REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS Bryan D. Palmer, Working-Class Experience: The Rise and Reconstitution of Canadian Labour, 1800-1980 by Leo Panitch / 221 Labour History (Labour History Provincial Specialist Association of the British Columbia Teachers' Federation) by Ellen Moffat / 225 Judith Fingard, Jack in Port: Sailortowns of Eastern Canada by Marcus Rediker / 230 William Rcpka and Kathleen M. Repka, Dangerous Patriots: Canada's Unknown Prisoners of War by Desmond Morton / 231 Eileen Sufrin, The Eaton Drive: The Campaign to Organize Canada's Largest Department Store, 1948 to 1952 by Mercedes Steedman / 233 Bill Freeman, 1005: Political Life in a Union Local by David Millar / 236 Hayden Roberts, Culture and Adult Education: A Study of Alberta and Quebec by John Bullen / 238 Wallace Clement, Class, Power and Property: Essays on Canadian Society by S.D. Clark / 240 Donald J. Patton, Industrial Development and the Atlantic Fishery: Opportunities for Manufacturing and Skilled Workers in the 1980s by R. James Sacouman / 242 Maureen Fitzgerald, Connie Guberman, and Margie Wolfe, eds., Still Ain't Satisfied: Canadian Feminism Today by Margaret Benston / 243 Yvan Lamonde, Lucia Ferreti et Daniel Leblanc, La culture ouvrière à Montréal 0880-1920): bilan historiographique par Jean-Guy Genest / 245 Jean Gérin Lajoie, Les Métallos 1936-198! par Georges Massé / 249 David M. Gordon, Richard Edwards, and Michael Reich, Segmented Work, Divided Workers: The Historical Transformation of Labor in the United States by Michael H. Frisch / 255 Maurice Isserman, Which Side Were You On?: The American Communist Party During the Second World War by John Saville / 258 Joel Denker, Unions and Universities: The Rise of the New Labor Leader by Paul Axelrod / 261 Stephen A. Marini, Radical Sects of Revolutionary New England by Bruce Tucker/ 262 James Oakes, The Ruling Race: A History of American Slaveholders by Robert McCormack / 264 Ronald L.F, Davis, Good and Faithful Labor: From Slavery to Sharecropping in the Natchez District, 1860-1890 by Herbert Apthecker / 266 Bruce M. Stave, ed,, Modern Industrial Cities: History, Policy, and Survival by Gilbert A. Stelter / 267 Gwendolyn Wright, Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America by Peter G. Goheen / 268 Alice Kessler-Harris, Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States by Linda Kealey / 270 Daniel E. Sutherland, Americans and Their Servants: Domestic Service in the United States from 1800-1920 by Deborah Gorham / 272 4 Barbara Melosh, "The Physician's Hand": Work Culture and Conflict in American Nursing by Kathryn McPherson / 273 Margery W. Davies, Woman's Place Is at the Typewriter: Office Work and Office Workers 1870-1930 by Nancy S. Jackson / 275 Margaret W. Rossiter, Women Scientists In America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940 by Anita Clair Fellman / 277 Rachel Kahn-Hut et al., éd., Women and Work by Arlene Tigar McLaren / 280 Chris Aldred, Women at Work by Patricia Lane / 281 Kevin Harris, Teachers and Classes: A Marxist Analysis by Jane Gaskell / 283 Jean-Pierre Bardou, Jean-Jacques Chanaron, Patrick Friedenson, James M. Laux, The Automobile Revolution: The Impact of an Industry by Robert E. Ankli / 284 Maria Hirszowicz. Industrial Sociology: An Introduction by G.B. Rush / 285 Charles F. Sabel, Work and Politics. The Division of Labor in Industry by Carl J. Cuneo / 288 J.M. Bumsted, The People's Clearance. 1770-1815. and Stephen P. Dunn, The Fall & Rise of the Asiatic Mode of Production by Rosemary E. Ommer / 291 Willie Orr, Deer Forests. Landlords, and Crofters: The Western Highlands in Victorian and Edwardian Times by J.M. Bumsted / 296 Raymond H. Dominick III, Wilhelm Liebknecht and the Founding of the German Social Democratic Party by Glen R. McDougall / 298 Jean Lacouture, Leon Rlum by John Sherwood / 300 Carmen Sirianni, Workers Control and Socialist Democracy: The Soviet Experience by Larry Peterson / 303 Richard Cornell, Revolutionary Vanguard: The Early Years of the Communist Youth International. 1914 1924 by Ken Hansen / 306 Victor Rothman, Britain and the Cold War. 1941-1947 by Donald Avery / 308 Geoff Hodgson, Labour at the Crossroads by Donald Swam / 311 Peter Richardson, Chinese Mine Labour in the Transvaal by T. Jin Tan/313 Mikiso Hane, Peasants. Rebels and Outcasts: The Underside of Japan by E. Patricia Tsurumi / 315 Eric Fry, éd., Rebels and Radicals by George Rude / 317

5 REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS*

Bryan D. Palmer, Working-Class Experi­ telos of this history as the legal ence: The Rise and Reconstitution of institutionalization of the trade unions and Canadian Labour, 1800-1980 (Toronto: the creation of the CLC and the NDP. They Butterworths 1983). will find, moreover, that it is unnecessary to think about class in Canada as one of a THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS ambitious series of "factors" (region, religion, book need hardly be stressed: it is the first ethnicity, gender... class) with the point attempt by a labour historian of the new being to pronounce one factor more "Marxist/culturalist" school to survey the important than another in Canadian his­ entire span of working-class history in tory or in shaping workers' lives; and that Canada through the nineteenth and twen­ it is possible instead to think about class tieth centuries. It is immediately apparent hoUstically, to see how the particular that this is a book which could not have "factors" simultaneously compose and been written ten years ago. Its ability to fragment social life, and in doing so pro­ transcend the conventional surveys of duce that distinctive collectivity — the labour organization and labour politics to Canadian working class. They will be present a broader and deeper cultural his­ brought to understand that a class analysis tory of working-class life rests in good does not mean describing this or that class part on more particular recent studies in in isolation, but means examining the form­ time and place by a new generation of ative relations between classes as they social historians, especially those doing develop through time. Students will be feminist as well as labour history. Indeed, able to appreciate through reading this in one sense Palmer's new book may be book that when it is said that a class is seen as a tribute to a decade of work by formed through conflict or struggle, this is these historians, providing a rich .show­ not to be construed to mean that the his­ case as well as a synthesis of their work. tory of the class is predominantly one of Even with these resources to call on, it revolutionary consciousness and purpose. must be said that such an ambitious under­ (D. Bercuson take note.) It means rather taking took courage; some will even say that it is through workers' attempts to chutzpah. Yet the utility of the project establish their autonomy vis-a-vis capital and its issue cannot be denied. Students and the state that the working class can now be introduced to a broad sweep of becomes more than a collective object working-class history in Canada through a (with workers having only a structurally book which does not actually treat the given exploitation and domination in com­ mon) and becomes a collective subject, an active, living force in society and history. The struggles workers engage in may be * Table of Contents for reviews is on pp. about wages or dignity, organization or 4 and 5. 221 222 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL control, elections or revolutions, but how­ Palmer's treatment here of the CCF-CP ever mundane or lofty these struggles, conflict through the 1930s and the 1940s they become the stuff of class formation constitutes one of the few truly non- as they yield collective experiences, ideas, sectarian discussions of this critical chap­ and associations which are more or less ter in Canadian labour history (Palmer autonomous and distinctive from those of acknowledges that Abella is another). other classes. In this respect, one of the Perhaps most important, those who most valuable aspects of the book is think that the word "experience" in the Palmer's repeated demonstration that title means that the book is about quaint working-class defeats no less than vic­ but ephemeral cultural practices from the tories can contribute to the making of a charivari to Joe Beef's tavern to Bob class: it is in the process of coming Dylan's music are in for a surprise. Palm­ together for the struggle that collective er's concepts of culture and experience identities are formed. Those who would include unions and parties as well as count in and counsel only the successful "ritual and revelry;" indeed, for good or compromise, and count out the spectacu­ ill, the reader will actually find far more lar failure on the grounds that "it is better of the former than of the latter as she or he to bend than break," will understand little moves from the first chapter on of the process of class formation. 1800-1850 through the rest of the book. In teaching lessons like these. Palm­ As for the "bloodless economic catego­ er's book constitutes an explicit critique ries" of economic stage and structure, of an earlier social democratic labour his­ there is no dearth of this either, as is only tory. That it does so less through theoreti­ tu be expected from an author who makes cal assertion than through empirico- it explicit at the outset that "it is class, as historical example is one of the book's embedded in the structural, primarily eco­ main strengths (although Palmer is not nomic context of specific social forma­ above taking a Morton or a Bercuson on in tions, that is at the conceptual root of this direct debate, and this indeed livens many study." Again, it can confidently be said a page). But this book can also be seen that there is more attention paid here to as a defence against the critics of the new consideration of the changing structure of labour historians, especially of Palmer's capital and to occupational and sectional and Kealey's work on Ontario, To those shifts than in any other labour history who have alleged a centralist bias, it can survey. be said that this book pays more attention Obviously I am a fan. Yet despite all to working-class life, organization, and of its undeniable positive qualities, I struggle in the Maritimes and B.C. than any previous labour history survey of found reading this book a troubling and Canada. Those who have charged blind­ ultimately disappointing experience. ness to American domination and the Accustomed to being taken by the hand national question may be surprised to find and given a slow walking tour of here a major emphasis on the role of working-class life in late nineteenth- American capital in transforming the century Hamilton, it came as a shock to be Canadian political economy from the turn put on a fast train, whereby we covered a of the century onwards; and they will find lot of distance but at the expense of the as well a sympathetic treatment of the blurring of the images. This book suffers, CCU and other nationalist forces in the in other words, from the insurmountable modem labour movement. And against defect of historical surveys. The excite­ those who have complained of ideological ment generated by the new history has passion scorching the "objective" histori­ very much derived from the opportunity it cal record, it can be said in return that affords of savouring working-class life in rich detail. To be sure, the critics may REVIEWS 223

sneer at generalizations made from the breakdown of the fragmented local pater­ study of this or that city or region, but nalisms of early nineteenth-century Can­ someone who has lived the working-class ada. The three chapters on the twentieth experience can recognize, given sufficient century follow the theme of the working detail, the genuinely common elements of class being "unmade," as Palmer actu­ exploitation, struggle, and community, ally puts it. The struggles of the first two and observe with fascination how they decades of the twentieth century, cul­ come to be expressed in different or like minating in the famous conflict of 1919, fashion in his or her own place and time are portrayed as an "Indian Summer," as and in another. With the survey, however, the last battle cry of the Knights' "move­ much of the richness of the detail is lost in ment culture." The decade of the 1920s is favour of chronology and comprehensive­ seen in terms of the consolidation of ness. I was tantalized by being exposed to monopoly capitalism and the onset of a many things of which I had been ignorant, culture of mass consumerism, both of but I was frustrated by the inadequacy of which pulverize and atomize the only being able to examine them through a working-class community. A "reconstitu­ few lines of text. tion" is begun again with the unemployed The frustration, and ultimately the and CIO struggles of the 1930s and con­ tedium, of the rush of incident and fact is tinues right through to the white-collar tempered of course by the connection unionization and wage militancy of the established between them by the author's 1960s and 1970s. But the benchmark interpretation and argument. The fast train always remains the 1880s, whose unity of of a survey is always taking you political and workplace struggles with "a somewhere, usually lo the point where the culture of resistance and alternative" has working class can be said to be "made" never been reestablished. (or to have "made it"). For the social It is perhaps not surprising that Palmer democratic historians that destination, as 1 should place the period he knows best at have said, is the legal institutionalization the centre of his survey, and it is certainly of the trade unions and the creation of the not invalid for him to attempt to reestab­ CLC and NDP, in the post-World War II lish a collective memory for the Canadian era. For Palmer that destination is reached working class that antedates the CIO or much earlier, indeed before most other 1919. But he actually does both the 1880s historians have even started their journey. and the study of the Canadian working Yet in this respect, too, the book is quite class a disservice by trying to make that troubling. decade bear a weight that it simply cannot Palmer's central theme is that the sustain. Indeed, astonishing as it may Canadian working class was "made" in seem, Palmer's chapter on the 1880s and the 1880s, a decade of "unprecedented the Knights of Labor is in some ways the working class militancy and cultural cohe­ least satisfying chapter in the book, pre­ sion," when the class was first unified cisely because so much is made to ride on through the "movement culture" of the it. We are given but the merest glance into Knights of Labor which took an the Knights' ideology, programme, and "unequivocal stand" against industrial strategy, so that the treatment of the capitalism. It is this decade which in fact Knights as the central unifying force of provides the focal point for Palmer's the class simply lacks substance. And one entire survey. The three chapters on the has the uncomfortable feeling throughout nineteenth century are conceived in terms the chapter that despite Palmer's repeated of their leading up to the "consolidation" claims about unprecedented and unsur­ in the 1880s of a distinctive, oppositional, passed working-class cohesion, there is in unified, working-class culture out of the fact little effective unity for the class 224 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

transcending the level of region. It is International's Marxism. It is rather to therefore with some chagrin that we find insist that any analysis of the development only at the end of the chapter that the of the Canadian working class must dwell riddle that has been plaguing us is finally on what remained to be done, far more answered in a way that denies what than what was "undone" as the working Palmer seemed to be arguing or at least class turned to the twentieth century. For lends only a very particular meaning to what is put on the agenda by the struggles terms like consolidation and fragmenta­ of this century is precisely the attempt to tion. It turns out that the "movement cul­ forge a unity for the working class beyond ture" overcame paternalism but not local­ workplace and locale, to allow the work­ ism, that the horizons of this "unified cul­ ing class to play a role as a distinctive ture" were effectively bounded by particu­ national economic and political force. In lar constituencies, communities, and this sense, it is entirely more appropriate neighbourhoods, and that not even the to see 1919, for instance, in terms of its leadership of this movement culture had links to the struggles of the 1930s and an orientation towards developing an eco­ 1940s than in terms of its links to the nomic or political strategy which would 1880s. turn,the working class into a cohesive But even if one wants to say that the national force. Canadian working class came closer to Once seen in this light, Palmer's "consolidation" in the 1930s and 1940s whole project of trying to demonstrate the than in the 1880s, this still hides the main making and unmaking of the Canadian point, which is that in comparative terms working class at a point around 1886 the Canadian working class has always becomes, if not wrong, then at least been and remains one of the less success­ strained and precious. For as much as the ful of the western working classes in forg­ Knights accomplished in the 1880s, the ing political, economic, or cultural unity. rapid demise of the "movement culture" This is not a matter of saying that region together with its inherent localism, leaves or ethnicity is "more important" than us contemplating what was not even class but rather that the expression of class begun to be accomplished in terms of in Canada has been characterized by "consolidation/' Palmer is of course greater pluralism and fragmentation and uncomfortably aware of this and tries to less cohesion and unity than in many other account for the Knights' failures in terms societies, and that this has made the work­ of their being trapped by the "limits of ing class weaker as a political and cultural their experience" in "small scale produc­ force than in those other countries. Palmer tion and community" so that they could describes this condition well enough and not recognize the significance of national from time to time he raises particular fac­ politics or economic strategy. But will tors that contribute to it (not least, in his this really do in the context of a domestic view, twentieth-century immigration). conjuncture where the bourgeoisie was' But he refuses to try his hand at a general ambitiously developing and realizing a explanation in comparative terms, so that grandiose "national policy" on a conti­ we might weigh the specificity of immi­ nental plane? And will it do in the context gration in the Canadian case or compare of an international conjuncture where the the timing and impact of mass consum­ working class in this very decade was erism or monopoly capitalism here and developing in Germany and elsewhere the elsewhere. In the end, with a "message" great mass social democratic parties? in a two-page conclusion to a 300-page book that we draw inspiration from the The point, however, is not to give example of the 1880s, we feel cheated. what Palmer calls the Knights' "eclectic The author has simply not lived up suffi- radicalism" a worse mark than the Second REVIEWS 225 ciently to the promise of the quotation on have expected him to search out other the frontispiece of the book where, dimensions of contemporary working- through the words of Trotsky, we were class experience, or to give us at least a told to expect not only an honest study of lead toward undertaking a study of the the facts but "a determination of their real transformations in working-class culture connections, an exposure of the causal in the modern era that the Centre for Con­ laws of their movement." temporary Culture Studies has been Others, perhaps less concerned with attempting to do for Britain. Even as determination, and more concerned with regards the trade unions, one might have comprehensiveness will complain of facts expected more attention to be paid to their that are "left out." Short of asking for an internal life, to their varied modes of encyclopaedia, one hesitates to raise this local, regional, and national organization, kind of objection. Yet there are some curi­ to some discussion of the cultural dimen­ ous omissions. It is not clear why the sion of union participation for activists, Québécois working-class experience (e.g. the social role of conventions). This should have been virtually ignored in the is not necessarily a matter of asking for chapter covering the first two decades of original research for the kind of book that this century (although the rise and fall of obviously must rely on secondary the Catholic unions is briefly taken up in a sources. Rather one has the feeling that subsequent chapter). Nor is it easy to jus­ material that would be considered a gold tify why so little attention is paid to mine regarding the nineteenth century is working-class politics at the municipal left unexamined on the shelf for the mod­ level in the inter-war years, especially in ern era (e.g., sociological studies of light of the enormous salience that is Canadian community life, surveys of given to this in the 1880s. Indeed, it might working-class attitudes, etc.) be said that Palmer's claims with regard to Palmer is unable to deliver all that he the weakness of labour reformism during promises, but he still delivers a great deal. the 1920s and with regard to the CCF's This is certainly the best Canadian labour lack of a working-class and ethnic base history survey yet written or that is likely until the 1940s collapses entirely once this to be written for quite some time. municipal dimension is introduced. Perhaps most troubling of all is the Leo Pan itch fact that Palmer gives in fact quite little York University space to working-class culture in the twentieth century. One gets a better look at the life and habits of the working-class Labour History (Labour History Provin­ organizer-intellectual in the first few dec­ cial Specialist Association of the British ades of this century from Penner's The Columbia Teachers' Federation), 1977- Canadian Left than from Palmer's Experi­ 1982. ence. Additionally, the labour temples, the benefit and aid societies, and the IN SLIGHTLY MORE than a decade the ethnic newspapers are given very little pendulum of education in B .C. has had its attention in their own right. As for the course reversed. It has been transformed chapter covering 1940-80, Palmer's sym­ from an abundant and expanding resource pathies and interpretations are radical but to one which is struggling for survival. in his primary concentration on labour The cause of the reversal is the restraint organization and labour politics, he is programme of the Bennett government quite conventional. Given that he is which is threatening and even eliminating clearly aware that the trade union is not gains made by teachers throughout the the centre of working-class life, one might 1970s. 226 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

On a much smaller scale teachers face association's attempts to provide resource another loss — the termination of the material about the history of working peo­ Labour History Association. Over the past ple. The journal was non-academic and seven years teachers in the B.C. addressed itself to an audience of Teachers' Federation have been working teachers, high-school students, and mem­ to introduce labour histories into the cur­ bers of the trade union movement. Ten riculum in B.C. public schools. In 1976 issues of Labour History have been they formed the Labour History Provin­ printed since 1977. This article will cial Specialist Association, an organiza­ review the journal, focusing on its motiva­ tion which was unique in Canada. This tions, content, successes, and failures. was "the first time that so large a group of Prior to the review, the major goals and teachers in any federation has associated objectives of the Labour History Associa­ themselves together for the purpose of tion will be outlined to provide back­ making labour's history an integral part of ground information about the journal. the educational system of B.C." The Labour History Association grew Although its membership remained small, out of teachers' frustrations with a social the PSA was remarkably productive. It studies curriculum that failed to prepare produced a journal. Labour History; a students for their futures as workers. Col­ film, "For Twenty Cents a Day," which leen Bostwick, a past editor of Labour was shown at festivals in Berlin and Edin­ History, commented on the situation for burgh; slide/tape shows, "These were the students in an article about child labour: Reasons" and "Strike;" in-service work­ shops for teachers; and conferences. Today in North America and Britain, those under 18 spend a good deal of their time in In January 1983, the executive of the public schools. Yet what do they learn of their association decided it must "change its predecessors? There is hardly any recognition methods of promoting the teaching of of the thousands of young people and small labour history and of providing a service children whose lives were so shamefully to its membership." In other words, the ground into the foundation of industrial association closed its books. It may or capitalism. That time seems so long ago and so may not resume its activities in the future. unrelated lo our world — but is it? Among the The association's reasons for termination most exploited workers today are young people were a shortage of funds for providing under 18 years old. journals, an inability to fulfill its obliga­ The association set out to redress the tions to its members, a lack of new active imbalance in the curriculum. Its major members, and new directions taken by goal was to promote a recognition by some members. teachers and students of the contribution This decision will affect many of working people and their trade unions teachers since the association has pro­ to the development of B.C. and Canada. vided a quantity of resource material for To realize this goal, the association pro­ teaching labour studies. Furthermore. posed to research and develop materials although members of the association will about labour studies. continue to be involved with the develop­ The proposed resource materials were ment and implementation of labour intended to cover the history of working studies programmes, issues such as gov­ people and emphasis was placed upon ernment cutbacks to education or exploration of such developments as province-wide examinations will likely struggles for the eight-hour day, higher take precedence over curriculum develop­ wages, and workers' compensation. From ment. the inception of the Labour History \sso- The association's publication — ciation there was opposition from conser­ Labour History — represents one of the vative elements in the federation. To REVIEWS 227

avoid political alignments within the fed­ were presented and a number of articles eration and further criticism, the associa­ were reprinted from The Fisherman, pub­ tion attempted to adopt a position of neu­ lished by the Pacific Coast Fisherman's trality. This meant it presented the history Union, the predecessor of the United of unions as a history of tensions between Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union. employees and employers. It avoided These articles focused on organizing can­ such issues as the American domination nery workers (mainly native and Japanese of Canadian trade unions or class biases in women) and strikes in 1900 and 1936. the schools. Although this perspective The most active period in B.C.'s min­ was limited and simplistic, this approach ing history was from 1900-1914 and enabled teachers to confront the anti­ received treatment in Vol. I, No. 3. The union attitudes of most students. feature article, "The Story of B.C. Min­ The editorial policy of Labour Historv ing," contrasts the history of two B.C. was to give positive consideration to the mining centres, Rossland in the Koolenay historic role of working people, mainly in region and Vancouver Island. In Rossland B.C. and Canada, both in relation to work the Western Federation of Miners went on and within society. For practical reasons strike in 1901 over the discriminatory hir­ material in the journals was organized by ing policies of the mine manager. Strikes themes. These were: sectors of B.C. in 1903 and 1912-14 by miners on labour (logging, fishing, mining, public Vancouver Island were over the right to sector employees, Indian workers, child unionize. labour, and railways), the Depression, Material covering public sector and fiction. Original research, oral his­ employees (Vol. II, No. 1) was directed tories, articles reprinted from labour pub­ specifically at a high school audience. lications, literature, reviews, lesson plans The writing style was deliberately and bibliographies formed the bulk of simplified and general. Articles explored published material. briefly the histories of the Vancouver Two issues of Labour History dealt Municipal and Regional Employees with logging (Vol. I, No. 1 and Vol. II, Union (VMREU), the Canadian Union of No. 2). The first issue, which also doub­ Public Employees (CUPE), and the B.C led as the association's newsletter, was a Government Employees Union (BCGEU). composite by the executive. Its lead story, Excerpts from a 1945 report over the "The IWA," detailed the growth of the question of affiliation by the B.C. Gov­ union and the struggle between commu­ ernment Employees Association to the nist and non-communist factions within Trades and Labour Congress of Canada labour. The second issue contained a col­ have also been reprinted. lection of short articles about logging in The issue on Indian workers in B.C. the 1930s. It presented material reprinted (Vol. II, No. 3) considers both the Indian mainly from the B.C. Lumber Worker, point of view and the attitudes of govern­ the publication of the Lumber Worker's ment and industry. "Indian Workers in Industrial Union. The content of the items B.C." is a summary of Rolf Knight's centred on the organization of workers book on the history of Indians in indus­ and strikes for increased wages and tries such as fishing, logging, and long- improved working conditions. shoring. Oral histories with two Indians The issue on fishing (Vol. 1, No. 2) from the Sechelt Indian Band present their addressed teachers and students. Reviews work experiences. Reprinted government of books and audio-visual material, lesson records and newspaper items illustrate the plans, and a guide to labour material from racist attitudes towards Indians within the the Special Collections Division at the government and industry. University of British Columbia Library "All Work and No Play: Children in 228 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

ihc New Industries" introduces the theme about unemployment. A poetry unit and of child labour (Vol. II. No. 4). The intro­ writings by students about their prospects duction reviews the use of children in fac­ for employment provide suggestions for tories and mining operations in Britain and writing assignments for secondary school North America as well as the growth of students. legislation to eliminate child labour, Most issues also contain reviews, les­ Excerpts from the Royal Commission on son plans, songs, and bibliographies. the Relations of Labour and Capital Reviews of books, films, and audio-visual include a description of the factory system resources are geared to teachers. The les­ in the 1880s and testimonies that are son plans are in varying stages of comple­ graphic illustrations of child labour in tion. Some are ready to use, while others Canada. require additional teacher preparation. The issue on B.C. railways (Vol. III. Songs are accompanied by explanatory No. 1 ) consists mainly of reprinted items. articles by Phil Thomas, a collector of These include an excerpt from Rtiincoast folk songs that were common throughout Chronicles about logging and the railway. B.C.'s history. The bibiographies aim to the history of the CPR in Vancouver, a serve both an adult and an adolescent report of a strike by CPR workers in 1885, audience. and collages on the 1WW and working Issues in Labour History are presented conditions on the railways. There is also a as a history of tensions between workers short essay about the Canadian Northern and employers. They are generally strike of 1912. reviewed in a straightforward, During the Depression (Vol. I, No. 4). unprovocative. and perhaps somewhat the struggles of unemployed workers were simplistic manner. Articles tend to portray against more than unemployment and only the workers' struggles while attitudes poverty. There were political struggles or activities of the employers are usually against fascism, and trade union struggles ignored. This may have been to organize and to protect and extend the shortsighted. An article in "Mining" rights of workers. "'The Hungry '30V {Vol. 1. No. 3) referred to and criticized illustrates the ineffective role of all three the Royal Commission of 1903 that inves­ levels of government and the consequent tigated the industrial difficulties in B.C. response of the unemployed to govern­ No details of the commission were given. ment solutions. An interview with Syd Excerpts from the Royal Commission may Thompson relays his experiences in relief have been valuable resource material for camps and his involvement with the teachers to allow a more complete Relief Camp Workers" Union. Activities analysis of the workers' struggles by of the unemployed are covered in articles students. — the "On-to-Ottawa Trek" and "The Those issues of Labour History which Regina Riot" — reprinted from Sound do present information from opposing Heritage. Selections from Bloody Sunday sectors include "Indian Workers" (Vol. by Steve Brodie report the activities of the II. No. 3) and "Child Labour" (Vol. II, RCMP and Vancouver city police in No. 4). "Indian Workers" provides mate­ evacuating 1.200 men from the rial to contrast the work lives of the Vancouver Post Office on 19 June 1938. Indians with racist government and man­ The last journal is devoted to agerial attitudes. "Child Labour" working-class fiction (Vol. III. No. 2). includes several testimonies from factory Literature includes prose about strikes, an owners and workers which reveal the use excerpt from One Proud Summer by M. of child labour in Canada. The presenta­ tion of material from opposing sectors Hewitt and C. Mackay, and a short story, gives a more accurate view of the com- "The Task Eternal," in addition to poetry REVIEWS 229 plexities and difficulties for workers in Teachers interested in developing les­ their struggles. sons about labour studies tended to seek Labour History has contributed material which was lesson-ready. valuable resource material about labour Students who were unfamiliar with the studies in B.C., particularly through oral history of labour needed basic material histories and original research. The asso­ about such topics as the sectors in opposi­ ciation's executive recognized the urgent tion, the issues behind the workers' need for material on labour studies. struggles, and the difficulties encountered "Labour studies needs to be captured and by workers in affecting change. Members put into usable form to educate the public. of the trade union movement were It must be captured quickly. When the interested in material about the history of live activists die, a part of B.C.'s history their own union or industry. Addressing will be lost and pieces for future genera­ such a wide audience may have been a tions will be missing." mistake. Although the association intended to Although the concerns of the three organize numerous professional develop­ groups overlap, the needs of teachers and ment seminars, it was more active with students are significantly different from production than with implementation. As the interests of trade unionists. Teachers mentioned above, the association made sought material which was ready to use. important contributions to labour studies However, articles often required further in B.C. Given the fact that the group of preparation by teachers, and many active members was small, the association teachers were unwilling to make the effort was notably productive. Furthermore its to translate the material into a lesson. As a production and distribution of resource consequence, the potential of Labour His­ material throughout the province tory was not developed fully in the class­ facilitated the process of teaching labour room. studies. However, the association My connection to the association was neglected to educate teachers about the as editor of Labour History for the past use of the journal or other resource mate­ two years. The production of the journal rial. It also failed to recruit new and active was largely the responsibility of the edit­ members. Instead, the association tended ors). Although executive members did to cater to its supporters and to overlook contribute articles occasionally, the exec­ the problem of educating unconvinced utive tended to have a supportive but pas­ teachers. sive role. This problem might have been Labour History attempted to reach dealt with in one of two ways. Ideally three audiences — teachers, high school funds would have been available to students, and members of the trade union employ a researcher for the journal. How­ movement. This wide focus reflected the ever, funding was always a problem for goals of [he Labour History Association. the association both in producing the jour­ The association aimed to raise the aware­ nal and in professional development ness of teachers and to encourage them to workshops. A more practical solution in recognize that labour history is an integral producing the journal might have been to part of general education. It sought to pro­ work as a collective. Although funding mote an understanding among teachers would still have been a problem, the work and students of the unique role of the B.C. load for the editor(s) would have been labour movement in the development of reduced. B.C. and Canada. Finally it recognized Despite these criticisms, the the affinity between teachers and trade termination of the Labour History Associ­ unionists and the need to develop connec­ ation and Labour History will be a loss to tions with the trade union movement. teachers in particular. Other Provincial 230 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Specialist Associations of the BCTF will Professor Fingard calls our attention provide resource material about labour to the peculiarities and contradictions of issues. Also, the Labour Studies Working the "free market system" of maritime Group, a committee comprised of labour in nineteenth-century Canada, and teachers and personnel from the particularly to the scarcity and seasonality Vancouver School Board has spent two of labour that conditioned so many other years developing curriculum material on aspects of the system. Since wages were labour studies. The lessons were to be significantly higher in Canadian than European ports and since sailors piloted in the fall of 1983. However, it is "regarded desertion as the most effective unlikely that the quantity of resource way of protesting against specific [and material produced about labour studies worsening] conditions of employment," will be maintained. (145) seamen ran in droves from their ships once docked at eastern Canadian Ellen Moffat wharves. This autonomous initiative by Vancouver sailors threw the labour market into disar­ ray, cut sharply into merchants' profits, and provoked intervention from the state Judith Fingard, Jack in Port: Saihrtowns and from private 1 abour-market organizers of Eastern Canada (Toronto: University known as "crimps." The state sought to of Toronto Press 1982). "regulate" the labour market, "ostensibly to promote order and fairness in the ship­ JUDITH FINGARD has ventured into the ping of seamen, but in reality to discour­ mid-nineteenth-century Canadian sailor- age desertion and crimping and thereby town, that "challenge to the bourgeois serve the needs of capital." (30) Crimps, notions of order and modernity," (6) with many of whom were formerly mariners, a mind "to rescue from obscurity those usually ran taverns and boarding-houses merchant sailors and the shoreside milieu in sailortown, and managed to accumulate in which they moved." Fingard has looked remarkable political clout through organi­ at the raw and the rowdy, the strange and zations such as the Boarding House Keep­ the sordid of the bustling ports, and she ers' Association of Saint John. These has written a "largely descriptive" por­ "sailor-brokers" or, less generously, trayal of "the ways in which the institu­ "sailor-stealers" lived in close proximity tions and demands of society shaped and to seafaring men, established "both com­ conditioned the drama of seafaring and radely and exploitative relationships" with how shipboard concerns, in turn, them (196), and declared themselves to be fashioned the sailors' experience on the land-based managers of the sailors' land." (3) There was much to see: the labour power. They were prepared to back maritime working class was becoming up this declaration with gangster-like increasingly international in composition, methods against any who doubted their and was experiencing harsher exploitation sincerity, Fingard leaves us with the and deteriorating working conditions; but unmistakable impression that mid- there also existed in the ports a persistent nineteenth-century port towns witnessed labour shortage, relatively high wages, what was nearly a civil, but extremely recurring desertion, and increasingly uncivil, war over that coveted commodity strenuous efforts by the state and private called maritime labour. It was a war entrepreneurs to "rationalize" the waged legally and extra-legally, in statute maritime labour market. These are the key and in blood, in the courts and in the features of Fingard's impressive survey of streets, among sailors, crimps, captains, "Jack in Port" in Quebec, Saint John, and shipowners, and magistrates. The author Halifax. REVIEWS 231

