa, The Politics of the Imagination: A Life ofF.R. Scott by Michael Gauvreau /288 Norman Penner, Canadian Communism: The Stalin Years and Beyond by David Akers /290 Centre populaire de documentation de Montréal, Le choc du passée. Les années trente et les sans-travail Bibliograpliie sélective annotée by Jocelyn Saint-Pierre / 292 Cyril W. Strong, My Life as a Newfoundland Union Organizer: The Memoirs of Cyril W. Strong, 1912-1987 by Eric W. Sager / 296 Wallace Clement, The Struggle to Organise: Resistance in Canada's Fishery by Anthony Davis/297 Constance P. deRoche and John E. deRoche, eds., "Rock in a Stream:"Living with the Political Economy of Underdevelopment in Cape Breton by K.R. Bittermann /300 James Iain Gow, Histoire de l'administration publique québécois 1867-1970 by Paul Dauphinais / 302 Donald M. We]\s,Empty Promises: Quality of Working Life Programmes and the Labour Movement by Gary A. Lewis / 304 James W. Rinehart, The Tyranny of Work. Alienation and the Labour Process by Carl J. Cuneo/306

4 John Richards and Don Kerr, eds., Canada, what's left? by Laurie E Adkin/309 Larry Pratt, ed, Socialism and Democracy in Alberta: Essays in Honour of Grant Nodey by Barry Ferguson / 311 J. Paul Grayson, Corporate Strategy and Plant Closures: The S.K.F. Experience by Jim Silver/313 Arthur Francis,Aw Technology at Work by Guy Fréchet / 315 Angus McLaren and Arlene Tigar McLaren, The Bedroom and the State: The Changing Practices and Politics of Contraception and Abortion in Canada, 1880-1980 by Christine Overall/317 Gary Kinsman, The Regulation of Desire: Sexuality in Canada by Steven Maynard /319 Pat Armstrong, Labour Pains - Women's Work in Crisis by Céline Saint-Pierre / 321 Heather Jon Maroney and Meg Luxton, eds., Feminism and Political Economy: Women's Work, Women's Struggles by Ester Reiter / 324 Nancy Adamson, Linda Briskin and Margaret McV\w\,Feminist Organizing for Change: The Contemporary Women's Movement in Canada by Karen Dubinsky / 326 Patrick Joyce, éd., The Historical Meanings of Work by EJ. Hundert /328 Marcus Rediker, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750 by James Pritchard /330 John Sainsbury, Disaffected Patriots: London Supporters of Revolutionary America 1769-1782 by Nicholes Rogers/332 Herbert G. Gutman and Donald H. Bells, eds., The New England Working Class and the New Labour History by Paul G. Faler / 333 Laurence Shore, Southern Capitalists: The Ideological Leadership of an Elite, 1832-1885 by Harold D. Woodman / 335 Gwendolyn Mink, Old Labor and New Immigrants in American Political Development Union, Party and State, 1875-1920 by Robert Wiebe / 337 Louise Carroll Wade, Chicago's Pride: The Stockyards, Packingtown, and Environs in the Nineteenth Century by Peter G. Goheen / 339 Shelton Stromquist,/4 Generation of Boomers: The Pattern of Railroad Labour Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America by Paul Craven / 340 Michael Kazin, Barons of Labor: The San Francisco Building Trades and Union Power in the Progressive Period by Melvyn Dubofsky / 341 Lois Palken Rudnick, Mabel Dodge Luhan: New Woman, New Worlds by Anita Clair Fellman/343 Alan Wald, The New York Intellectuals: the Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1960s by Paul Buhle / 345 Maurice Isserman, If I Had a Hammer: The Death of the Old Left and the Birth of the New Left by Bryan D. Palmer / 348 Ellen Israel Rosen, Bitter Choices: Blue-Collar Women in and out of Work by Michael Goldfield/350 K.D.M. Snell, Annals of the Labour Poor: Social Change and Agrarian England, 1660-1900 by J.M. Neeson /353 Richard Price, Labour in British Society by Donna T. Andrew / 355

5 Angela John, éd., Unequal Opportunities: Women's Employment in England 1800-1918 by Mariana Valverde / 356 David Howell,/! Lost Life: Three Studies in Socialism and Nationalism by James Naylor /358 Logje Barrow, Independent Spirits: Spiritualism and English Plebians 1850-1910 by Ramsay Cook / 361 Jerry White, The Worst Street in North London: Campbell Bunk, Islington, Between the Wars by Patricia E Malcolmson / 362 Marjorie Nicholson, The TUC Overseas: The Roots of Policy by Martin Petter / 363 W. Hamish Fraser, Conflict and Class: Scottish Workers 1700-1838 by T.C. Smout / 365 Donald Harman Akenson, Small Differences: Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants, 1815-1922: An International Perspective by David W. Miller / 366 Gay L. Gullickson, Spinners and Weavers of Auffay: Rural industry and the Sexual Division of Labor in a French Village by Liana Vardi / 368 Catharina Lis, Social Change and the Labouring Poor: Antwerp 1770-1860 by Janet L. Polasky/370 Hans Speier, German White-Collar Workers and the Rise ofHider by Geoff Eley / 371 Donald Howard Bell, Sesto San Giovanni: Workers, Culture, and Politics in an Italian Town, 1880-1922 by Luisa Passerini / 374 Adrian Shubert, The Road to Revolution in Spain: The Coal Miners of Asturias 1860-1934 by Donald Reid/ 376 Robert Edelman, Proletarian Peasants: The Revolution of1905 in Russia's Southwest by Christine Johanson / 378 Robert Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine by R.E. Johnson/379 Lewis H. Siegelbaum, Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity in aie USSR, 1931-1941 by Moshe Lewin/381 Moshe Semyonov, and Noah Lewin-Epstein, Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water: Noncitizen Arabs in the Israeli Labor Market by R.T. Naylor / 384 Ronald P. Dore, Flexible Rigidities: Industrial Policy and Structural Adjustment in the Japanese Economy, 1970-80 by Solomon G. Levine / 385 Hill Gates, Chinese Working Class Lives: Getting By in Taiwan by C.G. Watson / 387 Otto Jacobi, Bob Jessop, HansKastendiendiek, and Marino Regjni, eds.,Economic Crisis, Trade Unions and the State by Warren Magnusson / 388 Colin Barker, éd., Revolutionary Rehearsals by James Petras / 390 REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS

Bruce Curtis, Building the Educational cial control thesis. He shows, in myriad State: Canada West, 1836-1871 (London, detail, the local opposition to different Ontario: Althouse Press 1988). aspects of the emerging centralised struc­ ture, an opposition that was sometimes BRUCE CURTIS HAS EMERGED, during the confused and backward-looking but 1980's, as one of the leading practitioners which modified the type of schooling in Canada of the "new" history of educa­ proposed and the conditions under which tion. In a series of exciting and provoca­ it was given. tive articles he has taken the discipline The book is divided into two parts; beyond the descriptive and narrative his­ the first and shorter section covers educa­ tories of schools and theorists and toward tional reform, mainly the Education Acts the complexities of the interaction of of the fourteen years between 1836 and education with the social and political 1850. Though Curtis has some perceptive development of nineteenth-century insights into the relationship between Canada. More recently, Curtis has con­ state building and educational reform, cerned himself with the role of education particularly his contention that "self- in the formation of the state. In this book, government as individual self-discipline, however, as the title indicates, he is inter­ and self-government as representative ested in the making of the "educational democracy were seen as both sides of the state," concentrating on a "class and same coin," and his analysis of the func­ gendered" understanding of the construc­ tion of "common Christianity" as a means tion of a system of state schooling, the of building a set of behavioural traits of a emergence of the techniques and prac­ moral-regulatory nature, his summaries tices intrinsic to mass education, and the of the numerous Education Acts of the management of the opposition which its period brings these chapters nearer to development provoked. Educational sys­ traditional administrative narrative then tems, Curtis emphasises, are forged in the he probably intended. fire of political struggle — between clas­ In the second section Curtis makes ses, between central bureaucracies and good use of his main source of material, local interests, and between social groups the collection of correspondence in the holding different conceptions of the na­ Educational Office for Canada West in ture and purposes of education. the Ontario Provincial Archives, to chart Though Curtis concentrates on the ef­ public reaction to almost every education­ forts of the ruling elite — personified al activity in the region during the middle largely by Egerton Ryerson — to con­ years of the nineteenth century. This sec­ struct social identities in the pupils which tion is divided into five chapters which would be favourable to existing and examine "pedagogical space," atten­ developing property relations and politi­ dance, teacher training, the curriculum, cal authority ("anchoring the conditions and punishment. Curtis is able to show of political governance in the selves of the that almost every innovation, whether in­ governed"), he avoids the trap of the so- troduced by central or local authority, was Table of Contents for Reviews is on pp. 4-6. contested by administrators, parents, teachers, members of the public or, more

269 270 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

rarely, the pupils themselves. sovereignty of the teacher insider and out­ Curtis's main thrust is against bour­ side the school; in the politics of atten­ geois centralisation. Inherent in this is the dance, particularly the rationality behind danger (which he recognises on occasion) negative parental attitudes centred on the that almost any criticism of centralising quality of schooling offered in addition to tendencies can take on a significance not the exigencies of the labour process; in justified by its intrinsic importance. But the exposure of the essentially political the somewhat inchoate and piecemeal op­ purpose behind the formation of a corps position revealed in the correspondence d'etat of teachers subject to administra­ hardly amounts to an alternative policy, tive authority; in the details of the class- and the nature of a possible popular or directed transformation of a free market populist programme does not appear in educational ideas and practices into a clearly. Though a centralised system uniform, centrally-directed state system eventually emerged — no "inevitably," as of knowledge and power; and in the ul­ Curtis ably demonstrated, but as the out­ timate legitimisation of punishment, come of the struggle between opposing despite the attempt to inaugurate a forces — the reader tends to wonder "gentle" and "pleasurable" pedagogy, as whether or not this was either necessary an effective disempowerment of students or desirable. Was a centralised system and school supporters. Basing his intrinsic only to capitalist societies, or is ideological approach on the theories of it a necessary feature of any type of Foucalt and "a Marxism sensitive to cul­ literate and organised society? Was the tural forms," Curtis opens up a new system as it emerged in Canada West dimension in the historical treatment of peculiar to that region, or did it have fea­ education. Despite a plain style and an tures common to other societies? If over-indulgence in the use of trendy all- centralisation was not an inevitable purpose words such as "space," "dis­ aspect of education under capitalism, course," "moment," "problematic," and what other organisation of schooling was "contestation," this is a work which is possible? And if the ruling class of this certain to influence future writing on period largely succeeded in infusing Canadian educational history; though education with attitudes and practices other historians may not be so fortunate favourable to political and social subor­ in their discovery of source material, all dination, what effects did this have on will be able to benefit from Curtis's post-1870 class struggles? These are methods, insights, and analyses. Equally some of the questions raised, but not ad­ importantly, this book shows the validity dressed, in the text. and importance of history — the under­ standing of the class nature of educational Curtis might argue that this would development in the past as demonstrated have necessitated writing a different here can help to demystify the ostensible book. If, however, he had focused atten­ neutrality of the provision of education tion on specific periods of crisis and con­ for all in contemporary society. flict, particularly in the period 1850-1871 (not to mention some scene-painting of the topographical features of Canada Phillip McCann West, the industries of the townships, Memorial University of Newfoundland class structure, and so on) answers to some, at least, of these questions might have emerged. Be that as it may, the book as it stands is a monument to Curtis's ability to dis­ cern the political and class content in­ herent in the most mundane and ostensib­ ly "given" educational theories, activities and artefacts: in the struggle for the REVIEWS 271

Marta Danylewycz, Taking the Veil: An 1830s is situated within an evolving inter­ Alternative to Marriage, Motherhood, national context which found particular and Spinsterhood in Quebec, 1840-1920, resonance in the post-Rebellion St. edited by Paul-André Linteau, Alison Lawrence valley. The Catholic hierarchy Prentice, and William Westfall, (Toronto: was able to achieve a division of labour McClelland and Stewart 1987) and power with secular leaders, and to also gain popular support by channeling THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF social his­ nationalist sentiment into a conservative tory has evolved considerably during the and religious articulation of survivance. past twenty years. While researchers have This process opened the door to 81 new not rejected the underlying assumptions religious communities by World War I, and research orientation promoted in the two-thirds of which were female. 1960s, recent work reveals far greater The institutional growth of the theoretical nuance and methodological Catholic Church in Quebec provides the complexity. The early tendency to pursue framework for understanding the initial a discrete question by thorough examina­ decision and subsequent experience of tion of a single source has increasingly those women who took the veil. given way to analyses of integrated Danylewycz argues that the sharp in­ relationships revealed through disparate creases in female religious vocations primary sources. One welcome result is reflected a changing material context studies which address the problématique marked by new patterns of work, mar­ of more than one field of social history. A riage, and education which denied sexual fine example of this trend is Marta equality, and left women with limited op­ Danylewycz's Taking the Veil which is portunity for personal fulfillment. Thus, far more than a contribution to the history proportionately more women than men of women in Quebec. Rather, the book contributed to the numerical growth of emphasizes the importance of viewing the religious orders not because of a greater historical process first and foremost in female spirituality but rather because of terms of context. In the case of gender-specific material constraints. Par­ ticular attention is given to the sexual nineteenth-century Quebec nuns, this division of paid labour in Quebec society means understanding the history of the which only offered women low-paying family, the Catholic Church, education, and low-status jobs in teaching, manufac­ work, and the ideologies of secular turing, and service fields. The attraction women. The author's tragic death of convents for women is thus defined in prevented her from completing the material terms with nuns considered as revisions which she was undertaking on career workers. Quebec's changing social this study but thanks to the initiative and setting encouraged women to seek an al­ affection of Paul-André Linteau, Alison ternative to subordination and exploita­ Prentice, and William Westfall, we now tion in a man's world including family have a book which contributes sig­ life. The proportion of religious women nificantly to the continuing evolution of in Quebec rose from 1.4 per cent of the socio-historical debate. total female population over 20 years of The study begins with an efficient age in 1851 to 9.1 per cent in 1921. synthesis of recent work on the Quebec version of the Catholic Church's devo­ Having interwoven the contextual tional revolution of the second half of the strands of recent Quebec historiography, nineteenth century. The author agrees Danylewycz probes to the level of in­ with those who have contested the image dividual experience by reconstructing the of a timeless priest-ridden society by em­ lives of women in two Montreal com­ phasizing the ebb and flow of Catholic munities, the teaching order of the Sisters Church influence since the seventeenth of the Congregation of Notre Dame and century. The dramatic increase in the the nursing order of the Sisters of Church's institutional presence after the Miséricorde. The value of church ar- 272 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

chives has long been appreciated by so­ cial historical literature as well as her cial historians but the rich holdings of ability to use rich archival sources to ad­ these religious communities allow re­ vance current historical debate. Perhaps search which goes far beyond familiar most of all, the book reflects the rein­ topics such as demography and clerical tegration of ideas and behaviour within control. By gaining access to these ar­ the best recent research. By pointing to chives, the author examines in detail the the complex relationships among demog­ social background of the religious women raphy, work, institutions, and ideology, with particular attention to their fathers' Danylewycz's book implies a massive re­ occupations. She shows that the orders search agenda in which the history of reflected different social groups in women would be a central component of Quebec with the Congregation of Notre all social history. The tragedy is that this Dame attracting middle-class women, research agenda can now only be pursued and the Sisters of Miséricorde drawing by others. All historians owe a great debt tbe daughters of farmers and workers. to Linteau, Prentice, and Westfall for in­ Within the religious communities, in­ corporating the author's last notes on the dividual backgrounds were reflected in manuscript, and for bringing the book social and occupational hierarchies, al­ through the production process. though Danylewycz emphasizes that, at least in certain cases, social origins could be transcended. Unlike the secular world, Chad Gaffield religious orders did offer the possibility University of Ottawa of administrative power to women from even working-class families. The chance Bruce S. Elliott, Irish Migrants in the for a female career with increasingly im­ Canadas: A New Approach (Montreal: portant occupational roles distinguished McGill-Queen's University Press 1988). these orders from the patriarchal world of work outside the convent doors. STUDIES OF EARLY MIGRATION FROM the While significantly separate from Old World to the New have generally secular society, religious women were not confined their methodologies to the isolated from the general Quebec popula­ analysis of statistical data or the examina­ tion. Rather, continued ties with family tion of descriptive material such as offi­ and kin reflected the extent to which join­ cial reports, private correspondence, ing a religious order was part of a family published memoirs, and immigration strategy as much as an individual tracts. Valuable as all these sources are, decision. Moreover, it appears that they fail to provide a comprehensive pic­ religious women used family connections ture of who the typical immigrant was, to recruit new members especially by em­ what motivated his or her move, and what phasizing the importance of undertaking degree of success was ultimately met social work. The result was that religious with. Bruce Elliott's path-breaking women were exceedingly relevant to the volume takes a large step in redressing secular society, a fact which raised com­ these limitations, for he has employed the plex questions about the role of women in methods of the genealogist to compile the new social service activities of the files on some 775 families who left North turn of the century. Danylewycz explores Tipperary principally for Upper Canada's the evolving relationship between nuns Ottawa and London areas between 1818 and lay women activists, and shows how and 1855. By capturing a surprising both the Church and political hierarchy amount of personal detail on the Protes­ tried (but not always successfully) to dis­ tants who emigrated from this 30-by-40 courage support by the religious women mile district, Elliott has made a valuable for social feminism. contribution not only to migration history but to the social history of Ireland and This compact study reveals Marta Canada. Danylewycz's appreciation of a vast so­ REVIEWS 273

North Tipperary's Protestants con­ exceptional individual. stituted only 8.5 per cent of its total Elliott avoids the ongoing controver­ population, and they were a privileged sy about whether or not North American minority at that, but their repre­ farmers in the pre-industrial era were es­ sentativeness should not be underes­ sentially motivated by competitive timated because the Irish Protestants were capitalistic values, but his family-centred the largest non-French enthno-religious thesis implies that both sides in the debate group in nineteenth century Canada. To may be missing the point. It cannot be have some notion of their mentalité is to denied that a certain degree of in­ take a significant step toward grasping the dividualism follows from the dominance foundations of English Canada's elusive of the nuclear family as a social institu­ cultural identity. The Irish Catholic im­ tion even in Ireland, and that the drive to migrants have already found their acquire land for maturing sons would en­ revisionist historian in Donald Akenson, sure a ready response to whatever oppor­ editor of the ethnic studies series which tunities the agricultural market might this volume inaugurates. But Akenson present. But the very desire for parents himself has promoted a stereotypical and offspring to continue to live close to image of the Irish Protestants by stressing each other after separate households were their aggressiveness in acquiring land formed takes us a step towards the wider "beyond mere economic calculation," and community. Extended family ties were their assertiveness in commercial ven­ even solidified by the marriage of cousins tures and politics. Elliott, on the other who lived in different parts of the country. hand, demonstrates that farming was by It would appear, then, that the broader far the preferred activity of his im­ rural network began to break down only migrants, and that land was acquired to late in the century as mechanization provide farms for offspring rather than to reduced the need for a large family, as the engage in speculation. Cole Harris and high cost of land increased the difficulty John Mannion have remarked on the in­ of establishing more than one son in farm­ dividualism of the Irish Protestants, ing, and as cash crops provided the whom they believed to have immigrated wherewithal to educate non-inheriting as single men or unrelated nuclear offspring for other occupations. families, but Elliott's exhaustive research indicates that nothing could be further The main advantage of Elliott's focus from the truth. It was the desire for family upon kin networks in place of sharply- security which only land could offer that defined geographical communities is that took a significant percentage of the he is able to discover patterns hitherto Protestants from North Tipperary (where hidden to historians. We learn that they numbered approximately 3000 in Richard Talbot's little-noticed assisted 1831) to Upper Canada. When that emigration scheme of 1818 not only at­ province's frontier closed, the tide shifted tracted families whom one would not to Australia and New Zealand, while sub­ have assumed to be related because of sequent generations in Ontario hived off their widespread residences within North to outlying areas on the Quebec side of the Tipperary, but also that it began a process Ottawa Valley and to the Prairie West. of chain migration whereby hundreds of The fact that most families moved Protestant and Catholic families through a process of chain migration, emigrated without official organization both across the Atlantic and within or prompting. The reason that there were Canada, testifies to the strength of kinship two widely-separated destinations in ties in the Irish Protestant community. It Upper Canada was simply that the appears that the peripatetic, Belfast-born original group split in half because no Wilson Benson, adopted by Michael Katz block grant was made available after its as the archetypal common man of pre-in- members arrived in the colony. Fifteen dustrial Canada, was in reality a rather families were lured to the military settle­ ment of Richmond near Ottawa, while 274 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

nineteen others proceeded to Col. marriage of their widows from beyond the Thomas Talbot's fiefdom in the London grave, but simply ensuring that in a area. Because more arable land was avail­ patriarchical society their offspring able in the western community, it at­ would not be cut out of the inheritance by tracted the lion's share of the subsequent a stepfather and his natural children. El­ immigration, including many who first liott also suggests a common-sense settled in the Ottawa Valley. Interestingly reason for the elaborate provisions in­ enough, the one township where North cluded in many maintenance agreements, Tipperary Protestants and Catholics set­ for the aging parents could have become tled in homogeneous and neighbouring victims of conflict between the mother blocks was also the location of some of and a daughter-in-law who had imbibed the worst sectarian violence in the another woman's ideas about how to run province, culminating in the famous mur­ a household. der of Lucan's Donnelly family. As has been observed for French- Elliott's emphasis on the family also Canadian society, some parents chose not results in some valuable insights into the to purchase land locally when their sons inter-generational transmission of reached maturity, but rather to move the property, a fundamentally-important whole family to a more affordable fron­ topic which has been largely ignored in tier. If any older offspring had already this country. Contrary to the legislation, been established in the area, they tended which favoured primogeniture prior to to sell their farms as well in order to join 1852, and wholly partible inheritance the family exodus. Thus by the 1880s the thereafter, the Irish Protestants (and no whole migration process was repeating doubt most of rural society) attempted to itself on the Prairie frontier, but without provide land for each son and a simple the same concentration of settlement be­ dowry for each daughter as he or she came cause personal inspection tours increased of age and married, with the youngest son the freedom of choice in making loca­ finally taking over the home farm from tions. While the author scrupulously his retiring parents. The so-called avoids psychological interpretations, it Canadian system of inheritance, whereby should also be safe to venture that the the inheriting son had to pay off his si­ extended kin network had begun to blings, applied only to cases where no weaken somewhat in Ontario where the previous provision had been made by the Tipperary Protestants found themselves parents. The unfolding of the ideal family no longer to be an embattled minority strategy could be interrupted by prema­ group. ture deaths of parents, economic reverses, I found only a couple of points to or the rising price of land, but Elliott finds quibble with in this exhaustively docu­ that his Ottawa Valley families provided mented and carefully reasoned study. land to fully one half of those sons leaving First, Elliott suggests that Richard the nest prior to 1881. Another 15 percent Talbot's failure to acquire the expected of the sons purchased land in the area, reserve for his group in 1818 reflects the with or without their families' assistance; importance of personal influence in the 15 per cent took up a trade or profession; colonial administration. It is likely, how­ and only 10 per cent became "hopeful ever, that good connections in London travellers" by leaving the area as young were the main key to success for men. gentlemen immigrants — certainly that In cases where fathers died before all was the case for those who received large the children had reached maturity, half grants in the Eastern Townships. Second, the surviving spouses retained control of Elliott follows several other historians in the estate until death or remarriage, others stating that Peter Robinson's 1825 settle­ being provided with lodging and a living ment project was the last to be sponsored allowance. Elliott argues that men were by the British government, but my own not jealously trying to prevent the second ancestors were among 1,500 assisted REVIEWS 275 emigrants, mostly from northern Ireland, Island. Over the course of these years, who were sent to the Lower Canadian thousands of men and their families came townships of Leeds and Inverness in to Vancouver Island to work in the coal 1829-30. mines. Few prospered and many perished. If the advantage of Elliott's By the turn of the century there were over methodology is that it deals with the 3,000 men employed in the mines produc­ migrants as individuals rather than as ing well in excess of 1,000,000 tons of abstract numbers, the disadvantage for coal per year. the reader is that the proliferation of in­ A considerable amount of research dividual and family names tends to be­ has been done on various aspects of the come mind-numbing, at least to those history of the mines and the miners for the who are not genealogical enthusiasts. nineteenth century. Particular attention Some of this detail could probably have has been paid to the geographical impact been cut without sacrificing the integrity of the mines, their management, and the of the book, but excellent summaries are numerous labour disputes that are a high­ provided. Indeed, the reader is well- light of this era. Most of this research has served by McGill-Queen's University been in the form of B.A. honours essays, Press, for it has provided the space for a masters theses, and doctoral dissertations, lengthy index, excellent maps, numerous and has remained relatively inaccessible photographs complete with useful to the general public. No one, until now, descriptions, and a helpful outline of has attempted to write a comprehensive sources for those dedicated enough to at­ history of the coal miners of Vancouver tempt a similar project. Historians of the Island for this period. Lynne Bowen and nineteenth-century proletariat may not her publisher have attempted to fill this. find it possible to adopt such a methodol­ Small publishing houses have over ogy, at least on a comparable scale, but the years contributed a great deal to our this book will add to their appreciation of knowledge of Canadian history. Indeed, the strategies people employed to avoid without them much of the local and falling into that exploited status. regional history of Canada would never have been published. On the other hand, J.I. Little small publishers lack the resources with which their larger colleagues protect Simon Fraser University themselves from embarrassment, most notably, outside readers with expertise on Lynne Bowen, Three Dollar Dreams the subject of the book to be published. If (Lantzville: Oolichan Books 1987). Oolichan Books did use an outside reader (they would neither confirm nor deny to IN THE SUMMER OF 1848 a hardy band of me that they had) that person let them six Scottish miners and their families, down badly. under the leadership of John Muir, landed The first page of Chapter One is on Vancouver Island and began the first alarming. It contains a misrepresentation, attempt to raise coal in British Columbia. an error in fact, an improper identifica­ Fifteen years later the Hudson's Bay tion, and a serious misuse of an important Company, which had brought Muir and concept in labour studies. Andrew Muir his family to the new world, sold the and John McGregor were not sentenced to mines to a group of British investors that two years in irons on bread and water; injected further capital and greatly ex­ they barely spent six days like that. panded production. Throughout the Andrew's father, John Muir did not read balance of the nineteenth century a an ad in a Manchester newspaper for coal variety of companies, including that of miners; he was recruited in Scotland by the infamous Robert Dunsmuir, were David Landale who was a mining en­ formed and dissolved in further attempts gineer, not a mine manager. More serious­ to exploit the coal deposits of Vancouver ly, McGregor and Muir were not inde- 276 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

pendent colliers. The term independent view all but a few of the actual miners. collier describes a distinct relationship Those that are deemed worthy of mention between a coal miner and his employer in any detail are that perennial small elite that did exist in Scotland. The evidence of working-class men who, through ambi­ for its existence on Vancouver Island is tion, aggressiveness, or sheer good for­ weak, and in the case of the Muirs nonex­ tune, "worked their way up" the corporate istent. In fact, quite the opposite was the hierarchy, went into business for themsel­ case. ves, or somehow or other escaped the Unfortunately this is not just a false predestiny of their class. The average coal start. The remainder of the book is inun­ miner, those thousands upon thousands of dated with similar inaccuracies, mis­ men who descended into the depths of the representations, and contradictions. For earth at the age of twelve or less to begin instance, John Robson, a prominent a career in the mines and who emerged politician and newspaper editor, is thirty or more years later bruised, broken, described as the Minister of Mines in lungs racked with dust, to eke out a living 1880 (256) when he was not even a mem­ in their final years as a caretaker or a ber of the Legislature. The puzzlement of handy-man these men are not to be found just where Bowen gets her facts is con­ in the pages of Three Dollar Dreams. founded by the unique way in which she That this book was awarded the cites her sources. The authors are listed Lieutenant-Governor's Medal for the best alphabetically undereach chapter number book on British Columbia history in 1987 at the back of the book. Page numbers are is not so much a measure of its merit as it not given and there is no link with the is a testimonial to the sorry state of British text. This was not an attempt to avoid Columbia historiography. The coals footnotes. The book is full of them. miners of nineteenth-century Vancouver Rather than use the footnotes to cite sour­ Island deserved better than this. Their his­ ces, Bowen and her editors have chosen tory remains to be written. to use them principally to explain the ar­ cane language which peppers her test. Telling the reader the rum was imported William J. Burrill in puncheons (a large cask) may make the Simon Fraser University book sound more "historical," but it also slows down the reader with superfluous Conseil des travailleuses et travailleurs detail. du Montréal métropolitain, Cent ans de Indeed, the superfluous detail does solidarité. Histoire du CTM 1886-1986 not inform but rather disinforms the (Montréal: VLB Editeur 1987). reader.'The frequent and detailed descrip­ tions of landscapes that no longer exist THIS IS THE FIRST PUBLISHED study on a are merely confusing. This book appears labour council in Quebec, and as such it to have been written with the combined is an important addition to the growing agenda of a pack-rat and a depression-era corpus of literature that explores the in­ housewife. Everything is to be collected stitutional life of the province's workers. regardless of its relevance and everything Complementary to this, the study also is to be used regardless of its contribution provides another section of a chapter in to the nutrition of the dish that is finally the yet to be fashioned story of the inter­ served up. The text stands as a 373-page national union movement in the province. indictment of the narrative as a form of What is also interesting is that the book historical explanation. Buried under all fits into what appears to be a fashionable this refuse are the coal miners. trend on the part of Quebec union or­ Unfortunately, the coal miners are as ganizations to sponsor "official" his­ well illuminated as a nineteenth century tories. Well beyond the pit. Bowen's middle-class preoccupation souvenir-programs of a bygone day, yet with those that "made it" obscures from not up to the scholarly canons of today's REVIEWS 277

academics, these histories nevertheless their subject into six chapters that add immensely to what we know and to embrace distinct chronological periods: institutional and worker self-definition. end of the nineteenth century to 1902...the In this regard Cent ans de solidarité is a 1970s. Within each chapter, however, one most satisfying undertaking. or more specific themes are developed in To celebrate the 100th anniversary of full. These themes (political action, work­ the creation of the first labour council in ing conditions, defense of human rights, the province, the drew together a team of chronological confines of a particular graduate students and union militants to chapter. The result is very readable, and prepare its history. This diverse grouping it enlivens what could have become a was asked to produce a popular work that shopping list of historical events. Each could serve the Council in realizing its chapter contains marginal notations educational and promotional missions. (short biographies of significant unionists The history as a result was to accent the or lists of significant strikes) and a wide Council's commitment to satisfying the selection of engravings and photos, many professional, political, and socio­ of the latter being unedited and coming economic interests of its affiliates. The directly from union files. Finally, each enunciation of such guidelines was chapter closes with a time chart that simple enough. The work of putting it situates the actions of the Council with together in a coherent manuscript was union activities in Quebec, Canada, and something else. The evolution of the the United States and with legislative Council was, to say the least, a complex enactments of Quebec and Canada that affair. No sooner had a dozen Knights of influenced the worker and the work place. Labor lodges and international craft Overall, this is a fine manual that stands union locals come together to form the on its own, providing a good descriptive Central Trades and Labour Council of drawing together of the many strains of Montreal in 1886 that a schism erupted. union preoccupation that went into the This was just the start of a stormy exist­ making of the Montreal labour council. ence. Splits, inter-union rivalries, recon­ ciliations, and the vicissitudes of Quebec This said, there are features of the and North American unionism henceforth study that merit critical comment. For served as the backdrop to a century of one, a much better balance and apprecia­ fastidious and often unsung union tion could have been achieved had the development. Indeed the Montreal coun­ writers devoted more time to the pre-1940 cil was much more than the sum of its period. At the very least, the "contem­ parts. Considering that the bulk of porary" period monopolizes 60 per cent Quebec's organized workers were con­ of the text, and this in no way is an ac­ centrated in Montreal, one cannot over­ curate reflection of the research material emphasize the importance of the lineal available. Clearly the authors mined the predecessors of the CTTMM. Well down surface load, and this conditioned the to the late 1930s and then some, the Coun­ completeness of their endeavour. A good cil was the day-to-day torchbearer of in­ case in point that reflects on the uneven ternational unionism in the province. It use of identified primary sources is the set the agenda. It set the tone. To prepare book's coverage of the Council's union a history of the Council was, hence, to label offensive. The struggle is enshrined undertake a challenge of keeping things in two bare paragraphs and it is given in perspective, and this was ably achieved scant historical dimension. At the turn of by the writers, Sylvie Murray and Elyse the century, however, the Council's union Tremblay. label committee was a going concern that 1 ) marked important strides in the edifica­ In the language and style of a basic tion of worker consciousness and 2) classroom manual, the authors divide served as an important medium to obtain 278 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

public recognition for the Council. The should in no way detract from the ac­ Minute Book of this committee is complishment. The CTTMM-sponsored catalogued in the archives of the Quebec endeavour has to be placed in context: one Federation of Labour ready to be ex­ hundred years of continued preoccupa­ ploited. Yet it is not called upon to the tion for the worker is something in itself! impoverishment of the study. Things have changed. The CTTMM is One also senses this once-over-light- no longer the torch-bearer. This legacy is ly approach when examining the secon­ now in the hands of the Quebec Federa­ dary sources consulted. There are surpris­ tion of Labour, and the role of the ing gaps evident. It is strange to see, for CTTMM has consequently become much example, that F. Harvey's essay (1973) on more circumscribed and manageable. In the Knights of Labor is not included, that this respect its importance to the Montreal the authors cite J. Rouillard's 1974 essay worker is perhaps greater now than on political action while seemingly ignor­ before, for in the ever-expanding tech- ing his updated and expanded version nocratization that characterizes present- published in 1980. and that no mention is day Quebec unionism, the Council may made of the 50th anniversary brochure be the workers final repair to formulate prepared by the Montreal Trades and their needs and to initiate workable Labor Council in 1947. Even the contem­ strategies to achieve desired ends. porary period could have profited from a Montreal workers have much to gain by pondering their Council's past. more comprehensive use of the literature. M. Grant's thesis on the FUIO comes to mind. André E. LeBlanc Another questionable facet of the Champlain Regional College book is its sanitized approach to the sub­ ject. Everything tends toward progress, toward loftier ideals. Warts and Claudette Lacelle, Urban Domestic Ser­ blemishes are unconsciously (?) air- vants in 19th-century Canada/Les brushed away. Endemic to official his­ domestiques en milieu urbain canadien tories, this may not be the best pap to au XIXe siècle (Ottawa: Minister of Supp­ serve one's intended readership. The ly and Services Canada 1987). predecessors of the CTTMM knew or­ ganizational hardship. Internal and exter­ THIS STUDY OF DOMESTICS LIVING IN nal disavowal and interludes of less than Canadian cities in two periods of the democratic direction were their lot. Like nineteenth century was produced for other organizations, they often served as Parks Canada to help provide the back­ a stage for personal gain and ambition. ground information necessary for the They too had their underside and failures, reconstruction and interpretation of his­ although this never surfaces. In writing toric houses, and of servants' quarters in the book there was also a clear attempt to particular. It is laudable that Parks avoid any indication of personality cult. Canada should promote such research So much so in fact that outside of mar­ which will allow them to integrate the ginal notes, flesh and bone unionists just most prevalent nineteenth-century female do not appear in the narrative. This ap­ job into their interpretations of past daily proach may legitimately serve an objec­ life. However, the fact that this was the tive, but it spawns another instance of primary goal will at times frustrate his­ sanitization. Such a treatment masks the torians seeking answers to questions careerism which is admittedly difficult to about different aspects of the life of ser­ reconcile with the democratic-egalitarian vants in the nineteenth century. rhetoric that floats around institutional­ Claudette Lacelle, constrained and ized unionism, but it does haunt such guided by this mandate, has made a good structures. effort to reconstruct the "everyday his­ To make such a critical commentary tory" of domestics. In so doing she has REVIEWS 279 run up against the obstacles facing most whose families could not fend for them. It researchers who attempt to understand the was also a kind of education and appren­ past life of the least educated, least ticeship for young people with little powerful members of society, and espe­ money."( 139) In the later period she feels cially of women. Evidence has to be there was much more concern on the part squeezed out of sources produced for of employers to draw barriers between other reasons and by people in different them and their servants — a greater con­ class positions. The book is based on a sciousness of two classes co-existing variety of sources: The Quebec City cen­ within one space. Work conditions appear sus taken by Curé Signay in 1818. and the harsher and longer in the later period, and Canadian census of 1871 for Quebec, domestic servants appear to have been Montreal, Halifax, and Toronto are used "viewed less favourably." (140) Further­ to determine in what kind and in what more, the habit of affluent families to dine proportion of houses domestics lived with later than previously lengthened the whom and their age, origin and workday for their domestics. At the same birthplaces. Hiring contracts signed in time there seems to have been a major Quebec City and Montreal between 1816 change in the gender of servants. and 1820 provided information on the oc­ Lacelle's sources suggest that in the early cupations of the fathers of that minority nineteenth century half of the hired help of servants who were hired by contract, was male, while by the 1870s fully 80 per on their age, and on the terms of the con­ cent were female. tract. Such quantitative sources are com­ Lacelle is extremely cautious in ven­ plemented by analysis of house plans, turing explanations of such changes, even wills, judicial proceedings involving in interpreting what she finds. The book domestics, lithographs, and caricatures of is studded with phrases which in the end the period. Secondary literature on make it difficult to know what one can domestics in Europe, England, and the learn about domestics. "It is impossible to United States is drawn on heavily to fill define the typical domestic servant in the gaps in the evidence she has. 1871 further than that she was a young Building on these sources, the book single women in her early twenties who compares the situation of live in domes­ knew how to read and write;" (79) "It is tics in Quebec City and Montreal between difficult to discuss what domestic service 1816 and 1820 with that of women in in Canada and what working conditions service in those cities as well as Halifax were like in the second half of the 19th and Toronto between 1871 and 1875. century since there are few typically Domestic service, Claudette LaceIle ar­ Canadian sources to consult;" (89) "I can­ gues, varied little between Canadian not state with certainty;" (107) "We shall cities in either period. The proportion of never know how much times servants houses having servants at all was limited could spend on their pastimes in a day or to 10 to 20 per cent; only 2 to 4 per cent a week;" (119) and so on. While some of these had four or more servants. Thus caution is clearly warranted and while I most women were the only servant in the suspect that the author was somewhat dis­ house in which they worked. The appointed herself by the lack of detail in majority, in both periods, were under 25 Canadian sources, I found the excessive and from "fairly humble backgrounds." caution irritating at times, and feel she However, servants seem to have been could have pushed the sources at her dis­ somewhat younger on the average, in the posal further, bled more information out earlier period, and the social function that of them, and used them to give more service provided appears to have human interest, more of a feel of everyday changed. Lace I le argues that in the early- life to the text. (Here, some of the docu­ nineteenth-century domestic service ments reproduced in the appendix speak "seems to have been a form of assistance louder than the text of the book.) Instead, that took care of orphans and children too often she resorts to explanations 280 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

drawn from elsewhere, so that European aspects of women's past lives. More can and American examples are used fairly still be done, even on domestics. We need uncritically to explain the Canadian situa­ to trace specific women between docu­ tion, rather than as comparisons. Al­ ments to reconstruct their life histories, though there must surely have been rather than catch them as an aggregate, depressing similarities between service in faceless mass at specific moments in time. different countries and cultures. I suspect, The role of men and women needs to be that there were also some particularities compared more explicitly. Analysis of to the Canadian situation. transformations and continuities over a I also found the comparison of the long period based on a series of com­ two periods frustrating at times. The sour­ parable sources would also help us to bet­ ces are very different, and it is hard to ter understand long term trends. determine how much of the change which is described is real, and how much the Bettina Bradbury result of analyzing different kinds of Université de Montréal documents. Furthermore, the major trans­ formations in the society within which these domestics lived are discussed only William Eklund, Builders of Canada: in the introduction and not used to help History of the Finnish Organization in explain why conditions might change. By Canada, 1911-1971 (Toronto: Finnish the 1870s the number of options available Organization of Canada 1987). to both men and women seeking a job had changed dramatically in all these cities. FINNS MAINTAIN THAT WHEREVER five of This would suggest not only that the work their countrymen get together they will conditions of servants might change, but form a society, but when their number has also that those seeking such work might increased to ten they will form two constitute a different type of person. societies. The book under review is the Young children, once placed in service story of one of these organizations. The because their parents could not afford to Finnish organization of Canada (FOC), feed them, could now earn some money founded in 1911, was the first national in factory work. Men, who might once organization of the Finnish immigrant have gone into service, could find all sorts community, and in the first 30 years of its of work in the myriad of new unskilled, long history it was the largest and most skilled, or even clerical jobs that accom­ influential organization among Finnish panied the expansion of industry. Women Canadians. For example, of all those could quit an employer more readily, Finns who had formally joined some Fin­ knowing that a job in yet another house nish organization in Canada by World was not necessarily their only option. War I, approximately three-quarters Those interested in the history of belonged to the Finnish Socialist Or­ work will be disappointed by the scant ganization of Canada (its name was attention given to the daily tasks of changed to the Finnish Organization of domestics and the absence of any discus­ Canada in 1923). By the early 1930s, the sion of household technology and its FOC had about 100 locals, most of them modification over the period. Wonderful with halls of their own, and some with reproductions from the Canadian Il­ sports facilities and summer camps, lustrated News show servants struggling spread across Canada from British with various new fangled gadgets which Columbia to Ontario. Throughout its his­ their mistresses tried to impose on them. tory, the FOC had formal or informal They receive no discussions in the text. links with various left-wing political par­ ties — the Socialist party of Canada from Urban Domestic Servants is an im­ 1906 to 1910, the Social Democratic portant contribution to the history of Party of Canada from 1911 to 1918, and women's work in Canada. It begins the briefly in the early 1920s with the Com- work of unravelling the contours of some REVIEWS 281

munist Party of Canada (CPC). When the although biased, insider's view of the his­ CPC decided to "bolshevize" itself by dis­ tory not only of the FOC but more solving its language federations, the ac­ generally of left-wing Finns in Canada. tivities of the Finnish Section of the Party At the very least, it provides a necessary were transferred to the FOC. Thereafter. corrective to the equally biased, mis­ although the FOC leadership was normal­ named two-volume "history of the Finns ly in Communist hands, there was no for­ in Canada" (Kanadan suomalaisten his- mal connection between the two toria, 1975, 1978) which is in reality a organizations. Nonetheless, the FOC be­ history of Canada's "church Finns" with came synonymous down to the present some disparaging accounts here and there with the Finnish Canadian radical left. of the so-called "red" Finns. and its fortunes tended to parallel those of As an amateur historian, Eklund has the radical left in Canada. his limitations. There is a heavy reliance In addition to its activities as a broad­ on secondary sources and long quotations ly-based cultural organization assisting from some primary sources (oral inter­ the integration of its members into views) to the point where in places his mainstream Canadian life while helping own narrative does not cohere very well. them maintain their Finnish ethnic iden­ The narrative flow is also hampered by tity. the FOC continued to support radical the author's persistence in jumping back­ working-class activities both within and ward and forward in time. The arrival of outside the Finnish community in the first Finns in Canada is not mentioned Canada. Because the English language until page 68. The founding of Vapaus on was a major stumbling block to Finnish one page is followed shortly after by a immigrants and yet Finns were almost long discussion of a 1982 meeting mark­ universally literate upon their arrival in ing the newspaper's sixty-fifth anniver­ Canada, left-wing Finns were active sup­ sary. (166-69) Factual errors, while not porters of their own press. The first such plentiful, are sometimes flagrant: the newspaper appeared in 1901 and Munich Conference was held in 1938 not throughout its history the FOC has poured 1936 (227), and workmen's compensa­ resources, financial and otherwise, into tion did in fact exist in Canada by the the support of its own left-wing press. 1920s. (204) Eklund's interpretation of Beginning with Tyokansa (Working events often differs from the standard or People), published from 1907 to 1915 in "accepted" view. For example, according Thunder Bay, and continuing with to him, Vapaus and the FOC did not Vapaus (Freedom) first appearing in Sud­ engage in recruitment campaigns bury in 1917, the FOC often provided designed to encourage Finnish Canadians both the editor and the managing director to emigrate to Soviet Karelia in the early of these papers. In 1935 a literary weekly 1930s, and the Winter War was caused called Liekki (The Flame) first appeared. not by Stalin but by a belligerent Finnish In 1974 Vapaus and Liekki were amal­ government allied with Nazi Germany gamated to form Viikkosanomat (Weekly and influenced by "facist minded or­ News), still published in Toronto, and ganizations." Eklund's personal bias is now once again called Vapaus. rarely hidden, finally reaching the point in his concluding chapter where the CPC The author of Builders of Canada, party line shines through unfiltered, in­ William Eklund who died in 1985, was a cluding a lengthy quote from then party leading figure in the FOC for most of the leader William Kashtan. Nonetheless, the 57 years he lived in Canada. For 27 of book is worth consulting for the perspec­ those years he was the editor of Vapaus tive if offers on the history of 70 years of and in that capacity played a leading role Finnish socialism and left-wing in influencing public opinion among left- radicalism in Canada. Having been writ­ wing Finns. His book, first published in a ten by an insider, someone who knew longer Finnish version in 1983 as close-up the events described and many Canadan Rakentajia, offers a fascinating, 282 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

of the historical actors such as J.W. Post-World War II migration brought Ahlqvjst and A.T. Hill, this book be­ few left-wing Finns to swell the ranks of comes a valuable historical document. the FOC, and combined with a falling Although their numbers today are away in membership through defection meagre, the historical role of left-wing and death and the failure of following Finns both within the Finnish community Canadian-born generations to join, the •and the larger Canadian society is result has been a dramatic decline in the noteworthy. Up to 1930. they clearly out­ number of locals still in existence (only numbered their chief rivals in Canada, the four remain). This phenomenon leaves "church" or "white" Finns. The increas­ Eklund quite perplexed, but typically he ing animosity between the two groups optimistically concludes that "tomorrow weakened the Finns as an ethnic group, is another day" and the FOC still has a and continues to do so till this day. None­ future. However pathetic such a predic­ theless. the significant role of the socialist tion may seem, there is no denying that Finns in Canadian unions such as the the FOC, as Eklund asserts in his title, as Lumber Workers Industrial Union of been a "builder of Canada." Canada and the Western Federation of Miners, and in left-wing political parties J. Donald Wilson such as SPC, SDPC. and CPC is undeni­ University of British Columbia able. Although blocked from leadership posts. Finns formed the largest ethnic component of the SDPC (around 60 per Gilbert Vanasse, Histoire de la cent in 1912) and the CPC in the 1920s Fédération des travailleurs du papier et (60 per cent of the party membership in de la forêt (CSN). Tome l (1907-1958) 1928). From the 1930s increasing num­ (Montréal: Les Editions Saint-Martin bers of Finns switched support to the 1986). CCF/NDP. Unlike many of their fellow immigrant groups, the Finns did organize LE LIVRE DE VANASSE CONSTITUE une très a strong and visible movement for radical bonne addition à l'histoire du syn­ change in Canada. An estimated 2,000 dicalisme au Québec en général, mais Finnish Canadians, mostly socialists, left plus particulièrement du syndicalisme na­ for Soviet Karelia in the early 1930s and tional catholique. Comme son auteur a disproportionate number fought with l'indique au point de départ, il ne contient the Mackenzie-Papineau Brigade in the pas une histoire économique de Spanish Civil War (the highest per capita l'industrie des pâtes et papiers, ni une ethnic representation). The newspapers histoire du syndicalisme dans ce secteur they founded have already been men­ industriel puis qu'il se limite à une tioned except for Vapaa Sana (Free fédération syndicale seulement (la Word) which was formed by Fédération des travailleurs du papier et de "revisionists" (Eklund's word) who split la forêt FTPF) affiliée à la CTCC/CSN. from the FOC in 1931. That paper, now Toutefois, il s'agit d'une des deux "politically non-aligned," is today the fédérations les plus importantes dans le largest Finnish language newspaper in secteur et d'une fédération industrielle de North America. On the cultural side, la CTCC/CSN qui a joué un rôle histori- about 200 plays were written by Finnish que de premier plan dans le Canadians for the FOC. Together with développement du syndicalisme national other plays from Finland and the United catholique au Québec. States, they were performed in the various Les origines de cet ouvrage publié en FOC halls across the country, sometimes 1986 remontent à 1979 alors qu'un projet as often as two a month. Eklund provides d'outil de formation syndicale était a detailed account of the theatre in chapter soumis par l'auteur au comité conjoint ten, and of FOC sporting activities in formé de représentants des deux prin­ chapter twelve. cipales centrales québécoises (la FTQ et REVIEWS 283

