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Labour/Le Travailleur

Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Volume 27, 1991

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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 (1991). Reviews / Comptes Rendus. Labour/Le Travailleur, 27, 283–362.

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Bob Russell, Back to Work? (:] Labour, State, and Industrial Relations in Canada by Eric Tucker / 283 Don Taylor and Bradley Dow, The Rise of Industrial Unionism in Canada — A History of the CIO by James Struthers / 286 Emile Boudreau et Léo Roback, L'histoire de la FTQ. Des tout débuts jusqu'en 1965 by Jacques Rouillard / 288 Louis Foumier, Michel Dore et al.. The History of the Labour Movement in Quebec by Geoffrey Ewen / 290 J.K. Johnson, Becoming Prominent: Regional Leadership in Uppder Canada, 1791-1841 by Graeme Patterson / 291 Cecil J. Houston and William J. Smyth, Irish Emigration and Canadian Settlement: Patterns, Links, and Letters by Donald Harman Akenson / 293 Chad Gaffield, Language, Schooling, and Cultural Conflict. The Origins of the French-Language Controversy in Ontario by Robert Choquette / 294 Denise Lemieux et Lucie Mercier, Les femmes au tournant du siècle, 1880-1940: âges de la vie, maternité et quotidien by Johanne Daigle / 296 François Weil, Les Franco-Americans by J.I. Little / 298 Alan Noon, East of Adelaide: Photographs of Commercial, Industrial and Working-Class Urban Ontario, 1905-1930 by Diana Pedersen / 300 William C. Beeching, Canadian Volunteers: Spam 1936-1939 by Michiel Horn / 303 Gregory S. Kealey and Reg Whitaker, eds,. R.CMf. Security Bulletins: The War Series, 1939-1941 by J.L. Granatstein / 304 Michael M. Atkinson and William D. Coleman, The State, Business, and Industrial Change in Canada by Duncan McDowell / 305 Yves Vaillancourt, L'évolution des politiques sociales au Québec 1940-1960 by Dominique Jean / 306 Richard Harris, Democracy in Kingston: A Social Movement in Urban Politics, 1965-70 by Joy McBride / 310 André Petitat, Les infirmières. Delà vocation à la profession by Michèle Dagenais /312 Marie-Claire Dumas et Francine Mayer, sous la dir. de, Les femmes et l'équité salariale, un pouvoir à gagner! bu Sylvie Morel /31S Elizabeth Blackmar. Manhattan For Rent, 1785-1850 by Michael J. Doucet /317 Kathy Peiss and Christina Simmons, eds.. Passion and Power: Sexuality in History by Steven Maynard / 320 George M. Frednckson, The Arrogance of Race: Historical Perspectives on Slavery, Racism, and Social Inequality by Klaus J. Hansen / 322 4 Stephen H. Norwood, Labor's Flaming Youth: Telephone Operators and Worker Militancy 1878-1923 by Elaine Bernard / 323 Ken Pones-Wolf, Trade Union Gospel: Christianity and Labor in Industrial Philadelphia, 1865-1915 by Doris O'Dell / 325 Steve Golin, The Fragile Bridge: Pater son Silk Strike, 1913 and David J. Goldberg. A Tale of Three Cities: LAbor Organization and Protest in Pater son, Passaic, and Lawrence, 1916-1921 by Peter Rachleff / 327 Alan Draper, A Rope of Sand: The AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education, 1955-1967 by Desmond Morton / 328 Sidney Fine, Violence in the Model City: The Cavanaugh Administration, Race Relations, and the Detroit Riot of 1967 by Herbert Shapiro / 330 Harvey J. Kaye and Keith McClelland, eds., EJ*. Thompson: Critical Perspectives by Marc Steinberg / 332 Alex Owen, The Darkened Room. Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England by Ramsay Cook / 334 Tony Cliff and Donny Gluckstein, The Labour Party A Marxist History by Martin Petter/336 John Kelly, Trade Unions and Socialist Politics by Gregory Albo / 337 Jacques Rancière, The Nights of Labor: The Workers' Dream in Nineteenth-Century France by Bryan D. Palmer / 340 Michael Hanagan, Nascent Proletarians: Class Formation in Post-Revolutionary France by Donald Reid / 342 Stephen Crawford, Technical Workers in an Advanced Society: The Work, Careers and Politics of French Engineers by Rod Millard / 344 Edmund F. Byrne, Work, INc. A Philosophical Enquiry by Henry Laycock / 345 Heather Menzies, Fast Forward and Out of Control: How Technology is Changing Your Life by Mario Creet / 346 Peter S. Li, Ethnic Inequality in a Class Society by Christopher McAll / 348 David Gordon, éd.. Green Cities: Ecologically Sound Approaches to Urban Space by Ray Tomalty / 350 Ken Post and Phil Wright, Socialism and Underdevelopment by Glenn H. McKnight / 352 Gavin Smith, Livelihood and Resistance: Peasants and the Politics of Land in Peru by Jerry D. Moore / 354 Baruch Hirson, Yours for the Union: Class and Community Struggles in South Africa, 1930-1947 by Christopher P. Youé / 356 David H. Plowman, Holding the Line: Compulsory arbitration and national employer co-ordination in Australia by Chris Wright / 357 Tessa Morris-Suzuki, A History of Japanese Economic Thought by Pamela Divinsky / 359

5 REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS

Bob Russell, Back to Work? [:] Labour, mining the direction of state policy. State State, and Industrial Relations in Canada policy, however, cannot simply be read (Scarborough: Nelson Canada 1990). off the balance of class forces and it can­ not be assumed that the state will have the IT is, PERHAPS, a sign of the great progress capacity to achieve hegemonic class com­ made in Canadian labour studies over the promises. Rather, outcomes are also in­ last fifteen years that book length synthe­ fluenced by internal characteristics of the ses of the historical experience of workers state and its sub-systems. Russell at­ have begun appearing with some regular­ tempts to abbreviate or, perhaps, opera- ity. Palmer's Working Class Experience tionalize these theoretical positions and Heron's Canadian Labour Movement through the notions of the "politics of exemplify this development and their work" and the "work of politics." Al­ books' titles accurately reflect their re­ though the definition and usage of these spective foci. Bob Russell's book is an­ terms varies somewhat in the text, the other contribution to this synthesizing former generally seems to refer to the literature, but its central concern is the forms of political intervention and the role of the state in industrial relations. It policies they produce while the latter re­ is an ambitious effort which attempts to fers to the actual practices of the state and develop a general theoretical framework their effect on the system of industrial and to apply it to industrial relations in relations. Canada from its origins to the present. Although Russell's theoretical frame­ Invariably, such a project crosses ground work seems to dictate a broad definition many others have already explored and of industrial relations, he has, without ad­ Russell's general perspective, as well as equate explanation, excluded or his discussions of particular periods, are marginalized certain subjects. In particu­ sure to be controversial. lar, industrial relations seems to be Russell's enquiry starts from the equated with collective bargaining. As a premise that the establishment and repro­ result, the politics of work is reduced to duction of capitalist relations of produc­ an examination of state policies directly tion is problematic. Employer strategies related to the establishment of trade to control the workforce are inadequate unions as the bargaining agent of their on their own and, in any event, always members. What gets banished from the relate to the policies of die state system. discussion are important areas of state Thus, politics play a crucial role in this regulation such as health and safety, enterprise. Russell rejects the view that workers' compensation, minimum wages the outputs of the state system are deter­ and other employment standards. Simi­ mined at the level of the logic of accumu­ larly, gender and its social construction is lation. Social agency, especially class eliminated from the politics of work and conflict, is critically important in deter- the work of politics. While it is, perhaps, unfair to expect or to demand that all state Table of Contenu for Reviews it en pp. 4 & 5. interventions into the labour market 283 284 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

should be dealt with in any particular labour markets, but rather were trying to study, it is unclear if Russell is simply build an alternative industrial future. accepting the conventional definition of The historical core of Russell's book industrial relations (which dates from the is the period from 1900 to 1948. Here triumph of the post-War accord) or Russell examines the development and whether the choice is based on his view practice of die federal government's lab­ of the particular importance of collective our relations policy. Particularly useful bargaining. In any event, a more expan­ are his analyses of the effect of state in­ sive view of industrial relations would terventions on the outcomes of industrial actually strengthen Russell's project by disputes. Unlike previous studies which making the extent of state involvement have tended to rely on particular interven­ more visible. tions or the role of Mackenzie King, Rus­ Historically, the weakest section of sell has constructed data bases which in­ the book is chapter 2 on early industrial clude all state interventions under the relations. For example, Russell claims Conciliation Act and, after 1907, the In­ (35) that the English Combinations Acts dustrial Disputes Investigation Act of 1799 and 1800, which criminalized (IDIA). By focusing on the outcomes of combinations of workers formed for the these disputes, Russell is able to analyze purpose of raising wages, applied in Can­ the impact of the state's routine practice ada. This is incorrect These laws were of industrial relations on the position of not received in any Canadian province labour and capital. How and why state and only Nova Scotia enacted local legis­ interventions had these results is explored lation of this sort As well, the first pros­ through more qualitative techniques. ecution of workers for criminal conspir­ Russell finds that labour fared poorly acy that we know of was in 1815, not in under the Conciliation Act regime but that the 1850s, and such prosecutions were not in the first period of the IDIA (1907-14) common occurrences as Russell asserts. state intervention was a second best solu­ Given the relative paucity of studies of tion if the employer would not agree to this early legal regime, it is understand­ direct negotiation. However, as working able that a general survey might get a little class strength grew during World War I, lost here. What is less clear are the rea­ state interventions began to run more sons why Russell skips over the period strongly to the advantage of capital. This from 1877 to 1900. One explanation is trend continued even after labour suffered that the production politics of this period major defeats after 1919, so that by 1924, do not fit comfortably into the main story "labour could no longer afford a state line of Russell's narrative. The political presence in the labour process and capital activity of the most influential workers no longer required it" (160) organization during this time, the Knights Russell is best at showing the overall of Labor, was not principally aimed at effect of IDIA interventions. He is less establishing collective bargaining. successful in explaining the reasons why Rather, the Knights sought state interven­ these effects were produced. Russell tion which would foster cooperation, pro­ notes that the tripartis! structure of the tection and de-commodified values of conciliation boards established under the justice. Arbitration was supported as an IDIA gave them a substantial latitude alternative to adversarial collective bar­ from immediate economic and political gaining in the perhaps naive belief that interests. Nevertheless, he finds that the once the facts were known, the boards themselves administered the Act community's sense of justice would pre­ in ways that closely tracked fluctuations vail. In effect the Knights were not just in the economy. Thus, in the 1907-14 seeking a place for unions as bargaining period, workers fared best in prosperous agents for their members within capitalist years while employers got board support REVIEWS 285 in years of slow growth. Similarly, in the driven by capitalist rationality. Indeed, 1915-24 period, IDIA interventions were the eradication of labour radicalism was a consistent with government labour pol­ primary goal of state policy. Russell iden­ icy. The processes which led relatively tifies the distinction state officials made autonomous IDIA boards to perform their between legitimate and illegitimate trade work in this manner are explored through unions, but does not, in these chapters, the notion of political use-values. Ac­ devote much attention to the state's ef­ cording to Russell, the work of politics is forts to suppress the latter. Indeed, he the production of political use-values tends to marginalize this aspect of the which he defines as the production of politics of work by relegating it to a brief conditions which foster production. (156) note on state violence in industrial rela­ Both workers and capitalisa have a mate­ tions. The use of the criminal law, im­ rial interest in expanding social produc­ migration law and civil injunctions tion, although its value for them is differ­ against trade unionists, particularly radi­ ent (ie., higher wages versus greater re­ cal ones, is hardly mentioned. turn on investment). The production of This theme, however, does emerge political use-values occurs within the more strongly in die chapter covering the boundaries of these economic categories period from 1924-48. Russell provides a and the social relations of production. thorough account ofthe process which led This is a useful theoretical starting point to the development of the compulsory col­ because it creates and defines a relatively lective bargaining scheme. He agrees autonomous space for the state. However, with Warrian that PC 1003 did not deter­ history, not theory, must still be put to mine the shape of the post-War settle­ work in order to explain why tripartite ment, but that mis was achieved through boards might have, but did not, perform the Rand formula articulated in 1946 and the work of politics in a manner different the passage of the Industrial Relations from some other state apparatus. and Disputes Investigation Act in 1948. Russell's analysis does not fully explain Moreover, he emphasizes that the success this. Perhaps Jeremy Webber's recent ex­ of this settlement lay in the way it was amination of the reasons offered by IDIA able to induce trade unions to accept a boards will further illuminate this pro­ legal structure which narrowly confined cess. In addition, Russell's approach at the scope of their activity in exchange for times assumes a commonality of interests recognition and security. Perhaps the between labour and capital which argua­ scope of dispute within the labour move­ bly was not present, especially when we ment over these terms is underplayed in consider the widespread labour radical­ his account, but Russell is surely correct ism of the period. in is conclusion that industrial legalism This raises another feature of was triumphant. Russell's work, its lack of attention to the In the final chapter, Russell examines role of ideology. Russell clearly believes recent changes in the post-War accord. in the importance of agency, but his en­ Here he takes issue with the conclusion of gagement with rational choice theory at Panitch and Swartz that we have entered times seems to have led him to assume into a period of "permanent exceptional- that workers were motivated by a desire ism." Russell emphasizes that the era of to maximize their gains within capitalist "free collective bargaining" was always a relations of production. Undoubtedly this highly regulated one and that there was a was a powerful force, but the popularity well-established statist tradition in Cana­ of more radical trade unions like the dian industrial relations. Thus, rather than Western Federation of Miners and the a break, Russell characterizes recent de­ One Big Union should remind us that velopments as a de facto renegotiation of workers' behaviour was not always some of the parameters of the existing 286 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL industrial relations system. While recog­ cessors of industrial unionism in Canada nizing that unions are under increased such as the Knights of Labor, and the One pressure from market forces and neo-con- Big Union merit six and twelve lines re­ servative state policies, Russell argues that spectively in the brief introductory chap­ they have not suffered an historic defeat ter, while the United Mine Workers are In sum, the strength of the book is its covered in a single line. The demise of the theoretical framework and the marshal­ Knights is attributed, once again, to their ling of data on the effects of state inter­ supposed "timidity in the face of em­ vention under the conciliation Act and the ployer challenges," (2) the One Big Union IDIA during the 1900 to 1948 period. is erroneously linked to "its confrontation However, we still need to more closely with the government and employers in examine other instruments of state inter­ Winnipeg" (3); and the entire history of vention in industrial relations, including craft unionism prior to 1935 is dismissed both coercive and "protective" measures. with the comment that unions, prior to the Not only will this improve our under­ arrival of the CIO "had not progressed standing of the collective bargaining re­ beyond the determination of wages and gime, but it will also draw our attention to working conditions for a relatively small the regimes of labour regulation under ... group of workers." (5) In other words, which the majority of Canadians, who are the critical body of writing over the last non-unionized, work. Finally, to complete two decades on 19th and early 20th cen­ our understanding of the processes of con­ tury Canadian working class history by structing industrial legalism and the extent Greg Kealey, Bryan Palmer, Ian McKay, of its success, mere is a need to more closely Allan Seager, Craig Heron, John Manley, integrate the history of state intervention in Ian Radforth and numerous others ap­ industrial relations with the history of the pears neither in the bibliography nor in Canadian labour movement the interpretative content of this study. Reading the introduction creates a strange Eric Tucker sense of déjà vu, recalling our knowledge York University of Canadian labour history circa 1968. In subsequent chapters, dealing with Don Taylor and Bradley Dow, The Rise of the CIO's arrival and its aftermath, the Industrial Unionism in Canada —A His­ book gets better. The material on the tory of the CIO (Kingston: Industrial Re­ emergence of the CIO in Canada and the lations Centre, Queen's University 1988). transformation of industrial relations leg­ islation during the war relies heavily on THE TITLE OF THIS slim volume promises already published work by Laurel Mac- more than the book delivers. This is not a Dowell, but does add some useful per­ detailed history of either the CIO or the spectives on the importance of the CIO's rise of industrial unionism in Canada. grassroots adult education program, its What we have, instead, is a well-written broadened concept of "worker citizen­ but analytically scant outline, based ex­ ship" and the role of music in early organ­ clusively on already published research, izing campaigns, and provides some sen­ of the CIO's arrival in Canada in the sible comments on the importance of the 1930s and 1940s and its impact both on CIO's bargaining and organizational the content of collective bargaining, and structure for its subsequent success. The on the political economy of the Canadian following chapter on the "CIO at the Bar­ welfare state in the post-war era. gaining Table" provides a concise over­ Those readers already familiar with view of bargaining objectives of the contours of Canadian labour history Canada's industrial unions and the chang­ will find little that is new in these pages, ing content of collective agreements from but much which is left out. Earlier prede­ the 1940s until the late 1980s, including REVIEWS 287 two very valuable appendices. The first tive bargaining and social security. gives a chronology and synopsis of con- Less helpful is the authors' tired at­ tract negotiations between the tack on "latter day revisionists" who UAW/C AW and General Motors between would credit the Communist Party and its 1937 and 1986. The second provides a sympathizers in the 1930s and 1940s with thematic "overview of the collective some useful role in the arrival of indus­ agreements typically found in Canadian trial unionism in this country. In this book industry today." Ironically, although craft Communists are once again reduced to the unions, prior to the arrival of the CIO, are one-dimensional role of Moscow-di­ roundly condemned, at the beginning of rected conspirators whose goal was to this book, for their narrow focus on the "take over and run the labour movement" "determination of wages and working (63), and destroy support for the CCF. conditions" (5) we discover later on that That Communists, through the Workers "industrial unions concentrated their ef­ Unity League, may have played a critical forts on achieving greater income security role in the articulation of the CIO's con­ for their members." (44) Some difference. cept of "worker citizenship," or the "ven­ Two subsequent chapters examine the turesome spirit" which provided early "CIO in Canadian Politics" and its contri­ CIO unions with goals "beyond mere or­ bution to Canada's social security system. ganizational survival" (57) is ignored. Al­ There are some embarrassing factual er­ though the authors, in their introduction, rors here which careful editing could have acknowledge that the WUL, through its avoided. Workers' compensation arrived "talented organizers" had built up a mem­ in Ontario in 1914 not 1915; minimum bership of 24,000 industrial unionists wage laws enacted in the 1920s applied across Canada by the early 1930s, which only to women, not men (48); universal was handed over to the CIO (4), this is old age pensions arrived in 1951, not their one and only reference to die move­ 1955. (69) The main thrust of these two ment-building role of the Party in the cre­ chapters is to argue that the CIO's broad­ ation of an industrial union culture. For a ened concept of "worker citizenship" led book with the title "The Rise of Industrial to ongoing political activism, institu­ Unionism in Canada," this is a glaring tional support for the CCF/NDP, and con­ omission. While die American contribution tinuing pressure on Canada's federal sys­ to die building of CIO unions in Canada is tem for expanded social security entitle­ consistently overplayed in die text, die in­ ment. Again, this is pretty well-trodden digenous contribution of WUL members ground, although the authors do make a remains, for the most part, unacknowl­ good case for the importance of industrial edged. union achievements in pension bargain­ The CIO in Canada "aimed higher and ing, during the 1950s, for the emergence wider than any other labour organization of the Canadian Pension Plan in 1966. had previously done" (95) Taylor and Both in this instance, and in the case of Dow argue. Those familiar with recent other benefit entitlements in the dental, writing by Kealey and Palmer on die health care and disability insurance field, "movement-culture" of the Knights of the authors argue that industrial unions Labor will doubt this conclusion. Still, brought about the "construction of the few will dispute their points that CIO model upon which the later public plans unions played the critical role in creating would be based." (85) Labour's role in the Canada's present system of industrial re­ evolution of the post-war welfare state in lations (with all its flaws); enhanced, this country has been neglected and these through benefit bargaining, our concept arguments, although perhaps overstated, of social security entitlement; or "re- raise important questions for future re­ balanc[ed]" our political system through search on the relationship between collec­ enabling the CCF/NDP to gain a perma- 288 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL nent foothold in the nation's political cul­ Emile Boudreau et Léo Roback, ture. Although not new arguments, they L'histoire de la FTQ. Des tout débuts are worth restating, particularly in light of jusqu'en 1965 (Montréal: FTQ. 1988). the current downward slide of industrial unionism in the homeland of the CIO, the LA PUBLICATION de cette synthèse United States. The authors sum up the patronnée par la Fédération des essential contrast between the CIO in travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec Canada and the U.S. quite well. "The Ca­ (FTQ) et confiée à Léo Roback devait nadian CIO ... took root in a hostile cli­ initialement paraître en 1979, puis mate. One of its primary objectives was reportée en 1982 à l'occasion du 2Sième to change the political structure — a nec­ anniversaire de fondation de la centrale. essary condition for its survival and Mais comme si l'ouvrage avait été frappé growth. In its ultimately successful pur­ d'un mauvais sort, toute une série suit of this goal, the Canadian movement d'événements vont en retarder la publica­ acquired an independent character never tion jusqu'en 1988. Au début de 1980, je realized by its American counterpart ... confiais à Léo Roback, collègue à The American movement remained es­ l'Université de Montréal, que je venais sentially dependent upon a political envi­ d'accepter de la CSN un travail similaire ronment over which it exercised little au sien, soit de rédiger l'histoire de cette control." (10S) Although as a descriptive centrale pour son soixantième an­ statement, this is accurate, no clues, apart niversaire. Sa réaction m'étonna: 'Tu from the timing of Franklin Roosevelt's viens, dit-il, d'ouvrir une "canne de vers." New Deal are provided in the study as to J'ai peut-être mal saisi le sens de ses pa­ why these differences emerged in the first roles, mais je les ai interprétées à l'époque place or persisted as long as they did. comme s'il me mettait en garde contre les Industrial unionists, the authors point out, difficultés d'écrire l'histoire d'une cen­ dominated the Canadian Labour Congress trale qui avait la réputation d'être peu during the years when a craft unionist — commode, pour ne pas dire sectaire. Ses George Meany — controlled the AFL-CIO. craintes n'étaient pas fondées et l'histoire Why this was so remains unexplained. de la CSN est parue telle que prévu en In sum, for those readers looking for 1981. C'est plutôt du côté de la FTQ que new and original research or insights into les événements se compliquèrent au point the growth and contribution of CIO qu'il s'écoula finalement dix années entre unions to Canadian working-class his­ la mise en chantier du projet et la publi­ tory, this book will be disappointing. cation du volume. There is not primary research here and the Ancien syndicaliste devenu pro­ secondary historical literature consulted fesseur en relations industrielles, Léo for the study is quite thin. Moreover the Roback acceptait en 1978 le mandat book does not look at individual CIO d'écrire l'histoire de la FTQ. C'était à unions per se, but instead attempts a the­ l'époque où les centrales au Québec matic summary of some of the highlights portaient un intérêt nouveau pour of industrial unionism's impact on Cana­ l'histoire; la CSN et la CEQ (la FTQ dian society over the past fifty years. As s'était retirée) avaient mis sur pied deux an introductory text for industrial rela­ ans plus tôt un comité d'historiens et de tions courses, the book does serve a useful sociologues pour rédiger l'histoire du purpose. Most readers of this journal, mouvement ouvrier au Québec (elle sera however, will find little here which they publiée en 1979). Roback n'avait pas de are not already familiar. formation en histoire, mais il était un fin observateur de la scène syndicale au James Struthers Québec depuis les années 19S0 et il avait Trent University évolué proche des syndicats affiliés à la REVIEWS 289

FTQ' Ayant mal réalisé l'ampleur du pro­ lancement eut finalement lieu en juin jet, il consacra beaucoup de temps à la 1988 avec une nouvelle page couverture recherche si bien qu'il ne put remettre à et encore une fois des pépins de dernière la centrale pour commentaires en 1982 minute. On avertissait les journalistes que que trois chapitres qui portaient sur la le texte imprimé ne correspondait pas à la fondation de la FTQ en 19S7 à l'armée version définitive du manuscrit révisé et 196S, moment où la centrale prenait un corrigé et qu'il y aurait une nouvelle im­ nouveau départ. N'ayant pu rencontrer le pression au cours des prochains jours. délai du congrès, il continua néanmoins Je ne sais pas si j'ai en main la copie son travail quoiqu'il ait eu du mal à définitive, mais je vous fais néanmoins compléter la rédaction. Il me disait à part de mes commentaires. Même si le l'époque en plaisantant qu'il lui fallait de volume est destiné aux membres de la la colle sur sa chaise pour le forcer à FTQ et que son rédacteur le présente rédiger. Puis il mourut subitement à l'été comme le récit "d'histoires qui façonnent de 1985. l'Histoire," il n'en reste pas moins utile La FTQ fit alors appel à Emile aux spécialistes en histoire des Boudreau, militant à la retraite connu travailleurs. Particulièrement dans les pour avoir "une bonne plume," afin de quatre chapitres "ébauchés" par Roback, poursuivre le projet avec comme date lim­ on trouve de nombreux détails inédits sur ite le congres de 1987, moment où on la fondation de la FTQ, la grève de célébrerait son 30ième anniversaire. Murdochville, l'expansion de ses syn­ Croyant pouvoir s'appuyer sur des textes dicats affiliés, l'action politique et les ten­ supplémentaires à ceux déjà connus, il sions avec le CTC qui commencent à se réalisa au printemps 1987 que Roback manifester dès 1961. n'avait pratiquement rien laissé de plus. Rédigés rapidement, les chapitres Comme le temps pressait, il décida de ne antérieurs à la fondation de la FTQ sont pas poursuivre au-delà de 196S se con­ beaucoup plus faibles. Comme on tentant de "réaménager" les "ébauches" emprunte surtout à l'Histoire du mouve­ de textes de Roback pour "les rendre ment ouvrier au Québec qui compte peu publiables." Pour la période antérieure à d'informations sur les syndicats inter­ 19S7, il s'adjoignit l'aide de Évelyn nationaux, on élargit sur la condition Dumas qui a colligé des notes et rédigé ouvrière, les lois sociales adoptées et la des textes qui ont servi de base à la situation aux États-Unis (on se demande rédaction des trois premiers chapitres du ce que font les pages consacrées au Parti volume. Le tout fut réalisé rapidement, en socialiste américain et à Eugène Debs). une année environ, à temps, pensait-on, Les lacunes de la recherche et la pour un heureux lancement au congrès de méconnaissance de plusieurs travaux novembre 1987. Mais c'était sans comp­ conduisent à escamoter des moments im­ ter sur la guigne qui s'acharnait sur le portants du syndicalisme international au volume. Québec ou à mal les interpréter. Je donne La veille du lancement, alors que le quelques exemples qui vont bien au-delà volume était prêt et les invitations déjà d'erreurs de dates ou de faits. On y lit que faites, la direction de la centrale l'annula le comité exécutif provincial du CMTC parce qu'elle n'était pas d'accord sur la fondé en 1889 (non en 1892) n'a jamais photo apparaissant en page couverture, joui d'une grande influence auprès du celle d'un permanent de la centrale gouvernement québécois ou que la fonda­ accompagné de sa femme. On craignait, tion de la FPTQ est liée à la naissance de semble-t-il, que l'histoire de la centrale la CIO aux États-Unis. Ces soit identifiée à ses employés. Le interprétations ne correspondent pas à la rédacteur, Emile Boudreau, était furieux réalité. On ne rend pas compte non plus de cet "enfantillage de petit village." Le des revendications législatives de ces 290 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL deux organismes qui sont après tout à Chronological and descriptive, this l'origine de la FTQ. Une meilleure con­ work is meant to be a "simple recounting'' naissance de leurs activités aurait permis ( 11 ) of the story of organized labour from de nuancer l'orientation idéologique the early 19th century to the 1970s. Di­ attribuée aux unions internationales. De vided unevenly into periods, a single longs paragraphes sont consacrés aux chapter surveys the 19th century, while purges anti-communistes d'après-guerre almost half the book deals with the period dans les organisations syndicales au Can­ since World War U. In each chapter the ada et aux États-Unis, mais rien sur les political and economic contexts are first expulsions au Québec, notamment à la briefly described, then there is a section FPTQ et au CTM (CIO). Contrairement à on the condition of the working class, ce qu'on y lit, l'échec des pourparlers followed by the central concerns of the d'unité avec la CTCC de 1955 à 1961 a authors which are organization, struggles, déjà fait l'objet de travaux, si bien qu'on legislation and political action. The em­ aurait pu en relever les causes, en phasis is placed on the growth of working particulier l'obstacle que créait le class institutions. This is a collective principe d'exclusivité juridictionnelle des work by a large number of contributors, unions internationales. undertaken by the Education Committees La lacune la plus sérieuse du volume of the Confederation des syndicats tient évidemment à ce que l'historique se nationaux and Centrale de termine en 1965, huit ans après la fonda­ l'enseignement du Quebec. Intended tion de la centrale alors que celle-ci vient originally as a popularization for rank- de fêter son trentième anniversaire. and-file education, there are neither any L'ouvrage de François Cyr et Rémi Roy, footnotes nor an index. Each subject can Éléments d'histoire de la FTQ, aurait pu be found under a subhead. There is also a constituer un bon point de départ pour short bibliography of further reading and tracer son histoire jusqu'en 1980. Mais ce a time chart of major events. sera pour plus tard. Et compte tenu des The book is especially helpful in a péripéties entourant la publication de ce number of areas, such as on early volume, ce n'est pas pour demain que la teachers' organizations in the 1930s. It is FTQ commandera la suite de son histoire. also good for tracing changes in Quebec labour legislation during the Duplessis Jacques Rouillard era and the Quiet Revolution, and on Université de Montréal sectoral bargaining in the construction in­ dustry in recent decades. The revised edi­ Louis Founder, Michel Dore, et al., The tion of 1984 was reorganized slightly and History of the Labour Movement in Que­ updated to include more material on bec (Montreal: Black Rose Books 1988). women, immigrants, and international unions, reflecting increased interest and THIS STUDY IS A welcome and useful work more recent scholarship. In the chapter on to anglophone readers: it is the first gen­ the early 20th century there is new mate­ eral history of the labour movement in rial on the 1919 labour revolt, more on the Quebec available in English. It was orig­ founding of Catholic unions and on early inally published as 150 ans de luttes in attempts by teachers to organize. These 1979 and revised and expanded in 1984. changes filled some of the gaps in the That this first significant attempt at a syn­ earlier version but it is debatable whether thesis of Quebec labour history has gone they amount to enough to support the through two editions and is now trans­ claim that this is a "new, more complete lated into English testifies to the need for and more vital synthesis." (12) The trans­ such a work and to the welcome reception lation is excellent The writing is clear, that it initially received. straightforward, and generally well or- REVIEWS 291 ganized, though curiously the Congress 1980, the movement has been on the de­ of Industrial Organizations is treated be­ fensive, increasingly divided, and there fore the Workers Unity League. The has been a "climate of gloom and suspi­ French editions were extensively cion" regarding political solutions. (257) illustrated but unfortunately this transla­ This disappointment came in part with the tion does not include a single photograph growing conservatism of the Parti or reproduction. Québécois government which had been The dominant themes are the national strongly identified with social democratic question and the development of the aspirations until it joined the attack on houses of labour in Quebec, especially the labour and social legislation in its second CSN and the CEQ. This was especially term of office. The postscript ends with a the case in the original edition which call for new political alternatives and the placed the Quebec labour movement in its development of "a fundamentally new vi­ international and Canadian contexts in sion of society." (258) There is, however, the early chapters where the Winnipeg no attempt to suggest what shape these General Strike, the Paris Commune and alternatives might take. the New Deal were discussed. In later chapters, however, the Quebec Federa­ Geoffrey Ewen tion of Labour and pan-Canadian strug­ Labour College of Canada gles and developments were eclipsed even when they involved, or had an im­ J.K. Johnson, Becoming Prominent: Re­ pact on, Quebec workers. For instance, gional Leadership in Upper Canada, there was no mention of the Rand for­ 1791-1841 (Kingston and Montreal: Mc- mula. Nor was there any discussion of the Gill Queen's University Press 1989). 1965 postal strike, a dispute in which the Montreal local played a key role in defi­ THIS IS A STUDY of an elected elite, an ance of both the government and the na­ examination of the social and economic tional union leadership, and one that had background of the 283 men who sat in the an important influence on federal labour Upper Canadian House of Assembly be­ legislation. In the revised edition, and in tween 1791 and 1841. It also examines the this translation, these lacunae have been distribution of political patronage and addressed in an attempt to broaden the contains a useful appendix containing in­ context beyond an exclusive emphasis on dividual biographical data. This is not a Quebec. On the decades since World War book which will appeal to readers not II there is also more on the American already very well informed about Upper Federation of Labor affiliates and on fed­ Canadian politics; but it will be interesting eral public service unions. Still there is a indeed to the relatively few readers who are. view that the Quebec Federation Labour Professor Johnson has assembled data only "emerged in its own right" (198) related to occupation, wealth, national or­ when it asserted its Quebec identity. igin, religious denomination, offices While there is a short discussion on held, military service and political com­ the crisis of the late 1970s and early mitment which do not lend themselves to 1980s, this period has not been given the easy summary in a review such as this. I same detailed treatment as earlier ones. shall therefore concentrate upon a few This update is contained in a brief post­ points that interest me. script which leaves the reader with a strik­ His occupational data indicate the ing impression of the demoralization of 283 members of the assembly were the labour movement. As the percentage mainly engaged in five or six activities: of organized workers in Quebec dropped Farmer 143, Public Servant 112, Mer­ alarmingly from 42.1 per cent of the paid chant 100, Miller 65, Lawyer 47, Distiller labour force in 1972 to 3S.7 per cent in 24, Developer/Speculator 21, Lumber- 292 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