does much justice to its many com­ sometimes combine to push the sailor plexities. himself — his life, thoughts, hopes, and Yet for all its many strengths, this is a fears — into the background. Occasion­ study which as a whole is something less ally a strong and clear voice is heard, as in than the sum of its parts. This is partially the tar who in December 1867 disclosed in the result of the decision to investigate court that "he had no idea of endangering and describe the institutional matrix his life on the 'briny deep" while others within which sailors lived their lives. The lived in luxury ashore on the proceeds of emphasis, as indicated by the title of the his toil." (153-4) One wishes to hear book, falls upon "Jack in Port" rather more of such voices. than Jack at Sea. But this decision rends to But perhaps this is asking too much, delimit the understanding of "the for the "obscurity" into which Judith Fin- drama of seafaring" and "the sailors' gard ventures on this rescue mission of experience." Crucial matters receive far sailors and sailortown is dark and deep. too little attention. We get no sustained Jack in Port represents a fine contribution discussion of the social and class relation­ to our knowledge of the dramas of ships within the workplace, the ship. We seafaring life, and it will be profitably get no analysis of labour discipline, but read by anyone interested in nineteenth- rather only a few references to brutality century social, labour, or maritime his­ and sadism. And in place of a survey of tory. the seaman's full experience of work, we get a short discourse on the merchant cap­ Marcus Rediker tain's experience of difficulties in getting Georgetown University seamen to work once in port. In short, we get relatively little on the ways in which seamen were exploited as labourers, too William Repka and Kathleen M. Repka, little on the relations and activities so Dangerous Patriots: Canada's Unknown utterly necessary to the international Prisoners of War (Vancouver: New Star movement of commodities and the Books 1982). accumulation of capital. A second reason why the book is bet­ LATE IN THE SPRING of 1940, the ter in its parts than as an interpretive Phoney War came to a shattering end. The whole lies in the author's decision to feeble but civilized assumptions that war make it "largely descriptive in nature." The could be waged without the horrors of study consequently lacks certain concepts 1914-18 dissolved before Hitler's blitz­ or concerns that would have given it a krieg. By June, Britain stood alone in greater sense of unity and closure. Fin- Europe. Canada found herself the senior gard, for example, says little of seafaring ranking ally in a struggle against Hitler in culture: there are only eight pages (74-81 ) which the odds seemed hopeless. on "The Seafarer's Outlook," and these Ten months before, in his customary consist mainly of examples and descrip­ fashion, Stalin had liquidated the "anti- tions of songs, obscenities, and the few Fascist" crusade with a Nazi-Soviet pact. material possessions sailors had. More Having commanded "full support to the attention to and analysis of culture would Polish people" at the outset of the war. have allowed us to understand more of the Tim Buck. Canada's Communist leader, sailors* collective perspective on the had dutifully revised the line. "Withdraw nature of life at sea, as well as their Canada from the Imperialist War" was strategies for survival and prosperity in the new command, within days of the out­ this very difficult world. The institutional break of war. Communist newspapers like and descriptive emphases of Jack in Port The Clarion focused on Britain's impe- 232 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

rial iniquities and left the Nazis strictly an injured rectitude as though a country alone. Hard at work in the labour move­ suddenly and desperately at war should ment, Communists found the times pro­ have tolerated their innocent little efforts pitious to organize and to strike. As the at sabotage. Nazis swarmed into Norway, the Those involved may well have felt Communist-controlled Canadian Sea­ innocent and some were naive. The men's Union tied up Great Lakes shipping humiliation they felt at their arrest, the for a week. As Hitler's tanks entered misery of separation from families, the Paris, a Communist organ in Toronto pro­ bitterness of sharing their ordeal with claimed: "Canadian capitalism, not Ger­ Canada's tinpot Fascists and Nazis is man capitalism, is our main enemy." apparent. We are now too aware of the One result was that 110 Canadian horrors of Hitler's concentration camps Communists, among them Bill Repka, and Stalin's gulags, to say nothing of the found themselves lodged in internment prisons of modern Chile and Argentina, to camps at Kananaskis, Alberta and at stoke up much indignation at their Petawawa, Ontario. They shared their treatment. Internment camp guards were accommodation with a rather larger elderly veterans, content to live and let number of Nazi and Fascist sympathizers live. Even the camp commandants at and Montreal's corpulent mayor, Camil- Petawawa and Kananaskis and later at the lien Houde. Much later, the Repkas set Hull Jail obviously did not fit their mon­ out to interview the Communist veterans ster costumes. If the plight of Communist of the experience and, after Bill Repka's internees has largely been overlooked, no death, the book has been published, pre­ sensible person would wish it to supplant sumably as a timely warning of the threats our awareness of the inexcusable intern­ to civil liberties posed by the Trudeau ment of 22,000 Japanese-Canadians in government and its security legislation. 1942 or the mass round-up of so-called How could such earnest and innocent anti- "enemy aliens" in the previous war. Fascists suffer such a fate when their only In due course, history revolved again, offence was to rally the workers? the Soviet Union became an ally instead The collected interviews do not. of of a mysterious but menacing enemy and course, provide any background to the Canadian Communists emerged, after a government's decision. The Communist we I l-organized campaign which the Repkas divergence into the Molotov-Ribbentrop chronicle, to become cheerleaders in the treaty and the ensuing carve-up of Poland Great Patriotic War. Undoubtedly their has no place in the Repka account. Nor hearts were in the struggle more ardently has the wrenching of loyalties which, as than in earlier efforts to undermine the so often, sent some of the most principled war effort from 1939 to 1941. Indeed the party members out of its ranks. This is a Communists played a major role in the pity. There were sound, if cynical, rea­ booming labour movement, expanding sons for the Soviet-Nazi treaty. Many organization, rising to positions of influ­ Ukrainians, as one interviewee admits, ence and winning Liberal government rejoiced ai the destruction of Poland. Giv­ gratitude for selfless patriotism in contrast ing unquestioned loyalty to the Soviet to the "adventurist" CCF. Union rather than one's homeland has As a human, sometimes amusing and been an accepted requirement of Commu­ often touching story of people caught up nist membership and the rejection of pat- in a wartime tragedy, Dangerous Patriots - riotism is no longer, surely, a form of has a certain appeal. However, the special moral turpitude. Yet none of these prob­ pleading, largely from Joe Zuken, that lems have been addressed. Instead, with­ this is also a tract against the current out exception, the interviewees express security legislation will not work. By REVIEWS 233

suppressing substantia] relevant informa­ ing their jobs if they supported the union. tion, this is the kind of book that gives the Much of the resistance to unionization in Left a bad name. In 1940, summoned to the retail trade described by Eileen Sufrin intervene on behalf of Jacob Penner, the in The Eaton Drive rang true to my own ailing CCF leader, J.S. Woodsworth, was memories of experiences "working for characteristically straightforward. Those Timothy." who lived by communism, he suggested Eaton's was no ordinary department to Mrs. Penner, were in a poor position to store. When Timothy Eaton, founder of the turn to liberalism in time of war: Eaton mercantile empire died in 1907, he had already amassed an estate with a total Underlying the action of the authorities is the value over $5Va million. "Timothy" whole conception of communism, its objects remained the great patriarchal head of the and methods and further, the question as to whether a man can give his allegiance to the company long after his death. The myth of Soviet State and still retain any real loyalty his kindness, his concern for the welfare of towards a state organized under what is known his staff, survived the decades. Even after as a democracy. Of course I note that you use criticizing the store's policy of sexual dis­ the phrase "democracy" but I cannot see that a crimination, which permitted men to rise dictatorship of the proletariat, whatever its to managerial positions while women supposed advantages may be, bears any close remained blocked at assistant manager, my resemblance to the ideals underlying what is mother would then add: but "old man generally accepted as "democracy". (Woods- worth to Mrs. J. Penner, 29 July 1940. PAC Eaton was good." Woodsworth Paper, 1003) Timothy was thus a most effective ideological weapon in Eaton's battle to Needless to say, these are the issues maintain absolute control over their the Repkas did not raise. employees. The Canadian labour move­ ment's challenge to that control is well Desmond Morton documented in this very readable book on Erindale College the 1948-52 union drive at the Toronto University of Toronto Eaton's store. Eileen Tallman Sufrin, the author and key organizer of the drive, tells the story from a union point of view. She Eileen Sufrin, The Eaton Drive: The documents the day-to-day activities of Campaign to Organize Canada's Largest labour's effort to break the back of the Department Store, 1948 to 1952 (Toronto: retail giant. The book is descriptive rather Fitzhenry and Whiteside 1982). than explanatory. Sufrin recounts in great detail the leaflets issued, the day-to-day AS A TEENAGER, I worked for Eaton's running of the union office, the people who during the rush season — one of the many worked there, and the responses of the young female part-time workers that the various employees to the drive. Each step retail trade relies upon to keep labour costs of the drive is documented, but for readers down. My mother's commitment to the seeking a broader understanding of the rea­ Eaton's empire was more sustained. She sons for the drive's failure, the book falls began work as a salesclerk in the short. Saskatoon store in the late 1950s and Sufrin situates the drive within a well- worked there until her retirement in the documented outline of the history of the mid-1970s. Eaton's, following through on store. Past attempts to unionize in 1912 its motto ' "The Greatest Good to the Great­ and 1934 tell the reader something about est Number," now pays my mother $60 a the retail giant that unions have not been month pension. Often the women working able to conquer. The Toronto Eaton's com­ with my mother expressed the fear of los­ plex is an impressive mercantile empire, 234 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL having embraced over 16,000 employees salesclerks was an interesting one, for at the time of the drive, stretching over a although Sufrin fails to comment on it, dozen work locations, and covering five their circumstances provided an interest­ square blocks of central Toronto. The ing contrast between male and female segmented workforce, divided into a employees in the firm. They had a habit of myriad of departments, and fragmented by socializing together after work and status differences based on the com­ traditionally this has been one of the modities they sold, was not easy to move important features in the success of union toward collective action, despite the com­ efforts. The factories, where a Iarge mon denominator of low wages. Eaton's number of women were employed were was able to take advantage of the never effectively unionized. Women, tied segmented workforce in its promotion and to the double day. were in no position to pay policies, which discriminated on the socialize after work. Sufrin admits that basis of age, sex, and marital status. The women on the sales floors were the hard­ est to organize. "Most women at Eaton's Canadian unionists had their job cut out for were well aware of the fact that compared them. The Eaton's Drive initiated new with men they were second calss techniques in union organizing. It cost the salesclerks in pay and promotional oppor­ CIO-CCL approximately $200,000 over tunity." Yet, this awareness did not four years and took the resources of seven necessarily draw them to the union. organizers in what remains today the most significant attempt to establish retail The decision to tackle the headquar­ unionism in Canadian labour history. It ters of the Eaton empire is not adequately failed. The study of its failure should explained in the brief, three-page chapter become required reading for all those entitled. "Why Toronto?" In the light of active and interested in unionized labour. recent events in organizing the Brampton According to Sufrin, about two-thirds and St. Catharine stores, I would have of the department store employees in 1951 liked to have seen a more thorough expla­ were women. The work environment for nation of the strategy on which this deci­ men and women was generally quite dis­ sion was based. The major reason Sufrin tinct. The problems of organizing men offers for the choice was that, "Eaton's and women were also different. Although Toronto staff included a strong mix of she addresses this factor in her work, blue collar workers and white collar salesclerks." This is later treated as a Sufrin's ability to explain the context of block to union organizing and not a reason women's work and their resistance to for it. The fact that RWDSU had already union efforts falls short. In a very interest­ acquired a list of several hundred Toronto ing chapter. "Collars. White and Blue," employees who had expressed interest in Sufrin outlines the number of the store unionizing seems to have been the real departments, their employees, and an deciding factor. overall impression of each division's receptivity to unionization. There is no Sufrin's strong point remains her abil­ breakdown of department employees by ity to describe the day-to-day life of the sex. We can infer from her description of campaign. Detailed descriptions of tactics the departments most resistant to the and "gimmicks" used to catch the interest union, however, that they employed a of staff, excerpts from articles in Flash. large number of women. By Sufrin's Eaton's employee magazine, comments account the first union members came from union activists and sympathetic from the traditionally male sectors of the employees, copies of leaflets distributed to firm: the shoe salesmen, the delivery and the employees, and sixteen pages of photo­ mail order rooms, and the restaurant. The graphs show the extent of the effort waged example of the almost all male shoe to bring Eaton's employees into the union REVIEWS 235 fold. Throughout we obtain a vivid picture serious the situation was in his union, did of the endurance and patience necessary to not wish to upset our group with the wage the battle. For example, her descrip­ details, or perhaps we were just too busy to tion of the Kafka-like machinery of the delve into the matter," seems to gloss over Ontario Labour Relations Board shows us the political consequences of this issue. how effectively such state machinery can She tells us about the dispute in the Interna­ be used to advantage by employers. In tional, a dispute with grave consequences addition, Eaton's ability to muzzle the for the CIO as the RWDSU was its only press meant that very little about the drive retail union, and we are led to believe that was known outside the union movement Canadian unionists Charles Millard, Pat itself. Because of this factor public sym­ Conroy, and the others on the Department pathy, so important in such a long cam­ Store Organizing Committee of the CCL paign, was never effectively developed. had little input into these decisions. But the When the vote finally came over a year results for the drive were catastrophic; the after the application had been filed, the staff organizer from RWDSU, Gus Sumner, stalling had worked. Sufrin cites these fac­ returned to the U.S.; financial aid for the tors as major elements in the battle. campaign ($2,500 a month) dried up; There are gaps in the story and cer­ changes in sponsorship, from the RWDSU tainly academic labour historians will find to the ACW, and then to the Congress few answers to their questions concerning Department Store Organizing Committee the politics of labour. In an effort to pre­ certainly caused considerable damage to sent her readers with a picture of the day- the unionizing effort. The shift of jurisdic­ to-day activities of union organizing, tion for organizing department stores to the Sufrin merely skims the surface in her dis­ Amalgamated Clothing Workers brought cussion of larger union issues. Much of the $2,000 back into the Eaton Fund, but by book's weakness rests in its inability to the end of 1949 this source had collapsed. articulate trade union political strategy and The International of the Amalgamated its impact on the union drive. Her commit­ Clothing Workers in New York "had ment to documenting the nuts and bolts of decided that, thanks but no thanks." the campaign means we can not expect Somewhere between the lines is yet much emphasis on the broader trade union another chapter in the history of the poli­ context in which the campaign was waged. tics of trade unionism. For example, her brief explanation of the All of this was linked to the Cold War politics of the Retail Wholesale Depart­ in the trade unions. As an active CCFer in ment Store Union (RWDSU) are mentioned the labour movement, part of Sufrin's pre­ only in the context of its effect on the vious job with the Steelworkers in B.C. financial assistance to thedrive. Yet much was political. The aim was to reduce the more was at issue. communist influence in the B.C. Federa­ In 1948, a battle for political control of tion of Labour and it was successful. In the RWDSU developed in the U.S. and the the battle for control of the CIO unions in immediate result was the lifting of the Canada, the implications of this dispute jurisdiction of the union over department were surely not lost on the CCL's Depart­ stores. Eileen Sufrin describes this period ment Store Organizing Committee or on of union history briefly in a chapter enti­ Sufrin. The Eaton Drive took place in the tled •"Orphaned by the Storm." I find it midst of the battle against the communist hard to imagine that the whole dispute influence in the union movement. Al­ seems to have gone on over the heads of the though it took five years to eliminate Eaton's organizers. Sufrin's explanation: effective communist influence in the "Perhaps, Norm Twist, RWDSU Canadian CIO-CCL, the continuous red-baiting Director, who must have known how placed the "House of Labour" on shaky 236 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

ground. Taking on a major union drive It had 12.500 members in 1981. contrib­ under these circumstances may have been uting along with USWA 6500 at INCO the premature. lion"s share of Canadian dues. Using com­ The Eaton Drive thus forces labour pany and union sources from McMaster historians to address many issues left University's Labour Archives, and draw­ unexplored by Sufrin herself. With the ing on more than 40 interviews with the defeat of the Eaton campaign, the gains leaders. Freeman analyzes the ups and made in unionizing the retail trade were in downs of politics within Local 1005 for fact minimal. By 1954 only 7 per cent of the previous 46 years. It is an important the workers in this sector were organized. contribution to our understanding of the most of them in food retailing. There were internal dynamics of Canadian labour. only six agreements in the Canadian He raises many crucial questions. department stores at the time, covering What is the nature and extent of union only 3,000 workers. These were shared by pol i tics? Does USWA 1005 conf i rm the three main unions, the two AFL Robert Michel's iron law of oligarchy. unions, Teamsters and Retail Clerks Inter­ and Seymour Lipset's Union Democracy national, and the RWDSU of the CIO. The theory? The latter, in studying the ITU. account of this defeat should surely hold an found oligarchy in small locals which important place in the literature of the were dependent on the International, but Canadian labour historians. Lynn Williams independence and democratic opposition described it as a "watershed event, which (between "left" and "right" slates) in marked the end of a spirit of 'we can con­ the large locals. Ignoring the political quer all' optimism in the industrial unions economy within which unions must work. in Canada, created by the grinding but Lipset implied that such slates emerged dramatic victories in the survival not from the lived contradictions of class struggles at Stelco and Ford and else­ and workplace, but in an exceptional where subsequent to the end of the war." "middle class" of workers with high Certainly the approach to organizing in income and above-average security. the retail trades was greatly affected by Freeman disagrees. Unlike the Ameri­ this loss. The momentum of such a cam­ can sociologist, he argues that class paign was never achieved again and Local tensions are inherent in slate ideologies, 10(X) organizer Fred Dowling's disap­ which in turn set different economic goals pointed comment at the announcement of for the union, and mobilize the feelings of the vote, that "it will take another twenty rank-and-file members. Moreover, he years to organize Eaton's again" appears shows that USWA 1005 slates emerged optimistic in the light of recent events. from a work hierarchy sharply graded in skill, pay. status, and ethnicity, divided Mercedes Steedman among six major Stelco mills. But he also Laurentian University finds serious weaknesses in union democ­ racy, Of 12.500 workers (and their 300 stewards) only 150 attend membership Bill Freeman. 1005: Political Life in a meetings. Only 80 are eligible, by their Union Local (Toronto: Lorimer 1981 ). attendance and other criteria, to run in the executive slates. UNITED STEELWORKERS OF America Underlying the camaraderie of the Local 1005 at the Stelco works in Hamil­ picket line are grievances never addressed ton, Ontario is a powerhouse in the USWA by later contract clauses, as well as resent­ structure, tightly linked to the area staff ment of strike hardships at home. and national office, and through it to the Somewhat against his own ideological international headquarters in Pittsburgh. persuasion. Freeman admits that every REVIEWS 237

walkout has "major repercussions." Any and the resulting feuds, with one brief leader too closely identified with a strike interval of "freedom of the press," have will lose support- split the local for as long as fifteen years. So fierce have been the fights for The local's own election procedure union and job security, for seniority and a ensures that even when one leader wins a grievance/arbitration system (viewed later 70 percent majority, rival slates will hold as "rigid," time-consuming, and costly), some executive posts. Such machinery for contracts to catch up with inflation and ensures that some union officials will technology, for better pensions, safety always be opponents. No slate winning a and health — that each generation of lead­ majority can completely control union ers rests after its battle. Factions and policy. Every meeting becomes a fac­ ideologies then emerge. Yet the long tional battle, with shifting alliances struggle against corporate power by among slates, and "loose fish" within successive slates makes workers feel that them the main source of stability. But ' 'their interests are being adequately presidents who make alliances with other defended," that there is a rough "balance slates are often charged with "betrayal" of power." of their ideology. On one hand, the union's efforts The point is borne out by a coup "legitimize the existing political and eco­ against 1005's president, Cec Taylor, nomic system in the eyes of the rank and only two years after Freeman's claim that file." On the other, class power sets legal he was the best hope for the future. Taylor and bureaucratic limits to union action. was suspended, and thereby lost his Since the 1946 Rand Formula, unions "good standing." at the August 1983 have been required to police their mem­ monthly meeting by a 66-65 vote. He was bership as a condition of their existence. defeated by ex-members of his own slate, Stelco still writes all residual powers into joining other factions led by 1005's vice- the contract as "management rights." president, Bryan Atkinson (a former Union and wage security was bought at a grievance chairman, Taylor's ally on the very high price, says Freeman: 1960 steward's slate from which Taylor split to lead the left — itself later allied ... unions agreed that they would allow man­ agement the right to direct the workforce. . . with splits from the autonomy slate). [and agreedj not to strike or disrupt production Atkinson replaced Taylor as president. during the life of the contract. In effect, what His rivals then copied some of Tay­ unions did was agree to give up the struggle for lor's high-handed procedural methods to the real democratization of the industrial sys­ muzzle opposition: refusal to recognize tem. (259) speakers and sudden adjournments. The International and Canadian staffers, with Thus for all its "brilliance and mili­ whom Taylor had long feuded, supported tancy," Local 1005's political system insurgents in their attack on his slate's does not touch the deeper problems. "misuse" of the 1981 strike fund, itself a Contrary to Freeman's theory of union phony issue. The old vendetta was being democracy, but starkly outlined in his waged over 1005's financial autonomy, own evidence, is the fact that "institu­ aggravated by Stelco layoffs (in 1984 the tionalized" opposition at the top is more a local has only 9,500 members) which by-product of clauses in the union's con­ eliminated many young Taylorites, a drop stitution. than of slates and ideologies. of over 30 per cent in USWA membership USWA's "member in good standing" rule and finances, and Taylor's battle to win severely limits participation, and has at control of health and pension funds from least twice been abused to deny rival lead­ the company (he lost). Added to these ers the chance to run for office. Purges issues dating from the 1981 strike were 238 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL charges of betraying the slate (there had experience our daily lives and work­ been splits over his choice of candidates places, our bodies, our families, and pri­ for the executive in 1982). In the ensuing mary work groups. However, some battles in every local meeting, there were cogent comments on Stelco conditions, months of delay of steward grievances and the discontent, sexism, and family and health committee reports, the key roles that accompany them, have just labour-management "1.02 committee" appeared in Union Sisters (eds. L. Bris- and the union health clinic were shut kin, L. Yanz) and Hard Earned Wages down, and negotiation plans for the 1984 (ed. Jennifer Penney). From some of the contract stalled. "Women Back Into Stelco," we hear Far from marking a new era, Cec Tay­ about the repressed violence, boredom, lor's rise and fall exemplify the problems and dehumanization of the Hamilton in Local 1005. He had been a shrewd, mills, the ways workers and their wives able, and popular president who retreat into rigid sex roles from a "badly supported NDP political action and organized" and "authoritarian" work­ various left causes, helped get women place. Here is the badly-needed grassroots back into Stelco, called for local control material to complement Freeman's leader­ of finances and safety, and maintained ship study. Debbie Fields, a coke oven real wages when all about were losing worker, says: theirs. But the mass layoffs after his 1981 strike victory engendered fears of firing Real political leadership has a lot to do with the heart as well as the mind. It has has a lot to do among workers with twelve or thirteen with loving people that you're struggling with. years' seniority. A rising tide of You're my brother, you're my buddy. . . . unsatisfiable discontent drove him into increasing isolation, shattered his slate, and swept him away. Stelco claims falling These women show how caring, con­ profits and an actual deficit of $40.8 mil­ nectedness, and solidarity can and have lion in 1982; it will probably use this as been created on the shop floor. We must ammunition in contract negotiations. look at this process from the primary work Layoffs continue. Yet the company's group up, not from the top down. retained earnings have remained stupendous, stabilizing at I960 levels (in David Millar constant dollars). This dynamic relation­ University of Saskatchewan ship between workforce, wages, and prof­ its must be analyzed. In 1935-75, accord­ ing to the book's appendix, Stelco's plow- Haydcn Roberts, Culture and Adult Edu­ backs averaged nine times the level of cation: A Stud\ of Alberta and Quebec declared profits and dividends, productiv­ (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press ity increased six times, the workforce 1982). tripled, and (we learn from other sources) real wages also tripled. Freeman's neglect FOR MOST CANADIANS, formal educa­ of these trends is problematic, as is his tion ends when full-time work begins. skimpy treatment of voting patterns in the Once having mastered "the three R's" and local, which if more thorough might have the discipline requirements of the educa­ led him to some new insights in his other­ tion system, most students dutifully wise admirable history of leadership in graduate to the world of work and gladly USWA 1005. leave their school days behind. Hayden Roberts' study dismisses this traditional The rank and file are seen, but not pattern and examines one of the most heard. Freeman and much Canadian union important pedagogic innovations of the history have tended to neglect how we last 25 years — continuing adult educa- REVIEWS 239 tion. The author chooses Alberta and sponsor their own courses. Although the Quebec for case studies. Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) has an The book offers much more than a de­ impressive record of educational activity, scription of adult education programmes Roberts claims that most AFL-sponsored in the two provinces. Roberts' objective programmes consist of "tool" courses that is to prove that the "policies, structures address specific duties of union represent­ and processes" of adult education in atives and shop stewards. Union education Alberta and Quebec directly reflect the in Alberta also suffers from government dominant social philosophy and culture of and business opposition, the AFL's reluc­ their respective regions. In Alberta, a con­ tance to treat paid educational leave as a servative province with a history of multi- priority in bargaining sessions, and the culturalism and religious diversity and a province's relatively high wage rates and employment levels which pacify most current attachment to free enterprise and rank-and-file workers. On the other hand, individualism, Roberts finds that adult in Quebec, a nationalistic labour move­ education programmes emphasize per­ ment with a recent history of syndicalism, sonal development and economic a more favourable provincial government, advancement. The author concedes that and the presence of more than one labour the principle of cooperativism as practised central provide the groundwork for a more by the United Farmers of Alberta in an active and radical tradition of union edu­ earlier era forms a significant but fading cation. exception to the rule. In Quebec, Roberts claims that a history of Catholicism, More revealing is a comparison of the nationalism, and collectivism, and the stated objectives of trade-union education recent triumph of social democracy over a inside and outside of Quebec. A joint more traditional conservatism, have pro­ Labour Canada-CLC statement issued in duced adult education programmes that 1977 announced that the primary objective stress community enrichment and social of union education was "to encourage a welfare over personal gain. With minor better informed union membership and qualifications, the author concludes that smoother collective bargaining, to help most adult education programmes in labour to participate more fully and Alberta and Quebec sponsored by govern­ knowledgeably in social and economic matters." It is arguable that the CLC con­ ment and non-govern ment institutions, sented to this conciliatory position in native organizations, trade unions. order to make off peacefully with its share agricultural societies, and cooperatives of a ten million dollar government grant. comply with his thesis. But the CLC's own policy on paid educa­ Labour /Le Travail's readers should be tional leave states that "it is in the interest particularly interested in Roberts' chapter of the employer to have experienced and on trade-union education. In this area, the responsible shop stewards and other author could have extended his thesis to workers' representatives in their undertak­ include a comparison between Quebec ings." In Quebec, the education director and all of English-speaking Canada. Of of the CSN, G. Grenette, offers no such all the provincial federations of labour accommodation. Frenette states that the chartered by the Canadian Labour Con­ objective of union education is "to gress (CIX), the Quebec Federation of encourage and organize a united front of Labour alone exercises complete control workers, first of all in the factories, then over its education programmes. In addi­ in their neighbourhoods, in their towns, in tion, independent labour centrals in their industrial sector and even their coun­ Quebec, such as the Confédération des try." While the CLC strives to play a more Syndicats Nationaux (CSN) and the Cen­ influential role in the unfolding of the trale de l'Enseignement du Québec (CEQ), 240 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

capitalist universe, labour centrals in Wallace Clement, Class, Power and Quebec, the CSN and the CEQ in particu­ Property: Essays on Canadian Society lar, sharpen the lines of the class struggle. (Toronto: Methuen 1983). The book is not without ils short­ comings Roberts' choice of Alberta and IF A MARXIST analysis of Canadian soci­ Quebec as case studies is problematic in ety was called for, no sociologist was bet­ itself. By limiting his study to a compari­ ter qualified to undertake the task than son between Canada's only French- Professor Clement. As a student of the speaking province and one of nine late John Porter, Clement's early work English-speaking provinces, the author could be considered an effort to elaborate indiscreetly mixes together the elements on the thesis of Part II of The Vertical of provincialism, regionalism, nation­ Mosaic. From this study came his interest alism. and culture. A more serious prob­ in elite theory. The Canadian Corporate lem is Roberts' bureaucratic, top-down Elite carried further Porter's attempt to approach to his subject. At no time does identify the major figures in the Canadian the author place himself or the reader in business world and to establish how an actual classroom situation. By concen­ through attending the same schools, trating primarily on policy, Roberts belonging to the same clubs, and becom­ ignores the dynamics of the live classroom ing cross-appointed to the boards of direc­ which often determine the nature and tors of the major business, financial, and value of an educational experience irre­ industrial corporations in the country, spective of stated objectives or location. they had come to constitute a distinctive This is especially true at the Labour Col­ group. Already, however, in this study, as lege of Canada where students bring a its title suggests, Clement had departed wealth of political and work experience sharply from Porter's interest in social with them. The author also pays the price inequality, of which elitism was an of writers who follow closely on the heels expression, to singling out the corporate of the present. The recent labour- elite as the dominant force in society. government imbroglio in Quebec brings Elite theory as developed by Clement into question the sympathetic relationship became Marxist theory. between the Parti Québécois and the labour movement. Finally. Roberts mis­ The ten essays in Class, Power and spells "labour" throughout the study, Properts afford an indication of the shifts even in proper names, and mangles a few in focus of Clement's work over a span of other names and dates. years, the first essay having been pub­ lished in 1974. This essay on the changing In a thoughtful and intelligent fashion. structure of the Canadian economy and Roberts' book draws deserved attention to the two which follow on the character­ the important connection between culture istics of the Canadian corporate elite and and education. More significantly, the the uneven development of a mature study demonstrates that continuing adult branch-plant society elaborate a thesis education, whether for recreational or rev­ made familiar by Clement's early pub­ olutionary purposes, comprises a vital lished works. In the introductory note to component of a progressive society. the third essay, however, he offers a hint Herein lies the book's most important of the changing focus of his work by the message. remark "This paper's assumptions remain somewhat trapped within an elite perspec­ tive but are struggling to escape."