CSN) et de ceux de l'Université du comme outil d'action syndicale en faveur Québec à Montréal (UQAM). A la suite de l'arbitrage obligatoire pour solution­ d'une longue grève menée par la FTPF en ner les conflits ouvriers-patronaux, etc. 1981, le syndicat demandait cependant à Bientôt l'expérience montre que cette for­ l'auteur d'écrire l'histoire de la mule est insuffisante pour répondre aux Fédération. La rédaction du livre s'est besoins des travailleurs et la Fédération donc échelonnée sur une période de 5 ans doit être restructurée en 1912 ( on élimine à partir du plan soumis par l'auteur à la par exemple la participation des patrons) Fédération et elle s'est réalisée dans le et relancée sur de nouvelles bases pour en cadre des activités d'enseignement assurer la survie. A partir de 1914, sous le modulaire au department d'histoire de nom de Fédération Quvrière mutuelle du l'UQAM. Elle a donc activement Nord, elle connaît une première phase impliqué les étudiants inscrits dans ces d'expansion à la suite de laquelle elle activités d'enseignement. devient l'un des principaux éléments du Au lieu d'une chronique ou d'une his­ noyau qui constituera la CTCC en 1921. toire événementielle, l'auteur, comme il La deuxième période qui tient dans le l'écrit lui-même, a voulu reconstituer "les seul chapitre 3 porte sur la lutte constante pratiques syndicales bien concrètes d'une menée par la Fédération et ses syndicats fédération professionnelle bien précise." affiliés pour survivre pendant les années (16) Il s'agit d'un premier tome de 1920-30 et qui conduit à une seconde l'histoire de la Fédération qui couvre la réorganisation majeure en 1934-36. C'est période de 1907 à 1958. Un second tome au début de cette période, en 1923, que la en préparation doit couvrir la période plus Fédération devient la première fédération récente. La périodisation retenue est celle professionnelle de la CTCC, se donne une "des principaux changements de structure structure de base propre et se dote des ayant marqué l'évolution de la services d'un organisateur salarié. Cela Fédération" plutôt que les principales n'empêche cependant pas l'aumônier de orientations idéologiques ou les grandes la Fédération et les aumôniers des syn­ revendications. Le contenu est donc dicats locaux de jouer un rôle de premier centré en plus sur les problèmes plan dans l'administration, l'organisation d'organisation syndicale, sur des dossiers et même la négociation. La Fédération se détaillés englobant les principales reven­ donne une vocation de syndicat industriel dications, sur une description des grèves regroupant dans une même unité les vécues par les syndicats affiliés à la "employés de papeteries et pulperies" Fédération et sur certains changements de d'un même endroit. Les syndicats locaux mentalité décrits à grands traits. dont les délégués au congrès annuel L'ouvrage comprend dix chapitres choisissent le bureau de direction sont regroupés en quatre périodes. La première affiliés à la fois "à la Fédération, à la période qui porte sur les premiers syn­ CTCC et aux Conseils centraux des villes dicats catholiques de la pulpe et du papier ou des régions respectives," structure de (1907 à 1923) est composée de deux fonctionnement encore en vigueur chapitres axés essentiellement sur les aujourd'hui à la CSN. La nouvelle con­ origines du syndicalisme catholique dans stitution fixe également le montant de la l'industrie de la pulpe à Chicoutimi en cotisation mensuelle et statue sur le 1903 suivi de la fondation de la recours à la grève comme moyen de Fédération ouvrière de Chicoutimi en dernière instance auquel "un syndicat 1907 par l'abbé Lapoinle. L'auteur rap­ puisse avoir recours pour obtenir justice." pelle les circonstances et les traits Il n'en demeure pas moins que, pen­ dominants de ce mouvement ouvrier dant toute cette période, la Fédération inspiré par la doctrine sociale de l'Eglise reste chancelante par suite des et son esprit corporatiste: rejet de nombreuses difficultés que connaissent l'idéologie de classe, collaboration les syndicats affiliés dont le nombre est employeur-employés, rejet de la grève réduit à seulement deux entre 1928 et 284 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

1934 en conséquence de la fermeture tem­ les grèves du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean en poraire ou permanente de plusieurs usines 1942 (celle aux trois usines de Price et entreprises de ce secteur industriel. Brothers à Riverbend, Jonquière et C'est ce qui explique pourquoi la Kénogami, et celle à l'usine de la Lake St. Fédération est restée sous la tutelle ad­ John à Dolbeau) provoquent la création ministrative de la CTCC jusqu'en 1937. d'une commission d'enquête provinciale Les principales revendications de la dirigée par le juge prévost dont le rapport Fédération durant cette période portent amène le gouvernement à adopter la sur la négociation de véritables conven­ première législation sur les relations in­ tions collectives par la reconnaissance dustrielles au Québec (la Loi des relations juridique des syndicats professionnels ouvrières de 1944). (Loi des syndicats professionnels de La période de guerre est aussi sig­ 1924), l'élimination du travail du nificative parce qu'elle donne naissance dimanche et l'instauration de la semaine au premier mouvement qui se manifeste de six jours de huit heures. au sein de la FTPF en faveur de la La reprise des activités dans déconfessionnalisation. l'industrie à partir de 1934 permet à la Enfin, la quatrième période qui Fédération de se réorganiser et de mettre couvre les années d'après guerre (1945 à sur pied plusieurs nouveaux syndicats 1958) porte sur la vie d'une fédération locaux. Celle-ci peut ainsi se donner une syndicale qui a atteint la maturité. Au plan plus grande autonomie au congrès de des structures et de l'organisation syndi­ 1936 même si le président de la CTCC en cales (ch. 8), cette période est marquée demeure toujours le président. par les problèmes de juridiction entre la La période qui va de 1937 à 1944 Fédération et d'autres fédérations de la constitue un point tournant pour la CTCC, (dont celle de l'imprimerie), la Fédération et signale l'émergence d'un fixation des cotisations et la constitution véritable syndicalisme moderne. Cette d'un fonds de grève, les rapports avec les période est caractérisée par la conquête de unions internationales et les problèmes son autonomie par la Fédération qui d'organisation des travailleurs forestiers jusqu'alors était demeurée sous la tutelle et le conflit de juridiction avec l'UCC à de la Centrale (CTCC) et par l'affirmation ce propos. Enfin, la Fédération se soumet de revendications nouvelles (convention à une enquête interne portant sur la perte collective provinciale revendication que de plusieurs gros syndicats de la Mauricie la Fédération devra assez rapidement et le malaise général qui règne parmi les abandonnée, lutte contre le chômage et en syndicats affiliés à cette époque. Cette faveur de la santé et sécurité des travail­ enquête interne conduit à une nouvelle leurs) au côté des revendications plus réorganisation structurelle en 1958. traditionnelles telles que celles portant Pendant cette période de maturité, la sur le travail du dimanche, le Fédération et ses syndicats affiliés font développement du coopératisme et de la porter leurs demandes surtout sur les mutualité, etc. revendications salariales et autres clauses Ce qui frappe surtout pendant cette monétaires, sur la réduction, et sur période est la combativité syndicale que d'autres questions à l'agenda depuis s'affirme par de nombreuses grèves en longtemps telles que le travail du dépit du fait que les relations de travail dimanche, la sécurité syndicale, la santé sont largement régies et les salaires et la sécurité du travail et la sécurité contrôlés par les lois et les mesures d'emploi. adoptées par le gouvernement fédéral Cette période est également ponctuée dans le cadre de la loi des mesures de d'un mouvement de grève important en guerre. Bien que plusieurs grèves portent 1953 et 1956 qui va conduire entre autres en particulier sur les questions salariales, à la désaffiliation de plusieurs syndicats les plus déterminantes ont pour objectif la de la Mauricie qui passent du côté des reconnaissance syndicale. C'est ainsi que syndicats internationaux. REVIEWS 285

L'auteur conclut ce premier tome de Le livre est présenté de façon claire, l'histoire de la FTPF en rappelant que les les chapitres sont relativement courts et le travailleurs avaient "réussi tris tôt à faire texte n'est pas surchargé de données et de reconnaître leurs intérêts spécifiques par tableaux. Les notes se consultent facile­ les membres du clergé" et à mettre en ment à la fin de chaque chapitre et échec le "vieux modèle des corporations l'ouvrage est parsemé ici et là de mixtes élaboré par les catholiques sociaux photographies bien choisies qui permet­ européens." Les luttes pour le droit tent de mettre des visages et des lieux d'association et de négociation de la physiques sur les noms de personnes et de Fédération et de ses syndicats affiliés ont lieux qui apparaissent dans le texte. Une également conduit à l'adoption de la Loi carte géographique de Québec indiquant des relations ouvrières de 1944 et par la les lieux d'implantation des usines de suite aux gains importants touchant les pâtes et papiers de mime que quelques salaires, le fêtes chômées payées, les photos additionnelles de milieux de vacances, la réduction de la semaine de travail (comme les deux photos des travail et les clauses de sécurité syndicale. machines à papier de l'usine de Port- A travers toute cette période, "la Alfred sur lesquelles, d'ailleurs, j'ai pu Fédération a réussi à surmonter les revers reconnaître plusieurs de mes anciens con­ les plus pénibles, en sachant faire preuve citoyens) auraient ajouté encore à la d'un authentique esprit d'autocritique, qualité de la présentation déjà bien faite même lorsque l'échec était imputable du livre. pour une large part à des causes Sur le contenu, on regrette que extérieures." l'auteur n'ait pas accordé plus L'ouvrage écrit par Vanasse apporte d'importance à certains aspects qui me une contribution importante à l'histoire semblent importants pour une histoire syndicale au Québec. Il fournit .un plus complète de la FTPF. Ainsi, la FTPF complément essentiel aux ouvrages a constitué une école de formation et généraux publiés dans le passé dont le d'action pour plusieurs leaders syndicaux contenu factuel et les analyses ont souf­ de la CTCC/CSN dont le moindre n'est fert de l'absence d'études particulières sans doute pas Jean Marchand. Le rôle portant sur des fédérations syndicales tel­ joué par ces dirigeants au sein de la les que la FTPF ou des syndicats inter­ Fédération tout comme au sein de la nationaux tels que les Métallos dont Jean Centrale devrait être examiné. Egale­ Gérin-Lajoie a publié une histoire ment, le long conflit de juridiction entre récente. Les Métallos, 1936-1981, ou por­ la Fédération et l'U.C.C. concernant la tant sur des syndicats locaux et sur des syndicalisation des travailleurs forestiers chapitres particuliers ou des questions n'est pas suffisamment traité. L'auteur y particulières de l'évolution du mouve­ consacre à peine quelques paragraphes. ment ouvrier au Québec. Or ce conflit qui remonte aux années 1930 L'objectif fixé par l'auteur et a impliqué l'intervention de l'assemblée l'approche qu'il s'est donnée ont été suivi des évêques du Québec et a été au coeur de façon étroite. L'auteur a consulté une des dénonciations d'infiltration com­ documentation abondante et diversifiée, muniste dont la Fédération et la CTCCont mais aussi limitée par les moyens dont il fait l'objet au début des années 1950. Ces a disposé. Il signale lui-même d'ailleurs dénonciations visant entre autres certains l'absence de recherches historiques de dirigeants de la FTPF ont été utilisées par base qui auraient pu lui permettre d'aller des organisateurs de l'U.C.C. pour or­ plus loin dans son analyse, par exemple ganiser le premier syndicat de bûcherons l'absence d'une étude approfondie sur les officiellement reconnu et signer la débuts et l'évolution du syndicalisme à première convention collective dans ce Chicoutimi dans les années 1900 à 1920, secteur. et surtout l'absence d'études sur les syn­ Enfin, faute d'espace ou à cause de la dicats locaux. perspective adoptée par l'auteur, cet ouv- 286 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

rage n'examine pas suffisamment une là unemoindre accomplissement. question qui me semble sous-jacente non seulement à l'évolution même de la Camille Legendre Fédération et au syndicalisme qu'elle Université de Montréal représente, mais aussi aux conflits de juridiction entre les syndicats catholiques nationaux et les syndicats internationaux, Thomas P. Socknat, Witness Against c'est-à-dire le conflit entre le syn­ War: Pacifism in Canada, 1900-1945 dicalisme de métier (représenté en par­ (Toronto: University of Toronto Press ticulier par les "faiseurs de papier" qui ont 1987). traditionnellement formé l'aristocratie ouvrière dans l'industrie des pâtes et PACIFISM IS A CREED WITH deep historical papiers) et le syndicalisme industriel. En roots and, in all eras, few adherents. As ce sens il serait faux de réduire advocates of non-violence, pacifists have l'affrontement et les conflits entre les been generally reviled by mainstream syndicats catholiques nationaux et les opinion, especially during times of war, syndicats internationaux à des questions and only grudgingly tolerated (at best) or d'idéologies religieuses ou de (more likely) anathematized by the cus­ philosophies politiques. Il faut sûrement todians of state power. Virtually by considérer cet affrontement aussi comme definition, pacifists have been deviants, celui du syndicalisme industriel plus ou and until very recent times their noncon­ moins bien représenté par la FTPF/CTCC formity has usually been rooted in face au syndicalisme de métier représenté religious dissent. It is not surprising, then, par les syndicats internationaux. C'est that clergymen and their followers and ainsi, par exemple, que les syndicats in­ debates among the Christian faithful are ternationaux ont pendant de longues at the heart of Thomas Socknat's book. périodes plusieurs décennies dans cer­ Canadian pacifism in the later tains cas maintenu l'adhésion des faiseurs nineteenth and early twentieth centuries de papiers" dans leurs rangs dans des was a product of two streams of thought: usines en majorité syndiquées par la the sectarian tradition, associated mostly Fédération (CTCC/CSN) et que, dans des with Mennonites, Hutterites, Quakers, conflits de juridiction et des tentatives de Jehovah's Witnesses, and Doukhobors; maraudage, ces mêmes syndicats ont eu and the non-sectarian, liberal tradition recours à leurs têtes de pont chez les which derived part of its inspiration from "faiseurs de papier" pour tenter de enlightenment rationalism. Advocates of déloger les syndicats catholiques the former were usually absolute nationaux. pacifists, some of whom were almost en­ A la décharge de l'auteur, on peut tirely alienated from the state; those toutefois dire que ces questions espousing the latter were generally n'entraient pas dans le cadre qu'il qualified in their beliefs and tended to s'était fixé et qu'elles pourraient faire stress their opposition to militarism and l'objet d'un ouvrage ultérieur. Même si support for internationalism and the le livre de Vanasse donne un compte peaceful settlement of disputes. This rendu peut-être trop favorable et sym­ liberal pacifism was closely linked to pathique de la Fédération des travail­ religion, largely Protestantism (Catholics leurs du papier et de la forêt de la CSN, play virtually no role in this history), and il n'en apporte pas moins une contribu­ was one of the voices associated with the tion essentielle et intéressante à social gospel. Progress, reform, concilia­ l'analyse historique du mouvement tion, spiritual renewal: all were seen as ouvrier au Québec. Il nous donne aussi interconnected. The social gospellers, as le goût de lire le second tome promis Socknat remarks, held to "the general portant sur la période contemporaine faith that world peace and social justice avec tout autant d'intérêt. Ce n'est pas would be the ultimate reward for follow- REVIEWS 287 ing the word of Christ, especially the Ser­ tion was actually a broad coalition of mon on the Mount." socialists, "absolute pacifists, who were Then came the hurricane of World adamantly opposed to all wars and violent War I. Pacifists were soon on the defen­ revolutions, and liberal internationalists sive, especially the non-sectarian liberals, and other peace activists who believed and the peace movement partly disin­ war, though sometimes necessary, was tegrated. The great majority of Protes­ always irrational and inhumane and there­ tants allied themselves with state policy; fore should be prevented." many individual pacifists abandoned the This coalition collapsed in the face of cause; and the evil of war was superseded fascist aggression. The alliance between by the evil of the Hun. Two kinds of pacifism and socialism was sorely tested pacifists held firm to their beliefs: the by the Spanish Civil War, which exposed religious fundamentalists and some of the the tension between the commitment to social radicals, including a handful of non-violence and the pursuit of social jus­ feminists. The intensity of this principled tice in the face of tyrannical power. Most opposition to the War became particularly socialists concluded that justice would marked after the introduction of conscrip­ have to be fought for. And almost all tion in 1917. which highlighted the Canadians, observing the alarming politi­ central question of conscientious objec­ cal developments overseas, had decided tion. The experiences of the small body of by 1939 that there was no choice but to single-minded pacifists who persisted in resist fascism with military force. As a their anti-war activities served to radical­ result, the pacifism that survived during ize them further, often bringing their World War II was confined mostly to the views into closer alignment with those of religious absolutists. The only the political left. mainstream denomination that suffered The years after 1918 witnessed a any internal theological anguish over the strengthening of the bonds between legitimacy of the War was the United socialism and pacifism as social critics Church of Canada, which had always in­ increasingly pointed to the ties between cluded a minority of dedicated pacifists. the political economy of capitalism and Some 12,000 men came to be classified as the scourges of imperialism and conscientious objectors and most of them militarism. The postwar mood of political were employed in some kind of alterna­ disillusionment encouraged these criti­ tive service (fighting forest fires, farming, ques and the onset of the Great Depres­ industry). While this programme of alter­ sion gave them enhanced vitality and per­ native employment was welcomed by suasiveness. By the early 1930s, in most pacifists as the least of various pos­ Socknat's words, "Those Canadians sible personal evils, the jobs they did deeply involved in the peace movement generally contributed at least indirectly found socialism to be a natural extension (given the acute shortage of labour) to the of their desire for a new social order, and overall war effort. in effect combined the basic ingredients Witness Against War is a well-told of pacifism and socialism in their dream story. Socknat is thoughtful, informative, of a peaceful, co-operative, and just judicious, and sympathetic but not too society." Of course, those who considered sympathetic toward his subject. One ad­ themselves pacifists were not always mires the courage and resilience of many socialists. Some were anti-imperialists of these dissenters, especially in wartime, who wanted to escape the British connec­ when they faced ostracism and contempt. tion; others were internationalist One also admires their commitment to an proponents of the League of Nations; alternative vision to that of power others still were especially concerned to politics: a vision informed by an idealism reduce or eliminate the militarist elements in public education, such as cadet train­ of reconciliation and constructive co­ ing. The peace movement of this genera­ operation. But did they have any impact? Socknat thinks that "as a moral minority 288 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

they were influential beyond their num­ tal tension. Here was a democratic bers." This may be so: certainly they socialist ostensibly committed to the helped to keep alive certain traditions of eradication of capitalism and the con­ decency (including the respect for civil struction of the cooperative common­ liberties). However, their numbers and wealth, yet one who believed that the pur­ their appeal were always small and their pose of society must be directed toward influence on policy was rarely more than the cultivation of the individual and the modest and normally somewhere between "rule of law," two of the fundamental minimal and nil. Perhaps had they not liberal premises which had, historically, existed things might have been worse. At sustained the Anglo-Canadian intellec­ any rate, they did exist, and Socknat has tual elite. Was Scott a "liberal progres­ given us an admirable account of their sive" or a "social democrat?" Given aspirations and failures, their hopeful in­ Scott's bewildered incomprehension of itiatives and coping with political disap­ the radical socialist current of the 1960s, pointment. Two conventional responses his magisterial relationship with Pierre to the prospect of war were either to put Trudeau, and his movement toward it out of mind or to celebrate and mystify Liberalism in the 1950s and 1960s, a it. Pacifists were looking for a third way, course which paralleled that of his col­ a way that would render war obsolete. league, Frank Underhill, the precise na­ This central objective has, of course, ac­ ture of Scott's commitment to democratic quired even greater urgency since August socialism becomes an extremely impor­ 1945. tant question. Readers seeking an explanation of Robert Malcolmson Scott's political views will be disap­ Queen's University pointed by this biography. Despite its suggestive title, The Politics of the Im­ agination leaves the reader far more satis­ Sandra Djwa, The Politics of the Imagina­ fied on the sources and context of Scott's tion: A Life of F.R. Scott (Toronto: Mc­ poetry than on the nature of his socialism. Clelland and Stewart 1987). It is one of the strengths of this book that the author devotes so much attention to "POLITICS." F.R. SCOTT ONCE WROTE, "is reconstructing and explaining the cultural the art of making artists. It is the art of environment in which Scott's poetics developing in society the laws and institu­ took shape. In a number of gracefully tions which will best bring out the crea­ written chapters, Djwa stresses the impor­ tive spirit which lives in greater or less tance of F.R. Scott's relationship with his degree in every one of us. The right father. Canon F.G. Scott, a High Anglican politics sets as its aim the maximum clergyman poet. The elder Scott imbued development of every individual. Free the his son with the late Victorian, romantic, artist in us, and the beauty of society will chivalric ethos — an inheritance which look after itself." (269) For Francis confirmed the membership of the sensi­ Reginald Scott, the subject of Sandra tive young scholar in the Anglo-Quebec Djwa's lengthy biography, the creative elite. While his career as a civil liberties advocate suggests the retention of at least dialectic between politics and art acted as part of the world-view of the Christian the constant element in a life which en­ gentleman, Scott had, by the 1920s, compassed poetry, the teaching of law, rejected much of this creed, including any the forceful advocacy of civil liberties, religious belief in the traditional sense. and the committed political thinking and But as the author makes clear, despite activism which has secured his place in Scott's reading of the new relativity the pantheon of the Canadian tradition of physics of Arthur Eddington and the democratic socialism. vitalist philosophy of Henri Bergson, his Scott's political credo, founded upon poetry retained many powerful religious art and imagination, reveals a fundamen­ REVIEWS 289 elements and images derived from the of social criticism, he was frequently High Anglican Mass. chastised for sentimentalism by Irving The public dramas of Scott's legal Layton and other practitioners of career are accorded full treatment, espe­ "proletarian realism." cially his contributions to the Canadian It is difficult to escape the conclusion civil liberties tradition. Somewhat that F.R. Scott, who began his life as the surprisingly, The Politics of the Imagina­ scion of privilege, ended his life as some­ tion provides only tantalizing hints of the thing of an outsider. By 1960, his ideal of sources of Scott's constitutional and the gentleman knight-errant and the political thought. Why, for example, was "reign of law," the product of Christian Scott prepared to accord such a wide home and boarding school, which had sphere of powers to the federal govern­ sustained both his poetry and political ment in order to protect the individual? activity, was no longer a powerful force The reader is treated to obiter dicta con­ shaping the outlook of the Anglo- cerning the role of F.S. Woodsworth in Canadian elite. At the same time, Scott converting the young lawyer-poet to experienced an inability to communicate socialism and to Scott's reading of R.H. with a new generation of Quebec literary Tawney's The Acquisitive Society at Ox­ and cultural leaders. There is a ford, but the author is strangely silent on melancholic quality about the latter sec­ the fact that Scott's years at Oxford coin­ tions of the book, as the author strives to cided with the great British debates on the come to terms with a man who had spent nature of liberalism and socialism, intel­ much of his life seeking to understand lectual currents with which Scott would French Canadian nationalism, and to certainly have been familiar. Indeed, The promote political and social reform in the Politics of the Imagination contains no province of Quebec, experiencing sudden close analysis of Social Planning for Canada, one of the crucial texts of the rejection and hostility from a new genera­ democratic socialist movement, and a tion of nationalists for whom he was document which bears the impress of merely another "Rhodesian," a member Scott's mature thinking on the subject of of a despised social elite. community and individual rights. This is a sympathetic biography of a prominent Canadian whose contributions The author is on firmer ground in did much to shape Canadian culture and dealing with strictly literary themes. In politics between 1920 and 1960. It is a what are the strongest chapters of this book which will at once delight the his­ study, Djwa painstakingly reconstructs torian of Canadian literature and disap­ the Montreal cultural and artistic scene point those seeking any new interpreta­ which formed a backdrop to much of tions of Scott's place in the intellectual Scott's literary activity. Of crucial inter­ tradition of democratic socialism. An ad­ est to literary and cultural historians is his ditional irritant is the length and clumsi­ relationship to fellow-poets A.J.M. ness of the text, a problem which should Smith, E.J. Pratt, and Irving Layton, who, have been eliminated through more care­ together with Scott, pioneered modernist ful editing. Although the anecdotes of poetics in Canada. As with his commit­ F.R. Scott's life make delightful reading, ment to social democracy, Scott's iden­ the author's propensity to work a vast tification with modernism was a curiously number of interviews almost verbatim ambivalent one. The author makes the into the text leads to unnecessary repeti­ crucial point that despite his experimen­ tion, particularly of material relating to tation with modernist lyrics and forms, the last years of Scott's life. Yet despite Scott remained "essentially romantic in the failure to come to terms with Scott's sensibility" (92), his poetry dominated by political legacy, The Politics of the Im­ images and themes drawn from a agination contains a number of provoca­ nationalist identification with the land. tive hints concerning the influence of the Even when his verse served as the vehicle Anglican religion and the upper class 290 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

ethos on the shaping of social-democratic haps. than it does to the historical reality thought which are well worth pursuing by of his high-handed domination of the both the cultural and the political his­ Party hierarchy after 1929. The impor­ torian. tance of the personality factor in explain­ ing Buck's ascendancy in the Canadian Michael Gauvreau movement might stand as an implicit con­ McMaslcr University tribution of the book. It becomes evident that Penner, who led the "oppositionist" assault on Buck's leadership in the CPC's Norman Penner. Canadian Communism: Central Committee after Khruschev's The Stalin Years and Bevond (Toronto: 1956 revelations about Stalin's crimes Methuen 1988). and the cult of the individual, possesses a grudging admiration for Buck whatever "THERE SHOULD BE NO FORGOTTEN NAMES his political differences with the infallible and no blank pages in history and litera­ leader in the past. ture," Mikhail Gorbachev declared If many prominent names in the recently in an outburst of openness, CPC's early history are overlooked, then "otherwise it is not history or literature, Canadian Communism equally bypasses but artificial constructions." (285) the experience of the majority of Party Gorbachev's rhetorical flourish adorns members and some of their more notewor­ the closing chapter of Norman Penner's thy struggles. Penner is concerned with new study of Canadian Communism and littler more than the connection between it constitutes an appropriate, if unin­ prevailing wisdoms emanating from the tended. comment on the book itself. Soviet Union and the political theorizing While it would be unfair to label Penner's of Canadian officials. An introductory poorly organized survey an artificial con­ chapter describes the "relentless jugger­ struction, it is clear that he has forgotten naut of Stalinism" (16) grinding its way many names and left many pages blank in to hegemony in the Communist Interna­ this disjointed rendition of the highs and tional. The twists and turns in CPC tactics lows in the history of the Communist in keeping with Moscow dictates are then Party of Canada (CPC). set out in mechanical fashion: from the Penner's discussion unfolds within a initial Leninist united front position to the rigid institutional framework. His goal is "sterile sectarianism" of the 1928-34 to write a "complete history" (vii) of the ultra-left phase, Penner pushes us through CPC from 1921 to 1981. However, he the Popular Front period of the late 1930s focusses exclusively on the Party leader­ into the "bizarre" campaign against the ship, its ideas, and its relationship with "imperialist war" from late 1939 to mid- the international Communist movement. 1941, the switch to an all-out war against This emphasis on the leading cadre fascism, and another brief moment of proves to be far from complete in itself. "hard-line leftism" in the early Cold War The significant roles played by Maurice years, before outlining the Party's chart­ Spector, Malcolm Bruce, William ing of a parliamentary road to socialism Moriarty, Michael Buhay, and Florence in the 1950s and closing with the doctrine Custance, among others, in the Party's of peaceful co-existence with capitalism first decade receive scant, if any, atten­ which came to the fore as the first Cold tion. Tim Buck is established as the pre­ War thawed. eminent leadership figure from the time There is nothing new or provocative of the CPC's formation, a view that has in Penner's view from the top. He sub­ been effectively demolished elsewhere. scribes to a standard historiographical Penner's sympathetic portrayal of Buck, formula that relegates the middle-level including an heroic account of Buck's cadre and the Party rank-and-file to his­ trial and imprisonment in 1931, speaks torical obscurity. Such an approach more to the man's personal charisma per­ leaves the CPC's history barren and life- REVIEWS 291 less, neglecting the extent to which democracy was the main instrument he Canadian Communism, while affiliated used to shift the entire world Communist with and obedient to the Comintern, was movement to an ultra-left position in also shaped by the national experience. 1928. After the Sixth Congress of the After detailing the myriad of Soviet-in­ Communist International adopted spired shifts in CPC practice with Stalin's class versus class policy, the methodical precision. Penner draws the Canadian Party dutifully jumped aboard astonishing conclusion that "this does not the sectarian bandwagon and journeyed mean that all its politics were directed down a disastrous road that could only from Moscow ... or that it did not disagree lead to political isolation. on occasion with the Comintern's The enthusiasm of the Canadian cadre secretariat." (287) The statement is mean­ for the ultra-left package of the third ingless because Penner's analysis is con­ period (1928-34) determined the political fined to the Party's top-rank bureaucracy fortunes of the Communist Party for years and does not delve at all into the 'other' to come. Penner shows how the CPC Communist Party which responded to managed to alienate potential allies in the Canadian conditions and embraced local socialist and labour movements in the traditions. midst of the Depression. Hysterical Almost as an afterthought, Penner propaganda and agitation, served up with tacks a brief discussion of the ethnic ques­ lashings of abuse for "social fascists" and tion and the CPC onto the end of the book. "labour fakirs," repelled thousands of The crucial place of the Finnish, Uk­ people "who might have responded to a rainian, and Jewish language federations genuine call for unity." (105) The CPC's in the factional contest of the late 1920s revolutionary trade union centre, the and early 1930s and their resistance to the Workers Unity League, was a "failure," Bolshevization of the Party structure, as despite some success in organizing the well as the simple fact of their over­ unorganized and unemployed. Most im­ whelming numerical significance in the portant in view of the long-term conse­ CPC ranks throughout its history, does quences, Penner concludes, was the Com­ not surface in the main body of the text. munist tirade against the newly formed Penner also chooses to ignore these ele­ Co-operative Commonwealth Federation ments in the addendum. Instead, he (CCF) — it represented "probably the launches a bitter attack on the sectarian strongest attack by any Communist Party habits of the Communist Ukrainian as­ in the world on social democracy." (114) sociations within their own community. Stalin's legacy for Canadian Com­ This critique is in keeping with the munism, then, was a strong streak of sec­ general theme of Canadian Communism: tarianism, a trait that could not be cast off that an insidious sectarian outlook even after the call for a Popular Front prevented the CPC from sinking deep against fascism has been taken up in roots in the mainstream of Canadian 1935. "Much of the new orientation or­ political life. dered by the Comintern to end the so- In Penner's view, the fundamental called 'third-period'," Penner suggests, character of Canadian Communism was "was beneficial to the Canadian Party, but established in the broader context of in its overall relations or lack of them with Stalin's drive for power from 1924 to social democracy, the Party's practice 1929. One of Stalin's greatest crimes, ac­ was still firmly rooted in the old tactic." cording to Penner, was the process (156) Relations between the Communists whereby he converted the Communist and the CCF social democrats had been definition of social democracy from an damaged beyond repair and the ensuing opposing trend in the working class to enmity would plague CPC efforts to es­ being the leading enemy of Communism tablish itself as an effective force on the and therefore of the working class. Canadian left. This hostility surfaced Stalin's distorted definition of social most strongly within the labour move- 292 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

ment. The persistence of Communist ing class in the context of the capitalism's name-calling produced incessant clashes greatest crisis. and the fierce Communist-CCF trade In general, the historiography of union rivalry reached its logical con­ Canadian Communism has been preoc­ clusion in the cold War assault by the cupied with a narrow focus on the Party social democrats on the bastions of CPC hierarchy and political zig-zags or­ support among organized labour. When chestrated from above. Penner's work is assessing blame for this sequence of firmly rooted in this tradition. In its ad­ events. Penner is quick to harangue the herence to limited institutional short-sightedness of the Communist parameters, Canadian Communism per­ leadership. By placing obstacles in the petuates the tendency to keep the histori­ way of CCF-labour political action and cal experience of the majority, the men regarding the CCF leaders as enemies, the and women who joined or supported the Party reaped what it had sown. Communist movement in Canada, hidden In short, then. Penner suggests that from view. The decisive effect Russian the CPC missed its historical opportunity influence had in shaping Canadian Com­ to find a niche in Canada's political munism is not disputed, but to leave it at milieu by not subordinating itself to refor­ this is to tell only half the st«ry. Only by mist politicians and moderate labour shifting the focus of inquiry to the rank- leaders. It is not necessary to condone the and-file milieu can the "complete history" sectarian idiocy of the third period, nor of the Communist Party be revealed and the Stalinist treachery which pervades its status as an important component of most of the Party's history, to appreciate Canada's radical heritage be more fully that the Communist movement garnered understood. considerable, and perhaps its most reli­ able, support among working-class con­ stituencies when it pursued vigorous left- David Akers wing policies in defence of workers' Queen's University rights and on behalf of the unemployed, or as it strove to build a militant organiz­ Centre populaire de documentation de ing cadre in the labour movement, a sig­ Montréal, Le choc du passé. Les années nificant minority that would later ener­ trente et les sans-travail. Bibliographie gize the ClO's industrial union drive in sélective annotée (Québec: Institut Canada. But to tap this experience, the québécois de recherche sur la culture historian must step outside the Party's 1986). Central Committee and endeavour to lo­ cate Communist activists in the com­ munity setting, to see the rank-and-file L'INSTITUT QUÉBÉCOIS de recherche sur la militants operating in daily struggles, culture, dans sa série Documents de sometimes in ways that stood at odds with recherche, a publié en 1986 une bibliog­ bureaucratic directives from the Party raphie sélective annotée sur les années hierarchy. With this in mind, the growth 1930 et les sans-travail. Cette bibliog­ of the Communist Party of Canada begin­ raphie a été réalisée par une équipe de ning around 1932, "in spite of every­ chercheurs du Centre populaire de thing" (117) as Penner puts it and which documentation de Montréal (CPD). Cet he explains away as a result of the for­ organisme sans but lucratif créé en 1976, tuitous intersection of unemployment and recueille la documentation sur les condi­ the popularity of the campaign for the tions de vie, de travail et sur les mouve­ release of Tim Buck and his colleagues, ments populaires. Ses préoccupations can be case in a new light. The CPC's sont d'abord contemporaines; il veut: membership gains might instead speak to "cerner les différentes manifestations de the drawing power of a class struggle l'actuelle crise économique et sociale." Il programme among segments of the work­ trouve dans la crise des années 1930 des éléments qui lui permettent de com- REVIEWS 293

prendre la situation actuelle. Le CPD gère le mouvement ouvrier, les organisations un fonds documentaire constitué de liv­ politiques, les agences sociales, les res. de dossiers de presse, de périodiques gouvernements, les Eglises et les institu­ des mouvements sociaux urbains et tions religieuses, les forces policières et d'affiches populaires. En outre, il produit l'armée, les idéologies et les manifesta­ des listes d'acquisitions et publie une tions culturelles. Cette approche revue de presse sur la conjoncture socio- transparait dans la structure de la bibliog­ économique. raphie qui comporte cinq thèmes: 1. Le L'origine de cette bibliographie contexte économique et social; 2. Les or­ remonte à 1979. année où le CPD ganisations de sans-travail; 3. L'Etat, les entreprend une recherche sur les sans- partis politiques et les politiques sociales; emplois des années trente et sur 4. Les mouvements ouvriers et sociaux; S. l'influence de leurs luttes sur l'évolution La culture. Les auteurs de cette bibliog­ des politiques sociales au pays en vue de raphie ne semblent pas avoir visé la publication d'une étude. Suite à diver­ l'exhaustivité car leur publication se veut ses demandes, le CPD décide en 1983 de un complément aux ouvrages bibliog­ produire un ouvrage bibliographique qui raphiques déjà publiés. comprendrait les titres qu'il possède. On Sur les 276 notices bibliographiques, s'est alors rendu compte que cette 142 réfèrent à des titres anglais et 134 à documentation était incomplète. La des titres français. Ce sont des articles, recherche fut élargie à tous les ouvrages des études gouvernementales, des bibliographiques. "L'accouchement" de monographies, des thèses, des recueils de cette bibliographie a été. parait-il, dif­ documents, des témoignages d'époque et ficile (incendie, précarité financière, des synthèses historiques. Il est dommage etc.). Quoiqu'il en soit, le résultat est là. que les documents audiovisuels aient été Une bibliographie de 276 litres. exclus. Il y a une vingtaine d'années, lorsque La structure de la bibliographie ou le se sont amorcées les études historiques regroupement des titres a été fait en fonc­ sur les travailleurs québécois, on avait tion des cinq thèmes déjà indiqués l'habitude de déplorer le peu de documen­ précédemment qui sont autant de tation sur les travailleurs. Force est de chapitres. Chaque chapitre est divisé en constater que la science historique a deux sections: l'une pour le Québec, connu une explosion dans ce domaine l'autre pour le Canada. Ces cinq sections puisqu'on a réussi à rassembler 276 titres ou chapitres sont précédés d'une sur les sans-travail des années 1930; et présentation qui décrit le contenu et le par surcroit, sur une période qui en dépit type de références retenues. Le premier de son importance, a été peu fouillée par chapitre qui porte sur le contexte les historiens. économique et social comporte 75 titres; Cette bibliographie a pour borne le deuxième, sur les organisations de chronologique, les années 1929 à 1939. sans-travail, 32 titres; le troisième, sur Sa thématique porte sur les mouvements l'Etat, les partis, et les politiques sociales, de sans-travail, leurs origines, leurs or­ 79 titres: le quatrième, sur le mouvement ganisations, leurs revendications, leurs ouvrier et les mouvements sociaux, 64 manifestations et leurs expressions cul­ titres; et le cinquième, sur la culture, 26 turelles. Les auteurs n'ont pas cherché à titres. donner une définition stricte du terme Pour chaque référence, il y a un "sans-travail". Pour eux, ce terme numéro d'ordre qui sert pour l'index, le recouvre diverses réalités: chômeurs, in­ nom de l'auteur, le titre de l'ouvrage, le aptes au travail, indigents, hommes ou lieu d'édition, l'année d'édition et le femmes, jeunes ou vieux, d'origines eth­ nombre de pages. Ces informations sont niques ou nationales différentes. La complétées par des notices fort bien faites recherche du CPD s'est orientée vers la qui décrivent l'ouvrage et le replacent cueillette des documents et des études sur dans son contexte. Le sigle CPD apparaît 294 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

lorsque le document est disponible au tion de ses auteurs. Elle a été réalisée par Centre populaire de documentation de un groupe de chercheurs, subventionnés Montréal. certes, mais qui ont travaillé hors des Le volume contient en outre une cadres traditionnels de la recherche his­ présentation de 25 pages qui décrit le torique. Quel bel exemple de l'éclatement CDP, l'origine du projet et son objet, fait de la science historique. Il est heureux que un bref bilan historiographique et expli­ la pratique historique sorte des milieux que la méthodologie retenue pour dresser traditionnels. cette bibliographie. Richard Boutet Cette contribution aura enfin suscité réalisateur du film "La turlute des années l'attention des chercheurs sur une période dures" a signé la préface. en particulier dont on s'explique mal Une liste des répertoires bibliog­ comment il se fait qu'elle ait attiré si peu raphiques et des index de thèses d'historiens ni donné lieu à aucun ouv­ dépouillés qui comprend 8 titres est rage important. Cette bibliographie sur placée après les références bibliog­ les sans-travail des années trente indique raphiques. Deux index, l'un pour les plusieurs voies de recherche, balise une périodiques cités, l'autre par auteur, période et éclaire les chercheurs. Elle in­ complètent le tout. Dans le premier index, fluencera sûrement l'évolution de les périodiques sont classés en fonction l'historiographie. de deux périodes: les années trente et Sans vouloir "étaler les péchés" que 1959 à 1984. Pour chaque périodique, on les historiens et les spécialistes auraient, donne le titre, le numéro de référence et parait-il, l'habitude de déceler dans une la date de publication. L'index des nouvelle publication pour se plier à "la auteurs fournit le nom. le prénom et le charmante coutume du milieu" (pour numéro de référence. reprendre les mots même de la Cette bibliographie si imparfaite soit- présentation) j'aimerais signaler elle, mérite des éloges. D'abord les prin­ quelques lacunes. Cette critique se veut cipaux ouvrages sur le sujet y figurent, ils positive: elle ne vise pas à discréditer y sont bien présentés et bien décrits. Le l'ouvrage. Au contraire, elle veut orienter chercheur trouvera rapidement tous les le chercheur. Que les auteurs se rassurent, renseignements sur un titre donné avec en la qualité de la langue n'est pas en cause, plus une description de son contenu. Elle le français est d'un niveau fort acceptable. est particulièrement intéressante et Les péchés que j'ai à déplorer ne sont que originale dans l'accent qui est mis au véniels. Ils tiennent sans doute pour une niveau des organisations de sans-travail. bonne part aux conditions dans lesquelles Il faut insister sur l'utilité et l'absolu ce travail a été réalisé. nécessité de tels instruments de travail. Les auteurs nous préviennent que leur Les bibliographes font partie intégrante bibliographie est une sélection de titres. de la communauté des chercheurs bien Fort bien. Si les monographies sur le sujet qu'ils ne reçoivent pas toujours le crédit sont pour la plupart signalées, les docu­ qu'ils méritent. L'historien, auteur d'un ments d'archives syndicales ou gouver­ ouvrage sur un sujet donné, reçoit tout le nementales et la documentation officielle mérite pour sa recherche alors qu'on n'ont été qu'effleurés. On s'explique mal oublie parfois ceux qui lui ont facilité la l'absence de certains titres tels: les tâche balisant son champ documentaire mémoires d'Alfred Charpentier; les ouv­ lui évitant ainsi de se noyer sous un flot rages de Robert Migner sur Camilien de publications les plus diverses. Que les Houde; les bibliographies de H. Blair artisans de cette bibliographie reçoivent Neatby sur William Lyon Mackenzie donc le crédit qui leur revient. King et de Ernest Watkins sur R.B. Ben­ Autre vertu de cette publication, est nett. qu'elle semble avoir été produite hors des La documentation officielle retenue milieux universitaires et gouvernemen­ est très parcellaire. De nombreaux rap­ taux. On sait peu de choses sur la forma­ ports de ministères et des textes législatifs REVIEWS 295

manquent, par exemple les rapports du même si le nombre de titres n'est pas très Directeur de l'Assistance publique. grand (sources, études, ouvrages Je me permettrai d'insister sur un généraux, livres, périodiques, etc.) ou document officiel en particulier, le com­ selon le sujet. Par contre le classement en pte rendu des débats parlementaires. Il ne cinq thèmes se défend très bien. s'agit pas ici de faire des reproches aux L'indexation nous a semblé insuf­ auteurs de cette bibliographie. Les his­ fisante. Un seul véritable index a été toriens québécois ont souvent tendance à compilé; l'index des auteurs. Celui-ci oublier cette source capitale dont la aurait d'ailleurs pu être élargi pour être richesse est inouie. Nos parlements sont onomastique et fournir par exemple les le reflet d'une époque, certains diraient un noms d'associations, d'organismes ou de miroir déformant. Néanmoins ils rendent groupements. L'index des périodiques compte des grands débats qui agitent une cités est insuffisant. Un index thématique société. Il ne fait pas de doute que le aurait grandement facilité la tâche des problème des sans-travail a fait l'objet, chercheurs ne serait-ce que pour repérer tant à Québec qu'à Ottawa, de nombreux les ouvrages touchant à plus d'un thème. débats et d'une abondante législation. Le Quoiqu'il en soit, le résultat des ef­ hansard fédéral qui publie officiellement forts du Centre de documentation les débats parlementaires de la Chambre populaire sera grandement utile aux cher­ des communes existe pour la période de cheurs et à tous ceux qui s'intéressent à la la crise. Pour ce qui est de l'Assemblée période et aux sans-travail. Ce qu'il faut législative de Québec, un tel compte soiihaiter aux auteurs de cette bibliog­ rendu n'existe malheureusent pas. Une raphie pour que leurs efforts ne soient pas équipe d'historiens dissoute en 1986, vains, c'est qu'elle donne naissance à des était à reconstituer les débats de ouvrages sur le sujet. La synthèse sur l'Assemblée législative. Elle s'est rendue cette période, chose étonnante, reste en­ jusqu'aux débuts des années 1920. core à écrire. Cependant pour la période qui nous intéresse, 1929 à 1939, il y a moyen de Les chercheurs du CPD qui semblent retrouver ces débats parlementaires: il vivre un engagement en milieux faut aller dans les journaux; Le Soleil, Le populaires, expriment le souhait que leur Devoir, La Presse, etc. Un survol repide publication rende service aux militants de ces journaux nous a permis de retracer des groupes populaires et aux étudiants. des discours très intéressants. Signalons Il faut leur souhaiter que ce voeu se les interventions de Louis-Alexandre réalise. Bien que l'histoire ait trop Taschereau, celles d'Athanase David. souvent et trop facilement été biaisée ou notamment sur les pensions de vieillesse pervertie pour s'ajuster à certaines (1934), celles du docteur Philippe Hamel causes, si elle peut servir au présent et sur les trusts, celles de T.B. Bouchard et orienter l'avenir tant mieux, N'aura-t-elle de Camillien Houde pour n'en citer que pas montré son utilité, sa raison d'être? quelques-unes. En fait tous les débats des Quant à l'Institut québécois de onze sessions de 1929 à 1939 sont à lire recherche sur la culture, on ne sait encore pour qui s'intéresse à la crise, ceux de la ce qu'il deviendra. Il faut espérer que son session du 7 janvier au 4 avril 1930 en statut se précise dans les mois à venir (le particulier. Voilà pour le Québec. Le han­ gouvernement annonce dans le dernier sard fédéral est tout aussi riche pour les discours inaugural qu'un projet de loi sera débats de la Chambre des communes. présenté prochainement) afin qu'il pour­ suive dans la direction déjà tracée soit Pour revenir à la bibliographie celle de fournir aux chercheurs de tels analysée, disons que le classement à instruments de travail, d'effectuer, l'intérieur de chaque chapitre est dis­ d'encourager et de soutenir les recherches cutable. Les références, au lieu d'être et les études sur les divers aspects des classées par ordre alphabétique d'auteurs, phénomènes culturels. Sans cela, auraient pu l'être selon leur catégorie plusieurs publications comme cette bibli- 296 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