man 19, and so on in descending order. Johnson's interesting data, readers should These and other activities, however, were keep this sort of thing in mind. usually combined, these 283 persons ac­ Johnson's discussion of patronage is tually being involved in 690 separate by far the best treatment the subject has jobs. Over time the percentage engaged in received. Appointments as magistrates agriculture diminished which suggests a and militia officers he terms basic build­ flight from farming into more agreeable ing blocks. Both supporters of the execu­ or prosperous activities. (10-11) tive and opposition members could be While Scots, who were presumably found in the ranks of these; but appoint­ largely Presbyterian, held offices out of ment to stipendiary offices was a different all proportion to their numbers, Johnson's matter. Here having correct political data indicates that Anglicanism was the views and the right connections in the leading denomination in the House of As­ central government were of critical im­ sembly accounting for an astonishing 50 portance. And Johnson thinks that reli­ per cent of the members in the thirteenth gion and nationality were at least as sig­ parliament of 1836-41. And a surpris­ nificant. ingly large number of reformers were An­ In general I think he is correct; but I glican. "On the other hand, (known) also can think of some important excep­ Methodists, who had been just behind tions to the rule. The executive was not (known) Presbyterians for third place always free to distribute offices arbitrar­ among denominations in the eleventh par­ ily and seldom chose to do so. The liter­ liament (1830-4), slipped back a bit more acy of a candidate was always a factor, as in the twelfth (Reform) parliament, and was his achieved position within his local lost even more ground in the thirteenth... community. When the Loyalist Regi­ dropping from 18 to 14 per cent of the ments were settled, it would have been membership." (133) All of which sug­ unthinkable, for example, that important gests that the denominational commit­ positions be given to the rank-and-file ment of members was curiously unrelated rather than to its officers. Likewise lead­ to the denominational controversies those ing merchants like Richard Cartwright members so heatedly debated. and Robert Hamilton were give office This would seem to reinforce my own even though their views did not always view that many members were elected for coincide with those of lieutenant-gover­ reasons that had little or nothing to do nor Simcoe. And when Sir John Colborne with what are taken to be the leading succeeded Sir Peregrine M ait land he at­ political issues of the day, that whether tempted to undo the opposition raised by candidates were reform or tory was often his predecessor by the use of patronage. irrelevant at the polls. Most electors were This was much to the dismay of an indig­ concerned with local issues, often sec­ nant Christopher Hagerman who con­ tional in nature, which not infrequently tended that the only proper method of pitted long settled townships of the front distribution was that indicated by Profes­ of a riding against expanding townships sor Johnson. The Colonial Office also ap­ of the rear which attempted to combine pears to have had something else in mind with some third interest. These important when it instructed Sir Francis Bond Head local issues, however, were of no interest to appoint Marshall Spring Bidwell to the to electors living outside of the sections bench, which would have conveniently affected. That is why, as parties devel­ removed from politics an important re­ oped that were provincial in extent, em­ form leader in the Assembly. Another phasis had to fall upon platforms that well known example of this sort of thing, were also provincial in extent but rela­ albeit in another colony, occurred when tively less electorally significant at the Sir George Prévost used patronage to con­ local level. In interpreting Professor trol Le Parti Canadien in Lower Canada. REVIEWS 293

The distribution of patronage was an ex­ dian Irish in the 1980s totally disproved ercise of power which was sometimes these central assertions. Although Hous­ most effectively employed by bestowing ton and Smyth do not formally recant (at office in complete disregard of factors minimum a graceful palinode would have such as correct political views. These con­ been in order), they base their major sur­ siderations must surely have been in mind vey of the Irish in Canada on that work when reformers were appointed as offi­ done in the 1980s and to good effect This cers in the militia or to the magistracy. volume is an admirable synthesis of the This sort of thing needs closer study; gen­ literature on the Irish in Canada up to, erally, however, the factors pointed to by roughly, 1870, and it is a readable mix of Professor Johnson would seem to have generalizations and specific examples. prevailed. Because this is a work of historical This is an important book which geography, historians should be warned should stimulate important new research. that it operates by slightly different rules One promising field for further investiga­ than does conventional history. There is tion would be a comparable study of the no bibliography, there are lots of typos interests and background of the candi­ and misspellings; the citations are a bit dates these members of the Assembly de­ less exact than historians usually employ; feated at the polls. and priority-of-discovery by previous scholars is not fully honoured; on occa­ Graeme Patterson sion a data series developed by other University of Toronto scholars is presented as if Houston and Smyth had made the compilation. But Cecil J. Houston and William J. Smyth, there are major compensations. The vi­ Irish Emigration and Canadian Settle­ sual presentation of data in this book is ment: Patterns, Links, and Letters (To­ impressive, a mixture of efficiency and ronto: University of Toronto Press 1990). shrewd aesthetics. Although there are no major theoreti­ ONE OF THE CHARACTERISTICS of good cal ideas put forward in this book, it con­ scholars is that they are willing to give up tains a string of useful observations. One untenable positions when the basis of of these is the demonstration that among their work is shown to be wrong. In 1980, the Roman Catholics who came from Ire­ Messrs Houston and Smyth published a land to Canada, a disproportionately large then state-of-the-art article in Irish Geog­ fraction (roughly one-third) were from raphy entitled "The Irish Abroad: Better Ulster. Second, although the Protestants Questions through a better source: The made up the majority of Irish migrants to Canadian Census." In that article they Canada, most were Anglicans, not, as is made two major factual assertions based frequently supposed, Presbyterians. on their reading of Canadian census ma­ These are useful facts, especially when terials: (1) that the Catholic Irish in On­ juxtaposed: they mean that the stereo­ tario were "confined to urban centres." types one has of Ulster migrants being all The maps and statistical data in that arti­ Presbyterian and of Protestants being all cle were said to "clearly support state­ Ulster-bom are doubly wrong. ments about the weak rural nature of Another useful set of ideas involves Catholic Irish settlement in Ontario;" and the authors' estimate of the flow-through (2) that "with the exception of the im­ of Irish migrants: that is the number who migration of the early 1820s, the move­ landed in Canada but lived their lives in ment of Catholics into Ontario was the U.S. They estimate a flow-through of insignificant until the famine migration of roughly two-thirds in the 1840s. Thus, the late 1840s." (14-5) Irish migration to Canada can only be The explosion of work on the Cana­ understood within a North American con- 294 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL text. The authors are also insightful in have found their way, after 1922, into the emphasizing that the heavy Irish migra­ museums and archives and libraries of tion to Canada of 1831 and 1832 was as independent Ireland. There is just the significant in relation to the total Cana­ chance that we have here evidence of dif­ dian population of the time as was the ferent family values as between Protes­ 1847 migrant flood. tant and Catholic families. I am skeptical Houston and Smyth also swim against of such an hypothesis, but one might want the conventional wisdom in their empha­ to try it: namely, that the typical Irish sis that many Irish emigrants were far Protestant family of the 19th century was from poor. They convincingly argue that a more closely bonded and more enduring large parts of Ireland were not poor by network than was the Catholic, and there­ European standards and that many of the fore trans-Atlantic bonds were more often successful small farmers migrated, not maintained by Protestants than by Catho­ merely the impoverished. Further, instead lics. Perhaps the authors will test that of treating migrants, even the poorest, as hypothesis for us at some future date. mere flotsam, the authors wisely argue that they were making an investment in Donald Harman Akenson choosing to emigrate. This investment, Queen's University because of its psychic as well as economic costs, was greater than most modern Ca­ Chad Gaffield, Language, Schooling, and nadians ever have to contemplate. Cultural Conflict. The Origins of the Regional historians of Canada will French-Language Controversy in On­ profit greatly if they pay attention to the tario (Kingston and Montreal: McGill- authors' arguments concerning the way Queen's University Press 1987). that certain regions in Ireland became tied to certain reception areas in Canada. The THE FRENCH-LANGUAGE controversy in singular pattern (within the Canadian Ontario, culminating in the Regulation 17 context) of the Halifax Irish Catholics conflict (1912-27) has long been the best- (who follow the American model of ur­ known aspect of Franco-Ontarian life, in­ banization) is thus illuminated. Regional deed the catalyst of Franco-Ontarian ties to Irish locales of the New Brunswick group solidarity and identity. In this book, and the Newfoundland Irish are also sug­ Professor Gaffield has undertaken to gested. scrutinize the origins of the fight during The book concludes with the repro­ the second half of the 19th century, with duction of over ninety pages of letters a view to demonstrate the social, eco­ from Irish emigrants to Canada. Strik­ nomic, demographic, and political under­ ingly (and the authors are well aware of pinnings of a conflict that has usually this) all of the letters are from Protestants. been presented in cultural and ethno-lin- This raises the troublesome question: why guistic terms. He wants to show how the it is that (as the authors correctly note) population (as opposed to the leaders) of there are very few surviving emigrant let­ Prescott County, specifically of Alfred ters sent back from Irish Catholic mi­ and Caledonia Townships, created the grants? This holds not only for Canada, broad context of a post-1883 fight, and but for Australia, New Zealand and the did so over several decades beginning in United States. This occurs despite the fact the mid-19th century (the longue durée). that the Irish Catholic emigrants over­ Gaffield claims to reinterpret the con- whelmingly were literate, and despite the flictual events by showing that the educa­ fact that Irish Catholic families have tional policies of the government of On­ shown themselves very good at maintain­ tario were rooted in the long-standing ed­ ing family artifacts and heirlooms, just ucational history of eastern Ontario, in a the things that one would think would changing material context engendered by REVIEWS 295 local demographic and economic devel­ tion." It was only when the latter expec­ opments, and in a new Franco-Ontarian tation proved groundless, that coercion identity emerging in the 1880s. Such an replaced toleration. Gaffield speaks of examination of "the interplay of cultural "theoretical accommodation of franco­ groups in the context of social change" phones" (21) by Egerton Ryerson, adding (xiv) would lead to a reinterpretation of that "the Mow at government differed the language controversy. "My most im­ with the Opposition over strategy rather portant conclusion is that the behaviour, than ultimate goals." (25) All believed attitudes, and perceptions of anglophones that English must prevail. and francophones must be examined in the Using his social, economic, and de­ context of their own material lives." (xvii) mographic analysis, Gaffield then pro­ The book's seven chapters address in ceeds to demonstrate on the one hand why turn, first Ontario's long-standing 19th- francophones in Prescott County were not century policy vis-à vis francophones, assimilating voluntarily into die anglo­ that of "voluntary assimilation"; second, phone community, and on the other hand family and kinship structures among both why the anglophone community and the francophones and anglophones of the pe­ government of Ontario became coercive riod; third, economic life in Prescott and intolerant after 1885. Reasons in­ County; fourth, the social structure of clude the growing stability of both fran­ schooling in Prescott County as it related cophone and anglophone communities, to language; fifth, the local political con­ an emerging proletarization among fran­ text of cultural conflicts; sixth, the Cath­ cophones, the new majority-status of olic Church and Separate Schools as they francophones, and the changing role of related to cultural solidarity; and finally, the family in the area's economy. in a brief concluding chapter, the cultural The author usually shows balanced fission that followed 1883 as the culmi­ and responsible judgment On one or two nating event that resulted from decades- occasions, however, he succumbs to the long social, economic, and demographic Faustian temptation that teases more than development and change. Beginning in one social historian who indulges in the 188S, this locally generated cultural fis­ heady wine of historical revisionism. So sion merged with other events of national it is that rather than make his stand on the significance (the hanging of Louis Riel, solid ground of the important contribu­ the 1890 election in Ontario) to provide tion that social history makes to our his­ the explosive elements of a prolonged es­ torical understanding in conjunction with trangement between Prescott County's more traditional methods of historical in­ francophone and anglophone populations. terpretation, Gaffield writes that "the his­ Chad Gaffield sheds a great deal of tory of minority-language education in new light on the origins of the school nineteenth-century Prescott County can questions in Ontario. In addition to pro­ be better explained by the changing inter­ viding an excellent review of Ontario ed­ action of land and family than by inherent ucational policy on language during the intercultural attitudes. Social change en­ 19th century, Gaffield is the first to show gendered new mentalités." (185) I submit the consistency of the government of that the interaction of land and family Ontario's policy aimed at assimilating which Gaffield has studied does shed a francophones, during the Ryerson (1844- considerable amount of light on the issue 76) and post-Ryerson (1876ff) eras. The under consideration, and thus constitutes objective was always to assimilate fran­ a valuable avenue of explanation. But it cophones. It was the means of achieving is gratuitous for the author to state that it the objective that changed after 1885. The constitutes a better explanation. pre-1885 policy of toleration was based In the same vein, he also writes that on an expectation of "voluntary assimila­ "cultural considerations ... can be fully 296 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL explained by the general social evolution phones in Prescott County, and relates of Prescott County" (60), and denounces these material conditions to the lan- the "folly" of most Canadian policy mak­ guages-of-instruction controversy in On­ ers who have "assumed their own ability tario. He shows that in order to under­ to control and change ... attitudes and stand such conflicts, one must probe be­ behaviour." (180) It is again the categor­ yond the level of official discourse and ical words "fully" and "folly" that are assess the conditions of a people's eco­ problematic here. I submit that various nomic, political, social, and religious ex­ leaders in society, be they political, scho­ istence. My only serious reservation lastic, or religious, while on the one hand about the book is that the author seems to rarely in a position to absolutely deter­ want to transform his important but lim­ mine social attitudes and behaviour, are ited socio-historical answer into a total frequently, on the other hand, able to in­ answer to the question of social relations. fluence and direct such attitudes and behaviour. Otherwise, leaders would be Robert Choquette mere mouthpieces of fully automated so­ University of Ottawa cial collectivities driven by Gaffield's blind "converging forces." Are we to be­ Denise Lemieux et Lucie Mercier, Les lieve that leaders like Adolf Hitler, or femmes au tournant du siècle, 1880- John XXHI, to name only those two, were 1940: âges de la vie, maternité et merely products of the converging forces quotidien (Québec: Institut québécois de of their times? If we acknowledge, as I do, recherche sur la culture, 1989). that such leaders do leave their unique mark on their societies, then one must EN CETTE FIN DE SIÈCLE OÙ les phénomènes dispute the lack of nuance in the Gaffield liés à la maternité et à la domesticité conclusions noted above. Such simplistic représentent des enjeux sociaux majeurs judgments are analogous to that of the au Québec comme dans d'autres sociétés theologian who reduces all causality to occidentales, l'ouvrage de D. Lemieux et the work of either the devil or the Holy L. Mercier tombe à point nommé. Le Spirit, or both, or to that of the "national­ tournant du siècle, cette période inscrite à istic" historian who explains everything la charnière de deux siècles, évoque un in the light of national interests. I submit temps de transition, un temps de passage that reality is much more complex, and entre l'ancien et le nouveau. Les cycles de ultimately mysterious, than Gaffield vie des femmes, saisis à travers les rôles seems willing to admit. sociaux d'épouse et de mère au tournant Chad Gaffield's book is very well- du siècle, évoque l'ampleur des written, generously equipped with tables changements associés à la maternité et à and graphs, and well-researched in both la domesticité. primary and secondary sources. The only Des facteurs tels la longévité, la factual error noted was in a footnote (Note baisse de la fécondité, la scolarisation 22, chapter one) where Father J.-M. prolongée ou l'augmentation du taux Bruyère of the Diocese of London is mis­ d'activité sont maintenant connus comme takenly identified as a bishop. Only a autant d'indices d'une mutation du cycle handful of typographical errors were de vie des femmes depuis un siècle. Mais noted. This reviewer wonders why a bib­ les facteurs d'identité reliés aux rôles liography was not provided. sociaux d'épouse et de mère restent, In sum, Chad Gaffield has mHc a aujourd'hui comme hier, obscurs. contribution to the advance of historical L'intention des auteures est précisément understanding by publishing an original d'explorer les dimensions normatives et study which probes the material lives of subjectives qui caractérisent cette muta­ 19th-century francophones and anglo­ tion observée tant au niveau des pratiques REVIEWS 297 quotidiennes qu'à celui du cours de croire la place faite à la présentation cri­ l'existence. La question posée est la tique des sources et de la méthode utilisée suivante: "Quelles figures inédites ou comme élément central de la plutôt quel amalgame des modèles et des démonstration du sujet. rôles du passé et du présent s'édifient peu Le chapitre 2 consacré à la à peu, en interaction avec ces trajets multi­ méthodologie de la recherche est, à cet ples, complexes, qui semblent caractériser égard, d'une rigueur exemplaire. Les au­ tout au moins la vie des Québécoises in­ teures s'attardent ici à exposer de façon novatrices à notre époque?"(15) minutieuse l'ensemble des démarches fa­ Les femmes au tournant du siècle, ites et des ressources mises à profit dans 1880-1940 constitue le premier volet de la production de l'ouvrage. D. Lemieux et la recherche menée par D. Lemieux et L. L. Mercier se sont inspirées — outre Mercier, à la fois historienne et socio­ d'une connaissance étendue du sujet logue, pour documenter cette question. Le attestée par la bibliographie citée — d'un deuxième volet couvrira les années 1950- corpus documentaire nouveau, formé 1985. Le premier chapitre de l'ouvrage d'une quarantaine de récits au­ présente ainsi la problématique tobiographiques et de documents person­ d'ensemble de la recherche, axée sur nels. Ceux-ci évoquent la vie d'autant de l'évolution des cycles de vie des femmes femmes au cours des années 1880 à 1940. depuis un siècle. Au premier abord, cet Ont ainsi été retenus les écrits de femmes exposé complexe, exprimé dans un lan­ francophones, ayant vécu avec un con­ gage académique lourd, a quelque chose joint et un ou plusieurs enfants, aussi bien de rebutant. L'approche des auteures est à la campagne qu'à la ville, au sein de pourtant fort intéressante. Elle consiste à familles de condition bourgeoise le plus articuler le temps historique, le temps souvent, mais également de condition biographique et le temps quotidien en modeste. La trame du récit qui évoque la cernant la dynamique des liens qui se tiss­ vie des femmes au tournant du siècle est ent entre la vie quotidienne et le cours de ensuite formée par le croisement des l'existence pour différentes périodes et différents récits pour chacun des thèmes pour différents milieux sociaux. qui font l'objet des chapitres à venir. La construction de l'ouvrage s'appuie Nous voilà au coeur de l'ouvrage. A sur le postulat suivant lequel la transfor­ la suite des deux premiers chapitres qui mation des cycles de vie féminins et de situent l'enfance et la jeunesse des leurs représentations repose sur "un femmes au tournant du siècle, l'essentiel questionnement percutant sur le rapport du récit porte sur la vie adulte, traduit les au biologique vécu autrefois comme changements de statuts et concerne les destinée et que l'ère des maternités chois­ périodes de transition: mariage, nais­ ies et de la technologie ménagère vienn­ sance, maternité (trois chapitres). Suivent ent modifier, sans toutefois ensuite deux chapitres consacrés à l'étude l'anéantir."(32) D. Lemieux et L Mercier du quotidien à travers les fonctions manifestent l'intention d'interroger ce nourricières et les fonctions de communi­ rapport (des femmes au biologique) cation associées et dévolues aux femmes. qu'elles qualifient de privilégié et Un dernier chapitre enfin évoque les d'ambigu. On cherchera en vain cepend­ discontinuités du cycle de vie (maladie, ant des questions ou des hypothèses ex­ mort, remariage) et la vieillesse (le temps plicites sur ce sujet. La perspective des grands-mères). Le coeur du texte, à la adoptée par les auteures consiste davant­ différence des chapitres préliminaires, se age à rendre visibles les expériences sub­ lit aisément. L'adoption d'un style plus jectives relatives à la maternité qu'à journalistique, mais surtout le recours à suggérer des pistes d'explication sur des "bonheurs d'expression de toutes ces celles-ci. C'est du moins ce que laisse femmes qui ont pris la plume pour com- 298 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

muniquer ou pour échapper à ces voix de femmes dont la réalité étonne l'oubli,"(47) révèlent une histoire souvent passionnante. Derrière l'image Dans un ouvrage sur les femmes au stéréotypée d'épouse et de mère modèle, tournant du siècle, on se serait attendue à ressassée à satiété, ces femmes trouver des précisions ou, à tout le moins, témoignent d'expériences variées et de des questions sur le sens de l'évolution de visions contrastées. la vie quotidienne et des cycles de vie des C'est ce que font ressortir les auteures femmes depuis un siècle. En quoi et com­ qui concluent, au bout du compte, que la ment par exemple, les comportements et vie des femmes au tournant du siècle con­ les valeurs reliés aux rôles d'épouse et de stitue un amalgame de modèles et de com­ mère permettent-ils de modifier l'image portements anciens et nouveaux. Elles stéréotypée de l'épouse et mère montrent également que tous les milieux québécoise traditionnelle et d'en pro­ sociaux n'ont pas accès au même rythme poser de nouvelles? De quoi est fait ex­ aux nouvelles technologies qui transfor­ actement cet "amalgame d'ancien et de ment progressivement le mode nouveau" qui caractérise la période de d'organisation des activités ménagères transition du tournant du siècle? Etc., etc. sans pouvoir, cependant, observer de Il est à espérer que le deuxième tome différences caractéristiques suivant les interroge les enjeux sociaux et la signifi­ milieux de vie des femmes. Ces conclu­ cation des changements survenus dans la sions corroborent, comme le précisent les vie des femmes, tout en conservant la auteures, des éléments connus de rigueur du présent ouvrage. A suivre. l'histoire sociale et confirment des as­ pects des modes de vie dont on Johanne Daigle soupçonnait l'existence. Celles-ci apport­ Université Laval ent, comme elles l'expliquent encore, un nouvel éclairage sur certains aspects des François Weil, Les Franco-Américains itinéraires féminins et sur les (Paris: Editions Belin 1989). représentations et les valeurs sous- jacentes aux comportements observés. WRITTEN FOR A French audience, this Au terme de la lecture des 10 chap­ brief history is based essentially on a itres que compte Les femmes au tournant comprehensive reading of the secondary du siècle, l'ouvrage, de fabrication ex­ literature which includes a number of in­ emplaire, déçoit pourtant Compte tenu de novative studies in labour history. In ad­ l'intérêt que représente la période étudiée, dition, the author incorporates some de la nouveauté du sujet traité, de useful material from his ongoing graduate l'originalité du corpus documentaire, de work on a large textile firm in Chicopee, la pertinence de l'objectif recherché, de la Massachusetts, as well as research in the rigueur de la démarche poursuivie et, credit records of Dun and company and finalement, de la richesse de l'expérience the reports of the Massachusetts Bureau conjuguée de deux auteures, à la fois of Labor Statistics. The title is actually historiennes et sociologues, cet ouvrage somewhat misleading in that the focus is pèche, paradoxalement, par excès de pru­ entirely on the mill towns of New En­ dence. Le développement méthodologique gland, but this, after all, was where the fort ne peut masquer complètement la great majority of Franco-Americans spent faiblesse du questionnement, de their lives. l'interprétation, voire même de la conclu­ Weil begins by examining the migra­ sion, dont le traitement apparaît terne et tion process to New England, as well as sans surprise. Par contraste, le traitement the reaction of the French-Canadian élite des récits autobiographiques fait ressortir to the exodus from Lower Canada/Que­ l'originalité, la fraîcheur, la hardiesse de bec. He then turns to the industrial expe- REVIEWS 299 rience in New England, as well as the glanders preferred to abandon their own birth of French language communities region for the West rather than take these after the Civil War. The last half of the jobs themselves. Weil might reply that the volume deals mainly with the growth of impoverished habitants could not afford these communities from 1880 to 194S, to become western settlers, but surely though a brief final chapter discusses the many of the European immigrants who post-war process of dismtegration and as­ moved to the frontier were no better off similation. Weil's thesis is that group co­ financially. It would appear that the lure hesion was long preserved by the Franco- of New England to the French Canadians American élite which established the in­ lay principally in its proximity to Quebec, stitutional structures of parish, school, not simply because of the inexpensive associations and press, all in the service transportation costs, but because cultural of the clerico-conservative ideology ties could be maintained along with the known as "la Survivance.'' He goes on to hope of being able to resettle in the home­ suggest that the popular rejection of that land. Once French-speaking communities increasingly anachronistic ideology after were established in the mill towns, the World War II was the principal reason for cultural reasons for migrating southward the collapse of Franco-America. Whereas rather than westward became more deci­ most accounts have tended to blame the sive than ever. jingoistic advocates of assimilation, Weil The whole question of seasonal mi­ suggests that their attacks actually gration back and forth from Quebec re­ strengthened the resolve and influence of mains to be explored, but Weil does make the growing Franco-American élite dur­ it clear that the high rates of geographic ing the early 20th century. mobility had crucial ramifications for the The first chapter suffers somewhat French-speaking population in New En­ from the author's lack of familiarity with gland. For example, the Dun credit re­ the more recent historical literature on cords reveal that between 1870 and 1880 Quebec. Thus, he fails to acknowledge twenty-four of twenty-eight francophone how controversial the whole question of merchants in fall River, Massachusetts a Lower Canadian agricultural crisis re­ went bankrupt and/or left town in large mains. He particularly stresses the part because of the transient nature of habitants' backward farming methods as their clientele. In addition, the French- well as their lack of access to credit, Canadian workers long remained unpop­ though it is debateable whether other ular with the American union movement North American farmers were much fur­ because of their tendency to abandon their ther advanced in either respect, particu­ jobs rather than participate in strike ac­ larly during the pre-industrial era. Weil tion. In the 1881 report of the Massachu­ also repeats the cliché that the nationalist setts Bureau of Labour Statistics (the élite opposed industrialization and urban­ Wright Report) Franco-Americans were ization, and assumes wrongly that the col­ labelled the Chinese of the eastern States onization movement had an exclusively because of their readiness to work for low agrarian agenda. Finally, we are left with wages as well as move about in order to a rather unsatisfactory explanation as to evade regulations prohibiting child lab­ why French Canadians chose to migrate our. As Weil points out, however, the to the mill towns rather than move to the outraged reaction by the Franco-Ameri­ western frontier in larger numbers. Weil can élite was itself evidence that French- stresses the strong attraction of the fac­ speaking communities were taking root in tory jobs and states that their strategy "fut New England. Indeed, he adds that the d'abord la manifestation de leur rise of Yankee xenophobia in the 1880s pragmatisme" (18), but this begs the ques­ was essentially a reaction to the prolifer­ tion as to why so many native New En- ation of francophone institutions. 300 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

After 1890 popular concern shifted to home through radio and television. As the European immigrants, and the Franco- Weil himself points out. World War H Americans were able to win some victo­ brought the unsettling impact of military ries in the campaign launched against service abroad, as well as work in muni­ their national parishes by the Irish-domi­ tions factories elsewhere in the United nated church hierarchy. However, the na- States. Furthermore, the decline of the tivist hysteria stirred up by World War I New England textile industry was already ultimately led to a concerted attack on the causing the destruction of the Little Can­ so-called divided allegiance of the adas, a trend accelerated by the post-war French-speaking population. In 1922 flight to the suburbs. Mixed marriages Rhode Island's Peck Bill decreed that En­ drove the final nail in the coffin as far as glish would be the language of instruction resistance to the decline.of national par­ in all private-school classes except for ishes and French language education was language and religion. Shortly afterward, concerned. What a more "progressive" the Bishop of Providence, who had sup­ élite could have done to change all this is ported this legislation, imposed a sub­ not clear. While one might quibble with scription for Christian education through­ the slant Weil places on his analysis, the out his diocese. The reaction by the fact remains that by raising the question hardliners who established the Sentinelle of class relations in Franco-America he as their mouthpiece ultimately led to their provides fresh insight into the rise and fall excommunication by Rome, and a damag­ of this once-dynamic industrial community. ing rift within the Franco-American lead­ ership throughout New England. Weil J.I. Little suggests as well that the clerico-conserva- Simon Fraser University tive élite was losing its moral authority as working-class consciousness grew in re­ Alan Noon, East of Adelaide: Photo­ sponse to the decline of the textile indus­ graphs of Commercial, Industrial and try. The last straw came with World War Working-class Urban Ontario, 1905- H, when the élite sympathized with Pétain 1930 (London, Ont.: London Regional while the franco-American people rallied Art and Historical Museums 1989). to the national war effort. The popular rejection of "le culture de la Survivance" PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION of the is well illustrated by the novels of their history of the urban working class in the own Jack (Jean-Louis) Kerouac and early 20th century, when the simple mass- Grace Metalious (de Repentigny). Of produced box cameras within reach of course, even the clerico-conservative working-class budgets could record only stronghold of Quebec could not resist in­ brightly-lit outdoor scenes, remains definitely the forces of political "modern­ scarce and incomplete. For this reason, ization," but the crucial difference (not Ontario historians should welcome the mentioned by Weil) was that North of the serendipitous recovery of a substantial border the growing bureaucratic and tech­ body of photographs produced by Henry nocratic middle class was in a position to G. Hines, a commercial photographer take control of the state in the name of a who operated a studio in the working- redefined national identity. class district of East London from 190S to In the final analysis, Weil may be 1930. Arriving from the United States in over-emphasizing the role of the élite as 1899, Hines worked as a conductor for the far as cultural survival and decline is con­ London Street Railway before opening a cerned. Surely it was natural for people to photographic studio on Dundas Street in continue speaking French as long as they partnership with his son, William. Lack­ worked and lived together in an era before ing access to the lucrative portrait market mass American culture invaded every that sustained uptown photographers, the REVIEWS 301