John Bullen The essays which follow gradually Erindale College build the theme which give to the volume University of Toronto its title "Class, Power and Property." REVIEWS 241

Now quotations from Marx and various There can be no quarrel with a good Marxist scholars become more frequent. deal of the Marxist analysis, respecting The analysis of the capitalist class and the for instance the relations of labour and Canadian state in the fourth essay, Cana­ capital, the role of the state in protecting dian class cleavages in the sixth, class and property rights and thereby enhancing the property relations in the ninth, and prop­ interests of the capitalist class, and the erty and proletarianization in the tenth are effect of capitalist concentration in weak­ couched very much in Marxist terms. The ening the position of independent com­ fifth essay is given up to a spirited criti­ modity producers. I am not persuaded, cism of the findings of the Bryce commis­ however, that the social system operates sion on corporate concentration and the in such a simplistic fashion as the Marxist seventh and eighth to an analysis of the would have us believe. Elite theory even Canadian mining industry involving in the as expounded by Porter leaves many ques­ first of these two essays a critique of H.A. tions unanswered and the number of ques­ Innis. tions mounts as the theory comes to be expounded by Clement in Marxist terms. Any reader of this volume of essays One has to ask how meaningful is the has to be impressed with the range of view of business leaders acting as a col­ knowledge of Professor Clement and his lective body as a result of their attending capacity to order the facts in what appears the same schools, belonging to the same to be a convincing manner. Class, Power clubs, and serving on the same corporate and Property certainly will constitute one boards of directors. The conception of a of the major texts in a Marxist analysis of corporate elite offers no clear notion of Canadian society. This volume, together how the process of decision-making oper­ with his other publications, clearly estab­ ates in the world of business. lish his position as one of the leading sociological scholars in the country. Even less persuasive is the Marxist analysis of the relationship of the Yet one cannot help but wish thai Cle­ capitalist class to the state. Growing up in ment had given greater recognition to the Alberta many years ago I had few doubts limitations of the Marxist theory when that as a result of financial contributions applied to Canadian society. Some of the to the major political parties, lobbying, essays assume more the character of an and other means of making their influence advocacy of the Marxist position than of felt, the actions of governments were its critical application. Not so far from the determined by such bodies as the CPR, the thrust of the Communist Manifesto is his banks, the farm implement manufactur­ declaration of faith in the concluding sen­ ers, and the Winnipeg Grain Exchange. tences of the fourth essay. "As long as This naive view of the relation of business Canadian society," he writes, "continues to government has died hard. The very to be shaped by the capitalist mode of pro­ mention of the different kinds of business, duction, the most powerful class will be railway companies, banks, manufactur­ the capitalist class. As long as capitalists ers, insurance companies, etc., acting to control the means of production and circu­ further their interests in dealing with the lation, they will use their power to ensure government, makes evident how far these that the Canadian state will operate to different interests have been apart in seek­ their best advantage. And their best ing to influence over past years the actions advantage does not represent the common of government. More than that, of course, interest of most Canadians." If the under­ have been the pressures exerted on govern­ lying assumptions of this statement are ment by such other bodies as labour and accepted there is not much a non-Marxist farmers. No government could survive if it can say about Canadian society. failed to take account of the interests of 242 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

these bodies which have the means to Economic Policy. The ClEP's stated command the support of many thousands "intention is to contribute in an innova­ of voters. tive way to the development of public pol­ Much more could be said in the way of icy." (ii)The author's aims are: 1) to map a detailed criticism of the application of out the manufacturing opportunities, the Marxist theory to the analysis of Canadian "backward linkages" (1) that the 1977 society. I have, however, a more serious 200-mile limit opens up to Canadian and complaint to make of the work of such especially Atlantic Canadian enterprise; sociologists as Clement. The preoccupa­ and 2) to assess and to alter existing tion with the capitalist system has led fisheries policies in order to facilitate either to the dismissal of many problems entrepreneurship and workers1 retraining. of society as of no account, or to the Better policies will bring the east coast analysis of such problems within a narrow fisheries, east coast manufacturing, and Marxist perspective. If the very existence east coast workers into the late twentieth of the capitalist system, of course, is con­ century of technological strength. Boys oh sidered the only problem that matters, girls oh boys. then the preoccupation with it as a social Recent years have proven this volume phenomenon is made to appear justified. to be a lie. Gases and liquids abound, but In the end, it is this narrowness of there are no chunks in the can. The crisis in approach which constitutes my main crit­ icism of Claw. Power and Property. the east coast fisheries has intensified: From reading it the student of sociology bankruptcy and job losses have allowed the will learn much about the workings of the state to intervene not for expansion but for capitalist system, the structure of the social the salvage of big capital. That crisis, seen class system, and the organization of in Patton's analysis to be merely a cyclical power and property relations in society, economic downturn, is in reality deep — but there is much that he or she will not social, economic, cultural, and political. learn about the real social world in which The crisis is capitalism and state centrali­ people live. Not much if anything more, I zation and concentration of the east coast am bound to say however, will such a stu­ fisheries: the planned "final solution" to dent learn about the real social world from the persistence-through-struggle of semi- reading a Parsonian analysis of society. proletarian and independent fishermen and All of which is to say that we need less of families is the intended shutdown of hun­ Marx and Parsons in our sociology and dreds of coastal communities. more of Robert E. Park. So speaks a Patton is almost entirely wrong in his sociologist of an earlier generation. visions of growth. But the move to state capitalism he supports is very real indeed, as is the enforced proletarianization of the S.D. Clark fisheries and the impoverishment of its University of Toronto "surplus" population. With the Kirby Report as its justification, the entire east coast fishing industry has been restruc­ Donald J. Patton, Industrial Development tured by the state for full control by big and the Atlantic Fishery: Opportunities capital. The ClEP's "innovative" policies for Manufacturing and Skilled Workers in are towards state capitalism and forced the 1980s (Toronto: Lorimer 1981). "primitive" accumulation, and against the expressed interests of petty producer EVERY SO OFTEN something solid to bite households. into can be found in the garbage can. In this In the light of emerging state case the garbage can is this volume and its capitalism, the crucial fisheries struggles commissioner, the Canadian Institute for in the 1980s are precisely the crucial REVIEWS 243 struggles of the 1970s and then some. The still believe that lobsters cannot swim. In fight against full proletarianization by this context burned boats is the minor semi-proletarian families proceeds; for news; the major news is that the growing example, the Maritime Fishermen's Union organized solidarity of the women and men and its blockade of Pictou Harbour con­ of these communities is principally pro­ tinues and expands. But in the 1980s these gressive — with other primary producers, struggles by semi-proletarians have been and against big capitalism and big govern­ added to by the emergence of collective ment. In fact, though not yet in full aware­ struggles against proletarianization by ness, these "fisherfolk" are waging a bat­ some of the most independent (and for­ tle for workers control of the workplace merly anti-collective, anti-worker) petty and community control of the community. producers in the inshore fisheries. Readers We'll see whether their links with of this journal may well be accustomed to workers increase and intensify. Keep an writing off such class struggles, like Marx eye on these "backward" struggles; they tended to do, as the reactionary-utopian may well provide the stiffest refutation of musings of backward people who never Patton's backward linkages. would learn the (historically incorrect on a global scale) iron necessity of total pro­ R. James Sacouman letarianization. Come on, you might say in Acadia University your sexist-dogmatic-centric way, let's get back to true labour, full-lifetime proleta­ Maureen Fitzgerald, Connie Guberman, rian issues. and Margie Wolfe, eds., Still Ain't But consider the burning of two Satisfied: Canadian Feminism Today Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Toronto: Women's Press 1982). enforcement vessels in Pubnico Harbour by "pirates," members of three southern TEN YEARS AGO. Women's Press in Nova Scotian communities, the last of the Toronto published its first book, an anthol­ independents if ever there were. The ogy of writings from the Canadian second largest cop force in Canada, the women's movement. That book was an DFO enforcement division, clamped down important event; it provided a Canadian on the most successful independent petty perspective on significant topics and a producers in Atlantic Canada in order to sense of the movement. The stated intent enforce regulations against these lobster of the present volume is lo provide an fishermen that would ensure the destruc­ update of that earlier book, one that gives a tion of the inshore fisheries. It is currently picture of the "development and matura­ impossible to haul lobsters without break­ tion of the women's liberation movement ing some law. It is also impossible to make in Canada," This is an ambitious project a living by following the laws and, indeed, since the Canadian women's movement is trap limit laws in lobstering have never an extremely diverse phenomenon with a been followed by most fishermen since wide variety of organizations, strategies, their enactment in 1968 and they have and ideological differences. The book, never been enforced until 1983. Fishermen consisting of over two dozen articles writ­ were given huge grants and cheap loans to ten from a number of viewpoints, is get bigger boats to break the laws in; DFO remarkably successful, considering that researchers used to hold a "brick wall" diversity. The articles give detailed theory about lobsters off Nova Scotia in accounts and analyses of many of the order to support offshore capitalists, i.e., important areas of struggle. Having these somewhere about fifty miles offshore was accounts in one place not only provides an a barrier separating one supposed species essential reference but also allows one to of lobster from another; DFO biologists see the common threads that run through 244 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL the different issues and approaches. This is socialist-feminist focus on class. Taken as the strength of the volume and it is cer­ extremes, each position leaves out impor­ tainly going to be required reading for both tant factors and one of the strengths of the those working in the movement and those women's movement has been the ability of trying to understand it. The book does have both sides to learn from each other and to weaknesses, but these are mostly in the move toward some middle ground, how­ form of omissions. ever shifting and tenuous. Thus, strategies One of the most interesting things described by the articles in this section about this collection is the evidence that it derive in large part from the radical gives for both continuity and change in feminist attack on patriarchy, which insists feminist theory and practice. The collec­ on the primacy of the personal and the tion begins with an article on abortion, an individual, specifically the power that appropriate choice since this was the first individual men have and use over indi­ major issue that feminists tackled. As a vidual women. They also draw however on friend pointed out, she would have thought the socialist-feminist insistence that blam­ that by now there was nothing new to be ing individual men is not sufficient — said on this subject, and she was surprised there must be an understanding of the and pleased by the insights in this article. structures that support the individual's Especially important are the arguments for power. The two currents in feminism have replacing the concept of ' 'abortion rights' ' in fact strengthened each other. The arti­ with that of "reproductive rights*' and the cles that deal with the violence that men thoughtful discussions of "single issue" use against women are not anli-male. They organizing and of the bases of appeal of the present a coherent political analysis, one "new right." of considerable sophistication that is not only compatible with radical or socialist- The three articles that immediately fol­ feminist points of view bul is essential to low deal with violence against women and them. these show more clearly still the development of feminist analysis since the movement The section that deals with women in began fifteen years ago. While rape, por­ the workforce and with problems of nography, and battering were included organizing is a good example of both the then in lists of "issues," the demand for strengths and weaknesses of the book. The "control of our own bodies" meant, in problematic relationship between working practice, simply a fight for freely available women and the trade union movement is contraception and abortion. The extension covered both from inside unions and from of the idea of control of one's body to outside. The article on feminist unions in include freedom from violence and the particular serves as a detailed specific understanding of that violence as a central example of why autonomous women's feature of social control is a major develop­ organizations are necessary. Some impor­ ment in present feminist theory. It is one of tant specific workplace issues — equal the omissions in this volume that the pro­ pay, health hazards, entry into non- cess by which this understanding devel­ traditional jobs, and sexual harassment — oped in not treated in any detail. This pro­ are well represented in the other articles in cess of change and development has come this section. However, there is no over­ out of what the introduction to the volume view of the actual state of organizing — no calls the ' ' fragmentation and political analysis of trends or successes and fail­ diversity" of the movement — in this par­ ures. There is no discussion, for example, ticular instance out of the continuing of the fact that the feminist unions are not tension between the radical feminist focus expanding; no overall analysis of the on patriarchy, i.e., the institutionalized chances for successful organizing of oppression of women by men, and the women workers by either the feminist or REVIEWS 245

other unions. This is a major omission. contributions to the still developing debate One of the features of the Canadian econ­ between two extremes in feminist theory omy since the World War II has been the (which can be characterized very roughly increasing entry of women into waged as an insistence on the one hand that het­ labour and a good case can be made for this erosexism is the essential factor in being an important factor in the emergence women's oppression and the opposing of the second women's movement. We are extreme that social and economic factors now entering a period of crisis for are the only important ones) that is already capitalism and it seems clear that the condi­ leading toward some middle ground and a tions that led to women's entry into waged richer theory on both sides. This is the labour and to the growth of trade unions are same process noted above as one of the changing. The implications of this for strengths of the women's movement. feminists' struggles in the workplace are The final article is the only one in the clearly of great importance and there are collection that deals specifically with the Canadian feminists who are thinking general question of priorities, of "how about such problems. It might even be best to achieve our objectives." It is a unrealistic to expect a complete analysis transcribed interview/discussion with but even a general report on trends would socialist feminists from the Toronto Inter­ be interesting. The article on feminist pub­ national Women's Day Committee and, lishing, admittedly dealing with a much while a number of important points are smaller subject area, is a good example of raised, the discussion format serves mainly the kind of overview that might have been to whet the appetite for more. The article, included. in effect, provides an outline of important Historically, the women's movement topics. Unfortunately, some of these are in Canada has been shaped by women from treated so briefly that, if one doesn't the dominant culture — white, hetero­ already understand the issues, it would be sexual, and, if not necessarily middle hard to grasp the significance of the class, at least not among the very poor. The remarks. For example, someone mentions bulk of the articles in this book are written that one of the roles the collective plays is by and for this constituency. In contrast, to bring single issue groups together to the articles in the "Double Oppression" support each others' struggles. Unless one section, along with an article on lesbian has a sense of the strengths and weaknesses sexuality in another section of the book, that come from the diffuse nature of the are written by "minority" group women movement, much of the content of this — lesbian, immigrant, and native — for statement is lost. In spite (or perhaps the assumed "mainstream" constituency because) of these limitations, this conclud­ of the book. This means that the articles are ing article is worth a second reading. essentially written from the outside — they Overall, Women's Press has offered describe the special conditions of oppres­ convincing evidence that the women's sion of the group and offer suggestions as movement is alive and well in Canada and to how solidarity might work. While the Til look forward to their next installment, two lesbian articles are written from this which should be due about 1992. perspective, they are notable for their insistence that lesbians are not simply Margaret Benston another "minority" with specific differ­ Simon Fraser University ences in oppression from mainstream women. The authors of these articles take the stance that "heterosexism" must be Yvan Lamonde, Lucia Ferreti et Daniel recognized as a dominant factor in the lives Leblanc, La culture ouvrière à Montréal of all women. The two articles are in fact (1880-1920): bilan histortographique; 246 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Col. "Culture populaire," (Québec: travailleurs québécois ou montréalais. Institut québécois de recherche sur la cul­ Parmi ces études, se trouvent deux synth­ ture 1982). èses: Trade Unions in Canada, de H.A. Logan (Toronto: Macmillan 1948). et YVAN LAMONDE, ASSISTÉ de Lucie Fer- Histoire du syndicalisme au Canada et au reti et Daniel Leblanc, publiait, au début Québec, 1827-1959, de Charles Lipton de 1982, La culture ouvrière à Montréal (traduit de l'anglais, Montréal: Parti pris, < 1880-1920) : bilan hi storio graphique. 1976). Cette dernière étude est cependant Cette étude constitue le premier volume de mentionée dans la bibliographie. Et aussi la collection "culture populaire" de l'Ins­ absent de ce bilan, le célèbre Rapport de titut québécois de recherche sur la culture. la Commission royale d'enquête sur les Les auteurs se proposent d'établir un bilan relations du capital et du travail des connaissances acquises et à acquérir (188yj qui, dans la section consacrée au "en histoire ouvrière, urbaine et sociocul­ Québec, étudie particulièrement la turelle de Montréal" relativement aux situation montréalaise des années 1880. années 1880-1920. Ils veulent en même La métropole était d'ailleurs bien temps "décrire et comprendre la culture représentée parmi les membres de cette ouvrière dans sa totalité." (147) commission d'enquête, dont faisait partie Après avoir souligné deux caractéristi­ un journaliste de La Presse qui s'était fait ques fondamentales de la culture ouvrière, une spécialité des questions ouvrières. la pauvreté et la dépendance, ils évaluent le poids démographique des travailleurs dans Il se dégage de cette étude que les tra­ la population de Montréal. Puis, ils vailleurs montréalais formaient un bloc s'expliquent sur les limites temporelles homogène, caractérisé par la pauvreté et la assignées à leur étude: 1880-1920. Selon dépendance. Il semble que conclure ainsi, eux, cette période est marquée par plu­ c'est faire abstraction d'une certaine diver­ sieurs phénomènes qui "contribuent à la sité. N'existait-il pas, dans ce désert de formation d'une première culture des tra­ pauvreté et de dépendance, quelques oasis vailleurs montréalais à l'époque industri­ où la vie était meilleure, les salaires plus elle." (41) Ils procèdent ensuite au bilan élevés, les conditions de travail plus avan­ des connaissances acquises quant à tageuses? A-t-on fait un inventaire complet l'espace ouvrier et domestique, à la famille de la situation de toutes les catégories de et au milieu de travail, à l'action et à la travailleurs? Qu'en est-il, à titre d'exem­ culture ouvrière, aux loisirs et aux percep­ ple, dans les décennies 1900 et 1910, des tions de classes. nombreux employés des entreprises ferro­ Les recherches sur le monde des tra­ viaires, dont Montréal était la "plaque vailleurs québécois et montréalais sont en tournante?" La situation des autres centres général récentes et encore peu nombreu­ ferroviaires du Québec de ce temps indique ses. Aussi ce bilan porle-t-il sur un nombre bien que les cheminots menaient une exis­ de travaux restreint, les uns publiés, les tence meilleure que celle qui est décrite autres à l'état de thèses. Les historiogra­ dans ce bilan (cf. Jean Gosselin, Portraits phes en tirent de multiples informations el de cheminots, Les Éditions Mikadoo nombre de données chiffrées. Ainsi leur Enr., 1982). Il existait sans doute d'autres chapitre deuxième est constitué presque en catégories de travailleurs qui ne pourraient entier de tableaux reproduits de leurs oeu­ non plus faire l'objet d'un nouveau chapi­ vres. tre des Misérables. On ne pourra donc Dans ce bilan, les historiographes ont avoir une image de la totalité des travail­ toutefois omis d'exploiter des oeuvres leurs montréalais tant qu'on ne possédera importantes, même si elles ne portaient pas des monographies sur les différentes pas spécifiquement ou uniquement sur les catégories de travailleurs. D'ici là, il est REVIEWS 247 peut-être imprudent d'accoler à ces travail­ ronant, qui comprenait d'autres villes et leurs, une étiquette unique. des régions rurales. Il s'en suit que les D'autre part, la période étudiée elle- "nouvelles paroisses" mentionnées sur ce même semble immobile. On ne tient pas tableau n'ont pas nécessairement été tellement compte de l'évolution considéra­ créées à Montréal. Et le tableau n'est plus ble qu'elle subit: avènement de l'électri­ significatif pour montrer l'augmentation cité, de l'automobile, augmentation des de la population, contrairement aux affir­ investissements, agrandissement considé­ mations des auteurs. (50) De plus, une rable des manufactures, des usines, dont comparaison des tableaux 11 et 12 semble plusieurs passent de quelques dizaines confirmer qu'un bon nombre des paroisses d'employées en 1880 à des centaines dix créées l'ont été en dehors de la ville de ou vingt ans plus tard. Ces faits ont dû Montréal. marquer drôlement la culture de l'homme Sur une couple d'autres tableaux, on de 1910-1920. Les conditions de vie et de relève aussi des "distractions." (tableaux travail des décennies 1880 et 1890 ont dû 20 et 21, pp. 109 et 110) On y mentionne s'améliorer quelque peu avec le retour de les effectifs syndicaux de la CTCC en 1919, la prospérité, au début du XXième siècle, 1920, et 1921. La CTCC n'ayant été fondée et produire des retombées non seulement qu'en 1921, les auteurs ont-ils voulu indi­ sur les détenteurs des cordons de la bourse, quer par là les effectifs des syndicats catho­ mais aussi sur leurs employés. liques ou nationaux qui existent dans cer­ Quant aux thèmes abordées dans ce tain diocèses: Chicoutimi, Québec, Trois- bilan, il en est un qui a été un peu relégué Rivières?... D'autre part, le tableau 21 dans l'ombre. La période étudiée semble avoir subi, lors de sa fabrication ou (1880-1920) en est une d'exploitation du de son impression, "d'irréparables outra­ travail des enfants, voire des bambins. Des ges," aurait dit Jean Racine.... centaines d'enfants ont oeuvré à l'époque Quelques rectifications seraient égale­ dans les manufactures montréalaises. Ils ment nécessaires au sujet des origines du étaient soumis aux horaires des adultes, syndicalisme catholique. Lamonde et mais recevaient des salaires bien infé­ al. placent la fondation des premiers syndi­ rieurs. Les amendes et les sévices corpo­ cats catholiques à Chicoutimi en 1912. Or, rels étaient leur lot. Plusieurs n'avaient la Fédération ouvrière de Chicoutimi, fon­ aucune possibilité d'acquérir une instruc­ dée par Mgr Eugène Lapointe, date de tion même élémentaire. Ils furent condam­ 1907, et un premier syndicat catholique nés à demeurer des manoeuvres et des illet existait à Québec dès 1901. (R. Parisé, très. Le chapitre septième, qui consacre Le fondateur du syndicalisme catholique une section au travail des femmes, était au Québec, Mgr Eugène Lapointe [PUQ tout indiqué pour traiter du travail des 1978], 26; CTCC, Cinquantième anniver­ enfants. Or, à peine trouve-t-on, ici et là, saire de la naissance du syndicalisme au quelques notes sur la question. Saguenav, 1907-1957 [Chicoutimi 1957], Lamonde et al. ont inséré des 9, 15). tableaux qui, à première vue, semblent Selon Lamonde et al., "ce n'est qu'en concluants et significatifs. Des valeurs 1908 que l'Église produira pour la pre­ sûres. Cependant, quelques-uns appellent mière fois un énoncé de principe sur le des réserves. Ainsi en est-il du tableau 11, syndicalisme catholique. . .." Affirma­ p. 60, intitulé "Diocèse de Montréal, tion qui étonne: Rerum Novarum ayant paroisses catholiques romaines érigées été publiée en 1891. À Chicoutimi, c'est entre 1830 et 1919." À lire ce tableau et dès 1903 que Mgr Lapointe, de retour de surtout son titre, il ne s'agit pas ici des Rome, tente d'inculquer les principes de paroisses de la ville de Montréal seule­ l'encyclique aux ouvriers réunis en cercle ment, mais aussi de tout le territoire envi- d'études. La même année, il prononce le 248 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

sermon d'ouverture au congrès des travail­ d'ici en leur signalant de bons travaux réa­ leurs catholiques à Québec. (R. Parisé, lisés à l'étranger, ceux-ci jouant le rôle de op. cit., 8) modèles et d'aiguillons. Mais les auteurs Le livre est bâti selon un plan qui sem­ ne nous indiquent pas les critères qui les blait sans doute fonctionnel. Cependant, ont guidés dans le choix des titres de ces nous nous demandons, par déformation brèves bibliographies, dans l'ensemble professionnelle peut-être, pourquoi les excellents et assez connus. Opérer un deux premiers chapitres n'ont pas été choix de quelques dizaines de titres dans la fusionnés en un seul et coiffés d'un titre masse des publications françaises, anglai­ unique. D'autre part, une lacune impor­ ses et américaines sur la vie ouvrière relève tante apparaît dans la présentation de la du défi. Quoi qu'il en soit, les listes de bibliographie: on fait fi de l'ordre alphabé­ titres présentés seront utiles. Elles le tique, qui s'imposait même si les listes de seraient sans doute davantage si on y avait titres sont brèves. De même, pourquoi ne inséré des guides bibliographiques et des nous indique-t-on pas la référence précise revues spécialisées. Ainsi la bibliographie pour chacune des citations, au lieu de nous française pourrait être complétée, entre renvoyer globalement à l'oeuvre, sans autres, par l'excellente revue, Le Mouve­ indication paginale. (19, 20, 70,71, 125) ment social, et par le Bulletin, publié De plus, ce livre, qui se veut un outil de travail, serait plus pratique s'il présentait annuellement par le Centre de recherches des tables pour les sigles, les tableaux, les d'histoire des mouvements sociaux et du thèmes étudiés et les noms des auteurs syndicalisme (Université de Paris I). cités. Mutatis mutandi, on peut faire les mêmes remarques sur les bibliographies brit­ Lamonde et al., terminent leur vol­ annique et américaine. ume par une sorte d'appendice biblio­ Dans les bibliographies canadienne graphique à cinq volets. Les trois premiers québécoise et montréalaise, des guides ont trait à la culture ouvrière québécoise, généraux auraient sans doute également eu canadienne et internationale (Grande- leur place de même que les revues publiées Bretagne, France, et États-Unis). Les deux par des départements de relations industri­ derniers portent sur l'historiographie elles des universités canadiennes. D'autre urbaine de Montréal et sur son histoire part, les sources, les archives sur la vie socioculturelle (1880-1920). ouvrière et en particulier sur la culture des On peut s'étonner de voir apparaître, travailleurs étant diverses, éparses, et par­ dans une bibliographie de "la culture fois difficiles à repérer, on aurait fait oeu­ ouvrière à Montréal (1880-1920," une vre utile en y consacrant une section de la section internationale consacrée à l'histo­ bibliographie. riographie de la France, de l'Angleterre, et Dans cette bibliographie, la cinquième des États-Unis. Le choix de certains titres section, qui est un essai bibliographique de cette section surprend également; ils se sur l'histoire socioculturelle de Montréal rapportent à des périodes antérieures ou (1880-1920), est particulièrement intéres­ postérieures aux années 1880-1920, ou sante. Même les initiés y feront des décou­ possèdent un caractère tout à fait local et vertes. Dommage que cette section soit particulier. Ainsi, pourrait-on se deman­ placée à la toute fin du volume: elle risque der, quelle est la pertinence, dans cette d'être vue comme d'importance secon­ bibliographie, de travaux tels que The daire. Making of the English Working Class, Ces observations que nous soumettons 1780-1830, de E.P. Thompson, et Les ici ne doivent pas voiler l'appréciation glo­ mineurs de Carmaux, 1848-1914, de bale et positive que nous portons sur ce Rolande Trempé? Les bibliographies ont petit livre. Il témoigne d'un travail de sans doute voulu être utiles aux chercheurs recherche opportun: il est utile pour les REVIEWS 249 chercheurs d'avoir une vue d'ensemble des que le coup d'envol du syndicalisme travaux poursuivis dans leur domaine par industriel. leurs collègues ou leurs prédécesseurs. Il Ses promoteurs sauront stimuler la n'est pas moins nécessaire de connaître les mobilisation des travailleurs non- domaines inexplorés ou à peine entamés. syndiqués ou syndiqués sur la base du Dieu sait combien de fois Lamonde et ses métier que le déploiement du capitalisme associés, tout au long de leur inventaire, et le développement industriel ont battu en ont pointé des champs en friche, des ques­ brèche. C'est pourtant cette forme d'orga­ tions qui attendent des réponses, ou plutôt nisation syndicale qui prime jusqu'à la qui attendent les chercheurs. Ceux-ci vou­ formation du "Committee of Industrial dront compléter le travail entrepris, Organizations" (CIO), en 1935. Le syndi­ d'autres s'attacheront à combler les lacu­ calisme industriel que défend John L. nes où rien n'a été fait. Lewis est toujours en butte à l'opposition conjuguée l)du patronat ("Big Busi­ Jean-Guy Genest ness"), qui contourne l'esprit du Université du Québec à Chicoutimi "Wagner Act" en favorisant la mise sur pied de syndicats indépendants par le biais de Y "Employee Representation Plan;" Jean Gérin Lajoie, Les Métallos (20) 2) de I' "American Federation of 1936-1981 (Montréal: Boréal Express Labor" ("Big Labour"), dominée paries 1982). syndicats de métier, qui expulse le CIO, en 1936; 3) de la Confédération des Tra­ LA GRANDE CRISE des années 1930 vailleurs Catholiques du Canada (CTCC); sonne le glas de la première vague de cette 4) et, enfin, de l'État ("Big Govern­ idéologie du progrès qui plongeait ses ment") qui, par ses lois du travail, timi­ racines dans Les Lumières, la "Richesse des et insuffisantes, freine les revendica­ des nations" et la Révolution Industrielle. tions favorables à la démocratie industri­ Les "roaring twenties" conduisent au elle. (10) Cette idée du syndicalisme dérapage du jeudi noir et au carambolage industriel, naguère proposée par les Che­ effroyable des années 1930-1933 alors valiers du Travail et reprise plus tard par que des milliers d'êtres humains sont 1' "Industrial Workers of the World" et broyés dans leur chair et dans leur âme. la "One Big Union," est maintenant le Le syndicalisme est emporté par le ressac; cheval de bataille des communistes, des baisse des salaires, mais surtout licencie­ socialistes et des membres du "Commit­ ment et chômage, remettent en cause les tee for Industrial Organization." L'auteur gains syndicaux antérieurs. Ces années de ne s'attarde pas à en établir la paternité. "misère noire" sont porteuses d'amer­ Ce qui lui importe, c'est qu'on procède au tume et de révolte; d'espoir aussi. C'est nouveau partage des pouvoirs que la Crise dans ce contexte, négligé par l'auteur, actualise; ce qui compte, c'est que le nou­ qu'il faut situer l'émergence et ta diffu­ veau contrat social préside au brassage et sion des idées et des idéologies commu­ à une nouvelle donne des cartes, puisque nistes et socialistes avec lesquelles maints les "maîtres des pouvoirs économiques syndicats auront maille à partir. Car absolus avaient produit le désastre." (10) d'autres solutions pour sortir de la Grande L'atout c'est le syndicalisme industriel Dépression s'imposeront; ainsi le "New dont les quatre "idéaux" sont; 1) "grou­ Deal" de Roosevelt et la version édulco- per et constituer l'organisation de la rée des Bennett et des Mackenzie King. masse de tous les travailleurs de la même Heureusement cette atmosphère efferves­ usine;" 2) "création d'un syndicat qui cente donne naissance au Cooperative constitue l'organisation de la solidarité Commonwealth Federation (CCF) et mar­ des travailleurs à l'échelle de l'industrie 250 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

toute entière" 3) regroupement de tous autre exemple qui illustre "les misères du les travailleurs de l'usine et de l'industrie syndicalisme industriel" (16) est celui de dans un syndicat unique: 4) droit des tra­ l'entreprise montréalaise Cuthbert. Les vailleurs de vivre la "démocratie industri­ travailleurs de cette fabrique d'accessoi­ elle" c'est-à-dire, si j'ai bien compris, res de plomberie y font vainement une droit à la syndicalisation et reconnais­ grève d'un mois, en 1938, pour obtenir la sance des représentants qu'ils élisent à "restauration de l'échelle de salaires en tous les paliers, (9-10) Ces idéaux corres­ vigueur en 1929" (15) et la reconnais­ pondent aux objectifs du "Steel Workers' sance syndicale. Cette grève perdue Organizing Committee" (SWOC), consti­ entraîne le démantèlement du syndicat. tué en 1936, et recouvrent en partie les Échec et mat. revendications des travailleurs de Stelco. La Loi du cadenas de Duplessis veut Cette grève ouvre le volume et sert de aussi mater le syndicalisme. C'est ainsi point de départ à l'histoire tumultueuse qu'en 1938 des militants syndicaux de la des métallos québécois. métallurgie, dont l'organisateur Lucien La compagnie Stelco possède une Dufour, sont victimes de perquisitions et usine, sur la rue Notre-Dame, à Montréal. de "saisie de tous les documents syndi­ Depuis 1932, les salaires horaires ont caux" (15) par des agents de la police reculé de 33,5 cents à 29 cents. Or, en provinciale. Cette loi répressive et 1936, l'industrie sidérurgique affiche une odieuse entrave momentanément l'organi­ reprise qui laisse les salaires intacts. Pour­ sation du syndicalisme industriel au Qué­ tant les employés des petits ateliers de fer bec . Cependant, pour ne pas monter le cas ornemental de Montréal touchent alors un du Québec en épingle, il faut savoir que taux horaire de base de 35 cents que leur les syndicats industriels canadiens sont confère un décret promulgué en vertu de rares à cette époque; les principales excep­ la Loi de l'extension juridique; ils bénéfi­ tions à cette règle sont le Canadian Bro­ cient, en fait, de la "convention collec­ therhood of Railway Employees (CBRE). tive" signée par 1' "Union canadienne de les bûcherons de la Colombie- Montréal des travailleurs en fer et en Britannique, les travailleurs de General bronze ornemental," qui deviendra en Motors d'Oshawa, ainsi que les mineurs 1941 le local 2366 des métallos." (15) de charbon et le tout récent syndicat des Les travailleurs de Stelco sont désireux de métallos au Cap-Breton. (16) Ce serait corriger l'iniquité de leur situation. Mais méconnaître la réalité des rapports leur objectif est plus grand; ils fondent un sociaux de production, dans une forma­ syndicat qui regrouperait tous les travail­ tion sociale donnée, que de croire que, leurs de leur usine (journaliers, opérateurs "mutatis mutandis," les relations de tra­ de machines à clou, faiseurs de boulons. vail prévalant au Canada et au Québec etc.), puis ceux des autres usines Stelco vont s'accorder instantanément à celles de avant de joindre dans un même syndicat nos voisins du Sud. De même, lorsqu'on tous les travailleurs de l'industrie métal­ discute du retard des législations ouvriè­ lurgique canadienne. (9) L'enjeu est res canadiennes, convient-il de prendre en énorme. En contrepartie, la compagnie compte l'état de dépendance de l'écono­ offre deux augmentations successives de mie canadienne et la peur des patrons de 10 pour-cent, qui rehausseront le taux voir s'implanter ici "un syndicat à salarial horaire à 35 cents, plus la forma­ l'échelle de toute la métallurgie améri­ tion d'un "plan de coopération," que caine," (23) mais aussi le décalage tem­ l'auteur ne définit pas. Cette réponse sera porel et la différence organisationnelle qui accompagnée de congédiements et de séparent le "Congress of Industrial Orga­ licenciements qui tueront dans l'oeuf cette nizations" américain et le Congrès cana­ première tentative de syndicalisation. Un dien du travail. Néanmoins, on ne saurait REVIEWS 251