ographie n'auraient aucun canal de dif­ complex which took many years to wear fusion. l'IQRC qu'il oeuvre en milieu off." gouvernemental ou universitaire, doit He tells us little about the 1930s, per­ continuer. haps because he was lucky enough to be employed, but moves right on to the story Jocelyn Saint-Pierre of organizing hotel and restaurant Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée nationale employees in wartime. Newfoundland presented some special problems to the young organizer. He was opposed by mer­ Cyril W. Strong. My Life as a New­ chants accustomed to a thoroughly pre-in- foundland Union Organizer: The dustrial paternalism, some of whom still Memoirs of Cyril W. Strong. 1912-1987, paid their employees not with a wage che­ edited by Gregory S. Kealey (St. John's: que but with credit at the company store. Committee on Canadian Labour History Other opponents included (at Argentia) 1987). the United States Navy, and increasingly hostile provincial government. And how CYRII. STRONG WAS A CFNTRAI. FIGURF. in did one create and maintain an organiza­ the post-war labour movement in New­ tion when workers themselves lack ex­ foundland. A bellboy in the New­ perience and skills? "Mister, we would foundland Hotel, he was a founder and love to have a union," Strong was told in president of the hotel workers' union in one outport, "but we have no boss. the 1940s. He served on the executives of Nobody here has above grade two or three the St. John's Trades and Labour Council education: we need a boss (leader) and and of the Newfoundland Federation of can't get one." Labour. Beginning in 1949. he was New­ Eventually one of Strong's jobs was foundland organizer for the American to audit the books of most unions in New­ Federation of Labor. He helped to create foundland chartered by the Canadian many union locals in post-war New­ Labour Congress a task rendered all the foundland and to bring Newfoundland's more difficult by problems of distance trade unions into the national and interna­ and the province's poor transportation tional movement. system. Book-keeping and travel were In editing and publishing Strong's foremost among "the travails of a New­ memoirs. Greg Kealey and the Commit­ foundland organizer." tee on Canadian Labour History have per­ Strong reminds us that the hard work formed a valuable service. At one level, of organizing fishermen had already this book is a chronical of organizing ef­ begun before the creation of the New­ forts, of interest to the members of many foundland Fishermen, Food and Allied unions in Newfoundland who may wish Workers' Union in 1970. He reminds us to know something about the origins of that labour had a critical role in their organization. The book also tells us Newfoundland's entry to Canada: for about a life-long commitment to the cause workers, he insists, the benefits of Con­ of labour. Born into a relatively federation would depend upon the suc­ prosperous family, the son of an itinerant cess of the labour movement. Strong company promoter who had made a for­ reminds us of the stamina and the skills tune in the Yukon gold rush. Cyril learned required of the union organizer who must about poverty when his father died. He understand the labour code, write con­ left school "as there was no money for tracts, audit accounts, oversee elections, school fees," and he knew what it was like and steer a course between unions and to live on crusts of bread and one cooked federations that were usually friends but meal a week. And as a child he learned sometimes rivals. The Newfoundland something about social class: "My Federation of Labour invited the AFL into clothes reflected my standing in society," Newfoundland, but organizing direct he tells us, and "I developed an inferiority AFL charters was no mean feat and it was REVIEWS 297 impossible to avoid jurisdictional dis­ Wallace Clement, The Struggle to Or­ putes. Organizing urban workers was ganise: Resistance in Canada's Fishery rendered all the more difficult by the (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1986). decline and collapse of many local manufacturing plants after Confedera­ THIS TREATMENT OF PRODUCER organisa­ tion. The cold war added to the tions in Canada's ocean fisheries addres­ organizer's difficulties, and among other ses, from a Neo-Marxist perspective, a things Strong had to argue against the problem that has been both persistent and suggestion that the 1950 Trade Union Act troubling: the struggles (some might say bar communists from holding office in resistance) of fishers in developing trade unions. broad-based, effective organisational In telling the story of the 1959 forms representative of their subordinate loggers' strike. Strong reflects the shock class situation and their objective class and sense of betrayal felt by labour interests. Wallace Clement states that his leaders at the "extraordinary actions" of purpose in examining this question is to Joey Smallwood in repressing the contribute to "a broader understanding of democratic organization of workers. The class dynamics" by analysing the manner repression of the IWA "represented a in which social relations of production in complete abrogation and disregard of the fishing "have led to organisation and so­ law both in fact and in principle." Why cial action." (8) To accomplish this, Cle­ Smallwood acted as he did remains for ment, on the heels of a descriptive sketch Strong "an unanswered question." But of production patterns, state politics, and this book suggests an explanation. The market characteristics, begins by present­ labour leader remembered clearly the new ing a basically orthodox re-stating of neo- labour legislation which followed soon Marxist understandings of class and after 1949 the Labour Relations Act, the property relations, particularly as these Workmen's Compensation Act, the Trade define independent fishers as petite bour­ Union Act legislation which Strong him­ geois producers. Following Poulantzas, self influenced, through Smallwood's Clement outlines briefly types of owner­ Labour Advisory Committee. When ship (legal, real, and economic) and their working so hard for such positive distinction from possession of productive achievements, and even when remember­ property, concluding that among primary ing them so clearly decades later, perhaps producers "both formal ownership and it was too easy to forget Smallwood's possession can be distinguished from caveat: Newfoundlanders, said the economic ownership." (63) The so-called premier, must temper their desire for independent producers relations of progressive labour laws "with our urgent production are conceptualised by Cle­ desire to attract capital to New­ ment as petite bourgeois in form but foundland." The loggers fell victim to this proletarian in content in so far as capital caveat. has captured possession of all key economic values (price, markets, and ac­ This book chronicles the work of a cumulation processes), while leaving dedicated servant of the working class producers with only immediate control of who lived through a critical time in their labour processes (pace, duration, or­ Newfoundland's labour history. With ganisation, and location of work). Kealey's help, Cyril Strong has given us the valuable testimony of a man who Building on this, Clement outlines knew many more victories than defeats. five production patterns which he proposes as key to analysing class Eric W. Sager dynamics and the "struggle to organise." University of Victoria These are subsistence production and capitalist, independent, dependent, and co-operative forms of commodity produc­ tion. Recognising that these categories 298 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL are inadequate to the task of sorting out with the formation and fate of the various the complexities of class structure, types of organisations adopted by dif­ dynamics, and action within the fisheries, ferent groups of fishers. Here he provides Clement argues that it is necessary to ana­ some description and discussion of lyse each form of production in terms of fishers' unions (United Fishermen and its scale features. Allied Workers, Maritime Fishermen's Union, and the Newfoundland Fishermen, Scale is the best criterion for distinguishing Food and Allied Workers), association fleets, and the most appropriate indicators of (The Pacific Trollers Association, The scale are the number of hands, division of Eastern Fishermen's Federation and L'­ labour, size of the boat, and cost. By using Association, Professionelle des Pécheurs scale it is possible to focu> on class relations du Nord-Est), and co-operatives (United within the fishery in meaningful ways and begin to understand the nature of alliances and Maritime Fishermen and The Prince conflicts among fishers. (SI-2) Rupert Fishermen's Co-operative) in a se­ quence intended to capture the context out While one can take issue with the of which particular types of organisations designation of scale as the "best have arisen. For instance, unionisation is criterion,'" it does provide Clement with a documented as the organisational form of convenient point of reference for his choice by fishers either working aboard presentation and analyses of the forma­ industrial trawlers or confronting cor­ tion and fate of fishers" representative porate market monopolies, while associa­ organisations. Scale is presumed to cap­ tions are argued to arise as lobby groups, ture the objective material, social struc­ especially for intermediate-scale fishing tural conditions with which fishers captains with a mandate to protect the labour. These conditions are believed to vested interests of a particular group of constitute the crucible in which class con­ fishers in an era of increasing state of sciousness is formed, its particular char­ regulation of the fisheries. Clement cor­ acteristics reveals through the sorts of rectly points out that the state, through representative organisations adopted. labour legislation and the outright ideologies expressed, and action agen­ provision of funding, has played an active das/strategies pursued. Consequently, role in discouraging unionisation while Clement proposes three categories of assisting in the formation of associations. enterprise scale as meaningful to under­ His discussion of the co-operative alter­ standing fishers' struggle to organise — native, both in the treatment of actual small (one to three hands), intermediate fisher co-ops and the analysis of the co­ (four to ten hands), and large (over ten operative model, emphasises what are hands). Here he notes that unionisation held to be the negative qualities of this "has tended to be strongest among trawler organisational approach. These range crews [large-scale] and small scale from cultivating a business/petite bour­ fishers who face industrial processors as geois consciousness among members their markets." (82) Small-scale fishers through continued exploitation of fish with diverse markets and fishers of inter­ plant workers and crew to alienation of mediate-scale enterprises have, with a co-op membership from management few exceptions, a less "forceful" relation control as co-operatives grow in scale. In with unionisation. For Clement, short, Clement comes down squarely on proximity to and support of unionisation the side of unionisation, throughout his is assumed to mirror the development of descriptions and discussions, as the class-referenced struggles and conscious­ beacon of progressive development ness. among Canadian ocean fishers. As evidence for this thesis, Clement Clement has provided a useful outline traces out, in chapters six through nine, of the history and shape of representative the structural-material conditions and organisations in Canada's ocean particular events associated, in his view, fisheries. However, he has not ap- REVIEWS 299

proached his study with the care and with ordinary fishers would have put a balance necessary to appreciate, let alone human face on this work while, hopefully, communicate, the dilemmas of the "strug­ compelling more analytical sophistication. gle to organise." This is evident in a great Indeed, a little time with ordinary number of areas. To begin with, adoption fishers might have produced a more ade­ of the industrial union model as a form of quate sociological inquiry and accurate organisation cannot be assumed to reflect description. Clement devotes little atten­ the development of proletarian class con­ tion to the fundamental role of mothers, sciousness among fishers, especially wives and daughters in fishers' "struggle among those retaining control over labour to organise." While acknowledging that processes in the non-industrial settings of cultural, ethnic, and kinship factors exert small- and intermediate-scale enterprises. a modifying effect on the formation of As is seen in most business, as contrasted class relations, he never explores the ex­ with revolutionary, unions, it is more than tent to which these influence fishers' so­ likely that these fishers accept such a form cial relations of production, choices of of representative organisation as the only representative organisations, conscious­ sensible way of maximising their interests ness, and so on. For example, Clement's in relation to those of the big companies. discussion of the Maritime Fishermen's Indeed, many small- and intermediate- Union's success in Northeastern New scale fishers have shown tremendous am­ Brunswick and slow growth elsewhere bivalence in their attachment to union would have benefited from some con­ representation, often joining in times of sideration of their role of Acadian cultural crisis while just as quickly back-sliding identity. The same can be said for his on dues (where voluntary) and participa­ attempt to understand captain-crew rela­ tion when circumstances are thought to tions in small- and intermediate-scale, have improved. Clement provides little community-based, enterprises in class evidence to prove that proletarian class terms. In circumstances where fishing consciousness is much more than a vision crews are composed of family and/or in the souls of the remarkable, often familiars proletarian consciousness can­ charismatic, leadership associated with not be expected. This very fact represents the various union movements. one of the real dilemmas facing any progressive organisation in the fisheries: In addition. Clement does not ex­ who's interests can and should it repre­ amine unionisation with a critical view­ sent. Can a union be expected to represent point which remotely approaches that ap­ fairly the interests of both owner-captains plied to associations and co-operatives. and crew? Should a co-operative extend For instance, there is little discussion of membership to crew and plant workers? the role of charismatic leadership in union These are vital and compelling questions formation/vitality and the vulnerabilities concerning the fate of fisheries organisa­ facing many unions once the founding tions, the sorts of questions Clement leadership retires. There is no discus­ would have been well advised to pursue sion/analysis of the efforts expended to if his objective was to produce a study educate and politicise membership. Cle­ offering some insight into fisheries ment provides no information on the development in the interests of fishers. qualities of membership attachment to and involvement in the unions. Are these Finally, while Clement repeatedly questions not as equally important to the emphasises the importance of material fate of unions as they are to co-operatives context to sorting out the complexities of and associations? At no point in the book the issues, his treatment of state fisheries does the reader get the sense that Clement policies and the structure of market rela­ spent time talking over the central ques­ tions is wholly superficial and inade­ tions with people other than major quate. For instance, he provides little players, all of whom have a vested inter­ analysis of the impact of access manage­ est in images and outcomes. A little time ment policies and other state initiatives 300 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL upon the priorities and choices of fishers tions. Unfortunately, "distance" in this in terms of representative organisations. case too often translates into an insuffi­ Indeed, he is entirely unanalytic when the cient understanding, an unbalanced treat­ topic concerns the rationality and par­ ment, and an exercise in ideological con­ ticulars of state policies. His discussion firmation as evident in a selective use of of price as concealed wage is unsubstan­ available information. tiated, more a statement of faith necessary to the labour exploitation understanding Anthony Davis of class structure than an information ref­ St. Francis Xavier University erenced finding. We find little by way of substantive description and analysis of market structure and the mechanisms of Constance P. deRoche and John E. de- price determination. Some attention here Roche. eds., "Rock in a Stream: " Living might have revealed the fallacy of inde­ with the Political Economy of Under­ pendence and the dynamics of unequal development in Cape Breton (St. John's" exchange to Clement. Institute of Social and Economic Re­ As in most studies of this sort, there search, Memorial University of New­ is much critical attention given to forms foundland 1987). of organisation viewed as competitive with the model anointed as progressive THIS COLLECTION OF ESSAYS is the first and virtuous. However, little more than Institute of Social and Economic Re­ platitudes are discovered when the reader search (ISER) publication dealing with a seeks some alternative vision concerning topic outside Newfoundland. It comple­ what is to be done. Blind faith in the North ments and geographically extends earlier American industrial union model is not ISER volumes which have provided com­ warranted on the basis of past experience, munity level analysis of life twentieth- particularly as a vehicle for the develop­ century Newfoundland. Anthropological ment of proletarian class consciousness studies of coal miners, an inland Highland and progressive political action. It would community, and a coastal Acadian settle­ have been appropriate for Clement to ment serve as the point of departure for an speculate on the means by which the examination of what the authors perceive rationalities and vested interests of in­ to be "localized cultural strategies for dustrial organisations could be reconciled coping with economic marginality." (1) with the family, community, ethnicity Like Kenzie MacNeil's song, "The Is­ and cultural qualities of life for many land," from which its title is derived, this struggling to make a living at fishing. In book is a celebration of the resilience of the Preface Clements asserts: Cape Bretoners. Its perspective is essen­ tially populist, exploring the shared ex­ this book differs from the others in its "dis­ periences (and responses) of Island "folk" tance" from the fishery as a subject .... I have confronted with destructive external for­ attempted to "stand back" somewhat and ob­ ces. serve broad patterns and relationships, com­ menting on local conditions only to the extent In a useful introductory essay the de- that they illustrate the political, ideological, Roches provide an overview of the chang­ and/or cultural life of ihe people studies. (9- ing perspective which have guided 10) studies of the "lifeways of economically deprived peoples" (4) in the Atlantic There is no question that this book region, and elsewhere, and lay out the reflects "distance." But. "distance" and a theoretical considerations guiding the "stand back" posture only produce insight volume's essays. While embracing many if the researcher approaches the subject of the interpretive developments as­ prepared to gather and digest information sociated with the rise of dependency challenging to pre-conceptions and sensi­ theory they deplore the fact that it has tive to the complexities of lived condi­ tended to sustain simplistic "one-dimen- REVIEWS 301 sional" interpretations of life on the mar­ work. In her intriguing study, gins, that residents of hinterlands have "Workworlds and Worldviews," Con­ too often been portrayed simply as pas­ stance deRoche shows how these rural sive victims of macro-social forces. They dwellers have revised mainstream values argue that it is important to acknowledge associated with the work ethic to meet and explore the creative responses of their specific needs. In Benton, occupa­ peripheralized peoples to these external­ tional pluralism emerges as a desirable ly-imposed structures, and as well that it trait and seasonal unemployment as an is possible to do so within the framework accepted fact of life. "Public esteem established by dependency theory: it remains closely tied to work, but the "need not mislead us this way." (6) The linkage would be unfamiliar to an Or­ three case studies are designed, then, to thodox Calvinist." (84) While acknow­ bridge the gap between the macro-in­ ledging their powerlessness in the face of sights of dependency theory and micro­ the "actions of powerful outside agen­ analysis of social settings. The essays, as cies," Bentonites, she argues have suc­ the deRoches phrase it, explore "the logic cessfully developed their own "ideas of folk lifestyles played out under macro­ about who they are and how they function cosm icall y sculpted constraints." (17) as workers." (97) John deRoche's study In the first and longest of the case of South Side Cape Breton coal miners studies, Pieter deVries and Georgina explores the relationship between ideol­ MacNab-deVries examine gender rela­ ogy and working experiences as well. tions in the rural community of Earloch (a Focusing on the labour process, he charts fictionalized name). While the sociologi­ "the adaptive responses of people on the cal literature of gender relations originat­ receiving end of powerful forces from the ing from and pertaining to the centre of external political economy." (105) Draw­ Canadian society has emphasized ing from evidence gathered from inter­ "patriarchy, androgyny, subordination, views with 85 retired miners, he traces the dependency, and oppression" (31) the de­ attitudinal changes accompanying the Vries discern "female strength" com­ shift from room and pillar to long wall bined with a "complementarity and mining in the period from the 1920s to mutuality of female and male roles" in mid-century. He argues that although their analysis of the Cape Breton com­ mechanization undercut older attitudes munity. (63) They explain this pattern by and forms of resistance rooted in "quasi- arguing that the "traditional strengths of craft" production, "new, more group- relations of domestic and communal based forms of self-activity quickly reproduction" have been "preserved and emerged within the changed physical and reinforced" in Earloch as part of a broader social context," (114) in the pits. The coping strategy designed to deal with the miners' "workaday ideology remained at uncertainties of economic life on the mar­ least as feisty" as it had been during the gin. According to the deVries, the craft era. "strength of women was a integral and The message ringing through all these indispensible aspect" (32) of the adaptive studies is one of cultural resilience. If we response of Earlochers to regional under­ accept the authors' assumptions concern­ development. ing the external, and essentially unal­ The following essays examine terable, nature of the forces governing the ideological responses and adaptations to lives of these Cape Bretoners, each of the realities of life on the margin. The these studies can be read as a success male wage workers in Benton (the pseu­ story. They demonstrate the ways that donym for the Acadian coastal com­ seemingly powerless people have munity that Constance deRoche has managed to persist in shaping and defin­ studied), like their counterparts in Ear­ ing the constricted environment they oc­ loch, find it necessary to make their living cupy. The authors effectively make the by integrating diverse and sporadic wage argument that resistance can be 302 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

manifested "not only in full-scale protest strategies" which do not treat with this movements but in moire subtle and endur­ are, at best, incomplete. ing ways as well." (9) The message is similar to that in James C. Scott's K.R. Bittermann Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of University of New Brunswick Peasant Resistance (1985). except that here there is no argument linking such activities back to larger structures, no James lain Gow, Histoire de suggestion that micro-resistance might I 'administration publique québécois shape macro-change. 1H67-1970 (Montréal: Presses de From a methodological perspective, l'Université de Montréal 1986). some of the arguments made in this col­ lection could have been more convincing. L'ÉTUDE DESCRIPTIVE DU PROFESSEUR There are a number of places where oral Gow vient combler un vide et un besoin, testimony appears to be supporting more que de nombreux intervenants du secteur weight than it can be expected to bear. In de l'administration publique québécoise the case of John deRoche's essay, for attendaient. Elle a le mérite de faire une instance, one wonders whether the analyse administrativiste de l'Etat provin­ "workaday ideology" of miners can be cial québécois, caractéristique des cher­ reconstructed accurately from interviews cheurs de cette discipline, tout en faisant conducted a quarter to half a century after la synthèse des grandes tendances the events being described, or in the case évolutives de l'Etat provincial québécois, of the deVries' essay, whether household par le biais des "missions spécifiques" structure, inheritance patterns, and land- que chaque gouvernement s'est plus ou ownership (47-8) can be specified moins données. through oral evidence alone. L'entreprise était considérable. Plus de But there is a more fundamental prob­ cent ans d'histoire, 1867 à 1970, où les lem with the analysis in these essays. domaines d'intervention étatique n'ont Conceptualizing life in Cape Breton in cessé de croître, où les règles de fonction­ terms of "folk" responding to "powerful nement désinvoltes et arbitraires sont external forces," of "microsocial respon­ remplacées par les conventions collectives ses" to "macroeconomic causes," leaves et une réglementation bureaucratique. out too much. The intermediate levels be­ Les sources qu'il a utilisées pour tween the micro scale of a small com­ réaliser cette étude sont très variées: com­ munity, or a job site, and external macro ptes publics, lois, rapports financiers an­ forces have been swept away. So too, all nuels, journaux de l'Assemblée those other Cape Bretoners who may or législative, rapports de commission may not fit into "folk" categories — mer­ d'enquête, ainsi qu'une multitude de chants, employers, professionals, com­ sources diverses comme en témoignent mercial farmers, etc. — become invisible les appendices. Subventionné par trois or­ in this formulation. The Islanders who ganismes, il a pu confier le dépouillement have been studies here are a remarkably d'une partie de cette masse considérable homogeneous bunch: they enjoy similar de documents à certains étudiants-cher­ material circumstances and they formu­ cheurs. late common responses to deal with exter­ Afin de permettre au lecteur d'utiliser nally-determined "structural conditions." à profit ce volumineux outil de référence, The vision which emerges in these essays contenant près d'une centaine de tableaux shares more than a little of the roman­ et figures répartis dans neuf chapitres, ticism of Kenzie MacNeil's song. There James lain Gow à identifié certains is another Cape Breton where wealth and chapitres plus pertinents selon les poverty live side by side and where all différents champs d'intérêts des lecteurs. one's struggles are not with faceless off- Dans son introduction, Gow nous Island forces. Studies in "coping présente les différentes théories ad- REVIEWS 303

ministrativistes et écologistes qui permet­ la démonstration que le progrès dans tent d'aborder les réalités politico-ad­ l'administration publique n'est pas ministratives propres aux Etats modernes. linéaire, que des fluctuations importantes L'approche qu'il privilégie, entre ces se produisent d'une administration à une problématiques contradictoires, est un autre. "systémisme élémentaire," où le Les interventions de l'Etat du Québec matérialisme historique et le modèle entre 1897 et 1936 se multiplient et se bureaucratique wéberien sont réunis. font dans de nouveaux domaines, tels les Le chapitre deux offre une vue mines et les pâtes et papier; pourtant, les d'ensemble de la période étudiée en dépenses publiques croissent à un rythme présentant les dépenses publiques comme moins rapide. En outre, les premières indicateur des "activités étatiques." Gow velléités interventionnistes étatiques font démontre, contrairement à ce qu'il pen­ leur apparition, principalement dans le sait, que les dépenses publiques de la domaine des richesses naturelles, à titre période 1867-1896 croissent plus rapide­ d'exemple, le bois non manufacturé. ment que pendant la période suivante, et Graduellement, pendant cette période, au même rythme que durant la période l'administration québécoise se com- 1936-1960. Bien entendu, la période de la plexifie et prend de l'importance à cause Révolution tranquille détient tous les de ses nouvelles obligations. Gow utilise records de croissance des dépenses. Cet l'expression d'Etat paternaliste pour cette écart entre le prévu et les résultats de nouvelle réalité, qui recoupe une l'analyse proviennent en partie du fait que bureaucratisation plus poussée, bien les comptes publics subissent des change­ qu'encore très incomplète. ments importants d'une administration à Les interventions de l'"Etat du une autre; les comparaisons deviennent Québec" de 1936 à 1970 ont été donc difficiles et des ajustements impor­ regroupées, et coiffées du titre: "L'Etat- tants sont nécessaires pour pouvoir com­ providence." Nous devons signaler notre parer des comparables. désaccord concernant cette périodisation Dans sa préface, Jean-Rock Boivin et ce titre, qui regroupe sous la même note avec justesse que les dépenses publi­ chapelle interventionniste la période ques sont peut-être davantage des in­ Duplessis et la Révolution tranquille. dicateurs des activités administratives Ceci est étonnant de la part de l'auteur, qu'étatiques; l'activité étatique se qui juge Maurice Duplessis très retrouvant plus du côté de la normalisa­ sévèrement au niveau de la gestion et qui tion et de la législation. Concrètement, les considère Duplessis comme un im­ dépenses publiques croissent peut-être provisateur qui entoure toutes ses plus vite dans la deuxième moitié du dix- décisions du plus grand secret. Gow jus­ neuvième siècle que pendant la première tifie cette périodisation par une augmen­ moitié du vingtième, mais cela ne signifie tation importante des dépenses pendant pas que l'Etat intervient davantage, mais cette période. Concrètement, à partir de seulement qu'il s'endette davantage à 1936, on peut, si l'on y tient, parler d'- cause des chemins de fer. Etat-providence, mais seulement pour l'­ L'organisation et le fonctionnement Etat fédéral. de l'administration québécoise entre 1867 La périodisation 1936-1960 est et 1896 sont caractérisés, selon J.I. Gow, reprise pour décrire l'évolution de par un développement embryonnaire; en l'administration publique sous Duplessis fait, on assiste à la naissance d'une et Godbout. Globalement, Gow affirme bureaucratie bien peu développée, et qui que la bureaucratisation se fait attendre, prendra plusieurs décennies à se con­ même si Godbout pose certains gestes struire. Ici, l'auteur confirme une thèse dans ce sens avec la Commission du Ser­ déjà largement répandue et acceptée con­ vice civil. Selon la grille d'analyse de cernant la faiblesse de l'Etat provincial. Weber, il faut classer les gouvernements Ce qui est intéressant, par ailleurs, c'est Duplessis dans les administrations "dilet- 304 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

tantes", car les règles de fonctionnement tends by the blatant visibility of its coer­ et d'embauché sont rares et cive means to unify and empower its vic­ l'improvisation domine. tims. the other, by inducing an invisible L'Etat techno-bureaucratique naît internalization of submissive values, avec les années soixante et se développe renders its victims powerless. Domina­ en même temps que l'intervention accrue tion masks both its presence and its pur­ de l'Etat. La systématisation et la tech- pose; issuing no commands, it offers, as nocratisation de l'administration publi­ Kontos argues, "only rational, self-evi­ que engendrent des changements impor­ dent. seductive participation." tants dans l'environnement socio-politi­ In each of two contrasting Quality of que; les règles touchant les conflits Working Life schemes Donald Wells d'intérêts témoignent, d'autre part, de la analyzes in Empty Promises (on the basis séparation de la vie privée et de l'emploi, of longitudinal interviews with workers, condition d'une bureaucratisation ef­ managers, and union leaders; data from ficace. De plus, le principe d'une fonction agreements, memos, training manuals, publique compétente et valorisée entraine grievance records, and supervisors' log­ la progression et le développement des books; personal observation of QWL postes de professionnels et la per­ meetings; and a questionnaire survey manence. Le modèle bureaucratique tel which workers themselves helped to con­ que décrit par Weber était en place. struct), the project was introduced and Dans cette monographie sur l'histoire controlled from the top down. What was de l'administration publique québécoise, presented to workers and their union as an nous aurions apprécié parfois que le con­ opportunity for participation in "joint texte socio-politique entourant certaines control and shared responsibility," (7) réformes soit suffisamment élaboré pour was actually the first phase of an "am­ donner une idée plus globale des enjeux bitious hidden agenda" for incremental de société entourant ces changements. changes leading to "wholesale alterations Quoiqu'il en soit. Cow réfère malgré tout both on the job and in the entire collective abondamment à l'historiographie et aux bargaining process." (107) Among spécialistes des diverses disciplines ayant management's aims: to reduce super­ analysé l'administration publique. En vision costs through "improved access to fait, un lecteur non familier avec workers' skills and knowledge" (111) l'histoire du Québec trouvera suffisam­ while increasing control by isolating in­ ment de referents historiques dans cette dividual workers from the collective and étude pour la resituer dans l'évolution subjecting them to constant work group pressure to "think like managers." In générale de la société québécoise. return for individual "cooperation," Pour ceux qui sont familiers avec workers were promised "job satisfaction" l'histoire du Québec, ils trouveront dans and the possibility of "job security. "They cette étude une synthèse honnête et une got neither. Lines were sped up and mine de statistiques sur l'histoire de "layoffs occurred even while the training l'administration publique québécoise. was going on." (59) Once operational, QWL itself produced unemployment. Paul Dauphinais (67) At the same time, its essential feature Collège Montmorency — identification of the individual worker's interests with an isolated work group which enforces management norms Donald M. Wells, Empty Promises: through peer pressure — deprived Quality of Working Life Programmes and workers of the only means they have of the Labour Movement (New York: improving or even maintaining the Monthly Review press 1987). quality of their working life, the "ability to band together to protect themselves." A DISTINCTION SOMETIMES made between (13) tyranny and domination is that while one REVIEWS 305

Central to Wells's analysis is a dis­ areas of expertise were provided, not as tinction between power, as arising from available resource people, to be sum­ the collective and disappearing only when moned as needed, but as integral members the collective divides or loses its of the team. And when these arrange­ cohesion, and authority, which is ments proved unworkable and CDM delegated and controlled from outside. In teams began to be allowed to solve the examples Wells reports, OWL offered problems in a more natural and efficient to "selected workers," in return for the way, managers often either failed to im­ power which it destroyed, "controlled plement the solutions or delayed their im­ delegation of authority." applied to a plementation (a cardinal blunder of vul­ "restricted range of decision." (110) gar behaviourism) to the point where the In addition to the examination and response was no longer experienced as diagnosis of two prototypical cases — reinforcement. And throughout, manage­ one in a major auto factory, one in a ment retained strict control over the kinds multinational electrical products plant — of problems workers were allowed to con­ (chs. 2-4), Empty Promises provides a sider (complaints citing "bad fumes in the historical overview of OWL itself (ch. 1 ), area," as the cause of "numerous an exploration of the "Frontiers of headaches and sore throats," were simply Management Control" (ch. 5) and of the ignored). (63) Ultimately, CDM became possibilities for "Workers' Control" (ch. a screening process for the selection of 6), and a concluding, detailed proposal of supervisors. In each case, the confine­ "Union Counter Strategies" which follow ment of QWL programs within carefully from Wells's analysis. There is also an selected small areas of the operation amplificatory Foreword by Staughton provoked ostracism of the participants for Lynd and a ten-page end-section giving collaborating to obtain special treatment. critical precis of other important OWL And this, says Wells, is "QWL at its literature. best." (10) What he means by this is QWL The acquisition and dissemination of as an unmediated management initiative knowledge about such management in­ in which the union either participates pas­ itiatives, Wells insists, is one of trade sively according to received rules or unionism's most urgent and immediate declines to participate at all. What Wells tasks. Both workers and the public need urges, in the fact of a mounting prolifera­ to understand the oppressive reality be­ tion of such schemes (he names scores of hind the empty promise. large corporations already involved) is Not the least of the reasons for urgen­ the creation of a workers' QWL through cy is the incompetence of management to carefully planned, highly sophisticated bring about needed change. In the cases preemptive action by the union, in a kind described, so alienated were managers of martial arts strategy of pulling when from the work process (and from the con­ pushed, in order to redirect management's sciousness of their own alienation) they energy to the workers' own advantage. compulsively sabotaged the very condi­ Partisans of the Shell Sarnia QWL tions upon which the success of their in­ program praise it for operating outside of itiatives depended. Example: at the the collective bargaining process, thus electrical plant, special CDM (for making employee participation more "Cooperative Decision-making") teams, "direct." Wells argues that workers will formed to elicit the workers' active par­ be able to participate directly only when ticipation in spontaneous problem solv­ they become actively involved in the af­ ing, were trained to make decisions ac­ fairs of a local union which has been cording to abstract, rule-based procedures given increased latitude for bargaining designed by management technicians ap­ collectively over QWL. parently on the premise of the workers' The secret of democracy is maintain­ natural inability to solve problems. ing a dialectical tension between open­ Management representatives in various ness and the norms which are the condi- 306 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

tion of openness. In industry as in the the classic theoretical models of workers' public realm, as Wells*s account shows, control of the 1970s and 1980s (Herbst; this dialectic has to be ongoing process. Gustavsen and Hunnius) and the practical and depends for its existence upon the imperatives of the North American constant collective action of the workers. workplace in the 1990s. Far from presuming a condition of "cooperation." such action requires the Gary A. Lewis assumption by labour of an aggressive Toronto moral and practical responsibility for leadership in shaping and guiding management practice. It follows that any James W. Rinehart, The Tyranny of Work. benefits for the enterprise as a whole can Alienation and the Labour Process. only be realized as a function, at least Second Edition (Toronto: Harcourt Brace partly, of the agenda of labour. Jovanovich 1987). Wells's advice to the unions: get there first; know what management is going to STATE PRIVATIZATION has cast a long and do before they do; and hit the ground dark shadow over workers' lives. One running with a program of your own. shadowy silhouette is government cut­ Rather than merely rejecting the blandish­ backs in funding for post-secondary ments of management-sponsored OWL, education, forcing colleges and univer­ provide a positive alternative: incor­ sities to seek financing from private-sec­ porate the genuine, democratizing tor corporations. Corporate criteria of promise of OWL (which is. after all. the profitability, efficiency, and subtle historical project of organized labour) managerial control of workers increasing­ into the union structure and the collective ly become the burden of proof for the bargaining process. Clear collective goals survival of curriculum and the funding of should be defined "for all the locals in the research projects. While this burden has union" (15) in the course of a participa­ been nakedly exposed in the stereotypi- tive education campaign which involves cally male 'hard' sciences, such as en­ workers personally in an "activist gineering, physics, and chemistry, it has strategy" for achieving them. Ties be­ begun to shift its weight toward incorrect­ tween workers and their union could be ly-typed women's 'soft' sciences, such as strengthened ("the most crucial task of social work, social geography, psychol­ all") by opening up ongoing investigative ogy, sociology, political science, and QWL committees to new members and economics. Even the recent expansion of broadening the participative base of industrial relations, institutes for labour leadership. The decentralization of some studies, and specialized courses in work collective bargaining issues to the local and industry has been speedily consumed level would permit the union to take the by the voracious appetite of the advancing initiative in promoting direct participa­ ravenous corporate criteria. Commerce, tion of workers in providing for their own business, and marketing students enroll in needs, thus increasing the "legitimate such 'labour-oriented' courses and learn range of workers' control in the how to extract maximum surplus labour workplace." At the same time, the union from workers through a more 'humane' must mount a continuous public educa­ form of managerial control. Students tion campaign which articulates a "union from working-class backgrounds become quality of working life agenda" (ISO) and alienated from such corporate ideological relates the necessity for adversarial bar­ structures; lacking control over the condi­ gaining to the contingencies for enhanc­ tions of their mental subjugation, they are ing social good. handed a ticket to the workworld with one proviso — they learn how to hate unions Wells spells out these strategies in and humanize their non-union concrete terms which make Empty workplaces in the interests of corporate Promises an indispensable link between REVIEWS 307 growth, expanded GNP. and "mutual labour process, (b) the overall organiza­ beneficiality for all." tion of the workplace, and (c) the imme­ These developments put an ines­ diate work process itself.'* (17-8) Aliena­ timable value on the republication of tion is a fundamentally objective and Rinehart's excellent Tyranny of Work. structural problem that has three sources: This book is unique in the Canadian col­ "concentration of the means of produc­ lege market. Rather than offering college tion in the hands of a small but dominant students prescriptions on how better to class, markets in land, labour, and com­ control workers in the interests of cor­ modities, and an elaborate division of porate profitability (as do so many texts), labour." (19) The book is organized it tells student show corporate employers around the attempt to trace and illustrate and managers attempt to control workers these three sources of alienation, and the on behalf of such profitability, and how responses of workers in attempting to workers will continue to resist such at­ cope with them, with special, though not tempts as long as the fundamental struc­ exclusive, application to Canada. tures of capitalism are not radically al­ Rinehart takes many workers' struggles tered in the direction of massive workers' and actions, rather than their attitudes, as cooperative control of the economy and external signs of a profound alienation state. The Tyranny of Work is worth its from the capitalist structures in which weight in gold in tyrannizing the work of they work. those college professors who would In the third chapter, Rinehart traces tyrannize their students with anti-union the three sources of alienation from pre- managerial ideologies of humanizing the industrial Canada through the emergence workplace 'on behalf of the mutual inter­ of the factory system in the late est if employees and employers." nineteenth century to the rise of large This second edition is vastly revised corporations in contemporary Canada. from its original version published a His thesis is that alienation from the or­ decade earlier. It has benefited from an ganization and purposes of work is much outpouring of new research on labour and more extensive now than in pre-industrial unions through such excellent outlets as Canada. The means of production are now Labourite Travail and by the creative considerably concentrated in large na­ work of such imaginative scholars as tional and multinational corporations; Bryan Palmer and Gregory Kealey, as labour power and other commodities be­ well as scores of others. Even though come things to be traded in local, national much of the data is new, Rinehart wisely and international markets; and, labour has decided not to alter the basic thesis of become increasingly fragmented, Tyranny of Work. He accepts Marx's routinized, divided, repetitive, deskilled, statement that work is ideally satisfying and subject to scientific management. in both its intrinsic and extrinsic features. Workers have not remained passive in the The book is designed to address to ques­ face of this growing alienation. They have tion of how work became so alienating, responded in the form of "trade unions, and how workers respond to such aliena­ strikes, picketing, demonstrations" as tion. De-emphasizing the numerous well as through "spontaneous walkouts, psychological and social psychological work stoppages in the plant, restriction of conceptions of alienation. Rinehart stres­ output, industrial sabotage, insubordina­ ses Marx's four aspects of alienation — tion, and simple refusals to show up at the estrangement of workers from the work on holidays and the day after product and purpose of their labour, from payday." (41-2) their own labour activity, from themsel­ The fourth chapter on white-collar ves, and from other workers. For work is a critique of the post-industrial Rinehart, alienation is "...a condition in thesis of Daniel Bell and others who argue which individuals have little or no control that we have entered an era of post- of (a) the purposes and products of the capitalism in which class conflict has sub- 308 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

sided, work is no longer alienating, skills Blue-collar workers do not passively ac­ have increased, technology reigns cept their alienating work, but protest supreme, and the knowledge professions massively through sabotage, restricting have become the dominant class. output, sit-downs, officially-sanctioned Rinehart easily disposes of these myths strikes, wildcat strikes, slowdowns, and with illustrations from Canadian data: even attempts to make the workplace there has not been a substantial decrease more humane through banana time, cof­ in manual blue-collar work: there is a fee breaks, coke-time, doubling-up, surplus of overeducated workers com­ waterfights, horseplay, and racing against pared to the complexity of the tasks the the clock. are called on to perform: the explosion in In perhaps the most important section white-collar work has mainly been among of the book, Rinehart in the final chapter low skilled clerical, sales, and service provides the reader with a tough and criti­ workers whose jobs have become increas­ cal evaluation of five proposed solutions ingly impersonalized. mechanized, frag­ — leisure, automation, human relations, mented, feminized, and low-paid; the unions, and workers' control — to aliena­ greatest explosion in militant unioniza­ tion at the workplace. He rejects the argu­ tion has been among white-collar ment that alienating work is the price we workers, especially in the public sector have to pay to win a separate sphere of (for example, health-care professionals satisfying leisure activity; alienating and non-professionals, teachers, and work has negatively invaded the sphere of postal workers); and. the locus of control still remains with the dominant owners of leisure, making it impossible to construct capitalist property. "The real issue, then, high-quality and satisfying leisure is not to determine //the propertied class separate from alienated work (how can a dominates corporations and the economy, worker injured on the job be expected to but to find out how this class exercises enjoy the benefits of satisfying leisure?). control." (102). Even the professions are Automation is also not creating the experiencing a deskilling and a loss of promised liberation from alienation. control over their workplaces. In this Rather, it creates vast pools of part-time, regard, Rinehart asks a pointed question underemployed, and unemployed which the post-industrialists are unable to workers. Even in high-tech industries, the answer: "If the vast majority of profes­ majority of workers are semi-skilled, sionals and technicians are remote from low-paid, and women. The third solution positions of power in their own institu­ to alienation, various human relations tions, or if in assuming managerial posi­ schemes, have been widely implemented tions they cease to employ their expertise, in the workplace ironically to break the how can they be regarded as exercising resistance of workers to alienated labour control over broader political and and to rationalize production in the face economic affairs?" (100) of volatile and diversified markets. In par­ ticipative management schemes, workers Rinehart devotes his fifth chapter to are granted minor decision-making blue-collar work. Drawing on the recent powers without touching the locus of con­ research of such scholars as Reiter, Cle­ trol in the upper reaches of management. ment, and Gannagé. he rejects the portrait In job redesign, workers' jobs are made of blue-collar workers as affluent and more interesting and varied in order to conservative. Many fall below the pover­ rationalize the division of labour still fur­ ty line and many more subsist just above ther and to eliminate jobs. Human rela­ that line. The vast majority engage in tions projects cannot reduce alienation routinized. mindless, repetitive, because they are introduced and control­ mechanized, standardized, fragmented, led, not by workers, but by management rationalized, regulated, and deskilled in order to attain corporate goals. work; only a minority are still engaged in Rinehart acknowledges that unions, the personally satisfying skilled craft work. fourth proposed solution to alienation, REVIEWS 309 cannot eliminate alienation because they specialization. As many of us have al­ are tied in a contradictory bind: although ready realized, this book is an ideal sup­ they are presently the most effective plement for use in first-year introductory defensive organizations for advancing courses filled with students from the hard workers' interests, they have also become sciences and business who will never incorporated into the capitalist structures again be exposed to its vitally-important of domination over workers. Caught in message. No university student (whether the web of labour legislation, they are as a future manager or worker) should be forced to accept management rights* allowed to escape the mental prison of the clauses in labour contracts, and to dis­ campus into the material prison of the cipline their own members during the life workworld without having been en­ of a contract. In short, they have become lightened by the insights of this tome. C. Wright Mills's "managers of discon­ tent" while also acting as fomenters of Carl J. Cuneo dissent at the workplace. Finally, Rinehart holds out his most guarded op­ McMaster University timism for workers' control as the solu­ tion to alienation. After surveying minor John Richards and Don Kerr, eds., workers' struggles for control of the Canada, what's left? (Edmonton: Ne­ labour process, plant seizures, workplace west Press 1986). councils in revolutionary situations (Spain in 1936 and Hungary in 1956), and THIS COLLECTION COMPRISES the edited worker-owned and controlled enterprises, papers and discussions of a group of NDP Rinehart strives to strike a delicate politicians, trade unionists, and balance: while workers' control holds out academics, who met in Edmonton in May the greatest hope for eliminating alienat­ 1984. As the editors explain, the debates ing work, its various manifestations are which gave rise to this meeting include limited and restricted by a capitalist the NDP's provincial-federal split over marketplace dominated by huge multina­ the terms of patriation of the constitution, tional corporations and large blocks of the conflicts between NDP governments financial capital hostile to worker-run and trade unions, and the emergence of enterprises. Yet, for Rinehart. workers' two competing "manifestos" at the NDP control seems the best possible solution convention of 1983. The "counter to alienation: "The only genuine solution manifesto," drafted mainly by NDP mem­ to alienation involves a total restructuring bers from the Western provinces (notably, of the workplace, the economy, and the Grant Notley and John Richards), and en­ state: that is. the establishing of a truly dorsed by various other "prominent NDP collective mode of production — a supporters across the country," was democratically planned economy and presented as an alternative to the "official worker-managed enterprises." (209-10) manifesto" of the federal NDP Council. In Rinehart acknowledges that the route to essence, the June 22 Statement of Prin­ that end is littered with a minefield sown ciples of the western group called on the by capitalist opposition and state inter­ NDP to adopt a less centralizing approach vention. to government, and an incomes policy University professors in the social which, while perhaps unpopular with the and human sciences shirk their respon­ unions, would address popular concern sibilities by not using this book at least about inflation. The May 1984 seminar once in the classroom. Its use should not was organized by the authors of the June be confined to specialized courses on 22 Statement as a continuation of the dis­ labour and work. Since it is about the cussion about NDP goals and strategy. practical world in which we all work, it While the book is subtitled "A new should be prescribed reading for all stu­ social contract: pro and con," and certain­ dents and faculty, no matter what their ly John Richards's intention was to focus 310 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

the seminar around this proposal, the damental without having behind you the proceedings encompass a much broader strength that comes from being prepared discussion of strategic decisions for the to fight." (87) NDP. Among the topics discussed were: Analysis of the 1982 defeat of the whether to support reforms to decentral­ NDP in Saskatchewan is deflected by, on ize government, and whether this one hand, the claim to victim status (that amounts to greater "provincial rights" or is, of the recession, of the trade unions, of a more profound democratization the inherent conservatism of people), and, strategy: how the parliamentary on the other, a/nea culpa for not grasping leadership's conception of "the possible" earlier the popularity of neo-conservative differs from that of more radical elements themes. Thus, John Richards expresses inside and outside the party: what kind of regret that: "Now, the right comfortably "industrial strategy" the NDP might ad­ assumes the mantle of defender of the vocate: and in general, the outlines of an ordinary family while the left champions economic agenda for the parly. abortion on demand." (134) Interestingly, From the outset, participants tended no one pointed out that Richards was to divide into two camps — the social using the language of the new right itself, democrats and the socialists— particular­ which implicitly legitimizes there ly around economic policy, although on ideological discourse. Perhaps this is due the question of decentralization, these to the fact that, in this select group of lines were less clear. Taking a social strategic thinkers, there were no activists democratic line on economic strategy from the women's movement. Indeed, were Allan Blakeney. Gerald Caplan. El- there was only one woman participant wood Cowley. Jim Russell. Grant Notley, listed. She was not among the presenters, Tom Gunton. and John Richards — NDP and her comments amount to three para­ politicians and their advisors. From these graphs in the entire book, dealing with people, we hear a lot about the "art of the economic decentralization. possible," the need for workers to become Among the most instructive aspects "entrepreneurs." the inherent conser­ of this debate are its limits and its struc­ vatism of people, the problems with ture: who was invited, who was not; the unions, and the limits on programs made use of "expert" and academic consultants necessary by the recession. They tend to to do the presentations on industrial define the economic-strategic choices strategy and federal-provincial rights (in available to Canadians as either particular a paper by Richard Schwindt on monetarist capitalism or neo-Keynesian a mixed economy strategy, which he capitalism. viewed as the second best option, given In response to Panitch's critique of a that policies to promote "unfettered socialist contract policy. Blakeney im­ market allocation" seem to be politically plicitly accuses him of Marxist purism, or unacceptable in Canada!); and the ab­ idealism. Sounding like the reincarnation sence of a discussion about how the NDP of Mackenzie King, Blakeney defines the should relate to the extra-parliamentary alternatives open to the left in this way: social movements, such as women's, "We cannot choose between a policy and ecology, peace, racial equality, and gay an ideal. We can only choose between a rights organizations. Despite the policy and another policy." (35) The repeatedly stated concern to be seen as socialist reply to this is to pose the more "democratic" than in the past, these choices differently: Which politics move party members seemed to have done very us further towards the ideal? And, are we little thinking about a democratic process fighting for it? It is relevant that social for developing an economic program in al­ contracts don't lead to socialism, unless liance with the unions and other social one believes that socialism is impossible. movements. Sam Gindin puts the point forcefully: Amongst the participants rejecting an "You can't... expect to get anything fun­ incomes policy were Leo Panitch, Sam REVIEWS 311