Hines Studio attracted a clientele of local Company were among the London clients businessmen, shopkeepers, factory own­ anxious to avail themselves of the ser­ ers and their families, and undertook com­ vices of a commercial photographer. missioned assignments for the City of Prominent among many themes emerging London, the London Street Railway, the from these images is the transformation of London Public Utilities Commission and the face of London as it underwent elec­ the Western Fair Association. Although trification and witnessed the replacement Hines' photographs were reproduced in of the urban working horse by the auto­ many municipal publications between mobile and delivery truck. But most sig­ 1910 and 1925, most of the glass plate nificantly for historians of the working negatives were sold for scrap following class, as Alan Noon notes, Hines' com­ the closing of the studio, being much in missioned photographs captured "people demand as a source of high-quality in their daily routines bom at work and scratch-free glass. By some chance, how­ leisure allowing us to reconstruct seg­ ever, several boxes of negatives survived ments of their lives during the early part for more than four decades in the damp of this century." Although scenes of do­ basement of a London home, narrowly mestic and family life are disappoint­ escaping incorporation into the walls of a ingly, if understandably, absent from this greenhouse in 1951. Not until 1971 were collection, we are amply compensated by they shown to Alan Noon, a media spe­ the rich documentation of London work­ cialist in photography at the University of places and of the activities of the men and Western Ontario, who eventually agreed women who frequented them. Caught by to undertake the lengthy and arduous pro­ Hines' roving camera are the faces of cess of documenting and restoring the barbers and their clients, garment work­ collection. From the original 1,200 ers, bartenders, butchers, telegraph deliv­ smashed and decomposing negatives, ery "boys," auctioneers, truckdrivers, re­ some 400 images were salvaged, of which tail sales clerks, railway repairmen and more than 160 are reproduced in this book. mechanics, biscuit and candy makers, Harry Hines was one of many Ontario milkmen, and blacksmiths. commercial photographers, with their Among the highlights of the collec­ large cameras and various forms of artifi­ tion are the superb images created by the cial lighting, who were regularly commis­ Hines Studio for the Western Fair Asso­ sioned by turn-of-the-century public and ciation and the London Railway Commis­ private utilities, factory owners and mer­ sion. In response to the success of the chants to photograph their buildings and Canadian National Exhibition, London's workplaces. Thanks to the advent of the business community established the half-tone process, such images could now Western Fair in the heart of suburban East be reproduced in annual reports, maga­ London. Hines' images of the midway, zines and newspapers for promotional harness races, manufacturers' displays purposes. Hines' outstanding views of and demonstrations of machinery clearly building exteriors, interiors, and lavish document the congruence of marketing window displays reveal that George and recreation at these celebrations of Young Professional Horseshoer, Luxite 20th-century consumerism. Also of inter­ Textiles of Canada, Regal Motor Cars, the est are the images of military life taken London Street Railway, Briggs Bicycles, during the Great War when the site of the Cowan Hardware, the Forest City Busi­ Western Fair was requisitioned as a train­ ness School, Thomas Furniture, Fink ing camp. On an assignment for the Lon­ Clothiers, the London Fire Department, don Railway Commission, Hines photo­ Armstrong Druggist, the Silverwood graphed the recreational facilities of Dairy, the Crystal Lake Ice Company, and nearby Port Stanley, and vividly, if inad­ the Kleeno Kwality Kloths and Waste vertently, documented the changing pat- 302 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

tern of working-class recreation in the the same title will no doubt prove equally mid-1920s. Particularly after the electrifi­ satisfying to those interested in the his­ cation of the London & Port Stanley Rail­ tory of East London. way by Adam Beck in 1913, the beach Despite its extensive documentation resort of Port Stanley became a popular of local history, East of Adelaide does not site for ethnic, corporate and family pic­ entirely deliver on the promise of its title. nics. As revealed in Hines' superbly A more substantial introductory chapter crafted yet delightfully informal images, reflecting some familiarity with the cur­ Port Stanley offered to working-class rent scholarship on urbanization and on pleasure-seekers from landlocked Lon­ the history of the Ontario working class don the attractions of sunshine and sandy would have lent support to the author's beaches, boardwalks and concession claim that these photographs are "repre­ stands, rides and amusements, music and sentative of any comparable Ontario dancing. Ultimately, images such as urban centre." As the book stands, how­ these, enhanced by the high quality of the ever, that claim to broader significance is reproductions, are the real strength and not fully substantiated. Despite consider­ contribution of East of Adelaide. able sleuthing by the author, the details of The task of restoring the severely Hines' life and career remain sketchy. damaged surviving Hines negatives pre­ Our understanding of his activities, and of sented a formidable challenge, judging the images he created, however, could from a representative image printed be­ have been greatly enhanced had they been fore and after the process of cleaning and more fully situated in the larger context stabilizing. Documentation of the collec­ of what is now known about the role of tion, whose origins mystified the owners the commercial photographer as business­ of the basement in which it had resided, man and booster in turn-of-the-century also required considerable ingenuity. The North American cities. Noon correctly link with the Hines Studio was eventually observes that many of the images pro­ established through interviews with local duced by the Hines Studio are invaluable historians and elderly residents of East historical documents, as in the example of London, and was confirmed by the subse­ two strikingly detailed and informative quent discovery of original photographs images showing the interior of the shop of bearing the studio imprint and matching a blacksmith for the London Street Rail­ some of the salvaged negatives. With the way before and after electrification. assistance of a number of volunteers from Nonetheless, the documentary value of the community, Noon devoted "countless historical photographs is not always self- hours" to research for the captions, in evident, and more analytical and less de­ order to be able to identify models of cars scriptive captions would have helped to and trucks and individual East London sensitize both general readers and profes­ residents by name, to establish locations, sional historians not trained to "read" vi­ and to provide capsule histories of local sual images. In all fairness, however, businesses. Brief chapter introductions Noon's extensive research to identify provide further background on, for exam­ people, locations and other details in the ple, the early development of East Lon­ photographs has greatly augmented their don, urban transportation and electrifica­ documentary value for future historians. tion, the founding of the Western Fair, East of Adelaide is an attractive and well and the rise and fall of Port Stanley as a produced book, a valuable resource, and working-class resort In 1987, the work of a welcome contribution. For Alan Noon, restoration and documentation of the pho­ raised in East London, the restoration and tographs provided the basis for a popular documentation of the Hines collection has exhibit held at the London Regional Art obviously been a labour of love. Histori­ Gallery. The publication of this book of ans of Canadian photography and of com- REVIEWS 303 mercial, industrial and working-class out by currency depreciation," and that urban Ontario are now in his debt. "lasting economic recovery was nowhere in sight." But he does give some sense of Diana Pedersen what was happening in the larger world. University of Western Ontario Beeching does so only in passing, and with an interpretation that echoes Com­ William C. Beeching, Canadian Volun­ munist Party propaganda of the late teers: Spain 1936-1939 (Regina: Cana­ 1930s. Indeed, much of his book has that dian Plains Research Center 1989). flavour. In his view, the volunteers went to war to fight the fascists, "to prevent the MORE THAN HALF a century has passed outbreak of a world war and to preserve since the Spanish civil war came to an democracy." That is why they thought end. Until recently only one book, Victor they went, why many of the survivors still Hoar's The Mackemie-Papineau Battal­ think they went. And certainly historians ion, dealt with the Canadian participation have to take this view into account. But in mat conflict. Now we have a volume they must also see clearly what was hap­ prepared by William Beeching, a veteran pening on an international stage on which of die war, consisting in large part of the the volunteers were minor actors. And recollections of other Canadian veterans. this Beeching, because of his ideological Although they have inevitably been blinders, is ill-equipped to do. His bibli­ shaped by the passage of time, the remi­ ography makes this clear, it lists several niscences themselves are often gripping. apologia by Communists, including two They provide the fighting man's view of volumes published in Moscow, while ig­ the war, its brutality, its boredom and its noring a study such as George Orwell's dangers, but also its occasional exhilara­ Homage to Catalonia, devastatingry critical tion. We read much about the sudden of the Comintern's role in the struggle. death it brought to hundreds of the volun­ Beeching is right in asserting that in teers from Canada. The dedication tells us 1936 liberal-minded Canadians favoured that 1,448 Canadians fought in Spain and the Spanish republic over Franco's insur­ 721 never returned home. The book in­ gents, who represented the conservative cludes a 'roll of honour' listing all who and reactionary elements in Spanish soci­ fought but not, oddly enough, those who ety, including its homegrown fascists, died or are missing. Surely Beeching and were supported by Adolf Hitler and could have updated the incomplete tally Benito Mussolini. He fails to note, how­ of the known and presumed dead found in ever, that by the end of 1937 the non- Hoar's book. Communist left in Canada had largely lost Beeching did not set out to write a interest in the war. The reason? The re­ book about Canada and the Spanish Civil public was becoming increasingly identi­ War but a history of the Canadian veter­ fied with the Comintern, and this alien­ ans of the International Brigades. Still, ated people who hated Franco, Hitler and the editorial board at the Canadian Plains Mussolini but also, and rightly, distrusted Research Center seems to have thought Stalin and his Canadian supporters. that something was necessary to put the Given the cynical and highly ques­ veterans' accounts in context. The result tionable policy o f non-intervention cham­ is a preface by James N. McCrorie, exec­ pioned by the British government and utive director of the Center, who briefly supported by France, the United States discusses Canada, Spain and Europe in and Canada among others, the Spanish the 1930s. This account contains several republic had no choice but to accept So­ errors. McCrorie is quite wrong in asserting viet and Comintern help. But as Hugh that in 1936 "the Great Depression was at Thomas concludes in his important study its peak [sic]," that "savings had been wiped of the Spanish civil war, the growing reli- 304 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL race on Communist assistance put the Gregory S. Kealey and Reg Whi taker, government of Juan Negrin in an impossi­ eds., R.CM.P. Security Bulletins: The ble position and ultimately helped to seal War Series. 1939-1941 (St. John's: Com­ it down. mittee on Canadian Labour History Beeching largely avoids discussing 1989). such issues, though he rightly attacks the Anglo-French policy of non-intervention IN 1913, Prof. Reg Whitaker of York Uni­ as dishonest and foolish. Had the western versity submitted an access request to the democracies opposed fascism in Spain, he RCMP for specific issues of the Police's believes, the Second World War might Intelligence Bulletin. The next year he have been prevented. Thomas's more cred­ received xerox copies of the material, ible assessment is that such intervention heavily marked up with deletions. In would probably have accelerated the com­ 1987, the Canadian Security Intelligence ing of war, but on terms more favorable to Service, now the keeper of the RCMP Britain and France than the conflict that security service records, gave permission began in September 1939. By that time Sta­ to publish the Bulletins, as well as those lin, whose interest in Spain had cooled a that Prof. Greg Kealey had had declassified. year earner, had lost interest in an anti-Axis This volume, covering the first two years of alliance and had seized the opportunity pro­ the war, is the firsti n a series that is intended vided by Nazi Germany's approach in Au­ to cover die period from 1919 to 195S. gust to buy what he thought was security All historians can be grateful for the against a German attack. Whitaker-Kealey efforts to press the RCMP Beeching fails to discuss such sub­ to declassify material which is important to jects as the function of the political com­ the understanding of our past No one could missars in the International Brigades, the disagree with that. But one may question the anti-Trotskyist attitude and policy of Ca­ wisdom and necessity of publishing any fur­ nadian recruiters for the republican cause, ther volumes in this series if the quality of and the significance of that fact that so the material is as thin as that provided here. many of the volunteers from Canada were The material is thin gruel indeed. The neither anglophone nor francophone in Intelligence Bulletin was produced within background. But although these are seri­ the RCMP's tiny Intelligence section and ous omissions they are dwarfed by the it undoubtedly reflected the force's mind­ book's major weakness and stem partly set Communists were dangerous, and so, from it: an interpretation of the Spanish belatedly and once the war started, were civil war and the Canadian role in it that fascists and Nazis. Japanese-Canadians incorporates a thoroughly discredited were not dangerous, even after Pearl Har­ ideology. bor. Unions were potentially full of trou­ To say this does not diminish by one blemakers, most especially Communist iota the courage and idealism of the men ones, and strikes clearly were objects of who fought and died in Spain. They were concern; indeed, strikes in wartime on the right side, in my opinion, and they amounted to sabotage. Ethnics of all sorts deserve more recognition than they have were troublemakers, and Finns and Ukrai­ received, including veterans' benefits nians were the worst. Those who opposed from the Canadian government. But for conscription were disloyal, a breathtaking the historian an account of their bravery allegation at a time when the government and idealism is not enough. Clear vision and the Opposition both claimed it was is also needed, and of that this book has unnecessary. And Technocracy and the too little. Jehovah's Witnesses deserved the harsh repression that fell on them. The sources Michiel Horn for these simplistic judgments that circu­ York University lated — unread, one must believe — to REVIEWS 305

politicians, bureaucrats and the outlying Michael M. Atkinson and William D. stations of the Police were a mixture of Coleman, The State, Business, and Indus­ press reports from ethnic and Communist trial Change in Canada (Toronto: Uni­ newspapers, as well as the mainstream versity of Toronto Press 1989). press, and extracts from Communist Party bulletins and RCMP reports from the field. SOME BUZZWORDS do die. Having swung But is any of this news? The pathetic our rudder and set our sails to catch the quality of the Mounties' security and in­ winds of free, or at least managed, trade telligence work before, during and after in the 1990s, Canadians no longer display the war has long been known, and this much enthusiasm for the once much volume amply confirms the truth of that sought after lodestar of an "industrial fact. The Police were fixated on the Com­ strategy.'' A decade ago, the urge for a munist threat, something Whitaker makes made-in-Canada industrial policy had be­ clear in the introduction, and it did not come almost manic; countless political take long for the government to reach the speeches, business-government seminars conclusion that the RCMP's skill and and federal programs tried to divine a judgment were sadly lacking. J.W. Pick- formula for a late 20th century tech­ ersgill in the Prime Minister's Office was nocratic reincarnation of Macdonald's in­ saying this in memoranda as early as No­ terventionist National Policy. Could vember 1939, and bureaucrats luce Nor­ Canada too, businessmen and bureaucrats man Robertson who had been charged alike asked, enjoy the fruits of an antici­ with the task of preparing lists of those to patory industrial policy? Could there be a be interned in August and September MTTI within our borders? Any good stu­ 1939 had realized this even earlier. dent of Canadian history, schooled on de­ The editors have been careful in indi­ cades of federal-provincial friction and cating the excisions that the Access legis­ immoveable tariff walls, could have re­ lation has permitted. The introduction vealed that the answer was a flat no. Whitaker provides is very brief but points As Richard French so trenchantly re- readers in the right direction (although vealed in his How Ottawa Decides Whitaker seems to believe mat all Japan­ (1980), The technocratic planning theo­ ese Canadians were interned). The index ries of the Sixties and Seventies have been unfortunately is very weak and inaccu­ irreparably devastated by the critiques of rate, and the review copy of the book both right and left, by the conservative suffered from print shop mishaps with the spokesmen of economic freedom and by result that pages are bound in the incor­ the neo-Marxists, and no satisfactory rect order. In the bizarre world of the post-positivist theory of planning has security service, those slips in pagination been developed in their place. There are scarcely affected the flow of the text. no obvious technical solutions." We are, In other words, it is useful that we French concluded, "Older and sadder" and have in print a sampling of the Mounties' "a little wiser" for the experience. Nearly a thinking. But unless the quality of histor­ decade later, political scientists Michael At­ ical material in the earlier and later Bul­ kinson and William Coleman return to the letins is higher than that provided in the hoary question of industrial policy. 1939-41 volume, then it ought to be suf­ Their inquiry is predicated on the be­ ficient that the Bulletins sit on the open lief that Canada must have an industrial shelves of the Archives. The editors policy. They thus attempt to identify the should cry halt, and the CCLH should "policy networks, systems of relation­ devote its publishing budget to more pro­ ships among state and societal organiza­ ductive areas. tions" that might nurture it Their journey, J.L. Granatstein across a sea of paradigms and jargon, York University brings us eventually to a familiar harbour. 306 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Canada, they report, has a "highly diffused the Ministry of State for Economic Devel­ and fragmented federal state that is poorly opment, for which some of these bureau­ equipped to conduct anything more man re­ crats works, no longer exists. More fun­ active policy." We are left at dockside won­ damentally, despite the authors' frequent dering whether the voyage was necessary. emphasis on Canadian political plural­ Atkinson and Coleman attempt to iso­ ism, no attempt appears to have been late the "organizational culture of state made to interview federal cabinet minis­ and society in the realm of industrial pol­ ters or industrial association executives. icy" by focusing on three dissimilar in­ All are crucial "players" in the industrial dustrial sectors: the expanding, research- policy game. Where is Eugene Whalen intensive telecommunications and phar­ being bombarded with milk jugs by angry maceuticals sector, the rapidly changing farmers? Thus, outdated research and nar­ sectors of petrochemicals and meat pro­ row focus of investigation greatly dimin­ cessing and the ailing textile, clothing and ishes the worth of this study. dairy processing sectors. For each they One is left wondering just what audi­ create a model of economic characteris­ ence the publishers of this book intended tics, lobbying style and government reac­ it to serve. Will it be read avidly by the tion. Into these moulds they pour the re­ makers of Ottawa's industrial policy? sults of an intensive reading of the sec­ Will Shirley Carr, Tom d'Aquino or John ondary literature and the essence of just Crosbie engross themselves in its analysis over a hundred interviews with senior of the "functionalist neo-Marxist para­ federal bureaucrats. digm" or "meso-corporatism?" Probably The results are predictable. Canada's not. Will the ambitious young bureaucrats industrial policy is "a rather confused and of Ottawa's CD. Howe (who goes un- uneven amalgam of initiatives" by which mentioned in the authors' historical re­ "the state is predisposed to leave business view of industrial policy) Building apply alone." Only where the state alone can its strictures to their policy formulations? assert primacy, such as in the space indus­ Will they be joined by corporate execu­ try, does an "anticipatory" industrial pol­ tives? Again, probably not The State, icy emerge. Elsewhere, the play of politi­ Business, and Industrial Change in Can­ cal pluralism, varying degrees of indus­ ada will, one can conclude with some trial concentration and protection prove certainty, appeal to that small band of more conducive to "reactive" policy­ political scientists, well initiated in the making. Atkinson and Coleman apply a layering of jargon and past theory, who at series of tests to determine the relative some future date will employ it as a chart structural strength of each sector and the on their journey into paradigmland. resultant "policy network" determining its industrial fortunes. In virtually every Duncan McDowall case, from the strong telecommunications Carleton University industry to the weak textile industry, "hesitancy and inconsistency" persis­ Yves Vaillancourt, L'évolution des tently frustrate the assertion of a state-led politiques sociales au Québec 1940-1960 industrial strategy. A sense of déjà vu (Montréal: Presses de l'Université de pervades the analysis. Montréal. 1988). An aridity also pervades the book. The text is lifeless, revealing little of the LA PÉRIODE 1940-1960 constitue la pièce de interviews with senior bureaucrats that résistance de l'histoire des politiques purportedly constitute the foundation of sociales au Québec et l'ouvrage d'Yves the methodology. That these interviews Vaillancourt, qui couronne une série were conducted in 1982 may account for d'études chronologiques sur les their infrequent citation; one department, politiques sociales depuis le début du REVIEWS 307 siècle, est le fruit d'une courageuse en­ n'entrent pas tous au même rythme dans treprise. La plupart des programmes de ce le mouvement: la Saskatchewan d'abord, qu'il est convenu aujourd'hui d'appeler puis le Canada à partir du milieu des l'État-providence sont créés durant ces années 1940 et le Québec, à partir du vingt années et la plupart des problèmes milieu des années 1950. sont posés dans les termes qui Vaillancourt alloue une attention préoccuperont les politiciens des années particulière aux demandes des différentes subséquentes. Parallèlement, des institu­ classes sociales, et les passages sur le tions anciennes se métamorphosent: le mouvement ouvrier sont parmi les financement des hôpitaux, des or­ meilleurs et les plus systématiques du phelinats, des sanatoriums et des or­ livre. On y retrouve des considérations ganisations charitables passe sur la pensée sociale des centrales syn­ progressivement du secteur privé au dicales, des regroupements d'infirmières secteur public, une évolution débutée et des associations de travailleuses dans les années 1920, et qui laisse sociales; en ce qui concerne ces dernières, présager le transfert complet de propriété l'auteur utilise des sources d'une richesse de la Révolution tranquille. De plus, le particulière. Ses analyses font aussi pre­ nombre des oeuvres et des institutions uve d'une ouverture aux questions de confessionnelles d'assistance double. En genre plus grande que celle des ouvrages conséquence les subventions provinciales antérieurs; on apprend entre autre com­ à leur endroit grimpent à un rythme ex­ ment le gouvernement fédéral restreignit traordinaire. les critères d'éligibilité à l'assurance- L'auteur explique les transformations chômage en 1950, pour encourager les des politiques sociales par l'évolution des femmes mariées à retourner à la maison. rapports de classe, qui reflètent à leur tour Si cette approche lui permet de relier les changements de l'économie. Cette l'histoire des politiques sociales à celle de façon de voir a le double avantage de la socio-économie globale, elle est souv­ saisir le "Welfare State" dans l'ensemble ent trop générale pour permettre de tirer de la société et de considérer les des liens précis et concrets. Pour politiques comme un ensemble Vaillancourt, une transformation ne d'éléments interreliés. L'argument s'explique en définitive que par majeur de l'ouvrage se présente comme l'exacerbation des contradictions de suit: les premiers programmes universels l'économie, par la montée d'une classe, de sécurité sociale sont le fruit d'une alli­ ou encore par la prise de conscience par ance entre une faction éclairée du grand une classe de ses intérêts objectifs. Cer­ capital et de la petite bourgeoisie tech­ tes, plusieurs transformations des nocratique, avec une plus ou moins politiques relèvent de cet ordre de grande ouverture aux demandes du phénomènes; l'adoption des allocations mouvement ouvrier, dans le but familiales par le gouvernement fédéral d'instaurer un régime de régulation dans le but de contenir les demandes sociale de type "fordiste." Les politiques salariales d'après-guerre représente un sociales servent alors à "huiler les rap­ cas de ce type. Mais, il faut expliquer ports sociaux et à intégrer les classes pop­ pourquoi les mêmes réclamations ne pro­ ulaires ... à l'intérieur de l'organisation duisent pas toujours les mêmes résultats. capitaliste du travail et de la société." En Par exemple les dénonciations des contrepoint, l'alliance plus ancienne de la lacunes de la Loi de l'assistance publique petite bourgeoisie traditionnelle et ne cessent pas durant toutes les vingt d'autres factions du grand capital se dis­ années étudiées. Pourquoi sont-elles sout, emportant avec elle le projet d'une tantôt reçues, tantôt ignorées par les forme strictement capitaliste de autorités provinciales? L'auteur accepte régulation. Les différents gouvernements parfois que l'idéologie fasse perdurer un 308 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL régime d'assistance publique qui "con­ publics, globaux, intégrés, planifiés par tredit les faits sociaux objectifs.'* Dés une fonction publique efficace, rentable, lors, il faudrait qu'il se demande dans impartiale, et administrés par des quelles conditions l'idéologie cesse de travailleurs sociaux. Implicitement, un tel suffire. Comment par exemple, après la régime est sensé rencontrer le critère Seconde Guerre, les femmes purent-elles d'appréciation par excellence: la satisfac­ à la fois être moins perméables au mes­ tion des besoins des classes populaires. sage de l'élite petite-bourgeoise et En vertu de cette adhésion de principe au demeurer victimes de sa propagande au welfare state moderne, l'auteur utilise le sujet de l'effet miraculeux des allocations gouvernement fédéral, le gouvernement aux mères nécessiteuses? socialiste de la Saskatchewan et le Quand il abandonne les grands gouvernement québécois de la facteurs infrastructurels, Yves Révolution tranquille comme des V Billancourt ne peut compter, pour le repoussoirs. Certes, en se demandant Québec, sur une historiographie aussi "qu'est-ce qui ... empêche [le Québec] riche que celle dont bénéficient déjà les d'instaurer ses propres programmes, tout politiques sociales du Canada et de la comme l'avaient fait d'ailleurs certaines Saskatchewan. Il est plus souvent forcé de provinces de l'Ouest.... plusieurs années faire lui-même le travail de recherche et avant que le fédéral ne 'bouge' dans ces d'analyse préliminaires à la synthèse. Il secteurs," il amorce une entreprise qui est doit alors puiser ses renseignements à bienvenue, car les études sur le Québec même les rapports gouvernementaux souffrent trop souvent d'isolement. écrits par des membres de la petite bour­ Malheureusement, les comparaisons geoisie technocratique qui, pour présenter s'arrêtent une fois les retards du Québec leurs réformes comme un progrès, ont mis en valeur. "noirci" à grands traits les régimes En raison de cette communion antérieurs et en ont éludé la complexité. paradoxale avec les experts, Yves De cette littérature des experts, Vaillancourt réserve le plus gros de ses Vaillancourt importe malheureusement suspicions à la petite bourgeoisie clérico- une idée passive et statique des besoins. nationaliste. Comme un inspecteur du "Le bien-être et la santé du peuple gouvernement qu'on aurait envoyé dans québécois" sont mesurés à l'aune de le passé pour repérer les lacunes du statistiques sociales globales, et les système, il distribue les torts. Au total, la "gestes planifiés et constructifs" logique des intentions et des actions de la nécessaires pour combler ces besoins bourgeoisie traditionnelle ne sont pas devraient nous sembler évidents. De plus, assez explorées, non plus que leurs lim­ l'auteur reprend des mythes inutiles sur la ites et leurs contradictions. Cette concep­ société québécoise: à la lumière des tion manichéenne autorise peu d'analyse découvertes de l'histoire sociale, on ne du fonctionnement des institutions dites peut plus invoquer la "légendaire "traditionnelles," "désuètes" ou solidarité de la famille élargie." D'une "improvisées." Vaillancourt discrédite certaine façon, cette dependence vis-à-vis systématiquement les discours de leurs de la rhétorique des fonctionnaires porte défenseurs. Il s'empêche ainsi de à tourner en rond: l'historien en arrive à soupeser les problèmes occasionnés par la délaisser les besoins de la population centralisation de l'administration sociale, agricole, en raison du fait que peu de par l'impersonnalité des services publics, politiques sociales lui furent destinées. autant de questions que l'actualité C'est aussi dans la foulée des experts brûlante pose à l'histoire de l'État-provi- gouvernementaux que l'auteur attribue dence. une valeur positive à la modernisation, Ainsi disposé, l'auteur se contente de c'est-à-dire à des programmes sociaux trouver "étonnants," ou "inconsistants" REVIEWS 309 les écarts de Duplessis au des listes de caractéristiques et traditionnalisme. Qui veut savoir d'amendements qui trouveraient mieux pourquoi le Premier ministre de la Grande leur place dans un annuaire noirceur a accepté sans rechigner les pro­ gouvernemental. L'analyse n'arrive grammes fédéraux concernant les per­ qu'en fin de section. sonnes âgées, en 1951, et le programme Pour surmonter cette impasse, il fédéral de construction d'hôpitaux restera faudrait regarder du côté de l'histoire des sur sa faim. Plus globalement, on devrait partis, de celle des réponses de la analyser plus à fond l'explosion des clientèle, de l'évolution des pratiques des dépenses publiques québécoises en fonctionnaires. Il faudrait analyser plus matière de bien-être: il est tout de même finement les relations changeantes entre extraordinaire qu'un cabinet aussi l'Église, les syndicats, les regroupements traditionnaliste ait porté les déboursés d'agriculteurs et les récipiendaires des pour le bien-être social de 6,6% à 25% de programmes publics, au lieu de présenter son budget au cours des vingt années ces groupes isolément Pourquoi et com­ couvertes par l'ouvrage. Les efforts de ment naissent les partis porteurs de "modernisation'' de l'Eglise mériteraient réformes? Pourquoi l'État fédéral eux aussi un plus long développement développe-t-il plus rapidement une fonc­ Enfin, par une inversion du même réflexe, tion publique moderne? D y a beaucoup à Vaillancourt présente les écarts au trouver du côté de l'analyse des proposi­ traditionnalisme comme des signes an­ tions qui échouent, des exceptions. Tant nonciateurs de la Révolution tranquille. que les effets réels des mesures sociales Or, les éléments "avant-gardistes"ne sont aux yeux de la population ne seront pas pas nés dans un vacuum, et ils ne sont pas pris en compte, tant aussi que le nécessairement incompatibles avec un Duplessisme ne sera pas compris comme système traditionnel. Il y aurait moyen, un système positif, la question du par exemple, de placer le réseau public d' maintien de programmes apparamment "unités sanitaires" qui faisait l'envie des désuets et insatisfaisants, comme celui autres provinces en 1945, dans des allocations aux mères nécessiteuses, l'ensemble des actions du gouvernement ne sera pas élucidée. Ainsi la question la québécois de leur temps. plus prometteuse, dans le cas central de En somme, deux arguments parallèles cet ouvrage est peut-être la suivante: sont menés de façon étanche: d'une part pourquoi Duplessis est-il demeuré le "contexte" vu de façon marxiste; relativement populaire, malgré le manque d'autre part le développement des d'imagination de l'élite dont il faisait politiques, "factuel et descriptif," vu à partie, et quels rôles ont joué les travers les lunettes de la petite bourgeoi­ politiques sociales pour le maintenir au sie réformiste. Cet achoppement pouvoir? Pour y répondre, il faudra peut- théorique explique la plupart des être accepter que ce régime ait eu quel­ problèmes d'unité de l'ouvrage. Que ce ques avantages pour la population. soit dans la construction générale du Dans les passages factuels, livre: une trop longue première partie est Vaillancourt pointe souvent dans la direc­ consacrée au cadre général d'analyse, tion d'une histoire plus politique: les in­ celui des grandes alliances de classe, alors tentions d'un Mackenzie King, par exem­ qu'il aurait pu être amené au fil de la ple, deviennent tout i coup primordiales. démonstration. Ou alors dans le contenu Pour Vaillancourt, le problème majeur à des chapitres subséquents qui portent ce niveau d'explication est celui des con­ chacun sur un secteur particulier de flits constitutionnels, et il lui accorde une politique: ils débutent par une attention minutieuse. Mais il ne modifie présentation des programmes où, faute pas pour autant son cadre d'analyse et ne d'argument intégrateur, l'auteur défile tente pas de conceptualiser ce que son 310 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL voyage dans les sources lui a permis de city in Southern Ontario that was particu­ découvrir. En sens inverse, on sent aussi larly suited to the rise of urban reform une ouverture du cadre théorique dans la during this period. It had a serious lack of direction d'une vision plus prometteuse low income rental housing during these que le déterminisme économique des years, years that coincided with the begin­ études précédentes: l'introduction nings of the federal government's urban présente les travaux de l'école de la renewal programs. In addition, its status "régulation sociale," qui propose une as host to Queen's University provided conception nuancée de l'État et qui lui the city with a disproportionately large confère une plus grande autonomie dans number of student activists eager to be­ ses relations à l'infrastructure. Mais come involved in the type of community l'auteur n'exploite pas à fond le potentiel organizing which had been popularized de la théorie qu'il invoque: la réalité n'est by the SDS/ERA projects in the United pas cohérente ni unifiée, se contente-t-il Sûtes. de conclure, la synthèse est donc Using archival sources from commu­ périlleuse et impossible. nity groups, the NDP, and the municipal Le manque de cohérence des government, as well as newspaper re­ interprétations n'enlève pas à cet ouvrage ports, personal records and interviews un caractère précieux: comme with activists of the time, Harris summa­ encyclopédie exhaustive sur la nature et rizes the city and its politics; the develop­ les transformations de programmes ment of the New Left in Kingston, its sociaux complexes, comme guide ex­ projects with working class youth, inner- haustif des sources gouvernementales et city residents and the welfare poor; the des articles des observateurs et acteurs development of middle-class reform contemporains, comme résumé du con­ through churches, voluntary organiza­ tenu de ces textes, il est sans pareil; muni tions and the NDP; the focus of these two d'un index, il aurait été encore plus utile. currents on the issues of housing and A ce titre, il me semble qu'il pourra sus­ urban renewal; and their decline in the citer une ronde de monographies sur early 1970s. l'histoire des politiques sociales au Harris works from the conclusion that Québec. L'auteur de la prochaine "although class is not usually the most synthèse aura la vie beaucoup plus facile. visible factor in Canadian life, it is the most important." He does, however, dis­ Dominique Jean agree with Marxist attempts to define the Université Carleton city, as well as political and social con­ flict, exclusively in terms of the class Richard Harris, Democracy in Kingston: relations of capitalism. Harris holds that A Social Movement in Urban Politics, other factors that have not been developed 1965-70 (Kingston and Montreal: Mc- adequately by Marxist academics influ­ Gill-Queen's University Press 1988). ence local politics. As a geographer, Har­ ris is primarily concerned with two such ACADEMICS ARE NOW beginning to exam­ factors: the ownership of domestic prop­ ine the rise of popular protest in the ad­ erty and people's place of residence. vanced capitalist countries in the 1960s. Working from the assumption that place Richard Harris looks at one aspect of this of residence and housing tenure are not rise in popular protest, the urban reform reducible, though obviously tied to class, of the New Left and its counterpart Harris provides a detailed examination of amongst left-liberal reformers. He fo­ the tensions that existed between home­ cuses upon the urban reform movement as owners and tenants in the working-class it developed in one specific location, North End, of the division between the Kingston, Ontario. Kingston is a small welfare and working poor, and of the lines REVIEWS 311 of cross-class resistance and protest that urban reform of the New Left in particular were created by working-class and mid­ would imply that a more rigorous ques­ dle-class reformers in tenant organizing tioning of its political approach and and political lobbies. Harris also praxis be developed. As well, one might demonstrates well how when push came also expect to see a closer link between to shove, class loyalties shone through, this questioning and Harris' own theoret­ causing middle-class reformers to scrap ical critique of traditional Marxist analyt­ public housing projects in predominately ical tools. Harris is certainly able to view middle-class neighborhoods and split divisions within the working class along cross-class reform efforts. lines of place of residence and housing Although his work is specific to the tenure, but with these exceptions, he Kingston scene, Harris does stress that its probes no deeper into the meaning of reform movement of the 60s and 70s must working-class life in Kingston than did be seen in the context of the broad move­ the majority of the sixties activists before ment for social change of that period. He him. For example, as many in the New notes that this movement contained two Left did at the time, Harris portrays the different, sometimes warring factions, the organized working class as a uniformly New Left (including the Combmed Uni­ conservative, backsliding group, a result versities Campaign for Nuclear Disar­ of the fact that he reduces the spectrum of mament and the Student Union for Peace the organized working class in Kingston Action) and less radical mainstream re­ to equal the local union bureaucracy of formers (from the Waffle and left-liberal the time. Harris* desire to develop a more camps). He insists that this social move­ synthetic materialist analysis is obviously ment must be seen as a whole — as a not extended to create a more textured product of the growth of popular support understanding of this section of the work­ for liberal or social democratic reform ing class. that emerged with the economic boom of Harris concludes that the New Left the post-Cold War days when criticism of changed "our political assumptions and state practice in the West became not only circumstances in many ways" — one key more acceptable but more affordable. way being its stress upon 'the personal as Harris' examination of the develop­ political.' Though the feminist movement ment and workings of the New Left as a has done the most in the past-twenty-five whole and of its Canadian component in years to build a politics rooted in the per­ particular is somewhat superficial, as sonal, there is little indication that Harris might be expected from a work that is has been informed by this work. Gender intended less as a comprehensive look at dynamics within the New Left are only the New Left than as an examination of briefly touched upon and left unrelated to one narrowly-defined aspect of it He is at ways of organizing and the theoretical his best when he is dealing with the spe­ approach adopted by the New Left and cifics of urban reform in Kingston in the urban reformers. A key blind spot for years after the dissolution of an organized many community organizers and urban New Left group. If this book was solely reformers of the period — namely the about urban reform in Kingston during manner in which family dynamics shaped this period, this would not pose a prob­ the individual and community life of city lem. However, Harris makes larger claims residents — is also left untouched in this for his work. His examination is centred study. around the question of "in a capitalist Democracy in Kingston provides us society, where people are unequal, how with a well researched and straight for­ do the powerless try to make democ­ ward examination of the reform move­ racy?" Harris' decision to approach this ment in that city in the 1960s, and with at question through an examination of the least a partial glimpse of the New Left's 312 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL role in the social change movement of that trois parties principales, traite en premier period. As such it is a welcome addition lieu de l'évolution de la gestion to the study of urban reform in Canada in hospitalière et de la maladie dans les trois the postwar years. hôpitaux, du début du siècle, caractérisé par une gestion de type familial, aux Joy McBride années 1980, placées sous le signe de la Queen's University "bureaucratie transitaire.'* D'abord une institution charitable et un lieu de refuge André Petitat, Les infirmières. De la vo­ pour les plus démunis, l'hôpital est cation à la profession (Montréal: Boréal devenu une énorme entreprise, une "insti­ 1989). tution surplombante," qui détient le monopole de tout le domaine de la A L'HEURE où la profession d'infirmière maladie, mais aussi de la santé, de la nais­ est secouée par ce qui constitue sans doute sance à la mon. La charité a dû céder la '.a crise la plus profonde de son histoire, place à la science, alors que l'État s'est l'ouvrage du sociologue André Petitat graduellement immiscé dans la gestion apporte un éclairage utile sur l'évolution des hôpitaux obligeant religieuses et de cette profession. A partir d'études de bénévoles à se retirer. Reflet de cas portant sur trois hôpitaux montréalais l'organisation sociale, cette évolution a (Hôtel-Dieu, Notre-Dame et Montreal complètement transformé notre vision de General Hospital), l'auteur retrace les la maladie et du malade, dans le sens de grandes étapes qui ont jalonné l'histoire leur éclatement. C'est que dans des infirmières québécoises. Esquissant à l'intervalle, le corps médical s'est très grands traits cette histoire durant la fragmenté, en fragmentant le corps première moitié du XXième siècle, la ma­ humain.(71) La multiplication des jeure partie de l'étude, de même que les spécialités, des corps professionnels sources et la documentation utilisées, soignants, de même que la formalisation traitent surtout de la situation de la pro­ des savoirs ont entraîné une division de fession depuis les années 1950 jusqu'à ce plus en plus profonde des pratiques et de jour, contrairement à ce que laisse supposer ceux qui les effectuent Le rapport simple, le titre du livre. Le mérite de cette étude ne à l'origine, entre malade et soignant est réside pas tant dans la perspective "socio- dorénavant médiatisé par une multitude historique" (19) adoptée que dans le tableau de phénomènes et d'intervenants. Le relativement précis qu'il brosse de la situa­ monde de l'hôpital se présente comme le tion actuelle des infirmières et des lieu de rencontre, mais aussi principaux problèmes auxquels la profes­ d'affrontement, de différentes logiques sion est confrontée. Mais en définitive, plus qui sont loin d'être toujours compatibles qu'à une étude sur la profession en soi, entre elles: à la logique de l'hôpital l'ouvrage de Petitat nous convie à une même, comme institution bureaucratique, réflexion sur le sens de l'évolution du se surimposent la logique de la technique, champ de la santé et de l'hôpital, perspec­ celle des organisations professionnelles tive dans laquelle il place d'emblée son et syndicales, celle de la formation, sans cadre d'analyse, prenant comme point de compter la logique de l'État et des con­ départ l'évolution de la profession au cours traintes budgétaires qu'il impose. des dernières décennies. C'est pourquoi, le monde hospitalier C'est dans ce contexte qu'il analyse le s'apparente de plus en plus à un monde en rôle de l'infirmière perçue en tant que "transit" animé par le mouvement médiatrice privilégiée entre d'une part, perpétuel du personnel et des patients, ce l'énorme bureaucratie que constitue qui requiert la consignation par écrit de l'hôpital d'aujourd'hui et, d'autre part, le toutes les opérations afin d'assurer une malade. L'ouvrage, que l'on peut diviser en gestion cohérente. Cette fragmentation du REVIEWS 313 corps médical, et surtout la multiplication sur celui des médecins. Au cours de cette des intervenants appartenant à la évolution, les infirmières en sont venues catégorie paramédicale a cependant à délaisser de plus en plus les tâches sim­ diminué l'importance relative de ples et les travaux domestiques, assumés T infirmière, même si elle demeure une dorénavant par des corps auxiliaires, pour figurante centrale du secteur de la santé. se concentrer sur les soins complexes Après un rapide survol de l'évolution de requérant une technique phis développée. l'organisation du travail infirmier au Le problème, c'est qu'au cours de ce pro­ début du siècle, la deuxième partie de cessus axé vers une pratique basée sur des l'étude de Petitat analyse les transforma­ savoirs "technico-sciwiti figues,"elle s ont tions qui y sont intervenues depuis la fin perdu contact avec les patients avec lesquels des années 1940, époque où le secteur elles n'ont plus que des rapports partiels. hospitalier connût une croissance sans Dans la troisième partie de son ouvr­ précédent II nous dépeint ici, dans toute age, Petitat analyse ce processus de sa complexité, les innombrables formalisation et de constitution des problèmes que comporte le fonctionne­ savoirs infirmiers de même que ment du département du nursing au l'évolution de la formation. A l'origine, quotidien. Reposant essentiellement sur la formation des infirmières était es­ une documentation constituée de rapports sentiellement composée d'un apprentiss­ soumis aux différentes commissions age pratique doublé de quelques cours d'enquête sur le secteur de la santé ou théoriques. La constitution d'un cursus, d'études produites par la corporation des d'abord l'oeuvre des premières directri­ infirmières, cette partie de l'ouvrage tra­ ces du nursing dans les hôpitaux, sera ite cependant davantage de gestion du complétée à partir des années 1920 et nursing, masquant ainsi l'expérience pro­ 1930 par des infirmières universitaires fessionnelle des infirmières. D aurait été qui vont se spécialiser dans souhaitable de diversifier l'éventail des renseignement de cette profession. Les sources utilisées afin de faire émerger leur programmes visent à une meilleure pratique. compréhension des maladies (causes, Hormis la question des problèmes symptômes, traitements) et comprennent d'organisation sur les lieux de travail, la des cours qui traitent des soins à donner crise qui secoue présentement la profession dans les différents cas de chirurgie, concerne le rôle même de l'infirmière et son médecine, psychiatrie. L'histoire de la rapport aux malades; question dont les profession de même que la déontologie y ramifications remontent aux origines de occupent une place importante. Mais du­ la profession. Au départ, le nursing s'est rant cette période, la pratique organisée constitué sur la base d'un ensemble de sous forme de stages dans les différents savoirs ou plutôt de savoir-faire féminins services hospitaliers constitue la majeure reliés au soin et à l'entretien du corps, partie de la formation. appelé le "care." Mais pour faire Le passage de la formation infirmière reconnaître ce travail, jusqu'alors com­ dans le réseau d'enseignement public au pris comme étant du domaine du matern­ début des années 1970 représente, à pri­ age et donc considéré comme travail ori, une grande victoire des associations gratuit, les infirmières ont choisi de professionnelles qui revendiquaient valoriser de plus en plus les aspects tech­ depuis les années 1930 que la formation niques de ces tâches, reléguant graduelle­ soit séparée du travail des infirmières. ment au second plan toute la dimension Jusqu'à cette date, l'apprentissage "pra­ féminine de leur pratique. Orientant leur tique" des élèves constituait en somme du expertise afin de répondre aux besoins des travail gratuit en échange duquel elles hôpitaux alors en plein essor, elles ont recevaient le gîte, le couvert et une petite ainsi privilégié le savoir formel, calqué indemnité monétaire. Le transfert de la 314 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