nier — sauf la "Trade Union Act" adop­ Mills," que le syndicalisme industriel fait tée par le gouvernement de la Nouvelle- sa première percée dans le secteur métal­ Ecosse, en 1937, pour donner l'existence lurgique québécois. Barrett, le directeur légale au syndicat des métallurgistes de des métallos canadiens, n'est sans doute Dosco, à Sidney — qu'il faut attendre la pas étranger à l'adhésion du local 2174 à Loi des relations ouvrières du Québec et son syndicat, en 1940. Laurent Lecavalier le décret fédéral CP 1003, en 1944, avant en est le représentant dans la métropole. que le Canada-Québec soit doté d'un pas­ Les conditions de travail dans cette usine tiche du "Wagner Act" de 1935. Et exiguë, équipée d'un mauvais système de encore, faudra-t-il attendre l'année 1959 chauffage et d'une aération inadéquate, avant que le court gouvernement Sauvé sont déplorables. (33-4) Il en va de même n'adopte une loi qui ordonne la "reinstal­ des conditions salariales, toujours hypo­ lation d'un travailleur congédié pour acti­ théquées par les coupures des années 1931 vité syndicale" et n'impose "le fardeau et 1932 qui avaient entraîné une chute du de la preuve à l'employeur." (19) C'est le taux de base horaire à 22,5 cents. Des mouvement d'appui à ThéoGagné, le augmentations subséquentes permettront leader du syndicat de Murdoch ville, que aux salaires d'atteindre un taux de base l'indécrottable Noranda Mines Co. a con­ horaire de 30,7 cents auquel il est pla­ gédié qui pousse le gouvernement à passer fonné depuis 1937. Ces conditions cette loi. Bref, une société ne se réforme s'apparentent à celles de "Canadian pas mécaniquement; encore faut-il en acti­ Tube" qui paient 30 cents l'heure, mais ver les transformations. L'auteur le sait. sont inférieures à Stelco où les travailleurs C'est ce que Silby Barrett et Charles Mil- touchent 35 cents. D'autre part, la durée lard, directeur Canadian du CIO de 1937 à hebdomadaire de travail est longue; en 1942, avaient compris lorsqu'ils incitè­ théorie, elle doit être de 54 heures; en réa­ rent, en 1939, leur comité de coordination lité, un quartier des salariés de Peck Rol­ à déclarer que le "temps est venu de lan­ ling Mills travaillent au-delà de soixante cer une croisade canadienne pour la démo­ heures et "sept d'entre eux au-delà de 80 cratie industrielle." (27) heures." (34) C'est le cercle vicieux: pour Silby Barrett était en charge de l'orga­ obvier au manque à gagner que génère nisation syndicale des métallos canadiens leurs salaires, les travailleurs doivent tra­ depuis que John L. Lewis — président vailler plus longtemps et à taux simple. nord-américain du syndicat industriel des Ils déclenchent donc une "grève pour mineurs de charbon et fondateur tant du sortir du 'cheap labour.' " (34) Elle com­ "Committee for Industrial Organization" mence le 23 avril et se prolonge jusqu'au (CIO) en 1935, que du "Steel Workers' 7 juin 1940. On y conteste le gel des salai­ Organizing Committee" (SWOC), l'année res en temps de guerre que le gouverne­ suivante — l'eût nommé à la direction du ment fédéral a décrété. Le décret est une district 26. C'est un district autonome; consécration du principe des disparités c'est celui des mineurs de charbon de la économiques régionales. En effet, les Nouvelle-Ecosse; ils sont affiliés au salaires québécois sont bien inférieurs à "United Mine Workers" américain. (17) ceux que touchent les métallos de Dosco, Ce syndicat, dont la naissance remonte à à Sidney, de Stelco, à Hamilton, et 1879, est exemplaire. Il sert d'inspiration d'Algoma, à Sault-Sainte-Marie où le au récent syndicat (local 1064) des métal­ salaire horaire de base est de 45,5 cents. lurgistes de Dosco que Barrett institue à Le syndicat réclame la parité salariale et Sydney en 1937. La compagnie Dosco exige l'établissement des salaires sur une possède aussi une usine à Montréal qui base industrielle plutôt que régionale. La embauche quelques 300 travailleurs. partie patronale refuse et conteste la légi­ C'est à ce laminoir, "Peck Rolling timité du syndicat. Ce dernier, alléguant 252 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL que le décret fédéral lui permet de se pré­ est l'oeuvre conjointe de Silby Barrett et valoir de la "loi d'enquête sur les conflits Charles Millard. En dépit d'une certaine industriels de 1927," (32) demande la confusion introduite par l'auteur (17 et création d'une commission de conciliation 60) nous croyons pouvoir établir, avec et d'enquête pour statuer sur la validité de réserve cependant, les fonctions de l'un et leurs réclamations. La commission crée de l'autre. De fail, entre 1937 et 1940, un précédent en décidant de tenir un vote Barrett cumule les postes de directeur des au scrutin secret, et sous la surveillance mineurs de charbon, directeur des métal­ gouvernementale, pour dénouer l'impasse los canadiens et président canadien du de la reconnaissance syndicale. (33) Les "Congress of Industrial Organizations;" travailleurs sont incontestablement soli­ puis en 1940, lors de la création du Con­ daires de leur syndicat. C'est quand même grès canadien du travail il devient le vice- une entorse à la législation canadienne du président de cette organisation que Char­ travail qui, avant 1944, n'oblige pas les Millard présidera jusqu'en 1942. À "l'employeur à reconnaître un syndicat cette date le territoire nord-américain est même quand celui-ci a gagné un vote divisé en 39 districts qui élisent chacun un majoritaire." (33) On tergiverse. Finale­ directeur au bureau exécutif des métallur­ ment le gouvernement augmente le salaire gistes que dirigera Millard, jusqu'en minimum dans les usines de guerre; puis 1945, tout en assumant, je présume, son promet aux travailleurs de Peck Rolling rôle de député cécéfiste ("Cooperative Mills de reconvoquer la commission Commonwealth Federation") à la législa­ d'enquête. Dans ces circonstances les tra­ ture ontarienne où il fut élu en 1943. (62) vailleurs votent le retour au travail. Cir­ Donc, en 1945, les Métallos tiennent leur conspect, l'auteur indique que "la repré­ élections de district; Charles Millard et sentation et la survivance syndicales des John Mitchell sont élus à la direction de travailleurs montréalais de Dosco ne leur district respectif; le premier au dis­ seront assurées en fait que dix ans plus trict 6 (Ontario ei Québec) et l'autre au tard, à l'issue de la grève de 1950 à district 5 (les Maritimes). Ils battent ainsi l'usine Canadian Tube'' (33) acquise leurs adversaires communistes, soit entre temps par Dosco. George MacNeil et Tom McClure. Aux Néanmoins, ce premier syndicat des élections de l'année suivante, Millard est travailleurs de la métallurgie, au Québec, réélu tandis que J.C. Nicholson devient le a une existence officielle depuis le 22 mai nouveau directeur du district 5, qui 1942, (58) Ils sont mieux connus alors inclura le Québec à partir de 1947. (61) sous le nom de "United Steelworkers of De son bureau de Sidney (N.E.), Nichol­ America;" progressivement on les dési­ son "s'occupait fort peu de la marche du gnera comme les Métallurgistes unis syndicat au Québec." (103) Conséquem- d'Amérique avant d'être finalement iden­ ment, en 1950, cette tâche échoit au direc­ tifiés au terme de Métallos dont la pre­ teur canadien, Charles Millard, qui mière utilisation remonte à 1960. Cinq assume ici l'organisation de l'action syn­ années plus tard c'est le journal du syndi­ dicale jusqu'au moment où, en 1956, Wil­ cat, Le Métallo, qui est lancé; on tire pro­ liam Mahoney lui succède comme direc­ fit d'un journal de grève. Le Piquet, que teur. L'année suivante, Mahoney s'enlend les mineurs de Manitou-Barvue, à Val- avec Nicholson pour que la direction du d'or, ont publié durant l'hiver 1963-64. syndicat au Québec." (103) Conséque- (147) Ce journal répond au grand objectif mment, en 1950, cette tâche échoit au de "démocratie industrielle" que ce syn­ directeur canadien, Charles Millard, qui dicat a toujours voulu appliquer dans son assume ici l'organisation de l'action syn­ organisation interne. (10, 17, et 60) dicale jusqu'au moment où, en 1956, Wil­ L'implantation du SWOC au Canada liam Mahoney lui succède comme direc- REVIEWS 253 teur. L'année suivante, Mahoney s'entend trict en 1973 et 1977. (232) Enfin, en avec Nicholson pour que la direction du 1981, c'est Clément Godbout qui devient syndicat au Québec relève officiellement le nouveau directeur de ces Métallos que du directeur canadien; puis il confie à Pat bien des Québécois identifient à celui qui, Burke, assisté d'Emile Boudreau et P.L. après un militantisme syndical d'une tren­ Gélinas, le rôle de "coordonnateur régio­ taine d'années, dont une quinzaine à leur nal pour l'ensemble du Québec." (104) tête, (5 et 243) consacre un dernier douze L'auteur est heureux de cette unification mois à "la recherche documentaire et à la de la direction du syndicat au Québec; il rédaction" (5) de leur histoire. est non moins satisfait de voir Pat Burke Applaudissons cette initiative des remplacer R.J. Lamoureux, président de Métallos qui lui ont confié cette tâche. la Fédération des unions industrielles du Dorénavant, outre leurs traditions orales, Québec (FUIQ) depuis sa création, en ils ont leur histoire. Cet ouvrage démontre I9S2, et l'un des "acteurs importants du le potentiel documentaire que recèlent des désordre antérieur," (104) à la vice- journaux comme le Steel Labor et Le présidence de la nouvelle Fédération des Métallo. Ils constituent, avec les archives travailleurs du Québec (FTQ), en 1957. canadiennes du syndicat, "toutes dépo­ Toujours est-il que Pat Burke est sées aux Archives publiques du Canada," "nommé plutôt qu'élu" (157) au poste de (249) l'essentiel de sa documentation coordonnateur des Métallos à l'échelle du puisque les archives québécoises, données Québec. Cette situation dure depuis deux à l'Université de Montréal, n'étaient pas années lorsque l'on soulève la question, encore complètement inventoriées et clas­ en 1960, de constituer le Québec en dis­ sées. Nous soulignons le mérite énorme trict autonome. Là aussi, c'est le temps de cet auteur qui, pour n'être "pas histo­ que ça change! L'opposition principale à rien de formation, ni écrivain," (6) n'en cette sécession vient du directeur ontarien fait pas moins oeuvre d'historien de façon du district 6, Sefton, qui craint qu'elle ne objective et prudente. soit "le prélude de la scission en deux Ces qualités indéniables nous sem­ districts de l'Ontario et de l'Ouest cana­ blent ternies par l'usage indifférencié des dien." (158) Burke succède à Nicholson termes communiste et marxiste, (39) mais comme directeur du district 5 (Québec- surtout par cette rétrospective chasse-aux- Maritimes), en février 1961; il s'est fait sorcières communistes. Le cas Lucien élire avec le mandat de séparer le Québec. Dufour témoigne de notre suspicion. Ce sera effectivement le cas lorsque, le 1 L'auteur tout en se demandant si la vic­ juin, le Québec devient le district 5. En time était communiste, admet ne rien con­ 1968, les 6,500 syndiqués des Maritimes naître de Dufour si ce n'est qu'il fut per­ seront réintégrés aux 28,500 métallos du quisitionné et qu'à "défaut d'informa­ Québec au "vif désappointement" (167) tions directes, il faut dire que Dufour était de Jean Gérin-Lajoie qui dirige les desti­ sans doute au moins un sympathisant du nées de ce syndicat depuis trois années. Il Parti communiste car le syndicat des convient de souligner la grande modestie Métallos est arrivé au Québec dans les et l'objectivité de l'auteur lorsqu'il wagons du Parti communiste." (24) Que raconte les péripéties de cette dure bataille prouvent ces allégations? Il est facile électorale de 1965. (159-166) Il d'être sympathisant communiste dans le l'emporte, de justesse, sur le candidat Québec des années 1930. Un autre cas, Jean Beaudry que supporte Pat Burke dont que l'auteur aborde avec autant de préju­ le seul défaut était son unilinguisme. gés, est celui de Laurent Lecavalier. Ce (161) Il affronte et bat le même adver­ dernier aurait le rare démérite d'avoir saire, en 1969; par ailleurs, il est élu par démissionné comme représentant des acclamation à ce poste de directeur de dis­ Métallos, le 17 juin 1941, "en accusant 254 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

les Métallos de tiédeur dans leur appui" Lajoie complète avantageusement (39) aux grévistes de Peck Rolling Mills. 1*Histoire du mouvement ouvrier au Qué­ Et pourtant il nous semble que Lecavalier bec (1825-1976), et, les Éléments d'his­ pouvait avoir raison de déplorer le second toire de ta FTQ... de François Cyr et vote favorable à la fin de la grève. Rémi Roy, ainsi que la thèse de Michel Aurait-il prévu le dénouement que le Grant. En dépit d'une facture aguichante, retour au travail risquait de produire? Car, ce n'est probablement pas le genre à l'exception de la hausse salariale, dont d'ouvrage qui connaîtra une diffusion nous avons parlé, l'auteur admet que "les large chez les travailleurs. Même si travailleurs connaîtront finalement l'auteur évite les pièges "de la statistique l'échec. " (38 ) L'échec. relatif selon abstraite ou ceux de la nomenclature fasti­ nous, de cette grève commande-t-elle à dieuse," (208) il colle encore trop au posteriori la quête d'un bouc-émissaire? modèle aride des études universitaires. Lecavalier était peut-être marxiste, com­ Par cont:^, l'éditeur a réalisé un beau tra­ muniste ou sympathisant communiste, vail: présentation soignée, texte aéré, mais qu'on le dise carrément et qu'on marges latérales agrémentées des carica­ nous prouve en quoi cette affirmation tures que Roger Paré dessinait pour le aurait un intérêt historique. Autrement, journal Le Métallo. (15) Les marges que l'auteur reconnaissawqu'il formule une logent également des commentaires expli­ "opinion partisane" ainsi qu'il l'écrit à catifs et des photographies de travailleurs propos du syndicat Mine-Mill qui aurait et de militants. Caricatures, illustrations, été "expulsé du CIO aux États-Unis et du et photographies allègent la forme de cet CCT au Canada à cause ... de la subordi­ ouvrage déjà habité par les hommes. nation de leur action syndicale au dogme L'auteur sait qu'ils seront toujours l'âme marxiste et au Parti communiste." (75) du syndicalisme, même revêtu de sa chape Ainsi l'auteur, ne se départissant pas de institutionnelle. Le choix de Gérin-Lajoie son sens critique, mise sur le jugement de est de ressusciter la lutte permanente des son lecteur. Cette question de la présence Métallos pour se tailler une place au et du rôle réel ou appréhendé des commu­ soleil, en se dotant des outils que sont nistes y gagnerait d'être repensée et objec­ l'acquisition et la défense de leur droit à la tivée, Les faits d'opinion sont aussi des syndicalisation. En somme, ce combat, faits historiques. Un autre beau sujet "épopée" dit l'auteur, (243) est aussi la serait d'étudier ce pan de la tradition geste d'homme comme Charles Smart, orale, imbue de passion, de préjugé et (66) Nick Léveilié, (70) Jos Rankin, et d'idéologie, que les leaders syndicaux, Edouard Goguen que ce livre sauve de leurs milieus également, propagent — l'oubli. Voilà ce que raconte l'auteur, inculquent à leurs émules — à l'endroit et sans verser du tout dans l'hagiographie et à l'envers des uns et des autres ainsi que le panégyrique. Il fallait donc expliciter des organismes, leurs concurrents trop les résultats sans estomper ni "les luttes souvent, qu'ils représentent. Tel n'est pas qui les ont produits," ni la diversité du l'objet de ce volume. Quoiqu'il ne soit monde ouvrier et syndical, ni "le désor­ pas facile de passer de l'action militante dre concret des négociations les plus partisane à l'étude scientifique, c'est une décentralisées et les plus fracturées de gageure que l'auteur relève avec brio. Nos tout le monde industrialisé." (208) Cette remarques précédentes ne visent qu'à sou­ forme d'exposé est lisible de chapitre en ligner qu'il eût été préférable que ces chapitre. bavures en soient exemptes. Le plan du volume se conforme à une C'est en effet une parution qui vient trame chronologique, découpée en phase combler une lacune de notre historiogra­ décennale, qui constitue autant de chapi­ phie française. Le volume de Gérin- tres. Ce choix est discutable. Après "les REVIEWS 255

années 1930. Les échecs des débuts" lisations et la croissance de ses effectifs (15-27) qui se déroulent sur une toile de syndicaux (65) que le "canard s'arrache fond empreinte de l'atmosphère de la de l'eau. " (11 ) En prenant de l'altitude on crise, l'auteur aborde "Les années mesure mieux les turbulences d'un monde 1940." (31-62) Cette période de guerre industriel que caractérise la diversité: les marque vraiment "la naissance" du syn­ couches de travailleurs vivent des condi­ dicalisme industriel que les travailleurs de tions variées et ont des attentes hétérogè­ Peck Rolling Mills imposeront dans les nes. La formation syndicale, l'informa­ faits, même si ce n'est qu'après la grève tion et l'action politique (95-102) sont de "Canadian Tube" que sa survivance nécessaires pour vaincre la force d'inertie est réellement reconnue. Les grands de gouvernements conservateurs et de objectifs des métallos durant les années de compagnies réactionnaires comme la guerre seront, outre la reconnaissance Noranda Mines, dans le Nord-Ouest et à syndicale, l'obtention de la parité sala­ Murdochville, et Ingersoll-Rand à Sher­ riale avec leurs camarades des grandes brooke. (115) La conscience syndicale usines du Canada anglais et rétablisse­ s'impose aussi pour passer à travers les ment d'un "contrat national unique dans nuages de ces divergences entre la Fédéra­ la sidérurgie canadienne." (41) Faute tion des unions industrielles du Québec "d'une législation ouvrière uniforme et (FUIQ) et la Confédération de travailleurs nationale' ' (44) qui aurait permis catholiques du Canada (CTCC) qui obscur­ l'atteinte de cet objectif et devant l'oppo­ cissent le climat unitaire ( 103-112) en ges­ sition du patronat, les syndicats devront se tation depuis 1955. Même si la CTCC reste rabattre sur le "pattern bargaining." à l'écart, ce que l'auteur déplore, la créa­ Cette forme de "négociation par modèle" tion de la Fédération des travailleurs du (45) consiste essentiellement, comme Québec (FTQ) va bénéficier aux Métallos. dans le cas d'Algoma (45) ou celui de La récente FTQ et son syndicat des l'Iron Ore, à Schefferville et à Sept-îles, Métallos, puis la nouvelle Confédération (143 ss) à différer les dates d'échéance des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN) sont déjà à des contrats de travail de sorte qu'ils puis­ l'heure de la Révolution tranquille quand sent modeler leurs projets de conventions l'équipe dite du tonnerre prend le pouvoir collectives sur les clauses avantageuses en 1960. Ils sont le fer de lance de obtenues ailleurs, mais surtout aux États- V "identité québécoise" (ch. 4) que chan­ Unis. L'inéluctable "pattern bargaining" tent poètes et chansonniers. Par étape, les devient monnaie courante durant les Métallos affichent leur idéal souverainiste années 1950. (chap. 3) C'est la décennie lors de leur assemblée annuelle de 1972. du décollage. (63-112) Les grandes luttes Enfin, en 1978, ils appuient le Parti Qué­ des métallos consistent alors à briser le bécois que dirige cet homme qui, dans les cercle d'une dépendance économique années 1960, supportait les Métallos dans canadienne qui consacre le principe colo­ leurs luttes pourciviliser les grandes com­ nialiste d'une disparité salariale entre le pagnies minières. Québec et les États-Unis. (88) "Les prin­ cipales revendications des Métallos qué­ Georges Massé bécois et leurs principales grèves .seront Université du Québec des luttes de rattrapage." (93) C'est ainsi à Trois-Rivières que plusieurs groupes de travailleurs réus­ siront à doubler leurs salaires (88-89) durant ces dix ans, en plus de faire entrer dans les usines le système d'évaluation David M. Gordon, Richard Edwards, and des salaires, le ' 'Cooperative Wage Michael Reich, Segmented Work, Study." (90) C'est parses luttes, ses réa­ Divided Workers: The Historical 256 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Transformation of Labor in the United are remedied. The most central of these States (New York: Cambridge University trace to the deficient sense of historical Press 1982). process and transformation that has con­ fined so many Marxist analyses to deduct­ MANY BOOKS BECOME significant ive modeling, where ideal types march because they define important new ques­ woodenly through historic categories. tions, whether or not these are successfully Among non-Marxists, the same deficiency answered, and whether or not the methods has led those wrestling with the question to and evidence at hand prove particularly static generalizations about class and cul­ satisfying in their own terms. The volume ture, and only moderately less ahistorical considered here arrives at a position of ones about race and ethnicity. In general, the authors argue, historical analysis of the major importance via the diametrically evolving economic system remains opposite route: it poses some received, detached from the analysis of society, even tired, historical questions that end up labour, and politics. being almost incidental to a strikingly orig­ inal approach to finding answers, a This has particularly hobbled framework on which the authors hang an understanding the role of class struggle, imposing reconceptualization of the his­ seen in many analyses merely as a tory of American political economy. structural consequence of capitalism's Neither the understated title nor the evolution, or, alternatively, as a kind of book's opening pages quite hint at the historical independent variable by many of scope of what is to come. The authors start those most sympathetic to the claims of with a review of the debate about the dual working-class agency. With a more inte­ labour market hypothesis, and they outline gral sense of the role of conflict in their own reformulation — tripartite, not political-economic change thus suppressed or detached, a dialectical understanding is dual, and segmented, not divided. Lest impossible almost by definition, and its such concerns seem technical or internal to history cannot even be sketched. Accord­ Marxist theory, the authors argue their cen- ingly, the authors hinge their work on an trality to one of the oldest chestnuts roast­ analytic framework capable of linking the ing in historiographical and political fires: evolution of capitalism and the history of the problem of explaining (he quiescence struggle, and showing how both are of American labour, especially politically, expressed in the transformations of labour and the historical failure to generate or over time. sustain "a working-class agenda" and "a serious labor-dominated political party." This framework presents the history of Indeed, the Big Question. (A friend repor­ work, labour, markets, the working class, tedly found it handed back on a student's and indeed American society itself as an garbled exam essay as "the Wino expression of the interaction between the Socialism problem" in the United States.) "long swing" dynamics of economic Seeking this venerable grail, the authors activity, and a complex — their most origi­ set out to sketch the history of divisions nal contribution — termed the "social among American workers. structure of accumulation." Basically, this includes all those historical forces, Almost as soon as they unpack their institutions, and factors "external to indi­ analytic framework, however, it becomes vidual capitalists or firms, but internal to clear that the big question is a horse capitalism in general," from social con­ trotting behind a self-propelled cart. Gor­ flict to labour organization to the role of don, Edwards, and Reich argue that the the state to evolving cultural structures and issue of American exceptionalism cannot values. be usefully considered until a variety of problems informing traditional approaches The relationship between accumula- REVIEWS 257 tion and such a broadly defined social workforce — seems more understandable, structure supporting it is necessarily unsta­ explicable, and powerful in the ble, the authors show, and history can be straightforward narrative context gener­ read as the record of that instability. ated by the categories of this model. When Capitalism's fundamental need for profits conceptual deduction and a broad range of and growth exploits the possibilities of a historical particulars link up so solidly, the given social structure of accumulation result seems almost self-evident as soon as beyond the point of diminishing returns; it is stated — the telltale sign of a very the result is not only an economic crisis, formidable historical synthesis. The result but a political-economic crisis, involving is, simply, the most useful and stimulating struggles over alterations permitting this general overview we have of the linked structure to fit capitalism's evolving form history of American work, workers, and and needs. And to the very extent the alter­ capitalism. It should have all the influence ations work, their obsolescence becomes of Harry Braverman's classic study of the inevitable, and the cycle of crisis is degradation of work, and it deserves more, since to understand changes in the social repeated. In a manner reminiscent of structure of accumulation demands more Kuhn's paradigm-shift concept of histori­ concrete historical analysis, and works cal process, the authors see American his­ better in diverse circumstances, than does tory moving unevenly through this rhythm Braverman's essentially deductive of stability, dissonance, conflict, and reso­ approach to the implications of capitalism lution, with new social structures of for the labour process. accumulation taking gradual shape within the faltering and decaying forms of their The big question, it should be said, predecessors, suddenly leaping into prom­ survives this analysis unanswered, in part inent maturity amidst a sustained crisis, because a dynamic theory deals more eas­ and then beginning an inevitable disinte­ ily with change than with phenomena con­ gration. ceived, in the usual formulation of the In this manner, the authors detect three question, as persistent. The broad lines of major, overlapping phases in the history of the argument also diminish its ability to work and labour under American work on very particular historical prob­ capitalism: proletarianization (1820s to lems close up — which is what the general­ 1890s) homogenization (1870s to 1940s), izations of Wino Socialism reduce to when and segmentation (1920s to the present). taken seriously. An hypothesis in which When the book turns to examining each of both homogenization and segmentation these in detail, the cart/horse reversal can produce similar results, and in which really comes into play: the particular prob­ both tendencies co-exist in time but in lem of divisions among workers seems opposed historical motion, is at a disadvan­ tage in demonstrating that divisions among most exciting as an illustration of a more workers are central determinants of collec­ general approach to history, rather than the tive values, behaviour, and political latter solving a particular mystery to any action. very satisfying degree. A model that sounds complex, even Interestingly, however, such weak­ cumbersome, in the abstract, turns out to nesses actually confirm the importance of work extraordinarily well in practice. the general approach, since they stem Indeed, beyond a number of fascinating from narrowing the framework to the par­ new insights, it is remarkable how what we ticular dimension of labour division. The already know — about labour history, for social structure of accumulation concept, instance, or the development of the corpo­ however, is much broader; it not only per­ ration, or innovations in technology, or mits, but actually invites similarly dialec­ immigration, or the role of women in the tical consideration of factors the authors 258 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

are perhaps too easily faulted for slighting crystallize and organize, even if the means — such as the lines of working-class cul­ are not immediately evident. ture, the nature of broader political The real success of the volume, as this institutions and values, and the complex suggests, is to provide valuable tools for cultural role of race and ethnicity. In other combining economic analysis and the words, readers should not let less-than- study of historical contingency. It definitive answers to the Wino Socialism sketches a method for making better sense issue obscure the broader power of the — common sense, really — of American book's historical synthesis. If this is seen social history, more than can be offered by as an initial illustration of a more general, rigid developmental models or a pluralist open-ended historical method, its power American exceptionalism. It demonstrates and significance will be better ap­ that the study of political economy can preciated. and must be, in practice and in theory, the study of history. In so doing, it suggests It also helps to remember the.persis­ that a history which uses the insights of tent emphasis on the active role of workers political economy to understand how our themselves in shaping both long swing world actually changes, may more readily and the social structure of accumulation. become a tool for change itself. This had always been easy to appreciate in periods of organization and insurgency. Michael H, Frisch But it tends to be less clear in understand­ State University of New York — Buffalo ing times — such as the present — when labour appears in near-chaotic retreat before an assault of capital, an assault that can seem beyond resistance or deflection Maurice lsserman, Which Side Were You because of the wave of structural eco­ On?: The American Communist Party nomic transformation it claims to be rid­ During the Second World War ing. (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University For meeting such situations, this Press 1982). book's dialectics offer needed encourage­ ment. While the authors could not be MAURICE 1SSERMAN HAS written a called optimists, they use their framework remarkably interesting book: excellently effectively to argue that recent develop­ researched, competently structured, and ments are evidence of both a long swing with a critical approach that is both highly economic crisis, and the exhaustion of the informative and sympathetic. As he says current social structure of accumulation in the opening line to his preface, "The based on labour segmentation, a structure history of Communism in America is bit­ whose power rests on the stability of the terly contested terrain," and he has found so-called labour consensus of the postwar his way through very complicated paths decades.The current restructuring of the with a rational judgement that is admira­ workforce and the assault of capital, in ble. He sets out the difficult questions of effect announce that we have entered a his subject, and while he does not pretend period of immense change, the inputs into to provide detailed answers in all cases, which, this book's model shows, are far the matters he is dealing with are central more diverse, and the outcomes far less to an understanding of the American radi­ determined, than they initially can seem. cal past and crucial for the American radi­ Unless one feels the postwar balance to cal present. have been ideal, this destabilization thus He explains that he is writing a genera­ represents a moment of historic opportu­ tional history — from the mid-thirties to nity around which the forces of labour can 1956 — and that he began his research REVIEWS 259

when the first major source, the Earl United Slates was not involved in fight­ Browder papers, had become available at ing, the slogan had to be "The Yanks Syracuse University. Since then, during Aren't Coming." Isserman writes the his­ the last decade or so, there have also tory of this miserable period with sym­ appeared a number of personal, often pathetic insight. The Communist Party moving, accounts of the life and times of was badly mauled, and in a number of communist militants. ways it never recovered from its experi­ Isserman begins with a chapter on the ences, despite its growth in the aftermath American Communist Party in the 1930s, of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. when Browder stamped his image on the The American Communist Party has party and when the Comintern had shifted not been alone in offering unnecessary its political line from the disastrous sec­ comfort and encouragement to the reac­ tarianism of the 6th Congress to the united tionary elements in society: the left all front and popular front ideas of the 7th over the world has a formidable record in Congress of 1935. In a number of respects this context. The House Un-American this is a key chapter in the book. Ameri­ Activities Committee, led by Martin Dies, can communists in these years before flourished in the atmosphere of a burgeon­ 1939 began to put down roots into ordi­ ing anti-communism, and Browder nary American life and to develop policies himself was put behind bars on a passport and attitudes that might have provided a fraud. What is so dispiriting about this long-term basis for the further develop­ stage of American communist history are ment of the native socialist tradition. The the examples that Isserman gives of the struggles on behalf of black groups were self-deception that a simple-minded serious and principled, and their record on Marxism, under sectarian stress, can unionization, along with close allies such nourish and encourage. Here is Browder as Harry Bridges, had considerable sub­ on 5 November 1939: stance. But there were always problems America itself, despite the political back­ inherent in their relationship with Mos­ wardness as yet of our working class, is cow and the world communist movement, technically, objectively, the country which is and in the end the problems overwhelmed the most ripe, the most prepared, for a quick them. But down to the outbreak of World transition to socialism, for which it lacks only War II, the strategy of the popular front the understanding and the will of the masses to was being worked out with imagination that goal. and verve. Here, too, there were problems The Trotskyist groups which have but they were not insoluble. Browder led remained simon-pure, and certain other the party into opportunist ways and in par­ gauchiste sects, are in many countries ticular played down the importance of still saying the same thing today: industrial and political work on the shop- testimony to the intellectual corruption floor; the party was also notably lopsided that infects the incorruptible. on issues of civil liberties. These things The return to anti-fascism which fol­ happened in other countries, but they lowed the attack on the Soviet Union on might have been corrected, although there 22 June 1941 allowed the Communist was always the Moscow connection which Party to continue and expand the policies could never be broken. When the war of the Popular Front days. Browder was came, and the Comintern pronounced it an released from prison in May 1942 and imperialist struggle — a fundamental mis­ accelerated the party's turn towards an reading of the international power situa­ accommodation with Rooseveltian tion — the Communist Party in America liberalism; but what pushed Browder into followed the rest of the communist world, a fundamental revision of the communist with remarkably few defections. Since the position was the interpretation he made of 260 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

the Teheran agreements of November tion was wound up at the end of July and 1943. He genuinely believed that the William Z. Foster became chairman of the declaration of accord between Roosevelt, re-created Communist Party. The party Churchill, and Stalin meant what it said: moved steadily to the left, turned its back that a complete and lasting peace would upon the many positive attitudes that had follow the victory over fascism; and that developed during the New Deal and war­ imperialism would no longer exist in its time years, and embarked upon what pre-war forms. Within a fortnight of Isserman describes as "policies of suici­ Teheran, Browder was telling a party rally dal delusion." His own summary of what in Bridgeport, Connecticut, that commu­ happened to the party in the late forties nists "must help to remove from the and through the fifties is worth reproduc­ American ruling class the fear of a ing: socialist revolution in the United States in The American communists held a fortress the post-war period." besieged by overwhelming forces in those Browder was not alone in giving way years. Whatever judgement one makes of their to illusions during the later stages of the beliefs and actions, the fact that so many perse­ war, although few in other countries went vered through the worst of the anti-Communist so far as he did. Pollitt in Britain, for hysteria of the late 1940s and early 1950s stands as eloquent testimony to their courage instance, also developed markedly and commitment. More than a hundred leaders revisionist ideas in the year before the war of the Communist party, including many of ended, but the harsh realities of the Euro­ those who figured prominently in the events of pean conflict, as well as the central 1939 to 1945, were indicted and convicted imperialist role that Britain still played, under the Smith Act. Many served long terms made it difficult for anyone to stray too far in prison, and all expected to. Screenwriters in along the Browder path. But Browder Hollywood, schoolteachers in New York City, himself had developed delusions of grand­ and thousands of other people around the coun­ eur and the cult of his personality was try were driven from their jobs for having joined or sympathised with the Party or one of quite widespread. He was, therefore, able its front organisations, or simply refusing to to lead the American communists into a inform on others. Membership in the Party wholly false understanding of the world made one not only a political pariah but a crim­ that was emerging from the defeat of fas­ inal. The 1950 McCarran Act declared that cism. The party for example was muted in Communists in effect repudiate their allegiance its response to the counter-revolution by to the United States and in effect transfer their the British in Greece, and Browder allegiance to the Soviet Union. The law pushed his international economic policy required all Communists to register with the as the answer to "damaging mistakes" Attorney General and gave the federal govern­ ment authority to arrest and imprison them in like those of Britain in Greece, in which a the event of an "internal security emergency.'* beneficent American imperialism would work peacefully with the Soviet Union in The crucifixion of the American Commu­ world reconstruction. It was terrible non­ nist Party was not yet completed; there sense. and a terrible tragedy. were still a few nails to be hammered Browder persuaded his comrades to home. In January 1956, the year of the dissolve the Communist Party and estab­ Khrushchev revelation, and American lish a Communist Political Association Communist Party still had about 20,000 which lasted for a year. Then, in May members. Khrushchev's account of the 1945, the famous letter of Jacques Duclos Stalinist terror had a devastating impact criticizing the dissolution of the Commu­ upon the membership and a raging debate nist Party reached New York, and since began, the like of which had never before this was clearly Moscow speaking, the been encountered in communist history. end of Browder was in sight. The associa­ But as in Britain the dissenters lacked REVIEWS 261 effective leadership against the machine, designed to serve the needs of American in America still controlled by Foster. In trade unions. Britain the central committee remained Two forces account for the current totally united and opposed to an open crop of labour studies courses: the techno­ debate, and a quarter of the membership logical and managerial changes which fell away. But in America membership swept through American business after was halved by the summer of 1957 and World War II, and the growth of the had shrunk to around 3,000 a year later. labour movement itself. In the first case, The decline of the organized left in effective collective bargaining against cor­ America, and the failure to develop a new porate giants demanded legal and Finan­ movement with staying power in the past cial expertise that union leaders and two decades, is a matter of quite crucial organizers had yet to develop. In addition, importance for the labour and socialist contemporary concern with such issues as movements the world over. The weakness health and safety, fringe benefits, and of the radical opposition in the most pow­ media relations encouraged the hiring of erful capitalist country in the world is felt labour "specialists." and experienced everywhere: at every With tens of thousands of members to level of struggle, for elementary decency, serve, large unions also required improved against nuclear weapons, and for socialist internal communications — including advance, American imperialism is the organizers with a combination of social main enemy; and the absence of wide­ skills and technical proficiency. All of spread support inside America for pro­ this helps explain the bureaucratization of gressive policies is a handicap of quite ter­ trade unions (including the hiring of law­ rifying dimensions. Towards our under­ yers and other professionals), and the pro­ standing of the problems of the left in vision of academic training for unionists, America in the past half-century, Isser- workers, and others interested in labour's man's book is a most valuable contribu­ cause. tion. The author obviously believes in the functional value of labour studies, but John Saville much of the book explores — in a guarded University of Hull and tentative way — the costs and limita­ tions of such programmes. Gone are the days when adult education courses for workers were cherished for their political Joel Denker, Unions and Universities: and/or academic orientation. In recent The Rise of the New Labor Leader years pragmatism is virtually all that mat­ (Montclair, NJ: Allanheld, Osmun 1981). ters to workers and their unions. Courses in labour history and the "worker in soci­ A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING the American ety" are endured by students seeking labour movement: the rise of college- degrees, but instruction in bargaining trained labour specialists. In 1964 not a methods and the training of stewards is single degree programme in labour studies invariably preferred. A un ion-sponsored could be found in the United States. By programme at the University of Akron the late 1970s, 47 colleges and univer­ offered courses in both the liberal arts and sities offered undergraduate and graduate more practical subjects. The students degrees in the field. This spare and reada­ there avoided political science, world ble book by a labour studies teacher at the affairs, and economics in favour of public University of the District of Columbia dis­ speaking, basic English, and remedial cusses the history, structure, and prob­ writing. lems of these college programmes While unions value and utilize the 262 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

skills that labour specialists bring to the academic credentials. As a result, the job, the academic with little union experi­ teachers hired, increasingly, have no ence is generally viewed with consider­ union experience. Hail the precious Ph.D. able suspicion. Few unionists are as This book will undoubtedly be dis­ extreme as Samuel Gompers, who once missed by union "pragmatists" as ponder­ dismissed intellectuals in the labour ous theorizing, even though the demand movement as "faddists, theorists and by unions for labour specialists trained in effeminate men," but the residue of such universities and colleges will continue to characterization remains. As a result spe­ grow. Labour studies advocates within cialists are often excluded from the post-secondary institutions, however, centres of union power — their expertise including those involved in the newer Canadian programmes, will find this a is used but their advice on political and useful study. It addresses, without fully policy matters is ignored. Frequently resolving, the question of how the teacher insecure themselves, some labour special­ maintains political and intellectual integ­ ists "adopt the fashionable anti- rity in the face of both union and univer­ intellectualism of the organizations," sity conservatism. thereby depriving their unions of poten­ tially useful contributions. The reverse problem, however, can also exist. Some Paul Axelrod union lawyers attempt to build their own York University empires by monopolizing information and knowledge, and treating with condescen­ sion other union employees and members Stephen A. Marini, Radical Sects of Rev­ of the rank and file. But in general the olutionary New England (Cambridge, credibility of those trained in college- MA: Harvard University Press 1982). based labour studies depends on how con­ sistently they stay out of everyone's way THIS BOOK EXAMINES the emergence of and toe the union line. the first radical counter-attack on the Cal- Within universities, labour studies vinist tradition in the hill country of cen­ face a different problem — the struggle tral, western and northern New England for academic recognition and status. Jeal­ between 1790 and 1820. The Freewill ous. politically suspicious industrial rela­ Baptists. Shakers, and Universalists. tions and business management deans Marini argues, forged "complete and almost always question the need for countervailing religious cultures out of the labour studies. While intelligent raw materials of rural New England soci­ academics should be able to distinguish ety." (7) By 1815 this radical Evangelical between industrial relations programmes movement had reached its zenith, and by 1840 other groups such as the Methodists, stressing techniques of management con­ the Christian Connection, and the Church trol, and labour studies which focus on the of Latter-Day Saints had come to domi­ union as an organization and the needs of nate the alternative religious scene. The its workers, legitimacy is not easily legacy of this movement is the pluralism obtained, and the risks of cooptation are and diversity that has persisted in the very great. Lahour studies programmes American religious tradition to the present tend to test the limits of liberalism within day. North American colleges and universities, and the narrowness of those limits is fre­ Marini's analysis of the social and quently discovered. Few universities, for economic environment of the hill country example, will tolerate the hiring of labour adds a new dimension to the social history studies teachers who have years of union of post-revolutionary New England. The experience but who lack the appropriate centralized towns of Massachusetts and REVIEWS 263