Gindin. Peter Warrian. Don Aitken. and gued that Alberta's political culture, party Norman MacLellan — union researchers system, and consitutional stance are dis­ and representatives (with the exception of tinctive examples of broader tendencies Panitch) in many ways to the left of their in Canadian or western Canadian political constituencies. Warrian and Arthur Kube life. The ten essays Larry Pratt has as­ each made presentations on the unions sembled to honour Grant Notley, Alberta and economic strategy which went well New Democratic Party leader from 1968 beyond their narrowly defined areas, to until his death in an airplane crash in provide the outlines of a socialist agenda 1984, were written by sympathetic but not for the NDP and the labour movement. uncritical writers trying to show that While on one hand the seminar Notley's work and the place of the NDP themes may seem — from the vantage in Alberta can tell us a great deal about point of 1989 — like old news, it is not both Alberta and social democracy in often that the debates about Canadian left Canada. Certainly, the length and passion praxis are engaged, for the record, by of Notley's political career was a chal­ leading figures in the NDP. For anyone lenge to the durability of Alberta's single- trying to understand the alignment and party democracy and to state capitalism balance of forces (social democratic and under Premier Lougheed. These essays socialist) within the NDP. this book are successful to the extent they examine provides useful insights. (An even more the context of Notley's political life. useful exercise, of course, would have The essays fall into three broad involved activists in the many grass-roots categories: studies of the CCF/NDP up to social movements that are trying to define Notley's leadership victory, reviews of the nature of their relationships to the Notley's politics and strategies during the NDP and the unions.) This task is all the Lougheed era. and essays on current NDP more pressing in the wake of the defeat of prospects. Three papers, one on each of the Manitoba NDP. A more honest and the main subjects of the book, are splen­ probing analysis by NDP supporters of did mixtures of the descriptive and the the causes of both the Saskatchewan and normative aspects of the political Manitoba defeats is a necessary condition scientists' trade and successfully relate for renewal. As Canada, what's left the study of a minority politician and reveals, "renewal"' is only one possible party in Alberta to contemporary outcome of the "crisis of social Canadian history. The other papers do democracy;"* there is also a strong push this less successfully but they buttress the toward retrenchment, following in the arguments of these three: Larry Pratt's step of European social democratic par­ biographical study of Grant Notley, Allan ties. Tupper's review of Notley's view of the state, and Garth Stevenson's essay on Laurie E. Adkin class and politics. Queen's University In the first section, Pratt examines the history of the Alberta CCF/NDP and Notley's formative ideas. To Pratt, Notley Larry Pratt, éd.. Socialism and was a professional politician "called" to Democracy in Alberta: Essays in Honour the task and a western agrarian progres­ of Grant Notley (Edmonton: Ne West sive. His working life was entirely within Press 1986) the CCF/NDP as organizer, provincial secretary, and leader. During the sixties, MOST CONTEMPORARY OBSERVERS would he witnessed the unsuccessful gamble of agree that Alberta politics are unique if then-leader Neil Reimer to expose Social not bizarre due to its one-party govern­ Credit corruption and to appeal to labour. ment, deep provincial identity, and hos­ Although Reimer's protege, Notley be­ tility to easterners. In comparison, came convinced that only a tight party political scientists and historians have ar­ structure, constructive legislative agenda, 312 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

and broadly-oriented politics would suc­ tionist economic and social politics and ceed. His perseverance suggests that he fearful of appearing radical or impracti­ was even more "movement" oriented than cal. Notley concentrated on procedural Pratt admits. Robin Hunter examines at criticism rather than policy options. Tup­ great length the feud between New Party per suggests the NDP has little to lose and advocates and the old CCF leaders. He the province much to gain from a "risky" suggests Notley remained as much a approach of showing that "socialism CCFeras a New Party technician. Olenka promotes economic growth not merely a Melnyk surveys the CCF's Alberta his­ redistribution of existing assets" and tory, accepts the inevitability of its slide educating Albertans to "the virtues of a into oblivion, and ignores the party's more egalitarian society." He makes a strengths in the mid-1940s. Hunter and strong case that neither of these goals was Melnyk presume Albertans. CCF and primary to Notley. This raises the broader otherwise, were uniquely fundamentalist question of whether they have been in their politics yet they do not priorities for any NDP leaders during the demonstrate that this was so. 1970s and 1980s. Four essays look at Notley's years as The contexts of NDP strategy and MLA and leader. Ron Chalmers amusing­ provincial political analysis are brilliant­ ly examines "Insults to Democracy ly dissected by Garth Stevenson. He ar­ during the Lougheed era." complaining gues that neither class homogeneity nor that Alberta legislative politics are some­ cultural distinctiveness adequately how more crippled than elsewhere. A year describe contemporary society or politi­ in British Columbia might change his cal behaviour. Large urban and rural sec­ mind, although sustaining his pessimistic tors have not shared in the wealth or conclusion. Ed Shaffer reviews oil-era power controlled by a minority of truly economic development and punctures "middle class" voters. Stevenson thinks Lougheed government claims about the Alberta NDP has been trapped by its diversification. While that argument is own populist heritage (and egged on by convincing, it posits an alternative of political science wisdom) to disavow a "planning" and "intervention" that seems "class" appeal and the redistribution of remote from NDP policy let along wealth or power. The result is a party Alberta's culture. For his part, F.C. supported by too many Volvo owners and Englemann argues thai Notley's electoral controlled by brokerage politicians. It is strategy ignored the growing lower mid­ suggested in several essays that Notley's dle-class of business and government NDP was remarkably hierarchical. This bureaucrats to concentrate on its agrarian point is taken up by T.C. Pocklington in populist roots (which supported Notley an extremely abstract discussion of himself) and a chimerical small-business Robert Michels's theory about the oligar­ electorate. Englemann regrets that close chical tendency of socialist parties. How­ analysis of NDP voting has not been ever cogent, the paper would have better done. Readers will regret he did not begin suited this collection if it had used ex­ that task rather than speculating about amples of NDP practices in Alberta. NDP voters. Gurston Dacks's summary of Alberta's In his excellent "Grant Notley and the political culture sustains Stevenson's ar­ Modern State." Allan Tupper argues that gument by suggesting recession would the NDP failed to explain or itself under­ challenge the unifying myth of social stand how Lougheed's state capitalism mobility and economic opportunity. differed from Notley's public ownership. Dacks, Englemann, Tupper, and Adapting Ralph Miliband's argument Stevenson claim that not only should the about Labour in Britain, Tupper suggests NDP emphasize its transformative the NDP continually expected the Tories politics but also that it would find much to revert to doctrinaire liberalism. broader support if it did. The election of Surprised at the systematic and interven­ 16 NDP MLA's in 1986, which occurred REVIEWS 313

after the essays were written, might even closure for workers and their families, underscore their point. Stevenson weaves and arguing effectively that improved his interpretation into a general critique plant closure legislation is both necessary of writing about party politics, drawing and feasible. Grayson's findings and con­ on the Quebec case elucidated by Maurice clusions are based upon interviews with Pinard, to suggest that political choice union officials, managers, and over 100 more than political culture explains mass former SKF employees and their spouses, support for single parties. Whether or not plus five detailed survey questionnaires Stevenson is fully convincing, he has con­ administered over 30 months. tributed and indispensable interpretation The context is the changing interna­ of provincial politics. tional division of labour, and the process A peculiarity of Canadian political of corporate rationalization by which science is that political protest, however even profitable plants are being closed. weak, has drawn much more attention Such was the case for SKF Canada than the centre, however successful. Both Limited. Faced with increased interna­ that emphasis and the main prescriptions tional competition, especially from the of the Notley volume raise the question of Japanese, the corporate strategy of the whether the study of political winners giant Swedish multinational ball bearing might be just as helpful, even to norma­ manufacturer was specialization in a tive political scientists, as the study of the limited number of lines of bearings, losers. The central contentions that tradi­ which led in the late 1970s and early tional agrarian populism is as futile as 1980s to a series of mergers, expansions, brokerage politics for social democrats and shutdowns. As Grayson notes: "It is and that an avowed class and evident that such shutdowns may have redistributionist NDP would gain large nothing to do with the profitability of an blocks of support have not been compared individual plant. Rather, they were re­ to the hard experience of the NDP in other lated to the way a plant fitted into a larger prairie provinces or to the actual voting corporate game plan." SKF Canada references of Albertans. Limited appears to have been profitable, despite an apparently deliberate curtail­ ment of investment by its Swedish parent, Barry Ferguson and Grayson observes that especially in St. John's College, University of Manitoba this kind of case, better legislation could prevent closures. And employees of SKF J. Paul Grayson, Corporate Strategy and want such legislation: " ... 91.3 per cent Plant Closures: The S.K.F. Experience of employees believed that the govern­ (Toronto: Our Times Publishing Ltd. ment should introduce legislation to con­ 1985). trol the circumstances under which plants are allowed to close," and " ... 82.6 per­ cent of employees believed that a plant PLANT CLOSURES are an intrinsic part of should be able to close only if it could capitalism, made worse since the early demonstrate that it was economically un­ 1970s by the "oil crisis." and since the viable." early 1980s by the severe recession, and soon to be made worse still by the drive Grayson provides detailed insight to liberalized trade — especially the Mul- into the effects of the closure on workers roney-Reagan trade deal — and the ac­ and their families, while citing the results celerated rate of restructuring of capital. of other studies on the effects of job loss. There has, unfortunately, been very little From sleeplessness and irritability, to the Canadian research on plant closures, but loss of self-esteem, increased family ten­ Grayson's book is excellent. sions, ulcers, and even heart attacks — a It is a detailed case study of the good percentage of former SKF workers December 1981 closure of SKF Canada and their families experienced consider­ Limited, showing the consequences of a able agony as a result of the closure. And 314 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

immediate financial costs were high. By plaints are consistent with the findings of February 1984. those of the 310 laid off numerous recent studies. who were still unemployed estimated Grayson concludes with a critical they had lost a total of S3.5 million in evaluation of plant closure legislation in foregone wages, pensions, and benefits, Canada, and a survey of the much and even those re-employed estimated stronger legislation in effect in Europe, t-heir collective financial loss at S2.1 mil­ particularly Sweden, Germany, and lion. The societal costs of closures are France. By comparison with these latter even greater. To take but one of many countries, it is far too easy for a company examples. Grayson quotes a Chairman of to close a plant in Canada. We need legis­ the Canadian Mental Health Association: lation. Grayson argues, which can prevent "The single best indicator of child abuse closures, which can require a search for is having an unemployed father in the alternatives to closures, which requires house." corporate books to be opened to make a Many former SKF employees real search for alternatives possible, and remained unemployed for a long lime. which promises much greater support to Eighteen months after SKF began laying workers seeking new employment in people off. only 41.2 per cent of former those cases when closure proves in­ employees reported that they had found evitable. Big business fights such legisla­ full-time jobs. Many of those were at tion. arguing that it would lead to a capital lower wages, and they were less likely to outflow which would result in even be unionized. Even at 3(1 months the higher unemployment, but as Grayson ob­ proportion reporting full-time jobs was serves. plant closure legislation has not still only 64.5 per cent — ie.. more than had such effects in Europe. He concludes one-third were still without full-time by saying: work two-and-one-half years after the closure. Grayson cites 19X2 Ontario Min­ Were such measures in place, it is possible thai istry of Labour data which shows that SKF Canada Limited would nol have closed its such high proportions of plant closure manufacturing operalion to begin with. The victims experiencing lengthy spells of un­ cost of ihe company would have been too employment were the norm following great. Even if it had closed, the cost lo the employees would not have been as devastating closures in the early 1980s. as indicated in previous chapters. The agencies which are supposed to assist in finding jobs performed poorly. Two matters which were touched on Manpower Consultative Service (now the in this book are in need of a more Industrial Adjustment Service), had a thorough treatment. One is the politics of very poor placement record, and was the labour movement's plant closure viewed cynically by former SKF strategy. The Ontario Federation of employees. This is consistent with its Labour presents briefs detailing desirable record in other Canadian closures. The legislative changes, but it is not clear that Canada Employment Centres were even its membership is sufficiently politicized worse — one year after the closure less about this issue to put muscle behind such than 4 per cent of those who had found recommendations. The membership at jobs did so through a CEC. There was SKF was not sufficiently politicized, nor much dissatisfaction expressed by former were their links with the union local's SKF employees about their treatment at leadership close enough, to mount an ef­ the CEC: "The most frequent complaints fective campaign around the closure. related to the degradation of the applica­ More analysis of the SKF closure from tion process, the Kafkaesque experiences this perspective would have been useful. at the employment office, the apparent Second, more attention could usefully be lack of concern of employment office per­ paid to the measures needed to assist sonnel, and the differential treatment ac­ workers when a closure proves inevitable. corded the older employee." Such com­ Grayson's primary focus, and correctly REVIEWS 315

so. is on legislation designed to prevent d'une analyse secondaire de données closures. But many closures cannot be d'observation qui n'ont que peu à voir prevented, and more thought needs to be avec la thèse ou sa négation. En outre, le given to the problem from this perspec­ lien n'est jamais fait explicitement avec tive. These are more in the nature of areas la thèse de déqualification, même si for future research, than criticisms of l'occasion a plus d'une fois été donnée à Grayson's book, which is an excellent l'auteur. Par ailleurs, puisqu'il s'agit du study of a largely neglected issue of criti­ seul chapitre de nature empirique, son cal importance to the Canadian labour plus grand mais aussi son seul intérêt est movement. de nous avoir résumé cinq études dis­ parates qui nous info/ment de la situation dans les secteurs d'application étudiés par Jim Silver d'autres chercheurs; robots dans la University of Winnipeg fabrication automobile en Allemagne de l'Ouest (Wobbe-Ohlenburg, 1982), Arthur Francis. New Technology at Work fabrication automatisée de pâte à biscuits (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1986). en Ecosse (Buchanan et Boddy, 1983), machines à contrôle numérique dans LE VOLUME PRÉSENTE un ensemble de l'industrie manufacturière dans les Mid­ considérations théoriques sur les nouvel­ lands (Wilkinson. 1983), des études com­ les technologies et sur les modes paratives anglo-franco-allemandes sur d'organisation du travail. Plusieurs l'organisation du travail, ayant conduit à aspects de la vie organisationnelle furent une comparaison plus spécifique de fir­ relevés par l'auteur: syndicalisme, qualité mes anglaises et allemandes utilisant les de vie au travail, participation, qualifica­ machines à contrôle numérique (Sorge, tion et déqualification, etc. Toujours 1983) et enfin, la fabrication des Volvo et reviennent les références à ce qu'ont pu des Saab en Suède. Quelques pages sont dire les Taylor. Galbraith. Mumford. aussi consacrées à une étude anglaise sur Braverman. Chandler, etc.. tous les la fabrication automobile, co-signée par auteurs qui apparaissent dans la littérature l'auteur (Francis et Snell, 1984). Il s'agit classique de la sociologie du travail et par conséquent du seul chapitre qui nous pour ce seul aspect, il s'agit d'une excel­ en apprenne un tant soit peu, mais dont la lente rétrospective. La pensée de l'auteur nature ne nous apparaît cependant pas reste empreinte cependant de la seule généralisable à l'ensemble des applica­ volonté de répondre à la thèse de Braver­ tions des nouvelles technologies. man (" ... a balanced view"), sans les La distinction entre la nature même nuances que l'on retrouve habituellement des procédés d'automatisation et celle des chez les empiristes. Il n'apporte pas de procédés qui découlent de l'utilisation résultat de recherche, pas d'hypothèse des nouvelles technologies de fabrication spécifique mise à l'épreuve, etc.. les seuls semble être présumée tout au long du éléments d'observation étant tirés de cinq volume; jamais n'est-elle clairement études de divers auteurs réalisées au sein affirmée cependant, et encore moins de secteurs précis d'application en Al­ démontrée. Aussi, il n'est pas surprenant lemagne, en Grande-Bretagne, en France, de constater que les observations sur les en Suède, etc. (79-103) Une seule procédés étudiés vont dans le sens de tout référence à une étude, à laquelle l'auteur ce qui s'est écrit sur la modernisation a collabore, vient compléter le tout. industrielle, ni plus ni moins. Que les Le chapitre en question, de nature technologies dites "nouvelles" intègrent plus descriptive et devant illustrer l'objet l'informatique dans leur mode de même du volume, prétend faire état de fonctionnement, que ce soit en vue d'un l'"évidence". relativement à la thèse de la meilleur contrôle de la production ou pour déqualification, pour tenter de l'ébranler sa gestion d'ensemble, c'est juste, mais (avec quatre des cinq études). Il s'agit encore faut-il aller voir du côté de la 316 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

programmation, où réside l'essentiel des la formation requise pour leur bon modes et modalités de fonctionnement. fonctionnement, laissant en contrepartie Autrement, on étudie indistinctement de une proportion plus grande de travailleurs la machinerie pour de la machinerie. Si dans des emplois dits "déqualifiés," ou seulement encore la distinction avait été plus simplement pour lesquels une forma­ faite entre les nouvelles technologies de tion préalable n'est plus exigée. Et cela production et celles de gestion. Il aurait est sans parler du sentiment de qualifica­ aussi fallu s'attarder davantage à la ges­ tion plus grand que vivent les utilisateurs tion des processus et à leur programma­ immédiats, ce dont Braverman n'avait pas tion sous-jacente. ce qui n'a pas été fait. tenu compte et qui a pu lui être reproché. Si l'intelligence de la production passe pour lequel il n'est pas difficile de relever désormais par l'intelligence de la des "évidences." programmation, c'est de ce côté qu'il im­ Pour ce qui est de l'interprétation porte d'aller s'enquérir. générale, on assiste ici à une mise en place Dire que l'utilisation des "nouvelles" d'éléments qui prétendent à une certaine technologies de production requiert originalité, dans deux chapitres (104-53) davantage de formation pour les travail­ dont l'un est sous-titré par " ... a new leurs qui ont à s'en servir est plutôt incon­ conceptual approach," à propos des liens testable et d'ailleurs. Braverman lui- entre l'organisation, le contrôle et la tech- même ne l'eût point contesté. Si l'auteur nologie, et l'autre qui porte sur le n'avait pas pris la thèse de la fonctionnement organisationnel et la déqualification pour ce qu'elle n'est pas, nouvelle technologie. Ce premier une thèse qui laisserait croire en une chapitre en effet est particulièrement baisse de la formation requise, peut-être intéressant et constitue d'ailleurs la force aurait-il interprété autrement ses observa­ de l'ouvrage. Un effort d'intégration de tions. Le problème réside précisément divers éléments théoriques s'y retrouve, dans l'usage ambigu de la thèse de la campé sur la mise en rapport de quatre déqualification qui pour bien des auteurs. types d'enjeux pour le contrôle or­ équivaut à une baisse de la formation et ganisationnel (de la simple coordination des compétences requises, ce qui est loin à la négociation des intérêts conflictuels, d'être le cas. Braverman avait plutôt parlé en passant par l'autonomie relative et le d'ailleurs de dégradation du travail, en marchandage de l'effort) et de trois types interprétant le mouvement général d'organisation (marché, groupes de pairs d'automatisation comme découlant d'une et hiérarchie) (121), afin d'examiner les division extrême du travail industriel, qui problèmes qui se posent au croisement de a pu conduire à une séparation de plus en chacun des types recensés. Le cadre con­ plus nette entre le travail de conception et ceptuel ainsi fourni permet de bien situer le travail d'exécution. Le savoir ouvrier les endroits possibles d'intervention des étant de plus en plus approprié par la personnes comme des groupes au sein de sphère de la conception (les directions, l'organisation, et les modes sous-jacents les services d'ingénierie, etc.), le contrôle de prise en charge des nouvelles tech­ de la production échappe désormais de nologies. Le chapitre suivant tente de voir plus en plus aux travailleurs de la base. de quelle façon la nouvelle technologie L'interprétation d'une tendance est une s'imbrique dans ce labyrinthe, en dis­ chose et l'observation de la cutant de ses effets présumés sur la nature "déqualification'' en est une autre. C'est du travail qui s'exerce à différents paliers. une toute autre chose en effet de Ce chapitre eût été d'un grand intérêt s'enquérir des qualifications pré et post­ s'il avait pu s'appuyer sur des observa­ implantation des nouvelles technologies tions empiriques précises et non pas sur de production, pour se rendre compte de des commentaires aléatoires, qui nous la bi-polarisation de ces qualifications, ramènent constamment à des situations les utilisateurs immédiats des tech­ purement hypothétiques, sur la foi bien nologies en question devant bien sûr avoir entendu que les changements possibles REVIEWS 317

dépendent d'un ensemble indéfini de fac­ discussion of fertility control and regula­ teurs. Le dérapage se constate en par­ tion for the last century. ticulier avec des commentaires sur Who should be permitted to control l'informatique de gestion (incluant le reproduction, and will that control benefit travail clérical et allant jusqu'au télé­ women? In the 1980s, many policy traitement). pour lesquels l'auteur makers, and even some feminists, have s'inspire davantage de ce qui est véhiculé seen new reproductive technologies as a dans les médias sur la question. Les der­ boon to women who are now permitted to niers chapitres enfin s'attardent aux défis determine when, how, how often, and posés aux syndicats et aux façons whether to reproduce. Other feminists, d'améliorer l'implantation des tech­ however, such as Mary O'Brien and Abby nologies, selon des scénarios classiques Lippman. have voiced concerns about the essentiellement fondés sur le degré plus ways in which new reproductive tech­ ou moins grand de participation. nologies like in vitro fertilization and sex Les éléments théoriques d'ordre plus preselection can wrest reproductive général sur la sociologie du travail étant processes away from women. Access to these technologies is heavily regulated by relativement bien présentés, on ne peut the state and by the medical estab­ que constater le manque de rigueur dans lishment, both of which see fit to judge la délimitation de l'objet pour apprécier which women are suited to motherhood le bien-fondé de la thèse que l'auteur a and deserving of medical assistance to voulu présenter. Cette faiblesse mise à cope with problems of fertility and infer­ part, l'ouvrage apporte un éclairage tility. théorique intéressant, qui tient beaucoup à la facilité de l'auteur à présenter et à Similarly, a century ago, the develop­ commenter des schémas théoriques qui ment of contraceptive technology ap­ dans certains cas. s'avèrent fructueux. peared to promise women — working- class women in particular — a release Guy Fréchet from the burden of large families and the Institut Québécois de Recherche sur la Culture poverty and drudgery in which they lived. Yet many feminists were cautious about the ways in which the use of contracep­ Angus McLaren and Arlene Tigar Mc­ tives such as the pessary and condom Laren, The Bedroom and the Stale: The could deny women sexual freedom within Changing Practices and Politics of Con­ their marriages, and denigrate women's traception and Abortion in Canada, roles as mothers. In the nineteenth and 1880-1980 (Toronto: McClelland and early twentieth centuries, contraception Stewart 1986) and abortion services were regulated by "the medical profession, the legal profes­ FOR THOSR WHO ARE INTERESTED in the sion, and the clergy;" their availability current political and social struggles to was subject to the classist and sexist regulate reproduction in Canada, The biases of the men in those groups. Bedroom and the State provides a power­ Access to contraception was touted ful sense of the history which engendered by some as a blessing, yet its benefits the issues. As the authors remark, "After were not clearly for the working-class having surveyed the history of the discus­ women most oppressed by continuous sion of contraception and abortion in childbearing. Instead, middle-class men Canada from the 1880s to the 1980s it is such as R. Kaufman and A.H. Tyrer often difficult not to have a sense of déjà vu promoted the greater use of contracep­ when observing the current conflict." tives because they feared unrestrained (138) In particular, Angus McLaren and procreation by the "feeble-minded," (84) Arlene Tigar McLaren call attention to the unfit, and the "generally irresponsible historical continuities in the ideological classes." (97) Indeed, a powerful eugenic themes which have guided the Canadian motive, allied to classism and racism, 318 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

drove and continues to drive many of liberation of women, but rather in the those who seek to regulate reproduction. procurement of women's greater devotion From the emphasis on sterilization earlier and conformity to the roles allotted to in this century. (30-1 ) to the emphasis on them by church and state. prenatal diagnosis now. the aim has been As the authors of The Bedroom and the to prevent those who are perceived to be State observe: "Since the major institutions deficient from ever being born. in Canada, as in most societies, tend to be Both in this century and the last, the run by men and to reflect their interests, it is child has been seen as a commodity, a possible that the protection of women from product with an exchange value which childbearing does, in fact, strip them of some varies depending upon the economic of the power they have had as mothers and climate into which it is born. The greatly reduces them to being merely sexual play­ increased demand for access to con­ things for the pleasure of men." (143) This traceptives and abortions first arose at a is not to suggest that women's interests time when child employment was being would be better served by a simplistic resis­ restricted and the costs of education were tance to and rejection of reproductive tech­ increasing. Within the economy of the nologies and services. Instead, it suggests family and the state, the child was becom­ that past and present needs for fertility ing a liability rather than an asset. Today, regulation have been generated and must be those who purchase children through the understood and evaluated within the context hiring of commercial surrogates or the of the institution of compulsory black market adoption market often per­ heterosexuality and the ideology of ceive their babies as luxuries to which pronatalism. they must devote a substantial amount of The Bedroom and the State is disap­ money in order to obtain a high quality pointing only for its brevity. The history of product. the politics of contraception and abortion in From a feminist perspective, the Canada is sufficiently interesting and sig­ paradoxical result of the development of nificant to deserve more attention by his­ scientific control over reproduction is torians and social scientists. After reading that it so often serves to keep women in this book's 186 pages (which includes exten­ their place, and the concept of reproduc­ sive notes and an index) one is left wanting tive freedom is co-opted to serve patriar­ to know even more about the struggles chal interests. In the late twentieth cen­ around fertility control. For example, the tury, the new focus on high-tech treat­ book offers some insights into the situation ment of infertility and on the choice of the of married women, but says little about those characteristics of one"s offspring reinfor­ who were single. Presumably unmarried ces the pronatalist pressures that make women were not supposed to need con­ motherhood look like a necessary and in­ traception and abortion; what happened to evitable component of womanly self-ful- those who did? How did they cope? There is fillment. During the last century, also a need for more information about the promoters of contraception were "self­ women who were active in the birth control ish" individuals (82) who sought to avoid movement, both in promoting and making their natural and divinely-ordained available the services. Finally, it would be responsibilities. Significantly, however, fascinating to know more about the ex­ in order to defend fertility regulation, the periences and beliefs of the women who birth controllers argued that deliberate came to the first birth control clinics, and limitation of family size would reinforce who used the prescribed methods, some­ marital bonds, make husband and wife times successfully, and sometimes not, as happier and more committed. (80) and well as about the women who sought and permit women to perform more com­ obtained legal and illegal abortions during petently in their role as mothers. In other the last hundred years. words, for its most vociferous advocates, Christine Overall the value of birth control lay not in the Queen's University REVIEWS 319

Gary Kinsman, The Regulation of Desire: dressing, cross-working, and same- Sexuality in Canada (Montreal: Black gender erotic pleasure and replaced them Rose Books 1987). with European practices. This process of "extreme cultural, social, and physical I IMAGINE MYSELF IN TORONTO during the violence lies at the roots of the Canadian 1880s. I work as a bell boy in one for the State." (73) big hotels downtown. Because my wages In the nineteenth century, all across are not enough to support me I sometimes New France, Upper Canada, and the earn some extra cash by engaging in what West, buggery and sodomy were central most Torontonians call acts of indecency to the developing networks of male same- with wealthy men. gender sex, particulary in the What these imaginings bring into predominantly male environments of the focus is the historical reality and intersec­ military and mining/logging com­ tion of working-class life and same- munities. For much of this period gender sexuality. While the detailed Kinsman maintains that sexual rule studies of the past decade have explored developed unevenly and was based in many aspects of Canadian working-class community forms of regulation such as experience, sex and sexuality have been the charivari. But to make this interesting conspicuous only by their almost com­ argument Kinsman relies on secondary plete absence. With the publication of sources and we are given no evidence or Gary Kinsman's The Regulation of analysis of charivaris as a mode of sexual Desire, however, the subject of sexuality regulation. has been taken out of the historical closet. Indeed, the bulk of material presented Although not a labour historian, on the eighteenth and nineteenth cen­ Kinsman is a sociologist with a keen turies is culled from secondary sources sense of the importance of history, par­ rather than based on original research, the ticularly as a powerful force to inspire entire period being skipped over in little current political struggles. Indeed, his­ more than 30 pages. This means that his­ tory is integral to Kinsman's central torical events are passed over very quick­ theoretical argument that sexuality is not ly and tend to function primarily as mar­ a natural or biological given, but rather a ginal decorations. There is no attempt to set of social relations that change over place these episodes in their own discrete time linked to broader shifts in class, historical contexts. This is perhaps the gender, and state formation. Kinsman sets most disappointing aspect of The Regula­ out this approach in Part I of his book, tion of Desire. In order to make an argu­ adding to it the concepts of sexual rule ment for the social construction of and sexual resistance. With all this under sexuality — to get at the nature of "sexual his arm, Kinsman is ready to detail the change" over a long period of time — historical emergence in Canada of same- Kinsman needs history on his side. While gender sexuality and the flip side of that Kinsman is certainly aware of this att he coin, the establishment of a particular level of theory, he is much less successful form of heterosexuality as the social in actually grounding his theory in norm. primary historical investigation. And get ready for it is a fast ride. The The bulk of the book is given to the story begins with the sexual colonization twentieth century when the institutions of Native peoples during the 1700s and and apparatus of sexual rule became more ends with the rise of moral conservatism advanced and it is here that Kinsman is at in the 1980s and the contemporary les­ his best. The mobilization of thousands of bian/gay liberation movement. European Canadians during World War II, for ex­ colonization, Kinsman argues, wiped out ample, segregated women and men in the "a panorama of erotic and gender rela­ military, in war production, and in in­ tions among North American Natives" dustry, but as Kinsman explains, it also (71) including various forms of cross- served to weaken the hold of the 320 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

heterosexual family and thus created a tieth-century corporate capitalism and its new setting for same-gender erotic decreasing dependence on a particular liaisons. Kinsman expands our under­ heterosexual family form, for example, standing of the post-war period by are seen to have opened the necessary demonstrating that the Canadian govern­ space for the expansion of gay/lesbian ment and its security services cracked communities. Too often, however, in his down not only on leftists in the 1950s, but attempts to pin down sexuality in its it also conducted a witch hunt of gays and material context, there is too much of a lesbians, often making direct links be­ separation between the always sweeping tween communism and subversive descriptions of social and class formation homosexuality. which begin the chapters and the history In addition to World War II and the of sexuality. And overly broad processes problem of "national security." other such as "urbanization, industrialization," main focusses of the book include the and general concepts like "state ap­ creation of legal and medical categories paratus" are too often offered as explana­ and the struggle for law reform. Kinsman tions in themselves for complex social effectively argues that the 1969 Criminal transformations. Code Reform may have permitted Stemming from his historical homosexual acts in private between two materialist approach is Kinsman's under­ consenting adults, but it did not legalize standing that "class has an important ef­ homosexuality cast as it was in the liberal fect on our erotic life and on homosexual notions of privacy and the individual. culture." (119) Think, for example, of the Rather, the reform made an artificial dis­ bell boy in our introduction. His sexual tinction between private and public sex encounters with upper-class men were which only allowed "homosexuality to be layered with class meaning; part tolerated in a limited and highly patrolled economic necessity and perhaps part social space, while preserving pleasure, the working-class youth could heterosexual hegemony." (165) turn these sexual encounters into a form Kinsman's concentration on legal of class antagonism by threatening to reforms and categories, however, means blackmail the men thus potentially com­ that the historical detail of the experience promising their class position and power. of those who themselves engaged in But Kinsman's class analysis oc­ same-gender pleasures too often takes a casionally brings him to some rather backseat to his primary interest in the curious conclusions. At one point he ar­ forms of sexual regulation. The subject of gues that unlike homosexual-identified cruising in Toronto during the 1920s and middle-class men of the nineteenth cen­ 30s, for example, is relegated to a mere tury, working-class men who engaged in footnote and gay life in Montreal in the same-gender sex "did not feel as com­ 1950s is all too quickly passed over. pelled to adopt a particular overall iden­ Throughout this exploration in the tity or lifestyle." (52) The reason for this history of sexuality. Kinsman uses what difference. Kinsman believes, was cul­ he calls a "historical materialist" ap­ ture. Working-class culture remained proach. Certainly, he has a firm grasp on "more resistant to linking the occasional dialectics or the double-edged nature of same-gender sexual act with an exclusive sexual rule. For instance, the sexual homosexual identity," this in turn due to categories developed by sexologists, "the later development of a 'respectable' Kinsman argues, played a significant role heterosexual culture in the working in the medicalizing and criminalizing of class." (52) Not only are we not given any same-gender sex, but they were also used evidence of such developments (the idea by homosexuals themselves to name, is uncritically borrowed from British his­ define, and validate their own experien­ torian Jeffrey Weeks), but it seems to ces. Kinsman also tries to relate sexuality escape Kinsman that this probably has to its broader material base. Late twen­ more to do with who has left us records of REVIEWS 321

their sexual lives rather than with the l'impact de la crise économique sur dubious notion of cultural lag and. at any l'emploi des femmes et sur la ségrégation rate, we do know of nineteenth-century sexuelle du travail dans le contexte d'une working-class men who adopted a économie politique organisée autour de homosexual identity. More importantly, l'état, du ménage et de l'économie for­ Kinsman's class analysis here buys into melle (16). Sa problématique se fonde the notion (which he otherwise rejects) donc à la fois sur des paramètres de that the middle-class was somehow more l'économie politique et de la théorie advanced sexually (at least in terms of féministe. Cette dernière lui permet de understanding and defining their formuler son postulat de départ posant la sexuality) and that the working class centrante de la division sexuelle du simply engaged in indiscriminate sex that travail et le chevauchement de cette lacked any larger meaning for their lives. division au sein du travail domestique et And too often in Kinsman's descriptions du travail salarié; par ailleurs, la première the working class appears as an abstract lui permet de situer les conditions de ce category rather than as actual people with chevauchement dans un contexte sexual experiences to uncover. d'économie capitaliste en crise. Le livre a une ambition à la fois théorique et empiri­ But it is easy to find fault with a book que: faire travailler ensemble ces deux on such a new. uncharted subject. The séries de paramètres, dans l'analyse des many detailed historical studies of interrelations entre le développement sexuality, class, and working-class life économique inégal dans l'économie for­ needed to fill out and contest this syn­ melle et dans le ménage (économie thesis have yet to be produced. As domestique), tout en y intégrant l'analyse Kinsman admits, "this is a limited, partial. du rôle de l'état et de la technologie dans and flawed history .... It is intended only la mise en forme des conditions de travail as a starting point for discussion, debate. des femmes dans les deux sphères. Cette and further research." (18) Most impor­ approche se situe dans un courant impor­ tantly. a reading of The Regulation of tant de la pensée féministe; en effet, Desire highlights for future research into depuis quelques années, plusieurs recher­ the social construction of sexuality the ches tentent de construire le pont qui relie need for far more rigorous and refined ces deux univers afin de mieux rendre historical investigation. Nevertheless, compte des caractéristiques spécifiques once in awhile, a book comes along that des conditions de vie des femmes dans asks entirely new questions, poses impor­ nos sociétés industrielles développées. tant theoretical issues, indeed, opens a whole new field for historical investiga­ Au chapitre 2, Armstrong formule la tion. For Canadian history. The Regula­ nécessité d'intégrer la division sexuelle tion of Desire has done just that. du travail à tous les niveaux de l'analyse et comme partie intégrante de chaque Steven Maynard période historique du système capitaliste. Queen's University Tout en reprenant certains fondements de l'analyse marxiste voulant que les condi­ tions matérielles servent d'assise aux Pat Armstrong, Labour Pains-Women's paramètres de toute société (39), elle se Work in Crisis (Toronto: The Women's rallie cependant à plusieurs analystes Press 1984). féministes, critiques de cette même théorie. Celle-ci a négligé, en eftet, la LE TRAVAIL DES FEMMES INTÉRESSE Pat division sexuelle du travail et n'a pas pris Armstrong depuis plus d'une quinzaine en compte les modes différenciés de d'années déjà; depuis 1975. elle a publié reproduction des hommes et des femmes. régulièrement sur cette question, seule ou D'où la nécessité d'examiner à la fois et avec Hugh Armstrong. Dans la présente les rapports entre les sexes et les rapports étude, elle se propose d'examiner de classes, mais aussi de donner une ex- 322 LABOUR/LE TRAVAfL

tension au concept d'économie politique Le chapitre 3 présente une bonne qui prend ainsi tout son sens. synthèse de l'évolution de la participation Conscquemment, la tâche consiste donc à des femmes sur le marché du travail analyser, à l'aide d'une approche dialec­ canadien. Il en rappelle aussi les transfor­ tique. les conflits entre le capital et le mations dans le contexte de la crise travail, entre les hommes et les femmes. économique des années 70 et fait ressortir entre l'économie domestique et la place prise par le secteur tertiaire dans l'économie formelle, mais aussi dans l'économie et les transformations du rôle leurs interrelations réciproques et con­ de l'état. Le chapitre 4 porte tradictoires. Pour réaliser ces objectifs, la spécifiquement sur la distribution de la chercheure se concentrera sur l'étude des force de travail à travers les divers sec­ structures et des conditions objectives de teurs de l'économie et les occupations. Il situations, plutôt que sur l'étude des at­ s'agit d'un énorme travail de manipula­ titudes et des perceptions, même si ces tion statistique des données du Recense­ dernières sont parties d'un même proces­ ment par lequel l'auteure cherche aussi à sus. comme elle le mentionne elle-même. montrer comment celui-ci ne permet pas (46) Ce chapitre 2 fait un excellent tour de rendre compte des différences de sexes d'horizon des grandes lignes du débat à et ne dit rien qui vaille à ce sujet. Elle doit partir duquel l'auteure dégage son propre donc entreprendre un travail de décodage cadre théorique. Celui-ci se met peu à peu et de recoupement afin d'en arriver à faire en place à partir de démarcations ou ressortir les aspects qui concernent la d'appuis donnés à l'une et/ou l'autre des division sexuelle du travail. L'auteure théories ou études sur ces questions. Mais réussit très bien cet objectif. 11 faut lire voilà qu'il se termine, là où l'on croyait l'Appendice sur la méthodologie qui con­ qu'il allait commencer, c'est-à-dire par stitue une très bonne analyse critique de une mise en forme d'hypothèses et non l'appareil statistique tel que construit par seulement d'assertions, mais aussi par un Statistique-Canada pour les fins du travail d'opérationnalisation des Recensement. catégories d'analyse qui permettront à la Le chapitre 5 traite des chercheure d'encadrer les données et de caractéristiques du travail ménager, du les analyser. Vouloir lier plusieurs ap­ contenu des tâches et de leur partage dans proches théoriques est une chose: il en va un contexte de crise économique. Elle tout autrement cependant, lorsqu'il s'agit note qu'à ce dernier chapitre les choses d'y recourir pour démontrer des situa­ ont peu changé et qu'au contraire le tions à travers une étude concrète; il travail des ménagères a tendance à aug­ m'apparait nécessaire de construire et de menter en même temps qu'augmente les faire part des outils d'analyse, si l'on veut prix à la consommation. Ne pouvant plus faire avancer la recherche et la se procurer certains biens, elles doivent compréhension des phénomènes étudiés, les fabriquer elles-mêmes. Les services se d'autant plus lorsqu'il s'agit de briser faisant de plus en plus rares et coûteux, avec d'autres modèles d'analyses et de elles doivent prendre en charge des construire de nouvelles problématiques. parents âgés ou malades et garder leurs Les chapitres qui suivent ne répondent enfants à la maison. Ce chapitre repose pas davantage à cette exigence et mal­ sur l'utilisation de données et de con­ heureusement certaines assertions clusions provenant de recherches faites au demeurent plutôt des questions en Canada et à l'étranger. L'on aurait suspens et non élaborées. Ainsi les lec­ souhaité que l'auteure démontre teurs et lectrices seront appelés à faire davantage les liens entre les places eux-même un travail de déduction, à par­ occupées sur le marché du travail et dans tir des données présentées, mais le risque le travail ménager, objet annoncé dans est grand de tomber dans le piège du l'intention de ce livre. Tout au long de déterminisme et des relations causales l'étude, il y a des assertions qui auraient unilinéaires. mérité appuis et démonstrations et qui REVIEWS 323 sont loin de parler d'elles-mêmes: par ex­ travail des hommes, et des places qu'ils emple. selon l'autcure. la technologie occupent dans les rapports de sexes et les domestique va isoler les femmes à la rapports sociaux en milieu de travail. maison avec leurs enfants (117): cet isole­ Toutes les données de la recherche con­ ment conduirait à une augmentation du vergent cependant pour démontrer la stress, des dépressions et de la tension. place dominée et subordonnée Sur quoi s'appuie-t-elle pour avancer ces qu'occupent les femmes sur le marché du constatations? S'agit-il d'hypothèses ou travail et dans le ménage et ces données de conclusions de recherches? Il est dif­ suggèrent non seulement des rapports de ficile de le savoir et les données concrètes classes mais aussi des rapports de sexes qui pourraient servir d'appui ne sont pas dans lesquels les hommes occupent en présentées. C'est là un exemple parmi bonne partie des positions de domination. d'autres, mais celte manière de procéder Pour terminer, j'ajouterai que cette se présente souvent dans l'exposé de étude est très bien documentée et qu'elle l'argumentation qui sous-tend ce livre. Le peut servir de référence de base dans les chapitre 6 expose les politiques de l'état cours portant sur ces questions. La recher­ orientées vers la réduction des dépenses che ayant conduit à la construction des sociales (éducation, santé, services données statistiques pour traiter de la sociaux) et le renvoi de ces services au place des femnmes sur le marché du travail précaire, mal payé et souvent travail est fort bien faite et la bénévole. méthodologie qui l'a permise est originale et fort utile pour d'autres recher­ Le dernier chapitre présente un ches. Elle est aussi très bien documentée portrait de la technologie et la bibliographie est imposante. A ce microélcctronique en milieu de travail. sujet, je ne peux taire cependant une im­ Elle fait le point sur la situation du début mense lacune qui traduit encore, et l'on de la décennie des années 80 et les s'en surprend, une méconnaissance totale données présentées sont pertinentes et des travaux menés sur ces questions par bien compilées. Cependant, elles datent les francophones du Canada et notam­ déjà, certaines sont dépassées et les ment les québécois francophones. Dans la références bibliographiques ne sont pas à liste bibliographique qui couvre 23 pages, jour. La situation changeant très vite tant l'on retrouve deux références à des textes au niveau des outils que des lieux québécois, la première provenant du d'implantation, il est préférable, dans ce groupe Action-Travail des femmes et la cas, de rédiger un article plutôt qu'un seconde, d'une chercheure du Québec. chapitre de livre. Les donnés sont aussi, Par ailleurs, aucune attention n'est prêtée dans ce cas, tirées de d'autres recherches dans cette étude à la dimension des rap­ américaines et canadiennes. ports ethniques dans l'allocation des Et l'auteure de conclure (172) "la places occupées par les femmes, mais sur­ classe ouvrière a encore deux sexes et cela tout les hommes, sur le marché du travail. limite sa force" (ma traduction). Elle Et pourtant, s'il est des questions qui ont souhaite que les transformations actuelles été travaillées, discutées, et qui ont fait rassemblent les femmes plus qu'elles ne l'objet de publications au Québec, tant au les divisent dans une lutte contre niveau théorique qu'empirique, ce sont l'élimination des emplois et leur transfor­ bien celles qui renvoient aux rapports de mation et qu'elles soient encouragées à classes, aux rapports de sexes et aux rap­ "travailler avec les hommes." Et elle ports ethniques. Silence excusable? Je ne ajoute que dans les circonstances actuel­ le crois pas. Explicable? Encore moins, les, les femmes risquent de perdre surtout si l'on se replace dans la davantage que les hommes. Ce sont là des problématique même de ce livre. propositions susceptibles de soulever tout un débat et il aurait été intéressant qu'elle les développe davantage d'autant plus Céline Saint-Pierre qu'il est peu questions dous ce livre, du Université du Québec à Montréal 324 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Heather Jon Maroney and Meg Luxton. women's movement. Sexuality and eds.. Feminism and Political Economy: sexual regulation cannot be interpreted Women's Work. Women's Struggles solely through an analysis of class and (Toronto: Methuen I9S7). capital. Socialist-feminists need a con­ ceptual framework which will enable THF. MARONF.Y-i.uxTOV collection of ar­ them to address all forms of gender sub­ ticles is an important contribution to the ordination. Lesbianism, and the politics project of developing a socialist-feminist of sexuality, need to be theorized in away analysis of and for women in Canada. The that does not subordinate them to class challenge the project represents is a dif­ issues. In Weir's words, "a class-con­ ficult one. It is almost a cliche to say that scious feminism includes more than class "adding women on" tomalestrcam sociol­ issues." ogy will not do. Feminist scholars have Heather Jon Maroney's article on the maintained that both theoretically and relationship between the women's move­ substantively, the past and present fea­ ment and the trade union movement is tures of Canadian life take on a different complementary to Weir's article. Again, configuration when previously invisible the theme of the tension between class women are brought into view. . issues and sexual and cultural issues is The book covers a wide range of played out. The 1970s has seen what topics — (I) The Politics of the Women's Maroney calls the rise of "working class movements. (II) Political tconomy and feminism." the development of a base of Gender: The Division of Labour. (I II) The feminists within the union movement. Political Economy of Women's Work. The efforts of the past decade have and (IV) The State. Since discussing all produced results that have been quite fifteen articles in the book is not possible remarkable in promoting solidarity be­ in a short review, let me briefly note a few tween the women's movement and trade- of the articles to give the reader a taste of union struggles. Maroney skillfully fuses what is in the book. Diane Lamoreux's a discussion of the theoretical issues, the article on the relationship between dangers of reducing women's issues to nationalism and feminism in Quebec dis­ economism, with the practical challenges cusses how the concerns of feminists of operating within bureaucratic and male were expressed within the language of dominated unions. national liberation, indeed were viewed "Time for Myself: Women's Work as part of the wider struggle for national and the Fight for Shorter Hours," liberation. But. she asks, why were authored by Meg Luxton, presents an feminists in Quebec so attracted to analysis of why the trade union nationalist concepts, when Quebec movement's call for a shorter work week nationalism has historically been so raises the question of what constitutes misogynist? To what extent did the socially necessary labour. A shorter paid modern version of the nationalist tradi­ work week does not necessarily mean tion as practiced by the Parti Québécois more free time for women when both paid support women's liberation? How will and unpaid work are considered. In a women's concerns get articulated in the clear, well argued article, that goes back post-referendum period? All of the and forth between theory and concrete answers are not found in these fourteen example, Luxton explains the differences pages, but this is the first time such ques­ between the precisely drawn boundaries tions have been raised tor an Anglophone of wage labour, and the diffuse, seeming­ audience. ly never-ending nature of domestic Lorna Weir's article discusses the labour. She concludes with a call for a need for sexual politics to be part of a policy of a work week with more flexible socialist-feminist theory and practice. as well as shorter hours — one that recog­ She argues for an understanding of why nizes childcare as a social responsibility. lesbian interests are crucial to the This is the basis for advances that will REVIEWS 325 also challenge the sex/gender division of The state and the law are thus an impor­ labour. tant site of struggle, one which feminists In arranging an anthology, one is avoid at our peril." limited by space, as well as availability of The introduction to the book is pretty articles, and thus commenting on what is tough going. It includes a critique of not in a book is problematic. However. Canadian political economy, a condensed one area that needs more attention is the history of what classical Marxist theory issue of race: here the book reflects the has to offer feminism, plus a brief history situation in the women's movement a few of recent feminist theory, as applied to years ago. when plans for the anthology biology, sexuality, and socialization, with were first made. Although Carotyn some special consideration of the con­ Egan's article briefly refers to the efforts tributions of Canadian feminists. The of the International Women's Day Coali­ result for me was like trying to eat too tion in Toronto to develop an anti-racist much rich food — the digestive system focus, much more extensive analysis is seized up welt before 1 finished. required if we are to create a politics that While the articles selected for includes all women. Feminism and Political Economy The last few articles in the book in­ demonstrate a commitment to theory volve the very ambiguous relationship be­ grounded in and emanating from struggle tween feminists and the state. Alena Heit- for change, the language used is in some lingcruscs the example of social policy in ways at odds with the politics expressed. Eastern Europe to analyze what happens One of the sentences from the introductions when legislation which is designed to im­ reads as follows: "Nevertheless, it is impor­ prove the situation for women is intro­ tant to keep them (identity, cultural codes duced that is based on an ideology of sex for gender and sexual desire) analytically differences. She describes how protective distinct: otherwise, their conflation legislation geared to women's reproduc­ produces an undifferentiated, premature tive functions has contributed to main­ totalization which reinforces the problem if taining a less than equal situation for theoretical dualism." This is not a book women as workers. In the light of recent written in language that will be accessible plans to increase maternity provisions for to most women. I think that is unfortunate women as part of percsiroika. the article because this book deserves a broad is particularly timely. audience. Gavigan's article on women and abor­ For the most part, this book addresses tion in Canada uses this fundamental issues that traditional political economy demand of the contemporary women's never noticed. I would like to see a chal­ movement to make a number of com­ lenge to political economy in Canada that ments on the need to be historically and critiques malestream writing on its own contextually specific in understanding terrain, and a beginning can be found in how patriarchy operates. In the case of the Maroney-Luxton material. One of the abortion, it is the state, mediated by the best lines in this book is the authors' ob­ medical profession, that controls women servations that, "Innis may have paid — not their husbands. While formal scant attention to men as labourers, but he equality has not led to real equality for noticed women not at all. For lnnis, the women, nevertheless the struggle for the demographic patterns, reproductive prac­ vote was a progressive one. The abortion tices and (reputed) monogamous marital issue illustrates how important the state habits of the beaver warranted more atten­ and the law are in the struggle for self tion than any discussion of the same determination and reproductive rights for among humans." Karen Anderson's ar­ women. In Gavigan's words, "For women ticle. "A Gendered World: Women, Men to even begin to explore the concept of and the Political Economy of the Seven­ equality, the right to self-determination teenth Century Huron" gives us a sense of and reproductive freedom must be won. what there is to learn when gender is con- 326 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL sidered. Anderson describes how the have experienced many of the campaigns sexual division of labour and kinship and debates under discussion. These are structures supported rather than under­ also veteran teachers (primarily in mined the autonomy of women in Huron Women's Studies courses) who have society — answering a question that learned how to explain difficult concepts could not be asked within traditional to a new audience. political economy. The book is divided in three sections, The claim that traditional political each attempting a distinct task. Part I economy has been a male preserve needs "Setting the Stage" provides a com­ to be documented both by extensive criti­ prehensive introduction to the book and ques of what has been done, and more familiarizes readers with some of the research incorporating theories of gender. basic issues and concepts central to con­ The publication last year of this book. temporary feminism. The first chapter is along with the Hamilton Barrett edited appropriately named: "Entering the collection. The Politics of Diversity, is World of the Women's Movement" is an reason for optimism. Let a hundred excellent brief guide for the uninitiated. Canadian socialist feminist books be The second and major chapter in this sec­ printed each year! tion contains a 70 page summary of the history of the first and second waves of Canadian feminism — an ambitious tstcr Reiter project! The bulk of this chapter is Brock University devoted to an overview of the second wave and in particular its "grassroots" Nancy Adamson. Linda Briskin and Mar­ origins. This is one of the first such at­ garet McPhail. Feminist Organizing for tempts to be published. The story of the Change: The Contemporary Women's Royal Commission on the Status of Movement in Canada (Toronto: Oxford Women is well documented, but this is the University Press I9S8). first Canadian attempt to chart such issues as the split between feminists and new left organizations, the first stirrings of or­ INTRODUCTORY TFXTS are difficult to write in an interesting or engaging man­ ganization around abortion, childcare, ner. Similarly, polemical texts, which and sexuality, and the creation of feminist contain an explicit political argument, are "institutions" such as women's often fascinating but lost on those unac­ bookstores and cultural spaces. quainted with the issues under debate. It Historians may have trouble with the is rare to find either of these kinds of attempt to link politically and theoretical­ books which escape such pitfalls, and ly the various tendencies in the first and rarer still to find one book which does second wave. Would Flora McDonald both. Feminist Organizing for Change is Dennison really fit the label "equal such a book. It is an excellent introduc­ rights" or "liberal" feminist? At the level tion to the Canadian women's movement of polemics and rhetoric the parallels be­ — its history, organization, and current tween cultural/radical feminism and early political texture. But it is also a well ar­ "maternal feminism" are sometimes gued and refreshingly clear socialist- (chillingly) obvious, but how far can this feminist commentary on the be pushed? How helpful are contem­ contemporary feminist state of the union. porary feminist categories in under­ The reason. I think, that the editors. standing Dennison or other early have managed to pull off this useful blend feminists? of introduction and debate is because of This chapter is on the whole a valu­ their combined experience as feminist ac­ able beginning and will be extremely tivists and teachers. This is not an helpful for those trying to teach women's "armchair feminist" intervention. These studies courses to students who were in­ are veteran activists who care about and fants during the beginning of the second REVIEWS 327 wave. (How many women's studies often simply because it seems so compli­ teachers have heard young students say cated. Marxism alone has a century-old they chose to take such courses because history to try to grasp, and lord knows that their mothers suggested it!). The history can look intimidating enough even before is brought to life by the inclusion of an one mixes gender up into it. This explana­ eclectic collection of documents, many of tion is unique because it blends theoreti­ them arising from the early second wave. cal and substantive differences among appended to the book. The history chapter feminists with a sharply focused analysis and the documents do a wonderful job of of the differences in feminist practice. So, conveying the energy and spirit of the differences in feminist analysis of, for times. My favorite line comes from a example, the state, and domestic labour 197(1 edition of the newsletter of the are documented, and there is an excellent Toronto New Feminist: "Trudeau and analysis of the different theories of social Trotsky are just another pair of men." The change which are often implicit but im­ Canadian women's Movement Archives portant components of divergent feminist in Toronto was an important source for thought. But careful attention is also paid much of the research for this overview. to the day-to-day differences of various which stresses yet again the immense feminist '"tendencies." value of community-based archives in What are the day-to-day differences? preserving the quirky, resolutely anti- Do socialist-feminists dress differently, bureaucratic operations of grassroots spe'ak differently, perhaps make love dif­ political organizations. ferently? Nothing is simple. The authors The remaining sections of the book develop an interesting model through set up a socialist-feminist theoretical which to evaluate differences in feminist framework and apply that framework to practice. First they distinguish between an analysis of contemporary feminist "institutional" and "grassroots" feminist practice. The explanation of socialist- currents, which correspond roughly with feminism is excellent. The editors explain liberal versus socialist and radical socialist feminism as a "unique synthesis" feminism. They then evaluate these cur­ of Marxism and feminism, one which rents. based on where they fit between the analyses social life through the intercon­ •'pull" of what they call "mainstreaming" necting lenses of class, gender, race, and (a useful but horribly jargony concept) sexuality. Now it is true, as other and the "push" of "disengagement." reviewers have commented, that socialist Those who favour the full-scale entry of feminists alone did not create this syn­ women into the electoral system, who thesis. Radical feminists pushed issues of operate with "traditional" rules of order sexuality, violence, and culture to the fore and seem unconcerned with the differen­ of the feminist agenda, and it has been ces between women and men are thus, for women of colour and immigrant women example, being "pulled" into the who have forced issues of racism to the mainstream. Alternatively, those who place they are beginning to occupy in the believe fervently in "women's culture," women's movement. But the editors sug­ who celebrate and create alternative gest that socialist-feminism alone can women's institutions and highlight sup­ provide a "home" for these issues, and can posed female differences are clearly "dis­ be (if not is) the framework which ex­ engaging." (American feminist Sonia plains and addresses the dominant struc­ Johnson comes to mind as perhaps the tures of women's oppression. most "disengaged" of all. Why do 1 notice And in keeping with their training as that its only Americans who favour teachers and activists, the authors explain "going out of our minds" as a political their vision of socialist-feminism simply strategy?) and clearly. I sometimes wonder if What I like about this model is that it socialist-feminism loses grassroots is more fluid and allows for a less dog­ ideological terrain to radical feminism so matic analysis of the different "isms" of 328 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