formation, même s'il a permis de la mettre documente très bien l'évolution de au premier plan, ne représente qu'une l'univers hospitalier en étant sensible à la demi-victoire, puisqu'à partir du moment dualité du contexte québécois-reli- où c'est l'État qui régit l'organisation du gieux/lafque-, de même qu'il identifie réseau public d'enseignement, les clairement les principaux problèmes au­ infirmières perdent l'autonomie dont elles xquels la profession est confrontée. Mais bénéficiaient sur le contenu de la formation nulle part dans son ouvrage il n'a vrai­ en nursing. ment été possible de saisir les motivations Au-delà du changement de lieu de des principales concernées, de comprendre formation, c'est toute la conception de la les choix qu'elles ont posés, même dans le profession qui est alors bouleversée. dernier chapitre qui traite pourtant de Comme l'explique l'auteur, l'enseigne­ "logiques intentionnelles."(303) Il aborde ment, lorsqu'il se déroulait à l'hôpital, l'étude des infirmières comme s'il s'agissait s'apparentait à une formation "intégrale" d'un ensemble indifférencié dont les ob­ dans la mesure où tous les aspects de la vie jectifs sont convergents. D ne relève pas les des élèves étaient régis; des heures de cours contradictions qui divisent ce groupe, et ne et de travail aux moments de loisirs et de distingue pas suffisamment les desseins repos. A l'image des couvents, l'univers des de l'élite de ceux de la base. Toute la infirmières formait une grande famille, spécificité de la démarche des infirmières animée par une philosophie charitable, où par rapport i d'autres professions toutes se connaissaient. La profession était féminines ou à l'ensemble des travailleuses alors présentée comme constituant une n'est pas vraiment relevée. Pourtant, il au­ forme d'apostolat, et tant les religieuses que rait été nécessaire de documenter davantage les dirigeantes laïques des hôpitaux anglo­ le processus qui les a mené à l'obtention de phones valorisaient un idéal professionnel la reconnaissance professionnelle par le empreint de la plus haute moralité. Mais biais de leurs associations et le rôle que ces avec le développement de l'activité dernières ont joué et jouent encore auprès hospitalière et ce, surtout à partir de la des instances publiques. Deuxième Guerre mondiale, l'ancienne Les études dans le domaine du nurs­ unité des départements de nursing ing ont fait l'objet d'un renouvellement s'effrite et les rapports deviennent plus important au cours des dernières années impersonnels. L'idéologie véhiculée ne dont André Petitat ne rend pas vraiment correspond plus à la réalité et c'est compte dans son exposé, même si quel­ pourquoi le contrôle aussi important de ques références apparaissent dans sa tous les aspects de la vie des élèves n'est bibliographie. Il aurait cependant été désormais plus possible, ni accepté par nécessaire de situer la présente étude par ces dernières qui réclament davantage de rapport aux nombreux débats concernant liberté et d'autonomie. Ces bouleverse­ le statut de cette profession, sa valorisa­ ments vont complètement modifier le tion, le rôle et le pouvoir des corporations sens de l'engagement professionnel qui professionnelles, sans compter toute la reposait jusqu'alors sur le don de soi. Ces question de la délimitation de champs de changements dans la philosophie de la savoirs dans le domaine de la santé. Il formation et l'engagement professionnel n'en demeure pas moins que l'ouvrage de conclure André Petitat reflètent les d'André Petitat représente un premier ef­ transformations intervenues a un niveau fort de synthèse sur l'histoire et la situa­ plus profond et plus global dans le champ tion de la profession d'infirmière au de la santé dans son ensemble. Québec et il est à souhaiter que d'autres A l'issue de la lecture de cet ouvrage, études viendront enrichir les débats et les on demeure avec l'impression étrange perspectives sur le sujet que les infirmières sont les grandes absen­ Michèle Dagenais tes de cette analyse. Certes, Petitat Université du Québec à Montréal REVIEWS 315

Marie-Claire Dumas et Francine Mayer, tive historique. L'évolution de la signifi­ sous la dir. de. Les femmes et l'équité cation de la mesure, les controverses salariale, un pouvoir à gagnerl qu'elle a suscitées, la place du principe "à (Montréal: Les Éditions du remue- salaire égal pour un travail equivalent** ménage, 1989). dans l'ensemble des revendications visant l'égalité des femmes sur le marché du "PARLER D'ÉQUITÉ SALARIALE, c'est parler travail, autant de questions donc qui sont de la valeur du travail des femmes; c'est abordées en première partie. On a ensuite parler du fait que systématiquement les pro­ voulu brosser le tableau de la situation fessions féminines sont sous-payées. Une actuelle en matière d'équité salariale. En discrimination subtile qui fait que la ce sens, on présente, en deuxième partie, secrétaire gagne moins que le plombier, la les différentes approches et méthodes travailleuse de garderie moins que le gar­ d'évaluation existantes ainsi que les lois dien de zoo!"(:15). C'est ainsi que M.C. et programmes en vigueur au Québec, au Dumas et F. Mayer nous convient a prendre Manitoba, en Ontario, au Minnesota et en connaissance des actes du colloque Suède. Le processus de plaintes, sur organisé par le YWCA de Montréal et tenu lequel repose l'application de la loi dans cette même ville les 3,4 et 5 mars 1989. québécoise, y est également examiné au La rencontre visait, entre autres objectifs, a moyen d'exemples afférents à certaines démystifier le dossier de l'équité salariale, catégories d'emplois de la Fonction malheureusement encore trop souvent publique. Enfin, on y traite des problèmes laissé aux "experts," afin de permettre au spécifiques que rencontrent les plus grand nombre possible de femmes de domestiques, les travailleuses im­ se l'approprier, ceci étant la seule manière, migrantes et les femmes handicapées. somme toute, de mener à bien les luttes des C'est dans la troisième partie, plutôt axée prochaines années dans ce domaine. SUT les perspectives d'avenir, que l'on ex­ Précisons d'entrée de jeu qu'il est dif­ amine l'équité salariale au Québec en re­ ficile de rendre compte d'un tel ouvrage gard des améliorations applicables aux dans la mesure où celui-ci présente la recours juridiques et législatifs de même transcription de la quarantaine de commu­ que sous l'angle des stratégies mises de nications transmises lors du colloque. l'avant en milieu de travail et des voies à Réunis sous onze thématiques, les textes privilégier en matière de formation. sont, non seulement très courts (souvent L'apport indispensable de l'analyse à peine quatre pages) mais, de plus, abor­ féministe et de l'implication des groupes dent un éventail très large de questions. de femmes dans la promotion de l'équité Impensable dès lors d'examiner salariale est un autre élément qui ressort séparément chacune des contributions. des dernières discussions. Aussi nous-est-il uniquement permis ici Tel que le souligne la présidente de camper les termes du débat, ceci sans d'honneur du colloque, Claire Bonenfant, mention aucune des auteures. l'équité salariale occupe actuellement une Avant d'identifier les points saillants place grandissante dans les débats de cette réflexion d'ensemble, quelques politiques.(:21) Non pas que le problème mots cependant sur la structure de soit nouveau. Ainsi, en 1911, le salaire l'ouvrage. Le volume est composé de moyen des travailleuses canadiennes trois parties. Comme l'équité salariale, équivalait i 53% de celui des hommes.(:22) soit "le principe selon lequel on verse un Ce qui surprend toutefois, c'est la formida­ salaire égal pour un travail de valeur égale ble inertie caractérisant l'évolution de cet ou équivalente sans discrimina­ écart Ainsi, peut-on lire, "(e)n 1982, on tion, "(:256) est un sujet passablement estimait qu'il (salaire moyen) était de 55 à complexe, on a tenu à en faciliter la 64% de celui des hommes: autrement dit, compréhension par une mise en perspec­ une augmentation de 2 à 11% tout au plus 316 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

en 70 ans."(:22) A l'heure où la majorité équivalent," laquelle autorise des com­ des femmes exercent un travail rémunéré, paraisons entre des emplois complètement on comprend que la tolérance ait ses lim­ différents. C'est a cette dernière formula­ ites. Aussi, après des luttes ardues pour tion que se rattache le principe d'équité l'implantation de programmes d'accès à salariale, principe qui permet de combattre l'égalité (PAE), qui visent à faciliter les inéquités de salaire s'appuyant sur la l'accès des travailleuses aux occupations ségrégation occupationnelle dont les dans lesquelles elles sont sous- femmes font les frais. Car s'il est un constat représentées, l'enjeu est désormais auquel on ne peut plus échapper et que les d'obtenir un salaire équitable pour les participantes au colloque ont amplement emplois où les femmes sont concentrées. souligné, c'est bien que la discrimination C'est dans cette optique que s'inscrivent comprend de multiples facettes qui ne peuv­ les revendications en matière d'équité ent être comprises qu'en relation les unes salariale. aux autres. Aussi, les problèmes de Historiquement, la revendication disparités salariales ne prennent leur sens touchant le versement de salaires qu'à la lumière des autres sources équitables n'a pas toujours revêtu la d'inéquité comme la ségrégation ou encore forme qu'on lui connaît aujourd'hui ni les responsabilités qu'historiquement la même toujours, bien que cela puisse sur­ société a dévolues aux femmes dans la prendre, abrité les meilleurs sentiments. sphère privée.(:44) Dans cette optique, les Au départ, en effet, c'est sous solutions prennent la forme d'une stratégie l'appellation "à travail égal, salaire égal" large où s'articulent plusieurs moyens que s'élaborent les demandes dont le but d'action (équité salariale, PAE, garderies, est de mettre fin à des situations de dis­ congés parentaux, congés pour obligations crimination ouverte, situations dans familiales, aménagement du temps de tra­ lesquelles des femmes voyaient leur vail, politique de plein emploi, etc.). rémunération nettement inférieure à celle Comme le disait une participante, "(i)l faut des hommes occupant les mêmes postes. choisir les bons outils pour les bonnes A cet égard, on n'a d'ailleurs qu'à se tâches et éviter de mettre tous les espoirs rappeler les échelles salariales sexuées d'égalité dans une seule action."(:48) qui, encore dans les années soixante-dix, En matière d'équité salariale, le prévalaient dans de nombreuses conven­ Québec (tout comme le gouvernement tions collectives. A la fin du siècle dernier fédéral) aurait avantage, de l'avis de toutefois, les groupes portant la revendi­ plusieurs personnes, à s'inspirer de cation d'égalité salariale ne recherchaient l'approche de type pro-actif adoptée par pas tous, ce faisant, l'autonomie certaines provinces canadiennes (Mani­ financière des femmes. En effet, plusieurs toba, Ontario, Nouvelle-Ecosse, Ile du syndicats ont alors défendu cette mesure Prince-Edouard). Contrairement au pro­ parce qu'ils y voyaient un moyen de cessus basé sur les plaintes individuelles, diminuer la concurrence de la main- dont les limites sont illustrées ici par d'oeuvre féminine dont l'utilisation plusieurs exemples, les lois pro-actives paraissait dépendre des économies de contraignent les employeurs à examiner coûts procurées par leurs bas leurs pratiques et à ajuster les salaires des salaires.(:38) Dans son acception mod­ emplois à prédominance féminine à ceux erne, la revendication est ensuite apparue des "emplois masculins" jugés comme un outil privilégié pour lutter con­ équivalents. Ces lois sont davantage tre la discrimination. Dans cette optique, appropriées au contexte de discrimination on est passé du "travail égal" au "travail systémique qui est le nôtre que les recours substantiellement égal" de manière à liés aux plaintes. Ceci dit, pour être tout couvrir un éventail plus large de cas, pour entières tournées vers l'égalité de en arriver enfin à la notion de "travail résultats, ce qui est le propre d'une REVIEWS 317 stratégie globale de lutte à la discrimina­ dossier de l'équité salariale de sorte que tion, les dispositions concernant l'équité le lecteur ou la lectrice est à même de se salariale doivent incorporer des normes faire une bonne idée sur cette question plus larges que celles qu'elles contienn­ cruciale. Certes un recueil de ce type évite ent présentement II faudrait pouvoir, par difficilement les nombreuses répétitions exemple, comparer des postes d'entreprises tout en nous laissant, en même temps, à différentes de sorte qu'aucune catégorie de bien des endroits sur notre faim. Bien sûr, travailleuses ne soit exclue de l'application on doit compter également avec des con­ de la k>i.(:169) Selon certaines personnes tributions de caractère inégal et même cependant, l'atteinte de l'équité passe par le avec certaines interventions qui brouil­ rejet des méthodes d'évaluation des emplois lent plus qu'elles n'éclairent les débats. et l'utilisation d'un "modèle du marché du Une remarque plus spécifique tient aussi travail."(:225) à l'agacement que l'on éprouve a lire un En revanche, l'article 19 de la Charte français correspondant an langage parlé, québécoise peut s'appliquer à un plus ce qui se produit très souvent Mais, cela grand nombre de situations dis­ dit, ces critiques pèsent pen en regard de criminatoires que ce que couvrent les au­ l'apport important de l'ouvrage. Le col­ tres lois canadiennes et américaines loque était un moment marquant, permett­ puisque le principe d'équité salariale y est ant durant trois jours a des femmes aux lié, non seulement au critère de sexe, mais expériences et de milieux divers de à l'ensemble des motifs de discrimination réfléchir en commun. Moment d'autant identifiés par la Charte. Les demandes des plus rare qu'il a conduit à la mise sur pied femmes des communautés culturelles, à d'une Coalition québécoise sur l'équité l'effet d'appliquer l'équité salariale en salariale (crée officiellement en fonctin de l'origine ethnique,(:242) septembre 1989 et qui travaillera, tout pourraient ainsi, en principe, être satisfa­ d'abord, à "la question des changements ites. Des efforts en ce sens renforceraient législatifs nécessaires pour protéger d'ailleurs la solidarité entre femmes, toutes les femmes, syndiquées et non laquelle a été, au fil des échanges, recon­ syndiquées."(:254) Ce volume permet nue comme indispensable à l'avancement ainsi à toutes celles et ceux qui n'ont pas de cette cause. De ce point de vue, eu la chance d'assister à l'événement d'en l'importance d'étendre aussi les acquis de bénéficier tout de même. Sans compter l'équité salariale aux travailleuses non- qu'il ouvre la voie à des options de recher­ syndiquées est ressortie des discussions che qui ne pourront laisser indifférentes menées en ateliers.(:250) Ces questions les personnes s'intéressent aux moyens (et beaucoup d'autres traitées dans ce d'aider les femmes à occuper, dans la livre) nous forcent ainsi à reconnaître que société, la place qui leur revient le dossier de l'équité salariale comporte des enjeux d'une ampleur considérable. Sylvie Morel Ainsi, tel qu'on le souligne en conclusion: Bureau de la main-d'oeuvre féminine Travail Canada Cette notion noui amine directement au coeur de la valeur du travail de» femme». Non seule- Elizabeth Blackmar, Manhattan For ment du point de vue du rattrapage salarial dani une échelle donnée mail au icni où il Rent, 1785-1850 (Ithaca and London: noui faut confronter les valeurs profondes de Cornell University Press 1989). la société en ce qui concerne tout le travail effectué par les femmes. Qu'il soit rémunéré REAL PROPERTY IS one of a relative hand­ ou non.(:249) ful of items that are required for human existence. In agricultural use it sustains En définitive, on peut dire que le plus us. We live, love, work, play, and move grand mérite de cet ouvrage consiste à on public and private parcels of land. présenter, sous une pluralité d'angles, le 318 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Even in death, most North Americans re­ ter. She maintains that it is essential to main occupiers of real estate! Given this recognize housing "as a site of work, and importance of real property, it remains that the labor that goes on within house­ surprising how few historical scholars holds is essential to personal subsistence have focused their research initiatives on and to the larger economy," a view that land and the myriad topics associated she contends "runs counter to both liberal with it, especially in comparison to stud­ and Marxist economic theories." (10) ies of labour history, women's history, Blackmar's time period. 1785 to 18S0. military history, political history and the proves to be a fascinating one in the history like. In producing Manhattan for Rent, of housing, at least in New York. In post- 1785-1850, Elizabeth Blackmar has taken Revolutionary Manhattan along with the great strides both to fill in some of the rest of the new Republic, "proprietary inde­ lacunae and to direct attention to the pendence ... was understood to be the foun­ scholarly importance of studies of real dation of national independence." (5) Iron­ property. As she correctly notes (2), "in a ically, in Manhattan land ownership be­ country [the U.S.] that affirms the sanc­ came increasingly concentrated over time, tity of private property rights as one foun­ for the "accumulation of property through dation of democratic freedom, the social providence and hard work... stood outside history of real property relations has been republican censure." (73) At the beginning curiously neglected." Moreover, hers is of the 18th century 70.5 per cent of New anything but a parochial book. Above all, York taxpayers owned land, a commodity the study of real property is the study of then in seemingly endless supply. By 1790, relationships — on the land (as in the however, only 46.9 per cent of New York's various roles of family members), to the electorate could be classified as freeholders, land (legal obligations, tenure forms, and a figure mat dropped to 19.6 per cent by land-use functions), and between differ­ 1821 and to just 11.7 per cent by 1855. ent parcels of land (the journey-to-work Beneath these raw percentages lies an intri­ and land-use conflicts). Blackmar treats guing and complex story of changing each of these topics. There is plenty here attitudes toward land, shifting power rela­ to interest urban historical geographers tionships between landlords and tenants, and students of labour history, legal his­ and the bifurcation of both New York's tory, and the history of women. housing market and its social geography. Blackmar devotes chapters of her The commodification of land and book to each of seven major topics: the housing stands out as one of the most evolution of Manhattan's rentier (land important themes in this book. It occurred owning) and landlord (building owning) simultaneously with the emergence of a classes; the formation of a wage-earning wage-based economy; "by the late 1790s tenant class; the changing social geogra­ both were shifting to a cash nexus." (60) phy of the city; the social meanings of One manifestation of the intersection of housing; the role of municipal govern­ these changes was a physical and social ment; the operation of the housing mar­ restructuring of the city. New York, be­ ket; and landlord-tenant relations. Each tween 1790 and 1820, became a city of rests on extensive research through scat­ "propertied and propertyless" revealing tered sources and many contain detailed "a new structure of class relations within case studies of particular developers and the city's social landscape. The power to activists. Her concluding chapter is de­ command rents was also the power to voted to a relatively brief analysis of the reduce the value of wages and of sav­ housing reforms and reform movements ings." (76) With concentrated landowner- that emerged in the years after 1850. ship, "the essential strategy of securing Ideologically, Blackmar tries to stake demand [remained] restricting supply." out a middle ground for the study of shel­ (253) In the end, "the housing market REVIEWS 319

organized class divisions as permanent changing organization of New York's features of the city's social landscape." construction industry in the face of such (230) Well-to-do developers and citizens modifications would have been helpful. persuaded the city government to provide Manhattan for Rent is not without elaborate infrastructure systems in cer­ some drawbacks in terms of its use of tain, but not all, areas. Beginning with illustrations and its organization. In spite property around Bowling Green in the of her attempts to deal with the changing late 1790s, deliberately fashionable areas spatial organization of New York, Black- began to be developed, often with the aid mar is no geographer. While the book of restrictive covenants in both leases and contains four maps, these are merely re­ deeds. By the 1840s purposefully built productions of early plans of the city. A multifamily housing, in the form of tene­ few freshly and purposefully drawn maps ments, was being built in less-well-ser­ would have gone a long way to under­ viced working-class areas. Crammed onto score the important changes in geo­ 25 by 100 foot lots, tenements at first graphic patterns (for example, along were welcomed as a means to alleviate Chambers Street) that occurred between New York's chronic shortage of accom­ 1785 and 1850. There is no clear ward modation. Time would soon reveal these map even though various wards are re­ structures as cheaply and poorly built ferred to in many places in the text. Ap­ habitations. Ironically, tenants often op­ parently historians will only slowly learn posed early attempts at housing reform about the importance of cartography in because such efforts were perceived to explaining past patterns, places, and pro­ drive up rents. cesses. The seven illustrations selected Space does not permit me to elaborate for inclusion, while probably too few in on all of the themes examined by Black- number, do serve to show changes in the mar in Manhattan for Rent, but I would residential fabric of New York. Repro­ like to comment in some depth on her ductions of some early documents per­ treatment of the housing market (ch. 6). taining to land, such as leases and mort­ Overall this stands as a useful contribu­ gages, might have also been considered tion to our understanding of the city- for inclusion. Only seven tables, all based building process. Much is revealed here on aggregate statistics and grouped to­ about the economics of dwelling con­ gether in an appendix, grace the book. struction in antebellum New York, espe­ Given the enormous research effort un­ cially fluctuations in land prices and the dertaken by Blackmar, a few disaggre­ profitability of building various types and gated tables showing such dungs as mort­ densities of housing. Moreover, mere is a gage, land, and building holdings would useful analysis of the relationship be­ have been appreciated. tween housing construction and the eco­ While die text certainly is readable nomic cycle, especially the impact of the and remarkably free of typographical er­ Panic of 1837. Some sense of the aggre­ rors, it could have used better copy edit­ gate scale of construction activity also ing. More variety in sentence structure can be found here, along with a general would have improved die flow of die vol­ discussion of those who were investing in ume. The book is well indexed and fully new residential construction. From my documented (die end notes occupy 60 perspective, however, Blackmar has pages), but it lacks a centralized discus­ failed to deal adequately with one import­ sion of die data sources that Blackmar ant aspect of the housing market — the employed. Since a good deal of innova­ construction industry itself. She correctly tive detective work was needed to pro­ points to an increasing institutionaliza­ duce this treatise, it seems to me dial it tion of the housing market during her would have been very useful to share this study period. More discussion of the effort more openly widi readers. 320 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