Connecticut, it seems, were not dupli­ of these sects indicates the marginality of cated on the frontier. The typical town Calvinism on the frontier by the end of the consisted of 500 to 1,800 people and was eighteenth century. spread over twenty to 30 square miles. Marini combines a sensitive apprecia­ The region did not develop commercially tion for the nuances of sectarian doctrine and remained "in the best of times a mar­ with a rigorous analysis of the social ginal subsistence economy, and in the milieu of the hill country. Sharply etched worst of times an agricultural disaster." portraits of Mother Ann Lee, Caleb Rich, (29-30) In contrast to southern New Eng­ and Benjamin Randel provide the reader land, property was more evenly distrib­ with the best assessments available of uted with one-third of the land owned by early American charismatics. These the wealthiest 10 per cent of the popula­ strengths, however, are offset by several tion and the remainder divided into estates faulty judgements and missed opportu­ of under 500 pounds. In the absence of nities. Marini's claim that social classes stable non-familial institutions such as were relatively undifferentiated is based churches, schools, and courts, the family only on a crude estimation about the dis­ assumed a more critical role than in south- tribution of property, a rather mechanistic em New England. Unlike Philip Greven's assumption about how people arrange Andover, for example, younger genera­ themselves in a new society. Like much of tions did not have to emigrate to obtain the literature in American religious his­ land and a living. Land was readily avail­ tory, moreover, Radical Sects of Revolu­ able and labour was scarce. tionary New England seeks to explain the These conditions of social and cultural peculiarly American character of religious fragmentation, Marini argues, rendered movements, and thus it avoids a compara­ the hill country especially vulnerable to tive perspective. Mother Ann Lee's biog­ the radicalizing impulses of evangelical raphy bears such a striking similarity to religion. Given the weakness of the con­ British millenarian Joanna Southcott that gregational establishment in the hill coun­ the two demand comparison. Southcott's try, and the "localist, egalitarian, and tri­ rejection of sexual relations emerged from bal view of the settlers and their institu­ her belief that women were to compensate tions," (39) the frontier was fertile ground for Eve's sin by redeeming men from for religious radicalism. Thus the Shak­ Satan through celibacy. By pursuing the ers, Universalists, and Freewill Baptists comparison, Marini might have explored emerged from the irrelevance of tradi­ the different ways that men and women on tional congregationalist ideals and polity. the frontier experienced the intervention A commitment to celibacy, mutual con­ of the spirit in their lives. fession, the necessity of the new birth, The book also suffers from its conven­ and a belief that the Second Coming had tional but annoying celebration of reli­ already begun look the Shakers consider­ gious pluralism. Long after historians ably beyond their origins in the experi­ have jettisoned the concept of uniqueness ential religion of George Whitefield and inherent in Hartzian liberalism, and the the New Lights. The Universalists pro­ notion of America as a melting pot soci­ claimed that all of humanity was to be ety, religious historians continue to write touched by God's grace and thereby about religious pluralism as if it were a denied the Calvinist doctrine of limited given, not an ideology. Radical Sects of atonement and predestination. The Revolutionary New England is a promis­ Freewill Baptists declared that God ing book, for it opens up the relationship neither saved nor damned anyone and that of radical religious culture to gender, individuals were free to decide their own class, and the complexity of social rela­ spiritual destiny. The widespread success tionships in an undeveloped region. But 264 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Marini follows the conventions of Ameri­ dlins, David Brion Davis, Winthrop Jor­ can religious historiography so closely dan, Edmund Morgan, George Freder- that his innovations are geographical and ickson, Gerald Mullin, Eugene Genovese, topical rather than analytic. and countless other fine scholars, all have constructed a new historical synthesis. Bruce Tucker In part, the aim of contemporary Cincinnati, Ohio scholarship has been to reassess the eco­ nomic and social underpinnings of the slave system. In part, the object has been James Oakes, The Ruling Race: A History to challenge old assumptions and crude of American Slaveholders (New York: stereotypes. What has emerged is a pic­ Knopf 1982). ture of a cruelly exploitative, costly, and underproductive economy based on white THE PAST SEVERAL decades have wit­ authority and capital, Amerindian land, nessed a remarkable renaissance in the and black slave labour. Throughout we historical revision of American slavery glimpse the consequences of a blatantly and the black experience in bondage and racist white society humbling and "freedom." The benign plantation world humiliating its black American labourers of U.B. Phillips, wherein white master with daily insult, frequent punishment, and black slave lived in more or less sym­ and too often death. What appears most biotic harmony, has gone the way of all clearly, however, is the long-denied myths, destroyed by a "new" scholarship strength and dignity of the black Ameri­ at once more critical and disciplined, can in bondage. They were not the carica­ more rigorously methodological in tures of indolence and ignorance argued approach, more ideological in perspec­ by generations of racist sympathizers, but tive, and more sensitive to the grim reality a people of courage and faith, energy and that was slavery in colonial and antebel­ imagination, determined to survive to lum America. While the whole tragedy of freedom. In short, the rewarding efforts of slavery and its racist legacies have been a generation of new scholars has given us American issues, it is the South which has an informed image of the black American, received the bulk of attention, and rightly and given some 25 million slave descen­ so. It is here that the institution of slavery dants a proud heritage hitherto ignored. developed as nowhere else, and here However, lost in the shuffle of the past where most early black Americans lived has been the master class, according to out their lives of sometimes quiet, more James Oakes in The Ruling Race. While it often rebellious desperation. And it is the is now clear that we can speak with some black American who has occupied the assurance about black Americans as centre stage of modern historical enquiry, slaves, and have recreated their world in as slave, as victim, as dispossessed, and more realistic terms, for Oakes, the same as survivor. cannot be said of the white American as This revisionist historiography of the master. Somehow there has been kept South, of slavery, and of the black Ameri­ alive the long-held stereotype of a genteel, can role in the shaping of America, has its white, pretentiously paternalistic plant- roots in the timeless studies of John Hope ocracy ruling an orderly world of loyal Franklin, E. Franklin Frazier, Herbert and obedient black servants, Oakes' argu­ Aptheker, and Frank Tannenbaum in the ment is that the "ruling race" was not typ­ 1930s and 1940s. The major contributions ically the patriarchy of legend, nobly pre­ of Kenneth Stampp and Stanley Elkins in siding over feudal domains, and the sym­ the 1950s charted new paths, and together bols of the South were rarely the "big with the more recent works of the Han- house," mint juleps, and beguiling south- REVIEWS 265 em belles. These, for Oakes, are a func­ cess. Most would agree with the tion of fiction, not history, a "Gone With Richmond Enquirer which in 1856 the Wind" creation, not a reality. The argued, "Freedom is not possible without princ ipal thesis set out in The Ruling Race slavery." is that the slaveholding class was much One is almost sympathetic to the tiny more diverse than usually supposed. slaveholding minority Oakes calls the There were some 400,000 slave-owners "Masters of Tradition," the paternalists by 1860, but few were truly "planters," who eschewed the ugly materialism of that is, owners of twenty or more slaves, their contemporaries. But if they are best and less than 2.5 per cent were the aristo­ remembered in history, in truth they were crats of legend. swept aside by the rise of the commercial Statistically, the "typical" slaveholder market, the broad distribution of was white, male, Democrat, evangelical slaveholding wealth, the diversity of the Protestant, a native of the South, 44 years class origins, and the appeal of economic old, in some form of agriculture, and and political liberalism. In any case, the owned eight to nine slaves. As Oakes patriarchs were no less guilty in the brutal points out, the only surprise here is that process of enslavement and in the com­ "the middle-aged white farmer with mitment to white supremacy. The black perhaps a handful of slaves quickly disap­ American slave, racially distinct as peared from the history books, replaced labourer and capital asset, was by a plantation legend Ihat bears little dehumanized by the vast majority of resemblance to historical reality." Statis­ whites, masters and would-be masters, tics further obscure the diversity of the paternalists, and materialists alike. Oakes class. In included women, immigrants, raises the question of how the slavehold­ blacks, Amerindians, urbanités, and pro­ ing class, so "American," so "patriotic," fessionals. Intellectually and ideologi­ could remain so steadfast in its commit­ cally they shared few things in common ment to slavery, going to war to defend it. other than a lust for gain, "increasingly The answer he gives would seem to be a obsessed with economic prosperity," tragic combination of greed, racism, and a Oakes thus portrays the slaveholding class misguided notion of what was meant by as crass economic opportunists in pursuit political democracy. of success, individual achievement, social The Ruling Race is an important rein- mobility, territorial expansion, and equal terpretation of the South, very much in opportunity for land and slaves. They tune with revisionist historiography. One were a restless and greedy group, pushing could query whether the "samples" taken southward and westward, all the while of selected countries and individuals are believing that political democracy — for sufficiently representative to close debate white Americans — and a capitalist econ­ on the nature of the slaveholding class. omy — for white Americans — assured And while he takes issue with the planta­ the American traditions of freedom and tion legend, he does not explain at all well liberty — for white Americans. If they its survival. In the final analysis, he de- thought of the black American in bondage emphasizes the racial dimension of the at all, slavery was but a means to various American slave experience; that is, race ends — racial subordination, individual surrenders place to economic and political advancement, southern prosperity, and considerations. Perhaps more could be "American greatness." If they held any said of white racial attitudes as they ideology in common, it was a synthesis of evolved after 1619 to demonstrate that by racism and a gospel of prosperity, the nineteenth century, racial discrimina­ liberalism, and capitalism, all of which tion was a "given," a readily acceptable needed slavery to uphold and assure suc­ and unarguable premise, at least until 266 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL challenged by the north and the black would not willingly accept wages varying American community. These points from $4.00 to $15.00 a month, with plant­ aside, James Oakes has written a very ers deducting from that at every excuse: good book indeed, a social history of a late reporting to work, excessive time for dominant class in the American experi­ lunch, "idling," being sick, and unex- ence whose fanatical commitment to cuscd absences. An average of 26 percent capitalism and political liberalism came of promised wages never materialized. close to destroying a nation and a people. Further, the gang character of the work and the direct supervision by whites made Robert McCormaek the likeness to slavery too great. University of Winnipeg Under the draconian wage system in the late 1860s, "the hands became increasingly insubordinate" and "were Ronald L.F. Davis, Good and Faithful practically out of control." The hope for Labor: From Slavery to Sharecropping land ownership gone, the Afro-American in the Natchez District, 1860-1890 people retained an "overwhelming desire (Westport, CT: Greenwood 1982). for independence, in their daily work and lives." In addition, there was the fierce THIS AUTHOR, WHO teaches at Califor­ desire — particularly among the women nia State University in Norlhridge, has — to get out from under the direct pres­ produced an important work. He sought to ence of the white boss and to work as part elucidate the source of the sharecropping of a family group. The latter point system in the post-Civil War South. The deserves greater emphasis than it receives traditional view explained this as due to a in this book. lack of fluid capital on the part of former The author, seeing the active role in slaveowners (with which, presumably, history of the black people, concludes wages might be paid) and, in particular. "that sharecropping originated largely in the alleged instinctive "laziness of the the freedmen's insistence upon the Negro," a view founded on unadulterated arrangement." Fixed rent tenancy was bet­ racism. ter since it afforded enhanced individual Some earlier work challenged the con­ freedom. A minority achieved this, but ventional view, notably Joel Williamson's generally the odds against it were too The Negro in South Carolina During great. Reconstruction (1965) and William McFeely's biography of General O.O. The planters, retaining ownership and Howard (1968), but Professor Davis's possessing control over what, where, and book persuasively demolishes it. The be­ when to plant, and general control over trayal of reconstruction meant the failure credit and over the ultimate marketing of to distribute the land to those who tilled it. the crop, were finally able — abetted by Two efforts followed: the notorious institutionalized and brutal racism — to "Black Codes" of the former slaveown­ impose a sharecropping system marked by ers, and then the policy favoured by the abject poverty, awful suffering, and. even Union military, that is, instituting a piti­ more than the author indicates, wide­ fully and rigidly low-waged labour system spread outright peonage. Here the role of with direct hour-by-hour supervision by the merchants and of the northern the planters, which was too reminiscent of bourgeoisie, aided as all the propertied slavery to be abided by the freed people. classes were by state power, were of basic The latter rejected the effort; they importance. The book is good on the sig­ sabotaged it. ran away, went on strike, nificance of the merchants but would have and threatened more dire action. They been strengthened had more attention REVIEWS 267 been given to the penetration of northern at the University of Connecticut in 1979 capital. addresses these questions, albeit in a In passing, the author shows that the somewhat haphazard fashion. The confer­ idea of U.B. Phillips, first expounded in ence organizer and editor of the volume, 1913, as to the greater "efficiency" of Bruce Stave, has provided something of a plantation slavery as compared with later sense of continuity by a useful preface and "free" labour is false. He notes it was introductions to each of four sections: the adopted by Vann Woodward, Stanley role of the family and neighbourhood; Engerman, and Robert Fogel, but demon­ housing policy as an aspect of social con­ strates how faulty the view is. (13. 161-3) trol; the economy of cities; and the survi­ Davis seems unaware that W.E.B. Du val of industrial cities. A feature of each Bois had carefully refuted this aspect of section is the commentaries originally Phillips' mythology contemporaneously delivered at the conference, which give a (sec The Crisis, March 1913). good sense of the controversy and dis­ The author's conclusion merits direct agreement raised by any discussion of the quotation: "the key determinant was the notion of power. freedman's refusal to work except in some The provision of housing is central to type of sharecropping system or arrange­ the subject matter of many of the essays ment. Planters literally were dragged with authors usually relating housing to kicking and screaming into that system. the larger questions raised above. Three Unable to force the freedmen to work for major essays will be discussed here; these fixed wages in a gang setting, planters present sharply differing views and illus­ accepted sharecropping because they had trate the extent to which contrasting no choice in the matter." (190) ideologies affect the conclusions reached. One objection: the repeated use of Brian Berry, a geographer and planner, "freedmen" when meaning freed people lakes a traditional social science stance by is jarring — the more so as black women assuming that we live in a neutral world were of decisive consequence as workers where private market forces shape where and as militants in this phase of Afro- and how we live. According to Berry, the American history, as in that history in American government's role in the city- general. building process has been relatively pas­ sive, at most enhancing the objectives of Herbert Aptheker private enterprise. This is as it should be, San Diego, California he argues, for the result has been to pro­ mote household wealth through owner­ ship. In spite of growing evidence about Bruce M. Stave, éd., Modern Industrial the government's activities in this area, Cities: History, Policy, and Survival (Bev­ Berry remains oblivious to the state's role erly Hills: Sage Publications 1981). in accentuating the abandonment of American inner cities by all except the HOW IS THE POWER structure of a society poorest in society. But Berry does admit related to the nature of its cities? What is the revitalization of central cities would the relative weight of government and require "enlightened leadership" to pre­ private enterprise in the shaping of the vail "over the normal business of poli­ urban environment? Questions such as tics." these represent the direction which an A more convincing explanation of increasing number of social and urban his­ how the urban environment is shaped is torians are taking in their work. This col­ offered in Kenneth Jackson's analysis of lection of papers from a conference on the U.S. government housing policy between dynamics of modern industrial cities held 1918 and 1968. In a detailed outline of 268 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

several of these policies, Jackson clearly rather than practical. And like Jackson, he shows how the federal government demonstrates that the benevolent state institutionalized racial and class discrimi­ described by Berry is a myth. nation in the housing market by its Like most volumes which originate mortgage insurance system which encour­ from the papers of a conference, this col­ aged the white middle class's flight to the lection is a hit-and-miss affair, but the suburbs and hastened inner-city major issues raised merit further consider­ neighbourhood decay. In Jackson's blunt ation by those of us studying North words, "the basic direction of federal American communities. In particular, it housing policies has been toward the con­ should be possible to combine what centration of the poor and the suburban labour and urban historians now often do dispersal of the better off." Whether obvi­ separately. For example cities and towns ously discriminatory policies can be seen can be regarded as the arenas wherein as a deliberate effort at social control larger social forces such as class conflict remains questionable, however. As Chris­ play out their roles. This involves an tine Rosen asked in her commentary, were understanding both of the power structure these policies perhaps simply designed to of a society and the urban processes at minimize the government's investment work in a specific place. Certainly many risk? At any rate, these policies failed commentators agree that a political eco­ completely as social control measures as nomic approach is "the looming frontier" shown by the urban riots of the l%0s. in urban analysis. The issue of housing policy and social control is also discussed by Lutz Niet- Gilbert A. Stelter hammer in an attempt to place nineteenth- University of Guelph century European housing reform into a broader analysis of the nature of industrial capitalism. The writings of Edwin Chad- Gwendolyn Wright, Building the Dream: wick , James Hobrecht, and Frederick A Social History of Housing in America LePlay are chosen as representative of the (Cambridge, MA: MIT 1983). health, space, and family concerns of middle-class reformers. In Niethammer's THE DREAMS IN Gwendolyn Wright's view, even the most liberal of these book are a series of thirteen ideals that reformers accepted the need for authorita­ have motivated residential designs and rian control of the urban poor, for these their realization from colonial times to the liberals regarded the lower working present in the United States. She has classes as savage and immoral and hence a sought to encapsulate in each discussion threat to social stability. But these reform­ the social concepts of the proponents, the ers were not merely lackies of the translation of these values into the built capitalist class. They represented a middle environment, the style of life accom­ ground between the alienated masses and the complacent ruling group. The failure modated by the housing, and its success in of reform, Niethammer believes, was the meeting the aims that engendered it. result of their attempts to impose middle- Wright's concern is with ordinary hous­ class norms on the working class rather ing, with housing with a public history than dealing with the slum problem at its that can be studied through time, and with source by changing the economic struc­ an experience of living in the houses that ture of society. Again it is a question of has already been recorded. Her book determining an individual or a group's offers a synthesis and a criticism, building motivation; Niethammer dismisses the on existing scholarship in history, sociol­ reformers' humanitarian ism as ideological ogy, and planning among other disci­ plines. Her criticism is informed by a REVIEWS 269 view of architecture that stresses its social to afford the "American dream" receive commitments rather than its technological separate treatment, having been targeted refinement, and that evaluates design in by different government programmes. The its capacity to serve the needs of residents aims of government interference are rather than in its adherence to stereotyped articulately described, as are the con­ models. troversies over policies. Commencing briefly with a discussion Innovation in domestic architecture of the houses built by Puritans in New creates the agenda for this book, while its England, Wright continues to the national diffusion is less fully noted. One of the period, with chapters organized in general pleasant surprises is a chapter on early chronological order on the first half of the apartments, how they were distinguished nineteenth century, later responses to socially as well as architecturally from industrialization, the influence of the pro­ tenements, and why they arose. By the gressive movement and early planning, time they became a widely accepted and and finally the intrusion of government copied form of urban living in America authority and bureaucracy as a crucial the author has turned to yet another idea framework for housing the poor and the gaining momentum. This is a history, suburbanites. The current attractiveness of then, which is more concerned with intro­ urban rehabilitation, and its conse­ ductions than consequences, although it quences, conclude the discussion. There acknowledges that each type of residence is a varied list of topics, focusing prima­ has a long-running history of its own sub­ rily on urban housing, with the exception sequent to its inauguration. There is a cer­ after the colonial period of chapters tain disjuncture from chapter to chapter devoted to plantation housing and the arising from this emphasis. It is not rural cottage. The details offered in the always clear where the ideas being discussion of housing for workers in the applied to housing arise or what their early industrial towns contrast nicely with long-term consequences turn out to be. the later treatment of the company town, both environments having been designed For the work of an architectural histo­ by and managed for the interests of the rian there are surprisingly few plans of capitalists exclusively. As portrayed, the domestic dwellings and little analysis of basic idea behind the schemes had such expected topics as building materials changed little, although the later indus­ or room arrangements. There are, how­ trialist was operating in different eco­ ever, a number of telling photographs of nomic and social circumstances and on a interiors, including a few kitchens. A grander scale. The difference in the number of cartoons and graphics responses to these programmes, as punctuate the text and convey pretty suggested by Wright, is left tantalizingly unequivocal messages. These come not so without explanation. The attention to sub­ often from contemporary architectural urbia focuses more clearly on the way in journals as from advertisements or edito­ which the buildings were used and on the rials addressed to the reading public. social evaluation of them. A concept of This is a book with a broad mandate to "domestication" informs the chapters on be explored within 329 pages. It is fresh the bungalow and the planned residential and full of suggestions; it is grounded in communities of the early twentieth cen­ wide reading and a consistent purpose. It tury. The legislation of standards, the improves as it progresses, and it chal­ arrival of government programmes, and lenges the reader to consider a broad and the intrusion of official planning into the imaginative sweep of America's past and provision of housing concludes the sur­ present residential environments. This vey. The poor and those who may be able book should provide a useful model for scholars who wish to understand the social 270 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

processes as well as the design values as the putting-out system diminished in under the eaves. importance the mills and factories began to dominate. Between 1790 and 1830 the PeterG.Goheen farm wife experienced startling changes in Queen's University household organization as she no longer produced her own yarn and cloth, thus reducing the need for extra labour, a point Alice Kessler-Harris, Out to Work: A His­ first explored by Nancy Cott in The Bonds tory of Wage-Earning Women in the of Womanhood (1977). The 1820s and United States (New York: Oxford 1830s witnessed a brief flurry of promise University Press 1982). for mill girls taking advantage of labour shortages. The experience, nevertheless, OUT TO WORK is an ambitious book was fundamentally different for women which focuses on the transition to waged compared to men, Kessler-Harris main­ work by women in the United States from tains, because women "entered the wage the colonial period to the present. Unlike labor force without expectations of more specialized studies, like Nancy upward mobility, justifying their partici­ Schrom-Dye's As Equals and As Sisters pation in terms of patriotic duty, of family (1980), a monograph on the Women's commitment, or sheer survival." (22) For Trade Union League, or Susan Strasser's women, the results of the economic Never Done (1982), a study of house­ transition to unrestricted laissez faire work, Kessler-Harris sweeps over the capitalism were clearly negative, particu­ entire chronology of women's work. Her larly from the point of view of wages and book is divided into three main sections: working conditions. By the last two dec­ the formative period from the colonial era ades preceding the Civil War, "material through the Civil War; the era between the conditions of women working for wages Civil War and World War I which pin­ declined substantially.1' (60) More com­ points the influence of the domestic role- petition and reduced wages faced women ideal on women's work; and finally the who found fewer factory jobs (with Irish period since 1920 in which women have and German immigration) and fewer emerged from the imposed dichotomy of opportunities for home work. By the Civil marriage/job to a position where women's War it was more difficult to be both work is no longer cyclical, varying respectable and employed in waged according to family size or life-cycle, but labour. the norm for the majority of the female The decades before the Civil War population. Relying on government were crucial in solidifying the identifica­ reports and commissions, trade union tion of women with domesticity. Rein­ records, surveys by middle-class forced by what the author terms the women's groups, literature, autobiog­ "domestic code," male workers were raphy and other resources, Kessler-Harris encouraged to throw obstacles in the paths sketches a compelling portrait of wage- of wage-earning women as changes in earning women in the United States which technology and work organization is both informative and well-written. threatened the traditional male crafts. In a What were the turning points for defensive reaction, male workers became women workers? A brief chapter on colo­ party to the domestic code as a way of nial women's work provides the departure protecting their jobs. Thus the idea of the point for the author's analysis of the late "family wage" seems to have had its eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, beginnings in the United States before it a period she views as problematic for appeared in Europe. women's economic independence because In the post-Civil War period, Kessler- REVIEWS 271