feminism than some other socialist- workers away from ossified frames of ref­ feminist interventions. The authors of erence derived from classical Marxism. course favour the socialist-feminist Patrick Joyce's lucid introduction strategy of attempting to negotiate a makes the important point that otherwise balanced path between disengagement diverse accounts of working lives have and mainstreaming; recent organizing standardly been informed by virtually around abortion rights and childcare are identical models of economic rationality seen as successful attempts to do just that. and industrial development, and that But it is not an either/or proposition, and shared assumptions about the course of the authors are careful to stress that the economic growth in Western industrial "pushes" and "pulls" of different ways of societies have tended to homogenize the "doing politics" are constantly shifting. experiences of heterogeneous com­ By focusing not only on the different munities. Marxism functions in this theoretical currents of feminism but the ac­ scholarly constellation as a compliment tivist dimensions as well, the editors have unconsciously paid by radicals to the produced a book which, like Lynne Segal's Whig interpretation of history. When Is the Future Female? is a socialist-feminist workers are conceived primarily as critique of the contemporary women's economic agents within productive movement. Yet unlike Segal, who focuses processes beyond their direct cpntrol, the primarily on key theoretical texts, they are cultural character of their labour becomes more concerned with the way feminists obscured. Joyce argues that a set of com­ have organized around key issues and how monly-held presumptions contributes to theoretical differences are manifested in this narrowing of vision. The conception divergent practice and ideas about how to of capitalist social relations as inherently make change. The two books actually com­ antagonistic, the notion of deskilling as a plement each other quite nicely, and are necessary feature of industrial growth, important resources for those wishing to and the antinomies market/moral explore the spectrum of feminist thought economy and task/time orientation, are from a socialist-feminist standpoint. features of a theoretical framework which truncates multiple meanings of work into a unidimensional register of responses to Karen Dubinsky the putative demands of capital. Queen's University Most of these essays concentrate on Patrick Joyce, éd., The Historical Mean­ elements of British industrial history, ings of Work (Cambridge: Cambridge with Maxine Berg's paper on women's University Press 1987). work and mechanization and Richard Whipp's study of time and work having WHAT BECOMES OF THE HISTORICAL iden­ the greatest imaginative ambition. By ex­ tity of workers when the primary narra­ amining women's role in metal and textile tive of their modern emergence loses its employment, Berg calls into question the plausibility? The essays in The Historical view that the separation of workplace and Meanings of Work address this important home associated with the development of question. As self-conscious participants capitalism can account for their particular in a progressive redescription of the for­ subservience. Women in fact worked in a mation of capitalist societies, the authors broad range of processes both before and are united by interests in the universe of after the introduction of mechanized making and doing which transcend the processes, and Berg's analysis of these boundaries within which workers were environments exposes a myth the conven­ initially located as pertinent historical ac­ tional notion of the household economy, tors. Their essays have a twofold purpose: supposedly shattered by the machine. to establish the activity of work as a Economic and competitive relationships, privileged point of entry into the history rather than extrinsic features of an emer­ gent capitalism, were at the heart of the of culture; and to reorient the study of REVIEWS 329 plebeian ethos of mutuality. Berg argues. concept formation emerge as focal points The consumer culture associated with in­ in Rule's attempt to comprehend mean­ dustry was but one part of household ings of work. In related ways, Robert management directed by women, who Gray delineates the languages of British were pivotal actors in the consumer and factory reform, and Michael Sonenscher market communities penetrated by brilliantly decodes the rituals of the com­ capitalism. Whipp engages with a similar­ pagnonnages in eighteenth-century ly capacious subject by confronting Ed­ France. All disclose how the languages of ward Thompson's model of a linear labour are not simply neutral and trans- movement from task-based to clock time. missive instruments for the expression of He shows how employer demands for interests. Instead, as Keith McClelland's greater time thrift were never complete, study of the distinctions between forms of how task-based work persisted even in labour amongst trade-unionists also mature industries, and that there was no makes clear, these self-descriptive single model of time rationalization. vocabularies are constitutive of working Having surveyed the persistent variety of communities themselves; as such, they time orientations within the context of are features of the identity, and thus the uneven industrial development, Whipp life projects, of their users. studies ceramics and auto manufacture to delineate an alternative model for the un­ Joan Scott's paper on French political derstanding of industrial time reckoning. economy tackles a related issue. She dis­ Like Berg. Whipp always remains sensi­ sects the sexually-laden metaphors tive to the continuities of personal ex­ through which economists marginalized perience within altered communal struc­ the experience of women workers, argu­ tures. and he refuses to map the history of ing that the lexicon of political economy time consciousness on an inherited narra­ has served as a conceptual barrier to the tive of industrial development. His paper comprehension of women's roles. Her should serve as a point of departure for highly moralized reformulation of the further inquiry, just as future claims about ideology of domesticity still makes a use­ a sharp, unilinear transition in women's ful point, one also brought out in H.F. working lives will have to confront Moorhouse's essay: that an adequate ac­ Berg's powerful study of the dynamic count of workers is hardly possible contacts between market and custom, in­ without due regard to the rhetoric through dividual and community, with the advent which persons conceive, and thus define, of industry. what they take work to be. As Scott studies artifacts of high culture, Moor- Four essays consider the collective house concentrates upon the vernacular consciousness of groups united by shared idiom surrounding the American hot rod work and the ways in which communal to indicate how lineaments of a hardly perceptions are embodied in languages of unitary "work ethic" may invade and then self-identification. John Rule's paper on be altered in psychologically-rewarding, the properly of skill addresses these is­ group-specific activities of unpaid sues by inspecting critically Marx's labour. claims about a defensive and reactionary Joyce's rewarding and provocative artisanale. Rule shows how skill, under­ collection will be of considerable interest stood as a communal property in which to readers of this journal; they may, how­ individuals shared, was a dominant fea­ ever, wonder if the supplanting of "bour­ ture in the imaginative lives of working geois" by "patriarchal" as the favoured men, one increasingly put into an articu­ negative designator in many of these es­ late discourse by the late eighteenth cen­ says entails any conceptual gain. Aside tury, and one, moreover, that become from a gross printing error on page 83, even more intense in the early nineteenth this book's only technical flaw is that the century when it was carried over into new notes are placed at the end of the entire mechanized contexts. The processes of text. In an area marked by intense debate 330 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

about the value of theory, these essays on ces to demonstrate that, despite a paucity work suggest that intellectual labour of a of statistical measures. Jack Tar's world high order may be an unintended conse­ can be recovered. The High Court of Ad­ quence of at least one theory in the course miralty Papers are his chief source for of its decomposition. data concerning age distribution, wages, literacy, and incidence of mutiny among E.J. Hundert common seamen. But it is his employ­ University of British Columbia ment of contemporary literary sources — diaries, travel, accounts, pamphlets, braodsheets. newsletters — that is most Marcus Rcdiker, Between the Devil and impressive. These are the chief sources the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen. for his pulsating reconstruction of Jack Pirates, and the Anglo-American Tar's world. Maritime World. 1700-1750 (Cambridge Following a brief introduction, and New York: Cambridge University Rediker plunges the reader into a lengthy, Press 1987). evocative first chapter depicting the working world of the North Atlantic SAILORS OF THK PRKIMJLSTRIAI. AGF. are sailor circa 1740. The chapter, like the picaresque, little known figures. They left book, is replete with characters, scenes, few first-hand accounts of their lives, and and adventures, but its theme is the forg­ are best known to us through the eyes of ing of the earliest free wage labourers contemporary naval officers, publicists. who possessed no relation to the means of and novelists rather than historians. Mar­ production. The remainder of the book cus Rediker challenges conventional. deals with attempts a common seamen to romantic depictions of the sailor which resist their growing role as a commodity focus on his struggle against nature. In­ in an expanding international labour stead. he explores seamen's struggles market. It is organized into two sections; against men. shipowners, merchants, cap­ the first, dealing with work, treats the tains. and petty officers. To Rcdiker the topics of collective labour and wages. seaman was primarily a worker. He oc­ They are the foundations that let Rediker cupied a pivotal position in the creation build towards the second section. Chap­ of international markets and a waged ters four, five, and six deal with three essential aspects of maritime culture: the working class. (77) He was a symbol of struggle against the sea, the creation of a "advancing structural transformation in culture of resistance to authority, relations between capital and labour" violence and labour discipline, and the (294) and entered new relations with his social world of maritime crime. These are peers as collective workers, precursors to the best chapters in the book. factory workers. (290) Chiefly concerned with culture, but rooting his work in the Literary and legal sources are almost theoretical framework of working-class bound to enhance an author's tendency to history, he has produced the most sig­ overgeneralize on the basis of single im­ nificant social history of the pre-in- pressions or cases. One can only wish for dustrial maritime world to date. In brief, harder evidence to support such major Rediker focuses on the experiences of claims that the seaman was one of the first common seamen to shed light on three collective workers and that ships ought to much larger issues, the rise of capitalism. be seen as floating factories. The ex­ the genesis of free wage labour, and the clusion of fishermen, more easily iden­ growth of an international working class. tified as industrial producers, from the Whether his book stands or falls on these discussion appears puzzling and so is the features is less important than his success omission of seamen serving in the Royal at reconstructing the seaman's social Navy where they were employed in the world from within. largest aggregations to be found afloat. Rediker uses a wide varietv of sour­ Confinement of discussion.to the mer- REVIEWS 331 chant marine establishes a false sidered in isolation. Two other statutes dichotomy between naval and mercantile passed the year before concerning worlds. No officially established per­ seamen's wages in the navy (1 Geo. II, c. manent body of naval seamen existed nor 9 and 14) and another, 14 Geo. II, c. 38, did any scheme for their recruitment or designed to limit wages, were all part.and training. All common mariners served parcel of a concerted early attempt to deal naval, mercantile, and privateering needs, with the changes with which Rediker is and war predominated over peace during concerned. the first half of the eighteenth century. These observations arise from read­ The author is sometimes vague. In the ing the book; they do not detract from it, matter of numbers of seamen, for ex­ especially from the final three chapters ample. he refers (78) to "masses of devoted to the cultural aspects of the workers." numbering 25.000 to 40.000 at making of a maritime working class. In any one time between 1700 and 1750. But chapter four on language and culture, he fails to clarify who is included in these Rediker argues persuasively that Jack figures, blue-water seamen, coastal Tar's own testimony places the sea and sailors, and rivermen. Are these "huge class at the centre of his social existence. numbers." as claimed, in a English While on land the seasons and material population that grew from 5.2 to 6.5 mil­ life dictated the nature of work, at sea the lion during the period? During the 1740s reverse held true. Work itself dictated he tells us (156 n.7) as many as three out much of the rhythm and nature of culture. of every four seamen could be foreign. It Rediker clearly sides with those who hold is a pity that Rediker did not attempt to that plebeian disbelief was neither impos­ tell us something of the social origins of sible nor unlikely. In the final two chap­ seamen. Indeed, he exploits a want of ters which focus upon resistance and evidence to stress theory: he offers no rebellion his stress upon labour militancy support for his claim that seamen came among seamen is convincing. The author from the very poorest group of dispos­ goes so far as to claim (249-50) that Jack sessed rural producers. Such a claim is at Tar's most formidable struggle with variance with T.J.A. LeGoff's findings authority was against merchantmen of­ concerning French seamen. The author's ficers rather than those in the Royal Navy. stress on the growing international char­ But his emphasis on collectivism, anti- acter of the maritime labour market and authoritarianism. and egalitarianism vir­ those subject to it invites such comment. tually ignores the existence of relations of In view of the centrality of his insistence dependence and the roles of rituals, com­ (114) on the wholly contractual and petition, beliefs, and forms of social be­ waged nature of maritime labour and haviour that maintained the status quo and claim that seamen were among the first disguised the rawness of the economic free wage labourers, the discussion of relations between capital and labour or seamen wages is disappointing. First, the promoted any natural hierarchy of ability data assembled from 2.000 cases in Ap­ that may have appeared among seamen. pendix C docs not appear to go beyond the conclusions of Ralph Davis while their Rediker's wooden world of the presentation in decimal fractions of eighteenth-century common seaman ap­ pound sterling hinders comparisons. peared too soon after N.A.M. Rodger's Second, the discussion of legislation to very different The Wooden World: An regulate seamen's wages is incomplete Anatomy of the Georgian Navy (London and curiously ambiguous. In 1729 Parlia­ 1986) for him to have used it. Some con­ ment passed an Act for the Better Regula­ clusions may well be modified in the light tion and Government of Seamen in the of this and other work and of future re­ Merchants Service (2 Geo. II. c. 36). not, search. That is the fate of pioneering incidently, an act to regulate the Mer­ works. It will remain to his great credit, chants Service. It should not be con­ however, that working-class history no longer stops at the low water line. His 332 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

reinterpretation of the maritime world of theme, condemning the government's the common seaman has expanded the reckless policies, deploring the war and scope of working-class history and will calling for a suspension of hostilities. increase the sensitivity of many maritime More than that. Two of the Americans in historians to features of plebian culture City politics, William Lee and Stephen afloat that have been previously ignored. Sayre. were strongly implicated in sub­ His book is a splendid achievement. It versive activities in 1775 while the pro- ought to appeal to a wide audience. Wilkite London Association openly advo­ cated violent resistance to what it saw as Lord North's arbitrary actions. James Pritchard Oueen"s University The spectre of insurrection gave rise to a loyalist backlash. It came predictably from the financial-mercantile elite, many John Sainsbury, Disaffected Patriots: of whom had material links with the min­ London Supporters of Revolutionary istry as well as pro-government voting America 1769-17X2 (Montreal: McGill- records. But it also engulfed the City, Queen's University Press 1987). with the loyalists making some headway at Common Hall while the pro-Americans JOHN SAINSBURY gave us a foretaste of his retained control of Common Council. book in a fine article in the William and From this assembly the radicals were able Mary Quarterly in I97S. Now we are in a to frustrate the Admiralty's press gang position to appreciate the full fruits of his activities and to oppose schemes to research into London"s pro-Americans finance the war effort. Although the pro- during the struggle for American inde­ American radicals were unhappy with the pendence. Beginning with the petitioning declaration of American independence movement of 1769-70, Sainsbury expert­ and witnessed some defections over the ly traces the ebb and flow of support for plans to form volunteer regiments to America until the fall of Lord North's counter the entry of France into the war, ministry in 17S2. Following John Brewer, they did make a significant contribution he argues that the American issue was not to the Association movement in which the an incidental rider to radical politics, but issues of reform, economy, and America very central to it. It served to illustrate the were inextricably linked. It was the Gor­ abuse of political and legal rights which don riots, Sainsbury claims, that ultimate­ were occurring on the domestic front, ly eroded pro-Americanism in the City. dramatising the ministry's profound in­ Sainsbury makes two significant con­ cursions upon liberty at home and abroad tributions to our understanding of popular and strengthening the justification for politics in the era of the American revolu- structural reform. tion. First, he adds much to our Sainsbury shows that the original in­ knowledge of London politics in the after­ clusion of American grievances in radical math of the Wilkite agitations, both refin­ instructions and remonstrances was ing and complementing Rudes older primarily preoccupied with the commer­ study, which detailed the dimensions of cial repercussions of the breakdown of radicalism up to 1774. Second, Sainsbury imperial relations, following the prece­ bolsters the view that Britain was serious­ dent of the Stamp Act agitation. Indeed, ly divided over the American issue, and despite Wilkes's identification with the that those divisions were primarily American resistance to government ideological notwithstanding the anxieties policy, one that was reciprocated by the of American merchants about their assets colonists themselves, the pro-American abroad. Although he underestimates the movement nearly ran aground over the extent of disaffection outside the Boston Tea Party. After the Quebec and metropolis, his study, together with the coercive acts, however, the Wilkites research of James Bradley, underscores made the American conflict a central the fact that a substantial section of REVIEWS 333

popular opinion believed the American along similar tracks, stimulating debate Revolution to have been an impolitic, un­ about the adequacies of political repre­ natural. and disastrous civil war. Conse­ sentation upon his exclusion from power. quently the view that British opinion ral­ These were important precedents for Lon­ lied to the crown as American resistance doners. In fact, the conjunction of became more demonstrative and radical patriotism and empire and the way they becomes harder to sustain. Public opposi­ could be articulated formed a salient tion to the war may have been impotent, theme from the 1740s onwards. It was no but it was far from insubstantial. accident that the issue of parliamentary In some respects, in fact. Sainsbury reform surfaced in the context of imperial underplays the strength of opposition to crisis, in 1739-42,1756, and again during the war. He is too circumspect about the George Ill's reign. salience of the American issue during the Despite these shortcomings, Association movement: as late as April Sainsbury has produced a solidly re­ 1780 the City of London Association searched, informative book. He has made passed a resolution commending those good use of petitions, directories, and poll MPs who had "uniformly opposed coer­ books to elaborate the dimensions and cion of America" and still held out the inflexionsof pro-Americanism in London hope for some "reunion with that country during this troubled era. He has also on beneficial, just and honourable terms." thrown new light on the activities of the He also exaggerates the dampening effect Lee brothers, Stephen Sayre, and the Lon­ of the Gordon riots upon London don Association. His work will add grist radicalism and pro-Americanism. Al­ to the mill of those who wish to reassert though he is correct in noting that "there the vitality of extra-parliamentary politics was no simple relationship between the in the eighteenth-century and the crucial issues of popery and America" (157) he importance of a middling, libertarian fails to appreciate the extent to which the presence in the larger cities and towns. radicals regrouped over the question of military intervention during the riots, viewing the riots themselves as a mini­ Nicholas Rogers sterial pretext for further authoritarian York University policies at home. Anger over the governments handling of the war still smouldered in the City and coloured in­ Herbert G. Gutman and Donald H. Bell, terpretations of why the "No Popery" dis­ eds.. The New England Working Class turbances had been allowed to get out of and the New Labour History (Urbana: hand. University of Illinois Press 1987). Sainsbury's treatment of the year THE ELEVEN ARTICLES in this collection 1778-82 is perhaps a little too cursory. So, were originally presented to a conference too, is his handling of the antecedents of held at Smith College, Northampton, pro-Americanism. While he is right to Massachusetts in March, 1979. The emphasize the importance of the Com­ authors are among the outstanding monwealth tradition in defining attitudes labour-social historians who were com­ toward America, he might also have men­ pleting their Ph.D. theses in the 1970s. tioned the earlier links between im­ Half of the contributions were later pub­ perialism and reform which formed an lished as parts of books that confirmed the important backcloth to the Country cam­ promise shown in the pieces they paigns of the mid-century. Complaints presented to the conference. about ministerial myopia toward the The editors of the volume, Donald development of the trans-Atlantic Bell and the late Herbert Gutman, hoped economy certainly informed the cam­ that the contributions would enlarge our paign for a reform of parliament under knowledge and lead to a "regionwide his­ Walpole. Pitt's popularity in the City ran tory of the New England working class." 334 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

That goal now seems more remote in 1988 during the 1880s. But his focus is not the than at the lime of the conference. Two workshop but the parks and playgrounds decades of the new labour history have where working-class advocates of space moved us no closer to either a history of for play and sports clashed with middle- the New England or the American work­ class advocates of space for horticultural ing class. Why historians have not displays and the passive enjoyment of na­ produced a synthesis from the scores of ture. Fink shows how class hostility, excellent case studies that have been done stirred by the rise of the Knights of Labor since 1970 was a question that arose among tradesmen and quarry workers, several times during the conference. The splintered the town of Rutland, Vermont. same question inspired another con­ The town fractured into three separate ference at Northern Illinois University in towns, each representing a particular 1984. organized by Alfred Young, one of class configuration. Jonathan Prude also the contributors to the volume reviewed chose a local setting, namely Dudley and here, and attended by many of his fellow Oxford, two small villages in southern contributors. The absence of a synthesis Massachusetts in which Samuel Slater may. paradoxically, be the result of the constructed some of the earliest textile features that distinguished the new labour mills in the region's history. The first- history. generation mill workers are the focus of The new labour history began in the Prude's careful examination. He probes 1960s, a scholarly expression of the beneath the placid surface of industrial political upheaval of the decade. One fea­ peace to uncover the pulling and tugging, ture of the new labour history was a shift the friction and manoeuvering, that char­ in attention away from the trade union or acterized relations between mill hands organized portion of the working class and overseers. The new labour history toward the larger group, often called often filled a void in local histories that "working people." The new approach was omitted workers. Rosenzweig, Fink, and broader and more inclusive, studying Prude make valuable contributions to people who had been omitted from earlier both. studies of trade unions. A second feature The inclusiveness and breadth of the was an interest in workers" lives apart new labour history find expression in from the workplace and in the non- Carol Lasser and Judith Smith's work. economic aspects of working-class life. Lasser gives a revealing glimpse into the sometimes imprecisely called working- lives of the unmarried domestic servants class culture. A third common charac­ and, by implication, other single work­ teristic of the new labour history was a ing-class women, who fended for them­ focus on local history, the industrial com­ selves in a society composed mostly of munities in which workers lived and families. Judith Smith uncovers the in­ worked. Many of the new labour his­ timate connection between family and torians were leftists of one sort or another work among Italians and Jews in Rhode who either saw class struggle as the Island. She shows the importance of fami­ central theme in history or as the defining ly bonds in determining where immigrant agent of social identity. Lastly, most of workers settled, lived, and worked. Fami­ the new labour historians were people in ly shaped both the economic and social their twenties and thirties. spheres of immigrant workers. The over­ Nearly all the articles embody these lap between the new labour history and features. Class conflict in a local setting the history of women and the family is is the main theme of the excellent selec­ clearly evident in their contributions. tions from Roy Rosenzweig. Leon Fink, The dignity and pride of the common and Jonathan Prude. Rosenzweig shows people and their defense of popular rights the tensions in Worcester. Massachusetts, is a theme that often appeared in the new New England's largest industrial city, be­ labour history. Alfred Young sees in tween workers and the middle-upper class George Robert Twelves Hewes the em- REVIEWS 335

bodiment of the popular support for emerge. The political atmosphere has equality and republicanism. An elderly changed dramatically. Interest in the veteran of the American Revolution who working class has diminished. Class was "discovered" in the IK3()s, Hewes seems less relevant at a time when more provided an ample account of his life as a than half the workers in America voted shoemaker and revolutionary participant for Ronald Reagan. The inclusiveness in the testimony he gave to an enraptured that originally meant an attempt to audience. His oral history forms the basis broaden the working class tended to cre­ of Young's careful and imaginative piece ate such a diversity of special, distinctive of scholarship. Gary Kulik examines how groups that a general concept like "class" farmers in eighteenth-century Rhode Is­ seemed untenable. The case study of a land defended their traditional rights to single community began as a way of gain­ use rivers and streams for fishing and ing a clearer sense of the full dimension other purposes against mill owners eager of the class experience. But local unique­ to terminate those rights by constructing ness inhibited the formulation of dams for harnessing water power. generalizations that did not apply to other Some of the contributors to the communities. An exploration into the volume do not so fully share the features non-economic aspects of workers' lives of the new labour history I have outlined. made historians aware of the cultural Paul Buhle has long been interested in diversity among workers and further dis­ radical activists and their relationship to couraged use of the term "class." A radi­ workers. The italian anarchists of Rhode cal perspective enabled historians to Island, some members of the IWW, and present the radical tradition and class their role in the sharpening industrial con­ struggle but impaired their ability or in­ flicts of the early twentieth century are the clination to understand the group I once subjects of his sympathetic account. referred to as "the loyalist" worker. Last­ Cecelia Bucki. a student of David ly. the new labour history has been the Montgomery, shares with her mentor a work of young historians who, after com- strong interest in the workplace as the plcting first rate studies like those central arena for class conflict. She presented here, move on to other subjects, presents a revealing account of the boom­ leaving undone the synthesis we once ex­ ing Bridgeport. Connecticut armaments pected. industry during World War I. With clarity she shows the interaction of the machinists' defense of craft rights. Paul G. Faler management's efforts to divide produc­ University of Massachusetts-Boston tion and introduce Taylorism. the influx of new workers, many of them women — Laurence Shore, Southern Capitalists: all within a context of pro-war fervor. The Ideological Leadership of an Elite, Alexander Keyssar presents the broadest I832-1HH5 (Chapel Hill: University of study of any among the contributions with North Carolina Press J986). his account of how organized workers in Massachusetts responded to the chronic SOUTHERNERS, especially the and widespread problem of unemploy­ slaveowners and the slaves, believed that ment in the last decades of the nineteenth the Civil War and emancipation brought century. He argues that joblessness had a revolutionary changes to the South. And profound influence in shaping the outlook and policies of trade unions. some historians, most notably C. Vann Woodward, agree, finding the "New The new labour history, represented South" to be new indeed in its leadership, by these fine studies, enriched our its goals, and its ideology. But knowledge but fell short of one promise Woodward's view, proposed in his enor­ — an overview of the American working mously influential Origins of the New class. It is unlikely that a synthesis will South (1951), has failed to win 336 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

widespread acceptance. Most historians careful saving, achieved independence as investigating the South during the half an artisan and then soon began to hire century following the Civil War argue workers himself. Northerners proclaimed instead for what Woodward has called that this social mobility was the central "continuitarianism." the view that denies characteristic of the free labor system. that the Civil War and emancipation But southerners had their own version of brought a sharp discontinuity in southern the self-made man. the "myth" of the history. But the continuitarians. even as "self-made slaveholder" which they disagree with Woodward, disagree proclaimed "that the industrious, quick­ sharply among themselves about what witted nonslaveholder" through hard continued and why. Some emphasize the work and careful savings could become a persistence of racism and coercion and slaveholder. This was the southern ver­ argue that after emancipation the planter sion of the work ethic that buttressed the elite remained in power and fastened a myth of the self-made man even as it new form of slavery on the blacks. Others defended slavery. Black slavery in the insist that the slave system created a dis­ South simply limited the opportunities tinct. non-modern, pre-bourgeois, available to whites. Furthermore, Shore agrarian society in the South which per­ continues. "The Southern variant of the sisted into the post-war years because the American self-made man was at least as North failed to use its victory on the bat­ real as the Northern variant." (47) tlefield to destroy the planter elite. And Emancipation ended the particular still others argue that the antebellum slave way in which southern whites could economy was merely a peculiar form of achieve mobility — by acquiring slaves agrarian capitalism which, because it depended on the profitable commercial — but the planter elite quickly adapted production of staple crops rather than on the ideology of the self-made man to the slavery, persisted into the post-war years. new circumstances. The "pragmatic con­ servatives" who rules the old South easily Laurence Shore's book is another reoriented their outlook by abandoning contribution to this last group in the con­ the particulars of the antebellum ideology tinuity school. He finds, as have others, a while retaining the substance: "Reorien­ "continuity of personnel." of ideology, tation ... involved not the adoption of a and of social system between the old and new, alien outlook, buta shift in emphasis the new South: "the elected leaders and and tone of antebellum ideology." (110) shapers of public opinion in the postbel- The antebellum southern leaders, there­ lum South"s free-labour world had played fore. could easily survive what some similar roles in the antebellum South's though to be the revolution brought by slave-labor world." (164-5) Shore's con­ emancipation "precisely because it was tribution is not his discovery of a persist­ not really a revolution at all." (13) In ing planter elite or even his insistence that short. Shore insists, the free labour ideol­ this elite of "slaveholding capitalists" ogy differed only in detail from the slave easily transformed themselves into free labour ideology. labour capitalists, but rather in his careful But it is precisely in the area of detail discussion of the ideology of the persist­ — in the significance to attach to the ing elite. detail — that critics of all kinds will ques­ In a kind of quasi-marxist analysis of tion Shore's analysis. That North and the slave society. Shore finds a ruling South, both before and after the Civil class of capitalist slaveowners who jus­ War, had much in common is undeniable, tified both their power and the society as is the existence of considerable con­ over which they ruled with an ideology tinuity over the nineteenth century in both that differed little from that of the rulers sections. The debate, as Shore is well of the North. Northerners spoke of the aware, arises from differing assessments self-made man who began as an of the significance of the .differences and employee, but, through hard work and the discontinuities that also existed. If REVIEWS 337

Shore's contribution will not end the wooing the bourgeoisie generally with a debate, it should enrich it. because he reference toward contracts and a condem­ adds to our understanding of the ideology nation of strikes, all to the detriment of of the ruling elite. Indeed, many critics. the less skilled. "The AFL, separated both continuitarians and discon- from the working class," (43) became the tinuilarians. will find in his evidence sup­ pseudo-voice of labour, the interloper port for their very different interpreta­ who usurped the right to speak for the tions. very people it was repressing. That social distortion found political expression as Harold D. Woodman the AFL reaffirmed its ties to the Purdue University Democrats, came to national power with Woodrow Wilson in 1913, and "won some twenty-six measures" (246) during Gwendolyn Mink. Old Labor and New his administration. A decline in working- Immigrants in American Political class votes and the rise of a new group- Development Union. Partv, and Stale, based brokerage politics certainly helped IK75-I920 (Ithaca: Cornell University Samuel Gompers and his likeminded col­ Press I9S6). leagues pose as the sole representative of labour. Even more important, according WHY. AS AN ASSF.RTIVF. SOCIAL to Mink, the AFL's persistent opposition democracy spread across industrial to state interference fit comfortably Kurope in the two decades before World within the political mainstream. Fearing War I. did the political voice of labour in welfare policies that might draw the the United States remains so docile and working class into national affairs and conservative? Gwendolyn Mink*s answer judging a neutral state the best protection to this important question focuses on the for its own power, the AFL never applied American-born and old immigrant trade enough pressure to disturb bourgeois unionists who fell deeply threatened by politics-as-usual. Hence, she concludes, the swelling numbers of new immigrants the golden moment of social democratic from southern and eastern Europe, possibilities was lost in the United States, learned to think racially about them from with lasting consequences. the anti-Chinese campaign and the atmos­ Mink does a find job of holding our pheric ethnic chauvinism of the late attention on crucial matters: divisions nineteenth century, and settled on an within the ranks of wage earners, the role agenda of barring additional new im­ of race and nationality in these divisions, migration. keeping those already here un­ and their consequences, in combination organized. and securing for the craft with the American party system, for class unions exclusive labour rights both in in­ politics. Her use of these themes, how­ dustry and in politics. The presidential ever. raises problems of evidence. Take, election of 1896. Mink argues, translated this agenda into an enduring pattern of for example, the issue of restricting the party politics. While the Republicans, new European immigration. The first half preaching cultural pluralism and open of the book reaches its climax in a long- gates, won the mass of new immigrant term identification of the Republicans votes, the Democrats, promoting a racial with a free flow of immigration and the restriction of immigration, cemented their Democrats with a racially-charge com­ alliance with old stock unionists. mitment to its restriction, specifically in response to the craft unions. Yet from the In national affairs — Mink's central 1890s to the 1920s, it was Republicans concern — these craft unionists in the who formulated the major proposals for American Federation of Labor sought to restriction, published the influential preserve their special privileges after nativist rationales for it, produced the 1900 by collaborating with industrialists primary legislative report on it, and spon­ in the National Civic Federation and sored most of the bills for it. Democratic 338 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

presidents vetoed those bills: Republican parent effect on the outcome; or from her presidents signed them. The bulk of account of the pivotal "decision of 1896" Democratic support for restriction came (161) that the depression-enfeebled AFL from rural southern legislators with no had scarcely 200,000 members; or from sympathy for unions, and the most stub­ her close attention to the anthracite strike born opposition came from urban north­ of 1902 that the United Mine Workers, ern Democrats, the AFL"s ostensible al­ already a multi-ethnic industrial union, lies. Or take the matter of the AKI.'s in­ now established itself in another multi­ fluence in Democratic politics. In the last ethnic coal region. quarter of her book. Mink's case depends Nevertheless, both the problems of upon the emergence of the AFL after evidence and the problems of context may 1906 as a major power at the polls and in well trouble a historian more than other the national government. But where are readers of Mink's book. She operates the data to sustain that claim in a single most comfortably at a higher level of election between 1906 and 19167 Where abstraction where terms like working are the sources to demonstrate that class, capitalists, old stock, the state, and Gompers or Secretary of Labor William mass democracy have assumed unam­ S. Wilson affected President Wilsons biguous meanings and the argument un­ thinking on any policy issue? As Mink folds through their interaction. Out of more or less admits in the end. what such components she builds a bridge from Gompers really wanted — relief from in­ point A — the takeoff of industrialization junctions and exemption from the Sher­ — to point B — the arrival of a modern man Act — he did not get: and what he pluralist state — and relies on the got — the Adamson Act and a child labor reasonableness of their arrangement to es- law — he did not really want. Acknow­ tablish the argument's validity. His­ ledging the AFL's peripheral place in na­ torians should find some of her sugges­ tional Democratic affairs would have tions stimulating: the triggering effect of made it much easier to accept the party's anti-Chinese racism for late nineteenth- peremptory dumping of the unions after century nativism, for example, or the way World War I. a turn of events that Mink an absence of certain pressures as much rather awkwardly dismisses as another as the presence of others shaped story entirely. American politics. But they will also find Her book also raises problems of con­ Mink's primary sources thin, her secon­ text. At no point does the business cycle dary sources curiously antique and too affect her argument — and passing refer­ often cavalierly used, and the net results ences to the "depression of 1893" do not inadequate to support her claims of know­ help the situation. Although socialism ing what so many people though, felt, and the Socialist party make occasional wanted, and did. Substantiation is not her appearances, no one could guess how in­ strength. On another plane of generaliza­ fluential socialists were in important AFL tion these deficiencies slip from view. unions, how many contemporaries before Therefore let readers approach her the war saw this party as the standing provocative study with their own alternative to the AFL's political preferences and standards clearly in strategies, and over the long haul how mind. much more energy Gompers devoted to socialists than he did to the National Civic Federation. Throughout the book the Robert Wiebe failure to provide an appropriate setting Northwesern University weakens the development of her case. Among many examples, readers would not know from Mink's account of the election of 1884 that a lone voice cried "rum, romanism. and rebellion" to no ap­ REVIEWS 339

Louise Carroll Wade. Chicago's Pride: livestock marshalling, handling, and sell­ The Stockyards. Packingtown, and En­ ing and the attendant services of mid­ virons in the Nineteenth Century (Urbana: dlemen who facilitated credit and University of Illinois Press 1987). transportation. As packers built on nearby land that stockyard's function as a sales LOUISF. C. WAIM' revisits familiar turf. The floor for livestock in transit diminished; Stockyards. Packingtown. and the sur­ drovers lost their dominance to proces­ rounding Back of the Yards neighbour­ sors. The organization of production on a hood have long been the object of large scale became a matter of capital attention. The area welcomed 10.000 investment, technologies of processing, visitors a day during the World's Colum­ inputs of labour, and imposition of bian Exposition of 1893. and has attracted authority on the plant floor. The search the notice of a famous cast since then. for markets involved capacities of Upton Sinclair. Saul Alinsky. and the transport networks, methods for handling whole company of the Chicago School of and transporting finished products, and Sociology have endowed the area with a manipulation of shipping rates. lasting fame and reputation. As illustra­ Labour is not neglected; its treatment tions of unbridled industrial greed, of suc­ is subordinated to the organization of an cessful citizens' campaigns, and of a industry that proved itself able to control classic community the institutions and the conditions under which employees people of this part of Chicago have worked in the plants. Nowhere is this bet­ achieved mythic status in the American ter demonstrated by Wade than in her imagination. What is Wade'scontribution treatment of the strikes of 1886 over the to this story? eight-hour day. The Knights of Labor Wade writes of the growth of an in­ were incapable of maintaining their or­ dustry and. secondarily, of a residential ganization in the face of the concerted area in the particular setting of a burgeon­ will of the packers. In two of the best ing metropolis that was becoming the chapters in her book she dissects the centre of a vast trading region to which an failure of labour leadership effectively to expanding railway system of unprece­ direct its members and she demonstrates dented scale offered unequalled access. how the packers manipulated the situation Locational advantage, created by both to yield the results they wanted. As she man and nature, and entrepreneurial cryptically concludes: "the Knights of acumen are at the heart of her story. Labor locals disappeared and nothing Beginning in the 1840s and continuing arose in their place." (258) through the 1890s she traces the rise of an The surrounding residential neigh­ industry of impressive size and com­ bourhoods receive secondary attention in plexity that competed successfully a concluding section where attention against Cincinnati and the previously es­ turns to such issues as the growth of tablished packing centres. By the population, the creation of community in- century's end the power and influence of stitutions, and changing political the leading packers in Chicago were im­ realities. This is the story of building pressive on a national scale. Armour, the churches, founding schools, organizing largest packer in the city, employed twice ethic associations, and controlling as many people in 1890 as did Carnegie government. Annexation to Chicago in at his Homestead Steel Works. Pack­ 1889 marked the end of municipal ingtown. where 25.000 laboured, had be­ autonomy, but the influence of Chicago come a significant phenomenon on a na­ had never been absent. In matters of tional scale. sanitation, drainage, delivery of drinking First to be organized was the stock water, and elimination of the serious yards. Wade examines the circumstances nuisance of railway crossings the services of its invention and subsequent growth, and authority of Chicago had become use­ noting the complex relations between ful and necessary. The area lost little of 340 LABOUR LE TRAVAIL

its distinct identity as its political name generation. Shelton Stromquist's am­ changed. bitious study of this transformation ap­ Wade embroiders none of the myths pears as the latest volume in the valuable enveloping the Back of the Yards: she has Illinois series. The Working Class in written a study remarkably independent American History. of the strong traditions of received Stromquist describes his project as an knowledge about this area. Her strategy attempt to explain "the patterns of rail­ in focussing on the capacity of a few road labor conflict as a by-product of the important industrialists to organize and political economy of the industry." control production and to avoid inter­ Canadian historians will feel quite at ference from almost all governmental home in the political economy of bodies offers the reader a clear view of the Boomers: while Innis, Lower, Mackin­ power of private interests during the latter tosh. Macpherson. Clark, and Pentland part of the nineteenth century. The une­ are unacknowledged, the theorization qual contest with labour illustrates the turns on settlement frontiers, the effects nakedness of the exercise of control. of interindustry linkages on opportunity There are more than a few reminders here structures, problems of unused capacity, of Robert Wiebe's description of late local and regional labour market develop­ ninetcenth-centurv America as a "dis­ ment. and ideological and institutional tended society " engaged in a "search for formation on the periphery. As the fron­ tier of railway construction pushed order" without the tools of coordination westward after the Civil War, a moving and organization which would make it front of rail workers' communities was possible. Failing this capacity, big busi­ created. Labour scarcity at the leading ness was free to exert itself and fashion edge of this front enhanced wages and its own environment with almost no workplace control. As the frontier moved restraints upon its behaviour. Wade offers on. tensions developed between workers' a clear and often vivid portrait of one high expectations and the dampening for­ important industry in its own peculiar set­ ces of a developing local labour market. ting — one of the significant contexts In a particularly incisive discussion, from which urban industrial society was Stromquist distinguishes between "nor­ being created. mal" labour market development, charac­ terized by an older and increasingly stable Peter G. Goheen labour force, with its mix of class Queen's University solidarity and company loyalty, and the "abnormal" development that followed from mass dismissals, blacklisting, and Shelton Stromquist. A Generation of the recruitment of strikebreakers, and un­ Boomers: The Pattern of Railroad dermined local institutions and solidarity. Labour Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America (Urbana: University of Illinois Despite the subtitle, Stromquist has Press 1987). nothing to say about pre-Civil War rail­ roading. He concentrates on the period FROM THE CRF.AT STRIKES OF t«77 to the from 1877 to 1894, and on the newer Pullman Boycott of 1894. American rail­ roads west of Chicago. While this em­ roads sustained an unprecedented, and phasis is partly justified by the dramatic unrepealed, wave of labour upheaval. Out expansion of the industry and the regional of this tumult emerged a stable and highly distribution of labour conflict, there is a institutionalized industrial relations sys­ curious sort of ahistorical quality to a tem characterized by formal collective discussion that treats the industry circa bargaining, codified pay. seniority, work 1880 as though the preceding half-cen­ rules, and state regulation: a system tury had contributed no enduring trends without significant parallel in a major or themes. From my vantage point, which American industry for more than a is that of a student of Canadian railroad- REVIEWS 341

ing before 1880. many of the features and for the nature and incidence of strike Stromquist identifies as products of the activity in the 1880s and early 1890s. labour crisis of the 1880s are familiar American labour historians have aspects of railway labour relations of the recently rediscovered the railways. A 1870s or earlier — in any event, of the Generation of Boomers joins Licht's period before the 1877 strikes. These in­ Working on the Railroad and Duckers' clude compulsory insurance and other Men of the Steel Rails as a significant welfare schemes, pay premiums and other contribution to this literature. With its productivity incentives, and disciplinary conspicuous explanatory emphasis on the appeals from local officers to a central political economy of the industry, management authority. For example, Stromquist's work constructs bridges to Stromquist implies that employee reading economy and business history as well. In rooms only began to receive company keeping with the industry's (American) support in the wake of the Pullman tradition, these are temporary wooden Boycott. They were commonplace on the trestles. As the traffic increases, we may Canadian roads in the 1850s. While these expect them to be rebuilt in steel. observations may reveal a startling and fundamental difference in labour- management relations between the two Paul Craven countries, it seems more likely that many York University of the "innovations" Stromquist identifies were rediscoveries, reinvigorations. or Michael Kazin, Barons of Labor: The San generalizations of lapsed usages. Perhaps Francisco Building Trades and Union a more detailed contrast between estab­ Power in the Progressive Period (Ur- lished eastern roads and rapidly develop­ bana: University of Illinois Press 1987). ing western ones would have mapped more continuities. One important dif­ ference between the Canadian and IN HIS NEW BOOK, MICHAEL KAZIN seeks to American railway industries was the analyse two subjects long neglected by much greater relative importance of a few most historians of American workers. Al­ very large firms in this country — and an most none of the now numerous scholarly earlier tendency to oligopoly or "natural studies examining workers in various monopoly" as well. Stromquist pays little local communities have treated the twen­ attention to the significance of scale as a tieth century and fewer have described the determinant of railway labour relations role played by skilled building trades practices. workers in local labour movements. More than twenty years ago Barbara Warne While these deficiencies limit the Newell studied and wrote about the ac­ conclusiveness of certain arguments tivities of unions in the Chicago area about the general historical development during the 1930s [Chicago and the Labor of the industry, at a more specific level of Movement: Metropolitan Unionism in the analysis Boomers is both insightful and 1930s, (University of Illinois Press convincing. Stromquist"s emphases on 1961)] describing how those based in the regional and local character of in­ local product markets sparked the up­ dustrial development and on community surge of unionism during the New Deal life-cycles help to establish important dis­ years. Also some twenty years ago I pub­ tinctions in what has sometimes been lished a book about workers in New York viewed as a seamless process. In par­ City during the progressive era (1900- ticular, Stromquist supplies impressive 1916) [When Workers Organize, (Univer­ explanations for the failure of alternative sity of Massachusetts Press 1968)] in forms of railroad worker organization to which I studiously neglected the building unseat the brotherhoods, for the relation­ trades workers. By contrast, Kazin ship between community structure and focuses on the activities of the Building workplace conflict in the railway towns, Trades Council (BTC) in San Francisco 342 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

during the years between 1900 and 1921. Fourth, as a result of the .salience of class In doing so. he concludes that more and strong local unions, labour in San skilled workers, the so-called labour aris­ Francisco wielded great political power tocrats (a category of analysis Kazin as demonstrated by the triumphs of the prefers not to use), acted as '"sparkplug Union Labor Party (1901-7) and the unionisis" for the labour movement: that mayoral administration of the leader of their unions served as "primary vehicles theBTC. P.H. McCarthy (1908-11). Con­ for the expression of the aspirations. cul­ sequently. employers in the building tural practices, and racial prejudices of trades more often than not accommodated white working people" (6): and that the the demands of their workers who seldom labour movement functioned as a sig­ had to strike. nificant political force in American cities Kazin does not romanticize the ac­ during the progressive era. complishments of his protagonists. Their Ka/in believes that his history of the class consciousness and loyalties origins, rise to power, and decline of the stretched only so far. Building tradesmen Building Trades Council in San Francisco shared the racism endemic among white fully establishes his major hypotheses. workers in California, an attitude which Frequently, however, it is difficult to fol­ sought to exclude all Asians. They were low Kazin's analysis as he flits about among the most chauvinistic of male from economic to political action, from workers. They evinced little solidarity the Building Trades Council to the San with less skilled workers in the building Francisco Labor Council (the central trades and even less with workers in other body for non-construction workers), from trades, part of the reason the BTC workers to employers, and from the local remained aloof from the Central Labor to the national scene. Kazin is strongest Council of the city. The Union Labor at explaining how and why the building Party of Mayor Eugene Schmitz (a trades workers in San Francisco built musician) and Boss Abraham Ruef, which union power and implemented the closed drew many of its votes from BTC mem­ shop. In his words. "The laws' of the bers. proved partly inept and partly cor­ BTC framed social relations at the build­ rupt. The administration of Mayor P.J. ing site. They were a full-fledged. McCarthy had equally few accomplish­ unilateral substitute for collective bar­ ments. And. finally, such union leaders as gaining .... Within this closed-shop em­ McCarthy acted as autocrats who may pire. sympathetic strikes seldom had to be have bettered the condition of their sub­ called: the threat of united action was jects but also enriched themselves. sufficient." (93-4) Such workplace power Kazin is less successful in explaining derived from the conjunction of several the decline of union empire in San Fran­ factors. First, the unionized building cisco and the humbling of the city's trades workers had skills not readily labour barons by its big businessmen. Part replaceable in the labour market. Second, of his explanation rings true. Certainly San Francisco's rapid growth between the labour power produced a reaction among 1850s and the turn of the century employers who organized themselves to provided an ideal setting for union action thwart unionism. In San Francisco as in and growth (the same thing would also be the nation, between 1903 and 1907 and true during the city's rebuilding after the 1919 and 1921, business united to earthquake of 1906). Third, workers in eliminate the closed shop and replace it San Francisco, especially those in the with the open shop. But when Kazin building trades, resided in neighbour­ ascribes part of labour's decline to the hoods in which class proved more salient success of progressive reformers he than ethnicity or religion. Overwhelming­ enters more treacherous terrain. No doubt ly, the workers were American-born or of many progressives were as hostile to second-generation immigrant slock from union monopoly (the closed shop) as to Ireland. Germany, and Scandinavia. business monopoly, to labour barons as REVIEWS 343

well as "robber barons." Yet many other apt to resort to politics as to direct action progressives in California sponsored at the point of production. In fact, he legislation demanded by the trade unions proves, occasionally without even being and also promoted versions of industrial aware of it, that trade unionists who democracy. It is too much to claim, as espoused "voluntarism" and conservative Ka/in does, that progressive reforms syndicalism (the latter a description of the created a more rationalized, efficient, and AFL first suggested by Will Herberg) sel­ centralized activist state that diluted class dom allowed abstract principles to keep consciousness and also "sharply reduced them from partisan political action. In the autonomous power of organized part. Kazin's book reads like a brief for labour." (285) In reality, an activist state the Morris Hillquit-Victor Berger faction could promote union power, as happened of the Socialist Party of America, which between 1917 and early 1919. and. as asserted that the future of socialism in the Kazin himself proves, class conscious­ US depended on permeation of the craft ness seldom flourished in the absence of unions and the conversion of their mem­ trade unionism. Kazin's analysis of the bers to socialism. Finally, Kazin is ab­ decline of the HTC during and immedi­ solutely correct in concluding that "when ately after World War I seems equally unions do not change to face a trans­ obtuse. The war paralyzed domestic formed capitalism, they court disaster." building yet skilled building tradesmen found employment in war-related produc­ (290) tion where they took their union standards and even the closed shop. After the war. Melvyn Dubofsky to be sure, building trades unions suffered SUNY at Binghamton from an employer counter-attack that bat­ tered the closed shop and lowered wage rates substantially. San Francisco was no Lois Palken Rudnick, Mabel Dodge exception to that development. During Luhan: New Woman, New Worlds (Albu­ the remainder of the 1920s, however, the querque: University of New Mexico Press building trades unions were one of the 1987). few sectors of the AFL to experience ac­ tual growth in membership and improve­ ments in real wages and standards. In­ As THF. • NF.w WOMAN," and the "Woman deed. in the AFL and the labour move­ as World Builder," Mabel Dodge Luhan ment as a whole, the building trades (1879-1962) seemed to her bedazzled unions during the 1920s grew more in­ contemporaries to be the "'common fluential and powerful than ever before, a denominator' whose life connect{ed] im­ reality that partly precipitated the labour portant social and intellectual issues in civil war of the 1930s. Why the history of late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-cen­ the San francisco BTC diverged from the tury European and American life." (ix) national pattern in the prosperity decade Although a mythological figure in her is a process Kazin delineates neither ef­ own day. Luhan has not, until Lois fectively nor fully. Rudnick's fine biography, been given serious scholarly treatment. Rudnick's Overall, then, what has Kazin book provides us with an additional op­ achieved? He has rescued one sector of portunity to rediscover and reassess the skilled working class from neglect and Luhan who was at the centre of many key also from dry-as-dust treatment by in­ intellectual and artistic events in the first stitutional labour economists, he has third of the twentieth century. proved that in San Francisco building Chafing against the soullessness of tradesmen could be militant and class her wealthy. Buffalo family, Luhan spent conscious as well as moderate and class her life in quest of a vision of herself and collaborationist. He has demonstrated of America that would overcome her that mainstream trade unionists were as sense of being an unsubstantial person 344 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