The strengths of Manhattan for Rent nity to pause and assess work done in the far outweigh its weakness. It stands as an field thus far. The book moves back and ambitious and thoughtful piece of schol­ forth between essays published in 1979 arship. I heartily recommend it to the and more recent efforts, yet never do the readers of this journal and to all who seek two halves 'speak to each other'. Any a fuller understanding of housing issues. insights to be gained by such a compara­ Blackmar suggests that "the role of work­ tive assessment are left up to the reader ing-class landlords in New York politics rather than pulled out and developed by ... remains a critical question for further the editors. They suggest that recent work investigation." (245) t for one, look for­ is moving in "exciting new directions,'' ward to her response to this new but is it all really one forward march? challenge. Though not in evidence in this book, es- sentialist and transhistorical notions of Michael J. Doucet sexuality are far from completely driven Ryerson Polytechnics! Institute from the field. And in the rush to establish sexuality in history under the banner of Kathy Peiss and Christina Simmons, eds., 'social constructionism,' we have been Passion and Power: Sexuality in History slow to think critically about problems (Philadelphia: Temple University Press with this approach. If one is looking for 1989). some critical reflection on the field to date, you will not find it here. PLEASURE AND POWER. Danger and De­ Perhaps most disappointing about the sire. In different combinations these few introduction is that it offers no new con­ words make up the titles of many of the ceptualization of sexuality in history. Ad­ new books on the history and theory of mittedly, the many detailed studies of sexuality. Add 'Passion' to that list and sexuality needed to fill in the gaps in our we have one of the most recent additions knowledge still largely remain to be done, to the field — Passion and Power: Sexu­ yet a gesture in this direction would have ality in History. been welcome. Estelle Freedman and The publication of this collection is a John D'Emilio did it in their recent mono­ welcome event for several reasons. First, graph suggesting analytical distinctions it republishes several of the essays from between "systems of sexual meanings, the long out of print 1979 volume of Rad­ regulation and politics." In terms of the­ ical History Review on 'Sexuality in ory, Robert Padgug's 1979 essay, "Sexual History*. Second, it pulls together in a Matters: on Conceptualizing Sexuality in single volume more recent historical History," is reprinted. While still a useful work on sexuality from scattered journals beginning for a historical materialist con­ and anthologies. ception of sexuality, the article is dated. The book begins with an introduction It would have been helpful to read along­ by the editors which briefly answers the side it a more recent piece that incorpo­ question of why, at this historical mo­ rates theoretical advances made in the last ment, it has become possible to speak of decade. a history of sexuality. As well, they out­ What one does find in Passion and line some of the basic tools or concepts Power is a rough periodization. 1790 to necessary to understand sexuality as a 1930 is designated "the emergence of historical process. modern sexuality," though what exactly In many ways the introduction is the is meant by the dubious term 'modern' is least satisfying part of Passion and never certain. This section includes a Power. Published exactly ten years after good article by Marybeth Hamilton Ar­ the pathbreaking issue of Radical History nold on sexual assault in New York City. Review, the editors miss a good opportu­ Arnold argues that the central issue in REVIEWS 321 rape trials was not violence against sexuality," George Chaimcey Jr. argues women, but rather men's property rights the important point that the medical cate­ over women. Arnold also makes some gorization of "inverts" and "homosexu­ interesting comments on the role of re­ als" did not create same-gender sexual publican ideology in rape cases involving identities. He suggests that Weeks and upper-class men and working-class others have attributed too much power to women. By asserting, in a period still ideology as an autonomous force and marked by revolutionary fervor, mat all have oversimplified the complex dialectic men were "equal citizens" republicanism between ideology, social conditions and appealed to the supposed common inter­ consciousness. ests of men of all classes and did much Two final pieces in this section cover therefore to diffuse the potential for work­ the Heterodoxy Club of New York ing-class community anger over attacks through a photo essay and Jessie M. upon working-class women. Rodrique marshals evidence to argue In an excellent article Kathy Peiss against the belief that a grass-roots birth demonstrates how in a later period sexu­ control movement in the black commu­ ality became a central dimension in the nity did not exist culture of working-class women. To com­ The second section — "Sexual Con­ pensate for their unequal position within flicts and Cultural Authority, 1920-1960" wage labour, women forged a sexual — covers the history of struggles over the economy in which they exchanged sexual cultural meanings of venereal disease, favours in return for leisure activities. John D'Emilio's by now familiar work on Such "cheap amusements" allowed some the homosexual menace and Cold War working-class women to explore sexual politics and an interesting essay by Chris­ independence and pleasure. Always mov­ tina Simmons on how the notion of ing nicely back and forth between gender Victorian sexual repression was a myth and class analysis, Peiss follows these manufactured in the early 20th century. women from their leisure into their work Two articles stand out in this section. Es­ world, tracing how "the sexual style... on telle Freedman shows how the response to the dance floor was often reproduced on sexual psychopathology served to redef­ the shop floor." (61) Peiss also notes the ine the boundaries between "normal" and "heterosocial orientation of these amuse­ "deviant" sexual behaviour and in "The ments," (60) though the issue of hetero- Reproduction of Butch-Fern Roles," we sexuality per se remains largely unex­ hear in their own words how lesbians plored. from the 1940s and 50s understood then- Jeffrey Weeks' early article on the own experiences. The latter essay in par­ historical emergence of homosexual iden­ ticular is an excellent example of histori­ tities is reprinted without changes. Ten cal experience informing the production years later many of Weeks' theoretical of theory and methodology. assertions still remain empirically unex­ A final section — "Private Passions plored. Thus, we have assumptions, too and Public Debates" — brings the reader often uncritically adopted by other writ­ up to the present by looking at the femi­ ers, such as "the spread of a homosexual nist debates on pornography and the so­ consciousness was much less strong cial construction of AIDS. among working-class men than middle- Covering such a broad period and class." (81) What was initially meant as a range of subj ects. Passion and Power will theoretical hypothesis has, over the years, make a good textbook, particularly as the become accepted almost as a fact even history of sexuality becomes more estab­ though the historical research needed to lished in academia. It should also be clear test this point remains undone. from even this brief review that a volume In "From Sexual Inversion to Homo­ like Passion and Power will be useful to 322 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

working-class historians not only as a Race, I am happy to report, is a close foray into another realm of working-class second. And in one important aspect he experience, but — and this is a central should clearly rank first I do not recall point in the new history of sexuality — having read another collection of this because sexuality is another significant kind in which the author has gone to such terrain upon which power is wielded and great length to provide unity, focus, and resisted. coherence, although it is perhaps ironic that this very effort exposes the weakness Steven Maynard of all such miscellanies — that it is in Queen's University their very nature to lack an overarching theme that has benefited from focused George M. Fredrickson, The Arrogance of and sustained development. Inevitably, in Race: Historical Perspectives on Slavery, works such as this one, the sum is less Racism, and Social Inequality (Middle- than its parts. town, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press Since this is a "given" it is a point 1988). hardly worth making, were it not for the fact that Professor Fredrickson is trying A YOUNGER FRIEND of mine, a bright, am­ his best to transcend this handicap, is try­ bitious and prolific historian, became ing to sell us a BIG IDEA. The central quite agitated, not to say disturbed, when theme of this work (if there can be such a he encountered enormous difficulties in thing as a central theme in a collection) is finding a publisher for a series of articles that in American culture racism is an au­ and essays he had written over a number tonomous force, that race should be un­ of years. "It's not what you know but who derstood as an independent entity capable you know, and who you are" — he of taking on a "life of its own" in its quipped. He might have named names: C. profound influence on the course of Vann Woodward, Kenneth Stampp, Wil­ American history. No wonder Eugene lie Lee Rose, Eric Foner, and now, Genovese, in his testimonial on the back George Fredrickson. What my young cover, coyly states that 'one need not friend doesn't seem to understand is that agree with everything George Fredrick­ he's only got it partly right. Publication son writes or, indeed, share his point of of miscellanies such as the one under re­ view to welcome this collection." Not, view has to be earned. As the author of indeed! Fredrickson, after all, has three major scholarly works, editor of launched a frontal attack on Genovese several volumes, and author of numerous and his "school," whose central premise articles and essays, George Fredrickson vis-à-vis racism is that it is a byproduct of has certainly paid his dues. class conflict and colonialism. That is not to say, of course, that the Both the tone and substance of Pro­ scholarly community greets such vol­ fessor Fredrickson's argument are set in umes with unrestrained enthusiasm. In a the first chapter, an examination of the cynical world such works are often seen role of race in the planter ideology of as nothing more than monuments to the South Carolina. Not surprisingly, vanity of their authors — the tawdry re­ Fredrickson takes issue with Genovese's sults of much back-scratching as wit­ argument that the planters were motivated nessed by gushy testimonials on the back by paternalism, and finds racism at the covers. Who, besides the authors' gradu­ centre of their ideology. "Slavery," he ate students and relatives, reads these vol­ insists, "was at bottom a racial matter and umes? Of course, there are proverbial ex­ not a system that could be universally ceptions. Vann Woodward's American applied to any laboring class." (23) In a Counterpoint is perhaps the most notable. later essay (ch. 7) on "The Fruits of Mer­ George Fredrickson's The Arrogance of chant Capitalism" (co-authored by Eu- REVIEWS 323 gene Oenovese and Elizabeth Fox-Geno- The big idea aside, there is much else vete) Fredrickson teemt to grant hit ad­ in this volume that merits the attention of versaries a degree of flexibility and so­ serious scholars. The book is divided into phistication as they acknowledge that the three sections: The Debate on Slavery planters were involved in capitalist mar­ and Race in the Civil War Era," "Histori­ ket relationships, albeit as premodem ans of the Nineteenth-Century South," merchant capitalists. Yet in the final anal­ and "Slavery and White Supremacy: ysis the Genovetet are said to ignore race. Comparative Explorations." To repeat At their deepest dogmatic core, maintains Eugene Genovese, one "need not agree Fredrickson, they keep insisting in their with everything George Fredrickson wrongheaded way that "all major histori­ writes" in order to appreciate the richness cal developments are, at bottom, manifes­ of his scholarship, the liveliness of the tations of class or class struggle." (132) debate, and his felicitous style. I, for one, To Fredrickson, "class is important, very will make thit volume required reading important, but it is not the whole story." for my graduate students, even though He is "dissatisfied with approaches that I'm not the author. subordinate the race question to the class question by ignoring or leaving unex­ Klaus J. Hansen amined the intellectual, cultural, and psy­ Queen's University chological roots of prejudice." (4) Professor Fredrickson's most direct Stephen H. Norwood, Labor's Flaming confrontation of the race/class issue Youth: Telephone Operators and Worker comes in chapter 10 on the history of Militancy 1878-1923 (Urbana: University post-emancipation race relations (pub­ of Illinois Press 1990). lished here for the first time), where he acknowledges the need for some theoret­ THIS IS A FASCINATING story of women's ical support in his attempt to fend off his militant labour organizing and leadership. marxist adversaries, and turns to Max Norwood's study is the first book-length Weber "as a guide to framing hypotheses investigation of telephone operators at the or preliminary generalizations" about turn of the century. These workers were race relations. In other words, Fredrick­ unique among women workers of the pe­ son, in his attempt to escape from ideal­ riod, developing their own union: The ism, finds in Weber a seemingly safe sub­ Telephone Workers' Department of the stitute for the apparent hard-core materi­ International Brotherhood of Electrical alism of marxism. He sees himself as Workers," with a female leadership and seeking "a firm and reasonable middle within the often hostile confines of the ground between two dichotomous conservative male labour central, the views." (186) That kind of tactic may American Federation of Labor. While perhaps be effective against the work of there has been much written in recent Barbara Jeanne Fields, who set herself up years about industries with large concen­ as an easy target when she wrote, in a trations of female labour, such as garment much-circulated seminar paper in the and textiles, women in these industries early 1980s, that class is an "objective were not successful in developing na­ phenomenon," race merely an "ideologi­ tional or international unions with female cal notion." I strongly suspect, however, leadership. that neither Weber nor Fredrickson will be Telephone operators have long fasci­ able to force the Genoveses into a major nated both the public and scholars alike. retreat In any case, one looks forward to a Their youth, spontaneity, and militancy more sustained and more broadly-gauged combined with a romantic public service argument from Professor Fredrickson on image have all contributed to the interest this crucial and contentious debate. in the "hello girls." Telephone operators 324 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

were the first female high technology family dependency among the operators. workers and were among the first service But as operators gained experience in the sector workers to organize. They defy tra­ workplace, they rebelled against the ditional categorization. They dressed like companies' paternalism which included "white collar" workers and the telephone constant monitoring, with motherly "ma­ companies consciously promoted them as trons" supervising their lounges, cafete­ "young ladies of refinement," but the lab­ rias, and inquiring into their after work our process in central offices closely re­ activities. On the positive side, die earlier sembled blue collar factory work. high school student council activities of Norwood's unique contribution to the many operators provided initial organiz­ operators' study is his placing of the op­ ing and group management experience for erators within the larger social context of the young women interested in starting an emerging women's movement and an their own worker organization. exhilarating youth culture. Focusing his Under inspired women's leadership, study on the Boston telephone operators the telephone operators developed a num­ and their pivotal role in creating the na­ ber of "women-centered" organizing tional organization, Norwood shows how techniques which took into account the the Boston Women's Trade Union social needs of a single, youthful, female League with its "upper- and middle-class membership in a sex segregated work reformers" and suffragists nurtured the place. Combining parties and socials with operators' leadership. In addition to their organizing, the telephone operators' con­ political wisdom and organizing skills, structed their union within the energetic the WTUL provided the operators with a and rebellious female image of the "new convenient and "respectable" place for woman" of the 1910s and the "flappers" women to meet. of the 1920s. According to Norwood, The telephone operators were a re­ "seeing no inconsistency between the markably homogeneous group of work­ flapper's fun-loving, exhibitionistic (sic) ers. The company favoured single, Irish- nature and labor activism and militancy, American women, and discriminated the Telephone Operators' Department against married women, visible minori­ made every effort to draw on her energies ties and recent immigrants. The shared as it trained the trade union women." age, background and experience of this For a brief period, during the heady homogeneous group made organization days of the post World War I strike wave, significantly easier for phone workers. the Telephone Operators ' were successful Also, the sexual division of telephone in establishing locals in Canada and thirty work established almost from the in­ states in the V.S. But economic downturn, ception of the industry assured that the internal divisions, and a concerted anti­ male workers saw little threat to their jobs union campaign by the telephone compa­ from the female operators. Norwood con­ nies eventually broke the women's union cludes that male electrical workers were and, one should add, many of the male less hostile to the women organizing than IBEW telephone locals. their union brothers in the garment and Norwood is at his best when he is textile trade where the male workers discussing the operators in the rich social feared women as low wage competition. and labour culture of Massachusetts and Norwood shows how the telephone the North East of the United States. He companies' strategy of recruiting opera­ appears less interested in the West Coast, tors directly from High School was mixed in spite of a chapter devoted to the West in its effect. The companies training and This chapter, alas, deals exclusively with orientation for its new female work force Montana and San Francisco. No mention was designed to emulate the school sys­ is made of important telephone operator tem and maintain strict discipline and strikes and organizing in Washington and REVIEWS 325

British Columbia. The BC and Pacific Fones-Wolf offers an impressive list; in Northwest efforts are particularly import­ the second, he neatly combines a dedica­ ant as much of the West Coast organizing tion to his children with an insight about predates the Boston success. As well, un­ the present neglect of the field of religion like the Toronto operators' strike, which and labour. He hopes that "their genera­ Norwood does discuss in some detail, tion does better.'* In the meantime, his West Coast operators were successful in contribution is a case study of the interac­ winning union recognition and a contract tion of religion and the labour movement as early as 1902. in Philadelphia over a fifty-year period. The Eastern focus probably accounts He confirms that "Christianity was not for Norwood's glossing over as insignifi­ merely the possession of one social group, cant the split by the Western electricians but rather was a dynamic social force capa­ on the issue of industrial unionism. Yet, ble of complementing a wide spectrum of one can not help but ask if the relative political and class positions.'' (xix) success of operators in the West in ad­ An initial overview describes the vance of their East Coast sisters did not, local economy, varieties of work experi­ at least in part, have something to do with ence, and the complex and sometimes a more supportive industrial union culture contradictory working-class cultures rep­ in the West. Because Norwood purports resented by "rough defiance," "respect­ to be writing a history of a women's "in­ able deference," and a "labor-movement ternational union" (international by virtue sub-culture." Individual experiences are of a Canadian membership), his lack of deftly interwoven so that, for instance, familiarity with Canadian sources on tele­ information about Tobias Hall reminds us phone operators' history is rather glaring. that "the rough and respectable, the resid­ Overall, Norwood's study does an ex­ ual and emergent — all were evident in cellent job in combining social history one man, who certainly did not see these with labour history. By drawing the links tendencies as mutually exclusive." (36) between women's political groups, youth The effort to include information about culture and the labour movement, he has women's roles is commendable. provided us with an integrated view of Capitalists appear as backers of cler­ telephone workers lives. Too often when gymen and churches in dispensing both dealing with women in the work place, the benevolence and Christian redemption. focus has been on comparing and con­ Many employers moved beyond paternal­ trasting women's work to men's, and ig­ istic efforts in the workplace to exert in­ noring the wider women's community fluence in neighborhoods and homes with and culture. Sunday observance and child-saving cru­ sades. The social role of religion was, Elaine Bernard however, far more complex than this sort Harvard Trade Union Program of class domination suggests. The foundation for a discussion of Ken Fones-Wolf, Trade Union Gospel: working-class religious beliefs and agen­ Christianity and Labor in Industrial Phil­ das is laid with a description of sub-cul­ adelphia, 1865-1915 (Philadelphia: Tem­ tures and popular religions, primarily ple University Press 1989). from the point of view of English and American-bom Protestants, Irish Catho­ MANY OF US LIKE to turn first to an lics, and German free-thinkers. Fones- author's acknowledgements to see which Wolf then moves to the Knights of Labor, scholars rendered assistance and encour­ described as "part fraternal order, part agement, and whether an original way trade union and part radical sect." (65) Its was found to express thanks of a more rise was associated with moralistic ferv­ personal nature. In the first instance. Ken our and the setting aside of ethnic and 326 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

religious differences; its decline with the that religious beliefs preceded political return of factionalism. commitments, that the popular Christian­ The Social Gospel, as it developed in ity of organized labour interacted with the the late 19th century, had among its wor­ formal religion of the mainstream thy goals that of winning wage earners to churches (they were not simply parallel Christianity and ensuring labour peace. phenomena), that there were political re­ Labour activists were willing to cooperate sults of the interaction, and that Protes­ for the legitimation and respect it gave tantism was more important than Cathol­ their unions. However, not only did the icism. He concludes his study with a rec­ achievements fail to satisfy those workers ognition of the parameters within which excluded from craft unions, but many Christianity could influence the labour middle-class Christians continued to feel movement: on the one side offering com­ uncomfortable about any support for fort and support, and on the other standing union activity, especially where radical for order, continuity and stability. socialists were involved. Tensions could There are a few very small bones of arise even in such groups as the Young contention. A recurrent theme is that reli­ Men's and Young Women's Christian As­ gion was "contested terrain." One cannot sociations as they shifted their emphasis argue with the notion that Christianity from personal piety to broader social con­ was not the possession of any one social cerns and tried to include both social jus­ group, but perhaps more could have been tice and social control. said about power, authority, and control, Religious revivals played a role in an since institutional religion was never, to upswing of organized labour in 1904, but use a similar analogy, an "even playing by 1908 trade unions retreated to their field." Questions might also be raised by former defensive, conservative positions Fones-Wolf's capitalization of Social as a result of counterattacks launched by Gospel, compared with Canadian histo­ employers and their own unwillingess to rian Ramsay Cook's designation of "the organize blacks, minorities, and women. so-called social gospel." (The Regenera­ For a time the growth of radicalism and tors, 4) Finally, one wonders if more re­ surge of "new unionism" deeply divided cent studies of sects (than Troeltsch, the labour movement. Then, in the years Pope, and Demerath) might not have en­ just before World War I, a more direct hanced the argiunent for the sect-like alliance between trade unions and Social- character of the Knights of Labor. Gospel Christianity developed. Craft This is a clear and concise account of unions found a new moderate course in the intersection of religion and labour in the Labor Forward Movement, which bor­ one period and place. And while scholars rowed and blended elements from Protes­ will not find great depth of analysis in tantism and traditional craft culture and their own field, they will appreciate the proved to be an ideal mechanism for the lucid explanation of themes in the other. revitalization of craft unionism. Ironi­ It is a useful and welcome book. cally, it was the Billy Sunday revival cam­ paign, with its conservative attack on the Doris O'Dell Social Gospel, which contributed to the Wilfrid Laurier University return of nativism, anti-unionism, and labour movement factionalism. By 1913 the labour movement was once again out­ side the dominant religious culture. Fones-Wolf offers some insights about the complex role of Christianity in working-class organizations which others might want to test in different situations: REVIEWS 327

Steve Golin, The Fragile Bridge: Paterson Golin's most interesting contribution Silk Strike, 1913 (Philadelphia: Temple is to bring to life the "movement culture" University Press 1988). that developed around the silk workers, IWW organizers, and New York-based David J. Goldberg, A Tale ofThree Cities: radical intellectuals. The focus of his Labor Organitation and Protest in Pater­ analysis, and that culture, was the strike son, Passaic, and Lawrence. 1916-1921 pageant put on in Madison Square Garden (New Brunswick: Rutgers University in June 1913. This culture enabled both Press 1989). intellectuals and rank-and-file workers to see their worlds in new ways, ways that THESE TWO BOOKS provide rich evidence allowed them to imagine a world different of the success of American labour histo­ from the one they had been part of. It was rians in probing working-class culture. in this culture that the rupture between For two decades, the study of episodic mental and manual work articulated by upheavals has taken a backseat to scientific management could be healed. microcosmic treatments of communities For Golin, this — not the practical issue and industries over chunks of time. Lab­ of how much money the pageant raised— our historians focused their attention on was the central accomplishment of the the changing workplace, the recomposed pageant. He makes his case with rich de­ workforce, and the evolving ethnic com­ tails that bring the whole dramatic series munity. The results have been impressive. of events to life. We know a great deal about steel, auto, Yet, the pageant was as much the be­ machining, tire-making, textiles, coal ginning of the end of the strike as it was mining, shoe-making, and the like; about its climax. The achilles heel of the strike Pittsburgh, Chicago, Richmond, Lynn, were the branches of the silk industry Philadelphia, and other cities; about which had run away to small communities Poles, Italians, Irish, Germans, in Pennsylvania. There, the manufactur­ Bohemians and dozens more. ers were able to get the production needed But American labour history has been to fill their orders. While some of these punctuated by gripping mass upheavals. communities did join in the strike, they In interesting ways, these two books rep­ were never drawn into the movement cul­ resent attempts to return to the episodic ture which linked Paterson and New York upheaval and examine it in the context of City. Even for those most involved, as the this rich social history. Both authors have strike weakened, their new visions could done solid work, but the results are some­ not find institutional expressions. The in­ how unsatisfying. tellectuals returned to their intellectual Steve Golin opens with a careful anal­ pursuits, the workers to their work, and ysis of the organization of production in the organizers to their organizing. The the silk industry and the different work world was changed — but only for a fleet­ roles and cultures of dyers' helpers, ing moment. And as time could pass, that broad-silk weavers, and ribbon weavers. movement would recede further and fur­ His analysis is sensitive to the different ther into distant memory. dynamics of each trade, as well as to the Reading A Tale ofThree Cities after dynamics that brought them together in putting down The Fragile Bridge is like the great conflict of 1913. The explana­ receiving a visit from an old friend. The tion is balanced between long-term fac­ story of the Paterson workers, so well tors, such as technological change, and introduced by Golin, is picked up care­ more proximate factors, such as the incen­ fully by David Goldberg. His context is diary behavior of the local police chief. different, as they are analyzed along with Throughout, the rank-and-file silk work­ textile workers in two other communities, ers occupy center stage. Lawrence and Passaic; his time frame is 328 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