Harris documents the growth of working These codes also forced the AFL to recon­ women's organizations and the class sider organizing practices to include tensions generated by differing notions of women; by 1936-39 the CIO drives also the "working woman's problem" as contributed to increases in numbers of defined by middle-class women's organi­ women unionized in the new industrial zations and working-class ones. Black areas of auto, electrical, etc. Further­ and ethnic women's increased partici­ more, Kessler-Harris provides a much- pation in the labour force fundamentally needed revision of views on the impact of altered the previously homogenous female World War II on female employment workforce. Race and ethnicity operated to trends, seeing the limited improvements circumscribe the types of work open to as continuations of trends begun in the women, as recent studies have confirmed. 1930s rather than as a dramatic turn­ In geperal, however, shifts occurred about. Her account complements recent in the female labour force which cut work on this period of women's history, across these divisions of race or class — notably more focused studies such as shifts such as the increasing number of Karen Anderson's Wartime Women married women in paid work after 1890. (1981 ). Perhaps her most noteworthy con­ Middle-class college women began to tribution in this section is the discussion carve out areas of employment for of the 1950s, traditionally viewed as a themselves as well. Despite the demon­ step back from the gains of the war strable growth in the numbers of women period. Kessler-Harris finds the family- working, trade unions and some middle- centred 1950s a surface phenomenon class women's groups maintained the which hides essential shifts in government desirability of eliminating women from policy and material pressures for more the workforce rather than organizing married women's work to keep up with them. While vocational education and new consumer demands in the family. manual training were pushed as solutions, Titling her chapter on the post-war period, underlying these suggestions was a very ' "The Radical Consequences of Incremen­ home-centred notion of the female role. tal Change," the author thoroughly The identification of women with the revises our notions of the basic shifts in home and family led to demands for pro­ women's work since the beginnings of tective legislation. Kessler-Harris points World War II. out, however, that protective labour legis­ Most recently, the civil rights and lation might have led to improved condi­ anti-poverty programmes of the 1960s tions for all workers, not just women; pro­ produced some clear gains for women, tection, however, came to signify an alter­ albeit inadequate ones. The numbers of native approach to women workers' women in skilled, predominantly male unionization, an approach shared by trade trades rose considerably, although women unions and women's organizations. Trade remained a very small percentage of these union leaders feared that protective legis­ workers. By 1970, over 40 per cent of lation for men might undermine their moti­ married women worked for wages and vation for unionization. large numbers of women with young The final turning point in the saga of children entered the labour market in pro­ women's work occurs in the period after portions which surprised economic World War I with the dramatic growth in analysts, thus altering the previous pattern the 1920s of married women's work, of drop-out during the childrearing years. solidification of women's position as Despite clear evidence of women workers during the Depression and some remaining in the labour force and a grow­ improvements in minimum wages and ing number of female heads of house­ hours fostered by New Deal labour codes. holds, as well as the need for a two- 272 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

income family to make ends meet, women surpasses anything published to date for have not succeeded in achieving fair its synthesis and its general sensitivity to treatment in the labour market. The these theoretical questions and debates. It women's movement of the late 1960s con­ is a book that deserves a wide readership. tinues into the 1980s struggling to come nearer that goal. Kessler-Harris's syn­ Linda Kealey thesis of the history of women's waged Memorial University of Newfoundland work in the United States offers an inter­ pretive overview which will benefit histo­ rians as well as supporters of the women's movement seeking an insightful account Daniel E. Sutherland, Americans and of the major shifts in women's work. Their Servants: Domestic Service in the Out to Work is a synthesis grounded in United States from 1800-1920 (Baton a theoretical understanding of the relation­ Rouge: Louisiana State University Press ship between women's work in the family 1981). and in the labour market. Kessler-Harris acknowledges first the important debt IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY America, just owed to feminist sociologists and histo­ as it was in Europe and in Canada, domes­ rians who have insisted on treating domes­ tic service was the most important occupa­ tic and paid labour as aspects of a single tional category for women, in terms of phenomenon. Second, well-versed in the sheer numbers. As Daniel Sutherland contributions of labour historians such as points out, "until 1870, at least 50 per­ David Montgomery and Herbert Gutman, cent of America's gainfully employed she has brought together the insights of women were servants." Domestic both labour and women's history in this service, because it did have such impor­ book. Third, Kessler-Harris reasserts, tance in the history of women's work, is although not completely successfully, the obviously deserving of attention, and Suth­ notion of an "ideology" of womanhood erland's book contributes to our knowl­ which held sway in the United States from edge of domestic servants and their the early nineteenth century until the last employers. two or three decades, although she main­ Sutherland's book provides a survey tains that noticeable chinks were visible of who hired servants; who was hired; by the 1920s and 1930s. Kessler-Harris what work servants did; and what the per­ integrates the discussion of the ideology ceived problems of employers and of womanhood throughout and clearly employees were. Sutherland has done perceives alterations in its effect; what is considerable research in private family most problematic for the reader, however, papers, magazines, newspapers, books, is the lack of a clearcut summary of this and in government documents, and he powerful motivating force and the failure provides a useful and extensive biblio­ to treat this as an historically variable graphical essay. The book provides con­ phenomenon which must be explained siderable information outlining the partic­ rather than asserted. While Kessler-Harris ipation of native-born white, immigrant, avoids the artificial dichotomy between and black Americans in the occupation. material conditions and ideology which When he is discussing the ethnic and has plagued much of the earlier material racial origin of American servants, he on women's work, she has not grappled stresses that outside the South, the major­ successfully with the thorough integration ity of nineteenth-century servants were and historical relationship between the white. In his discussion of race and two. ethnicity, he effectively makes the point Despite this, Out to Work far that in America the social stigma against REVIEWS 273 domestic service was reinforced by race Katzman, Seven Days a Week; Women and ethnic prejudice. and Domestic Service in Industrializing In addition to providing a narrative America (1798). Katzman, like Suth­ account of domestic service as an occupa­ erland, provides a survey of employees, tion, Sutherland is also concerned with employers, of the occupation itself, and of the "servant problem." The approach he the problems associated with the occupa­ has taken in dealing with the problems tion. While Sutherland does indeed pro­ faced by servants and their employers is vide more information than Katzman does an attempt at neutrality, Problems be­ about certain aspects of the subject — he tween employers and employees were gives a more detailed, more fully re­ created by the existence of false expecta­ searched account of employers of servants tions on both sides: "Both servants and — Katzman's account of the nature of employers expected too much, both gave domestic service from the point of view of too little. This created servant problems the servant herself is fuller and more per­ without end." ceptive. The superficiality involved in Suth­ erland's attempts at neutrality reflect the Deborah Gorham book's major weakness. This is a well- Carleton University researched scholarly book, but the auth­ or's unanalytical, uncritical approach means that his wealth of research material Barbara Melosh, "The Physician's emerges merely as chatty anecdote. And Hand"; Work Culture and Conflict in he seems to accept unquestioningly both American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple the justice and the inevitability of the University Press 1982). structure of social class in nineteenth- century America. INTEGRATING THE experiences of He also virtually ignores the question women workers with analyses of the of gender. While he is aware that 90 per working class has proven an elusive goal cent of servants employed in nineteenth- for many labour historians, in part century America were female, he gives no because the majority of women workers attention to the fact that housework, have not been employed in the goods- whether done for pay by servants, or done producing sector of the economy which without pay by wives and daughters was labour history has traditionally studied. In not simply performed by females, but was The Physician's Hand author Barbara seen as a "natural" female occupation. It Melosh has shifted the focus of labour his­ is true that some of the most interesting tory to the service industry of health care, analyses of this question — works like presenting a sophisticated feminist Dolores Hayden's The Grand Domestic approach to the history of American nurs­ Revolution (1981) and Susan Strasser's ing and a challenging theoretical critique Never Done: A History of American of several important sociological and his­ torical concepts. Housework (1982) — appeared in book form either simultaneously with Suth­ Melosh centres her study on the work erland's book or after it, but both cultures which have emerged within Strasser's and Hayden's work were avail­ American nursing since 1920. The major­ able to Sutherland in other forms, as was ity of nurses, facing shifts in the structure the work of Ruth Schwartz Cowan. One and content of their work, approached has to assume that Sutherland was simply nursing from the culture of apprentice­ not interested in this queston. ship. This work culture was grounded in In scope and subject Sutherland's nurses' practical "craft" training in hospi­ book must be compared to David M. tal schools, and directed nurses to seek 274 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL employment in private health care where responded to the contradictions of profes­ they were able to apply their skills as sional ideology are needed to test fully independent workers. Throughout the Melosh's thesis. Still, "Not Merely a Pro­ chapters on nursing training, private duty fession" is an important addition to the work, public health nursing, and hospital growing field of literature on profes­ nursing, Melosh describes the work expe­ sionalism. riences of rank-and-file nurses as they resisted nursing leaders' attempts to make Approaching nurses as workers rather the craft training and tradition obsolete. than as emerging professionals leads Melosh to focus on the culture and con­ These nursing leaders — whose sciousness developed on the job, and thus records have served as the basis for stand­ situates The Physician's Hand well within ard nursing histories — approached their the tradition of American labour history occupation from a second work culture of established by authors such as David professionalism. Seeking professional Brody and David Montgomery. At the status for nursing, leaders attempted to same time, Melosh is critical of labour increase nurses' academic credentials and historians for failing to address the devel­ achieve supervisory roles for nurses in opment of service industries in the twen­ hospitals and public health programmes. tieth century, and the key role women play Melosh is extremely critical of profes­ in these increasingly rationalized sectors sional ideology for women, past or pres­ of the economy. ent: "'As a strategy for nursing, profes- sionalization is doomed to fail; as an In particular, Melosh sees her research ideology, professionalism divides nurses on nurses as raising questions regarding and weds its proponents to limiting and Braverman's theory of "deskilling." ultimately self-defeating values." (16) Melosh argues that nurses have always been "the physician's hand," and as such The author's rationale for this posi­ have been responsible for the execution tion, presented in her first chapter "Not rather than decision-making in health Merely a Profession," is powerful and care. However, the increase in medical convincing. Accepting a revisionist defi­ knowledge since World War 1 has nition of a profession, Melosh goes prompted a significant extension of the beyond, arguing that nurses have never scientific and technical skills of nursing, achieved true professional status and can­ and has increased nurses' authority rela­ not. The professional status of doctors has tive to both doctors and patients. To read­ depended upon, and continues to depend ers familiar with Braverman's work, it is upon, the subordination of nurses. More clear that nurses' skill increase is not importantly, a women's occupation can­ merely the upgrading of workers which he not be a profession because that status is discussed in his concluding chapter of gender-specific, and women are the "sec­ Labor and Monopoly Capital, and that ond sex." As Melosh explains: "the ser­ contrary to Braverman, nurses have not vice component of professional ideology been successfully structured into the held different implications for men and "middle layers" of employment. In fact, women. Men, to establish their profes­ attempts by hospital managers and nurs­ sional legitimacy had to assert a stronger ing leaders to rationalize health care and claim to service: women, to achieve the leave nurses as a managerial elite have same end, had to escape the diffuse notion failed: the specialized nature of modem of womanly service." (25) Further studies medicine has created a need for more examining how individual nurses, as well nurses rather than fewer, and nurses them­ as members of other female-dominated selves have struggled to maintain patient occupations such as home economics, care as an integral part of their work. REVIEWS 275

While this argument hints at ways in sensitive to issues of both gender and which conceptualizations of deskilling class. and workplace control may be revised by examining service industries, it is unfor­ Kathryn McPherson tunate that Melosh does not enter into a Simon Fraser University more direct or extensive discussion of Braverman's approach. Margery W. Davies, Woman's Place is at The question that remains unresolved the Typewriter: Office Work and Office throughout the book is whether nursing's Workers 1870-1930 (Philadelphia: Temple rank and file, despite its structural posi­ University Press 1982). tion within health care and its growing disillusionment with professionalism, WOMAN'S PLACE Is at the Typewriter is a considered itself part of the working class. highly readable and richly detailed Melosh is sensitive to the ambiguous account of the transformation class-consciousness of nurses, as well as and feminization of clerical work in late to the "serious ethical questions" (201) nineteenth- and early twentieth-century strikes and walkouts pose for workers United States. Its primary focus is a care­ committed to patient care. The author thus ful study of changes in the nature of office concludes The Physician's Hand with work itself, from the job of the messenger strategies for contemporary nurses to ally or office boy to that of the private secre­ with other non-professional health care tary. But Margery Davies also aims to dis­ workers and extend their collective work­ pel a number of popular myths about the place control. But more information prominent place of women in clerical regarding nurses' historical relationships work. She discards the oversimplified with other health care workers such as view thai the invention of the typewriter midwives or ward-aides would illuminate was responsible for the influx of women the degree of nurses' broader class- into the office, and she argues that the consciousness in the past. roaring ideological debates about women's moral and physical suitability Detail of this kind is limited in this for clerical work were mostly a matter of study, given Melosh's sources. She relies justification after the fact. She directs our primarily on national sources such as attention instead to a complex web of popular and prescriptive literature, and changes in the organization of capitalist editorials and letters in nursing journals, production, through which a new place exploring the regional, ethnic, and urban- for women, at the bottom of the clerical versus-rural distinctions in nurses' experi­ hierarchy, was created. She emphasizes ences. Melosh acknowledges that she is that this change represents a major trans­ painting in "broad strokes," leaving the formation in the occupational as well as task of painting the detail of her canvas to sex structuring of the labour force, and other research and other researchers. It is that it can only be understood as a reflec­ hoped that other researchers will follow tion of the "interaction between patriar­ Melosh's lead. The Physician's Hand is a chal social relations and political eco­ tightly organized, smoothly written, and nomic forces." accessible study. It successfully restores to significance the experiences of nurs­ The process of change which Davies ing's majority, while suggesting ways in traces, in a good deal more detail than which the experiences of working women other recent writers, will be familiar in its can inform our understanding of labour outlines to most readers. In the antebel­ history. Further research of this kind is lum South, clerical positions were rela­ essential if we are to create labour history tively few in number, the chains of com- 276 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

mand were simple and personal, and most process of feminization lay outside the job workers had the opportunity to prove their itself, in the changing structure of talents and work their way up. Indeed, as capitalist production and the changing Davies points out, until the early economic organization of family life nineteenth century, clerks were actually which led to an increase in the number of apprentice capitalists. By the turn of the females seeking waged work. These latter century, however, the scale and shape of factors remain largely outside the scope of business had altered drastically, increas­ her study. ing the volume of record-keeping and thus The outstanding strength of this the demand for clerical labour. With this account is the contribution that it makes expansion came a greater division of towards establishing an historical and labour, specialization of knowledge, and materialist approach to the study of the growth of hierarchical structures of women's place in the labour force. Begin­ power and control. The benevolent pater­ ning with a popular focus on cultural nalism of the past gave way to rationalized myths and ideological debate, Davies and depersonalized relations between directs attention to historical changes in employers and employees, and the prac­ the organization of productive relations tice of upward promotion of clerks was (including the family economy) as the substantially eroded. proper locus for any explication of The entry of women into this rapidly women's experience. She then produces a changing office environment is attrib­ substantial piece of such an investiga­ tion in a highly accessible and informative utable to a number of factors in concert manner, written in a style that is predomi­ with one another. Davies emphasizes the nantly descriptive rather than analytical. primacy of demand and supply factors: These are very large steps in the right the greatly increased demand for clerical direction. labour, and the greatly increased supply of females with the appropriate educa­ On the other hand, a major weakness tional background. As part of these of Davies' account is that it creates some­ trends, she points to the increasing ten­ thing of a surfeit of "factors," which con­ dency for educated males to aspire to tinue to rest uneasily in relation to one higher positions, thus removing them­ another throughout the book. Davies has a selves from the available pool of clerical tendency to use a kind of serial procedure, labour, and the attractiveness to employ­ stringing factors together in a linear fash­ ers of the ready supply of women at half ion, assigning priorities to them, rather the price of males. Davies names as sec­ than discovering the analytic links ondary factors — those which eased and between them. In managing this diffi­ facilitated rather than "caused" the entry culty, she occasionally falls prey to over­ simplifications of the kind that she is of women into the office — a number of otherwise at pains to avoid, such as the changes specifically related to the organi­ unfortunate statement in her conclusion zation of the work process; the increased that the feminization of clerical work division of labour, and with it the creation "was simply the result of the exigencies of of new job categories; the invention of the demand and supply" (emphasis mine). typewriter, which she says was "such a Such a statement does not do justice to the new machine that it had not been sex- complexity of her own work. typed as masculine;" and the successful experiment in hiring women by the U.S. Amidst these difficulties, the book Treasury Department during the Civil falls short of any real breakthroughs in an War. In addition to all of these more or analysis of gender and the labour process, less immediate factors, however, Davies and is a little disappointing in this respect. repeatedly stresses that the "roots" of the Davies' use of concepts such as "patriar- REVIEWS 277 chy" and "capitalism" remain a little will be open to further interpretation from wooden, set apart from the lively anec­ a variety of points of view. For those who dotal material, and the politics of the are new to the field, the book is an excel­ account seem to falter on this disjuncture. lent, if mild-mannered, introduction. Analytic breakthroughs aside, this work does shed some light on the contem­ Nancy S. Jackson porary debates about transformations in University of British Columbia the clerical labour process under capitalism, although Davies addresses herself only marginally to this literature. Margaret W. Rossiter, Women Scientists The main thrust of her account is quite In America: Struggles and Strategies to consistent with the Braverman tradition: 1940 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univer­ she puts scientific management ahead of sity Press 1982). technology as the motive force of change, emphasizing the rationality of capitalism, THERE IS NOTHING natural or histori­ the specialization of tasks and knowledge, cally inevitable about the identification of and the control of work geared to maximi­ science as a field for men. Science as an zation of profit. She provides some reveal­ occupation was masculinized as it was ing as well as entertaining historical anec­ professionalized in the late nineteenth dotes about the problems of employers century, and Margaret Rossiter, in exam­ who characterized as "conservatism" the ining the formation of the scientific pro­ stubborn resistance to change which they fession in academia, government, and met from their clerks and bookkeepers. industry, maintains that women's subor­ Though she does not dwell on class con­ dinate place in science from these years sciousness per se, she gives considerable was no accident, but was deliberate. visibility to conditions which she says Rather than being non-existent, have tended to ' 'discourage clerical work­ American women scientists, at least until ers from seeing their situation in class 1940 when the first of Rossiter's projected terms." Among these she specifies pa­ two volumes ends, were invisible, buried triarchal as well as paternalistic social rela­ in the lowest rungs of predominantly male tions. Davies uses the term "proletariani­ fields, or ignored in their low-status zation" without reference to the disagree­ female fields such as public health, home ments that are attendant on its use, in con­ economics, and statistics. Rossiter's fas­ trast for example to Graham Lowe's cinating book is at least two studies in lengthy discussion of whether the concept one: it brings to light the careers of dozens as ii is used in the literature is too blunt an of gifted women scientists, unfairly instrument to display the changes in cleri­ obscured, and it is a study of the politics cal work. In (he end, Davies' thesis and of the sex-typing of a profession from its Lowe's are not inconsistent: feminization origins to ihe subtle and not so subtle has masked internal processes of differ­ modes of its perpetuation. entiation within clerical work, and thus When women began their concerted disguised the processes of degradation push for higher education in the 1860s and and proletarianization of the work. 1870s, many interested people could Davies' account provides the detailed view involve themselves in scientific undertak­ into the processes of differentiation ings; the lines between amateur and expert on which Lowe's more careful theoretical were vague, and even moderately educa­ distinctions depend. ted people believed that scientific knowl­ In sum, then, this is a useful book. For edge was accessible to them. By the 1880s those who have followed the labour pro­ and 1890s women had achieved real suc­ cess debates, Davies' historical evidence cess gaining entrance to graduate schools 278 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

and they had even received advanced tific geniuses or famous achievers. Many degrees in scientific fields. They had scientific societies refused to elect women joined scientific associations and had to full membership just as many univer­ found jobs in observatories and museums. sities or industries would not hire womerT "Such incursions brought on a crisis of scientists except for jobs such as Dean of impending feminization" (xvii) in which Women or science librarian. To do other­ alarmed male scientists were able to lay wise was to jeopardize the prestige of claim to the masculine nature of their one's research programme. People in uni­ work, effecting the ouster of women from versities took as normal the tenure track most major positions in science. Botany system, anti-nepotism rules, and differ­ and natural history, which had become ential salary scales which all penalized especially infiltrated by women .scientists, women academics. National Research Council Fellowships not only favoured were brutally defeminized. One of the men over women, but gave women scien­ means by which the men managed this tists awards solely in "female" areas, thus was the "professionalization" of science. reinforcing segregation. Rossiter's depic­ By raising educational standards and dis­ tion of the multiple levels of discrimina­ tinguishing between amateur and profes­ tion. often so institutionalized that they sional, becoming more stringent as to who became invisible in their normalcy, is would be offered full membership in sci­ superb. Oddly, she leaves out the dis­ entific societies and whose work would be crimination produced by the difficulties of recognized and rewarded as significant combining jobs in science with the science, men in science were able to keep demands of wifehood and motherhood. would-be women scientists hovering just inside the doorway of the building they By 1910, women in science perceived hoped to inhabit fully with the men. the impasse in their progress. Their strate­ By 1910, the terms on which women gies varied from the more confrontational were allowed to participate in science, at publicizing of inequities to the more least to 1940, were set: hierarchically they "realistic" carving out of areas of could occupy low positions — lecture­ "women's work" within science. Rossiter ships in introductory science courses at suggests that neither approach worked colleges without major research very well in broadening the opportunities resources, assistantships in the research for women scientists, especially during projects of male scientists or in govern­ the difficult 1920s and 1930s, but she uses unkinder language — "strident" — to ment agencies, secretarial and librarian describe the confrontational strategy. positions in industry — and territorially Although one senses that she has not yet they could have certain female fields fully worked out a stance towards strategy which yielded neither high enough status nor good enough pay to interest men. This — crucial, surely, for the second volume state of affairs was maintained by outright — Rossiter does have a fine appreciation discrimination against women scientists for the conditions in which women were and by blindness to the work they did most vulnerable to internalizing the dou­ when it came lime to distribute, on an ble standard applied to men and women ostensibly neutral basis, promotions, scientists. She describes their approach research grants, and awards. Assuming during the years without hope as "deliber­ women to be naturally subordinate, few in ate overqualification and personal stoi­ science considered their promotion to be a cism." (129) They believed that if they normal occurrence; when pushed, they were not as good as Madame Curie, they blamed the women themselves for their should not expect advancement and recog­ nition. marginal positions and low status by claiming women had produced few scien­ Rossiter sees the reason for all this REVIEWS 279 discrimination as male status anxieties gradations in status and role that this which could be alleviated only by not col­ implied: henceforth, some persons would laborating, not to mention competing, have to be 'hired hands' on projects with a less prestigious group, namely directed by others." (72) women. At the points at which their posi­ tion was most precarious, e.g., the 1880s A subordinate position for women, as and 1890s and the 1920s and 1930s, male well as general class distinctions, were scientists apparently were especially fear­ crucial to the hierarchy established, but ful of the potential feminization of sci­ the very entrenchment of hierarchy is an ence. There is no doubt that women's col­ equally critical factor, one that became lective lower status made them unappeal­ inextricably bound up with the ways in ing colleagues to men, except in reassur­ which science has been done. This goes ingly subordinate capacities, and it is cer­ beyond the "fears, insecurities and puni­ tainly true that senses of masculinity and tive personalities" (216) of the men. No femininity are reinforced by working in an wonder women did better in science at occupation identified with one's own gen­ those times and places in which groups der. Nevertheless, although she occasion­ were smaller, more informal, less struc­ ally and parenthetically suggests that tured, and no wonder neither strategy they other non-elites such as Jews and blacks attempted in the period before 1940 were also discriminated against, Rossiter worked. comes very close to saying that fear of feminization on the part of vulnerable While for much of the book Rossiter's males was the dominating factor in struc­ treatment of women scientists in terms of turing science. This underplays the degree the gender politics of an occupation works to which male scientists at the end of the very well, there are some points at which 1 nineteenth century were reacting to the miss a discussion of the culture of sci­ threat of the democratization of science in ence. While we see the impact of the general. The effort to exclude women defeminization and stratification upon from equal participation was part of the women scientists, we do not see their effort to impose hierarchy on science, to effect on the kind of science that has been restrict access to elite white males while done. Yet this is crucial, both to the lives coping with the ever-expanding labour of women scientists and to the general created by increased knowledge. population. Scientists tend to cluster in areas where the external rewards are, and are often prone to overspecialization and Powerful male scientists' personal naivete about political and ethical con­ insecurities and unfortunate preoccupa­ cerns. Science has been closed off to the tion with status and prestige are somehow amateur by and large. Gone are the all- given more importance in Rossiter's women scientific clubs of the mid- analysis of women's subordinate place in nineteenth century, focusing on "private American science than is the way in which learning, mutual growth and contributions science as an occupation was structured. to local education and conservation." (75) Male anxieties are equated with the struc­ What if science for the last century had ture of science rather than viewed as the been done on this model, rather than the effect of it. And yet Rossiter acknowl­ one based on the desire for individual rec­ edges the structural changes occurring at ognition, personal, institutional, and the turn of the century, and much of her national prestige, and the ability to get data amplifies the point: "What had for­ grants'.' Would there be, as now, two cul­ merly been a fairly non-hierarchical col­ tures, and would science be only slug­ lection of independent investigators had gishly responsive to the needs and wants become, in some fields at least, highly of ordinary people? Would women still be bureauc rati zed 'big science' with all the 280 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

trying to find a comfortable niche in a Instead this division is a modern construc­ field designed for and by men? tion and the result of special historical cir­ cumstances such as protective legislation, Anita Clair Fellman the family wage, and sex-segregation of Simon Fraser University the occupational structure. (2) The pre­ vailing ideology which describes work Rachel Kahn-Hui et al., éd., Women and and family life as essentially different Work (Oxford: Oxford University Press realms is inaccurate. Just as these two 1982). aspects of life were not separated in the past, neither are they today. The family is WOMEN AND WORK consists of seventeen neither a refuge from the "real world," articles that originally appeared between nor does it merely produce use value. 1975 and 1979 in Social Problems, it is Instead the family is a complex economic unit where both women and men, wives heartening to see a mainstream sociology and husbands, are involved in productiv­ journal in the space of four years publish­ ity and consumption. (3) A definition of ing a significant collection of papers women's work must not be confined to devoted to the subject of gender. Further­ participation in the labour force. It must more, it is commendable that the editors, instead include work both inside and out­ instead of allowing the material to remain side the home. Because work in the home embedded and hidden in the regular issues is unpaid, it is devalued in capitalist of the periodical have made them — all of societies. Moreover, much of it is so a uniformly high quality — available to a taken for granted that it is often not even wider audience. seen as work. Even the distinction As the authors note, the papers draw between the production of use value on different theoretical perspectives (con­ (products which are consumed directly) flict, structural functional, and interac­ and the production of exchange value tional), different levels of analysis (macro (products which are bought and sold) is and micro), distinct methodological insufficient. Such a distinction ignores approaches (historical, experimental, and many important tasks which are carried observational), and different feminist per­ out by women, for example, volunteerism spectives (liberal, Marxist, and radical). and backstage politics. (4) Characteristics Taken together, the individual contribu­ which are often associated with gender tions are a rather odd mixture; they must be understood to be the result of seldom build upon one another, allow the structural features of the organization of reader to pursue any of the ideas in much work rather than the result of individual depth, or permit one to take account of the traits or socialization experiences. For inherent contradictions and inconsisten­ example: low pay reflects segmentation of cies among the various approaches. Each the labour force rather than poor educa­ article is, however, rich in ideas and tion or lack of ability; absenteeism and insights. labour turnover reflect poor conditions of Because the range of topics is wide the job rather than a lack of commitment to employment. Though the editors and the theoretical presuppositions dis­ emphasize these themes somewhat repeti­ tinct, the editors, in their opening discus­ tively throughout the book, the issues are sions and in the introductions to the not always directly commented on by the separate sections, have attempted to individual contributors. The concerns of extract four general, and important the authors are much more varied; their themes: (1) The rigid division of labour essays do not fit quite so easily into the by sex in which women manage the home major categories stressed by the editors. and provide child care while men earn the family income is not natural or inevitable. REVIEWS 281

What topics are discussed? Joan rear children, and to be subservient to Huber develops a sociotechnological men. theory of the women's movement in There are many other contributions which she argues that the contemporary which are equally interesting. Joseph H. position of women needs to be understood Pleck writes on the "work-family role sys­ in terms of such historical changes as the tem," Patricia Gerald Bourne and Norma decline of fertility, the men's regulation of Juliet Wikler on women in medicine, the labour participation of blue-collar Masako Murakami Osako on Japanese women workers in the nineteenth, and professional women, Norman B. Ryder that of white-collar women workers in the on the future of American fertility, Rose twentieth century. Rose Laub Coser and Laub Coser on day care, Jack W. Sattelon Gerald Rokoff argue that women are the inexpressive male, Pamela M. absent from high status professions due to Fishman on conversations as women's the cultural mandate that women ought to work, Janet B. Hunt and Larry L. Hunt on "put family first;" any disruptions of dilemmas of the dual-career family, Eve­ female professionals' work activity by their familial responsibilities are seen as lyn Nakano Glenn and Roslyn L. Feldberg illegitimate, whereas the disruptions of on the proletarianization of clerical work, work activity by male professionals Sally T. Hillsman and Bernard Levenson attending conferences or giving consulta­ on the job opportunities of black and tions are seen as legitimate. Richard M. white working-class women, Rosabeth Levinson shows how the segregated divi­ Moss Kanter on the impact of hierarchical sion of labour is maintained through the structures on the work behaviour of process of sex-role stereotyping in the women and men, and Sally L. Hacker on occupational world. In an experiment sex stratification and technological which consisted of male and female stu­ change at AT&T. dents answering ads by telephone, clear- Women and Work will thus serve as an cut discrimination was discernible in 35 excellent text for undergraduate and per cent of the cases. Roslyn L. Feldberg graduate students. Moreover, for anyone and Evelyn Nakano Glenn suggest, studying the worlds of work as well as interestingly, that previous research on those concerned about the position of men's and women's employment are women in industrialist-capitalist society, drawn from sex-differentiated theoretical this volume will provide a rich source of models. The "job model" analyzes men's insights and suggestive hypotheses. relationship to employment by concentrat­ ing on job-related features. The "gender Arlene Tigar McLaren model," in contrast, analyzes women's Simon Fraser University relationship to employment by virtually ignoring the type of job and working con­ ditions: "When it is studied at all Chris Aldred, Women at Work {London: women's relationship to employment is Pan Trade Union Studies 1981). treated as derivative of personal character­ istics and relationships to family situa­ WOMEN AT WORK is an important addi­ tions." (67) Barbara Epstein argues that tion to the Pan Trade Union Studies during the development of indus­ series. The series is written for groups of trialization, women failed to leave the people thinking of joining a union, new family work site and move to an industrial members of unions, those who are just work site as men did due to an emerging becoming active members, new and less domestic ideology which stressed that women's primary responsibility was to experienced shop stewards, and anybody interested in trade unions today. This par­ ticular study concerns itself with the prob- 282 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL lem of the disproportionate representation that lots of women spend their working of women in the ranks of trade union lives caring for people, have combined activists. with the trade union movement's Aldred starts with an examination of slowness to deal with issues like equal the kinds of work that women and men pay, male distrust of female members, do, pointing out the "hidden" skills and the inability of women to attend union women have. She also examines the meetings at the hours that men special problems women face in male- traditionally schedule them, to minimize dominated occupations, continues with an the participation of women. examination of the reasons behind sex In the same chapter the author looks at segregation in the job market, and moves alternatives that could alleviate these into an in-depth exploration of the "dou­ problems. Suggestions range from finding ble day." When women view themselves different and imaginative kinds of good as housewives first and workers second, child care, to negotiating for paid time off employers benefit. Having women make to attend union meetings, to increasing the this primary identification allows the exis­ understanding of trade union staff and tence of a reserve army of labour leaders of the conditions under which (although she never uses terms like this), women work, to affirmative action for and feeds into the real difficulties that educating women into leadership posi­ women have getting out of the home: a tions. The obvious stumbling blocks often lack of child care and low pay. raised in opposition to these ideas are There is a chapter on the absence of dealt with succinctly and in an unabrasive protection for women afforded by the way. British legal system, relevant mainly to In a chapter entitled "Participation — British conditions. However, Aldred Our Own Worst Enemies," the best makes the more general point that teaching tool on consciousness raising "women's rights have always been that I've read in a long time appears. regarded as something of a side issue with­ Aldred emphasizes the link between gen­ in trade unions — surprising as men's der and class identification: political rights have always been hotly Have you ever heard a Miss World contestant debated throughout trade union history." mention her trade union as an interest along The limitations of the legal system in with the inevitable interest in children, ani­ solving the problems of women at work mals, sports or the arts? Obviously most are appropriately noted: women don't go around trying to be like the Apart from the kinds of tricks your employer ideal women of the magazines or imitating can play, your workmates may think you're off Miss World. But most women do want to be your head to complain about some practice or women, not some pale copy of a man. What other that's been going on for years. Would sort of image jumps to your mind if you imag­ you be keen to try to claim your rights through ine trade unionists? Is it different from your legal channels? What kind of reaction would image of a "nice woman"? you get from your workmates? The book closes with concrete The fourth chapter was the most suggestions for action which range from interesting for women in the labour move­ bringing children to union meetings to ment as it deals with the structural barriers tactics for lobbying government. within trade unionism and within work­ Aldred thus deals with concepts like places to increasing women's partici­ "women's work," "the double day," pation in the movement. The problems of "work skills and training," and "equal organizing small workplaces where many pay" in a clear, concise, un-threatening women work, the large number of women manner grounded in a class analysis. who are part-time workers, and the fact Women at Work will help women and REVIEWS 283 men trade unionists to understand the con­ and "the interference-elimination prin­ crete issues and problems facing women ciple," he shows how teachers are in the workplace and the trade union involved in the reproduction of capitalist movement. social relations and how they do not I recommend this book to anyone "Educate" (always with a capital E). working to improve the participation of "The technical job of teaching has been women in trade unions, lo people in posi­ structured within a set of social relations tions of union leadership who could use a such that the very performance of the bit of education on women and work, or to technical job itself entails entering into, any woman in the trade union movement. participating in and perpetuating situa­ tions, processes and relations which them­ Patricia Lane, Research Director, selves are antithetical to Educating." (27) Independent Canadian Transit Union Harris then establishes an "objective" Vancouver, British Columbia or "scientific" Marxist position on class and class struggle, in opposition to the "ideologically ridden orthodox schema" Kevin Harris, Teachers and Classes: A of social stratification. He outlines the Marxist Analysis (London: Routledge and economic, political, and ideological Kegan Paul 1982). aspects of teachers' work in an attempt to define their class position and locate them THIS USEFUL LITTLE 150-page book pro­ in the class struggle. vides a Marxist analysis of the class loca­ In the chapter on economic issues he tion of teachers, ft is written in an accessi­ identifies teachers as unproductive labour­ ble style, addressed to teachers as well as ers, who therefore cannot be simply iden­ academics. It does not provide any star­ tified with the working class. He then tling new evidence or conclusions, but goes looks at the contradictions which face over arguments and information in a sys­ teachers: the functions they perform for tematic and critical manner. I immedi­ capital, the process of proletarianization ately thought of it as a potential text to use they are undergoing, and the way pro­ with student teachers, or in graduate letarianization increasingly prevents courses with teachers who are taking teachers from engaging in education, In upgrading courses. the chapter on political identifications he The book starts out with a brief over­ explores the political functions teachers view of the author's experience as a perform for the state in controlling the working class. In the chapter on the teacher, and his changing understanding ideological identification of teachers, he of his relation to the class structure. An argues that the legitimation of schooling upwardly mobile working-class boy, he rests on identifying schools with equality became a teacher to help other working- of opportunity, meritocracy, preparation class children into the middle class. His and selection for employment, and worth­ growing recognition of the contradictions while knowledge. Teachers work to make in this position led him to a Marxist schools appear legitimate to their pupils, analysis and a position as lecturer at the and in so doing they portray the interests university, There he has started a maga­ of a ruling class as the interests of all. zine, Radical Education Dossier. It is perhaps because of this personal The final two chapters of the book history that some of the best passages in summarize the class contradictions that the book are a logical, step-by-step exposé face teachers. "Teachers belong to neither of the errors of orthodox liberal positions of the major opposed groups in contempo­ on schooling. In sections called "the any­ rary class struggle, and they are in a con­ one can, therefore everyone can fallacy" tradictory position in that, while their 284 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

objective economic conditions very authors' names, so that there is not always closely approximate those of the working a single point of view that emerges. class, their political and ideological rela­ The topics included are quite com­ tions within the ongoing production pro­ plete. We learn of early marketing — trail cess support the capitalist class in its dom­ demonstrations, races, autoclubs, auto- ination of the working class." (130) He shows, and the coming of installment buy­ concludes that teachers have more to gain ing; who the early purchasers were — by opposing the interests of capital and wealthy sportsmen, doctors, business­ siding with the working class. A few men, and engineers; the importance of the pages at the end outline what this might bicycle industry — much of the mean immediately in the classroom technology used in automobiles first ("Don't provide a competitive ethos," appeared in the bicycle industry; why the "breakdown discriminative roles") and in early British motor industry lagged — red the longer term (revolution). flag laws and a fascination with the steam The book is fairly orthodox in its engine; the demise of the steam and Marxist approach. While 1 can imagine electric autos; the Wankel rotary engine my student teachers being outraged and — a disappointment; the economic, ultimately not convinced by its conclu­ social, and cultural impact of the auto; sions, the book is a thought-provoking and details about such interesting events summary of issues with which teachers as the erection of the first stop sign in must grapple. Detroit and the first traffic light in Cleve­ land, both in 1914, and the opening in Jane Gaskell 1939 of the first North American express­ University of British Columbia way — the Queen Elizabeth Way between Toronto and Hamilton. The authors emphasize higher income Jean-Pierre Bardou, Jean-Jacques Chana- per capita and a more even distribution of ron, Patrick Friedcnson, James M. Laux, income as leading to the early expansion The Automobile Revolution: The Impact of the American auto industry and its of an Industry, translated from the French subsequent overtaking of the French and by James M. Laux (Chapel Hill: German industries, but argue that the University of North Carolina Press 1982). importance of the large free trade area of the United States has been over­ THIS COMPARATIVELY BRIEF volume emphasized since European tariff rates covers the world history of the automobile were very low. They argue that the need from its beginnings to about 1980. 1 am for capital was not high initially because amazed at how much information the many firms were already in business and authors were able to provide, though because other firms, including Ford, many times intriguing incidents of which I started as assemblers. High profits could was unaware are dealt with in only a then be reinvested. This seems somewhat sentence or two. There are only 149 foot­ at variance with the opinion of other notes for the entire book, but there is an analysts, who have suggested that one fea­ extensive bibliography by subject and by ture which led to Detroit's dominance was country (there are only two entries for the willingness of its bankers to lend to Canada) and quite a good index. The book the industry. is divided into three parts: the genesis of Considerable space is devoted to Ford, the automobile revolution: the spread of and the authors point out that as he con­ the automobile revolution, 1914-1945; tinually lowered the price of the Model T, and the triumph of the automobile revolu­ he was opening the market for cars in the tion. The twelve chapters carry individual $1,000-$l ,500 price range which empha- REVIEWS 285