adrift in a culture destructive both of in­ most of them." (62-3) Critical of the dividual expression and communal sup­ dehumanization inflicted upon the in­ port. Her restless search for personal and dustrial worker, this radical group, of cultural grounding was akin to the efforts which Luhan became the luminary, of many of her compatriots who also fled focused upon the fulfillment of human the smug confines of small towns for the potential. "Unlike the more serious and larger landscapes of Europe. of New York orthodox marxist intellectuals of the day, City, of artistic avant-gardism, of left- and most working-class leaders, theirs wing activism, of psychoanalysis and was a revolution as much devoted to other forms of mind cure. 'play* and self-expression as it was to Luhan's quest, supported by the fami­ unionization and the redistribution of ly money which she both scored and wealth." Their vision was in keeping with depended upon, led her to the recreation Luhan's belief in "the power of the in­ of a Renaissance life in a Florentine villa. dividual to shape the self and the environ­ to the establishment, in Greenwich Vil­ ment in terms of an inner vision." (63-4) lage. of the most famous salon in Certain that the printed page would American history, and to the creation of a soon become less important than the desert home in Taos. New Mexico based spoken word, Luhan hosted a salon in upon the saving principles of the Pueblo which some of the most creative and Indian way of life. Along the way she stimulating people of the time exchanged acquired four husbands: two old stock ideas. Individuals as diverse as Bill Americans, one Jewish immigrant artist, Haywood. Hutchins Hapgood, Emma and one full-blooded Pueblo Indian. (The Goldman. Margaret Sanger, Carl Van naming dilemmas caused by these Vechten, Walter Lippmann, A.A. Brill, numerous spouses may have been behind and Lincoln Steffens rubbed shoulders Rudnick"s decision to refer to her subject and produced mental sparks. The com­ as Mabel). She also had some famous bination of notorious people and vital is­ lovers, most notably John Reed in his sues garnered national fame for the even­ pre-Louise Bryant days. Her compelling ings. personality and skill in making things These gatherings also stimulated happen led many artists to view her and Luhan's ability to organize and catalyze write about her ambivalently. For them groups for action, and showed her will­ she was the embodiment of the new ingness to dip into her purse where neces­ America that was best represented by the sary for radical causes. For instance, Woman as World Builder. Among the when Bill Haywood was searching for a people she drew into her orbit were way to convey to New York workers the Gertrude and Leo Stein. Bernard Beren- sufferings of striking, Paterson New Jer­ son. Max Eastman. D.H. Lawrence, Geor­ sey silk workers, Luhan suggested that gia 0"Keefe. and Robinson Jeffcrs. they hire Madison Square Garden and The most famous and turbulent reenact the scenario. Thus was born the period of her life was also the shortest. 1913 Paterson Strike Pageant, "one of the After eight years in Europe, during which most unusual cultural events in American she had tried to make herself whole and history." united "the labor of anarchists, well be becoming a Renaissance lady. socialist, philanthropists, painters, and Luhan returned in 1912 to an industrial poets." (86) America whose careless, even callous, Luhan's magnetism in these years in­ use of human life was under attack. Set­ duced several rhapsodic male discourses tling in New York City, she was immedi­ on the power of woman as muse. As a ately drawn to Greenwich Village, home Greenwich Village New Woman, she was of the "'Lyrical Life.' whose cultural ostensibly a sexually liberated, equal politics sought to undermine the proper­ companion to men. In fact, however, she, ty-oriented, regimented, guilt-ridden like many of her female friends, still bourgeois civilization that had spawned tended to live her life through men. By REVIEWS 345

serving as hetaira. and identifying herself of D.H. Lawrence, for instance, is truly with woman as earth mother. Luhan enlightening. "would shine the energy and exuberance The portrait of Mabel Dodge Luhan of her life-force" (107) on men to free that emerges from this book is compell­ their creative energies and to regenerate ing. At the same time, there is a part of me society. The radical men with whom which stands apart aghast, at the resour­ Luhan associated, while believing in ces Luhan was able to put into her search equal educational and job opportunities for wholeness, at the identification of her for women, enthusiastically embraced own needs with those of the country. No this vision of women which served them one and nothing were exempt from ap­ so well. propriation if she though they could fill Luhan was never able to abandon her her bottomless hunger. It is in this limit­ role as hetaira. despite the pain she suf­ less. "innocent" acquisitiveness that fered with every vicarious foray. She Luhan perhaps best exemplifies remained desolate at not claiming her American cultural trends in the twentieth own voice, at not being able to confront century. life directly rather than through men. Her unfulfilled hunger drove her to look else­ Anita Clair Fellman where for wholeness and creative power. Simon Fraser University In 1917 she moved to Taos where she embraced (although never successfully internali/ed) the Pueblo Indian concepts Alan Wald. The New York Intellectuals: of self and community. Serving as a the Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist proponent of the primilivist doctrines ad­ Left from the 1930s to the 1960s (Chapel vocated by many intellectuals of the time. Hill: University of North Carolina Press Luhan spent years trying to save the In­ 1987). dians. their art and culture, so that they in turn could save a bankrupt white America. ONCE AGAIN, THE NEW YORK intellectuals. Rudnick's fascinating biography of Certainly, no milieu with so little actual Luhan is exemplary. She does not get lost political activity on the Left and so little in the detritus of a long and turbulent life, influence on non-intellectuals has oc­ but focuses firmly on a number of themes cupied so much intellectual energy of and preoccupations that emerge recur­ North American graduate students in the rently throughout Luhan"s life. The study last twenty years. The most fascinating is psychologically sophisticated: sym­ thing about the New York Intellectuals, pathetic to its subject, yet far from blind perhaps, is the collective self-creation of to the aspects of her behaviour that were their fame and the exaggeration of their destructive both to herself and others. sometimes radical chic through their con­ Rudnick's sensitivity to the cultural set­ siderable power of influence upon the or­ tings is also noteworthy. The Buffalo. gans of liberal and neo-conservative Florence. Greenwich Village, and Taos of intellectual life. So what do they have to Luhan's circle come alive. Luhan's do with labour history, anyway? friends, who are known to us as famous That's the point, or one of the main and accomplished artists, take on new and points, of Alan Wald's exhaustive and enriched dimensions as Kudnick explores important book. The memoirists among their roles in her subject's life. She ac­ them have been running away from their complishes this through insightful shared Trotskyist past for many years. analyses of the pictorial and literary rep­ Even Irving Howe, the one figure who has resentations of Luhan that many of them remained radical (albeit in a Social were moved to create. Here too, she is Democratic sense), reduces the most radi­ able to be both sympathetic and cognizant cal part of his past to a virtual footnote of of the more unattractive aspects of these his autobiography. Wald is determined to artists" behaviour or beliefs. Her portrayal set the record straight. He does so with a 346 LABOUR I.E TRAVAIL

microscopic thoroughness which defies docs not make the point, they had no refutation — the wounded public respon­ particular interest in either the ethnic cul­ ses of a few undaunted sell-apologists tures (such as Yiddish literature) exalted such as Sidney Hook notwithstanding — by Popular Front segments, or folk music and thereby offers us hope that the subject of the Woody Guthrie/Leadbelly variety has finally found its definitive author. embraced by Communists, or even the A slightly earlier study. Alexander politics of popular culture (such as the Bloom's Prodigal Sons: The New York racial integration of baseball, or the Intellectuals ami Their World (I9K6) boxing triumph of Joe Louis) where anti- frames the political devolution by racist and Marxist ideas coincided. Their straightforwardly suggesting that these antidote to American philistinism — as overwhelmingly Jewish intellectuals they defined it — and to Stalinist culture drifted rightward as they moved upward was the European artistic tradition and its from immigrant poverty to secure status American applications. They would be­ and fame. Wald begins with the equally come the exemplars of high-culture sensible proposition that we need to focus Modernism. more upon personalities, networks, and Here. I think Wald misses an oppor­ historical context. He finds, among other tunity to drive home a familiar point of key developments, a deeply Jewish iden­ the 1930s, but one often forgotten after­ tity (excepting gentiles Dwight Mac- ward. Leon Trotsky had a virtually unique donald. James T. Farrell. Mary Mc­ appeal, among the Russian Revolutionary Carthy, and a few others), a sometimes leaders, as an intellectual type. Not only but not always contradictory fascination was he deeply cultured, closer to aris­ with cosmopolitan ideas, and above all an tocratic in his tastes than bourgeois or impassioned response to the personal and plebeian. But he constructed, under the social crises posed by the Great Depression. polemical fire of the 1920s, a theory of It is the last point which seemed, in culture and socialism in which the theirearly evolution, the most salient, and intellectual's role remained more which provided the source of their most predominant, even, than in Lenin's militant radicalism. Awakened to politics theoretical projection of the Vanguard amid their evolution as intellectuals, they Party. Lenin, near the end of his life, had mostly looked for a spiritual home around his views tempered by the appearance of the communist Party. Quickly disil­ the Soviets, and by the reality of a vast lusioned. they moved toward Trotskyism. and isolated Revolutionary Russia which Wald intends here to investigate the urgently needed to emancipate its citizens revolutionary socialist alternatives avail­ for their own self-rule. Trotsky's own able. But one can quarrel a bit with his Problems of Everyday Life notwithstand­ focus. Most radicalized intellectuals and ing. the prophet of the Fourth Internation­ workers sooner or later abandoned the al tended to describe a future, post- Communist Parly; but quite a few stayed revolutionary culture which could not be a long time, and only a tiny traction, over- anticipated by the proletariat under whelmingly intellectuals, took up capitalism but would, rather, be realized Trotskyism. Why did the New York Intel­ from the highest accomplishments of cul­ lectuals do so? ture within class society. Perhaps he did The answer seems at once too simple not intend it so, but Trotsky was broadly and too difficult, even in Wald's careful interpreted as meaning the creations of personality studies. They despised the the intellectuals above all. reduction of cultural, especially literary At any rate, the vision of a revolution­ questions, to the class struggle line of ary alternative to Stalinism under­ Proletarian Literature. They resented standably had a great charisma for the even more, if possible, the vogue of non- young Jewish radical thinkers. How much class struggle. Popular Front literature that vision impelled them to take action and films. Obviously, although Wald beyond, say, signing petitions and penning REVIEWS 347 occasional essays has long been a subject around. of contention. Wald settles the question Now. why should these once-im­ by examining the lives of the few who poverished. once-Trotskyist intellectuals joined the staff of Trotskyis! publications. become the foremost ideologists of an threw themselves into the Socialist imperial WASP world-view which not Workers or Workers Parly affairs, and for even WASPs themselves, aside from Sun a time sought to be "professional Belt fanatics like Ronald Reagan and revolutionaries." Most, of course, did not. lelevangelists. still believe in? Wald at­ They evolved through their political tributes this to a "quondam Marxist stages at one remove from action as. for analysis of the dynamic of capitalist instance, in the pages of the Partisan society as a struggle between the haves Review. against the have-nots," with the New One of Wald's great virtues is to trace York Intellectuals having decisively their steady rethinking stage-by-stage. changed sides. Perhaps. I do not wish to Generally, but not in all cases. World War oversimplify Wald's points in any way, II provided the turning point. The most but I feel here we are back to an intellec- avant garde (Irving Howe, for instance) tualizcd version of Bloom's thesis in which took the position that neither of the two upward mobility turns immigrant boys and sides deserved support, and that socialists girls nasty. should attempt to build up a "Third Alternatively, as with the recent intel­ Camp" fora much-anticipated revolution­ lectual probing of sexual politics in Roy ary surge immediately after the fighting Cohn. Joe McCarthy's secretly stopped. Others, the Partisan Review homosexual counsel, we need to ask what crowd in particular, went over with both youthful hurt these men and women ab­ feet to support of the Allies in defense of sorbed and later turned into a weapon of world democracy. Both sides, with the hatred against all those who reminded exception of a handful of Trotskyist and them of a half-repressed self. What hid­ anarcho-pacif ist holdouts, came out of the den self-revulsion impels those intellec­ war experience convinced that Stalinism tuals (who. projecting their sentiments and the Soviet Union had to be resisted by outward, unembarrassedly accuse radical all means — including the US military Jews of self-hatred) to deny the implica­ apparatus. tions of historic misery and exploitation Further down the line, more than a in a Western Civilization which so often few would become fervent supporters denied their own Jewish predecessors (apologists would not be too strong a basic human dignity? We ask in sorrow, word) of Israel, in part as a psychological for we already know the answer. mea culpa for having inadequately op­ The New York Intellectuals urgently posed Naziism up to the Death Camp wanted, as young men and women, to be revelations. Nearly all would discover accepted, respected, and honoured as cul­ that the virtues of American liberalism tured thinkers. Communism had no place demanded defense against the purported for them, and vice-versa. Later, not even threats posed by Vietnamese villagers and the Holocaust could convince them of a Latin American peasants, among others, fundamental sickness in the West which and that the American defenders of those foreshadowed alike the Hitler's Death benighted peoples should be treated as the Camps. Stalin's Slave Labor Camps, and internal enemies of democracy. And fur­ Truman's introduction of atomic warfare. ther: that Women's Liberation. World (as Themselves now a respected part of the opposed to Western) Civilization courses West, they increasingly took up the last in the Liberal Arts curriculum, peace great crusade, continued domination of movements, affirmative action, and seem- the planet in the name of high culture — ingly liberal or tolerinrr .inded or high culture in the name of planetary phenomena collectively accelerated the domination. They succeeded not in ac­ famous "decline of values" impending all complishing this ultimately impossible 348 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL aim. but in killing off what early Yiddish collaborationist rendition of the popular writers called "the Little Jew." that is. the front imaginable as the healthy craving of Jewish representative of all suffering a domestic radicalism pregnant with the humankind. With that stroke they aban­ possibility of actually influencing the doned their claim to relevance for the course of American politics. Whatever history of workers' movements, and the the parental fantasies, however, the ul­ history of much else as well. timate offspring of the popular front project — in America as elsewhere — Paul Buhlc proved at best to be stillborn, at worst the Rhode Island School of Design butchered fetus of a backroom political abortionist. In this new study Isserman focuses on Maurice Isserman. // / Had a Hammer: the left in the 1950s. His purpose is to The Death of the Old Left and the Birth of establish a connection between the the New Left (New York: Basic Books decline of the old left and the birth of the 1987). new left in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Isserman fails to demonstrate persuasive­ THK HISTORIOGRAPHY of the American ly the link he is at pains to establish, and left has had a curious trajectory. Once the his book, while containing much within terrain of Cold War warriors beating their its various parts that is useful, is a rather anti-Soviet drums, it has recently come to idiosyncratically-marshalled collection be dominated by a voluntaristic com­ of snapshots of sections of the left. While munity of radical exiles from the 1960s. some of these sections no doubt over­ captivated by the Popular Front era and lapped. and while all certainly played formed in the heady days of Students for some role in setting the stage for the rise a Democratic Society. There is no deny­ of the New Left. Isserman's reading of ing the advances in knowledge and their significance is specious and his ar­ perspective that have been gained over gument about their connectedness often the last fifteen years, but it is also evident spurious. that historical interpretation of the The journey begins with an account American left has descended into a kind of the collapse of the Communist Party in of pluralist pit. where virtually anything the 1950s, familiar enough in its outlines goes, especially if it can be rooted in and not researched deeply. In this quick something akin to radicalism and easy once over what emerges most Americanized. The shortcoming of most strikingly is the author's antagonism to recent scholarship is that it has. with ref­ William Z. Foster, the principles of erence to the Communist Party, refused Leninist organizational practice (however resolutely to address the connection be-. distorted by Stalinism), and so-called sec­ tween developments in the international tarianism. Browder's post-war fall from communist movement (depicted by grace apparently sealed the fate of the Theodore Draper and Company as the en­ CPUSA. tire history of the American CP) and the With the CP spent as a force capable domestic activity of communists in the of creating a new left by the 1950s, the United States (too often reified and vacuum is filled, for Isserman, by Max romanticized by a new generation of his­ Shachtman, whose history encompassed a torians of communism). rare and vital engagement with revolu­ Maurice Isserman has contributed tionary politics in the 1920s and 1930s, more than a little to this impasse. His capitulation to the pressure of anti- earlier study of the CPUSA during World Sovietism in a 1940 embrace of "Third War II presents Browder's appetite for Campism," and a slow, agonizing death Americanizing the Party, subduing the march to the right that ended in ugly so­ practice of class struggle, and orchestrat­ cial patriotism (defence of the Bay of Pigs ing communist activity within the most invasion and support for the Vietnam REVIEWS 349

War), and abandonment of a program of Just before the proposed amalgamation class struggle through unquestioning was to be ratified, Shachtman met with SP reliance on the most reactionary pillars of member and founder of Canadian the labour bureaucracy. Trotskyism. Maurice Spector, who knew Shachtman is a figure of great impor­ Shachtman from the first years of the anti- tance in the history of the American left. Stalinist movement in North America. but it is not for the reasons Isscrman sug­ Spector reportedly said, "When Max gets gests. Indeed, his revolutionary past is in he's going to go so far to the right that skirted in this study and crucial accessible you won't believe it .... I'm an old published texts central to an under­ Trotskyism I know the signs." (73) A his­ standing of Trotskyism and Shachtman in tory of Shachtman that took Spector's as­ the 1930s are unexplored by Isserman sessment and explored its meaning in the who. once again, touches only the most context of Shachtman's development obvious bases. Shachtman exercises a fas­ would have been a contribution. Forcing cination for Isserman precisely because Shachtman into some pigeon-hole as a he was supposedly a youth rather than father of the New Left is a project that is working-class leader. Unlike James P. both less interesting and more ques­ Cannon and the Socialist Workers party tionable. of the 1940s and 1950s. Shachtman One of Shachtman's early recruits oriented himself to what there was of was Irving Howe. He and the journal he campus radicalism. Isscrman is drawn to helped to found. Dissent, also merit a this field-of-force because he is con­ chapter in this study. The early available vinced. like so many other New Leftists. sources — Dissent itself is cited in ap­ that the working class is no longer the proximately half of the footnotes to the pre-eminent force for social change in chapter, while Howe's own writings America. punctuate many of the remainder— make But just how influential Shachtman this, too, a story with obvious research was in the birth of the New Left is never foundations. For those with an interest in demonstrated and evidence of his shaping Howe there may well be matters of inter­ of the politics of campus rebellion in the est raised. Yet it remains a question as to 1960s, or the early stirrings of a rather how significant Howe was to both the old nebulous American new left in the late left and the new, however neatly he fits 1950s, is notable in its absence. Instead into the intellectual history of modern we have Isserman asserting the connec­ America, where he has managed, with tion he should be proving, claiming a link considerable effort, to carve himself a by virtue of some rather dubious logic: place of some prominence. "Any new Left was bound to be in large After spending half of his study on the measure a young Left, and by the 1950s CP, Shachtman. and Howe, Isserman Shachtman had had three decades ex­ moves toward slightly more original perience as a "youth leader'. So ground, devoting a penultimate chapter to Shachtman's candidacy as a potential the emergence of radical pacifism and the shaperof a New Left was not as farfetched civil rights movement in the 1950s. This a proposition as it might initially appear." is a chapter that does break some new (39) The entire chapter on Shachtman. ground and there are connections — lar­ revealingly entitled "A Sectarian's gely through personalities such as A.J. Progress." is thus something of an Muste. Dave Dellinger, and Baynard Rus- ideologically-mounted exercise in wish- tin — between the old left and the radical fulfillment. movements of mid-century. The direct ac­ To be sure, it contains material and tion campaigns of a committed few in evidence of importance, as when Isser­ Montgomery or New York City civil man explores the merger of the defence protests registered directly with Shachtmanite Independent Socialist elements of the non-communist old left, League and the Socialist Party in 1958. but Isserman too easily merges this his- 350 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

tory with that of a more liberal-inspired suggests. One wonders about the other patrician opposition to nuclear was that left paths not explored, especially the consolidated in the Committee for Non- Socialist Workers Party and its role in Violent Direct Action and that look its ornanizing protest against the Vietnam ideological cues from Gandhi. War. He then makes an inferential leap. Isserman concludes his book with striding toward his final chapter on the these words: "As its inheritance from the new left with the determination of a pole Old Left, the New Left took to heart those vaulter. Armed with his thesis of the con­ lessons that in the short run allowed it to nectedness of old and new lefts he lifts grow spectacularly, but not he lessons himself off the ground of solid evidence that in the long run might have allowed it to sail through the air toward a rather to survive fruitfully." (219) It is also pos­ startling conclusion, he cites a radical sible to read this book differently, to sug­ pacifist writing in 1958: "I strongly gest that the American New Left's ex­ believe the United Stales Pacifist move­ plosive and largely spontaneous arrival ment is entering a stage where God's had little to do with any lessons learned power will be breaking forth again and and far more to do with the objective again .... Watch these bursts of power.' ... economic, social, and political context of The stakes arc high! Use God's power to the early-to-mid 1960s. And its collapse win them!" (167-8) Well off the ground. was an outcome of that very process of Isserman concludes from such rhetoric spontaneous combustion. Never having that there was a link between the late taken to heart any serious, substantive 1950s radical pacifists and the Weather lessons of politics, it went with the flow, Underground of the later 1960s, claiming avoided programmatic clarity and a sense that these two moments shared "a moral of strategic direction, and, in its last days, urgency that precluded consideration of fractured inevitably into competing fac­ political effectiveness, an identification tions and isolated individuals, many of with a force larger than the individual, a whom tried desperately to begin to learn desire, above all else, to display one's the lessons of political life that their personal commitment to the cause, even movement had so assiduously shielded (or especially) if it involved the risk of them from. injury of death." (169) This is bit like saying the Weathermen were connected to John Brown, a point Bill Ayers and his Bryan D. Palmer comrades would no doubt have accepted. Queen's University but one which is. historically, a little silly nevertheless. Ellen Israel Rosen, Bitter Choices: Blue- The book ends with a brief 36-page Collar Women in and out of Work chapter "Toward the New Left." It struc­ (Chicago: University of Chicago Press tures the early history of the New Left. 1987). understandably, around the old pacifist A.J. Muste. the Shachtmanite Young IN RETROSPECT, it is little short of amaz­ People's Socialist League, peace and civil ing, not merely how briefly the American rights bodies, and the birth of Students for Century lasted, but that so many intel­ a Democratic Society. There are insight­ ligent and thoughtful people believed that ful connections drawn and at times Isser­ it would last forever. A major part of the man comes close to tying up the many myth was that working people in the loose ends that clutter up previous pages. United States and elsewhere had been When it all ends, abruptly, in 1965. Isser­ economically and culturally assimilated man has established that the old left was into the "middle class." The "affluence" certainly influential in the birth of the new of many workers (never really including left, but not that the strands of the old left the vast majority of blue collar workers, he has isolated were as pre-eminent as he be they women, people of colour, and REVIEWS 351

others in secondary labour markets) in the whom are employed in the fiber in­ 1940s. 1950s, and 1960s supposedly in­ dustries. The women, mostly native-born, cluded having a house, a car. a television but a substantial percentage Portuguese, set. and some measure of job security. In ranged in age from their early twenties to the 1970s and 1980s, the permanence of near retirement. Bitter Choices not only this dream has come to a screeching halt reports on and synthesizes the results of and with it the illusions of industrial rela­ these interviews, but uses a variety of tions pluralists who believed that a stable. statistical techniques, including partial cooperative collective bargaining system correlation, multiple regression, and in was the inevitable result of a developed one place discriminant function analysis, capitalist society. to draw generalizations about its subjects. Much prominence has been given in Among the most interesting and im­ the media during the past decade to job portant results are those showing the posi­ competition from Japan, Western Europe, tive psychic as well as material benefits and various underdeveloped countries. — despite hard work, nerve-wracking One of the results has supposedly been the pressure from piece work, and low wages turning of much of the United States's — gained by most women workers. Even (and some of Canada's) industrial with the double shift of factory work and heartland into a "rust belt." Some of this housework, the large majority of women attention has focused on largescale interviewed would not prefer to remain layoffs in the automobile industry and the home as housewives, supported by their plight of Detroit, the devastation of steel husbands. Thus, their jobs not only add to and its effects on Pittsburgh, their strength of identity and sense of self- Youngstown. and South Chicago/In­ worth, both as a contribution to the family diana. the decline of rubber in Akron and economic vitality and as participants in Toledo, and the widespread unemploy­ socially important tasks. In addition, and ment of construction workers. These in­ partly as a result of these latter effects, dustries. of course, have historically their jobs lead to more stable, egalitarian employed an overwhelming majority of marriages, including greater sharing of male workers. Yet. as Ellen Israel Rosen household and childcare responsibilities underscores, in Bitter Choices a similar with their husbands, according to Rosen. trend of job loss has taken place in the Despite the fact that these women work. fiber (textile and garment) and electrical hard largely because of economic neces­ industries, employing fully as many sity at wages that would spell poverty for workers and losing as many jobs as the a single household head, despite the basic, male-dominated industries. These double shift, these women should not be industries, overwhelmingly employing viewed as "alienated," pathetic, or female labour, have been just as hard hit downtrodden. by automation, industrial restructuring, Because of this finding, it is not but primarily by the movement of produc­ surprising to see Rosen's occasional tion away from North America to ex­ snipes at traditionalists who are "mem­ tremely low-paid female workers in un­ bers of the Moral Majority" (93) who derdeveloped countries. The effects of would remove women from the workforce this process on women blue-collar and send more of them back to the home, workers have drawn relatively little atten­ or at Martin Feldstein (130), a Harvard tion among academics or in the press. It economist and former head of President is the working and living conditions of Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors. these women workers, both employed and In fact, many of her insights about the unemployed, that Rosen seeks to describe strength gained by women working and in her volume. their rewards, both psychic and material, The research presented is based on are quite consonant with traditional Mar­ over 400 interviews with blue-collar xist views, starting with Frederick Engels women workers in New England, many of who argued that real equality for women, 352 LABOUR, LE TRAVAIL

both in marriage and society ai large, re­ taken during strikes. Individual inter­ quired the ending of economic depend­ views arc. of course, notorious for slight­ ency through equality in the labour force. ing social movements and collective ac­ So too are her remarks about the irrecon­ tion. At a time when there have been cilability of conflict between production many heroic struggles by women workers workers and capitalists: in the United Slates, from the recently settled strike of the largely non-white Women who hold factor) johs learn very female workers at Watsonville Cannery in quickly thai the relations of ihe work process California to the decades-long struggle of are a direel embodiment of" management's ef­ women textile workers in the South forts to eel them to work as hard and as fast as depicted in the film Norma Rae, it is cer­ the\ possihK can and for ihe least amount of money .... In that sense they are class-con­ tainly not objective to dismiss such ac­ scious. (67) tivities from the world of female blue-col­ lar workers, just because they are not Thus, quite surprising are her broadside highlighted in one's interviews. attacks upon various Marxists and radi­ Also problematic is the book's accep- cals. including "male Marxists" who tance of familiar arguments that "have defended the \irtues of higher deunioni/ation of factory workers is the wages for men and the benefits of stay-at- inevitable result of "massive regional home wives for the working-class fami­ shifts of employment from the Frost Belt ly." (93) Kcw of the references given in to the Sun Belt." (24) Rosen also sees the her footnotes appear to substantiate any need for legislation to protect the jobs of of her attacks. Ironically, the main target women workers in the US. even extolling of her attack above seems to be directed the 1979 Chrysler "bailout" which forced against some secondary remarks in two union workers to accept wage cuts that articles by Jane Humphries. The other were not called for in their contracts. target argues similarly to Rosen that the (I7S) Rather, I would argue, a far better effects of women's labour force participa­ solution — one which accepted the tion at substandard wages is "often con­ validity of the needs of women workers in tradictory." not too dissimilar to the underdeveloped countries as well as in "bitter choice" Rosen argues that laid-off North America — which should be sup­ women workers must face. These remarks ported by all unions, would be the en­ and asides are not one of the strongpoints couragement of the unionization of of the book. workers in Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and The work, with its obvious strengths. Mexico, and the support of the already has certain other weaknesses, which are unionizing workers in South Korea. heightened by the author's lack of sen­ Despite these broad criticisms, the sitivity to the limits of the individual in­ book has much to offer in its careful terview method. Though over 90 per cent documentation of the world of New of the women workers interviewed were England women workers. One hopes that union members, little is said about unions its focus on the effects of industrial and labour struggles. In describing the restructuring and deindustrialization on working-class communities where the the lives of a significant group of women women live. Rosen notes that "The com­ workers will help encourage public munity retains its tradition of class con­ debate in this sphere. sciousness and labor militancy .... the union hall is still located in the center of Michael Goldfield town." (28) But when discussing the results of the interviews, she goes to great Cornell University lengths to argue that none of the women are "militant." or showing "courage and resistance in the face of exploitation." Presumably none of the interviews were REVIEWS 353

K. D. M. Snell. Ann ah of the L about Poor: change, also preceded Snell's but, again, Social Change and Agrarian England, neither receive their due. lf>60-IQ00 (Cambridge: Cambridge Following in these footsteps. Annals University Press 1985). of the Labouring Poor convinces. Indeed, the connection between unemployment. THIS IS THK MOST RKCF.NT CONTRIBUTION underemployment and enclosure was one to the debate on the standard of living of made at the time. In Midland counties the rural poor during industrialization. In prone to conversion to pasture in the a series of discursive but complementary 1750s, 1760s. and 1770s the opponents of essays organized to follow criteria of the enclosure expected and feared it: "We see quality of life that the poor themselves whole townships" Brigstock petitioners might have chosen. Keith Snell describes wrote "managed by a shepherd or two and the transformation of the eighteenth-cen­ their dogs." More generally, the decline tury "labouring poor" in southern and of small owner-occupiers after enclosure, eastern England into nineteenth-century the indebtedness of survivors, and the ex­ agricultural labourers. Taking settlement propriation of common rights (or their examinations made under the old poor appropriation with inadequate compensa­ law. and an impressively wide range of tion). all increased the supply of labour. printed primary materials. Snell traces the And for some proponents of enclosure growth of seasonal unemployment, the like Arbuthnot. and many Reporters to the eclipse of women as agricultural workers. Board of Agriculture like Billingsley and and the decline of farm service and ap­ Middleton. this was one of enclosure's prenticeship. Most notably he argues a prime attractions. A more abundant connection between parliamentary workforce was cheaper and more trac­ enclosure and the deteriorating state (for table. Exceptions to the rule, places where labour) of the labour market. He rejects the demand for labour may have grown, utterly J.D. Chambers's optimistic argu­ were parishes where a counter-conver­ ment that enclosure multiplied employ­ sion from pasture to arable took place (the ment opportunities. In doing so he puts light lands of East Anglia, and, temporari­ the Cambridge seal of approval on an ly. on heavier lands during the French interpretation more usually associated wars): or where a more perfect practice, with John and Barbara Hammond. or a more intensely-cultivated agricul­ ture. followed enclosure. But even here, The collection is a landmark of Snell argues, the necessary growth of revisionist history, if a personal, oc­ employment was limited by other calls on casionally idiosyncratic, even arrogant capital, namely "the cost of enclosure it­ one. As is often the case with revisions it self. so frequently in excess of prediction: is less path-breaking than it claims. We the increases of rent immediately after or should note those historians (W.G. Hos- even before enclosure; the over-cropping kins. Joan Thirsk. Edward Thompson) between act and award; the tendency of who were never convinced by the increased output to fall far behind such Clapham-Chambers-Mingay orthodoxy rises in rent; the rising poor relief costs" of benevolent enclosure. We should not all "compounded by shallow profit mar­ too that Ann Kussmaul's Farm Servants gins and the early nineteenth-century in Early Modern England (1981). which agricultural depression, which particular­ makes the same connection between ly affected the more recently enclosed decline in service and the incidence of corn-growing parishes" where enclosure enclosure as Snell. preceded Annals. costs were particularly steep. (194) A though Snell gives it only the slightest more enduring result of enclosure than the acknowledgement. (69) Equally, J.M. initial flowering of jobs for newly wage- Martin's study of enclosure's disruptive dependent labourers was the growth of effects in Warwickshire, and his and unemployment after 1814. Annals of the Michael Turner's work on the relation­ Labouring Poor puts an historian's seal ship between enclosure and landholding 354 LABOUR LE TRAVAIL

on the contemporary perception. That it labourers as the worse of all the damages does so with .1 broad intelligence, an ad­ enclosure inflicted. "The most important mirable persistence, and some passion is social fact about [the open-field system]" all to the benefit of contemporary debate: they wrote, "is that is provided oppor­ Snell enters the argument with a contribu­ tunities for the humblest and poorest tion to current scholarship that must not labourer to rise in the village .... The com­ be underestimated or ignored. mon ... formed the lowest rung in a social What he does not do (despite his sub­ ladder leading to the occupation of a hold­ title) is describe the rural society in the ing. This is the distinguishing mark of the eighteenth century from which the old village." Its absence was the distin­ guishing mark of the new. nineteenth-century proletariat came. The blame for ibis lies will) his reliance on one The implications of this concern power. manuscript source: poor law settlements. Before enclosure it is likely that widespread These illustrate the employment histories petty landholding and the enjoyment of of those likely to need relief (after 1795 common pasture and other common rights, they cover only those actually claiming coupled with unimproved rents, labour it). But in the eighteenth century, as Snell shortage, and the support commons gave knows, employment was not the sole the poor rate, encouraged the survival of a source of family income, perhaps often substantial small peasantry. Like most not the main one. Common rights and peasantries they were alive to their own best landholding were equally important. interests, able enough with petitions, quick sometimes more important than labour. to remind would-be-enclosers of earlier Snell does not neglect commons, but he debts and older alliances, not slow to does define landholding as outside his threaten or damage: in a word, convinced of ambit, despite his own evidence that in the value of dialogue. Dependent on labour their letters home the emigrant poor them­ as well as land and rights these peasants and selves talked about access to land only their sons or daughters inevitably found less often than their love for their their way into the parlours of J.P.s where families. As a result Snell's eighteenth- their employment histories were examined. century "labouring poor" are labourers But what would not be recorded in these with a labour market working in their interviews was their expectation of land favour, while his nineteenth-century (through saving, marriage, inheritance, labourers are labourers with one working good fortune, low rent) or their remarkably against them. Only the labour market equal relationship with small farmers and tenants and. through them, with parsons, defines their difference. This itself is im­ landlords, and neighbouring gentry. Had portant and the examination given here is Snell used the Land tax records to look at a substantial and authoritative contribu­ landholding (instead he rejects them as tion to any study of the standard of living worthless), and estate papers, court records, in this period. But because Snell shies and newspapers to look at resistance to away from looking at landholding he is enclosure (which shows the solidarity of the unaware of the survival of peasant society petty landed and the apparently landless), in open-field England in the eighteenth he might have found a different social struc­ century (one some historians argue lasted ture on the land in the years before in many places into the mid-nineteenth enclosure, not simply a different labour century) and consequently the place of market. He might have given us an account these "labourers'" within it. Pre-enclosure of how an opinionated and intractable labour may have been less a privileged eighteenth-century peasantry became a workforce living in a golden age than part nineteenth-century proletariat noted for its of this landed society, living in hope or appearance of deference, its air of knowing expectation of land. The Hammonds. all and saying nothing: in two words, its whose view of enclosure Snell so often belief in the complementary values of vindicates, did not overlook this. On the silence and arson. Instead Snell gives us a contrary, they saw the loss of land by humane and compassionate account of the REVIEWS 355 labour market, and account alive to the pened to them in the twentieth. vital implications of such a subject, but F.verywhere Price stresses historical con­ also one which ignores the fuller iden­ text: we are shown the Industrial Revolu­ tities. and with them the agency, of its tion not a great breakthrough of tech­ own actors. nological improvement, but as a process of accretion accomplished through exten­ J.M. Neeson sions and intensifications of older forms of production. And the working class that York University- was "made" by this revolution is Richard Price. Labour in British Society presented as not entirely new; by 1750 it (London: Croom Helm 1986). already had a strong artisanal heritage to draw on. What made the period before THIS IS AN AMHITIOI.S and important 1850 so productive and so turbulent was book. It attempts both a ^interpretation neither the wholesale introduction of new and reintegration of the course of British means of production nor the birth, working-class history over the last 200 Athena-like, of a new class; Price argues years. It also tries to understand this his­ that the forces that set the pace in this tory using Marxist categories of explana­ period were changes in world markets, tion. but without that sense of teleology. changes in the labour market, and the of preordained or inevitable patterning. increased specialization and division of that has marred earlier attempts. Its ex­ labour. planations are entirely historical and Price also contends that the victory of therefore entirely contingent. the manufacturing classes over labour and The heart of the book lies in Chapter the labour process was less complete and 5 and 6 which cover the period 1880 to different than currently believed. On the 1926. It is in this period. Price argues, that one hand, while adopting Thompson's the real revolution in industry took place. distinction between a "moral" and a not as has commonly been assumed, in the "political" economy. Price maintains that 50 years following 1750. This complex the victory of the latter over the former change, in the late nineteenth century. was not complete until the 1840s. Further­ revolved around the growing centrality of more managers neither had nor desired class and the replacement of voluntary the sort of control over the shop floor that associations by formal and professional characterizes modern industrial manage­ associations of classes and interests. Most ment. After a vigorous and partially suc­ important was the revolution in the labour cessful attack on apprenticeship, that process brought about by increased inter­ pivotal structure for shop floor power, national competition and attempts to in­ many crafts were able to reassert their troduce Taylorism and modernize rights to its regulation and strengthen production through a complete division of their control of industrial education and function and bureaucratization of super­ the labour market. The nature of the vision. In Britain both workers and relationship between master and capitalists were forced, either explicitly employee remained quasi-paternal. As or tacitly, to make choices between im­ Price points out, the central problem for proved profits and continuing labour and management was not how to increase social stability. The reasons for productivity but how to improve workers' Taylorisme initial attenuation in Britain, habits, not to get them to work harder but its gradual transformation and acceptance to come more regularly, despite St. Mon­ is concisely presented in these chapters. days. local fairs, and holidays. The rest of the book is by no means Price, like Stedman Jones, sees this negligible. Price uses his study of the period as essentially backward-looking, longer period to "frame" the latc- informed by artisanal concerns and an nineleenth-cenlury changes, to see how artisanal radicalism. Rejecting the notion and why they developed and what hap­ that Chartism was the political furnace 356 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

from which the working class emerged, fects of World War I and government he argues that the very strength of Char­ policy on this struggle is both synthetical­ tism proved the absence of working-class ly satisfying and illuminating. consciousness or structure. Attractive to Despite the deserved high praise, this both artisans and factory workers. Char­ is not a faultless book. I think it is fair to tism could not provide class cohesiveness take exception to the clumsy chunkiness since its appeal was not based on shared of some of its language; if the history of work experience. working people and their movements is The mid-century golden equipoise ever to speak to the very people it was the result. Price holds, of a describes, it must strive to be clear, direct "negotiated reconstruction of the society and easy. The ease of good prose has hierarchy." Not only was there a conver­ nothing condescending about it; on the gence of middle and working-class no­ contrary it shows the care its author has tions of improvement and respectability. taken in finding not only the most precise, but the social relations that structured the but also the most accessible language in workplace had greater links w ith the past which to tell his story. And finally as an than the future. The most striking change historian of the eighteenth as well as was the increased paternalism of nineteenth centuries, I would have liked employers beyond the workplace. Price to read a bit more about the relations of argues that this increase is proof of the labour and authority in the earliest period. workers" shopfloor strength. He il­ Now especially, with historians denying lustrates the way such control might be the very existence of even an embryonic maintained, even in theoretically less or potential working class in the skilled occupations, like spinning: in this eighteenth century, it is essential for his­ industry spinners "adjusted" and in­ torians of the left to describe its artisanal dividualized their machines to such a de­ life, and its relations with and views of gree that only a particular operative could political power. run it. It was the constant negotiation be­ In short, Price's Labour in British tween employer and employee, rather Society is a thick, textured, and complex than any predetermined or national account or rather argument about the na­ policy. Price stresses, which created this ture of working-class aspirations, and mid-Victorian industrial and political how they got to be what they are. Though period of consensus. Price ends on an appropriately indeter­ In contrast, the changes in social rela­ minate note, the reader is left with the tions brought about by the introduction of hope that British working men and new techniques of production in the late women, having come through so much in nineteenth century necessitated a massive so many different ways, will manage to "reorientation of authority relations" both weather Mrs. Thatcher's attempts to pro­ within and outside the workplace. Kven vide the final solution to the problem of here Price notes that disruption "was British labour. more a result of the internal decay of prior social relations" ( 104-5) than the result of Donna T. Andrew novel technology. However as the process of "deskilling" accelerated and as University of Guelph new systems of payment were introduced. it was inevitable that management would Angela John, éd.. Unequal Oppor­ become more bureaucratized and work tunities: Women 's Employment in supervision lighter. And here Price mar­ England 1800-1918 (Oxford: Basil shals his most convincing arguments. His Blackwell 1986). account of the birth and struggles of the Labour Party, its conflicts with those who As F.DITOR ANGRI.A JOHN points out in her wished it to place greater emphasis on introduction, the time for general works control of the work process, and the ef­ on women's employment (such as Ivy REVIEWS 357

Pinchbeck's influential Women Workers article on women bookbinders and and the Industrial Revolution) has printers lacks gender analysis but gives a passed: now the only possible format for descriptive account of the plight of skilled a text suitable for courses is that of an craftswomen who fought an uphill battle anthology of monographic studies. What against both profit-seeking employers John docs not say is that, while the and patriarchal unions. The plight of the proliferation of detailed studies is in­ better-known women sweated workers in creasing our collective knowledge of this the needle and other trades is described by new historical field, the specialization Jenny Morris, in what is unfortunately a evident in this anthology is not an un­ weak piece assuming that 'sweating' can mixed blessing: no individual can keep up be defined exclusively by a certain wage with the flood of new works, and there is level, thus neglecting the subjective and a consequent tendency to unnecessarily cultural elements so well studied (espe­ narrow the scope of one's argument. The cially for the English working class) by 'big issues' raised by Pinchbeck. Tilly other historians. Morris also presents a and Scott, and other pioneers are thus left rigid, one-directional framework in unaddressed. Few people make any at­ which mechanization is said to cause tempt at comparative analyses, and many feminization and hence low wages. authors have.immersed themselves in the Domestic servants, the most primary sources but do not engage in numerous of Victorian working women, either historiographical debate or even are the subject of Edward Higgs's article, dialogue with the other contributors. which suffers from an over-reliance on Nevertheless, some of the studies in (indeed an obsession with) census data. this anthology are excellent examples of Such data can tell us what kind of what is possible within the confines of a households had servants, but in order to detailed monograph, and demonstrate an shed light on both the labour process of ability to use a variety of sources and domestic themselves, other types of data methodologies without falling into eclec­ would have to be mined. It is true that ticism. Nancy Grey Ostcrud opens the servants left few autobiographies or collection with a brilliant piece showing records of any kind: but Higgs could have the complex interaction between learned a great deal from Gill Burke's fine household gender relations of production study of Cornish women miners, who also and factory work in the Leicester hosiery left virtually no records but who are industry. The industry relied on the put­ brought to life in this fascinating study. ting out system in the first half of the Burke is mainly concerned with nineteenth century: as knitting was trans­ deconstructing middle-class perceptions, ferred to factories, the seaming of the both male and female, of non-genteel hose was still done by women in the women's work, but by a very careful read­ home, thus institutionalizing a gender ing of admittedly limited sources she division of labour which before factory shows it is possible to write form the production had been much more flexible perspective of the "silent"' women of his­ and informal. When seaming was trans­ tory. Burke is one of the few contributors ferred in turn to factories, women were to this anthology who pays close attention employed but were paid as women, not as to cultural "data" — particularly dress factory workers. The marginalization of codes — without neglecting economic women hosiery workers was thus due factors. neither to patriarch) in the home nor to Clerical workers at the turn of the the blind action of mechanization, but to century are the topic of Meta Zimmeck's the shifting and complex interaction of fine study of the relationship between the household gender relations and factory ideology of gentility and labour market organization. stratification. Unlike other feminist his­ Several other essays tackle the ques­ torians, Zimmeck does not make the false tion of gender and skill. Felicity Hunt's assumption that gender is the only source 358 LABOUR IE TRAVAIL of stratification: male clerks were rigidly criticized by Mappcn. it was an important divided into meaningless categories and way in which middle-class women exer­ ranks. She also shows that the Post Of­ cised their class hegemony while claim­ fice. an important employer of women ing to help working-class women. The clerks, was scriousk concerned with the National Council of Women of Canada moral regulation of its women workers: undertook some questionable "research" management memos argued that if there projects (such as a survey of feeble­ were no marriage bar. married women minded women later exploited by workers would want lo "outrage nature" eugenicists). and it might be interesting by practicing birth control. Management for a Canadian feminist historian to pur­ also claimed that low wages for women sue the intellectual origins of the "protected" them from unscrupulous men Canadian bourgeois feminist's interest in who might marry them for their money! research. These arguments are referred lo by /.im- The final article is a rather confused meck as "the workhouse test." the attempt overview of women in unions before to make sure that no female employment 19IS. by Deborah Thorn, which focuses was so attractive as to discourage mar­ on the World War I tactical dilemmas riage and dependence on male breadwin­ about "dilution" of male skilled jobs ners. The "less eligibility" principle to through the use of female labour. women's employment is a concept that In conclusion, it is clear that while might bear further reflection. some English historians of women's paid The book ends with a series of essays work are still in the grip of economistic on women and unions. The lack of com­ empiricism, others arc being much more parative perspeclixe is a problem here. creative in their search for both sources since it could be argued that English and interpretive frameworks. Nancy Grey unions were particularly masculine and Oslerud's work best demonstrates what patriarchal, hnglish historians assume other historians are also pointing out, that all other countries (including Scot­ namely, that there is not one cause of land) are "special cases." but a less eth­ women's ghettoization, no one route to nocentric perspective might show that marginalization. The anthology as a English trade unions had structures that whole, especially when taken together made them peculiarly suited to patriar­ with the companion volume edited by chal privilege. Jane Lewis (Labour and Love, 1986) Be that as it may. Joanna Bornat's shows the need to look at the life of article on wool and worsted workers women as an integrated whole shaped by reveals the fascinating story of a handful several different variables — household of powerful women union leaders of the work patterns, culture, trade union struc­ 1870s who uncharacteristically opposed ture, the economics of production. The protective legislation. In her article on sooner we understand the variability in social feminism. Ellen Mappen turns her women's oppression, the sooner we will attention to the largely middle-class be able to devise flexible strategies to reformers of the Women's Trade Union overcome it. League and the Women's Industrial Council. The Council is of interest to Mariana Valverde Canadians because its president in 1 893 Trent University was none other than Lady Aberdeen, who in 1894 founded the National Council of Women of Canada. The Council ap­ David Howell, A Lost Life: Three Studies parently emphasized "social research" à in Socialism and Nationalism la Beatrice Webb (as opposed to the more (Manchester: University of Manchester activist orientation of the pro-Labour Press 1986). WTUL). and although this focus on inves­ tigating "less fortunate women" is not DAVID HOWF.I.I. HAS ACCOMPLISHED both REVIEWS 359

more and less than is suggested by the degrees of support. Although controver­ title of this book. Rather than a sustained sial on this and other scores, Tom Nairn's examination of the relationship between discussion of the weakness of Scottish socialism and nationalism, the author ap­ nationalism in the nineteenth century proaches the problem through insightful should alert us to an important fact: the political biographies of three socialists character and strength of a national move­ who grappled with the national question: ment is closely linked to uneven develop­ James Connelly. John Maclean, and John ment. Connelly's depressed Catholic Wheatley. They represent. Howell ar­ Ireland and the booming Clydeside in­ gues. a "lost left."" which was rapidly mar­ dustries which nurture Maclean's ginalized by the orthodoxies of Labour socialism could scarcely provide a greater and Communism. The suggestion is com­ contrast. The nature and strength of pelling. Marxist studies of the national nationalist sentiment would necessarily question are invariably rooted in the differ in each case. If socialists attempt to debates in the Second International be­ address the democratic aspirations in tween Rosa Luxemburg. Otto Bauer, and nationalist movements, each of these ex­ Lenin. After their time, social democracy amples provide quite different pos­ settled on reforming the institutions fo the sibilities. Such a comparison would ap­ "nation-stale."' while the Communist pear to be a necessary starting point, Party"s search for "The British Road to before examining the attempts of in­ Socialism" came to share the same as­ dividual socialists to respond to them. sumptions about the appropriate strategic The real strength of this book lies terrain. Neither tendency was well- elsewhere. The work of a careful and in­ equipped to understand the appeal of cisive historian. A Lost Left presents Con­ "peripheral nationalisms"' in Scotland and nelly. Maclean, and Wheatley as discrete Wales in the early 1970s. The subjects of examples of a displaced socialist Howell's book could, plausibly, offer a for­ creativity. In their own ways, each was gotten insight into the national question in forced to come to terms with questions Britain. that the Labour and Communist Parties Unfortunately, the three studies are have long since declared settled. Howell only tenuously connected in the book's sympathetically and articulately ex­ brief conclusion. Consequently, the amines their individual political journeys author's choice of subjects and their place in a manner which reflects the liveliness within a wider socialist movement is not and complexity of socialist politics in an adequately explained. Nor is there any era punctuated by the Great War, the indication that the "lost left'" to which Easter Rising, and the Bolshevik Revolu­ they belonged was uniquely receptive to tion. The discussion of Connelly, which their nationalism. Rather, their efforts at fills half of this large volume, is the reconciling socialism and nationalism strongest of the three studies. The consis­ relegated ihem 10 the margins of both tency and tension between Connelly's movements. Moreover. Howell makes no revolutionary socialism and his participa­ claim that any of these figures provided a tion in a nationalist insurrection which "viable synthesis'" ( 140) of socialist and lacked immediate socialist goals is ex­ nationalist ideas. Much of the frustration plored. Howell impressively balances a the reader feels is the product of attempt­ critical appraisal of Connelly's tangled ing to address the issue as a series of attempts to root a socialist movement in comparative biographies. The various na­ Ireland's pre-capitalist past, its tradition tional identities which the three in­ of radical agitation, and the persistence of dividuals confronted were not immedi­ Catholicism. At the same time, the ately comparable. Irish and Scottish author's consideration of Connelly's nationalism, let along the "British" decisions reflect Lenin's recognition that nationalism of Wheatley represented "a 'pure' social revolution: is an historical quite different phenomena with varying illusion. Easter 1916 appeared to Connel- 360 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

ly as an opportunity to halt the slaughter was drawn to the reformisim of the Inde­ of the war and to encourage a mass pendent Labour Party rather than to mobili/ation which could potentially turn revolutionary socialism. His experience from national to social goals. Such hopes in the Labour Cabinet deepened his might appear misplaced, but Howell radicalism, but he never accepted the recognizes that such was the choice of a revolutionary premises of Connelly and committed revolutionary in "an increas­ Maclean. In his enthusiasm for an inter­ ingly bleak situation." ( 153) ventionist state, he might better be ex­ Much of Howell's discussion of Con­ amined in the context of the evolution of nelly strays far from the national question social democracy. Although such senti­ and. indeed, from Ireland. Like other ments isolated him from Labourism in the peripatetic revolutionaries. Connelly em­ later 1920s, his ideas are not far removed bodied a practical internationalism, par­ from the subsequent orthodoxy of the ticipating in Scottish and Irish municipal Labour Left. politics, the Del.eonite Socialist Labor While A Lost Left does not entirely Party, the I WW. and the Socialist Party of fulfill its implied promise of evaluating America and. back in Ireland, with James the legacy of a forgotten socialism and its Larkin in the Irish Transport and General insights into nationalism, there is much to Workers Union. Reform and revolution. comment it. Howell's ability to syndicalism and political action. reconstruct a complex socialist move­ bureaucracy and direct action: the great ment. complete with its dilemmas and debates of the era of the Second Interna­ aspirations, has previously been tional swelled around Connelly. They demonstrated in his study of the ILP and were no less tractable than the national is again apparent. He successfully question and Howell weaves them together reminds us of the real limitations fo the expertly. prevailing Labourist and Communist or­ Much the same is true of the discus­ thodoxies. Like the labour movement, na­ sion of John Maclean. The politics of the tional movements within Britain have Red Clyde are dissected with a close eye strained at the constraints of the British to contradictory developments. The state and socialists, ironically, have often potential of the housing agitation, the ten­ been slow to listen. While one may agree sions between craft privilege and or disagree with Hobsbawm's declaration socialism in the context of dilution of that "Marxists as such are not labour, and the difficulties of translating nationalist." they are democrats. revolutionary internationalism into a Nationalist critiques of centralized (and workable programme during the war are increasingly authoritarian) power and all combined to create a balanced ap­ please for self-determination must be preciation of the possibilities and con­ heard sympathetically, if not uncritically. straints which faced Maclean and his Labour's uncritical loyalty to the British comrades. His postwar campaign for a state and its existing constitutional form Scottish Socialist Republic is less easily cannot be defended on democratic understood. Howell labours valiantly, but grounds. This is as true in Wales and unsuccessfully, to convince us that Scotland as it is in Ireland. Howell's Maclean's struggle for Scottish inde­ hopes of "creative relationships between pendence ought not be considered an national and communal movements" aberration. A general consideration of the (287) requires a recognition of a grow ing support among workers for Scot­ democratic impulse behind nationalist tish Home Rule in the 1920s might have demands. strengthened his case. Finally, the short discussion of John Whealley appears out of place in this book. Wheatley's stage James Naylor was Britain, rather than Ireland or Scot­ York University land and. unlike the other two fiuures. he REVIEWS 361