different, as he is most interested in the power, only to fall back soon afterwards upheavals of 1919; and his analytical into a similar pose as before. focus is different, geared to the ethnic As both The Fragile Bridge and A cultures of the workers. But there is a real Tale ofThree Cities show, such upheavals comfort level in reading these two books make for riveting historical writing and together that deserves mention. terrific reading. But for those of us drawn Goldberg's analysis revolves around to labour history because of our desire to two axes: ethnic cultures and the quest to understand the past in order to change the build new union organizations. He pro­ future, the end result is unfulfilling. We vides detailed treatment of the cultures of still have a long row to hoe. Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Irish, Franco-Belgian, and Italian im­ Peter Rachleff migrant workers. Each culture is analyzed Macalester College for its internal stance towards union orga­ nization and its role as a source of inter- Alan Draper, A Rope of Sand: The AFL- ethnic conflict or solidarity. In all three CIO Committee on Political Education, cities, Goldberg finds that ethnicity 1955-1967 (New York: Praeger 1989). played a major role in both the upheaval and its ultimate passing. THE AFL. INSISTED Sam Gompers "was at His work on union organization is once a rope of sand and yet the strongest equally interesting. While the IWW might human force — a voluntary association be best remembered, other organizations united by common need and held together played important roles, from the AFL's by mutual self-interest." Seventy years United Textile Workers to the One Big later, the rope of sand is more obvious Union and the Amalgamated Textile Work­ than the strength. Even Japan has stronger ers of America. Yet none of these organiza­ unions. The Democratic party, which union tions was able to keep and hold the loyalties votes helped make the dominant force in of rank-and-file textile workers. Despite the United States politics, cringes from contact impressive scale of the upheavals in 1919, with organized labour. US labour is a by 1921 they had left little more than some shadow of its former self largely because of fond memories behind. its own political impotence. When all is said and done, and the In what began life as a doctoral dis­ extensive work undertaken by professors sertation for Columbia, Alan Draper, a Golin and Goldberg is duly noted, our professor of government at St. Lawrence understanding of the dynamics of mass University, decided to look at what Amer­ upheaval and consequent retreat has not ican unions actually do in politics in con­ much moved beyond the treatment it re­ trast to a traditional focus on American ceived at the hands of Jeremy Brecher in "exceptionalism." For his data. Draper his popular study Strike: The True History has turned to the period between the 1955 of Mass Insurrections in American His­ merger of the AFL and CIO and the shat­ tory. Strike was criticized for being tering defeat of union-backed candidates "spontaneist" and for not exploring the in the mid-term backlash against Presi­ culture of American workers between and dent Johnson's "Great Society." betwixt the episodic conflicts it chroni­ For legitimate reasons. Draper fo­ cled. Ironically, although both Golin and cuses on COPE, the merger of the CIO's Goldberg have done excellent work in powerful Political Action Committee and probing culture, we find ourselves left the AFL's far feebler Labour League for with an overall picture that looks more Political Education (LLPE). Where better like Brecher's than it doesn't That is, at could Draper see that "strongest human certain points in time, American workers force" at work than in the over-arching have risen up and shaken the structures of organization that seeks to reconcile the REVIEWS 329 particularism of affiliâtes and regions. nantly white union membership. Moreover, as Draper reminds us, the Draper blames faint-hearted union AFL-CIO merger was greatly accelerated leaders as well as US labour ideology for by the need to counter die hostile political most of COPE's problems, forgetting that climate after 194S and particularly when leaders' jobs depend on a shrewd under­ Eisenhower appointees began to exercise standing of their rank-and-file. In the their influence on NLRB decisions. wake of the 1966 defeats, COPE commis­ While COPE shared in the teething sioned a survey of the political desires of trouble of the AFL-CIO merger, its real union members. Traditional concerns problems were systemic and persistent. such as the minimum wage and unem­ Instead of being free to mobilize union ployment insurance had been supplanted members for what Draper calls the "social by concerns about property values, high democratic" goals the AFL-CIO offic­ taxes and crime. The pollster, John Kraft ially sponsored, COPE got significant co­ argued that his study demonstrated that operation from affiliates and local unions "there are serious gaps in the identifica­ only when it mobilized labour votes tion of union members with what may be against threats to "institutional" goals their own interests — and that the com­ such as right-to-work laws and the munications problem is particularly se­ Landrum-Oriffin Act The people who vere among younger — people under counted in the union structure wanted polit­ thirty — members." Though it concealed ical action only when legislation threatened the results and denied the findings, the what Draper terms, a little scornfully, their AFL-CIO had advance notice that union­ "institutional security." Even men, many iste were hearing the Nixon and Reagan affiliates, particularly those from the old message. Only an academic could believe AFL, provided minimal funds and denied that political education could have turned COPE their membership lists. the tide. While the AFL-CIO lobbied Con­ Draper's account of US experience gress for social legislation, particularly in invites comparison with the largely un­ the Kennedy and Johnson years, COPE written story of Canadian labour's politi­ faced far more serious institutional resis­ cal activity in the same period. Despite tance in trying to deliver labour votes. such apparent contrasts to American "ex- Whatever the theoretical merits of better ceptionalism" as the CLC's commitment social security or the War on Poverty, to the New Democratic Party and the leaders of affiliates saw no benefits for prevalence of social democratic ideology their own members. Local union leaders among middle-rank Canadian union lead­ saw political debate as a threat to their ership, any of Draper's knowledgeable own careers. In the highly decentralized readers would recognize embarrassing labour structure which Draper attributes parallels. At the local and affiliate level to US-style market unionism, COPE within the CLC, as MarcZwelling's latest found very little of Gompers' "mutual collection of surveys suggests, commit­ self-interest." Affiliates preferred to ment to die NDP is almost as exceptional make their own political deals, local lead­ and controversial as backing COPE has ers preferred to avoid political divisions become in US labour organizations; the and the state federations and local labour NDP itself has had to wrestle with a power­ councils that might have carried the ful hostility to its union links, even among COPE campaign were hopelessly un­ its middle-class and agrarian supporters. derfunded and rarely commanded much In Canada, as Draper found in the affiliate loyalty. Meanwhile, COPE's ad­ United States, local and provincial central mirable support for civil rights organiza­ bodies are weakly financed and highly tions and its efforts at voter registration autonomous while most CLC affiliates, among minorities alienated a predomi­ with some admirable exceptions, limit 330 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL their political activity during election generated the Detroit violence was the campaigns for the sound democratic rea­ deplorable state of police-community re­ son that, on the whole, the membership is lations. Based on experience, black not very supportive. Moreover, unlike the Detroiters had good reason to view the United States, 42 per cent of Canadian police as a hostile force whose percep­ union members steer clear of the CLC, in tions and treatment of African-Americans some cases because of its "European- were shaped by racism. As late as May style" political involvement. Drapers' 1967 only about 5 per cent of the police book might encourage someone to write a in the city were black and little was done franker account of Canadian labour's po­ to instill individual officers with respect litical action than has yet appeared. It also for the dignity and constitutional rights of invites a sequel on the lamentable post- minority persons they encountered. It was 1967 political experience of the AFL- in keeping with the racist image of the CIO. police force that the triggering incident in the 1967 violence was a police raid on a Desmond Morton "blind pig," an after hours drinking estab­ University of Toronto lishment located in the city's Twelfth Street ghetto area. In response to the de­ Sidney Fine, Violence In The Model City: velopments on the streets the police The Cavanaugh Administration, Race Re­ lurched from a policy of some restraint to lations, and the Detroit Riot of 1967 (Ann one of indiscriminate terrorization di­ Arbor: University of Michigan Press rected at blacks. Once the policy of re­ 1989). straint was set aside white police were able to abandon whatever commitments IN THIS BOOK, Sidney Fine has provided a to police professionalism they had and to comprehensive, illuminating, and ex­ indulge in acts of extreme brutality haustively-researched account of the ra­ against African-Americans. Fine notes cial violence that exploded in Detroit that in the Detroit confrontation, as well during July 1967. The work examines the as those in Watts and Newark, the conflict origins of the violence, furnishes a de­ becomes transformed into a police riot tailed narrative of what took place, and against blacks. Those who were supposed considers at length the role in this situa­ to uphold the law now appeared as armed tion of local, state and federal govern­ and very violent lawbreakers. And if city ment. In the assembling and presentation police permitted themselves to become of the relevant evidence Violence In The instruments of violence, the arrival of Na­ Model City is unequalled by any of the tional Guard troops worsened the situa­ previous studies of 1960s urban racial tion. The Michigan Guard was essentially confrontation. The reader who desires to lily white and the troops sent to Detroit better understand the American society of lacked discipline. Once on the scene they the 1960s, who seeks to comprehend the behaved in "trigger happy" fashion. Army conditions of racism that governed even Undersecretary McGiffert observed that such a "model" city as Detroit will find the Michigan experience showed the this book of great value. In 1967 Detroit Guard could not conduct "civil distur­ the most extensive racial violence of the bance" operations without creating the period occurred and through the lens of impression that it was a discriminatory this episode there is much to be learned organization and in this instance the im­ about the factors that brought thousands pression was rooted in solid fact of African-Americans in numerous Amer­ As the disorder in Detroit continued ican cities to react violently against op­ President Johnson finally called into ac­ pressive conditions. tion regular United States Army person­ At the core of explosive material that nel and these integrated units were in REVIEWS 331 many instances welcomed by black had a political dimension. But deprivation Detroiters. Johnson had delayed sending of access to political power was one of the the troops, influenced by such factors as conditions that shaped the lives of Detroit Governor Romney's vacillation and blacks, was part of the configuration of Johnson's interest in making things diffi­ circumstances that fueled the anger of cult for the governor. Pine suggests that black people and had there not been this had the federal troops appeared on the dimension to the situation it is less likely city's streets earlier at least some of the mat blacks would have felt impelled to deaths and destruction could have been take to the streets. The events of 1967 averted. certainly were a major factor in securing Fine provides a keenly etched portrait the future changes in which black of the manner in which most of the Detroit Detroiters came to play a much more judges, before whom were brought per­ prominent role in the police force and city sons allegedly involved in rioting, aban­ government generally. doned judicial standards. Bail was set in Fine notes mat considerations relat­ many cases with little regard for constitu­ ing to the war in Vietnam were among the tional guarantees. With the exception of a factors leading Lyndon Johnson to delay few judges, such as George Crockett, sending the paratroopers to Detroit. The those sitting on the bench saw themselves war was a critically important component as adjuncts to the police, not as impartial of the context in which the Detroit vio­ officials providing a check on police ac­ lence and other urban confrontations of tivities. The attitudes exhibited by judges the period took place. It would have been signalled the police they need not be useful to examine die extent to which overly concerned about the rights of peo­ resentment against the illegitimate use of ple in the riot areas. Blacks were given violence by governmental authority in further reason for the belief that laws in Asia and the distortion of national priori­ the city of Detroit were not enforced ties resulting from the war intensified a equally. sense of alienation from society's official The book furnishes a chilling portrait institutions. of the Algiers Motel incident in which This book is a warning against smug three young blacks were shot to death, self-satisfaction with regard to what prog­ and other blacks were beaten and terror­ ress has been made in overcoming racism. ized by law enforcement officers. Fine When legitimate human aspirations are underscores the particular significance of stifled and denied, when government re­ the horror at Algiers as a symbol of the treats from commitments made to uphold official lawlessness taking place in the equality, the potential for explosive con­ course of the conflict. Constitutional frontation exists. Detroit may still be the rights were wantonly abused and even most racially polarized city in the nation subsequent to the incident itself no one and destruction and violence continue, al­ was convicted for what took place in the though appearing in slow motion rather motel on July 26. At the Algiers motel than in one spasm. No American city has neither local police, state troopers, yet responded adequately to the challenge Guardsmen or Army paratroopers acted to of racism and this book shows us the terri­ uphold the law. fying consequences that can result from this Concerning the meaning of the 1967 failure. Violence In The City is an important Detroit violence Fine is of the opinion contribution to the scholarly literature deal­ that the riot was a form of protest de­ ing with urban racial violence. signed to call attention to the condition of blacks, to extract concessions from the Herbert Shapiro city's authority structure but at the same University of Cincinnati time rejects the view that the upheaval 332 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Harvey J. Kaye and Keith McClelland, of the working class and his insistence eds., EJP. Thompson: Critical Perspec­ that the masses are active in the forging tives (Philadelphia: Temple University of their own history. Press 1990). Finally, Thompson's underlying hu­ manist vision receives praise. Behind the E.P. THOMPSON'S CAREER defies pigeon­ poignancy of his historical writings and holing. Peace activist, socialist polemi­ the bravado of his more explicitly politi­ cist, literary critic and historian — all cal prose is an abiding moral spirit. intertwine in a rich and influential life. Whether agitating for the Campaign for Kaye and McClelland, respecting Nuclear Disarmament, or recounting the Thompson's manifold achievements, civilized brutality of the Black Acts, there have assembled a critical appreciation is always a sense in which Thompson is which addresses his many contributions. piquing our conscience, urging a more In the spirit of Thompson the critic, the humane and egalitarian vision for the ten essays contained in this volume build world. Admirably, Kate Soper and Martin on contributions and probe inadequacies, Shaw centre their discussions on this while avoiding platitudes. facet of his work. The collection analyzes Thompson's While Thompson's achievements are varied attempts to forge a new path for a lauded, the difficulties raised by his work democratic socialism. Four analytical and are also addressed. The main themes of theoretical areas — all hallmarks of critique establish little new ground, but Thompson's work — receive special at­ they are presented with greater perspec­ tention from each of the contributors. tive on Thompson's work and without First, Thompson's reconceptualization of some of the high-minded polemicism of culture is widely lauded. Several authors, past criticism. Thompson is not a self-pro­ including Geoffrey Eley, Renato Resaldo claimed "theorist" (an epithet he at times and Ellen Meiksins Wood, note that has viewed as pejorative), yet his recast­ Thompson's approach to culture as a dy­ ing of Marxist historiography has led him namic arena of popular consent and resis­ to trod frequently on such ground. In his tance has widened the analysis of mass discussions of the dialectical relationship politics and collective action. between agency and structure, the role of Thompson's insistence that the cultural is experience, or the process of class, he imbricated in the political and economic sometimes eludes exactitude. Often is applauded for vivifying older, more enough the richness of his work brings his mechanistic Marxist analyses of popular general meaning to fore, though the appli­ culture. cability of his ideas to other cases must be Second, Thompson is credited for em­ teased out because of this imprecision. phasizing class as a fundamentally rela­ Most contributors take Thompson to task tional process. His insistence that we for this theoretical ambiguity. By focus upon struggle as the heart of class illuminating the fuzzy edges of his key analysis, and his rejection of the base/su­ concepts they expose their limits and perstructure metaphor, are highlighted by properly move Thompson and his sympa­ Robert Gray, Harvey Kaye and others as thizers toward greater clarity. major contributions. Third, and accompa­ On the historiographies side, Cather­ nying Thompson's vision of class, is his ine Hall, Eley, Gray and Kaye elaborate emphasis on agency and consciousness. on newer strands of critique. Recent work By reclaiming the voice and actions of the predicated on Thompson's The Making "poor stockinger" from the exile of irrel­ has explored in greater detail the varie­ evancy, Thompson set a new course for gated nature of the working-class culture social history. There is ubiquitous praise that is its subject, revealing it to be less for his emphasis on the collective agency monolithic than he depicted. Drawing on REVIEWS 333 this new wealth of research Thompson is expose on Thompson's work, surpassing critiqued for presenting a picture of the most past critiques. working class at once too focused on the Those who are eager to glean new struggles of artisans and steeped in an- angles on historiographies debates re­ drocentricism. The contributors try to dis­ volving around Thompson's work, how­ till a more precise understanding of the ever, will be disappointed. The contribu­ commonalities and fissures in the work­ tors generally avoid resuscitating old con­ ing class of this period. troversies as well as textual exegesis. This Several contributors pursue more sin­ is largely to their credit, since this empha­ gular critical paths. Through an analytic sis allows them to present fresh view­ reading of the classic "Preface'* to The points and avoid tiresome rehashes. Making, William Sewell Jr. argues that While informed and stimulating the Thompson relies on a standard base/su­ volume does have its weaknesses, not the perstructure model of society and is too least of which is the time it has been in dismissive of structural analyses of class. "the making." Kaye and McClelland ac­ From an ethnographer's perspective, knowledge delays in publication, and this Resaldo argues that Thompson tends to is evident by the absence of some topics conflate his melodramatic narratives with in the volumes. Recent post-structuralist his subjects' own understandings of their critiques of Thompson receive at best lives. On the political side, Martin Shaw, passing mention, and some of the newer in a critique of Thompson's concept of work from nie past decade, which adds "exterminism," suggests that despite its new dimensions to Thompson's analyses, virtues the concept falls short of recogniz­ are largely absent from discussion. Eley ing warfare as a total social system with and Kaye do fill some of the gap in their its own effects upon society. footnotes, but they cannot entirely close Generally, the contributors are most it. The essays on Thompson's politics divergent in their additions and amend­ seem dated by the events of the last couple ments. Eley, for example, suggests that of years. With the exception of an apolo­ Thompson's cultural analysis of politics getic footnote by Shaw, readers will be can be enhanced by incorporating the left to ponder how Thompson's analyses concept of the public sphere (developed speak to the new course of events. by Habermas and given a proletarian In addition, some readers may find identity by Kluge and Negt). Alterna­ this volume too focused on Thompson's tively, Sewell seeks to enrich and extend writing and the particular agenda that it Thompson's class analysis with Gidden's charts. With the notable exception of structuration theory. He also urges a more Whigs and Hunters, much of Thompson's explicit analysis of the transformation of historical work dwells in the thick of ple­ working-class discourse as a marker of beian and working-class life. Yet his per­ class struggle. Others, including Hall, spective is explicitly relational, and no Gray, and Kaye, explore how social di­ doubt many have paused to consider how mensions such as gender and ethnicity his approach could be used to reconstruct can be more systematically incorporated the histories of the middle and upper into Thompson's framework. classes, and the interclass dynamics that Readers versed in Thompson's work are at the core of his approach. Little is likely will agree with the praise, generally said in this volume on such extensions. concur with the criticisms, and eclecti- Moreover, Thompson's work is only cally digest the additions and amend­ placed tangentially within the larger ments. They doubtlessly will find some of worlds of historiography and politics. His the critiques and revisions to be idiosyn­ impact on the British Left over the past cratic. Nonetheless, the volume as a four decades, the reformation his writing whole is an informed and encompassing has wrought in non-Marxist schools of 334 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL historiography, and his relationship to the But the tide has turned. First there was "new social movements" largely enter on Moore's book, then Janet Oppenheim's the margins of discussion (with the pieces superb. The Other World: Spiritualism by Gray and Kaye being notable excep­ arid Psychic Research in England 1850- tions). These are unfortunate omissions, 1914, combining to reveal a serious and because Thompson's influence on the important subject. Instead of debunking, non-Marxist world is in some senses his these scholars recognized that explaining most remarkable achievement. the wide following of spiritualism even Despite these shortcomings the vol­ among respectable scientists and other in­ ume is well worth reading. Thompson afi­ tellectuals, could reveal important aspects cionados will relish the informed writing of late Victorian life. To simplify, what and sympathetic criticism. Initiates to his these scholars argued was that the thin, work will find it a useful reference to his rational, liberal Christianity, and its so­ ideas. Overall, it is the single best source cial gospel offshoot, that remained after to the remarkable intellectual path which the assaults of Darwinism and the Higher Edward Palmer Thompson — historian, Criricism simply failed to fill the void activist, and humanist critic — has gener­ once occupied by orthodox Christian ously laid for us. teachings, especially about death and im­ mortality. For those unwilling to surren­ Marc Steinberg der to the materialism of scientific natu­ University of Michigan ralism, spiritualism and other occult be­ liefs provided an alternative, one that Alex Owen, The Darkened Room. seemed to have both scientific and Bibli­ Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late cal support These new accounts of spirit­ Victorian England (London: Virago Press ualist belief and practice noted the con­ 1989). nection with the early history of psycho­ analysis, remarked upon the fanatical IN RECENT YEARS, perhaps beginning with opposition of both orthodox medicine and Lawrence R. Moore's In Search of White establishment religion to the claims of Crows (1977), something of a revolution spiritualism, and observed the prominent has taken place in the study and assess­ part played by women, especially as me­ ment of spiritualism and other "occult" diums, in the new religion. (Both William religious and healing movements in the James and his younger brother Henry, had late 19th century. Up to that time the already noted most of these things, Wil­ verdict of Harry Houdini, the prince of liam sympathetically, in an essay read and conjurers, that spiritualism was a fraudu­ underlined by W.L.M. King, and Henry in lent hoax played on the naive and vulner­ his wonderful novel, The Bostonians). able was almost universally accepted — Alex Owen, in her brilliant, stimulat­ though the creator of Sherlock Holmes ing and occasionally infuriating book, always demurred. As recently as 1983 The Darkened Room, picks up and devel­ Ruth Brandon, in The Spiritualist: The ops fully the theme of women's promi­ Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth nence in spiritualism touched upon in ear­ and Twentieth Century, went to great lier works. And with Owen the revolution lengths to expose again these wild and wiley in attitudes has come full circle. In her goings-on. And in Canada, of course, jour­ detailed portrayal of the role of spiritual­ nalists and undergraduate teachers knew ism in the liberation of women Owen of­ that a few references to W.LM. King's little fers an account of spiritualism and allied tapping table could do more damage to our activities that verges on the apologetic. longest reigning spiritualist than hours of The argument of the book is advanced analysis of the King-Byng crisis or the in several different ways, sometimes in Beauharnois scandal. sparkling prose, sometimes in the termi- REVIEWS 335

nology that parades as modem literary relations were also subverted — based on theory — what David Lodge calls "semi- the single case of a maid who moved into, otic materialism" — spiced with a dash of even manipulated, a spiritualist family Freud seasoned by Lacan. In its straight­ circle, seems much more tenuous. So, too, forward form the argument goes like this: her discussion of the conflict between "... it is no accident that spiritualism, a spiritualists and doctors throws valuable movement which privileged women and light on both gender relations and profes­ took them seriously, attracted so many sionalism. Had she considered S.E.D. female believers during a period of gen­ Shortt's fine article on "Physicians and der disjunction between aspiration and Psychics" (Journal of the History of Med­ reality. Spiritualist culture held possibili­ icine and Allied Science, July 1984), she ties for attention, opportunity and status might have stressed professionization denied elsewhere. In certain circum­ more, feminism less and, perhaps, been a stances it could also provide a means of little more skeptical of the healing claims circumventing rigid nineteenth century of spiritualists. class and gender norms. More im­ Indeed, the main weakness of The portantly, it did so without mounting a Darkened Room drives from its essential direct attack on the status quo. Spiritual­ strength — the concentration on women. ism had the potential, not always con­ Though the role of women in spiritualism sciously realized, for subversion." (4) should be emphasized and analyzed, spir­ After a heavy opening chapter on itualism was not a women's movement. It "Power and Gender," Owen presents a was, primarily, a religious movement, a series of carefully researched studies of peculiar and unorthodox one which, for public and private spiritualist activities, that very reason, encouraged women to two chapters discussing healing and the participate fully and play leadership conflict between spiritualists and the roles. Though Owen sometimes hints at medical profession, especially over the the movement's wider context she rarely matter of defining insanity, a lengthy case explores it, preferring to get on with her study of Louisa Lowe, a spiritualist chosen "discourse." Perhaps she con­ whose husband had her locked up for in­ cluded that Janet Oppenheim had said all sanity, and finally an interpretive chapter that was necessary about the general in­ and epilogue. Through each of these tellectual framework of spiritualism, and chapters runs a perceptive discussion of to an extent she was right. Yet reading women and spiritualism and a sometimes about the extraordinary life of Louisa muted, sometimes explicit, concern with Lowe one wishes that the religious evolu­ contemporary feminist outlooks and the­ tion she passed through had been given ories — what Ms. Owen calls "dis­ more attention than the few snippets on course," a word that comes second only pages 171 and 172. Like Annie Besant, to "problematic" in her vocabulary of cur­ Lowe experienced intellectual problems rently fashionable jargon. with orthodox Christianity, problems that Fortunately, Owen usually keeps her each of their husbands may have symbol­ theoretical passion under control and ized, but certainly did not create. Our sticks to presenting a new and persuasive understanding of both the "woman ques­ analysis of her subject. The chapters on tion" and the "religious question" would "private spiritualism" — seances con­ have been further deepened if Owen had fined to the family circle — and the ac­ looked at the two together. counts of the Theobold family and Louisa Still, even if Ms. Owen sometimes Howe take readers to the very heart of seems bent upon raising spiritualists from both the disintegration of late Victorian the depths of fraudulence to heights of religious belief and the changing aspira­ feminist martyrdom, her book is never­ tions of women. Her contention that class theless an absorbing one that adds a new 336 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL dimension to our understanding of nent example of the Labour leadership Victorian women, religion and society. staving off revolution by a shift to the left And that is a real achievement, Whenever extra-parliamentary activity posed a threat — the key periods of 'class Ramsay Cook warfare' are identified as 1910-14,1919- York University 26, 1968-74 and 1976-87 — the leader­ ship, with the help of activists and the Tony Cliff and Donny Gluckstein, The trade union bureaucracy, ensured that Labour Party A Marxist History (London: 'electoralism' was given a fresh lease of Bookmarks 1988). life. According to this analysis, the de­ bates between the left and the moderates THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK is self-con­ over policy and Labour's constitution sciously doctrinal and didactic. The au­ were never fundamental. Por example, the thors identify themselves as members of ILP's supposedly radical alternative strat­ the Socialist Workers Party in Britain. egy for 'Socialism in Our Time' was They are assisted by the Bookmarks Pub­ flawed by a failure to recognize that "the lishing Cooperative, a "socialist venture only socialist solution to crisis was to to further the struggle for socialism." smash the system based on capital accu­ Their trek through the past is designed to mulation." (156) serve larger objectives: "The struggle for For Tony Cliff and Donny Gluckst­ socialism can be fought and won only by ein, the differences between MacDonald, the working class. This will only happen Attlee, Gaitskell, Wilson and Kinnock on if guided by a revolutionary party, an al­ the one hand, and Hardie, Maxton, ternative to Labour's reformism. Hope­ Cripps, Bevan and Benn on the other, are fully this book can help those who want more apparent than real. Indeed the au­ to build such a party." (4) The British thors take particular pleasure in showing Labour Party is a 'capitalist workers' how inconsistent, misguided and woolly- party' whose parliamentary 'reformism', minded were attempts by the Labour left preference for 'nation' over 'class', and to make the party into a vehicle for the alliance with the trade union bureaucracy, achievement of socialism. Praise is re­ make it a bulwark against revolution and served for those who maintained close hence the enemy of socialism. links with the workers' struggle and who What follows is a fairly standard nar­ were prepared to challenge reformism and rative of Labour's development, aug­ labourism: notably, the British Commu­ mented by illustrative quotations and in­ nist Party, before it was 'distorted by structional commentary. Lenin and Stalin' (140); the leaders of Poplarism; Trotsky are repeatedly drummed into ser­ shop-stewards (though they too can be vice, and key words and phrases are susceptible to 'do-it-yourself reformism') placed in italics, just in case the reader and, of course, the Socialist Workers Party. may have failed to grasp the 'correct' This book does not represent a signif­ interpretation. The Labour Party was re­ icant addition to Labour Party history in formist even during its origins. Yet this the conventional sense. It relies largely on did not mean it was just another capitalist secondary sources, and contains little new party. The reformist view, as 'false information. The organization is often consciousness', was 'wrong' but 'sin­ chaotic, and the Row is repeatedly broken cerely held'. (31) Labour could never de­ by undigested material in long explana­ liver on its promise for change, yet its tory notes. There is not much interest in message and ethos appealed to working- exploring the broader political context in class aspirations just as surely as it con­ which Labour operated. Thus the discus­ tained them. The 'conversion' to social­ sion of the critical period during and just ism in 1918 was simply the most promi­ after World War I takes virtually no ac- REVIEWS 337

count of Liberal Party turmoil, electoral obstacle as ever. Neither the industrial reform, reconstruction planning, or the struggles of the late 60s and 70s, nor the policies of the postwar Lloyd George Co­ Bennite challenge a decade later suc­ alition government The chapter on the ceeded in undermining 'labourism' and 1924 Labour government never mentions its hold over the bulk of the working class. its minority position. The role of the TUC The swing to the left has been followed General Council in the 1930s and of par­ by the New Realism of the Kinnock era, ticipation in the Churchill Coalition in the and with the Bennites, Militant and all 1940s are similarly ignored. Nor will the other challengers effectively disposed of reader learn very much about the eco­ Cliff and Gluckstein are not nearly so nomic and international pressures faced ready to write off Labour as many of then- by Attlee and Wilson. None of this should capitalist opponents. Demographic be surprising, since Cliff and Gluckstein changes and Thatcherism notwithstand­ are primarily concerned with showing ing, Labour's ability to adapt to the how detached Labour was from what re­ changing needs of capitalism, while re­ ally mattered—the struggle on the work­ taining the workers' loyalty, cannot be shop floor. Yet even within its own terms, denied: The death of social reform, elec­ the analysis is deficient No evidence is toral defeat, and the destruction of labour provided to support the claim that revolu­ activists has in every case strengthened tionary opportunities were there for the the hold of the party over the movement'' taking. While strike statistics are cited demonstrating that "Labour can survive frequently and reference is made to the as reformism without reforms.'' (390) periodic upsurge of the class struggle, This would seem to be the main lesson of there is no detailed examination of what Labour Party history. On the last page, the was actually at issue. We are told that authors try to rally the troops with a long mass support for Labour "arises from the quotation by Trotsky on the virtues of the nature of working-class consciousness in united front approach. Reformists must Britain." (2) But throughout the book the somehow be weaned away from 'the Lab­ relationship between the two remains our party road'. On the evidence provided very fuzzy. The issue of democracy is by this book, it will be heavy going. simply avoided. Nor is there any real at­ tempt to explain why the appeal of Martin Petter 'nation' and the tendency to isolate polit­ McGill University ical from economic issues was so deep- seated. The authors criticize Ralph John Kelly, Trade Unions and Socialist Miliband and Geoffrey Foote for ignoring Politics (London: Verso 1988). the role of 'the actual class struggle' (90) in their analysis, yet the treatment of the IT HAS BEEN A COMMONPLACE over the last question by Cliff and Gluckstein amounts decade for the politics of 'class' to be largely to a series of assertions. questioned by intellectuals. Quite diverse This is not to suggest that the book is theoretical tendencies have argued that without value or interest. The authors pro­ the concept of class, and its associated vide a number of sharp observations to organizations of parties and unions, has leaven the polemic, as when they note that lost its ability to explain the current pat­ "Kinnock had the ideal left credentials tern of politics in the advanced capitalist necessary to lead the Labour party to the countries. Moreover, on the Left it fre­ right" (368) Perhaps most useful of all is quently is contended that workers have what the book reveals about the outlook ceded their capacity to transform social of the revolutionary left in late 1980s. For relations to a plurality of social agents all its recent trials and setbacks, the Lab­ organized in resistance to the oppression our Party still presents as formidable an of women, environmental degradation, 338 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

and others. It is suggested by this politics in workplace politics. Moreover, while of diversity that trade unions, as an organ­ new forms of occupational fragmentation izational expression of class identities, of workers are important, mere is no reason are a historical legacy of an earlier period to suggest that it is a more serious trend than when political identities were more ho­ in the past Unions continue to make an mogeneous and less fragmented. Trade important contribution to political life. unions represent the old terrain of politics To make his case, Kelly takes a broad when collective struggles around wages perspective, of interest to observers of and work promoted egalitarian relations. trade union politics everywhere. Four In the new times, unions have become a chapters perceptively survey the ambigu­ sectional obstacle to developing a pro­ ity in which the classic Marxist texts — gressive political agenda. from Marx and Engels to Luxemburg and This 'new revisionism' position has Gramsci — discuss the role of trade not been without stiff opposition. Indeed, unions in forging working class con­ while pluralism has again become fash­ sciousness. In a series of empirical chap­ ionable, it can be argued, paradoxically, ters, Kelly takes aim at a range of conten­ that 'class' has had increased salience in tious issues: trade union leaders cannot be explaining the major social trends that viewed as simply conservative bureau­ have dominated the 1980s: rising absolute crats; unions remain a crucial representa­ poverty, unprecedented levels of open un­ tion of working class interests; the sec­ employment, skill and income polariza­ tionalism between unions is overstated; tion, sharp attacks on trade union free­ industrial democracy is at a dead-end; doms, and widespread fears about the fu­ wage militancy is still important; and ture of work as new technologies overturn strikes remain a vital mechanism for the employment security. At least in these politicization of workers. Here resides the senses, the politics of class still 'matter*. strength of Kelly's book. By a wealth of and trade unions have not an insignificant theoretical and empirical material, Kelly role to play. vigorously defends the crucial link be­ This is the political context in which tween trade unions and socialist politics. John Kelly's book. Trade Unions and So­ We cannot yet bid adieu to unions as cialist Politics, can be appreciated best. pivotal social agents: conflicts over the His thesis is traditional, but not without distribution of output and control of the controversy: unions are not in a state of labour process are as much as ever social terminal decline and, moreover, a bout of struggles of the present. No political ad­ economic militancy leading to a mass vance is possible, Kelly concludes, that strike wave remains the surest way to does not concede a major role to the trade raise the political consciousness of work­ union movement In these times, that is an ers, overturn neoconservatism and put argument still worth hearing. trade unions back on the offensive. In Despite these salutary observations, arguing this position, Kelly's attention is three glaring shortcomings arise out of focussed on the British situation, where Kelly's analysis — all linked to the same the attack on trade unions by the New failure to take the contemporary dilem­ Right has been especially wicked, and the mas of socialist politics seriously enough. Left most divided on the role of trade First Kelly underestimates the changes to unions in building an opposition. Kelly industrial relations and work that the observes that unions in Britain (and else­ 1980s have wrought, and not just in Brit­ where), despite major setbacks such as ain. The New Right has massively rolled the 1984 Miners' strike, have weathered back the various tripartite bodies of the the neo-conservative storm quite well. postwar 'bargain' between management Union organization levels have not col­ and labour. Legal restrictions on collec­ lapsed, and unions remain a major factor tive action in terms of both strikes and REVIEWS 339 representation have been a feature of the incorporate the needs of working class decade. Notably in Britain, a series of women for equal pay, reproductive rights comprehensive industrial relations acts and day-care is doomed. In this sense, the introduced by Thatcher have strength­ level of 'class consciousness' means ened individual rights to challenge unions something quite different than the number but weakened collective rights of workers of workers voting Labour or buying so­ against corporations. Moreover, the new cialist newspapers. It means workers 'flexible automation' strategies of man­ moving from a purely corporate con­ agement are permanently altering the lab­ sciousness of immediate work demands to our process. The multi-tasking, multi- the type of cultural and political practices skillmg of core workers is coupled with capable of pushing ahead a radical, dem­ efforts to mould company identities ocratic agenda that actively transforms within new forms of enterprise unionism. the visions of workers themselves. The It is quite clear that 'stay-the-course' outlines of mis new political field are clean wage and task bargaining is incapable of new forms of democratic administration at responding to this new situation. the level of me state, popular planning at the These pressures pose starkly Kelly's industry level, and extension of workers' neglect of issues of internal union democ­ control over the labour process. racy. His case is limited to defending the This brings us to our final criticism. role of unions in representing working Having discounted the accumulation of class interests; how this representation 'power resources' by workers as being occurs is ignored. Yet, the new challenges specific to the 'Swedish road to facing unions and workers puts in doubt socialism', Kelly tactically endorses a whether either the responsible trade Luxemburgist mass strike wave to break unionism of the postwar period, where the present political impasse and again union leaderships simply bargained and place socialist politics on the agenda. policed collective agreements, or even a This is itself a remarkably optimistic sce­ renewed wage militancy, is adequate. In­ nario. But more importantly, it is wildly deed, opposition to enterprise unionism in error on the tasks involved in recon­ will depend upon unions actively trans­ structing the socialist project The mobi­ forming their relationship to their mem­ lization of workers will be a necessary but bers. This means not simply better ser­ not sufficient condition for transforming vices to recruit members, but active pro­ social relations. The need for a motion of rank and file direction over 'consciousness' in workers which incor­ union affairs. Unions must become again porates ecological, feminist, and other de­ centres for working class life at work and mands will obviously be much wider than in the community. In other words, strike can be delivered by either a strike wave action may mean little for progressive or trade unions. Strikes, while no doubt politics if it is not sustained by a 'union an essential right for workers, only raise culture' which expands worker capacities indirectly the need to radically extend to collectively shape their own futures. popular forms of democracy. These are It is this failure to fully address the important limitations on what strikes can 'culture' which forms the complexity of accomplish, and no political strategy working class interests seriously enough which moves to a frontal assault, as mass which leads Kelly to overlook several strike waves do, is up to the demands of crucial issues to building a new social rebuilding the socialist movement in ei­ unionism. For example, the role of the ther Britain or across the advanced capi­ social movements, particularly of femi­ talist bloc. nism, in reshaping trade union politics is These are, indeed, serious flaws in distressingly passed over. Yet surely any Kelly's analysis. They are not difficulties trade union movement which does not unique to this text, however. They reflect 340 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL the larger impasse of trade union strategic Jacques Rancière, The Nights of Labor: thinking: how to address both the shifting The Workers' Dream in Nineteenth-Cen­ economic terrain and the immediate pres­ tury France (Philadelphia: Temple Uni­ sures on work, and the increasing com­ versity Press 1989). plexity of political identities forming so­ cial agents. Despite the rich texture of THIS IS A BOOK that is conceived as a recent socialist theory and analysis., the labyrinth. Those venturing into it are as­ Left has yet to find a bridge between the sured that "no answers will be provided." insurrectionary movement of 1968, when (xii) It is, for Rancière, the questions that workers' self management seemed possi­ count: "My little story of odd proletarian ble, and the starkness of the 'new realism' nights would like to question precisely of the current political conjuncture, when this jealous concern to preserve popular, even limited reforms seem difficult to plebeian, or proletarian purity .... What achieve. Kelly's intervention into this de­ new forms of misreading will affect this bate is to re-assert the necessary collec­ contradiction when the discourse of la­ tive power of the workers' movement — borers in love with the night of intellectu­ its trade unions and socialist parties — to als encounters the discourse of advancing the socialist project. More sim­ intellectuals in love with the toilsome and ply, Kelly serves to underline the contin­ glorious days of the laboring people?" ued importance of trade unions, and par­ (x-xi) Of course there are answers, and ticularly the associational rights of work­ each question asked has a relationship, ers, for the democratizing of work. however tenuous, to sets of answers, Collective bargaining institutions remain whatever the level of their conscious for­ a critical anchor for democratic politics. mulation. I happen to disagree with This is not to say that Kelly ade­ Rancière's answers; that those answers quately addresses the means by which a are "hidden" is but part of why I stand new collective project will be pieced to­ opposed to them. But in spite of this, gether. And pinning hopes to a mass Rancière's book is an important state­ strike wave as the means to break the ment, an imaginative and creative attempt present political impasse seems particu­ to defy convention and challenge the rou- larly inappropriate for developing the tinization of working-class history. kind of creative capacities and collective Donald Reid's introduction to this vision necessary for a radical democrati­ English translation of Rancière's La nuit zation of the state and production. Such a des prolétaires (1981) provides a useful project will entail a much deeper cultural overview of Rancière's political and in­ and educational process than a spontane­ tellectual development It quite correctly ous strike movement can deliver. But this situates this text within a poststructuralist is all to say that this is a serious book moment attentive to the contradictions which re-poses the difficult questions of that arise out of conceptualizations meant the links between class consciousness, to capture a historical "reality" that is trade unions, and socialist politics. For always more varied and questioning than this reason alone it should be read widely. "Knowledge" presupposed. For Rancière, attempts to construct workers' lives out of Gregory Albo their conformity to the necessities of Carleton University wage labour always fail precisely because so much of working-class experience ac­ tually turns on rejection of and a break from such imposed constraints. In this questioning of conventional interpreta­ tion Rancière turns against any notion of a singular working-class solidarity, mis- REVIEWS 341