sized quality more than a cheap price. high absenteeism. The demands of these Other problems that Ford faced included workers have focused on working condi­ huge amounts of fixed costs, narrow tions, that is, to be recognized as respon­ specialization, and a decline in the ability sible persons performing useful work. But to innovate. Price decreases, as an indus­ they face a problem in that unions are. try response, were last tried in the depres­ often controlled by the skilled workers sion of 1920-21. Into this void stepped and these semi-skilled or unskilled work­ Sloan and General Motors. "Sloanism" ers are often minorities from rural back­ included the decentralized management grounds . In the late 1960s for example, 30 structure Chandler has written about and per cent of the UAW's membership, but the planned obsolescence of models, only about 5 per cent of the executive, was including annual model changes which black. began in 1923. This allowed GM to be Attempts to overcome this general profitable during the 1930s. "Sloanism" problem have involved job redesign. GM spread to the rest of the world in the early took the lead in North America with 1960s. The authors see the world industry quality-of-work agreements with the as becoming a single one with the "world union. Their Tarrytown, N.Y. plant saw car" pointing in that direction, though absenteeism rates decline from 7 to 2.5 they remind us that Europe and Asia may per cent. Most famous is Volvo's Kalmar not simply follow the North American assembly plant where work proceeds in model because of more crowded condi­ teams of fifteen to twenty workers who tions and better public transportation. have full autonomy in performing their The total space devoted to Canada (no tasks. The results have generally been footnotes) amounts to a total of two or satisfactory, but absentee rates remain three pages. The authors say that serious about 15 per cent and costs are higher. The Japanese have used the quality- operations got underway when Ford began control circle to good effect, but they have production in Canada in 1904. They also moved faster than others in replacing include a couple of domestic producers, workers with robots and thus eliminating Russell and Tudhope, whom they believe the problem entirely. were successful for a while, but argue that severe competition drove them out of Overall, I found this book a good read. business about the time of World War I. It especially helps one to break out of a This, obviously, is not the source to learn North American bias. The European about the Canadian auto industry. authors also help with their perspective on About half the book covers the post- the North American industry. They are World War II era and one long chapter is probably right in concluding that the devoted to labour and industrial relations automobile has a rich future, but that it in this period. They argue that the will be a more political future as we strug­ automobile worker faces the same prob­ gle with pollution, noise, safety, and pet­ lems throughout the world, Russia and roleum problems. East Europe included. The problem is that the semi-skilled worker has no loyalty to Robert E. Ankli his firm. He has been paid according to University of Guelph his machine and has lost responsibility for what his machine does. In early periods, the universal machine and the semi­ Maria Hirszowicz, Industrial Sociology: automatic machine demanded some skill, An Introduction (Oxford: Martin Robert­ and the worker was not as alienated as he son 1981). is with the present automatic machine. The result has been high mobility and THE WRITERS OF introductory texts usu- 286 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

ally address several frequently incompati­ The sense of analytical fragmentation ble goals. They should present adequate becomes even more pervasive in the ensu­ coverage of the concepts and vocabulary ing, substantive chapters of the text. In of the field, while not overwhelming new essence, these eight chapters reduce to students with too much technical jargon. four discussions on the structural integra­ They should provide a representative sur­ tion of labour: one on the ideological inte­ vey of substantive issues, often at times of gration of labour, one on the fairly rapid change and emerging interest. institutionalization of labour, one on the They should introduce students to relevant intractability of labour, and one on the literature in the field, again often in the improbability of labour (i.e., as a viable midst of new developments. They must force for democratization of the industrial inform about the major theories, models process). Space does not permit a detailed or paradigms of the discipline, presuma­ examination of the content of these chap­ bly with some degree of impartiality. ters, but some commentary on the general theme of analysis presented in each may Hirszowicz addresses these tasks with prove instructive. a mixed degree of success. The first two chapters of her text — "Industry and Soci­ The chapter dealing with small groups ety" and "Man and Technology" — serve in industry relies mainly on the "human as excellent introductions to the basic con­ relations" and "group dynamics" cepts and orientations of the industrial approaches very much in vogue in Ameri­ sociology field. The topics covered in can industrial sociology of 25 to 30 years these sections include: the social cor­ ago, with the irrevocable conclusion that relates of industrial development: the con­ group associations and loyalties on the job vergence thesis and its critics; the notion remain a primary source of social integra­ of post-industrial society; limits to eco­ tion for workers. Nevertheless, in the next nomic growth; technology; the division of chapter on motivations to work, the labour; and alienation. For intellectual imperative of coercion is established from and analytical orientations, she refers to the outset: the opening question, "Why do the "European perspectives" of Marx, people work?" becomes transformed, Durkheim, and Weber, and to the within two paragraphs, to, "The question "American perspectives" of scientific of how people are motivated to management, human relations studies, work... ." (emphasis added) and organizational theory. Unfortunately, There follows, under the euphemistic however, the reader is left with the heading of "workers' needs," detailed impression that these are mutually exclu­ discussions of the scientific management, sive "perspectives." Another slightly dis­ human relations, psychological, and quieting aspect of these opening chapters organizational theory approaches to moti­ is that although early reference is made to vation. The centrality of power as a neces­ the significance of "productive forces'" sary factor in industry is further empha­ for social life (chapter 1), there is little sized in the chapter on the role of the fore­ ensuing discussion of "relations of pro­ man. wherein the "exhange theory" for­ duction." With no development of the mulations of Gouldner, Homans, Blau, interplay between productive forces and and others are held to have the best social relations, the strong impression of explanatory value. The presumed shift of abstract technological determinism which corporate power in "post-industrial" or emerges in chapter 2 remains unchal­ "post-capitalist" societies pervades the lenged. Introductory students should be chapter on managerialism, wherein the informed that industrial development role of management is seen to have takes place within economic, political, changed from one of applying the prin­ and social contexts. ciples of bureaucratic rationality to a rela- REVIEWS 287 tively limited range of substantive prob­ industrial society" have in the face of lems to one of managing or controlling in growing evidence of global industrial loco bourgeoisie. The "post-capitalist" development under the aegis of transna­ shift is raised again in the chapter on the tional corporations? What justification is changing nature (image) of the working there for cataloguing the data of industrial class, although this is now couched in sociology without any consideration of terms of "transitional societies" and bor­ the context of industrial society'} rows heavily from the work of Dahren- The reason for these oversights may dorf. In the final analysis, the reader is well be revealed in the author's preface, informed that, because of a process of which contains the following theoretical "embourgeoisification," the concept of disclaimer: "In my opinion there is no one the "working class" is now "... largely best theory to deal with sociological prob­ irrelevant,..." and that "... general­ lems, no universal methodology for their izations about the working class as a successful exploration ... the emphasis in whole, in the context of the power of capi­ this book is on the importance of empiri­ tal, [are] virtually obsolete." The next cal studies...." In the final analysis, this chapter on trade unions does little to dis­ seems to be a fairly succinct definition of pel the eclipse of labour: here, Michels and Lipset are called upon to pronounce functionalism. The functionalist reluc­ the decline of union democracy and the tance to pursue a broad, historically and rise of union bureaucracy. Paradoxically, theoretically informed approach to social however, labour raises its head again in phenomena is also revealed in the author's the chapter on industrial conflict, which is perception of the relationship between his­ almost totally devoted to the subject of tory, theory, and evidence, viz., a "... strikes. The final chapter on industrial cautious but open-minded approach that democracy, although very much improved critically integrates historical, compara­ analytically in comparison with preceding tive and descriptive studies into mean­ chapters, concludes that a greater degree ingful generalizations." In trying to avoid of worker control is impractical because: the dangers of oversimplification, Hirszowicz seems to have erred in the (a) it didn't work in the Soviet Union; opposite direction of over-complexity. (b) of the complexities of modern technol­ This results in considerable "waffling" ogy and the division of labour; (c) of the over questions of causality, wherein the "organizational requirements" of mana­ reader is constantly parried by general­ gerial ism. izations about "lack of consensus on The author's treatment of the fore­ issues," "difficulties of interpretation," going topics suggests a somewhat ahistor- "lack of clarity in the data," "com­ ical approach to the subject, but what is plexities," etal. The sense of complexity neglected in her analysis seems even more is also reinforced by frequent recourse to disturbing. For example, how is it possi­ the "iron cross of sociology: " the ubiqui­ ble to prepare a text on industrial sociol­ tous row by column tabulation of concep­ ogy with scarcely any reference to the role tual representations of social reality. of capital, and to the relationship between The author expresses some concern capital and labour? What is the signifi­ that her book is too specialized in its refer­ cance of the marginalization of capital ence to Great Britain. This concern seems into petit bourgeois fragments in certain belied, however, by what seems to be an sectors of productive and non-productive excessive reliance on American func­ enterprise? Given the fact of industrial tionalist literature of the 1950s and 1960s. conflict, is it reasonable to conclude that This bias is also evident, although to the only group in conflict is labour? What a lesser degree, in Peter Cook's other­ credibility does the concept of "post- wise valuable guide to the literature. To 288 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL the readers of this journal, any short­ technicians who become increasingly comings of Hirszowicz's book arising frustrated with bureaucratic limits from regional specificity may be far less imposed on their autonomy ; and the problematic than the political, social, and instrumental ism of Goldthorpe and historical sterility encouraged by the per­ Lockwood who suggested that consider­ spective from which the subject of indus­ able societal instability could be created trial sociology is approached. by trade unions demanding material con­ cessions almost without limit. Sabel G.B. Rush believes that these theories have been dis­ Simon Fraser University proved by the wave of student-worker protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the end of the post-war economic Charles F. Sabel, Work and Politics. The boom in the early 1970s. These theories Division of Labor in Industry (Cambridge: suffer from three (mis)leading assump­ Cambridge University Press 1982). tions which form a cohesive thread through much of the book: technological CHARLES SABEL attempts to synthesize determinism, or the view that the organi­ the research on industrial technology, fac­ zation of work is determined by tory workers, industrial organization, and technological development; essentialism, labour movements conducted primarily in or the assumption that the whole of a Italy, West Germany, France, Great Brit­ society determines its parts (if a society is ain, and the United States. He adopts a industrial, then none of its parts is pre- long time-frame from 1850 to the present. industrial); and, reductionism, or the view Although he never states specifically at that experience determines all thought. the outset his purpose, there are hints in Sabel's book is an attempt to marshal! his assumptions, expressed at times cross-comparative research from a select implicitly and at other times explicitly. number of western industrial societies to The book is rooted in a rejection of the expose the untenability of these assump­ argument that industrial structures and the tions. division of labour determines workers' In chapter two Sabel contends that conceptions of themselves and other consumer markets shape the division of workers. Instead, Sabel posits a complex labour between and within plants, and interplay among ideas, experience, and their use of technology, both of which struggles which have profound influences on technology, industrial organization, influence labour markets. Using Michael and the division of labour. Prior's model, he divides the economy into a primary or core sector consisting of The first chapter presents and rejects large, Fordist, assembly-line plants pro­ alternative theories of worker attitudes ducing for the stable market where and behaviours, and launches into an demand for commodities remains con­ over-extended and obscure introduction to stant, and a secondary or peripheral sector the book. Sabel criticizes three theories of of small plants producing for the unstable blue-collar workers: embourgeoisement market where demand for products fluc­ or the view that the working-class revolt tuates. The primary sector rests on has been blunted either by workers" new­ specialized technology not adaptable to found middle-class material prosperity quick changes in product design. Its (Ferdynand Zweig) or by their unexpected essence lies in long production runs of mastery over modem technology (Robert standardized products for mass markets Blauner); Serge Mallet's new working- and the employment of as much unskilled class theory that the revolt will emerge labour as possible. Yet ironically such from the ranks of highly specialized Fordist plants develop their own peculiar REVIEWS 289 demand for skilled labour, such as main­ who value careers through recognized tenance crews to tend to the increasingly ranks which confer increasingly greater complex machinery. These firms also fer­ status and prestige. Workers with ret out of the ranks of the unskilled, work­ intermediate-level skills develop a par­ ers who develop "intermediate-level" or ticular type of consciousness due to their "plant-specific" skills (such as process place in the labour market (they cannot workers) whose claim to a special status is switch firms because of their plant- their knowledge of the quirks of the specific skills). They develop an isola­ plant's technology learned through years tionist consciousness regarding other of on-the-job experience. workers because of their location in an The secondary plants in the unstable "articulated co-operative division of sector rely on universal machines easily labour," and a sense of autonomy from adaptable to quick changes in product supervisors who dare not fire them designs and on a higher proportion of because of their "technical sensibilities," unskilled, migrant labour and women. or knowledge of the peculiarities of the Yet, as Sabel points out in the West Ger­ plant's machinery. Yet their employment man Bavarian example, exceptions to this situation is tenuous because market pres­ model exist so that there are no automatic sures may revolutionize the plant's connections among markets, technology, technology, thereby making their skills organizational structures, division of obsolete. labour, and labour markets. As if to Sabel also discusses three types of remind us of some of the book's opening unskilled workers — peasant workers, themes, Sabel insists that this division of would-be-crafts workers, and ghetto work­ labour between primary and secondary ers. Peasant workers are migrants from industries is not locked into a agricultural areas who labour at low technological necessity, but is openly influenced by cultural tastes and political wages and under poor working condi­ struggles for property and power. tions. Disregarding the consequences of their actions on industrial production, The third chapter is' devoted to an they often take time off from industrial exploration of the subjective conscious­ work during harvest time. They live in an ness of workers located in different labour industrial world with one foot always in markets. Sabel sees this consciousness in the village from which they migrated. terms of "world views" and "careers at Peasant workers are usually quite isolated work. " A world view is ' 'the set of hopes from other industrial workers and their and fears, together with the map of the trade unions. Their migration paths are social world that it establishes." (11) quite diverse; from Sicily and southern Careers at work, the workers' world view, Italy to northern Italy; from the deep is "a series of remunerative tasks that South in the United States to the auto fac­ successively challenge and require the tories of Michigan; and from southern development of whatever powers one Europe to France and West Germany. takes as the measure of human worth." Would-be-craftsworkers are unskilled (80) Sabel utilizes "careers at work" to peasant workers who shun their agricul­ analyze the consciousness of craftswork- tural origins and seek promotion into the ers, workers with intermediate-level skills, peasant workers, would-be ranks of those with intermediate-level crafts workers, and ghetto workers. skills. When the labour market for skilled Craftsworkers value technical experi­ workers is tight, would-be-craftsworkers ence, knowledge, and fellowship with usually seek individual promotion; when their companions in contrast to middle- the market is loose, they more often class graduates of engineering schools engage in collective trade union action. Finally, ghetto workers are the unskilled 290 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

who, after repeated failures, have lost (regardless of union status) elected their self-confidence and have thus given delegati to a consiglio di fabbrica, and up hope of holding a steady job in the the skill hierarchy which was flattened industrial system, not to speak of somewhat, favouring the unskilled over advancement through the skill hierarchy. the skilled. Using the British printers' Sabel believes these five types of workers chapels as a case study, Sabel argues that make individual choices based on their craftsworkers are simultaneously revolu­ backgrounds and labour markets which tionaries (because they oppose a largely shape their destinies in the divi­ capitalism based on Fordist principles sion of labour. which erodes their craft skills) and labour The fourth chapter, entitled "In­ aristocrats (because they defend their skill terests, Conflicts and Classes," brings to privileges against both management and a head the climax of the book. It is an the less skilled). Sabel also illustrates the attempt to examine the transformative struggles of the intermediate-level skilled effect on the division of labour produced by reference to oil refinery process work­ by the conflicts of workers located in dif­ ers in Great Britain and France, special ferent labour markets. For Sabel, worker workers in chemical plants in northeastern conflicts can have three transformative England, nuclear power station operators effects: a change in the balance of power in France, welders and metal polishers in between contestants; a redefinition of the the United States, and truck drivers at contestants' original claims necessitated Bulledor in France. He concludes that this by the alliances into which they enter; and cross-comparative examination inval­ the redefinition of claims, ideas, and idates Mallet's new working-class theory: interests in the heat of battle itself. workers with intermediate-level or plant- Using this framework, Sabel examines specific skills do not necessarily adopt a the struggles of peasant workers, would- radical consciousness because of their be-craftsworkers, craftsworkers, and position in the production process; such workers with intermediate-level skills. workers may adopt a narrow self- The material on peasant workers is exclu­ interested defence of their place in the sively Italian, focusing on the Turin Gen­ division of labour. Sabel suggests, on the eral Strike of 1962, the autunno caldo of basis of his examination of worker 1969, and the delegati and consiglio di struggles in this chapter, that the Marxist fabbrica won as a result of the struggles in view (as he interprets it) has been fal­ the late 1960s and early 1970s. Despite sified: career at work rather than worker the initial hostility directed by northern position in the division of labour deter­ skilled workers against largely unskilled mines their political views. southern peasant migrants who at most The last chapter brings us back to aspired only to intermediate skill levels, industrial structures, the division of these two groups of workers broke down labour, and labour markets, and appears the barriers between them for one basic to lose sight of careers at work and reason: they had to unite to defend their subjective consciousness. It is a interests against the strong alliance of speculative piece, with some case studies, Christian Democrals, industrialists, and concerning the possible decline of For­ landowners who had outmanoeuvred an dism and the rise of neo-Fordism (Fordist increasingly weak parliamentary opposi­ plants producing more diversified com­ tion and because the weak labour move­ modities without losing sight of funda­ ment had splintered into three trade union mental mass assembly line principles) and federations. A measure of the success of a high-technology cottage industry in the this solidarity was the reorganization of the secondary sector (central and northeastern industrial structure in which all workers Italy provide the empirical referents). The REVIEWS 291 decline of Fordism is interpreted as self- by confusing the idea of an explanation destruction: Fordism in the core indus­ with the assertion that everything has trialized west stimulates the demand for antecedents." (189) I suspect that, behind more diversified commodities and such extreme voluntarism, Sabel is grind­ unwittingly induces the imitative competi­ ing an axe against what he perceives to be tion from newly-industrializing Third Marxism. He selects the most World countries (Singapore, South unrepresentative example of Marxism and Korea, Taiwan, etc.). Both responses then generalizes this to all of Marxism. force large plants in the industrialized For example, he states: "If a class is west to decentralize into universal defined in the Marxist sense as a group of machinery run by skilled labour. At the persons who share a position in the divi­ end of the book, we are ironically left sion of labour, and who for that reason dangling from these new structural share political views, then ... blue-collar imperatives without a whimper from workers do not form a class." (187) Sabel subjectivity! attributes the gist of this statement to Erik The strength of Charles Sabel's Work Olin Wright (Class, Crisis and the State). and Politics lies in his pruning of cross- who ironically has been accused by many comparative data in order to interpret the Marxists of being overly deterministic, complex interplay among struggle, con­ structuralist, and static in his view of sciousness, experience, industrial organi­ class. By hiding behind the cloak of such zation, technology, labour markets, and distortions, Charles Sabel fails to arrive at the division of labour. Yet herein lies also a more adequate comprehension of the the book's weakness: it is an unsystematic dialectical interplay between the division sampling of case studies by country and of labour and subjective consciousness. often loses the main thread of the argu­ Another reading of the cross-comparative ment. Excessive attention is paid to the literature on industrial technology, fac­ plight of peasant migrants from southern tory workers, industrial organization, and Italy in the northern Italian factories. No labour» movements could be conducted to similar close examination is offered of arrive at a point closer to such a com­ migrant workers in France, West Ger­ prehension than the one provided by many, Great Britain, or the United States, Sabel. nor for that matter of craftsworkers, would-be-craftsworkers, workers with Carl J. Cuneo intermediate-level skills, and ghetto McMaster University workers from any of the countries. This rational imbalance is matched by a theoretical imbalance: in his enthusiasm J.M. Bumsted, The People's Clearance, to prove the "structuralists" wrong, 1770-1815 (Winnipeg: University of Sabel misinterprets the subtlety of some Manitoba Press 1982); Stephen P. Dunn, of their arguments, and in the process The Fall & Rise of the Asiatic Mode of swings the pendulum in chapter four too far Production (Oxford: Oxford University in the other direction of complete vol­ Press 1982). untarism to the neglect of the complex interplay between structures and THESE TWO apparently disparate books subjective actions. Sabel places his bets — one on the "tacksman" emigration on differences among leaders in imagina­ from Scotland at the end of the eighteenth tion, daring, boldness, and political century and the other on the Soviet- instincts, and then states: "try to trace Marxist debate on the existence or other­ these differences back to underlying dif­ wise of the Asiatic mode of production — ferences in social structure, and you end share a perhaps unexpected amount of 292 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

common ground. Both books show clearly hence presumably by intent, purports to how badly we need to understand those present the perspective of the "people." pre-capitalist societies which do not pos­ Who were these people? We are told they sess unambiguous feudal characteristics. involved a "prosperous and dynamic ele­ Both also purport to examine history in a ment of the middling [sic] ranks of the "revisionist" light: one from an explicit people," (13) but that their motivations theoretical position (Dunn), the other have to be read from actions rather than from an empirical position (Bumsted). words since they "largely lacked the Reading these two entirely different skills of writing and the ability of fluent approaches in sequence, one is left with a self-expression." (xiv) I fail to find ade­ strong sense of the urgent need to test quate evidence for this claim. The Glenal- theory against fact, on the one hand, and ladale Papers (PAPEI, 2664), for example, to understand documentary evidence in are not only a highly literate account of the context of theoretical construction on the motivations of the tacksman emigrants the other. but make references to a literate tacksman Bumsted's book is described on the class in general. Add to this the poetry dust-jacket as "a revisionist account of and comments cited in John Prebble's The Highland Scottish emigration to what is Highland Clearances (Penguin, 1963, now Canada," revisionist in the sense that 189 for example) and it seems to be that it argues that "the earlier phase of High­ the contemporary Highlander of this early land emigration was not the tale of an emigration was far from "silent." How­ oppressed, impoverished peasantry driven ever, the author tells us that those who off the estates to make way for sheep," could and did write contemporary expla­ but an exodus of people of higher social nations of the phenomenon were either status and some wealth (tacksmen) who "outsiders," or "superiors on the left, paying their own way, because they estates," and mostly "hostile" to the wanted "to be left alone to continue their emigration. And so this book seeks to old pastoral way of life." (221) This speak for the early emigrant, to explain "revision" of the conventional wisdom his exodus as one "based upon pride and (claims the dust-jacket) is "supported with careful documentation." Indeed, in choice" so that he would "maintain his many respects it is, and the author is to be traditional way of life." (xiv) commended for his diligent accumulation But what was this way of life? Dr. of material, for his careful, detailed Bumsted seems just a wee bit confused account of the abortive "Canadian regi­ here. Could it be maintained without a ment" solution of 1803, and for his chief and with land ownership, he asks — explication of the politics and pressures and considers this a "nice question" — behind the Passenger Act of the same yet he does understand that it did involve year. It is also encouraging to see an his­ maintaining "family, clan ties, language, torian examine this early tacksman migra­ religion" along with something which he tion as a phenomenon distinct from the describes rather vaguely as a "semi- later (post-1815) exodus which is so often pastoral approach to the land." (70) Here taken as the whole story of the Highland is the nub of the problem. The emigration diaspora. Nonetheless, and despite its cannot be understood without considerable merits, it must be said that understanding what the emigrants left what has been achieved here is, above all, behind, what they retained, what the a fine exposition of the capitalist case for framework of their traditional society had the defence rather than a revisionist his­ been. It requires an in-depth tory of the early Highland emigrations. understanding of the clan system. And so, despite the author's efforts, the Highland This is a history which by title, and emigre remains voiceless, faceless, con- REVIEWS 293 textless — and the empty, ruined houses to a new land and a fresh start cannot be of the cover picture speak metaphorically described as "choice," but as blessing; it to just this point. When the emigrant says not so much about free will as it does finally "speaks," (220, in the epilogue) about the financial ability to survive. The he is said to be mythologizing, to be read­ tenants did not choose to be squeezed out: ing the hardships and brutality of the later they "chose" not to stay, having been clearances back into his own migration. disappropriated, and in this respect they Because he had money, argues the author, were more fortunate than those who did he must have had the * 'dignity of not have even such a meagre choice as choice," (xiv) been motivated by pros­ this, being destitute. pects of "betterment," and hence not But, says Dr. Bumsted, they could "dispossessed," "exploited," or have gone to the cities, to the army, to "forced." He chose to take his extended build the roads, to New Lanark... what family to the New World. The injustice was wrong with that? And, answering his done him was merely one of political or own question, explains quite correctly economic misunderstanding: it was only a that they wished to preserve their failure to see that Highland development "traditional way of life." This is the schemes (roads, canals, fishing villages) tragedy of this book — it is, at the end of would not provide him with adequate the day, such a near miss. The history of long-term employment; that population the tacksman emigration, indeed of the pressure would become problematic as Highland migrations writ large, does need crofts were subdivided; that the Highland to be revised, to be demythologized; the elite were "misguided" in their paranoia tacksmen, and the pre-1815 migrations do about depopulation. Even the infamous need to be distinguished from the later Sutherland clearances, according to Dr. evictions which James Hunter has so Bums ted, were really not so much "heart­ graphically documented for those who did less" as a "paternal effort to modernise in not emigrate because they could not, lack­ everyone's best interest " (209) The ing both the means of production and the people were unreasonably reluctant to means of escape. move from "infertile" straths to the new What is needed still is an villages so munificently provided on the understanding of the society upon which coast. But this statement is not the "improvement mania" descended. substantiated with careful research and We need to know what the Highlands argument: just a footnote, citing the litera­ were like before capitalism; we need to ture for the prosecution and the defence. know what the "traditional way of life" Dr. Bumsted should visit one of those was, in the kind of detail that Alan Mac- villages, 150 feet above sea-level, where pherson {Scottish Studies, 10, 1966; 11, the ruined cottages of people cleared from 1967; 12, 1968) provides and more, if we Strath Kildonan have iron rings set into are to comprehend the "emigration the walls to which children were tied so mania" that so distressed the proprietors that they would not fall, or get blown, into and the British Parliament. Dr. Bumsted the sea. But it is not easy to get there, is puzzled himself, although he gets close although it is National Trust property in from time to time, and one can sense the the public domain: I'm sure I'm not the dissatisfaction of a good historian with his first historian to have been ushered partially-solved jigsaw puzzle, in his unceremoniously off the site in recent wondering about what the roles of chief years by a ghillie who did not like to see and landowning were in that "traditional the landlord's grouse-moor disturbed. way of life." Under such humanitarian conditions of The point is that Highland society was uprooting, to have the means of removal not capitalist at the grass roots at the end 294 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL of the eighteenth century. Nor was it any Stephen Dunn's book on The Fat! and longer purely communalistic, as the exis­ Rise of the Asiatic Mode of Production tence of that complex phenomenon, the illustrates very clearly just what a morass "wadset," demonstrates. But, as Hunter scholars can get into when trying to sort points out, the local people were not au out pre-capitalist modes of production. As fait with the antagonistic nature of Bumsted's book was lacking in theoretical capitalism: they had no defence against it, anthropological insight, so Dunn shows no comprehension of it. The clan system what horrendous problems can arise when had operated on the premise that the chief scholars attempt to develop theory upon (not necessarily the same thing as a laird an inadequate data base. The Soviet or proprietor) was primus inter pares. He debate on the Asiatic mode of production was the holder of the communal lands of is the obverse of Bumsted's dilemma, the clan, the living symbol of joint "pos­ compounded by politico-ideological session" by all clan members, and so he restrictions. Dunn's repeated use of the could not sell land since it was not his to word "exegesis," with its theological sell. This attitude is we 11-documented. overtones, is brilliantly suggestive of the Indeed, even in Prince Edward Island, the trap in which Soviet Marxist theorists obligation of chief to clan remained, as found themselves in the 1920s and 1930s can be seen clearly in John MacDonald's as the "Asiatic" position fell from politi­ complaint to his sister that things would cal favour. (How could Marx have been go much easier with him if he were not wrong? By definition, he could not. "head of a damned tribe" ( PAPEI, 2664, Therefore, he required "interpretation," 16, 4) and in his culturally guilt-ridden much as Teilhard de Chardin did for reluctance to behave in the profitable Genesis after Darwin, since the Bible, capitalist mode. The author knows, and like Marx, cannot err). uses, this source (57-61), yet fails to get The book itself, while fascinating, is the message. not always readable. Categories and sub­ Dr. Bumsted has been working on the categories get lost in complex sentences, Highland Scots in Canada for some years and summary statements from time to now, and his knowledge of document and time would be helpful. At one level, it is event is considerable. It is in the realm of an exercise in Soviet historiographie dis­ construct, theory, and interpretation that putation and evolution; and, as such, it is he needs more work. He does not yet a specialist item, a demonstration of the really understand the tribal, proto- problem of the concept from Marx and communalistic society whose lifeblood Engels through to the present Soviet- streamed across the Atlantic in this first trained intellectuals. Its usefulness, how­ emigration. That these emigrants sought ever, goes beyond that, for it contains to "reestablish the old order in the New along the way the lesson of the need for World" is true; that they were not poor is substantive data, shows how ideology can true; that they had a "choice" is barely constrain interpretation and inhibit truth, true; that they were not driven out is and teaches the dangers as well as the untrue — for though they had the cash to value of revisionism. get out, they did not have the capacity to Whether or not the Asiatic mode of stay under conditions they knew and production is a genuine category has been, loved. To understand the Highland pre­ of course, problematic outside of Soviet capitalist society will be to understand this thinking; inside it, the problem has been emigration. Until then, the redressing of compounded by the dicta of "approved" balance in Highland history, which Dr. thinking. Dunn wants to "sharpen and Bumsted so clearly recognizes must take refine the tools of Marxist analysis," (xiii) place, cannot be achieved. to reject "fideism." He starts with a good REVIEWS 295 resume of basic Marxist thinking on the non-political position that the "Marxist "concept of social orders" (4-6) and fol­ theory of history as a whole and its com­ lows this with a thorough, chronological ponent parts (real or purported, necessary review of the various phases of Soviet- or superfluous) stand or fall on their Marxist perceptions of the Asiatic mode explanatory power with respect to actual of production to 1934, distinguishing historical facts." Dunn remarks that "the between the arguments from (a) authority, intellectual genie has been let out of the (b) pure theory, and (c> politics — this last bottle " (87) because Marxism is both a "cognitive tool The result now, especially in the syn­ and a political weapon." (34) By 1934 the thetic work of Kachanovskii, is an expla­ "Asiatic position" had been condemned nation that has considerable attraction. as non-essential and unclear from the his­ The social order of the east ' 'was a gigan­ torical evidence, and thus it could be tic and more or less deformed fragment of rejected without fear of a consequent the primitive-communal social order charge of stultification of Marxist meth­ within the framework of the slave-holding odology. formation, just as the class of peasants of Between 1934 and 1964 there fol­ modern and contemporary times is a lowed an interregnum during which the deformed fragment of feudalism within groundwork for the post-1964 Soviet the framework of the capitalist order." resurgence of the •"Asiatic" position was For Dunn, this perspective is the "kernel laid. There was a slow shift from exegesis of a new theory and suggests a way out of to the perception of data-based investiga­ the existing dilemma" (120): it has the tion as sowing the seeds of an advance in potential to provide a resolution of knowledge. The Asiatic mode of produc­ Soviet-Marxist or non-Soviet-Marxist dis­ tion had been seen as static, and the prob­ agreements on the existence or otherwise lem of slaveholding as the weak link in of the Asiatic mode of production as an Marxist historical theory; how was it pos­ evolutionary stage in the historical devel­ sible to pass from slavery to feudalism? opment of social orders. Slavery had to be seen as aberrant. By But I think that it is much more than 1971 the debate had begun to clarify this. For all of us, Marxist or otherwise, itself, and to acquire value beyond that who are interested in pre-capitalist which pertained to the specialist in societies, there is tremendous value here. Soviet-Marxist historiography. Marx, it This approach offers a conceptual was now held, had developed the concept framework within which not only Egyp­ of the Asiatic mode of production because tian, Indian, or Chinese early societies, he was working with inadequate and the classic "Asiatic" cases, can be re­ biased western data. As his thinking examined. It also provides a place for matured, he gradually came to abandon aberrant, not-truly-feudal, no longer this category, but that did not have to really primitive-communalistic, societies mean that the concept could not be such as are represented by the Highland revived if data became available to Scots of the fourteenth to early nineteenth substantiate its viability. Thus a quixotic centuries. It removes them from the realm situation had come into existence in which of the idiosyncratic, and points the way to the politically orthodox rejection of the a structural analysis of what happened to Asiatic mode of production, which had them: in the case of the Highland Scots, been historically revisionist, was being what brought about the socio-economic challenged by a politically revisionist disintegration which resulted in the revival of the concept, which was histori­ tacksman, and later, emigrations. cally "fundamentalist" or conservative! There have been, to date, two That is, thinking had progressed to the commonly-held, but antithetical, explana- 296 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