Logie Barrow. Independent Spirits: to transmit knowledge to the people. Spiritualism and English Plehians IH50- Was spiritualism a form of 1910(London: Routlcdgcand Kegan Paul knowledge? Barrow answers affirm­ I9K6). atively. Indeed he contends that given the state of medical and psychiatric IN I«)II: I-KANK PODMORF. a fabian and a knowledge at the time, spiritualism was a spiritualist, wrote in his Modern "science." "Delusion or not," he writes, Spiritualism: "There appears to be some "this feeling of actually participating in natural affinity between Socialism of a this process of Science or sciences was certain lype and Spirilualism. The vision inseparably part of spiritualism." of a new heaven will perhaps he most But spiritualism was a "religion" as gladly received by those w hose eyes have well as a "science." Here I think that Bar­ been opened to the vision of a new earth, row is somewhat less helpful than in his the dwelling place of righteousness. It is other arguments. He fails to see, or at least certain that many Socialists have been he does not have much to say about it in spiritualists." No one really took up that his book, that spiritualism was one of claim and investigated it until l.ogie many attempts to salvage some sort of Barrow"s careful delineation of the religious belief from the wreckage left by relationship between spiritualism and the claims of Darwinian science and the early English socialism in the History Higher Criticism — historical science. It Workshop in 19X0. Though he did not was also part of the nineteenth-century specifically argue that the decay of tradi­ romanticization of death (as Phillippe tional religious teachings, of which the Aries has argued), that was so obvious in rise of spiritualism was a symptom, was the new, highly-adorned funeral monu­ related to the rise of socialism, the im­ ments set in park-like burial grounds. plication was there. In his new. full- Spiritualism took the sting out of death length study of what he calls "plebeian" and. adopting a progressive evolutionist spiritualism he goes much further in ex­ view of life, pointed toward abetter world ploring and cementing the relationship ahead, one which made no distinction be­ between this peculiarly nineteenth-cen­ tween the here and the hereafter. Such a tury form of religious unorlhodoxy and better world was often enough a socialist political radicalism. Drawing on an ex­ one. traordinarily rich documentation he brings together Owenite socialism of the Barrow also implies, without early part of the century and ILP developing it much, that spiritualism, like socialism at the end by tracing the role of some other dissenting doctrines, some­ mesmerism, secularism, and spiritualism times contributed to breaking down social in that development. barriers. The case of women is interest­ ing. Usually shut out of positions of His plebeians are self-educated ar­ leadership in the traditional churches, tisans and those engaged in minor profes­ women took a prominent part, especially sional and clerical tasks, he argues that. as mediums, in the spiritualist movement, in contrast to middle-class spiritualists, as in Theosophy. The modern founders of who rarely saw any conflict between spiritualism were the Fox sisters. Christianity and spiritualism, the Barrow's book is rich in detail about plebeians were secular. anti-Christian, spiritualism, messmerism, healing, herbal sometimes atheists. Their religious medicine and much else. Its most impor­ radicalism nurtured political dissent. tant contribution, however, it in estab­ Second, he suggests that spiritualism, like lishing the plebeian claim that knowledge messmerism. was part of what he calls a was open to all. As the world of religion, "democratic epistemology," a rather in­ medicine and psychiatry became more flated way of saying that they believed specialized and professionalized, this that knowledge is accessible too — democratic belief was destroyed. And that neither a clergy nor a clcrisy was needed led to the decline of both plebeian culture 362 LABOUR LE TRAVAIL

and that form of socialism which was tention from all quarters. Its inhabitants founded on ethical and religious convic­ left their mark in police reports, tions rather than technical economic philanthropic and social casework teachings. records, sanitary and housing inspections. My one criticism of Barrow's book the magistrates' court column of local arises from its irritating habit of remark­ newspapers, social surveys, and muck­ ing on almost every page (and sometimes raking journalism. Jerry White has taken more than once), that such an such will be all of these sources and blended them dealt with later, or that something has skillfully with the oral testimony of been dealt with elsewhere — as though "Bunkers" themselves to elucidate the so­ his readers were limited to ten minute cial and family relationships found on the memory spans. Still, taken together with street and to document the political at­ Janet Oppcnheim's The Oilier World titudes. economic strategies, and com­ (1985). Independent Spirits further munity practices which created the demonstrates that spiritualism is worth dynamics of slum life. more attention than it usually receives The result is a powerful picture of an from historians of social and cultural urban slum — of the violence and change. desperation of its social relationships and of the effort, toughness, and will required Ramsay Cook to escape it. Jerry White has done his job York University well: he has used an usually rich body of oral evidence not only to draw a static Jerry White. The Worst Street in North picture but to explain how economic and London: Campbell Bunk. Islington. Be­ social change destroyed Campbell Bunk tween the Wars (London: Routledge & before the bulldozers reached it. His ac­ Kegan Paul 1986). count is particularly strong in demonstrat­ ing how shifting inter-war conditions — CAMPBKI I Bl NK was. as the title of this new factories, classless clothing, freer so­ new book in the History Workshop Series cial attitudes, heightened economic ex­ indicates, a most notorious place. It was pectations gained as a result of wartime replete with the stigmata of poverty: un­ employment in munitions works, more employment. ill-health, poor housing. widespread contraception — gave young family violence, crime, hopelessness, dis­ women "a very different route to inde­ crimination. alcoholism, and filth. And it pendence and equality" than that open to also suffered, of course, the contempt and their mothers. The factory girl of the condescension of "respectable" society. 1920s had a freedom, independence, and self-confidence unavailable to an earlier Its inhabitants were — or were seen to be generation of Campbell Bunk women — in the words of the local sanitary in­ who had been restricted almost exclusive­ spector: ly to service jobs as charwomen, Thieves. Prostitutes, cripples. Blind People. laundresses or street-sellers. Girls had a Hawkers of all sorts of wares from boot laces much lower rate of juvenile delinquency (o watches and chains are In he found in this than boys and found fewer social and road. Pugilists. Card Sharpers. Counter economic rewards in the traditional life of Jumpers. Purse Snalchers. street singers, and the Bunk: as a result women escaped the Gamblers of all kinds, and things ihey call men grasp of slum life more readily than their who live on the earnings of women .... Of brothers. course, there are a few who perhaps get an honest living, but Ihey want a hit of picking- White's portrayal of Campbell Bunk out. is vivid and authentic. The complex web of "lumpenproletariat" life is probed Both the actual and hyperbolic through its "collective identities," includ­ notoriety of life at the margin of society ing support networks, internal tensions, meant that Campbell Bunk attracted at­ and collective self-defence. He sketches REVIEWS 363 well its Mayhcw-like labyrinth of casual Marjorie Nicholson, The TUC Overseas: labour, petty theft, pilfering, rent evasion. The Roots of Policy (London: Allen & and organi/ed criminal activity. He em­ Unwin 1986). phasises the community and its strained and suspicious interaction with the world IT HAS BF.COME FASHIONABLE to dismiss outside. In many ways. then, this is an studies of organized labour as outdated admirable book. It offers an evocative and superseded by those dealing with portrayal of what poverty means that can working-class culture and experience. be recommended as an eye-opener to a This book demonstrates that works about class of comfortable middle-class stu­ formal institutions have not lost their dents. It is also a labour of love "put value. Marjorie Nicholson, who spent together largely between 9 p.m. and I much of her own life in the TUC's Inter­ a.m." by an author pursuing an "over- national Department, makes no apology demanding" career in an unrelated field. for the fact that the fruit of her research in Jerry White's deep affection for the in­ the TUC archives "is a record of the habitants of Campbell Bunk and his eager decisions and activities of an organiza­ desire to explain the broader significance tion." (259) Her purpose is to trace the of their harsh, often bitter lives radiates process by which the Trades Union Con­ through the pages of his book. gress came to assume an international role Yet somehow one is disappointed. between 1917 and 1945. It is essentially The Worst Street in North London is a a study of bureaucratic learning, of how a good example — perhaps one of the best body unprepared for responding to — of the well-researched and empathie developments in the wider world, par­ community study which has become a ticularly colonial empire, gradually ac­ hallmark of History Workshop publica­ quired the expertise and organization tions and is the culmination of the local necessary for the task. studies, social surveys, and journalistic The main title is slightly misleading exposes through which the Victorians since, for most of the period covered, the manifested their concern about the prob­ TUC was actually doing very little over­ lem of poverty. This particular turf has seas. It was primarily a time of prepara­ been well tilled, especially in London. tion, as the subtitle "the roots of policy" Henry Mayhew and Charles Booth close­ more accurately suggests. One fact is ly investigated the poverty of the made abundantly clear throughout. The metropolis, as did John Hollingshead. Ar­ TUC had neither the desire nor the thur Sherwell. George Sims. Mary Bayly. capacity to impose its views on the a string of Fabians, and many more. More colonies. It never tried to export trade recently, analytical and descriptive unionism or to become a Commonwealth studies by scholars such as H.J. Dyos. body: in fact it resisted affiliation at­ Gareth Stedman Jones. Raphael Samuel, tempts by colonial unions on a number of and many others have, with the aid of a occasions. Its goal was rather to build on steady stream of memoirs, oral histories. the tentative contacts with already exist­ and reprints of previously hard-to-obtain ing trade union movements, gaining at the contemporary works, ensured that this same time more of a say in the formation patch of intellectual ground has been well of British colonial policy on labour ques­ worked, further elaborations are unlikely tions. What success was achieved came to overturn the range ol well-understood not in India, where the politicization of interpretations. It is now time to move on such questions had already gone too far, to somelhing new. nor in Africa, where conditions were not yet ripe, but in the West Indies, where common goals and traditions made real Patricia V.. Malcolmson cooperation possible from the later 1930s. Ontario Ministry of Health Nicholson rejects as "ridiculous" and disproved by the record, Marxist charges 364 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

that metropolitan labour leaders acted as General Council would never have sat allies of the bourgeoisie, trying to control down to systematic discussion of colonial colonial trade unions in the interests of policy." ( 136) British imperial rule. Unwilling to con­ During the 1930s, the TUC began to tent themselves with "negative attacks on play a more distinctive role. However, as imperialism." (254) the TUC and Labour Nicholson shows, this followed a series of Party followed the more productive path institutional failures which revealed how of encouraging the deselopment of out of touch the TUC was. both with the strong, democratic trade unions as the colonies and with the Colonial Office. basis for making the achievement of self The momentum created by the convening government a reality. Such "colonial of Commonwealth Labour Conferences paternalism" was not misplaced: "Left to in 1925. 1928. and 1930 was not sustained themselves, the overseas unions might in the atmosphere of economic depres­ have found different solutions, but in sion. The experience gained by participa­ practice they asked for British trade union tion in the ILO may have provided a use­ rights, just as they asked for votes, parlia­ ful education for the TUC, but it required ments and responsible governments." the men like Ernest Bevin and Walter (257) And the TUC played an important Citrine to supply the leadership necessary part in ensuring that certain colonies for the initiative symbolized by the estab­ gained trade union rights first. lishment of the TUC's own Colonial Ad­ It should not be assumed from this visory Committee in 1937. If the book has that Nicholson takes an uncritical stance a hero it is clearly Citrine, whose par­ towards the TUC's efforts. From its first ticipation in the West Indies Royal Com­ plunge into world affairs in 1917. when it mission marked an important step for the established a joint international commit­ TUC in broadening its knowledge of tee with the Labour Party, the TUC's colonial conditions, and developing record was one of mixed success. This closer lies with officials at the Colonial was forgivable enough in the 1920s. when Office and with trade unions and govern­ the main task was to formulate positions ments in the colonial empire. The TUC in response to events in India and China. was beginning to replace the Labour Party Not only was it handicapped by organiza­ as the major source of policy advice on tional weakness and lack of expertise. It trade union matters. The combination of also faced a situation where trade Colonial Development and Welfare legis­ unionism was closely bound up with the lation and World War II consolidated the forces of nationalism, and where the TUC's role as watchdog and adviser: by revolutionary left, with Comintern back­ 1945 "the steady representation of ing. was able to mount a significant chal­ colonial grievances became part of the lenge. India in particular raised the prob­ routine work of the TUC staff." (238) lem of how to reconcile the ideals of self Nicholson's defence of the TUC's government with those of economic and "empirical, practical approach" is given social democracy. There was no desire by weight by her ability to show that, for all British trade union leaders to transfer its shortcomings, it was "more likely to be power to Indian capitalism under middle- useful ... than the destructive methods of class Congress leadership. For his part. communism or the permanent op- Nehru spoke out against any idea of co­ positionism of the Pan-African group:" operating with what he called "the what mattered was the fact that "the sanctimonious and canting humbugs who TUC's views had at least been formed in lead the Labour Party." (95) During this actual trade union organization and al­ early period, though the TUC did play a lowed for different interests and attitudes part in fostering fraternal aid and colonial amongst trade union members." (251) trade union legislation, it was the Labour The book is not without its flaws. It would Party which guided the formation of a have been stronger, for example, with general policy: "left to themselves, the more about the periods before 1917 and REVIEWS 365

after 1945. There are places where the trolling the job and maintaining or ex­ exposition is too fragmented and the tending eighteenth-century craft practices focus becomes obscured by an overabun­ in factory and mine, and accompanied by dance of detail. Nevertheless, historians a critique of middle-class political will be grateful to Nicholson for provid­ economy. This is broken, by the ing a well researched, shrewd analysis of employers and the legal system, in the the manner in which the TUC became a defeat of the cotton spinners in 1837-38, body with world-wide concerns. and Scottish chartism emerges as cautious and collaborationist in its wake. Martin Petter To some extent, of course, it depends McGill University on what one means by docile and aggres­ sive — the Scottish tradesmen, despite this new evidence, remain pale shadows W. Hamish Frascr. Conflict and Class: of (for instance) the keelmen of New­ Scottish Workers 1700-1 H.IK (John castle or the building workers of Copen­ Donald: Edinburgh 1988). hagen. and the argument of Fraser about militant trades unions in the West of Scot­ THF THRUST OF THIS INTFRFSTINC; BOOK is land in the 1820s and 1830s has to be to investigate, through the history of squared with the equally persuasive eighteenth-century tradesmen's organiza­ evidence of Fiona Montgomery about the tions and the nascent unions of the first class collaboration of the Glasgow work­ four decades of the nineteenth century. ing-class leaders in the Political Unions the nature of Scottish class relations. His­ of the 1830s. The important thing now is torians have been divided in their inter­ to continue the delineation of the limits of pretation of the workers' response to collaboration and class consciousness, industrialization, a view shared by myself rather than to argue for one semantic label that the eighteenth-century Scot was or another, and this book is a most useful docile in his reactions to the first stages contribution to that task. of industrialization, and that the Perhaps the most intriguing point that nineteenth-century workers accepted Fraser makes concerns the existence of a class collaboration more readily than Scottish tradition of eighteenth-century class confrontation, having come under craftsmen appealing directly to the courts fire from Marxists and others who would for arbitration in disputes with their see the Scottish proletarian response as employers, and the readiness of the courts much less passive, more militanlly class to listen, and to seek to find formulas that conscious. would defuse conflict. Fraser interprets Hamish Fraser. after putting the this in class terms — lawyers and judges weight of substantial original research on were the allies of the landed classes from the scales, inclines towards the latter whose ranks they so often came, and they view, through not in the extreme form that were most reluctant to have their it has sometimes been expressed. Comb­ hegemony undermined by social discon­ ing the records of the eighteenth-century tent. whether provoked by radicals on the Scottish legal system for the first time, he left or by aggressive employers on the finds examples of craflsmens' trade clubs right. In the first two decades of the in the main burghs combining offensively nineteenth century, however, this pater­ or defensively against the employers. nalistic view was dethroned by the most consistently and successfully in the devotees of modern political economy Edinburgh tailoring trades. And deepen­ who saw legal wage regulation as "an ing his earlier work on the cotton spinners archaic remnant of an old society, a bar­ in the early nineteenth century, and ex­ rier to the laissez-faire that would create tending it to other trades he finds a burst a new wealth:" and the manner of its of aggressive and successful union ac­ deposition was by academic lawyers tivity in the 1820s. concerned with con­ rewriting the law text books to create an 366 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

impression that the older interpretations ascribe to Catholics a different culture of the law had been mistaken. Just such a from that of Protestants, who did not device has been traced before by Rosalind necessarily flock to cities when they Mitchison in her studies of the poor law. emigrated. In fact, Akenson points out, in and it emphasises the extraordinary Canada and parts of Australasia where flexibility of Scots Law in the hands of a data on religion are richer for the United legal profession able to form it after their States there seems to have been no sig­ own perception of social good. Just way nificant difference between the tenden­ the legal profession changed its minds is cies of Catholic and Protestant Irish to not explored, but it is not difficult to im­ settle in cities. Somewhat unfairly he tries agine the influence Dugald Stewart and to use Kerby Miller's subtle efforts to his disciples at Hdinburgh University. discern cultural distinctiveness in the continued through the Edinburgh Review Irish Catholic immigrant community as and the rising prestige of the young an excuse to saddle Miller with every Whigs. incautious formulation of the received wisdom by earlier Irish-American his­ torians. T.C. Smout University of St. Andrews Now it is fair to point out that Miller, having marshalled the most impressive array of evidence ever assembled on Irish Donald Harman Akenson. Small Dif­ immigration, sometimes feels less con­ ferences: Irisli Catholics and Irish strained by the details of that evidence Prolestants, IHI5-1922: An International than one might expect in the sort of Perspective (Kingston and Montreal: Mc- scholar with the patience to undertake Gill-Queen's University Press 1988). such a project as his Emigrants and Ex­ iles. But Akenson is so anxious to make a THIS IS A C ARHFUI.I Y-ARGUFD BOOK with case against Miller and others that he a clear thesis: Irish Catholics and Protes­ loses perspective himself. He is especial­ tants have very similar cultural norms and ly impressed by the fact that in the mid- values when you control for differences nineteenth century most Irish immigrants of material circumstances and other ex­ did not live in cities — defined as places ogenous factors. On such matters as of over 25,000 population. He writes sexual behaviour, economic aspiration (102) that according to the 1870 US cen­ and the treatment of women, he argues sus "only" 44.5 per cent of Irish im­ effectively that the case for qualitative migrants lived in such cities, neglecting differences between the two cultures is. at to remind his less numerate peers that in best, unproven. With delightful perver­ that year only 15.0 per cent of the popula­ sity he maintains that the two cultures are tion. and 30.8 per cent of non-Irish im­ as one in their zeal to set up barriers migrants lived there. No doubt various against mixing with the other. The overall Irish-American historians have written argument is instructive, witty, and imprecisely on this subject, but the simple balanced. truth is that at least from the time of the A substantial share of the book, how­ Famine. Irish immigrants to the United ever, is taken up w ith a renewal of Profes­ States did tend to settle in cities substan­ sor Akenson"s quarrel with Irish- tially more than the general run of im­ American historians, begun in his migrants. Table 1, generated from the provocatively-titled earlier book. Being public use sample of over 100,000 per­ Had. Basically, he lakes issue with the sons in the 1900 census, coded by Samuel received wisdom in Irish-American his­ H. Preston and Robert L. Higgs, tells the tory that Catholic immigrants from tale. Clearly the disproportionate tenden­ Ireland paradoxically settled mainly in cy of ihe Irish to settle in cities in the cities despite their rural origins. He sees United States goes right back to the such observations as one more attempt to Famine, and cannot be dismissed by REVIEWS 367 reiteration of the shortcomings of census immigrant stream — a proportion which data. was unusually high among Irish In exploring the Australasian and emigrants to the United States. Canadian data. Akenson does raise some Furthermore. I suspect that there is an fascinating issues for our understanding important spatial dimension to the prob­ of the main emigrant stream which ended lem which is independent of the rural- up in the United Stales. But he is so com­ urban variable. In particular, distribution mitted to his polemical objective that he maps of Irish and German immigrants fails to address the most interesting ques­ generated from the 1870 census data tions. Me is right to remind us that the show a remarkable bifurcation — Irish behaviour, and particularly the residence overwhelmingly concentrated in the patterns, of immigrants are not solely Northeast and Germans in the upper Mid­ determined by the cultural baggage they west. Perhaps Ontario, where according bring with them, lie docs not. however. to Akenson the overwhelming majority of tell us very much about what factors were Irish-Canadians settled, should be important. We need to look at both the thought of as the nearest frontier farmland demographic struciurc of the different to Boston. Certainly a careful study of Irish emigrant streams and the oppor­ Irish settlement patterns in North tunity structure of the receiving countries America, irrespective of national boun­ before we can assess how cultural daries. would be most welcome. Perhaps predispositions fit into the whole picture. if we are lucky Kerby Miller will turn his My own guess is that one of the most hand to that task. useful variables in explaining the urban- rural balance in immigrant settlement will David W. Miller be proportion of single females in the Carnegie Mellon University

TABLE 1 Persons included in 1900 public use sample of US Census: Size of place of residence in 1900 by origin and decade of immigration

cities towns rural: over 2500- under 2S.0O0 25,000 2500 N Native white stock 17.1% 14.1% 68.8« 54.409 Nonwhites 12.8 8.9 78.3 11.826 Native born of: Irish fathers 54.5 18.7 26.8 4.112 other immigrant fathers 41.2 16.3 42.5 14,380 Immigrants who arrived: 1850 or earlier Irish 48.3 17.6 34.1 205 other 38.7 19.8 41.5 393 1851-60 Irish 53.9 20.9 25.2 282 other 41.3 15.9 42.8 697 1861-70 Irish 60.3 16.9 22.7 343 other 40.7 14.6 44.7 1.198 1871-80 Irish 67.5 17.7 14.8 348 other 43.7 17.0 39.3 3,693 1881-90 Irish 72.8 16.5 10.8 474 other 52.2 16.3 31.5 3,693 1881-1900 Irish 74.3 19.2 6.5 245 other 53.9 17.3 28.8 2,728 TOTAL 26.0% 14.3% 59.7% 96.962 368 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Gay L. Gullickson..Sy>//i/ii'r.v«//

370 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Catharina Lis. Social Change and the rapidly developing port. Instead, the Labouring Poor: Antwerp 1770-1860 physical strength of the uprooted country (New Haven: Yale University Press dwellers passing through Antwerp in 1986). search of labour won them the new jobs. "Two thirds of the population had IN CONTRAST TO MOST HISTORIAN'S Of next to nothing." she explains. (16) They labour in the early nineteenth century. lived in increasingly crowded substan­ Catharina Lis has chosen to focus on the dard housing and consumed less food and working class in a city that did not in­ drink. The decline in child employment, dustrialize. She investigates the creation the shift from full domestic employment of an impoverished proletariat in to casual or intermittent labour outside of Antwerp between 1770 and I860. the home for women, and lower wages for In the thirteen chapters of her book. men meant that most families were peri­ Lis systematically constructs her argu­ odically forced to seek relief. Antwerp's ment that the destitution of Antwerp's labouring poor lived with the constant labouring poor was caused by the larger threat of destitution. and still continuing phenomenon of Lis condemns middle-class capitalist expansion. "Pauperization in philanthropy as ineffective and self-serv­ the nineteenth century cannot be related ing. and dismisses public assistance as to the absence or presence of in­ largely unavailable. The poor, she argues, dustrialization." she contends, but instead survived only because they could rely on resulted from "the accelerated develop­ neighbourhood solidarity to see them ment of capitalism, which caused through this "phase of acceleration in the widespread social dislocation in the development of capitalism." (168) countryside and in the towns." (167) The Lis guides her reader step by step industrial revolution was but one part of through her argument, advancing methodi­ the phenomenon, she concludes. cally from one question to another, to her On the edge of a significant in­ conclusion "that the so-called Industrial dustrializing region, the once flourishing Revolution must be seen primarily as a phase Aniwerp textile industries declined of acceleration in the development of dramatically at the turn of the nineteenth capitalism, entailing on the one hand the century. Lis explains that entrepreneurs restructuring and reallocation of economic financed the commercial activities of the activities and one the other social dislocation burgeoning port rather than investing in the on a massive scale." (168) She moves mechanization of Antwerp's traditional tex­ through her explanation with logical tile industries. precision, effectively marshalling her statis­ Based on her initial description of the tical sources to answer each question con­ transformation of Antwerp's economy cisely but comprehensively. At times, how­ between 1770 and 1860. she asserts that ever, the people are only statistics. Their day whereas "men as well as women and to day lives and their city are submerged in children, young as well as old. strong as the counting. Her descriptions do not allow well as weak could win a meagre living" us to imagine, for example, what life was like at the beginning of the period, by the in a house with an average of seventeen nineteenth century "one type of work. square meters per head consuming 47.2 kg. based on male physical strength of meat per year. predominated." (35) The economic tran­ My major disagreement is not with sition from a textile centre to a port city the well-documented details of her ex­ had "disastrous consequences" for the planation nor with her conclusion, but labouring poor of Antwerp, she asserts. rather with the context in which she sets (38) The formerly independent artisans her study. As her justification for under­ from the declining textile industry, "who taking this project, she informs her reader in growing measure had been thrown out in the introduction that until the late of work," did not find employment in the 1960s, "the Industrial Revolution was REVIEWS 371 deemed a fundamental divide: there lay. Hans Speier, German White-Collar on one side, 'a world of scarcity.' and on Workers and the Rise of Hitler (New the other, "an affluent society.*" (2) The Haven and London: Yale University Press publication of Michael Harrington's 1986). study of poverty in America finally led a few historians to question the universally THIS INTFRESTING AND USEFUL BOOK has accepted assumption that industrializa­ acquired the status of a historical docu­ tion had introduced universal affluence. ment. quite apart from its analytical value she explains. Lis must be aware of the as a careful and extensive survey of the vigorous debate waged among historians circumstances of German white-collar over the course of the last century and a workers in the first three decades of the half over the consequences of the in­ century. On the one hand, it reflects the dustrial revolution. But her bibliography, flowering of German sociology, which like her introductory justification. was beginning to generate an impressive neglects the myriad of articles and books cohort of critical young scholars in the by such "pessimists" as J.L. and Barbara permissive and supportive environment Hammond and trie Hobsbawm. Had she of the Weimar Republic, before the Nazi discussed Antwerp in the context of assumption of power brutally terminated Hobsbawm's rather than R.M. Hartwell's these possibilities. A student of Emil generalizations about industrialization. Lederer and Karl Mannheim in Heidel­ her study would have raised intriguing berg, and then active as a characteristic comparative questions not just between member of the left professional intel­ industrializing and non-industrializing ligentsia in Berlin (as an editor for a large regions, but between England and the publishing house, and with affiliations to continent. the Deutsche Hochschule fur Politik, the Although Lis cites some of the regional SPD's Labour Education department, and studies of particular Belgian industries, she the City social service apparatus, married avoids the significant questions being to a municipal pediatrician in Wedding), raised by Belgian economic historians. J. Speier was all set to publish his research Craeybeckx. H. Coppejans-Desmcdt, J. when the new Nazi climate brought a Dhondt. J. Van dcr Wee. R. De change in the editors of the sponsoring Vleeshouwer. H. Hasquin. and P. Lebrun. series, and the publication was scotched. to mention a few. have analyzed the unique­ (As a bonus, the book prints two letters ly Belgian relationship of the availability of from Theodor Geiger, one of the two capital and raw materials, dramatic political editors, reporting the veto exercised by change, centralization, mechanization, and the other, the Nazi academic, Andreas living standards. This comparison of the Wallher). By then, Speier was already in course of economic change in the second emigration, teaching at the New School of industrial nation with the standard English Social Research in New York. An article model of capitalist expansion is rarely heard from the manuscript was published in So­ outside of Dutch and French speaking cial Research (1934) as "The Salaried circles. Employee in Modern Society," and the first four chapters were produced in Aside from these missed opportunities mimeographed (and virtually unob­ for comparative history, the logic of Lis's tainable) form under the aegis of Colum­ argument and the quantitative detail of the bia University. But the work essentially explanatory picture recommend this book disappeared from view until, with the en­ to specialists and undergraduates alike. couragement of Jiirgen Kocka (the lead­ Lis provides invaluable insights into the ing latter-day specialist on the same process of the creation of a labouring poor subject), Speier resurrected the book in during this period of rapid economic the series edited by Kocka, Helmut Berd- change. ing, and Hans-Ulrich Wehler, the Kritis- Janet L. Polasky die Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft, University of New Hampshire 372 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

which over the last ten years has become 1940. introduced by Speier) have ap­ the key showcase for "critical" or "social peared in the Kritische Studien. In other science" history in the Federal Republic. words, this reflects an important piece of Thus the book is a perfect case study mid-twentieth century German and in the uneven constitution of sociology American intellectual history, although and social history as academic disciplines figures like Gerth, Speier. and Lederer in twentieth-century Germany. There has typically fail to appear in the substantial been an understandable tendency to as­ literature on the German-American intel­ sociate the fortunes of sociology during lectual emigration (as in Martin Jay's Weimar and emigration with the Permanent Exiles. Essays on the Intellec­ Frankfurt School and the Institute of So­ tual Migration from Germany to America cial Research. But. of course, growing (New York 19S5). while — equally typi­ knowledge of Max Weber and his con­ cally — a figure like Siegfried Kracauer. temporaries should have told us that so­ who also wrote about Die Angestellten cial research already existed on a (1930) always does. remarkably broad basis before 1914. and If that is the book's symptomatic im­ the context of German sociology in the portance. what is its substantive contribu­ 1920s was far more rich and variegated tion? Essentially, it provides a com­ than that familiar Frankfurt-focused prehensive introduction to the white-col­ image suggests. The same was true of the lar problem in the Weimar Republic. In a American emigration, where complex series of clipped analytical statements lines of filiation remain to be uncovered. (few of the fourteen chapters are much For instance, an associate and co- longer than ten pages), Speier deals suc­ generalionist of Speier. Hans Gerth. was cessively with the social structural char­ largely responsible for the early introduc­ acteristics. status, and social values (or, tion of Weber in the English language. more exactly, "honour" or "social pres­ and his co-editor of the famous selections tige." Geltung in Weberian terms), and From Max Weber (194S). C. Wright political orientations of the white-collar Mills, also brought the influence of sector. The first cluster of chapters deal Speier and other German analysts of with the internal complexity of the white-collar workers into the English- stratum, indicating the major sub­ speaking world via his While Collar: The categories (clerical personnel in small American Middle Classes (1951). Arthur enterprises, foremen, technical personnel, Vidich, himself a student of Gerth at Wis­ commercial employees in larger estab­ consin and the co-author of a volume on lishments, including saleswomen, lower the "new middle classes" in the United personnel in giant establishments, typists, States, usefully draws attention to these and machine operators, and finally non- connections in this Forward to Speicr's civil servant government employees), and book. Speier*s book also documents the their various working situations, skill growth of sociological — and political — levels, social origins, opportunities for interest in the burgeoning white-collar promotion, and status hierarchies. The categories of employment between the middle group of chapters explores the wars, an interest pioneered before 1914 issue of social prestige in terms of the by Spcier's teacher. Emil Lederer. who white-collar employee's "particular per­ also found his way to the New School ceptions of social value in German after 1933. The rediscovery of this inter­ society," (8) arguing that the latter rupted critical sociological tradition has derived less from a common socio­ played a big part in the self-definition of economic situation than from a contend­ social science history in West Germany. ing plurality of orientations, including and as well as Speier both Gerth (with his their perceived closeness to employers, sociology of the late-eighteenth century demarcation against manual workers, German intelligentsia), and Lederer (with levels and conceptions of educational at­ a collection of his essays from 1910- tainment, larger political attitudes \

REVIEWS 373 towards the nation and the national inter­ during the Weimar Republic, a view est. and so on. Third. Speier presents the which he says was strengthened in the development of white-collar organiza­ intervening forty years before the book's tions between the turn of the century and final publication. White-collar workers the collapse of the Weimar Republic. were actually quite divided in their politi­ If one thing emerges most strongly cal allegiance, distributing themselves from Speier"s account it is the complex among three national umbrella organiza­ heterogeneity of the white-collar sector. tions — the Christian-National Gedag in all three of the above dimensions, from (593,800 members in 1931, or 34.1 per working situation through "social valua­ cent of all organized white collars), the tions" to political and trade union out­ Liberal-National GdA (392.850, or 22.6 look. This is a salutary corrective to the per cent), and the Social Democratic Afa- common perspective which conflates Bund (465.591. or 26.8 per cent). while-collar employees too easily into a Moreover, the 1918 Revolution produced single category, whether for the purposes a major radicalization of attitudes and be­ of sociological analysis or political haviour, stimulating a general upsurge of mobilization. This process of careful dis­ membership in white-collar associations, aggregation — which goes somewhat a massive leap in the Socialist federation against the grain of the early discovery of in particular (quadrupling in 1918-19 the phenomenon (and ils rediscovery in from 94.0(H) to 366,000 members), and a the l%(K as the "new working class"), new willingness to think and behave in which was more taken by its unified ap­ trade union ways. At the same time, how­ pearance or potential —is handled con­ ever. in the later years of Weimar the tide cisely and persuasively in the longish ran more in favour of the right-wing opening chapter (which in the English Gedag. whose main affiliate, the German- version is called simply "A Survey of the National Association of Commercial Stratum." as opposed to the original Ger­ Clerks (DHV) with 409.022 members in man. which explicitly stressed "The 1931. had a long tradition of radical right Variety of White-Collar Workers." The activity. As Speier says, in general "the contrast between upper and middling salient feature of the unionization of managers, technicians, and foremen on salaried employees [during the Weimar the one hand, and "objectively" RepublicJ was not their proletarianiza­ proletariani/ed shop assistants, typists, tion." but "its animating political pur­ and office workers on the other, is par- pose: to preserve the status and esteem of ticulary well done. The rationalization of salaried employees vis-à-vis blue-collar the office was also an important develop­ workers." and in the DHV this received ment. The novel phenomenon of the an extra charge from the ideological "machine-operating employee" (via the militancy of a strong minority who "com­ introduction to the Adrcma Addres- bined this trade union activity with anti- sograph. of which some 1.000 were in use proletarian. anti-democratic, anti-semi- in Cologne by 193(1. or the widely used tic. anti-republican, and anti-feminist tabulating machine) both generated new views." (139) But, taking the white-collar expertise and simultaneously degraded sector and the Weimar years as a whole, older functions (as in the new division of what this really bespeaks is the political labour required by the tabulating volatility of the white-collar constituen­ machine, in which the book-keeping cy. a point which also emerges from knowledge of the male tabulator became recent accounts of the Republic's elec­ serviced by the unskilled work of the toral history. Some further support for female hole-punchers, checkers, and this view is lent by Speier's comments on sorters). the greater radicalism of the Afa-Bund. as opposed to the Social Democratic blue- This grasp of contradiction allows collar unions, during the economic crisis Speier to stress the relative indeterminacy after 1919-30. when the younger and in white-collar political allegiances 374 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

more academically trained functionaries that could certainly be further developed. of the Afa-Bund evince a more radical The impact of feminization in certain and less compromising politics than the (low-status, subordinate, exploited) areas pragmalists of the Free Trade Unions. of office and retailing employment be­ who bent over backwards to accom­ comes especially interesting in view of modate the rightward political trend, up recent attention to women's history in the to and including the Nazi Olcichsclial- inter-war years, and while present in the tung itself. general texture of Speier's account, ques­ This re-emphasizes Speier's point tions of gender deserve far more explicit about the white-collar sector's general and prominent attention. Nonetheless, heterogeneity, and it is a pity from this this is an extremely useful addition to the point of view that he did not explore the literature. values and outlooks of the various trade union blocs and sub-categories of Geoff Eley employees in more detail. This ideologi­ University of Michigan cal dimension is the weak part of the book, and the brief references to the Afa- Bund intellectuals (and the different Donald Howard Bell, Sesto San Giovan­ ideological profiles of the DH V activists. ni: Workers. Culture, and Politics in an CdA functionaires. and so on) suggest Italian Town. 1X80-1922 (New that the author's claims concerning the Brunswick and London: Rutgers Univer­ derivative and "parasitic" nature of sity Press 1986). white-collar values are too simple by far. In fact, when we combine Speier's THIS CASR STUDY OF THF. RISF. and tem­ remarks about politics with some of his porary fall of the Italian working class salient distinctions regarding the dif­ chooses as its scenery a factory suburb of ferential sociology of the three Milan, one of the strongholds of the federations' memberships (for example. labour movement and its organizations. the exclusively male composition and To-day. local government in Sesto is led higher status bias of the DHV/Gedag. the by a Communist administration, while similar biases of the GdA. and the techni­ trade unions keep up to their traditions of cal as opposed lo commercial and clerical political strength and cultural engage­ bias of the Afa-Bund. together with its ment. Sesto is. of course, both historically much stronger recruitment from female and presently, a privileged observatory to shop assistants and lower-grade office study the contradictions of industrial staff), we have the makings of a very development in Italy. interesting research agenda regarding the Bell leads the reader through an ac­ different bases of ideology formation in the three camps — about the different curate reconstruction of the history of the potentials the three white-collar federa­ Sestese working class, from the advent of tions were assembling in this larger politi­ modern industry to the victory of Fas­ cal sense. Heterogeneous and lacking in a cism. The aspects touched in this history coherent value-system the white-collar include the relationship between workers sector as a whole may have been, but and the Catholic Church, demographic questions of consciousness may still be make-up. the occupation of the factories, explored in more specific occupational cultural and leisure activities, and the and organisational contexts. schism between Socialists and Com­ munists. This partial list of themes is suf­ The relationship between the sociol­ ficient to indicate that the ambition of the ogy of white-collar employment — the book is to go beyond approaches tradi­ main locus of Speier's problematic — and tionally adopted in this field. the politics of the collapse of Weimar This innovative agenda builds on es­ remains the under-developed part of tablished methods of interpretation Speier's analysis. There are other aspects developed in Britain and the United REVIEWS 375

States. For instance. Bell's analysis of the reversed. The physical locations of daily changes of the artisan legacy in Sesto exchange were appropriated. The most (from the stress on individual autonomy striking example is that of inns and pubs to the increasing centrality of values of and bars, places that Mussolini feared as mutuality), is certainly based on he nurseries of free talk, contagious, he wealth of historical research on the sub­ claimed, like the malaria he claimed to ject since the seminal works by Edward P. eliminate from Italian swamps. The Thompson. evocative names of such places appear in The importance given to cultural Bell's book: Polo Nord, Trattoria Carduc- aspects on the local level allows attention ci. Quattro Gradini (Four Stairs), names to single workers and informal types of recurrent in towns and villages, slender grouping among them. Therefore we but unmistakable signs of the inter-local meet, along the puges of Sesto. machinists validity of pre-fascist workers' culture. and operators involved in politics at that This is indeed a major value of Bell's extremely interesting political level work: that in different ways, both on which is the intermediate one: militants details and on major aspects, he tries to active in the workshop, especially during contrast theories which stress factory the crucial period of the immediate post­ mechanization as a source of working- war years. It is true that these are still the class consciousness and politicization, exceptional members of the working while showing that, on the contrary, class: however they include younger and preexisting worker culture and working- less-skilled workers, as well as recent im­ class community life played an important migrants. It is in fact quite relevant to role. Bell is drawn to conclude that Sesto follow the connection between political can be considered a microcosm reflecting positions — reformism or maximalism in events in other Italian zones and towns; the Socialist party — and structural con­ but other works of the same kind are essen­ dition within the working class: the refor- tial to pursue this line of interpretation. mists based their strength on older. From the methodological point of skilled factory workers and local artisans. view, the book can be appreciated for its the maximalists on other strata. Bell notes wide range of primary and secondary the tendency of the unskilled to gather in sources as well as for their combination. Catholic organizations, reinforcing a On the theoretical plan, I welcome the use point made in many traditional inter­ of such concepts as identity, considered pretations. as a resource for resistance and readjust­ Within such complex fragmentation. ment both to industrial developments and structural as well as cultural-political- to political violence or repression. The religious. the historian must situate the notion of public sphere, elaborated by advent of Fascism. Bell maintains, quite Jiirgen Habermas in connection with the rightly I believe, that the capacity of local political and cultural rise of the bour­ Fascists to defeat the working class geoisie in the seventeenth and eighteenth stemmed from their abilities to call upon centuries, has been reproposed by Oskar some to the same kinds of institutional Negt and Alexander Kluge in terms of a and organizational networks. At the same proletarian public sphere. Although Bell time he recognizes that the workers' does not explore the theoretical sides of patrimony of institutions and culture was this proposal, he has employed the con­ the basis of resistance to Mussolini's for­ cept empirically, hereby showing its fer­ ces once they came to power. tility and potential. The mimetic capacities of the Fascists It is intrinsic to any approach giving have already been noticed by a number of much relevance to cultures that con­ scholars. Nowhere are they so evident as tinuities become evident even where in the cultural field: time after time, place breaks and ruptures have generally been after place, the traditions, songs, and seen. Perhaps not paradoxically, this can slogans of the left were plundered and be applied to the overall tone of the book. 376 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