sion, or essence at the same time as he of science, or a once-solitary utterance questions, if not pillories, the categories, that has become the flesh and blood of a methods, and purposes of "analysis" that socialist movement dovetailing with the rest on such patently false assumptions. law governing the universal evolution of The result is a book that leaves the beings?" (419) traditional focus of labour history very It is not possible to read passages such much behind. Strikes, unionization, polit­ as these and fail to appreciate how much ical mobilization, workplace relations — self-indulgence there is in Rancière's ac­ these are shunted aside in the quest to count; perhaps even how much self-indul­ locate and decipher workers' dreams. So, gence there was in the worker intellectu­ too, are the piles of books and scholarly als he has exposed to our view in ways articles that touch directly on the mate­ that highlight only their nights of under­ rial, political, and socio-cultural context standable egotism, a problem that, as in which these visions and hopes took Rancière shows, was of particular con­ challenging aim at the blinding, mislead­ cern to Cabet and the Icarians. At every ing obviousness of proletarian days at the moment — interpretive and empirical — toil all, apparently, longed to escape. this text gravitates inward on this ego­ Rancière cites, virtually without excep­ tism, isolating it in refusals and dismiss­ tion, only writers' words. And he allows als of other questions, other relations. So them to speak in voices remarkably dif­ many inquiries are "simply pointless." ferent than those we are accustomed to (2S7) The end result is categorical denial: hear from the working-class quarter usu­ "As we range from those waiting only for ally depicted in studies of the artisanal retirement to this proletarian who yearns origins of the French labour movement only for the infinite, with those dreaming Replacing declarative calls to the barri­ of the march of peoples somewhere in cades are lines of verse etched in meta­ between, we are forced to see one and the phors of ambiguity and possibility: same thing: the worker of the new world is nowhere to be found." (214) And that Day sinks, soon a miity night is an answer, however open-ended. will cover with regret» the dream I dig in the foreit «gain, with an enchanted gaze The problem lies in how Rancière has I see liberty advancing as I leave. constructed it. His "histories" of the She has turned back and her adieu is an joiner/floor-layer Gabriel Gauny, Saint- indication Simonian tailors and typographers, and of the mistakes I must abandon. the Christian Socialist/Icarian co-opera­ I will find her again, her breastplate larger tive and communitarian experiments of on a fine day gilded with the exertion of the post-1848 years are so resolutely one­ work.(420) sided in their production as discourses, so ironically built out of blunt oppositions Rancière takes such ambiguity and that dichotomize day and night/toil and possibility as his own conceptual founda­ life, that they cannot but fail to produce tion. Chapters are characteristically answers of like-minded opposition. opened with paradoxes dressed in opaque Workers are persons adrift in the seas of skepticism: "One divides into two. But individuality; collectivity dies on the how are we to understand this division of cross all bear, that of egotism. day and night, this split affecting the image of the robust workers?" (24) ... This is one part of one part of the The difficulty is not the encamping. It is history of the working class. The value of knowing where one camps and where the Rancière's book is that it tells us this and Promised Land is. Because there is and alerts us to what we have too easily there isn't a road." (349)... "Evening of avoided, dismissed, or ignored because of lost battles, dawn of the new age? Fanta­ lack of sources (which are not as accessi­ sies that have vanquished in the sunlight ble or as abundant in many 'national' con- 342 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

texts as they are in France) and sensitivi­ to movements of semi-skilled industrial ties. The problem with this treatment is workers. Hanagan addresses a different that its insights have been reified and har­ aspect of class formation in these same dened into an interpretive closure that, in towns in Nascent Proletarians: the emer­ its one-sided reading of ambiguity and gence of a permanent, year-round, male possibility, refuses connections and hereditary industrial proletariat in mining leaves the circle of working-class life and metallurgy between 1840 and 1880. halved into separate spheres. For too The heart of Nascent Proletarians is long, it is true, the hours workers spent on a detailed quantitative analysis of the job or relating to their work have changes in the demographic composition received all of the scrutiny of historians. and family structure of this population. This, only this, has been the history of Hanagan interprets these findings in light labour. Rancière shows us that this was of managerial practices and the workings not so. There is a darker, more obscured, of the family economy. Industrialists re­ more complex history of workers, one cruited workers, oversaw their training, that often unfolds in the recesses of con­ and then used benefit programs to dis­ sciousness, under the covers of evening's courage them from leaving the firm's em­ anonymity, encased in the private writ­ ploy. As adult male workers became ings and thoughts of individuals. rooted in industrial towns and their fami­ Rancière takes us into that history, but lies became more dependent on their in­ then he does what he is tilting against: he come, these workers embraced a politics claims for the night the privileges long which responded to their changing family appropriated by the day. He wants to turn economies. Hanagan explains the partic­ private lives and public lives upside ular militancy of Le Chambon- down, locating the real essence, as non- Feugerolles miners, for instance, in terms essence, of labouring people here rather of the decline in family income caused by than there. Odd that with all the debate reduced chances for female employment feminism has given rise to concerning and increased opportunities which mine public/private, it is still possible for a work offered young male wage earners to working-class historian of such imagina­ leave the family and to form their own tion to embrace these distinctions in the households. (167) name of breaking innovatively from all Managerial practices often conflicted traditionalism. with workers' familial strategies. Hanagan argues that metalworkers re­ Bryan D. Palmer sented the limitations on their sons' fu­ Queen's University tures created by the incompetence of cler­ ical teaching staffs and especially by the Michael Hanagan, Nascent Proletarians: firm-specific job training metallurgical Class Formation in Post-Revolutionary companies provided. (102) Miners, France (Cambridge, Massachusetts: whose high earnings early in their careers Basil Blackwell 1989). encouraged them to have large families, daily faced dangers which made them IN HIS WELL-RECEIVED The Logic of Soli­ anxious to wrest control of benefits and darity (1980), Michael Hanagan exam­ pension funds from their employers. ined three industrial towns in the Loire in Hanagan points to these factors in the the decades before World War I — Le metalworkers' support for republican Chambon-Feugerolles, Rive-de-Gier, and candidates in the 1869 elections and in the Saint-Chamond—in which skilled indus­ miners' strike which culminated in the trial workers faced with threats to their bloody "La Ricamarie" massacre that control of the workplace adopted the tac­ same year. He asserts that despite differ­ tic of providing assistance and guidance ences between miners and metalworkers, REVIEWS 343

"a recurrent similarity of problems... also ground, miners had different relations created bases for joint organization and with management than metal workers. action against industrial capitalism," (96) What effects might such factors have although he gives no examples of such had? In the 1869 election, "republican unity in the period under examination. If metal employers rallied their workers be­ the Stephanois workers did not yet form a hind" the republican candidate, while class by 1880 — Hanagan uses the im­ leaders of the miners' mutual aid fund are plantation of socialist ideas as his criterion credited with getting out the miners' vote (211) — he sees them as well on their way. for the Imperial candidate. (192) To what Nascent Proletarians is a fine book. extent can the metalworkers' greater alle­ Like Elinor Accampo's revealing study of giance to non-workers — often their Saint-Chamond, Industrialization, Fam­ bosses — be attributed to differences in ily Life, and Class Relations (1989), it culture, organization and aspirations? suggests how fruitful the coming together Pondering the political mobilization of family, demographic, and labour his­ of metalworkers leads to questions about tory can be. To take one example, Hanagan's analysis of their republican­ Hanagan carefully reconstructs the rela­ ism. He contends that the metal workers tionship between individual sending com­ resented the company schooling which munities and industrial centers to reveal limited them to firm-specific skills and the shift from temporary to permanent were therefore attracted to republican emigration after 1860. The one critique programs for the establishment of trade which can be made of Nascent Proletari­ schools. "Republicans condemned the ans is that in his eagerness to reveal the large metalworks that monopolized tech­ demographic and familial bases of collec­ nical education." (190) Hanagan's argu­ tive action, Hanagan obscures other ex­ ment is plausible (and contemporaries planatory mechanisms, including even like the Le Creusotin worker-turned-so­ that of the workplace which informed The cialist J.-B. Dumay made precisely this Logic of Solidarity. point), but he presents little evidence that In Nascent Proletarians, Hanagan de­ metalworkers from his towns embraced fines "semi-skilled" not in reference to republicanism for this reason in 1869. the exercise of "skills"/?w se, but in terms (The closest Hanagan comes are state­ of workers' lack of control over entry into ments by Saint-Etienne worker spokes­ a trade or over acquisition of skills. (Thus men a decade later.) And if an alternative Hanagan would presumably label the to company schooling was such an im­ nailmakers of early 19th-century Saint- portant appeal of republicanism to Chamond as "highly skilled artisans,'* metalworkers, why did they follow a met­ (46) while Accampo notes that "their allurgical company owner like Dorian work required little skill." (Accampo, who trained his workers in the same fash­ 40)) Hanagan groups miners and steel- ion as other owners? (98) Rather than workers under the rubric of semi-skilled limiting ourselves to assessing political and then explains their actions largely in activity in terms of a logic of familial con­ terms of family structures and economies. cerns, we need to take into account other This leads him to make too little of differ­ elements, including the nature of manage­ ences between occupational groups rial authority in metallurgical firms (discur­ which are not explicable with direct ref­ sively constructed in some cases in explic­ erence to the family. In the period under itly familial (paternalist) terms). examination, the majority of miners were Hanagan adds that metalworkers semi-skilled, (48) but semi-skilled work­ were "vulnerable" to attacks on clerical ers accounted for half or less of the three education by anticlerical republican towns' more diverse metallurgical newspapers (103), but once again pres­ laborforce. (46) And working under­ ents no direct evidence that the 344 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

metalworkers in the three towns under capitalism, marxists envision a class- examination turned to republicanism for based one. Stephen Crawford, however, this reason. (However, we do learn of a in his book on French engmeers, finds no "voluntary society of alumni of a number evidence to support such notions. of religious schools in Rive-de-Oier in Crawford, an American sociologist, 1895" which was disproportionately com­ examined the work, careers and ideolo­ posed of metalworkers, mostly semi­ gies of French engineers in an "old" and skilled. (101) In the absence of further in­ a "new" industry. During 1977 and 1978, formation, one is reminded of Accampo's he interviewed 129 engmeers from a tra­ identification of an anti-anticlerical repub­ ditional metal-working firm, and an ad­ licanism in Saint-Chamond and her insis­ vanced telecommunications company, tence that the political cultures of individual pseudonymously named PAMPCO and towns be given their due. TELECO. His sample included only prac­ Hanagan's analyses of the changing ticing engineers (with, or without a di­ family situations of 19th-century miners ploma), not engineering executives. and metalworkers and his effort to relate Building on Robert Zussman's 198S book these to workers' activism pose an im­ on American engineers and Peter portant challenge to most studies of Whaliey's 1986 volume on British Engi­ French labour history done in the past two neers, Crawford tests several theories of decades (including my own book on social change — professionalization, pro­ Decazeville). These works have generally letarianization and new working-class deployed histories of wage levels, work theory — and advocates a new approach organization, community and workplace to class theory. culture, and ideology and ideological Crawford believes that employee-en­ commitment, to account for the presence gineers in France do not constitute an or absence of worker militancy. What occupational, or class, threat to bureau­ Hanagan's important book shows is the cratic authority. Carefully selected from need to integrate such explanatory mech­ elite engineering schools that foster busi­ anisms with those derived from family ness, not professional values, French history. firms appoint engineers as cadres, or managers (a unique French practice) and Donald Reid promote them to top management, the ca­ University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reer goal of most engineers. Engineers view capitalism as "neither heroic nor ex­ Stephen Crawford, Technical Workers in ploitative;" simply a "rational and effi­ an Advanced Society: The Work, Careers cient mode of organizing production." and Politics of French Engineers (New (130, 128) Unable to monopolize profes­ York: Cambridge University Press 1989). sional practice like doctors and lawyers (only the title ingénieur diplômé is pro­ ENGINEERS OCCUPY a peculiar position in tected), and lacking occupational solidarity, the industrial workforce. Neither owners they identify instead with bureaucracy. As of productive property, nor wage- trusted workers enjoying salaries and status labourers, they are mainly salaried em­ denied others, they seek success as individ­ ployees of large corporations. Torn by the uals, not collectively through licensing, or conflicting demands of science and busi­ collective bargaining. ness, some observers foresee growing re­ Crawford admits that French engi­ sistance to bureaucratic authority. neers do not enjoy quite the same high Thorstein Veblen predicted that engineers status they once did. But, he denies this would lead a social revolution; profes- decline amounts to proletarianization, be­ sionalization theorists contemplate an oc- cause there is no evidence of deskilling. cupationally-based challenge to New technology and changing markets REVIEWS 345

mitigate this. Deskilled work is handed eral 'factual conclusion' which he arrives down to an emerging stratum of technical at is that, "the social contract involving workers, freeing engineers for new work. business, labour and government is no As a result, the number of engineers is longer tenable 'as written*, because busmess growing faster than the number of techni­ now exercises de facto sovereignty over the cians. Thus, far from being an alienated other two parties to the contract" (277) new working-class, engineers are gener­ But what is supposed to follow from ally satisfied with their lot Crawford's this observation? Byrne's suggestion is, main point is that actual career situations, in effect, that the 'balance' be restored. shaped by distinctive national institu­ On his view, the interests of transnational tions, such as education, not technology corporations should be given "no greater and the division of labour is the key to weight than those of local workers and understanding class structure in advanced communities." (8) What this reveals is societies. that though Byrne's heart is in the right This is an important study, full of place, his head is not. Byrne's theory of provocative arguments and ideas. How­ social justice, such as it is, is what has ever, by limiting it to two anonymous come to be known as 'contracUrianism' companies, Crawford has restricted its — the idea that a just distribution of re­ scope, sacrificing breadth for depth. sources will be attained if the various Readers must rely on his judgment that conflicting interests in society can freely the sample is representative. And while agree, through a bargaining process, an attempt is made to place the study in about a distribution which is mutually historical context, it is largely frozen in advantageous. Byrne writes that, "be­ time: 1977-78. More concerned with test­ cause the concept of a social contract is ing theory than studying social processes so familiar to people interested in the lab­ over time, this book will disappoint many our movement, I will address questions historians and new working-class theo­ regarding corporate/community justice as rists. Also, by concentrating so much ad­ problems to be solved by the terms of a verse criticism on liberal and marxist the­ social contract" (10) ories, Crawford fails to clarify many of The trouble is that bargaining and his own ideas which are often shrouded contracts have been involved in getting us by a complicated analytical structure. to where we are today, and the interests of the rich and powerful have a tendency to Rod Millard override the interests of the relatively dis­ University of Western Ontario advantaged groups. Of course, bargaining is sometimes forced or constrained; Edmund F. Byrne, Work, Inc. A Philo­ "many workers are manoeuvered into a sophical Enquiry (Philadelphia: Temple situation that requires them to choose be­ University Press 1990). tween taking a particular job and starv­ ing." (41) Agreements need to be volun­ EDMUND BYRNE'S HEART is in the right tary in a more substantial sense than this. place. He is concerned about the some­ Nonetheless, Byrne's head is planted in times devastating effects of unregulated the soil of markets, and his idea of justice capitalism on the lives of communities owes more to capitalism than he may real­ and individuals. He aims to puncture the ize. Even agreements which are freely en­ myths of national sovereignty and the tered into between unequal parties do not neutrality of the state, and to show that de necessarily remove initial inequalities. facto sovereignty around the world is ex­ It is not that Byrne is unaware of this; ercised less by national governments than for him, it is crucial that the power of by transnational corporations — to the workers organised collectively should be disadvantage of everyone else. The gen­ capable of offsetting that of the corpora- 346 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

tion, otherwise the 'voluntary' contract were, after a fashion, housed and fed, so may be less than fully free; and Byrne that their labour was not 'in an absolute sees himself as theoretically articulating sense' forced. the interests of the workers and the role of I am afraid that well-meaning though the workers' representative. The pursuit Byrne is, his book cannot be recom­ of justice demands that in negotiating a mended to those who wish to become 'social contract, ' the workers' representa­ clearer about the place of worker's inter­ tive will have "the interests of workers, ests in an account of justice in society. all workers, in mind and will be responsi­ ble for defending these interest;" he or she Henry Laycock will seek "the best possible benefits for Queen's University workers." (11) But if this is all there is to justice, then Heather Menzies, Fast Forward and Out in the last resort it reduces to the interests of Control: How Technology is Changing of the strongest, or at least to a balancing Your Life (Toronto: Macmillan 1989). of the interests of the equally strong. What then becomes of the interests of MOST PEOPLE ARE anxious today about the groups whose muscle gives them little pace of change brought about by new clout — children, the infirm, the physi­ technology, or so we are told by pundits, cally or mentally disabled, native minor­ journalists and other doomsayers who ities and so on? Byrne fudges the issue, have a stake in playing upon our anxie­ for he says that in seeking the best possi­ ties. They have created a mental soup of ble benefits for workers, the workers' rep­ pop sociology, instant analysis and quack resentative will also "take into account remedies to flatter our minds, capture our the interests of others as articulated and hearts and loosen our purses. If this book defended by their representatives." (11) were to be judged by its title, it would This seems like a tacit way of saying that deserve to be included in that soup kitchen, the workers' representative must have but it has something more: it offers hope of some sense of justice which goes beyond coming to terms with technology. the self-interest of the particular group he An introductory section provides an or she represents; but if it is, it under­ overview of the social and economic mines the contract-oriented approach to changes that are producing a crisis in so­ justice Byrne wants to advocate. ciety today. A historical sketch then takes The basic weakness of Byrnes' ap­ us through centuries of technological proach is precisely that it is not suffi­ change. Together, these chapters set out ciently philosophical, and it is a confes­ the broad social, economic and philo­ sion of weakness, rather than a strength, sophical framework of the book. The next that (as he puts it) "philosophy is too three chapters describe contemporary de­ serious to leave to philosophers." (41) velopments using new technology — the (Since Byrne is himself a professor of information-based economy, global man­ philosophy, one wonders how he expects ufacturing and biotechnology. The treat­ this remark to be construed.) The weak­ ment of the first topic is more thorough ness is there throughout the book, over­ than the other two, because it is based on laid though it is by the weight of sociolog­ the author's direct knowledge of the uses ical observations and insights. His defini­ of computers in workplaces. Here, in tion of forced labour is a case in point: chapter 4, the description of how comput­ "forced labour by definition takes without ers are altering work in offices and banks giving anything in return." (41) It is or jobs in stores and schools (areas in surely a reduction ad absurdum of this which technology opened the world of definition to notice (as Byrne does) that white-collar work to women a century even in the Nazi death-camps, people ago, but are now being demoted also by REVIEWS 347

technology) has the ring of experience based on knowledge. In that case, why is and observation. In the closing section, "postindustrial" the most overworked ad­ examination of present trends to show jective in this book? The "information what might happen if we continue to re­ economy** was to be the core of main passive is followed by recommenda­ "postindustrialism" as it was described by tion of what we should do if we want the Daniel Bell and other postindustrial future to be more to our liking. prophets. To reject the one implies that My initial reaction to Fast Forward the other must also be rejected; otherwise was one of frustration, as I could not grasp the results are absurd, and some absurdity clearly what the book was about. I over­ is what we get. Phrases such as came that reaction only after I realised "postindustrial manufacture" show that that the book is composed of two inter­ Menzies is still hostage to the discourse leaved parts, written in different ways and from which she thought she had emanci­ at war with each other. One part is a vig­ pated herself. orous, common-sense interpretation of The problem of contradiction goes current events, the other is served from beyond language into conclusions about the kitchen of soupy techno-thought; the what our predicament is, who to blame for first relies on knowledge earned at first it and what we should do to rescue our­ hand and tells it in brisk prose, the second selves from it The title of the book pic­ parrots dogmas in all their jargon. For tures a runaway machine which has en­ brevity, I shall refer to the author of the slaved us, but we are told to see "techno- first kind of writing as Heather and to the logical change and economic second as Menzies. restructuring as processes that are shaped It is Heather who tells us in the intro­ by and serve the values and priorities of duction how she came to reject the jargon whoever controls them." The machine of "technological-change discourse" and metaphor—in or our of control — seems how clearly she was then able to detect the wrong. Although Heather acknowledges ways in which its jargon numbed her the failure of postindustrial doctrine in thought We expect, therefore, that the that the "service economy" turned out to liberating effect of rejecting poor ideas be composed of fast-food operations and might be evident in the substance of the the like, rather than the knowledge-en­ book, but the following three chapters are riched ones it was supposed to supply, bad history, by Menzies from the techno- Menzies clings to the faculty doctrine in soup kitchen. None of this material con­ blaming technology for the impoverish­ nects with the next chapter (4), in which ment of work and loss of jobs. The Heather examines the working world postindustrial prophets had absolved where computerization is being used to practices such as offshore production and displace or disorient low- and middle- massive importing of material goods on level employees, generally women. It is the grounds that removal of smokestacks Heather speaking when the concept of the made room for services; when that sce­ "information economy'' is derided on the nario flopped, a scapegoat had to be found ground that "it doesn't represent new and the obvious one was technology. work, but traditional goods- and services- Menzies accepts this explanation uncriti­ producing work transformed into infor­ cally. Yet Heather implicitly rejects it in mation symbols about the work to be the context of a discussion of free trade done, which are set down in operations with the US. "In order to trade as an manuals and information-gathering pro­ equal," she writes, "Canada must have a cedures." In other words, computers are strong industrial base from which to pro­ not all they are cracked up to be, and the duce the goods and services it will trade." prophets were not on the right track at all A strong industrial base means first indus­ with claims that new "services" would be try, not postindustry (whatever that might 348 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL be) and second more, not less, technol­ ables are controlled for, including the fact ogy. Finally, Heather exhorts us to think of being born within or outside Canada, about and take charge of technology in gender, age, schooling, social class, em­ ways which "match personal values, so­ ployment sector and number of weeks cial justice and the common good."That's worked. good advice. These net ethnic differences are Was it Menzies, or a bad editor, that highly positive in the case of Canadians chose the title of Fast Forward and Out of Jewish and Portuguese origin, very of Control? The book is worth reading: negative in the case of Blacks, Chinese despite is sensational title and resort to and Italians, less negative for the French, stale ideas, its author does have some worth­ and relatively neutral for the British, just while ideas of her own of how to stand up to take these examples. What this means, to seemingly overwhelming forces. in Li's words, is that "Jews have the most economic advantage due to their origin, Mario Creet whereas blacks, Chinese and Greeks face Queen's University the most discrimination because of their origin. Other groups which are discrimi­ Peter S. Li, Ethnic Inequality in a Class nated against are the French, Hungarians Society (Toronto: Wall & Thompson and Poles. The British ... do not gain or 1988). lose from their origin, as their income, after controlling for other differences, is PETER LTS INTENTION is to investigate the about the national average." (127) role played by ethnic origin, as against The conclusions of the analysis are other causal factors, in the determination thus far-reaching. What is more, Li quan­ of income differentials in Canada. The tifies these net ethnic differences in terms information used derives from the two per of income advantage or disadvantage for cent representative sample of the Cana­ the different categories — $4,230.61 dian population included in the Public above the average for those of Jewish Use Sample Tapes and based on the 1981 origin, $1,626.81 below for Blacks, Census. The analysis relates to the $112.87 below for French, and $20.40 263,273 individuals in the sample who below foT British. (116) He arrives at were active in the labour force. These these net differences after finding that individuals are classified into 17 single social class, schooling and gender have an ethnic origins and 5 multiple origins, even greater impact on income, the most given the fact that in 1981, for the first significant single variable being social time, respondents were able to give a mul­ class. In conclusion he suggests that tiple origin in response to the ethnic ori­ Porter's vertical mosaic model is over­ gin question. simplified. Ethnicity remains an import­ Starting out from a straightforward ant factor, but the different ethnic groups correlation between average income and are not concentrated within class brackets ethnic origin — in which those of West in the way that the model suggests. At the and East European origin (excluding the same time, sufficient ethnic differences French) tend to have higher than average remain to demonstrate that we do not live incomes, while French, South Europeans, in the open competitive system that the Chinese and Blacks (among others) are human capital and structural-functional­ below the average — Li proceeds to iso­ ist models claim we do. late the impact of different variables in Arguably the most interesting aspect the determination of unequal incomes. of Li's analysis is the application of Erik The upshot of the analysis is that there Olin Wright's version of the Marxian remains what he describes as "net ethnic class model to the census data. The argu­ differences" when all other selected vari­ ment for adopting the more relational REVIEWS 349

Marxian concept of class instead of the 41 per cent of the sample, whik those of standard gradational class categories is Jewish origin constitute only one per cent. well made, and the results are particularly To conclude mat the British as a whole do interesting, some ethnic groups — nota­ not derive ethnic benefit does not allow bly those of Jewish and Portuguese origin us to know whether the British within — being heavily concentrated within par­ particular class brackets derive such ben­ ticular class brackets, while others, such efit, since the existence of positive and as the British, have a spread across classes negative benefit within different classes which corresponds closely to the overall would presumably cancel each other out distribution of the sample. The same does not hold true of those of The analysis raises a number of ques­ Jewish or of Portuguese origin, since both tions, however. It is firstly unclear as to these groups are heavily over-concen­ what significance we can really give to trated in one or two class brackets. the ranking in terms of advantage and We would need to have Li's full disadvantage that Li provides us with. model broken down by social class, in Even if the Portuguese emerge as the sec­ order to know the extent to which there ond most advantaged group in terms of really is an absence of British ethnic ad­ net ethnic difference, in terms of mean vantage among those of similar class po­ income by ethnic origin, they had the low­ sition to Canadians of "Jewish" origin est income of all groups listed in 1982, (whatever that means as a category iso­ $2,000 below the average. (84) What the lated from other European origins). There net difference means in their case is that is something counter-intuitive about Li's — given their low level of educational conclusions, in so far as one can presume attaintment, and given the fact that they that ethnicity plays a different role for are heavily concentrated in the working different groups in different class brack­ class (90 per cent) — then as compared ets and in different social contexts. That with other ethnic groups at similar class there is no ethnic advantage conferred by and educational levels they have an in­ being of British origin in Montreal or come advantage which can only be con­ Toronto, for example, would be some­ ferred by their ethnicity. The same is true what surprising. This suggests mat not of those of Jewish origin, at a different only would it be preferable to look more educational and class level, 46.5 per cent closely at differences within classes, but working as employers, managers or pro­ also within different areas of Canada. fessionals as against 8.2 per cent of Por­ Such nuances are particularly important, tuguese. (90) given the ethical implications of ranking What is not clear from the analysis, groups with respect to degree of ethnic however, is whether the position of the advantage. British is really as neutral as Li suggests The other problem I have with the as far as ethnic benefit is concerned. Nor book relates to the concept of ethnicity is it clear as to how those of Jewish origin itself. Li's conceptualization remains un­ somehow come to be those who benefit clear. He successfully demonstrates that most from "ethnic inequality," given the the notion of ethnicity based on cultural discrimination to which they have always content is fairly meaningless under ad­ been subject My own suspicion is that Li vanced capitalism, given that capitalism has not gone far enough in his application has long since succeeded in wiping out of the class model. Of all the groups, those most alternative cultures. He does not, of "British" origin (whatever that means) however, go far enough in setting up an have the distribution across all class alternative conceptualization, not even as brackets that corresponds most closely to far as Weber — whose drought, it seems the distribution of all groups. They also to me, is slightly misrepresented — and constitute by far the largest single group, who makes a clear link between ethnicity 350 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL and exclusion, with the former playing an ethnicity and structural functionalist un­ instrumental role in allowing the latter to derstandings of social inequality, but also happen. a book that leaves the reader confused as Li does not go the full length of seeing to the precise conceptual relation that is ethnicity and "race" as social constructs. being proposed between "race," "ethnic­ To have done so, in the former case, ity" and class, and a little worried as to would have allowed him to set up a more whether the groups targeted as benefiting satisfactory relationship between ethnic­ from ethnic advantage the most, are really ity and class. As it is, he comes to the the ones that do. conclusion that there can be such a thing as "ethnic inequality" apart from class, Christopher McAll stating, among other things, that "it Université de Montréal should be noted that although class and ethnicity produce inequality in the capi­ David Gordon, Green Cities: Ecologi­ talist system, they tend to operate differ­ cally Sound Approaches to Urban Space ently." (SI, my italics) There would seem (Montreal: Black Rose 1989). to be an important distinction to be made between ethnicity as structuring inequal­ THIS IS A TRANSCRIPT of speeches deliv­ ity, and ethnicity as producing it, a dis­ ered at a conference that took place in tinction that is not present in Li's concep­ Toronto in 1987. The editor, David Gor­ tualization. In fact Li comes up with a don, seems to have made a conscious at­ number of ambiguous statements, and in tempt to refrain horn massaging his raw the end it is difficult to know what he material: he makes no attempt to guide or means by ethnicity. prune (or even correct) the text and At one point he opens a paragraph forgoes the normal custom of providing with the words: "Race and ethnicity are an introductory essay offering a frame­ not social classes per se...," (48) to which work for interpretating disparate works. one could reply that they are not social The result is an intriguing but ultimately cluses at all, while at the end of the book unsatisfying collection of insights that he writes that it is the "social evaluations lacks a clear focus. of ethnicity and race, and not ethnicity The first section of the book attempts and race themselves, which are the to define the notion of a green city. Ap­ grounds for different rewards." (134) proaches vary from the pedestrian idea This latter statement continues the theme, that a green city is a city with wild things which is present throughout the book, that growing in it to the more bracing notion there are such things as "racial" groups that a green city is a social/political proj­ and "races" in Canada — in spite of what ect requiring revolutionary changes in the Robert Miles and Colette Guillaumin way we organize production and make would have to say on the subject — but social decisions. On a more mystical also sets up the notions of ethnicity and level, one author proposes that creating a race as being apart from processes of "so­ green city may require that we as a species cial evaluation." Both these notions, in so "reenter" and "repossess" nature by re­ far as they mean anything, would seem to constructing natural landscapes. Another be the very stuff of social evaluation and author sees green when looking at the the allocation of rewards: it is they, in adaptive responses of the world's poorest part, that allow class to happen, both in people, while yet another focuses on func­ colonial and non-colonial contexts. tional principles such as diversity, pro­ In sum we have here a stimulating ductivity, and economy. book in its application of Wright's class The various formulations seem to mode to the census data, a timely book in arise from two competing senses of what its critique of culturalist approaches to constitutes the green city project. To REVIEWS 351 some of the book's contributors, the proj­ ever, ecological restoration or naturaliza­ ect is to literally green the city by restor­ tion becomes almost the sole concern and ing nature or wilderness to urban settings. technical solutions crowd out political ex­ This project would be in the hands of periments. urban design professionals with the local community playing a supportive role as a [A]t many timet a new item on the political agenda arises, including the recognition of a political lobby and a source of volunteer problem inch as the ecology of cities. You will labour in carrying projects out Pollution find technical solution!, then manpower, and Probe's Ecology Park in Toronto is a then come to a maintaining phase to keep the good example of this type of green vision. environment healthy, sustainable, and fit to To a second group of contributors, the live for a long period of time. (90-91) main project is to render the city ecologi­ cally efficient through basic changes in its The issue of community control is organization and administration. Here ignored in most of the eleven essay s in the concepts such as local self-reliance, local section or reduced to heart-wanning par­ control of social resources and production ticipation programs such as tree planting decisions, and economic miniaturization exercises among students or patronizing are key in realizing a green city. In this public meetings in order to "tell people model, the relationship between urban de­ what is going on." (97) One essay "de­ sign professionals and the local commu­ fends" community involvement on the nity would be reversed: the community grounds mat it will decrease vandalism would be empowered to a much greater and in another essay on naturalizing the degree and the professionals would play urban environment, the author actually the supporting role. treats the affected community as a poten­ Of course, the two visions are not tial obstacle to change: without overlap. Diversity is a factor in One of the problem» of naturalisation, in terms both equations: urban green spaces could of its public acceptance, ii the fact that it ii not contribute to the local self-reliance if put seen in design terms .... I think many munici- to use as community food gardens. Li­ palitiet have this problem with naturalization, ability is another bridging notion: a green because die best way of naturalizing is to leave city is above all a livable city, whether a place alone in many cases, and it looks as if that be because of the congenial presence you have abandoned your responsibilities to of nature in harmony with society or be­ the public. (96) cause economic and ecological processes In a third and final section, the editor are brought down to a human scale and tries once again to evoke a sense of the co-operation replaces exploitation as the political project at hand by claiming to governing principle of social life. Finally, offer us essays that show *Tiow local or­ the two projects share the idea of "sense- ganizations have overcome institutional of-place," the phrase having just the right and social barriers to their attempts to ambiguity: community control gives its realize visions of the green city." (233) members a sense of place just as biotic But far from realizing visions, the essays diversity can distinguish one concentrate on defensive actions to pre­ neighbourhood from another. serve the last vestiges of urban wilderness But in the second part of the book, or on the attempt to restore the tradition which deals with instruments available in of urban agriculture. There is no discus­ realizing a green city, we see just how sion whatsoever of a campaign designed different these two approaches are in to challenge the overall pattern of urban practice. In introducing this section, the development, the concentration of power editor seems to make a conscious attempt in elite hands, the giganticist economy, or to unite the two projects into a single the social inequities that are the root of mission. In the accounts that follow, how­ many environmental problems and force 352 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL the poor to bear a disproportionate with the inheritance of underdevelop­ amount of the burden of a decayed envi­ ment. They point out that all twentieth ronment. century socialist revolutions have oc­ Green is both the colour of chloro­ curred in underdeveloped peripheral cap­ phyll and a revolutionary movement that italist countries. Hence, they attempt to would question the very basis of our en­ theorize how the 'objective' conditions of vironmentally disastrous society. While underdevelopment have interacted with the book claims to be about both, it clearly the nature of the seizure of power in so­ is not Its use lies more in spreading the cialist revolutions and the 'received' news about urban wilderness techniques ideas of socialism (essentially the 1917 and programs than in stimulating debate Russian experience of revolution and the about what a green city is all about. Ad­ adaptations of Lenin and Stalin) to create mittedly, the book will fulfil an important the problems presently experienced by purpose as urban design professionals state socialist societies. cast about for the technical means with Post and Wright first analyze how the which to respond to rising demands for historical expansion of capitalism has af­ livable cities. Environmental consultants, fected the opportunity for socialist revo­ scientists, government officials, urban lution in areas of peripheral (or underde­ planners and landscape architects not veloped) capitalism. Capitalistic expan­ only wrote most of the essays collected in sion has created a complex and fluid class Green Cities, but form the natural audi­ structure in the periphery where classes ence for such a book. and strata are internally divided and class Beyond its value to environmental contradictions are supplemented by sex­ professionals, the book may have some ual, ethnic, and religious contradictions. merit as a stimulus to citizen involvement Therefore, class struggle will be equally in city greening projects. However, those complex and qualitatively distinct from looking for guideposts to a radical over­ Marx's proletariat/bourgeois divide. As a haul of the urban structure will be tanta­ result, the 'received' Leninist ideas of a lized by intriguing possibilities only to be broad-based, cross-class revolutionary disappointed. In this sense, Green Cities coalition with a vanguard party in the lead is a book that has yet to be written. finds easy applicability in a situation of complex class formation and contradic­ Ray Tomalty tion (the result of underdevelopment). University of Waterloo Ironically, however, the multiple-class character of the revolutionary bloc ulti­ Ken Post and Phil Wright, Socialism and mately represents a major obstacle to so­ Underdevelopment (London: Routledge cialist transformation. 1989). The authors next analyze the inter­ play of the three variables by assuming IN THE FACE of the radical restructuring of that a Marxist-Leninist force has seized the socialist heartland in eastern Europe power and examining what the leaders are and Russia, much of Western capitalism likely to do in that context. Here the con­ has taken the so-called failure of social­ junctival forces stemming from the sei­ ism as evidence of the moral legitimacy zure of power (often civil war damage of capitalism and the obvious inadequacy and/or a hostile international environ­ of socialist ideology. It is against such a ment) impel the leaders towards central­ facile critique of socialism that Ken Post ized control. This tendency is reinforced and Phil Wright react in their book Social­ by the interaction of the material condi­ ism and Underdevelopment. As the title tions of underdevelopment and the suggests, the authors attempt to connect 'received' idea that socialism requires the the current problems of socialist states rapid development of productive forces. REVIEWS 353