In spite of the innovations, the prevailing supplement interpretations of the origins framework does not challenge political of the 1934 uprising in terms of Socialist primacy over daily and cultural areas of planning or worker spontaneity. life. In a similar way. the more local char­ In contrast to accounts of acteristics are often sacrificed to the homogeneous miners' communities, general picture that (he author aims to Shubert sets out the divisions among As­ construct. Curiosity is left for the more turian miners (natives vs. immigrants, in­ anthropological aspects of the story, that side vs. outside workers) and the frag­ I am sure Donald Bell could document, on mentation created by numerous com­ the basis of his participation in the com­ panies and the dispersion of small munity and of the memories that even villages in which miners did not informally he must have come across. predominate. Many of the Asturian na­ These remarks do not intend to diminish tives combined farming with mining. Na­ the value of this contribution for the his­ tive miners were more likely to work their tory of the Italian working class, rather to way into better-paying production posi­ point out that the way to historical in­ tions than transient immigrants. And novation is open and can be continued. piece rate production. Shubert contends, limited workplace cooperation. Luisa Passcrini The Asturian mines suffered frequent University of Torino. Italy economic crises. The boom years of World War I were followed by a long depression in the 1920s and 1930s Adrian Shubert. The Road to Revolution marked by mechanization, stricter in Spain: The Coal Miners of Asturias workplace supervision, declining living 1XM)-JV34 (Urbana and Chicago: Univer­ conditions, and a somewhat greater de­ sity of Illinois Press I9S7). pendence on immigrants. Shubert is am­ biguous as to how far he thinks these AN F.VKNT OF NATIONAL POl.lTlCAl sig­ post-World War I changes went in reduc­ nificance can often be given a new inter­ ing the divisions he describes for the pre­ pretation through a detailed social history war era: he does feel that they helped of the site of the event in the period before endow miners with a shared openness to it took place. In The Road to Revolution radicalism. For Shubert, the 1934 miners in Spain, Adrian Shubert has applied this were radical (like those described by his technique to the two-week insurrection of sociologists), but lacked the homogeneity Asturian coal miners in October 1934. He these sociologists see as a basis of miners' devotes half of his study to the mines and radicalism. While Shubert speaks of "the miners of the Asturias and half to union work place ... providing the miners with politics in the area. Shubert has two goals. the opportunity for overcoming the First, he rightly contests sociological divisions inherent in work in the mines" theories of mining communities which (61) and of "[p]oor-and deteriorating-so- "start from the premise that workers' be­ cial conditions" as "things [miners] all haviour is determined by their social con­ experienced together more or less equal­ ditions.*' ( 17) Shubert denies that a single ly." (79) he docs not mention a change in model of the mining community can be the nature of social and cultural divisive- universally applied and therefore that ness among miners during the 1920s and such a model can be used to derive univer­ 1930s in his conclusion. (163-4) I think sal attributes of miners" behaviour. Shubert bypasses this issue because he Shuberl's critique is in line with recent assumes that given certain political con­ social histories of miners, but few have ditions, proletarianization leads naturally made the diversity of miners' experience to radicali/ation. Therefore he does not such a central thesis of their work. go beyond identifying the heterogeneity Second. Shubert seeks to use the history of the mining population to analyse of the mines and miners of the Asturias to whether Asturian miners' 1934 REVIEWS 377 radicalism had a social and cultural com­ 1934 uprising is essentially economic and ponent despite (or because of) this diver­ political: the economic difficulties of the sity. On the whole. Shubert's discussion 1920s and early 1930s created the condi­ of such matters is thin when compared to tions for miners' radicalization; disap­ the recent historiography on miners in pointment with the Socialist union and the Europe and the United States. Republic, fear of fascism, and the forma­ The studies by M. Bulmcr. D. Lock- tion of the Socialist/Communist/Anar- wood. and others which Shubcrt attacks cho-Syndicalist Alianza Obrera in the are largely American British'northern spring of 1934 gave an impetus to take up European in inspiration. Some of what arms when the call came. This narrative Shuberl describes in the Asturias is is important, but insufficient. We need to similar to developments in southern know something about Asturian miners' French coal basins (although in line with culture in and out of the workplace to his problematic the differences should understand what it means to say that they receive special consideration). In any launched a social revolution in October case. Shubcrt is right to question hypos- 1934. tati/ed models of the mining community. This points to a lacuna in The Road to The problem is that he offers no alterna­ Revolution in Spain. Shubert ignores a tive for understanding social relations central convention of books about places among Asturian miners. He has oppor­ where important events took place. He tunities for doing so. Shubert criticizes R. does not bring together his interpretation Blaumer for proposing that "the key fac­ of Asturian miners before 1934 and his tor in miner solidarits is after-work account of the October 1934 uprising. A sociability." (IS) But when discussing close look at the participants in the 1934 company efforts to overcome "the insurrection would have clarified miners" notorious fondness for the Shubert's argument: did inside workers, tavern" (N4). Shubert does not seek to native workers play a leading role in Oc­ challenge Blaumer on whether this might tober 1934 or did all miners participate to have been an element in the making of an the same degree? Shubert suggests that "occupational community" (Blaumer's one social group — young miners — term) among Asturian miners. More provided the impetus for the radicalism of serious is Shubert"s failure to discuss the October 1934 (153-4), but we learn little miner's family. Did some immigrant about their relationship to the cleavages miners marry the daughters of native stressed elsewhere in the book. In criticiz­ miners? Was there occupational en­ ing the archetypal "mining village," dogamy and/or occupational inheritance Shubert points out that Asturian miners among the core of lifetime miners? Would did not live in isolated communities: did the presence of several family members miners fight side-by-side with other As- performing different jobs in the mines turians or in separate groups? (although not necessarily working at the same time) change the picture of a labour Perhaps Shubert's real beef is not force sharply divided between inside and with sociologists' models, but with a outside workers, and among various in­ tradition in social history which stresses side workers? the mobilization of social networks and cultural communities (even among The chapters on union history focus heterogeneous populations) rather than on the national and regional leadership of radicalization due to immiseration or various unions and on the Asturian youthful revolt in explaining major social miners' growing disenchantment during movements during periods when state the 1920s and early 1930s with the power is in question. Were the October Socialist miners' union's reliance on 1934 events a culmination of the previous pressuring the state to ameliorate the ef­ 74 years, as the title of Shubert's book fects of the crisis in the coal industry. suggests, or a break with them, as oc­ Shubert's explanation of the October casional comparisons to the radicalism of 378 LABOUR/I.E TRAVAIL

new, voung factorv workers in Europe in capitalism increased the hardships of the 1917-20 hint? (153) Only a social and local peasantry: the burgeoning village cultural follow up on Asturian miners in population had even less opportunity than 1934 would clarify this central issue in peasants in other parts of the empire to The Road to Revolution in Spain. And it acquire more land. At the same time, how­ would turn a promising monograph into a ever, small cultivators of the Southwest major contribution to work on coal miners were not forced to leave the countryside and social movements in Europe. and join the growing ranks of land-poor peasants who migrated to distant in­ Donald Reid dustrial centres. They supplemented the income from their meagre land allotments University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by hiring themselves out as day labourers on sugar plantations. Although no exact Robert Edelman. Proletarian Peasants: figures concerning the number of such The Revolution of 1905 in Russia \ South­ labourers are available, Edelman west (Ithaca: Cornell University Press provides ample evidence of the 1987). widespread employment of allotment- holding peasants. It was this experience THF. TITI.F OF THIS BOOK appears an as wage workers on capitalist estates, the oxymoron: "proletarian: usually denotes author emphasizes, that induced right-bank those attitudes and patterns of collective peasants to copy the demands and tactics behaviour that distinguish industrial of urban workers in 1905. workers from peasants and other social Edelman's investigation of peasant groups. In this case study of agrarian un­ protest in the Southwest not only advan­ rest during the 1905 Revolution, how­ ces Western scholarship on rural Russia, ever, Robert Hdelman demonstrates that which has produced few local studies of peasants of the right-bank Ukraine defied agrarian revolt outside the Central Black those categories imposed by scholars and Earth and mid-Volga regions. It also ser­ theorist on the various entities of society. ves as a test case of the theories of peasant They did not act like the rebellious politics and rural rebellion that have peasants of conventional social models: engaged both scholars and activists for "They were neither atavistic, millcnarian. over a century. A useful introduction to nor randomly violent." (175) Instead. these theories comprises the first chapter. they organized strikes, articulated Here, much attention is devoted to the specific demands consistent with their ongoing debate between marxists, who immediate interests, and provided mutual stress the vulnerability of the peasant vil­ assistance to those lacking the resources lage to external forces, and the so-called to ride out work stoppages. culturalists. who emphasize the insular Why did the actions of right-bank nature of the peasant community and the peasants deviate so radically from consequent persistence of village institu­ prevailing typologies of peasant rebel­ tions. Chapter 2 examines the economic lion? Edelman explains their behaviour in and social developmentsof the right-bank terms of the peculiar economic develop­ Ukraine prior to 1905, thereby estab­ ments of the Ukrainian provinces of Kiev. lishing the historical context for the strike Podol'e, and Volynia. By the turn of the movement described in detail in the fol­ century, local nobles had transformed lowing two chapters. Based largely on their estates into capitalist enterprises. primary sources, including local and specializing in the production of sugar regional archives seldom accessible to beets. So profitable was this venture that Western historians, this core section of right-bank landlords, unlike much of the the book confirms several current as­ Russian nobility during the post-eman­ sumptions about the peasantry and chal­ cipation period, had little need to sell or lenges many others. On the one hand, it rent their land. Successful landlord supports the prevailing notion concerning REVIEWS 379

the cohesion of the peasant village in its strike movement have any significant struggle with landlords and government residual effects on village institutions? officials. Any tensions between different Did women's active participation in elements of the village population were strikes have any long range repercus­ insignificant compared to their common sions? Did the aftermath of the 1905 hostility toward outsiders. The ex­ Revolution see the progressive erosion of perience of right-bank peasants, on the patriarchal village tradition? An inves­ other hand, belies the international con­ tigation of these issues would help clarify sensus that middle peasants played the the relationship between the competing most active role in the countryside during identities of right-bank peasants who the 1905 Revolution: the numerically su­ straddled both the traditional world of perior poor peasantry dominated in the pre-capitalist village, agriculture and the Southwest. Local female cultivators, more modern economy of the capitalist moreover, revealed little of that conser­ plantation. Despite this unfinished busi­ vatism invariably attributed to peasant ness. Edelman's book is a welcomed ad­ women: they not only participated in dition to scholarship on the peasantry in strikes, but sometimes assumed their Russia and elsewhere. leadership. Nor did landless agrarian workers display the political militance ascribed to them by some Marxists: their Christine Johanson actions bore a remarkable resemblance to Queen's University the behaviour of Marx's lum- penprolelariut. Village institutions also Robert Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow: proved more vulnerable than culturalists Soviet Collectivization and the Terror- have allowed. The skltod or assembly of Famine (New York: Oxford University heads of households acquired a complete­ Press 1986). ly new function in 1905: it became a strike committee. Similarlv. elders were ig­ nored or dismissed if they blocked the THE APPEARANCE OF CONQUEST'S TEXT strike movement. Indeed, as the author coincided almost precisely with the first advises in his brief conclusion. Marxists stirrings of glasnost' in the USSR, and and culturalists "would do well" to revise with the efforts of a number of writers, their concepts and categories. Soviet and nonsoviet, to reexamine the history of agricultural collectivization, Edelman's book grapples with one of the blankest of "blank spots" in that the most fundamental problems confront­ country's history. It seems appropriate, ing students of early twentieth-century therefore, to try to situate his conclusions Russia: identifying the discrepancies in within the spectrum of recent discussions. behaviour patterns within broad social Conquest believes that collectiviza­ groups. Proletarian Peasant* carefully tion produced a catastrophic loss of life documents the regional disparities that and caused permanent harm to Soviet came to the fore in rural Russia during a agriculture. Today hardly anyone would revolutionary situation. It also shows that disagree with either proposition. right-bank peasants reverted to more con­ Mainstream Soviet writers will argue that ventional forms of agrarian protest in peasants paid an enormous — albeit 1907. when the regrouping of landlords necessary — price for the building of a and government forces reduced the effec­ modern military-industrial state. More tiveness of strikes. By concluding his critical commentators, Soviet and non- study at this point in time, however. Edel- soviet, insist the price was too high, and man leaves some important questions un­ dispute the very notion of necessity. answered. Did continued wage labour on Meanwhile Soviet economic reformers capitalist estates exert any influence on are grappling with the inefficiencies of an the mentalité of right-bank peasants over-bureaucratized agricultural system during the following decade? Did the in which resources (both human and 380 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

material) are squandered and productivity groups of victims: the targets of the stagnates. dckulakization campaign, who were To acknowledge that millions suf­ stripped of their possessions, deported fered and died does not. however, end the under the harshest conditions to the most discussion. There is still the question of remote and forbidding corners of the how many millions, and the even more USSR, or executed more directly; and the contentious issue of why they died, of famine casualties of 1932-33. In both who or what was to blame. Conquest's cases he assigns full blame to Stalin and arguments on each of these points need the top Soviet leaders, who decreed careful and critical scrutiny. forced-march collectivization and "the On the death toll of collectivization liquidation of kulaks as a class" and set the historical evidence is (not by chance) the grain quotas that left peasants starv­ thin. The easiest way to estimate the loss ing. The famine, in Conquest's account, of life is to extrapolate from census was entirely man-made, an intentional results, but publication of the Soviet cen­ measure to force peasants to submit to the sus of 1937 was wholly suppressed, and wishes of the regime. It was, moreover, a the 1939 census that followed is regarded "genocidal" campaign directed against with more than a little suspicion. Using the independence-minded Ukrainian statistics from earlier years. Conquest has minority within the Soviet population. attempted to calculate how large the The author's concentration on the Uk­ Soviet population should have been in rainian experience does not prevent him 1937 or 1939. and concludes ("conserva­ from describing the suffering of other tively") that 14.5 million peasants died — nationalities (Kazakhs in particular), but roughly half as a result of direct persecu­ only in the Ukrainian case does he use the tion and the rest from man-made famine. term genocide. Without denying that the This figure exceeds the total number of Ukraine bore a heavier burden than other deaths for all countries in World War I. territories, one must ask whether this ter­ Conquest's method seems minology is appropriate. Did the Stalin straightforward, but it rests on shaky as­ leadership set out with deliberate intent to sumptions. Would the birth rates of the destroy one ethnic population while mid-1920s have held steady throughout tolerating others? Or did Ukrainians the following decade despite massive so­ rather have the misfortune to be con­ cial changes (rural-urban migration, over­ centrated in regions which, for economic crowding. dislocation of family life. and perhaps climatic reasons, ex­ heightened female workforce participa­ perienced the greatest hardship and loss tion)? Can one distinguish between in­ of life? Deaths in adjacent areas of the fants who died and babies who. due to lower Volga and North Caucasus seem to birth control or maternal infertility, were have been as heavy among Russians and never conceived? What can death rates of other nationalities as among Ukrainians. the previous decade tell us about normal Emphasizing the destructive, mortality in the 1930s? Conquest, know­ manipulative power of the Soviet leader­ ing little demography, and apparently ship and the suffering of the victims, the considering that any attempt to argue for author tells us little about the nature of lower rates of mortality than he asserts Soviet society — about peasants who sur­ can be nothing less than an apology for vived, or local officials who implemented Stalinism, has in fact produced a worst- collectivization, or city dwellers and in­ case scenario. Far from conservative, his dustrial migrants whose future also estimates of mortality greatly exceed depended on the outcome. Consider a few those of most other authorities — includ­ alternative scenarios: 1) The flaws of an ing critical eyewitnesses such as William ill-conceived plan were compounded by Chamberlin and present-day demog­ natural disaster as excessive grain quotas raphers such as Barbara Anderson. left the countryside unprotected in the Conquest distinguishes between two face of drought and crop failure. 2) Coer- REVIEWS 381 civc and exhortative efforts "from above" al grid that is choking the country were mirrored by zealous and even nowadays and proves to be very resistant hysterical initiatives "from below": direc­ to change. tives were misunderstood and misap­ At the heart of both the success and plied. producing chaotic disruption and the malfunctions that became deeply em­ devastation. 3) The peasants, through suf­ bedded in the "model" of the 1930s were fering and resistance, proved that the the methods employed in those years to regime's power was not limitless: collec­ overcome the country's backwardness: tivized agriculture in its final form (circa coercively accelerated economic growth, 1935) was significantly different from the speed oriented industrialization with a system proposed in 1928-29. reflecting very one-sided preference for heavy in­ some measure of adjustment and interac­ dustry, ruthless "collectivization" of the tion between rulers and ruled. peasants. The five-year plan launched by Propositions such as these — which the government was a novelty that at­ by no means exhaust the range of recent tracted enormous interest the world over, scholarship — are inherently no less and so was "stakhanovism" — a phalange plausible than Conquest's version of of record-breaking workers that appear in events. They do not exculpate Stalin and September 1935 — that can be seen as his cronies, but they do change the terms either an episode, or something more of indictment. They also direct the weighty, according to the interpretation historian's attention to different bodies of one chooses. The methods adopted by the evidence from those that Conquest has leadership to keep their plans rolling used, and raise different questions about created a host of effects, some just pass­ the lessons of collectivization. ing. other longer lasting. Those effects are The story of collectivization needs still hotly debated by scholars and assume closer, more careful study than has hither­ a particular sharpness and intensity in the to been possible. Harvest of Sorrow .has discussions that are raging nowadays in succeeded in bringing the topic to the the Soviet Union. Were other methods attention of a wider public, but will not available that could have helped to solve provide a useful foundation for future re­ problems and spare the country some of search. Its demonological approach the most revolting chapters in its history? obscures the diversity and complexity of This problem of "alternative" concerning the problem, ignoring the issues that Han­ a period that is still heavily under-re­ nah Arendt summarized so well as the searched is fascinating — although banality of evil. Professor Siegelbaum, wisely, does not venture into it. He wants to know "what really happened" an ideal or an impos­ R.E. Johnson sible dream bequested to historians by University of Toronto Ranke — but he is also keenly aware of "the mythological labyrinth" that has to be straightened out in order to understand Lewis H. Siegelbaum. Stakhanovism and the events. One of Siegelbaum's great the Politics of Productivity in the USSR, merits is that he is aware of some of the I93I-IV4I (Cambridge: Cambridge broader trends that either predated the University Press 1988). plan-era or were triggered by it and went well beyond what leaders expected or THE SOVIF.T STATR was developing its in­ could really handle. In a short time span stitutions since its inception in 1917. but thousands of large factories were built it is widely acknowledged that the 1930s and old ones were renovated an provided played a particularly important role in with a mass of modern equipment, initial­ shaping the whole system. What hap­ ly mostly imported. Unfortunately, "the pened then helped make the USSR power­ human factor" was not yet ready for a task ful but also saddled it with a heritage like that. Therefore, the influx of modern called "Stalinism" and with an institution­ 382 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

technology was accompanied by an influx quality and productivity problems. of a crude or very poorly skilled labour Renewed prestige for Stalin's in­ force and by rather speedily and poorly dustrialization and for his brand of trained technological and managerial socialism as well as new lustre for the layers. On top of it. the problem was ob­ Soviet working class could also, hopeful­ viously more complicated than just in­ ly. be secured in this way. stalling and learning to operate machines. Was this policy an effort to pay more A large factory is already a complicated attention to the working class and en­ entity, but a whole industrial system is of hance its prestige in the system, after an even higher order of complexity and some years of purely pro-managerial and there was another, broader dimension still pro-cadres policy? or was it just a step, — namely the whole socio-economic and simply, in the productivity battle? Stak­ political entity that took shape in those hanovism lent itself to be a model for years. All three dimensions emerging workers, but also a whip against the simultaneously, in the wake of the hectic managers and technicians, or some in-be­ economic development and without much tween function. A stakhanovite could be chance given to graduate transitions and seen as a hero, or just a highly motivated adaptations, could not but engender deep and efficient worker, but in the eyes of imbalances, the inadequacy of the avail­ many workers and managers he could able cadres being just one of them. A simply be a villain. Central policy whole set of such imbalances produced hesitated between the possible functions very sharp tensions and crisis for stakhanovism and never really made phenomena, and — in fact — the whole up its mind. Many managers and workers period can be characterized as a did not care for "heroics," believing that protracted social and political crisis. industry needed education and organiza­ Leaders desperately tried to control the tion on a mass scale and workers could situation, including by mass terror but not become record-breakers of heroic also through a variety of policies aiming proportions without managers preparing at motivating people to handle their tasks special conditions for the select few. But efficiently. Or handle them somehow at even those few could not continue to least. It is no wonder that a situation like excel in feats of high productivity be­ that created a climate encouraging short­ cause the over-centralized and minutely cuts and miracle-remedies. Stakhanovism "planned" industrial system was not belongs to this class of policies. It was capable of providing conditions for initially inspired by an experiment or­ smooth supplies of materials, spare parts ganized by a party secretary in one of the and instruments. Serious by only spotty Donbass coal pits who proposed lo Alek- spurts of productivity immediately ran sei Stakhanov, a miner of peasant extrac­ afoul of shortages in transportation or tion, to break a productivity record. The coordination. A lasting and widespread experiment succeeded and "the method" productivity achievement needed much was soon taken over by the Centre more than the worker's zeal. Stak­ (Ordzhonikidze. the Commissar of heavy hanovism itself could be seen as an il­ industry first, Stalin somewhat later) who lustration of the ills of over-centraliza­ believed it presented a great lesson and tion. It was imposed as a policy from the prospect. It seemed lo illustrate to all con­ center, transformed into a campaign and cerned the enormous productivity poten­ soon began to exhibit what many cam­ tial present in the system that was wasted paigns suffered from: "sham proclama­ by either poor workmanship or poor tions without the real participation of the management, or both. Promoting and ex­ masses" — that is a quote by Siegelbaum panding a movement of heroic performers from a parly critique of a policy of bore a promise of a great leap forward in productivity in the early thirties. II can the sluggish coal mining industry and in equally be applied to stakhanovism industry at large, both suffering from despite the bigger inputs and pressures REVIEWS 383 from above invested in it compared to the get a good historical overview of forms of earlier "shock workers" campaign. labour organization and "socialist com­ Be it as it may. initially the launching petition" through the decade that interests of the stakhanovite wave soon produced him and we should commend him, in par­ a very curious mixture of menaces and ticular. for his knowledge of the labour exhortations directed toward the factory process in the coal mines where stak­ technostrucutre. enjoining them to active­ hanovism was invented. One has some­ ly promote the movement or else face time the impression that he might have accusations of sabotage. There was also a worked himself, or at least observed lot of workers" opposition and resentment mine-shafts in operation. of the stakhanovites and the privileges Also interesting is his study of the accorded them. But the main pressure was cultural myths associated with stak­ applied to managers to shape up and hanovism and sometime one even mar­ match the new energy of outstanding vels whether he didn't succumb himself a workers that these managers were sup­ tiny bit to some of them. But this impres­ posed to organize in the first place. Per­ sion is just a result of Siegelbaum's secutions followed with chilling, even cautious approach and readiness to ex­ paralyzing effects on managers and tech­ amine claims and counterclaims, without nicians. Soon dissensions at the top could dismissing everything out of hand as be discerned, with Stalin, probably also sham — another trap into which some Zhdanov, pressing for penalizing the authors fall. The period was ripe with cadres and Ordzonikidzc. the first to real­ myth-making and "potemkin villages." ize what persecutions were doing to his But he process itself was no "potemkin realm —heavy industry — demurring and village" and the author convincingly seeking to protect his cadres from accusa­ maneuvers between myth and reality and tions of sabotage. It all merged d if ring comes out with his scholarly realism in­ these fateful years. 1936-38. in a broader tact. He knows and shows that the initial maelstrom of purges, but the purges "also aims of stakhanovism failed already in the led to deemphasis and eventual mar- early months of 1936 and this, he suggest, ginalization of stakhanovism itself says "was to have serious, indeed fatal, conse­ the author. Once the big purges were quences for many who have been called stopped the pro-management, "pro-bos- up to lead this movement." He thus leads sism" policy resumed and management us, briefly, into "the great purges," as one were now allowed to define "a stak­ has to, being tempted as most authors are, hanovite" according to their wishes be­ to link them to their own topics in the cause. as the author points out. "stak­ hope of finding the clues to these momen- hanovism could ... be made and unmade tuous phenomena. He creates the impres­ merely by the alteration of the criteria by sion that somehow purges and stak­ which they were distinguished from other hanovism are two alternative policies: workers." Accordingly, managers could one having failed, the other followed. transform it into a fiction or replace it This is how one could read this statement with other forms of stimulation although of his: "It has already been suggested that still keeping the term in the vocabulary. police terror largely replaced stak­ hanovism as a device for bringing pres­ These are only some of the points sure upon industrial cadres." What he ac­ inspired by or borrowed from Siegel- tually meant is unclear, but relations be­ baum. But his monograph is much richer. tween stakhanovism and the purges are It is thus far the best entry into the Soviet tenuous, or might have just been inciden­ industrial scene, from above and from tal. The triggers of the purges are still below, presented with remarkable com­ murky. Clouds were accumulating for petence and good judgement. He helps us sometime over the heads of all the cadres, understand the organization of labour and not just in industry, and in sectors where problems of stimulation: we learn about stakhanovism and labour productivity norm setting and shop-floor foremen; we 384 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL were irrelevant. The was on the cadres represent the first time in history when an still awaits to be deciphered and. in the industrial host devotes so much energy to meantime. Siegelbaum's fine study gives dynamiting the houses of its guest us enough to ponder over the industrial workers. development and policies, (heir obvious The authors waste little time in show­ crises in the later 1930s and the very real ing the ideological flag. The origins of the and extremely complicated problem of notorious slave labour system, which productivity in a situation of social. forms one of three pillars (the Congres- political and economic flux. sionally supervised rape of the American taxpayer being the second, and arms sales Moshe Lewin to the world's pariah regimes the third) on University of Pennsylvania which Israeli wealth has been built since 1967. they impute to "lack of economic opportunity in the West Bank and Gaza Moshe Semyonov and Noah Lewin- Strip." This makes it "necessary for many Epstein. Hewers of Wood and Drawers of of these workers to seek employment in Water: Soncitizen Arabs in the Israeli Israel." Of course, the natives, being Labor Market (Ithaca: Cornell University somewhat primitive, get "integrated" Press 1987). from a lower income base and poorer educational attainment level than Israeli THIS INTKI I.F.CTUAI I.Y FOOLISH and workers, thus placing themselves at a dis­ politically dishonest book, dealing with advantage before the impartial judgement the position of Arab workers from the of the marketplace. But ultimately it is the occupied territories of the West Bank and law of the market, not that of military Gaza in the Israeli socio-economic hierar­ overseers, that counts. chy. purports to make two contributions That being the case, the authors could to scholarship. It claims to be the first afford to ignore such adventitious institu­ study of the process of "integration" of tional details as the wanton destruction of noncitizen Arabs into the Israeli labour traditional agrarian society by massive market. And, in the authors' words "on confiscations of land on which first, the theoretical level, it discusses the find­ Jewish paramilitary colonies, and then ings in light of sociological theories dream homes for American retirees could regarding the dynamics of labor market be built. They could bypass as irrelevant stratification in ethnically heterogeneous the diversion of the bulk of the water societies." In so doing it manages to go resources away from Arab farms, and the doubly and dangerously astray right from military policy of forcibly capping Arab the outset. farmers' wells, in order to satisfy the What is involved in the exploitation demands of Israeli industry with its ap­ of Palestinian labour in the Israeli petite for the cheap labour of uprooted economy is precisely the opposite of "in­ peasants, not to speak of the need to keep tegration." even in the limited sense that the swimming pools in the Jewish settle­ guest workers in Western Europe might ments filled. And it is of no consequence be said to be integrated into the host that Palestinian produce is largely banned economy, while remaining socially from israel if it threatens Jewish farm ostracised and politically impotent. The output while the occupied territories are authors' comparison of the Palestinians forcibly opened to the dumping of Israeli labouring in Israel, not to the position of goods. the inhabitants of one of the Bantustans Nor, given that the market determines functioning in South Africa with the help all. did the authors need to be concerned of Israeli investors and military advisors. with Israeli actions to preclude the emer­ but to Italian gueslworkers crossing the gence within what they quaintly call the Swiss border, would call forth a bel- "administered territories," of local in­ lylaugh were it not so obscene. This must dustrial alternatives to agricultural REVIEWS 385 employment the refusal of licenses (re­ bearing on the question of relative wage quired for almost everything) to any but determination. handicraft style shops, the nco-mcrcan- For when all is said and done, the tilist trade policy, the seizure of foreign authors conclude, "social and economic exchange transferred in by the PLO or the forces of the labor market have governed Jordanian government to support local the incorporation of noncitizen Arabs in development initiatives. Israel, despite laws and regulations." Once native labour rendered surplus by "lack of economic opportunity'" went R.T. Naylor hunting for work off the reservation, the McGill University authors impute the observed income dif­ ferential to two factors. The most impor­ tant is "extreme occupational segrega­ Ronald P. Dore, Flexible Rigidities: In­ tion" which can perhaps be taken as a dustrial Policy and Structural Adjustment polite reference to another aspect of Is­ in the Japanese Economy, 1970-80 (Stan­ raeli "administration" — the savage bust­ ford: Stanford University Press 1986). ing of Palestinian trade unions, while forcing all Palestinian workers wishing to THIS STUDY PROVIDES much needed in­ legally participate in the Israeli labour sight into the inner workjngs of the market to pay full taxes, social security Japanese economy both at the micro and charges and Histadrut membership fees. macro levels. With a catchier title, it ac­ The tax money gets recycled back not into tually is an alternate version (duly ac­ economic development, but to underwrite knowledged) of another 1986 publication the cost of military occupation: the social by Dore, with contributions by Koji Taira, security charges go to support the cost of put out by the International Labour Office indexation of wages and savings instru­ (ILO) simplv as Structural Adjustment in ments and the subsidization of basic com­ Japan, 1970-82. While much of both are modities — for Israeli citizens only: and the same, this book has short introductory the Histadrut fees help sustain its growth and concluding chapters not found in the as an industrial giant in its own right ILO volume. Dore's main stress here is on while the "union" watches indifferently the question of why foreign competitors as Palestinian workers are discriminated are unable to penetrate the Japanese against in terms of pa and conditions and market (the ILO book is one of a series of are hired and hired at the whim of their comparative country studies and, while employers. certainly related, has its focus on Japan's As to the role of the second factor. relatively successful transition through "ethnicity." it can be best summarized, as the recent upheavals in the world the authors of this laundry-manual would economy). His answer lies mainly in what never do. by the record of the isracli he believes are unusually tight-knit Supreme Court — in the last half of 1986 relationships among firms which serve, it hear 59 complaints from Palestinians in rather than compete with, one another the territories being "administered" by and. as a result, foster adaptability and military overlords, settler goon squads innovation. and secret police, and rejected 59 of them. This rejection of the "invisible hand," To be sure, the authors take note of Dorc claims, gives Japanese enterprises a the fact that, in addition to the formally "natural immunity" against foreign in­ organized labour flows, there is a black trusion. observed in market — which they impute to a reluc­ tance on the part of the Palestinians to pay u dense web of 'relational contracting' be­ taxes. That the black market labour force tween firms specializing in different parts of has been estimated by some observers to the production process, or between manufac­ total three times the size of the formally turers and trading companies, between trading companies and retailers — relationships which organized part apparently has no special are backed not only by their foundation in trust 386 LABOUR'!.E TRAVAIL

and mutual objective, but hy .ill the things that another and even with the relatively few trust means, quality guarantees and security of highly concentrated, large-scale con­ supply. (24S) glomerates. Especially in the producer goods area. Dore contends, "the alterna­ All this is best brought out in the last tive with which a lot of these trading third of the book's 27N pages which are relations have to be compared is. indeed, devoted to a highly detailed, at times not a free cut-throat market, but intra-firm somewhat discursive, indepth study of the transfers." (81 ) This is a type of economic declining Japanese textile and garment dualism that contributes to rather than industries. Once again. Dore displays his detracts from rising productivity. Further, admirable talents as a field observer these relationships receive blessings, and reporting upon grass-roots human or­ as necessary, protections from an able ganisations and social relations in a way "political-bureaucratic" government elite that economic analysis alone almost which has the task of shaping a national never captures. Included are eight nitty- consensus on economic policy that ac­ gritty vignettes (not found in the 11.0 tually preserves the dual structure. As a book) of textile and garment company result. Dore says, Japanese economic groups, families, and individuals. These growth has been so rapid that substantial three chapters alone make the book worth parts of Japan are now "post-industrial" reading. even as industrialization remains incom­ In the first two-thirds of the study. plete. Dore admits that even with such a Dore examines the overall Japanese capacity to adjust to change and control economy (a variety of statistical tables is markets in the long urn, Japan is not able very useful). His portrayal ol "organized to keep out all foreign competition. capitalism" in Japan rests on the assump­ Economic expansion and restructuring tion of a high degree of coordination. themselves make room for some increase cooperation, and consensus among in manufactured imports from countries employers, labour, and government. In that develop comparative advantages tracing the major economic changes such as the labor-intensive NICS. (Also, Japan experienced in the 1970s. he shows Japan gives in to vociferous trading how each of the dominant institutions ad­ partners who demand reduction of per­ justed its behaviour because of close sistent Japanese trade surpluses and basic ties among them. The economic revaluation of the yen against the dollar.) traumas of those years could be readily Inevitably. Dore seems to agree, the coped with. Dore claims, because of long Japanese economy must become more experience in the preceding decades with open, but doing so entails extended delays constant structural change. Thus, despite as Japanese industry adapts to the pres­ a slower growth rate by half. Japan not sures. only could avert the threat of large-scale unemployment but also continue to enjoy In dealing with employment adjust­ rises in income, improvements in skills. ment. Dore gives special attention to and advances in technology. Unlike the labour-management relations at the plant Western economies, which he believes level. He finds a highly active process of are fare more rigid and stagnant. Japan collective bargaining (an appendix successfully weathered the storms of en­ describes labour disputes in two textile vironmental pollution, runaway inflation. companies) and close joint consultation. and uncompetitive industry. Also, he emphasizes the absence of government in these activities even Basically. Dore argues. Japan's though in the 1970s a number of new resiliency emerges from the vast array of important laws were enacted to meet the small family enterprises (of w hich textile threat of rising unemployment. Yet, "the and garments are the cxamplars) which consensus shared between government readily innovate and cut costs through officials and corporate managers is shared their business and social ties with one also by the leaders of labor unions." (148) REVIEWS 387

(The ILO version has a fuller treatment decade's field work. As such, Chinese contributed by Taira of the Japanese Working Class Lives is not overburdened labour market behaviour during the with statistical data: indeed, labour his­ period.) torians concerned with cross-national, Thus, tripartite participation in policy quantitative study of third world workers making at various levels — national, in­ will be disappointed by the dearth of all dustrial. and enterprise — seems also to but the simplest price and wage series and be an essential ingredient in Japan's demographic information. The oral his­ economic flexibility. Dores study of tex­ tory technique Gates employees is useful, tiles and garments provides strong sup­ though without more basic data concern­ porting evidence, although additional ing Taiwanese working-class life, her case studies from other industries are study lacks necessary reference points. needed for a full lest (the II.0 book con­ Much of Gates's discussion relies on topi­ tains such a studv b> Taira of consumer cal essays that preface her interview electronics, an expanding rather than declin­ subject's autobiographies. Taken singly, ing industry.) each of these are informative; but paired Dore's research argues for more joint­ as they are throughout the text, the essays ly administered sectors, rather than free and autobiographies seldom fît together markets, in modern "mixed" economies as well as they might. Still, historians and in order to achieve growth and stability. social scientists will find this useful intro­ Although the study greatly helps to ex­ duction to Taiwan's socio-economic plain Japanese experience in this respect. development. it does not bring out the contrasts with Although Japanese occupation of other advanced market economies as Taiwan between 1895-1945 brought the sharply as it might. Perhaps the differen­ beginnings of modern industry and fac­ ces arc made more evident in Taking tory life, the island remained largely Japan Seriously, a "companion volume" agricultural until the late 1950s, when Dore also has recently authored. over 50 per cent of its population engaged in farming. With the boom of the later Solomon G. Levine 1960s, the economy shifted from agricul­ University of Wisconsin-Madison ture to industry; by the mid 1980s, less than one third of the island's families farmed, with many among the group Hill Gates. Chinese Working Class Lives: drawing a sizeable share of their incomes Getting By in Taiwan (Ithaca: Cornell from non-farm sources. Gates details this University Press 1987). economic watershed by examining the ef­ forts of Taiwanese families to live lives FOR NOKTH AMH.RICANS. Taiwan"S that conform to widely-accepted cultural workforce remains both a mystery and a ideals of traditional family and the "good threat — a faceless mass whose produc­ life." What Gates does not make clear is tivity and low wage demands siphon jobs that such aspirations, rather than what from a w idening range of industries, yet pundits variously term the "Confucian lew of us have any sense of the price work ethic," or "Chinese economic cul­ Taiwan's miracle economy exacts from ture". is what drives Taiwan's economy, its own workers. Veteran anthropologist as it does those of Hong Kong, Korea, and Hill Gates's study of Taiwanese history Singapore. In all these economies, and working-class culture provides and entrepreneurshipis less a search for short- engrossing examination of life amidst a term gains than it is the creation of lasting sustained 10 per cent annual growth rate security for present and future genera­ in GNP. tions. Gates's enquiry relies on interview The central chapters of Gates's study conducted in late 1980 among subjects poignantly outline the poverty that known to her during the previous punishes weakness, failure, or ill fortune 388 LABOUR/I.E TRAVAIL

in Taiwan. For most Taiwanese, demand­ Taiwanese factories is rarely long-term. ing physical labour is the rule. Personnel managers discourage employ­ Shopownors typically open early, close ment of older women as does the cus­ laic, and rarely take holidays, even at tomary pattern of early marriage and lunar New Year's. Modern factory child-bearing. Mean abandon factory workers often put in sex-seven day weeks work once growing families outstrip at ten or more hours daily. Taiwanese wages suited to single workers. Mature workers made clear to Gales their male workers typically aspire to life as employment preferences. Lowest on this independent small businessmen beyond occupational scale is "bitter labour" (ku the factory system. gong) that includes heavy, repetitive Taiwan's modern industrial sector work characteristic of pre-mcchani/ed depends on what Gates's terms a "part- construction. For instance, on small jobs time proletariat" of young, unmarried women still transport cement, bricks and workers who stream through the factories. other materials by shoulder pole. Less When downswings in the economy oc­ taxing physically is the serve sector. casion widespread lay-offs, these workers which includes domestics, restaurant. retreat to the "parental" economy of the hotel, shop help, and "entertainers" — a farm or small business. Above all, this is euphemism for the large numbers of bar what has long made Taiwan attractive to girls and prostitutes in the island's larger multinational corporations: a cheap, cities. Most desireable are factory posi­ abundant supply of workers who do not tions. particularly those in modern, ex­ bargain for wages, strike, agitate through port-producing plants run by large political parties, or even settle in workers' American or Japanese concerns. districts that might foster a collective Despite the finely-shaded sense of victimization. autobiographies of older workers that so The recent passing of Chiang Ching- richly show (in Charles Tilly's phrase) kuo. Chiang Kai-shek's son and political how ordinary people "live the big chan­ heir, promises relief from authoritarian ges" in Taiwan's development, none of KMT rule, chiefly through the prospect of Gates's interview subjects included mem­ legalization of other political parties and bers of the modern work force so crucial greater personal freedom. Gates's present to the island's recent success, instead, she analysis fo the Taiwanese workforce does profiles this group in the simplest terms. not speculate on how these important As a group, modern factory workers changes are affecting, or might affect, the share two basic traits: youth (50 percent lives of the children of the older workers are between 15 and 14 years old) and rural she knows and admires. Given Gates's origins. Young Taiwanese take factory twenty years of commitment to the study jobs in hopes of funding night school of the island's working class, one hopes courses. Few. however, manage the her future research will grow beyond the demanding schedule of work and study. deftly crafted ethnography she presents. Many parents depend on the unmarried children to remit all their earnings, net of C.G. Watson personal expenses, to help with family Oueen's University expenses, particularly the costs involved in educating younger sibs. These pres­ sures are particularly intense on young Otto Jacobi. Bob Jessop, Hans Kasten- women workers, who are obliged to con­ diendiek, and Marino Regini, eds., tribute to family income before tradition­ Economic Crisis, Trade Unions and the al patrilocal marriages bind them Stale (London: Croom Helm 1986). economic to their husbands' households. Unlike the storied practice of LIKE THF. PARALLEL VOLUME on "Tech­ "lifetime" employment among major nological Change, Rationalization and In­ Japanese firms, work in modern dustrial Relations," this book is a REVIEWS 389

collaborative project of West German. crease profits. Generally, as Kastendien- Italian, and British scholars. The articles diek and others point out, the unions have are based on conference papers delivered pursued a corporatist strategy that defeats in IMS3- and updated to the following their ostensible objectives. Their very year. There are trios of articles on each of offer to "cooperate" involves an accep­ the three countries. They focus on rela­ tance of capital's agenda — and a promise tions between trade unions and states not to mobilize labour against it. Since since 1973. Generally, they explore the there is nothing more that capital wants implications of "the end of the Key nesian from the unions, it has no incentive to consensus" — in particular, the apparent offer further concessions. Even the sym­ reversal of the trend towards corporatism bolic acceptance of labour as an equal in Western Kuropc. The introduction and partner is dispensable, when there are opening trio of essays on the current crisis other means of securing labour discipline. attempt to place the more specific studies As Ulrich Mueckenberger shows, the that follow in comparative perspective. German courts have played an important and to relate the analyses to current role in this respect. Since 1982 the theoretical debates. CDU/CSU-FDP coalition, like the British The section on Italy is undoubtedly Conservative government, has been able the weakest. The translations are inept. to by-pass the unions and mobilize but one suspects that the original Italian popular support directly. This has left the was not always much clearer. All three unions pining for a return to corporatist papers focus on the trilateral agreement of intermediation. January 19N3 between the Italian govern­ The most dramatic turn against cor­ ment. the labour federations, and the Con­ poratism has been in Thatcher's Britain. federation of Industry. The agreement Richard Hyman traces the earlier drift seemed to herald a new corporatist era in towards quasi-corporatism, pointing out Italy, but it broke down in little more than the bi-partisan support for it and the un­ a year. The authors attempt to explain even effects of corporatist arrangements how the agreement came about and why on capital and labour. Corporatism was to it was impossible to sustain, but they fail support capital and restrain labour, but by to shed much light on these matters. One the late 1970s it was proving ineffective thing does become clear, however. The in both respects. This provided the open­ 1983 agreement was a sign of weakness ing for Thatcher, who made the unions on the part of the unions. At best, it gave and the corporatist structures that gave them access to decisions about im­ them influence scapegoats for the plementing capital's agenda, controlling economic crisis. Colin Crouch explores the deficit and reducing labour costs. the Conservative shift from corporatism When the CGIL (the main labour central) to contestation, as a strategy for dealing refused to agree to the Craxi with labour. As Hyman points out, the government's proposals in I9K4. the lat­ de-mobilizing effects of the preceding ter were simply implemented by decree. corporatist strategics of the labour move­ Labour's cooperation was not essential. ment worked to Thatcher's advantage. The essays on West Germany reveal Bob Jessop attempts to put her policies in something similar. As Otto Jacobi shows. theoretical perspective, by exploring the the German unions responded to states of monetarism and the relation be­ economic crisis with •moderation." Al­ tween monetarism and corporatism. He though they pressed their Social shows how monetarist policies inevitably Democratic allies in the Schmidt govern­ fail as a response to structural problems, ment to remain loyal to Keynesianism. and lead to a choice between deregula­ they accepted the need for "restructuring" tion. privatization, and commercializa­ the West German economy. This meant tion on the one hand and government acquiescing in measures to cut labour regulation, national economic planning, costs, reduce social expenditures, and in­ and decommodification on the other. 390 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Thatcher's obvious choice, the former relevant information here. Even the one. involves a dismantling of corporatist tripartite comparison of the three institutions. countries remains unclear. More light is Jcssop's analysis relates to the more shed on the phenomenon of corporatism, general issues raised in the first part of the which emerges as a contingent strategy book. In their Introduction, the editors for labour and capital. For labour, it is a relate the changes in industrial relations means for securing recognition as an es­ to the twofold crisis of postwar capitalism tate of the realm, under capital's — the supersession of the Fordisl regime hegemony. For capital, it is one means of production and the decline of among many for securing labour's subor­ American hegemonv. In this context, the dination. As all these articles show, cor­ Keyncsian welfare slate seems an poratism has been eminently dispensable obstacle to renewed capital accumulation. int he present economic crisis. That, at According to the authors, neo-liheral and least, has been no great loss. neo-stafist responses to the crisis are both possible: the latter, but not the former, is Warren Magnusson compatible with corporatist practices. University of Victoria Altvater et al explore the collapse of the class compromise that was the basis for the Keyncsian welfare state. This they Colin Barker, éd.. Revolutionary Re­ attribute most fundamentally to "the vic­ hearsals (London: Bookmarks 1987). tory of value (and the law of value) over the political control of the states (over THE CONCEPTION is excellent a series of Keynesianism as a political principle)." case studies of major social upheavals in (23) In other words. kevnesianism is the period since the 1960s demonstrates based on (he false premise that capitalism the potential for working class led can be contained within a nation-stale. socialist revolution. Execution of these According to Altvater. the inability of studies, however, is uneven and, in some states to control capitalism leaves them cases, deeply flawed. with only two choices: "either the neo- liberal alternative ... or the polincitation Five case studies of mass working- of the sphere of production by seizing the class struggle from the substance of this production and investment decisions." collection: The French general strike and Call it socialism, .lacobi suggests thai the factory occupation in May 1968; the fac­ neo-liberal strategy may actually lay the tory belts of regional workers'councils in ground for a revival of Keynesianism. by Chile in 1972-73; the popular power purging the svstem and creating pent-up movement in Portugal during 1974-75; demands. He emphasized, however, the the independent workers' councils in Iran divergent impact of the current crisis on which emerged in the period following the unions in Britain. Italy, and West Ger­ the fall of the Shah and before the ascen­ many. suggesting that the former are like­ dancy of the Islamic Republic; the growth ly to have been "most enduringly of Solidarity in Poland as a potential basis weakened." (46) Regini pursues a similar (or a self-governing workers' state. theme, in stressing that any expectation of The essays serve an important func­ convergence in the pattern of Western tion in detailing the continuing powerful European industrial relations is role of the working class in the contem­ misplaced. porary struggle for socialism and democracy. This reminder is particularly The issues raised in these opening pertinent in the contemporary period essays are interesting, but the subsequent when it has become academically articles do little to resolve them. The fashionable to be "post"; post-class, post- reader concerned with comparing North marxist. and to dissolve political analysis American and West European industrial into the mushy categories of populist- relations will find only bits and pieces of democratic "discourse." REVIEWS 391

The title of the collection, "Revolu­ capture the great mass of humanity ex­ tionary Rehearsals." reveals the two ploited by the capitalist system and state themes — the eruption of the workers' in general. The conventional concept of movements on to the center stage of wage worker based party building for political struggle and their incapacity to economic demands toward socialism in consummate a socialist revolution. The large party bypasses the dynamic inter­ essays provide substantial descriptive action of classes that takes place outside material documenting the scope and the factory gates in the specific social breadth of the workers' role in occupying structures of dependent forms of factories, in some cases taking over capitalism. It is interesting to note that production, distribution and creating the even in the case of an advanced capitalist embryo of self-governing political power. country like France. Birch describes this If for no other reason but for the compila­ awesome power of the social movements tion of these experiences, the book is an and captures the breadth and complexity excellent sourcebook. The second theme of non-factory class participants but fails of the study relates to an analysis and to theorize either — reverting to the old discussion of the reasons why these party saw about "the crises of party upheavals failed to lead to revolution and leadership." here there is a constant theme: the failure The essays by Birchall on France, of non-existence of revolutionary leader­ Poya on Iran, and Robinson provide us ship/party. This is the weakest section in with a somewhat nuanced analysis fo the all of the essays. class-relations between the workers' There is no serious reflection on the struggle and other social classes and in­ fact that all the upsurges discussed in this stitutions. The essay by Gonzalez, how­ book were not led by conventional radical ever. is deeply flawed in several areas. In parties but by revolutionary social move­ Gonzalez's account of Chile, Allende is ments. In a broader context, the only two presented in a one-sided role of "leash­ socialist revolutions in the western hemi­ ing" the working-class struggle, histori­ sphere (Cuba and Nicaragua) were led by cal reality is far more complex and con­ movements (26th of July and the San- tradictory: Allende alternated between danista). Neither is discussed, apparently mobilizing the labour movement through because they did not measure up through legislation facilitating organization and the optics of state capitalist school of the formation of workers' councils and theorizing as workers' revolutions. The calling for restraint. Given Gonzalez's authors come already quipped with reality negative account, there is no plausible in the form of the vanguard party and explanation for the continuing workers' therefore fail to reflect on why all the little support for Allende. Leninist sects which played at times an Likewise, Gonzalez fails to discuss active and dynamic role were never able the contradictory forces in the military. to be part of a larger transformation and For him it is all a reactionary mass. ended up trying to cannibali/e individual Betraying no notion of a revolutionary members from the larger movements. crisis that did lead to fissures in all the Several hypotheses for the centrality major institutions, Gonzalez is not able to of social mo\ cments can be suggested but explain why the coup took place in Sep­ are never considered by the authors. tember 1973 and not earlier. The reason Given the fluidity of the class structure is clear: the pro-coup military had to (the movement of individuals from wage purge th constitutionalist offices before work to unemployment to "self employ­ they could seize control over the conscripts ment") and the heterogeneity of the and enlisted men. But to have analyzed labour force — mass of reserve army. these divisions would have required Gon­ petty producers and distributors — or­ zalez to move away from abstract dogma to ganizations of the orthodox style based on historically specific institutional analysis. the factory work place are not adequate to None of the studies provides us with 392 LABOUR LE TRAVAIL

an understanding of the role of im­ the interests of the labour movement in perialism in the class struggle and how it every moment. The problem of one- influenced workers" struggles. Anecdotal dimensional analysis reemerges in the references are inadequate to under­ analyses of Poland and Iran. The con­ standing the sustained interaction be­ tradictory nature of Solidarity with its em­ tween local classes — particularly the phasis on workers' councils and petit bourgeois — and the imperial state. clericalism, democratic socialism and A wealth of material on Chile was virtual­ support for Ronald Reagan is not in­ ly ignored. The reduction of the struggle tegrated. For the writers the only problem to simply a contest between wage workers is the absence of a revolutionary or­ and local capital is essentially to ganization capable of leading. Even in transpose this struggle in Kngland to the Poya's useful detailed account of the rest of the world. Likewise, the authors 'Shora' (workers' councils), there is no ignore the decisive importance of non- conception of anti-imperialist, pre­ wage workers in the struggle — and fail capitalist clerical social forces which to theorize on the politics of coalitions were able to capitalize on the anti-Shah and movements within the struggle. In­ struggle. Instead, we have the rather odd stead. there is an extreme 'workerism' classification of Khomeini as" the leader that reduces the struggle to its socialist of a bourgeois counter-revolution. component. One of the keys to the revolu­ Only through the dogmatic lenses tionary failure, as Poya and Robinson which reduce complex reality to capital point out. is the failure to unify the move­ and labour can such an inadequate for­ ments ... but there is no theori/ation of mulation take place. The lack of a multi- this point. faceted analysis thus leads to vehement Probably the most extreme form of attacks on "reformists," other workerist dogma is found in Gonzalez's revolutionaries, and centrists and virtual­ account of a copper miners' strike in ly no discussion of pre-capitalist, im­ Chile. There is no critical analysis of the perialist componentsof the class struggle. particular demands, leadership or specific It leads to descriptions (in the better es­ circumstances: every strike is presented says) of a multiplicity of social actors but as a blow against "reformism'' and a move an incapacity to rethink the political toward socialism. While the Allende structure best suited to incorporate them. government was trying to reinvest copper For all of their theoretical and analytical earnings into employment programs for weaknesses, these essays do provide us the unemployed, a fraction of the leader­ with a wealth of material demonstrating ship led by a right winger named medina that the working class is still a central was calling strikes to secure raises sub­ actor in revolutionary struggles; that class stantially above the rest of the working struggle is the major driving force in his­ class and kept raising the ante as each tory: and that socialist revolution is pos­ demand was met. After the coup. Medina sible in the later twentieth century. It also supported Pinochet — as he slaughtered demonstrates the pitfalls of reformist par­ unionists by the thousands — and it was ties and programs and the need for inde­ revealed that he had been funded by the pendent class organizations. In summary, CIA. Gonzalez's support for Medina it is a valuable reference book despite its before the coup could have been at­ political shortcomings, tributed to his short-sighted workerism — ill-informed as it v>as. But to continue to take this line after what the public record James Petras has revealed speaks to a wilful ignorance SUNY/Binghamton of reality, one capable of making the radi­ cal left accomplices of the far-right. The more general problem is that not all strikes and segments of labour serve REVIEWS 393

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