The combination generates a drive, not other revolutionary leaderships that they only to industrialize, but to do so using feel obliged to institute a resource-con­ centrally planned economic activity. Cou­ strained economy) than from a demon­ pled with industrialization, the leaders es­ stration that certain structures of underde­ tablish a "resource-constrained econ­ velopment directly influence the estab­ omy" (72) in which control over the dis­ lishing of such an economy. tribution of resources, as opposed to the Post and Wright also explicitly state control over production, is most import­ that "the condition of underdevelopment ant. However, the conditions of underde­ clearly imposes the objective necessity of velopment hobble this economy and cre­ industrialization." (7) While the writers ate a number of macro- and micro-eco­ do skirt the pitfall of claiming that a so­ nomic contradictions. These contradictions cialist revolution must, of historical ne­ act to restrict the choices and ultimately the cessity, complete a national democratic performance of such an economy. Its weak revolution or build capitalism before performance then impels the state to grad­ making the socialist transformation, then- ually «wallow up civil society as it attempts emphasis on the need to industrialize be­ to control the economic problems generated fore socialism can be built evokes images by these contradictions and as it seeks to of a liberal modernizationist view. The engineer a social transformation. point seems to be mat industrialization is The writers judge that, on balance, the the only way to raise the standard of liv­ resource-constrained economy has per­ ing to acceptable levels. However, such a formed badly and that most Marxist-Le­ Euro-centric view of development ig­ ninist regimes fare poorly on the demo­ nores me possibility of alternative roads cratic nature of government While the to economic development application of socialist ideas of national­ A further problem readers should be ization and central planning must share aware of is that the conditions of under­ part of the blame, these problems stem development which Post and Wright as­ primarily from the fact that socialist ex­ sume lead them to pursue a certain type of periments have all occurred under condi­ analysis closely allied with mod­ tions of underdevelopment — conditions ernizationist themes. The authors con­ which have placed real constraints on the clude that industrialization is necessary working out of socialist ideas probably to for socialism and that this has been the point of making impossible their im­ blocked by conditions of underdevelop­ plementation. ment. These conditions lead to a certain Throughout their study. Post and type of class structure and seizure of Wright attempt to demonstrate the effect power that has caused socialist revolu­ conditions of underdevelopment have on tions problems. However, by making the opportunity for socialist revolution these assumptions, the authors ignore and economic development in a post-rev­ both the Warrenite critique of underde­ olutionary society. While they explain velopment and the more recent attempt by why conditions in peripheral capital areas discussants of the development of capital­ lead to the option of a socialist revolution ism to incorporate the concept of 'indige­ and why conjunctural forces lead to an nous resistance' in their analyses. immediate need for central control, the Post and Wright hit on a number of authors assert rather than demonstrate other themes including: the laws of mo­ that structural factors lead to the need for tion of state socialist societies, the pro­ a resource-constrained economy. Their cess and fundamentally different nature explanation of this particular point de­ of class formation and economic contra­ rives more from the 'received' ideas of dictions in such societies, and the possi­ socialism argument (ie. that the model of bility of movement in socialist states to­ the Russian revolution has so influenced wards democratization and déconcentra- 354 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

tion. All of these themes are well inte­ policies of the modem state." grated into the analysis of the three vari­ For better or worse, any number of ables (underdevelopment, the seizure of anthropologists have examined some of power, and the 'received' ideas) but could these issues while holding others con­ each benefit from a book review of its stant, at least for the purposes of scholarly own. This bears some witness to the the­ analysis. But such analytical conventions oretical complexity of the volume that are untenable when one attempts to under­ cannot be demonstrated in a short review. stand peasant resistance. In tunes of con­ This volume is not part of the main­ flict, all problems of understanding line debate over problems of underdevel­ peasantries demand equal attention. To his opment. Rather, it takes the concept of credit, Gavin Smith has tried to address underdevelopment as a given (a problem­ directly these issues in his recent work. atic assumption in and of itself) and uses Smith's study examines conflict over it to analyze the obstacles that state so­ land and herding rights in the Andean cialist societies are so obviously experi­ highland community of Huasicancha, lo­ encing worldwide by theorizing the his­ cated in the Department of Junin, Peru. torical experience of these states. The au­ His research was conducted in 1972-1973 thors go a long way to countering the New in Huasicancha and among Huasicanchi- Right's superficial assessment of socialist nos who had migrated to Lima, to ideology as inherently flawed because of Huancayo (the departmental capital), and the present problems. As such, this is an to the mining center of La Oroya, located important and worthwhile book. on the highway which links Lima and Huancayo. Smith supplemented his eth­ Glenn H. McKnight nographic fieldwork with archival re­ Queen's University search and a 1981 follow-up study in Huasicancha and Lima. Gavin Smith, Livelihood and Resistance- The primary scope of Smith's study is Peasants and the Politics of Land in Peru the four decades preceding (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Oxford: Uni­ Huasicancha's successful 1972 recupera­ versity of California Press 1989). tion of land taken by neighboring hacien­ das. Although the author attempts to ex­ ANTHROPOLOGISTS HAVE BEEN STUDYING tend his research to the pre-Inca past, the peasants for sixty years, and we are still most self-assured and convincing por­ not certain who they are or how to do it. tions of the book draw on Smith's per­ A well-known, but persistent, difficulty sonal knowledge of Huasicachinos. which plagues modem anthropological The first three chapters set the theo­ studies of the peasantry is where to focus retical and historical context of the inves­ critical analysis, a problem which has ex­ tigation. Smith's primary concern is to pressed itself in different ways. First, outline the major social institutions of there was the difficulty of distinguishing Huasicancha and to show how these com­ who was a peasant and who was not Sec­ munity institutions were usurped and ond, anthropologists trained to study sup­ modified by non-community political en­ posedly discrete, small-scale societies tities: the indigenous Huanca, the Inca could not always distinguish the peasant Empire, Spanish colonial authorities, and community from the multi-layered net­ Peruvian hacendados. work of economic and social relation­ Smith's theoretical contribution de­ ships with other non-peasant sectors. In rives directly from his intimate and de­ short, it is hard to decide whether to ex­ tailed knowledge of Huasicachino lives, amine the peasantry, in Teodor Shanin's data which he shares in Chapters 4 and 5. classic formulation, "as an economy," "as The author revels in the messy reality of a class," "as a culture" or as "an object of daily life, following selected individuals REVIEWS 355 as they become — in turn — highland gist repeatedly on this count, and right­ farmers, tenant herders, wage workers, fully so. Once Smith chose to extend his and petty entrepreneurs all in the course diachronic scope back to prehistory (and of a life-time. Such a range of activities there was no inherent reason he had to), it defies neat classifications and that. Smith became his job to be thorough. argues, is as it should be. The sections on the pre-Conquest In Chapter 6, Smith claims it is incor­ Mantaro Valley ignore the results of a rect "... to disaggregate social relations of major research project which has pro­ production in a very strict sense from the duced important and readily available in­ entire process of social reproduction be­ formation on the pre-Inca Huanca and the cause such reproduction requires invest­ Inca presence in the Mantaro Valley ment on the part of members in political (D'Altroy 1981; D'Altroy and Earle and cultural resources for the mainte­ 198S; Earle et al. 1980; Hastorf 1983; La nance (or expansion) of those condi­ Lone 1978). There are fine pieces of tions." Livelihood and community, there­ scholarship — such as the writings of fore, are indivisible, and particularly so Ouillermo Lohman Villanueva, Luis Mi­ during times of conflict. Thus "... a polit­ guel Olave, John Murra, Florencia ical struggle... becomes as much a part of Mallon, Maria Rostworowski de Diez social reproduction as does the more daily Canseco, Karen Spalding, Nathan struggle for livelihood. And people can be WachteL and many others — which serve expected to mobilize around such issues." as both models and standards for the pur­ In the remainder of the book, Smith de­ suit of Andean social history. Smith scribes the Huasicachinos' efforts to re­ clearly is aware of such approaches, but cover land from neighboring haciendas, instead chose to draw on generalized, sec­ arguing that understanding the culture of ondary sources, thus producing a simple opposition must be grounded on specific, silhouette of Colonial society which lacks local events and circumstances. Smith the rich detail of the ethnographic discus­ contends, in the same vein as the recent sions. work of Eric Wolf, that, "Lack of sensitivity Consequently, Smith falls into his about historical and local specificity make own trap: in overlooking more recent and global theories of underdevelopment and more detailed ethnohistoric and historic schematic theories of class analysis as un­ materials. Smith relies on generalized re­ substantial as they are glamorous." constructions about key aspects of the Drawing from his fieldwork, Smith Andean household, the corporate group has done a superb job of conveying the (ayullu), and traditional leadership complexities of Huasicashino livelihood. (kurakas), and thus lacks die very histor­ His descriptions of how families co-ordi­ ical and local specificity which he claims nate economic activities in confederations is essential. of household, of the details of squatter inva­ Smith's use of more recent documen­ sions, and of the struggle between com- tary materials is often weak and occasion­ unero and hacendado for grazing lands are ally flawed. The discussion of Karen informative, crisp, and engaging. Spalding's 1973 article is really based on Placing these social dynamics in a her 197S article. It seems odd that Smith historical context, however, requires should ignore Thomas Davies Jr.'s (1974) more than just sensitivity; it also requires Indian Integration in Peru 1900-1948 and careful attention to historical methods, Steve Stein's (1980) Populism in Peru documentation, and comprehensiveness. since both of these books are directly rel­ If the strongest sections of Smith's study evant to Smith's research. It is curious draw on his ethnographic fieldwork, the that Smith refers to Juan Martinez-Alier's weakest result from his poor historical work only in passing, since Martinez- research. Historians criticize anthropolo­ Alier has written about herders' conflicts 356 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

in the same area at the same time as state, capital and white labour, all these Smith's study. Most disturbing of all, adjustments were the product of white however, is Smith's tendency to provide consensus, easily translated into a new incomplete and virtually useless refer­ policy initiative. Such adaptions were re­ ences to archival materials. Individual sponses to changing economic conditions documents are not specified, but only (note also Gorbachev's initiatives in the identified as to which archive they are U.S.S.R.) not to what the people were from. It is impossible to know which doc­ doing. African resistance was considered ument Smith is referring to unless one is irrelevant, or marginal, because organiza­ willing to completely redo his historical tions like the African National Congress research. It is also surprising that the Uni­ (ANC) and the CPSA (Communist Party versity of California Press did not insist of South Africa) were proscribed, crushed on full references for the historical mate­ and rendered impotent. They forgot rials. Accurate references are more than 'labour' and the 'community*. an academic nicety: they are the first step Since the Soweto riots of 1976, the to independent verification. subject of Hirson's first book in 1979 Gavin Smith's fine ethnographic (again with Zed Press), the South African study is marred by the weakness of the government has had to make adjustments historical research. This is unfortunate in the face of grass-roots resistance. because Smith's basic point is sound: When Piet Botha proclaimed 'we must studies of resistance must achieve a bal­ adapt or die', he was not responding to ance between broad sweep and micro­ G.N.P. figures or international pressure, scopic detail. Gavin Smith has written an or uttering mere rhetoric. He was re­ important study of the recent dynamics of sponding to the protest of black trade economy and society in Huasicancha, but unions, to bus boycotts, to stay-at-homes we still lack a comprehensive historical and various other manifestations of view of work and struggle in the lives of peoples' resistance. This resistance has Huasicachinos. been a common feature of community life in South Africa since the Great Depres­ Jerry D. Moore sion; Hirson, political activist and prison Institute of Andean Studies, graduate, now makes it visible in this Berkeley, California book, one which covers the most inten­ sive period of urbanization and migration Baruch Hirson, Yours for the Union: in the subcontinent's recent past. He has Class and Community Struggles in South uncovered a wealth of previously inacces­ Africa. 1930-1947 (London and New Jer­ sible material and married it with the sec­ sey: Zed Press 1989). ondary literature to produce a study of what he calls "the making of the African COMMUNITY STRUGGLE has often been working class in South Africa ...." (ix) central to the history of South Africa in With such an introduction it is not the twentieth century but not often to the surprising that he very quickly invokes writing of it. Until very recently 'labour' the name of E.P. Thompson, and shortly and 'community' seemed as though they after that the word "consciousness" enters had been excised from the body politic the text — "consciousness" being created because scholars viewed them as separate in community struggle, in "the yard, the spheres, with 'labour' imprisoned in trade street and the neighbourhood, as well as unions, and 'community' counting for lit­ the workplace." (x) But the entire episte- tle beyond township limits. The real issue mological and methodological edifice of South Africa was the apartheid state. comes crashing down at the end of the Radical scholars analyzed changes in ra­ Foreword when he states "I have avoided cial policy as balancing the interests of extensive polemic in the belief that the REVIEWS 357 facts speak for themselves." (xii) There cracy and internecine wrangling of the comparison with Thompson ends! CNETU (the Council of Non-European What follows is a narrative of the Trade Unions). It is this story which cap­ struggle and a study in failure. The CPS A tures the essence of Hirson's account: is criticised for its missed opportunities: how the enthusiasm and potential of "passivity in the face of popular action 'labour' and 'community' resistance were had become part of its hallmark." (161) not tapped by the leaders. Part of the prob­ The ANC is berated for being a tool of the lem, though, was the failure to bring to­ petty bourgeois "torn between their lib­ gether the two arenas of resistance — the eral mentors and their anger at the inferior township and the factory. Small victories position to which they were relegated" (6) occurred, but they were rare. and unable to identify with, or really in­ Your's for the Union does not attempt terest itself in, the plight of the proletarian to glorify the South African struggle but masses. (When Hirson introduces us to it does show the dynamism of the shanty- the details of the Alexandra township bus towns and the reserves, a dynamism un­ boycotts at the end of World War H, he tapped by the organizations that were reminds us of the absence of ANC Presi­ meant to channel such energies. Hirson, dent Xuma — a potential buyer of the bus in his closing sentence, blames the "fail­ company? — and the presence of white ure of leadership." While this is undoubt­ liberal academic Hilda Kuper.) The black edly the case, it is also true that the op­ trade unions are not spared either, al­ tions of the "leadership" were severely though the author acknowledges the al­ circumscribed by the pernicious nature of most insuperable problems they faced in the South African state. While the author this period, stemming from the conun­ endeavours in a couple of chapters to in­ drum, They had no legal standing, al­ tegrate class struggle and political econ­ though they were not illegal." (37) omy, for the most part 'labour' and This is not a romantic view of the 'community' are separated or abstracted struggle, as one of the last chapters on the from wider social relations. This is still, 1946 Mineworkers' strike testifies. Fac­ however, a very rich book for labour his­ ing the full brutality of the South African torians, with much new material and co­ state and Chamber of Mines, the African gent historical reconstructions. Mine Workers Union was "shattered" and other black unions were eclipsed. While Christopher P. Youé other scholars have seen the strike as die Memorial University of Newfoundland end of workerism and the beginning of working-class politicisation (ANC work­ David H. Plowman, Holding the Line: ing class alliance) Hirson sees no such Compulsory arbitration and national em­ thing (although he makes no mention of ployer co-ordination in Australia (Cam­ the historiography): after 1946 "the work­ bridge: Cambridge University Press ers would play only a subordinate role in 1989). the struggle against the state, and the po­ litical initiative would be grasped by the ONE OF THE MAJOR LIMITATIONS of tradi­ petty bourgeoisie inside the ANC." (183) tional industrial relations study has been This seems much closer to the truth. its neglect of employers, both at the indi­ The title of the book comes from a vidual and collective level. In Australia letter written by an irrigation worker in this trend has been particularly apparent, the northern Cape in 1944. His words are with the vast majority of industrial rela­ on the book's sleeve: "We are thirty-one tions research concentrating upon trade workers; we want to form a union." Willie unions and compulsory arbitration. This Bosiame and his co-workers never did book goes part of the way in filling this form their union because of the bureau­ gap. Based on the author's Ph.D. thesis, 358 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL the book examines the factors that led unity during the 1960s, including the for­ Australian employers to form national co­ mation of the National Employers' Asso­ ordinating organizations, and the reasons ciations (NEA), the first continuing body for the adoption of different forms of co­ for employer co-ordination. The author ordination over time. argues that because of the successes of Organized chronologically, the book this machinery in containing wages costs analyzes the development of national em­ through arbitration, unions were forced to ployer co-ordination over eight distinct pursue wage increases outside the system. periods. The book begins with an exami­ In the final period (1973-1988). the au­ nation of the formation of employer asso­ thor analyzes the formation of the Con­ ciations during the late nineteenth century federation of Australian Industry, formed (1890-1906). While established initially in part by the recentralization of wage to counter union organization, the author determination and also in response to the points out that such associations gained rise of national industry associations. Em­ permanence following the introduction of ployer divisions continued through the compulsory arbitration, which they suc­ formation of rival organizations. cessfully limited through parliamentary There is little doubt that this work and industrial action. In contrast, the sec­ makes a major contribution in document­ ond chapter analyzes the period 1907 to ing the development of national employer 1920, in which the Central Council of organization in Australia. Further, its Employers Associations (CCEA) failed to analysis of the development of the arbi­ limit the expansion of federal arbitration tration system from the perspective of under the leadership of Justice Higgins, such organization is both original and in­ and sectional associations undertook their formative. However, the book does have own industrial work. In the third section a number of limitations. (1921-1929), the author examines at­ Perhaps the most apparent, is the lack tempts by the CCEA to improve employer of theoretical analysis of employer orga­ co-ordination in the face of union exploi­ nization and behaviour. There is no men­ tation of the dual state-federal arbitration tion of the broader overseas literature on system, and the growing centralization of employer organization, and by the end of wage determination under national test- the book readers are left to draw their own cases. The fourth chapter (1930-1939) conclusions about what this history impl­ deals with the Depression years and their ies about employer behaviour generally. aftermath, highlighting changes in em­ For example, throughout the book the au­ ployer attitudes to arbitration based on thor touches upon the reactive and di­ fluctuations in the labour market. Chapter vided approach employers adopted to in­ Five covers the War and post-War periods dustrial relations policy and practice. In (1940-1949), in which suspicion of gov­ particular, united action was commonly ernment Wartime intervention and the limited by fundamental intra-employer perceived threat of socialization under a divisions. One measure of this was the Labor administration aided employer way differences in tariff policy between unity and led to increased political lobby­ manufacturing and commercial and rural ing by the australian Council of employer interests undermined co-or­ Employers' Federations (formerly the dinated action. Similarly, the author CCEA). During the 1950s (Chapter Six), demonstrates the way in which employer attempts to form a central Confederation attitudes to state intervention, particularly of Employers failed, and with the rise of compulsory arbitration, varied over time a conservative government much of the according to changes in the labour market impetus towards centralised co-ordina­ and the relative bargaining power of lab­ tion was lost. In Chapter Seven, the author our and capital. While such research goes analyzes movements towards greater a long way to refute determinist interpre- REVIEWS 359 tarions of employer behaviour and pro­ cludes in her text, a book designed to vides a more complex picture, these is­ introduce the Western reader to the histor­ sues are never explicitly analyzed outside ical lineage and substantive contributions of their impact at particular points in time. of Japanese economic thought. What is emphasized is the analysis of The merit of this book is that it is a structure. This is dealt with in the con­ solid comprehensive introduction to the cluding chapter, "Models of National Em­ major economic thinkers in Japan from ployer Organisation," which seeks to cat­ the Tokugawa period (seventeenth cen­ egorize the various structural types of em­ tury) up to the present Short biographical ployer organization that developed over sketches and outlines of material condi­ time. While this is helpful in comprehend­ tions and political policy situate individ­ ing the frequent changes that occurred, it ual thinkers in a historical narrative. For also emphasizes the essentially institu­ a beginner this is a helpful, well-organ­ tional nature of the book. The impact of ized introduction; the text draws the his­ labour and the state upon employer torical contours of economic debate behaviour are reduced to exogenous fac­ around those who contributed to those tors affecting particular forms of em­ debates. Citing directly from these think­ ployer organization. A more integrated ers, Morris-Suzuki offers the English analysis of these relationships would reader rare glimpses into Japanese texts have been more enlightening. and wets one's appetite for more. She Overall, this book makes a valuable makes these economic theorists, by and contribution to an understanding of the large absent from Western knowledge, development of Australian employer or­ heard and proves that they do have some­ ganization. While it reinforces the tradi­ thing to contribute to a global discussion tional emphasis in this country towards of economics. the study of centralized industrial rela­ But as text-book, Morris-Suzuki's tions institutions, it does so in a well-writ­ work suffers from reductive simplifica­ ten and thoroughly researched manner. tion, teleological positioning and an ab­ An analysis of the literature on employer sence of contentiousness. The story is too organization, and perhaps some compari­ developmental, too linear and too easy. son with overseas experience, might have Beginning with Tokugawa Japan, Morris- given the book a broader appeal. Suzuki's story charts the early thinkers on economy — Keisai Saimin — during the Chris Wright period when Japan purposefully cut itself University of Sydney off from international interaction. Morris- Suzuki draws her first reductive and tele­ Tessa Morris-Suzuki, A History of Japan­ ological link by immediately connecting ese Economic Thought (London: the harmonious natural order of Chu Hsi Routledge and Nissan Institute for Japan­ Confucianism to the future self-regulat­ ese Studies 1989). ing order of neo-classical economics. The structure of Tokugawa Japan, challenged Now THAT JAPAN has achieved the un­ by the unintended consequences of the questionable status of world economic system designed to preserve the political player, if not leader, its economic policies community, was forced to contend with and thought must be paid attention to. To an increasingly capitalized money econ­ monitor and understand one's own na­ omy and impoverished rural economy. tional economy must now mean to pay The economic thought of this period was attention to what Japan is up to. The Jap­ defined by contemporaries as Keisai anese have proven they have something Saimin which Morris-Suzuki translates as to contribute to the world's discourse on "administering the nation and relieving economics. So Tessa Morris-Suzuki con­ the suffering of the people." (13) Eco- 360 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL nomics was from its inception therefore tional positions, new corporate structure "inescapably bound up with questions of of Keiretsu (large firms allied with large justice, law and morality." (12) But Mor­ banks) and environmental economics. ris-Suzuki leaves the discussion there. Dissolving this Japanese tension into the Throughout the rest of the text as she Western rubric may make Japanese eco­ draws out the economic issues and think­ nomic thinking more accessible to a ers from the Meiji Restoration through Western audience, but it does so at the post World War I Marxian economics, the expense of revealing what may indeed be ascendancy of militaristic nationalism, the unique contribution of Japan's eco­ post World War II recapitalization and the nomic history. current 'economic miracle' of extraordi­ This text is constantly looking for­ nary growth, she centers the presentation ward; every writer establishes the founda­ on the twin peaks of Marxian economics tion of the next, every idea is the precur­ and neo-classical capitalism. The over­ sor of the next Every chapter or section arching issue is state control and govern­ ends with a ideological connection. The ment intervention versus a free, self-reg­ thinkers of the inter war years laid the ulating market — the Western divide of foundation "for a renaissance of eco­ economic thought and policy. If Morris- nomic thought in the years following Suzuki is intent on revealing Japan's Japan's defeat in 1945," (102) while the unique contribution she could have post World War II "occupation reforms served her objective better by returning to proved unwittingly to have laid the basis the project Japanese economics defined for the phenomenal economic expansion for itself at the outset. Keisai Saimin is a of the 1960s." (106) Given this seamless particularly unique position of economic web it is difficult to account for the pres­ thinking, quite different from Western ence of conflict, particularly of the type equivalents. If Morris-Suzuki had fo­ that threatened the neo-classical model cused on the moral imperatives and na­ that Japan has so clearly adopted. Morris- tionalistic dimension of this paradigm she Suzuki's presentation of contestation is might well have escaped the Western di­ cursory and insufficient. The persecution vide of economic thinking. This would of the political left beginning in 1938, the have served to explain the presence of student riots of the 1960s and the suppres­ Marxian economics in the 1920s and sion of worker militancy and trade union 1930s alongside militarized nationalism, activity are mentioned alongside Marxist controlled capitalism, family controlled economic theorists; indeed an entire zaibatsu and contemporary mega- chapter is devoted to Marxian economic companies. theory. But there is no sense of profound As it stands, Morris-Suzuki's histori­ or actual contestation — the sources of cal narrative reduces the complexity of critique are blips in the larger story of Japanese thought to what it seems she capitalist development in Japan. This his­ wants to redress; that is, she offers the torical inevitability provides the type of story of Japanese economic thought as an thread that makes this a text book. adaptive gloss to Western dualisms rather As the text develops it becomes more than exploring how, from its inception, list-like and somewhat less historical. The Japanese economic thought was posed in chapters offer a series of sketches of sig­ a particularly different direction. From nificant thinkers and their significant con­ the beginning Japanese economic think­ tributions. The historical context gets lost ing was defined in terms of a tension and that means the reader loses sight of between protective guardianship and pro­ the issues at stake as neo-classical eco­ ductive progress and this tension is man­ nomic theory appears to gain ascendancy. ifested in Japan embracing both state di­ Morris-Suzuki assumes the success of rected industrialization, Marxian opposi­ modern capitalism in Japan and does not REVIEWS 361 explore how Japan appropriated capitalist information economy is too transient to enterprise. That story is complete with be real This egoistic economy is the cre­ deep intellectual turmoil that in this pre­ ation of a new selfishness that has sentation does not exist. How Japan rec­ supplanted individualism; the result has onciled its nationalism, its ethnocentrism been a "hollowing of the economy." ( 194) and exclusionary position to participate in Only global cooperation can remedy this a Western-defined trading system is not hollow system. These examples of critical part of the history of economic thought thinking are the contemporary evidence here. Again, this would have aided Mor­ that Japan does have something worth ris-Suzuki's project of exposing Japan's listening to in the field that is world eco­ world contribution. nomics. But there is more evidence than Morris-Suzuki does conclude the text that. with a discussion of two particularly in­ Japan's contribution is the story of its novative thinkers. From the crisis in eco­ economic development — how it arrived, nomic thought of the late 1970s have seemingly late in the game, to a world emerged Imai Kenichi (1931) and Sawa trading network and mastered it so suc­ Takamitsu (1942). Imai Kenichi argues cessfully that now it rivals the country that the contemporary condition is an responsible for its forced entry. How economy of information; this commodity Japan balanced private interests and the demands small-scale production and new profit motive with the imperative of non-market links which will forge a infor­ Keisai Saimin is a story and a contribution mation network that will serve to better that, in this text book, is absent integrate the community. Against this op­ timistic picture is the pessimistic picture Pamela Divinsky of Sawa Takamitsu who argues that this University of Toronto 362 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

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