lions of the Highland clearances. One is forfeited estates, the banning of the the conservative, now "revisionist" posi­ tartan, the "making of the crofting com­ tion held by Professor Bumsted — echoes munity," and so many other features of of the Soviet volte face pointed up in the death of the clan system, become more Dunn's book. This reflects the view of the theoretically comprehensible if we think elite who saw "improvement" as essen­ of them in this way? tial and inevitable. Whether for personal Perhaps. It will take careful, detailed, gain, or from a "philosophical" position, often micro-level research to substantiate or both, the Highlands had to be "devel­ or refute this hypothesis, but it will be a oped," The other is the "view of the peo­ more fruitful avenue of academic explora­ ple" who were alienated, dispossessed, tion than much of what has passed for bewildered, and bereft. These are classic Highland history to date. antagonistic positions. But historians have not commonly tried to apply a long- Rosemary E. Ommer term structural analysis to the Highland Memorial University of Newfoundland clearances. Indeed, what "history" we have has been left all too often to the novelist, the playwright, and the musi­ Willie Orr, Deer Forests, Landlords, and cian. The result, of course, has been romance, mythology, and nostalgia, lead­ Crofters: The Western Highlands in ing to a sense of something precious that Victorian and Edwardian Times (Edin­ has been lost, and to an emotional, roman­ burgh: John Donald 1982). ticized nationalism. This is not good enough. It results in a polarized literature BETWEEN THE Napoleonic Wars and which fails to get to the root of the prob­ World War I the physical face of Scotland lem: the nature of the traditional society. and especially the Highland region was But the concluding pages of Dunn's altered out of all recognition. The culprit monograph point the way to a solution. If in this profound renovation of the land­ we replace the unrefined concept of the scape was not so much the ubiquitous Asiatic mode of production with a more sheep of clearance fame, but cervus flexible construct based on a range of elephus, otherwise known as the red deer. pre-feudal but posl-primitive-communal- In the hundred years ending in 1914, over istic societies (which will exhibit a variety 3,500,000 acres of Scotland was con­ of differing characteristics result­ verted to deer forest, nearly 3,000,000 of ing from differing national expressions), those acres (or 30 per cent of the total land and if we then realize that these societies surface) in the five Highland counties of existed in close conjunction with more Argyll, Inverness, Ross and Cromarty, developed capitalist societies, we are get­ Sutherland, and Caithness. In the ongoing ting closer to a more realistic appraisal of fascination with the clearances, this pro­ what the situation must have been like. cess of aforestation has received little Why did the Highland Scots, or the Irish attention from Scottish historians, and for that matter, not rise in revolution? In Willie Orr's book provides a welcome such a situation, Dunn says, the pre- correction to the situation. The result is a feudal society will not give rise to another thorough documentation of yet another stage of development. Its revolution — or process by which the small landholder in resolution — will be purely destructive. Scotland, especially in the Highlands, In the "Asiatic" case, typically, destruc­ was systematically deprived of land upon tion came through conquest by a contigu­ ous, foreign, more developed society. Do which to make a living. not Wade's roads, wadsets, Culloden, Deer Forests, Landlords, and Croft­ ers unfortunately gives its reader only tantalizing tidbits about the author him- REVIEWS 297 self. Willie Orr worked for many years as of the nineteenth century under pressure a hill shepherd in the western Highlands, from the competition of distant places like and apparently assumed an academic Australia and New Zealand. Sheep were career only relatively late in life. The introduced because they brought landlords book appears to have begun as a disserta­ greater revenue than smallholding, and tion at Strathclyde University, and cer­ deer replaced sheep because they repre­ tainly bears marks of the genre. Orr's sented a maximization of revenue. Orr sympathies for the small landholder are points out that forests reduced employ­ readily apparent, but he has succeeded in ment levels to some extent, but the reduc­ avoiding the worst features of his personal tions compared to sheep-farming were not commitments. Unlike much historical substantial. On the whole, both sheep and writing about the exploitation of the deer required a relatively small labour Scottish crofter, this book is written in a force, and the losses of jobs to the forests low-key deadpan voice which neither was minimal. whines nor screams. Orr prefers to Perhaps the most fascinating question cumulate his evidence and let the reader discussed in these pages relates to the rea­ provide her or his own sense of outrage. sons why deer forests were capable of pro­ He is, indeed, scrupulously fair to the ducing a revenue to the landlord more large landholders, prepared to consider attractive than other forms of land utiliza­ decisions and policy from their perspec­ tion. At first glance, it would not appear tive and to allow that many were not that the private maintenance of large for­ monsters. He does not attempt to over­ ests for the sole purpose of providing simplify the situation, documenting, for occasional recreation in the form of example, that most of the contemporary "shooting" would be economically via­ complaints about the agricultural devasta­ ble. Obviously conspicuous consumption tions by wandering deer were exaggerated accounts for a fair degree of the expend­ and that the forest holders did attempt to iture involved, but one wonders whether keep the wild animals confined to their this provides a sufficient explanation. habitat with fencing and other devices. Orr's appendices indicate that a number of While most large landholders were detailed lists of shooting tenants exist, but responsible landlords and even within they have not been subjected to careful their own assumptions generous ones, the analysis. We need to know more about cumulative effect of the actions was, of who was prepared to pay large sums of course, quite irresponsible and money for occasional recreational pur­ unresponsive to the needs of the local poses. As the author observes, "so long as population. The author succeeds in mak­ Highland proprietors — quite legitimately ing this point without beating it to death. — chose to maximize their revenue, the A dispassionate presentation of the evi­ expansion of the forests was inevitable." dence without the trappings of ideological It is still not clear why the high rents rhetoric does still have its place in histori­ which deer forests could provide existed. cal work. Another implicit question concerns As one might expect, there was a clear the conflict involving conservation, recre­ relationship between clearing and forest­ ation, and local populations which Orr ing. As Orr nicely demonstrates, the ear­ documents but does not attempt to lier removal of a population for sheep analyze, It is tempting to dismiss the deer walks was a necessary step towards the forests as the preserves of the wealthy and deer forest explosion. Much of the land to postulate a simplistic confrontation converted to forests had begun as sheep between the rich outsiders and the rela­ walk, and was reallocated by the lairds as tively impoverished local population. the economics of sheep altered at the close Unfortunately, the problem is far more 298 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

complex. The establishment of recrea­ obscured by the special pleading of con­ tional facilities available to all or conser­ temporaries like Kautsky, who stressed vation policies of value to all can have the his own theoretical acumen at the expense same impact on a local population as the of Liebknecht's. Later, in the historio- creation of facilities for the few. Deer graphical battles arising out of the Cold stalking was not a democratic recreational War, east European historians made him activity, but wilderness camping has into a proto-Marxist-Leninist, while become one. The deer forests have lamenting his "deviations" from ortho­ become a major tourist asset to the High­ doxy, and western historians tried to lands, but whether the local populations prove that he was either only superficially can benefit from the new developments influenced by Marx or an example of how remains an open question. any sort of socialism is the first step on the In his conclusions Orr pleads for a pol­ slippery road to dictatorship. icy of land use which integrates fanning, Dominick attempts to show that forestry, stalking, deer farming, and rec­ neither of these approaches gets us very reation. As he notes, the basis of such a far in understanding either Liebknecht or policy must be the emergence of a distinc­ the origins of socialism in Germany. He tion between ownership and control of the does this by placing Liebknecht in the land. It must also involve the establish­ concrete context of the authoritarian polit­ ment of a sense of the needs of local com­ ical and social system of nineteenth- munities. Land control from afar in the century Germany. Hence his study raises interests of larger goods — be they private questions about the relationship between property or the "national interest" — can political democracy and socialist theory, lead in curious directions. and between party organization and Marx­ ist theory. In dealing with these questions, J.M. Bumsted the author uses a wide variety of University of Manitoba unpublished archival material and letters, published collections, Liebknecht's jour­ nalism, and parliamentary speeches. Raymond H. Dominick III, Wilhelm Dominick argues that Liebknecht was Liebknecht and the Founding of the Ger­ an engaged Marxist, that like Marx, he man Social Democratic Party {Chapel was committed to democratic political Hill: University of North Carolina Press values and a revolutionary socialist 1982). transformation of society, and that he did as much, if not more, than anyone to DESPITE THE SECOND PART of the title, propagate Marx's ideas within German this book is the first full-scale political socialism. Differences between Marx and biography of this influential leader of Ger­ Liebknecht were not theoretical but man social democracy which covers the tactical. While convincing, his case is whole scope of his career. The book weakened by the cursory attempt to focuses on the years between Lieb- analyze the nature of Liebknecht's debt to knecht's return to Germany in 1861 from Marx, or to present his ideas about Marx­ exile in London with Marx and the end of ism in a coherent fashion. We learn that the exceptional laws against his party in Liebknecht was most influenced by Capi­ 1890. No historical treatment of political tal and the Communist Manifesto, that socialism in this period would be able to Marx's "philosophically more abstruse" avoid Liebknecht's role, but the author's theories like alienation and dialectics aims are broader than simply writing were a book with seven seals to another history of the party. Even before Liebknecht, that he was mainly interested his death, Liebknecht's importance was in Marxism as a theory of economic REVIEWS 299 exploitation (scarcely discussed) and rev­ leadership and the leadership role that olutionary tactics. Although this is all Liebknecht played, often to the exaspera­ true, it scarcely distinguishes Liebknecht tion of Marx and Engels. This is really a from any of his contemporaries, including question of the relationship between Kautsky. This becomes important in the ideology and organization, and expressed final section of the book, where Dominick itself in such questions as Marx's critic­ explains how Kautsky's version of Marx­ isms of the unity between the two socialist ism, rather than Liebknecht's, was factions, the Lassalleans and Liebknecht's enshrined in the Erfurt Program, without Eisenachers, in his Critique of the Gotka explicating major differences between the Program. That programme was partially two. authored by Liebknecht. In order to By focusing on Liebknecht's pragma­ explain Liebknecht's role, Dominick tic Marxism, Dominick lays to rest certain resorts to categories of leadership derived simple-minded shibboleths about Lieb­ from American social science. Lieb­ knecht that had become the stock-in-trade knecht, in his view, was an "affective" of standard treatments of the origins of leader concerned with the internal har­ social democracy. His alliance with the mony of the group, whereas August Bebel middle-class, democratic Saxon People's is defined as an "instrumental" leader Party in the 1860s and his virulent anti- concerned with the group's external aims Prussianism are often seen as a product of and willing to sacrifice a certain amount his supposed 1848 revolutionary romanti­ of intra-party peace for them. As purely cism and lack of concern with social descriptive terms, these categories are issues when faced with the national ques­ useful enough in explaining why the tion. But his strategy in the unification young socialist party in Germany did not period was more complex than usually fragment the way socialism did in other supposed. Like Marx and Engels, he European countries. They point to the fact expected Bismarck's reactionary policy that when the party was small and perse­ would provoke a revolution (at least cuted, before it had developed a bureau­ before 1866), and hence, as Marx had cracy and an institutional method of deal­ done in 1848, joined with the most ing with conflict, Liebknecht could be an advanced section of bourgeois democrats effective and important leader. They do to try and drive them leftward. At the not explain, however, why Liebknecht same time, he steadily increased the had such a penchant for compromising, socialist content of the left-liberal news­ and indeed, as Dominick's own flirting paper he edited, hoping thereby to bring with psychological theories at the begin­ the most progressive sections of the Peo­ ning of the book shows, are fundamen­ ple's Party into the International. tally rooted in an individualistic psycho­ He recognized that the German work­ logical theory. Dominick's own analysis ing class was threatened not only by of the historical situation and what bourgeois democracy, but by the type of Liebknecht thought he was doing indicate state socialism and caesarism which found that they may be but decorative branches an inroad into the German working class grafted onto an otherwise healthy tree. through the Lassai lean tradition. Thus in This is shown by his analysis of the late 1860s, he walked a tightrope Marx's and Liebknecht's differences on between the dangers of class collaboration the Gotha Program. Marx's criticisms are and political accommodation with Bis­ often used as an example of Liebknecht's marck's Bonapartism, and emerged with a alleged deficiencies as a theoretician. new workers' party committed to democ­ However, to Dominick, the real issue was racy and socialism. not so much correct theory as the relation­ A second theme concerns styles of ship between theory and organization. 300 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Liebknecht argued that organization had their commitment to Marxism, as both to precede theory, while in this case Marx were firmly "Marxist," but in the rigid seemed to be arguing the reverse. Their determinism of Kautsky's draft, which disagreement was rooted in their different presaged a growing tactical paralysis and evaluations of the Lassallean faction's decline of revolutionary fervour in the strength, and Marx's new-found aware­ party. This ignores the centrality of class ness (arising out of the struggle with struggle in Kautsky's thought in the 1890s Bakunin in the International) that too and in the Erfurt Program. In that decade, much doctrinal diversity could not be the party had no need lo act simply for the encompassed within a single organiza­ sake of changing, especially if that action tion. Without impugning Marx's motives meant making overtures to the liberal par­ for opposing the unification, Dominick ties and integration into the morass of takes Liebknecht's side. As Marx had ear­ compromise with the authoritarian state. lier thought about British trade unions in This was the essential issue behind the the International, ideological clarification famous revisionist controversy at the end could occur after organizational unity. of the 1890s, and Dominick's failure to Liebknecht agreed with most of the points analyze which options Liebknecht had in Marx made in his critique, but for the sake responding to the pressures to change the of unity compromised on theory. This is SPD's programme leaves one unclear important because later revisionists would about just what he thought Liebknecht's use Liebknecht as a precursor for their policy in the 1890s should have been. In own position, when his procedure was the the end, one is left with the impression opposite of theirs, namely accepting a cer­ that Liebknecht should have been more tain amount of doctrinal lassitude in the open to reformism than he was. short run with the intention of working out Although one can differ with a more sophisticated theoretical pro­ Dominick on specific points, this is a gramme later. Liebknecht was correct, well-written, lively, and thoughtful Dominick argues, in thinking it would be analysis of one of the great pioneers of unification on these terms or not at all. international socialism in the late History proved Liebknecht right when nineteenth century. fifteen years later the party adopted the Marxist Erfurt Program. The last two Glen R McDougall chapters of the book deal with the SPD and Simon Fraser University Liebknecht in the 1890s. These are the most purely biographical and weakest sections of the book. His analysis of Jean Lacouture, Leon Blum. (New York: Liebknecht's attempts to edit the party's Holmes & Meier 1982). central newspaper, Vorwâris, does, how­ ever, raise issues that go beyond THERE HAVE BEEN a number of scholarly Liebknecht's career. In these chapters, studies of Leon Blum in both French and Dominick does not seem to have as sure a English. This new biography by the tal­ grasp of the political and ideological ented French journalist Jean Lacouture, issues facing Social Democracy as he author of biographies of Charles de Gaulle does for the earlier period. This leads to and André Malraux, adds little except some confusion in his analysis, for he details of our knowledge of Blum. There reads the party's immobilization and are no revelations and no new interpreta­ bureaucratization after 1905 into the tions. His account is a bit livelier, more 1890s. He argues that the major differ­ searching, and more revealing of the man ence between Kautsky's and Liebknecht's than Joel Colton's book, which concen­ drafts of the Erfurt Program lay not in trated on Blum's political career. But we REVIEWS 301 still do not have a study which brings this than two years. The lot of socialist extraordinary and admirable figure to life reformers in France has not been an easy — and perhaps never will since most of one. his papers were lost during the war. The achievement of all three men was Blum, the leader of the Popular Front their ability to create successful political in 1936, was the first socialist, and the coalitions, coalitions first of all among first Jewish, prime minister of France. He competing socialist groups, and then coa­ became a full-time politician only late in litions between socialists and other left- life, when he was elected to parliament wing parties. It has always been the for­ for the first time in 1919, at the age of 47. mula for success in a crisis-ridden country The following year he assumed leadership whose successive regimes have created of the Socialist Party. Blum had had ear­ diverse loyalties; whose powerful sense of lier careers, first as an intellectual, a liter­ class, created by the laws of the ancient ary critic, and secondly as a lawyer, a regime, was the model for Marx's own member of the Conseil d'État, the chief belief in class consciousness and class administrative court of France. He warfare; whose intellectual penchant for brought into his political career qualities theorizing had enabled its writers in the period from 1789 to 1848 to develop most he had developed in the first two. Blum of the theories of social reform that would had the commitment to truth, personal occupy the western world from that day to integrity, and humanistic ideals fre­ this. Compromise was a necessity of life quently attributed to intellectuals. And if one were to reform a country with such from his career in law he brought a respect rigid political loyalties, social distinc­ for legality, though as the leader of the tions, and intellectual commitments. The Socialist Party, competing for support problem was how to maintain long-range with the Communists, he was forced to goals and ideals while making the com­ express a commitment to revolution, promises necessary to achieve political which he characteristically qualified by power. that curious phrase he liked to repeat: "revolution by any means, including Leaders in such a situation are ordinar­ legal." In fact, Blum was as committed to ily attacked for betraying their ideals in individual rights as his mentor Jean the quest for political power. The Jaurès, who said that if a state which had traditional criticism of Blum, however, become socialist moved against the rights has been exactly the opposite. He is of the individual, "against the liberty and accused of having maintained his moral dignity of the human being, it would lose purity, his commitment to honesty and its justification for being, for the state openness, his opposition to violence, and only retains its legitimacy to the extent his respect for legality, at the cost of polit­ that it secures individual rights." ical effectiveness. He saved his soul by Blum was one of the three great lead­ his moral dithering but lost the opportu­ ers of the Socialist Party in twentieth- nity to transform France. The criticism was originally made by Colette Audry that century France. The first, Jean Jaurès, Blum, in Sartre's phrase, refused to have was assassinated on the eve of World War "dirty hands." James Joli questioned I; Blum was condemned to life imprison­ "whether a man of intellectual honesty, ment by the Vichy government. moral principles and personal sensibility Subsequently turned over to the Nazis and can, in fact, ever make a successful politi­ imprisoned at Buchenwald, he narrowly cian in the twentieth century." Joel Col- missed assassination. The third, of ton, in his otherwise laudatory biography course, is François Mitterand, current of Blum, damningly concluded that "in president of France, who, opponents pre­ the age of Hitler and lesser tyrants Blum's dicted, would not remain in office more 302 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

integrity shone like a beacon, yet he does not serve to justify the abstention lacked the ruthlessness to cope with ruth­ from politics of some intellectuals, who less men." Blum, Colton said, can dismiss it as a dirty game, unworthy possessed to an excess the soul searching and of the commitment of moral-minded citi­ self-consciousness of the intellectual in poli­ zens, who would only sully themselves in tics. His diffidence and humility in the face of power, despite his unassailable courage and the fray. strength of conviction, were not the strongest Blum's weakness, if such it was, is equipment for statesmanship. not attributable to the fact that he was an Thus Blum had his share of weaknesses and intellectual, but to the fact that he was shortcomings as a political leader. His truly committed to humanist ideals, to unbounded optimism, his passion for integrity, democratic procedures, to the improve­ his faith in human beings, his desire for wide ment of the conditions of the workers, and esteem, his eagerness to serve as conciliator. to the well-being of society as a whole. his sentimental attachment to the effectiveness Intellectuals have no monopoly on these of an enlightened public opinion, were not the ideals. Blum did not really believe in the best assets for leadership in any age; in his age, virtue of revolutions nor of class warfare, they were fatal flaws. nor of the domination of the state by a Lacouture, though less harsh, is in the party, nor of the domination of society by same tradition: "Blum, so great in his the state. He believed in the potential generosity, talent, character, education, rationality, creativity, and mobility of and his desire for the common good, was every person. The belief may have been an anachronistic figure. He was not Utopian, but his achievements were not perhaps a man for the time of assassins." possible without it. Blum believed, like One might well ask, "Who was?" George Orwell, that "the aim of socialism Georges Mande I, one of the most ruthless is not to make the world perfect, but to of French politicians, who was never able make it better." The goal of perfection to become prime minister, ended up in can justify any action; improvement Buchenwald with Blum, and suffered the requires a more subtle moral calculus. fate of assassination that Blum just An alternative reading of Blum's life missed. might see him not as a pathetic intellectual The analysis of Blum as typifying the who failed because he wandered into a problems of the intellectual in politics is treacherous realm, but as an idealist who derived from the peculiar image intellec­ showed how much could be accomplished tuals have of themselves. It implies that by a commitment to ideals. He salvaged they are more morally sensitive than other the Socialist Party as a democratic alterna­ people, more committed to ideals, less tive after the majority had voted to join able to act from self-regarding motives, the Third International at the Congress of and less inclined to abuse power to Tours in 1920. He quickly rebuilt the achieve their ends. This is pure myth. It is party, outdistancing the Communists by first of all a slur on every other group in 1924, and preserving a democratic option society. Intellectuals are not the unique for France in the 1930s, when many peo­ guardians of virtue, and probably are no ple were convinced that the only alterna­ more, nor less, moral than members of tives were fascism or communism. Then other groups. Secondly, it is historically as prime minister of the Popular Front in wrong. One wonders how the myth of the 1936 he began the rearmament pro­ ineffectuality of intellectuals in politics gramme which, by all recent accounts, has been able to survive the examples of was beginning to pay off in 1940. He also Lenin, Trotsky, Mao Tse Tung, and a host laid the foundations of the modern welfare of others, who rivalled anyone in ruthless­ state with the social measures passed by ness. Thirdly, one wonders if the myth the Popular Front government, including REVIEWS 303 the recognition of collective bargaining, ence (London: Verso/New Left Books and the right to paid vacations. 1982). Blum showed what could be done despite overwhelming obstacles. As the DESPITE THE GROWING number of first socialist, and Jewish, prime minister studies of the works councils' and shop of France, he was subject to some of the stewards' movements in the period of most vicious attacks any politician has upheaval surrounding World War I, until ever received in a democratic nation; even now no historian has attempted to write a before assuming power, he was beaten up comprehensive historical analysis of the in the streets by fascist thugs. But despite one movement that went furthest in pur­ divisions in his own party, divisions in the suit of the goal of workers' control over country, and the personal attacks, Blum industry. The role of works councils in the maintained his course and his commit­ Russian revolutions of 1917 has remained ment to his ideals. little known and little researched, except Of course, Blum made many mis­ for a handful of specialized or inaccessi­ ble Russian-language studies. Students of takes. He has been criticized for the fail­ the international workers movement will ure to devalue sooner in 1936, the failure therefore welcome Carmen Sirianni's new to give public support to the Republican work on Workers Control and Socialist government in Spain, and the failure of Democracy: The Soviet Experience, for he his economic policy to revive the econ­ has written a long overdue synthesis of omy. But these are not mistakes primarily what is known of the councils' movement attributable to his moral sensitivity as an in Russia between 1917 and 1921 as well intellectual. Other leaders made mistakes as a searching analysis of the role of at the time, but because Gamelin was Leninist theory in defining the nature of defeated in 1940, we do not infer that gen­ the socialist transformation of economy erals are congenitally incapable of con­ and workplace. ducting war; because Sarraut did not react to the German reoccupation of the Rhine- Sirianni is a sociologist who has land in 1936, we do not conclude that pro­ turned to history to investigate, on the fessional politicians cannot govern; basis of a concrete example, a problem of because Chamberlain was deceived by contemporary social and political rele­ Hitler at Munich, we do not assume that vance. Moreover, unlike the empirical 1 businessmen are bound to fail as politi­ emphasis of most historians, Sirianni s cians. subject is chosen with a current theoretical Blum's life illustrates as much the problem in mind. What are the dynamics achievements of an idealist as the failures of the industrial struggle for workers' con­ of an intellectual. At this stage of our trol? What are the possibilities for work­ scholarship, we could use another inter­ ers' control of production during and after a socialist revolution? Can works councils pretation of his life, one which examined help to establish democratic institutions in more closely the man and his ideas, rather industry after the elimination of capitalist than the details of his political career. control over the economy, and what role From this point of view, Blum is still a can they play in creating a socialist character in search of an author. democracy? On a more theoretical level, what are the limits of Leninism in for­ John Sherwood mulating concepts of socialist democracy Queen's University and workers' control, and how can an his­ torical analysis of the experiences of workers in Russia and other countries in Carmen Sirianni, Workers Control and the period around World War I contribute Socialist Democracy: The Soviet Experi­ 304 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

to a re-evaluation and broadening of nomic backwardness of Russia, Bolshevik Marxist theory? ideology preconditioned the Bolsheviks to Sirianni tries to answer these ques­ minimize the councils and, after October tions by concentrating on three broad sub­ 1917, to subordinate them to the unions, jects. First, he writes a comprehensive which were themselves subordinated to analysis of works councils from the Rus­ the party and the economic organs of the sian revolutions of 1917 to the end of the Bolshevik-dominated state. Lenin's civil war in 1920-21, paying close atten­ highly conventional view of labour tion to the evolution of the councils in unions, his equating of industrial mili­ 1917 as a centre of dual power in industry; tancy with anarcho-syndicalism, his ten­ to the relationship of the councils to politi­ dency to argue from the premises of a cal parties, labour unions, and soviets; to mechanical economic productivism, and the role of the councils in reorganizing the his stress on technological innovation and economy after the Bolshevik revolution; an increase in the productive forces, all to the peasant question as it impinged on led the Bolsheviks to see the works coun­ the realization of workers' control in cils as primarily a tactical weapon in the industry; and to the decline of the coun­ period of dual power, limited to the regu­ cils' movement during the civil war. lation and accounting of production. After Sirianni devotes a second section of his the Bolshevik revolution, workers' con­ study to Bolshevik theory as it related to trol was systematically restricted on the works councils and workers' control, questionable assumption that, in a work­ especially Lenin's understanding of the ers' state, central planning and manage­ role of labour in the production process, ment automatically reflected proletarian his theories of the party and the state, and interests and workplace control was his attempt to introduce a concept of cul­ superfluous, even anarchistically detri­ tural revolution as a counterweight to mental. Bolshevik ideology, like the bureaucratization in the construction of Marxism of the Second International in socialism. Finally, Sirianni tries to place general, predisposed the Bolsheviks to the Russian experience in an international postpone the transformation of social rela­ perspective by comparing it to movements tions in the workplace until after the full for workers' control and to the relation­ development of the productive forces, ship between factory committees and rather than to promote the councils as one labour unions in other countries. possible organ of democratic workers' control during the socialist transforma­ One of Sirianni's strengths is his abil­ tion itself. Sirianni's study benefits, ity to place the problem of works councils finally, from his emphasis on the need to and workers' control firmly in the overall institutionalize and formalize democratic context of the Russian revolution. In this procedures. He criticizes the Bolshevik regard, his attention to the peasantry, in view of the proletarian dictatorship as addition to parties, unions, and soviets, is absolute, essentially lawless, power and particularly enlightening, for the creation questions the traditional Marxist view that of permanent democratic controls at the communist society will concern itself pri­ marily with the administration of things workplace was ultimately dependent in an rather than with the governing of people. overwhelmingly rural country like Russia Rather, Sirianni argues that, even after the on cooperative interaction with the peas­ victory of the socialist revolution, neither ants. Equally strong is Sirianni's recogni­ time nor resources will be so abundant tion of the role of ideology in defining and that a process of allocation — and hence limiting the options open to the Bol­ of political decision-making — will be sheviks. With all due regard to the effects rendered superfluous, and he underscores of war and civil war and to the political and ideological, as well as social and eco­ REVIEWS 305

the need to create stable institutions unions, has preserved for them a role in through which such decisions can be made any resurgence of industrial militancy. democratically. He avoids equating Sirianni's conclusions on the potential socialist democracy with parliamentary of works councils in creating a socialist institutions or the party system as they are democracy are mixed. On the one hand, known in western Europe and North the councils could have played a much America but instead analyzes the potential greater role in tempering the Bolshevik of the new political forms thrown up by dictatorship, consolidating some elements the revolution, such as works councils, of democratic workers' control, and soviets, and socialist parties. He drives broadening the base of the Soviet regime, home the point that neither legal changes than the Bolsheviks allowed them. On the in ownership nor a single-minded multi­ other hand, the experience of the councils plication of the means of production will in both Russia and other countries would automatically realize socialism as long as seem to show that they function primarily there is no complementary transformation as precursors or later as factory-level of social relations and political control organs of industrial unions and lack an involving the mass of the working popula­ autonomous base from which to play an tion. independent role in the building of socialism. Thus, Sirianni's study raises larger questions about the nature of Though generally comprehensive, socialist democracy. Could works coun­ Sirianni's research would have benefitted cils in conjunction with (rather than as from reference to Anna Pankratova's alternatives to) industrial unions realize pioneering study of 1923 on Factory their potential as organs of democratic Councils in Russia, written from a Bol­ economic control? Is the tendency of shevik perspective. Sirianni also restricts councils to flare up as the focal points of his analysis of non-Russian councils workers' control movements in periods of theorists primarily to Anton Pannekoek industrial militancy, only to retreat as and Antonio Gramsci, leaving unmen- mildly reformist organs when such mili­ tioned such important works as Karl tancy subsides, a sign of their unsuitabil- Korsch's Arbeitsrecht fur Betriebsraie as ity as organs of socialist democracy or, well as the three major working-class instead, evidence of the persistence of theorists of works councils, the labour workers' demands for industrial democ­ union, and shop steward militants — Robert racy and of a continuing potential for the Dissman and Richard Mueller in Germany councils in realizing it? Is the bourgeois and Jack Murphy in Great Britain. concept of multi-party democracy, based Finally, the section on the councils' move­ narrowly on legal equality, atomized indi­ ment outside of Russia would have been viduals, and the separation of the econ­ strengthened by a closer examination of omy from the state, transferable in any Germany, the country where, after Rus­ way to socialism, or will socialism require sia, the works councils were most highly an entirely new concept of democracy developed. Indeed, despite the defeat of derived from the unity of political and the revolution of 1918-19, works councils economic institutions, social equality continued to play a central role in the Ger­ within a collective, cooperative whole, man revolutionary movement up until and a balanced mixture of central plan­ June 1924; they re-emerged during the ning with workplace control? Sirianni's Great Depression as a base of communist sober assessment of the Russian works union militancy in certain key industries councils rejects them as a panacea for the like coal mining; and their legal problems of building a socialist democ­ institutionalization, though in greatly racy but leaves open the question of what restricted form and subordinated to the 306 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

role they might eventually play in realiz­ sought to maximize unity with the diver­ ing this goal. gent ami-reformist trends in the west, and if it had been prepared to fight fascism as Larry Peterson a worthy goal in itself rather than as a The Institute for Research in History, gimmick to increase communist influ­ New York ence? Richard Cornell provides us with some interesting material in partial answer Richard Cornell, Revolutionary Van­ to these questions. He tells the story of the guard: The Early Years of the Communist Communist Youth International from its Youth International, 1914-1924 (Toronto: origins in 1907 within social democracy, University of Toronto Press 1982). to its full incorporation into the Comintern in 1924, as a little-known case example THE ENTIRE HISTORY of labour showing "Bolshevization" to be the con­ radicalism since World War I has been sistent Russian policy from the time of the defined by the fact of the Bolshevik revo­ Zimmerwald movement during World lution. The World War I and post-World War I. Relatively unconcerned with the War I period inaugurated a new era in the particulars of the CYI and its member western capitalist countries: imperialism organizations, he is trying rather to show as a world system, the horror of total war, that the striving for independence of the the incorporation of the workers' move­ young communists in the formative years ment into the system, modernist revolu­ of the "international communist move­ tions in scientific, intellectual, and artistic ment" and the response from the appar­ life. The inadequacy of traditional social atus controlled by Lenin, defined the democracy as a tool for independent nature of communism for decades to working-class political action became come. Not until Tito, Mao, and to a lesser clearly apparent, Mass revolts at the end extent Togliatti and later Eurocom­ of the war and new forms of worker munism, were independent currents to be organization provided inspiration for a successful. broad range of revolutionary socialist The creation of the International trends: anarcho-syndicalism, council Unions of Socialist Youth Organizations communism, the ideas of Luxemburg, in 1907 began an ongoing dynamic Gramsci, Lukacs, Korsch, left-feminists between revolutionary youth yearning for such as Kollontai, and those of Lenin him­ "action" and an independent political self. Was it inevitable that the anti- role, and adult tutelage which forced it reformist left movement be forced into the into the role of a recruiting reserve pursu­ narrow channel of Bolshevism, with all ing non-political tasks under party con­ dissenters being attacked and isolated as trol. The youths' critique of the reformist agents of the class enemy, many to even­ Second International leadership on the tually rejoin mainstream social democ­ issues of militarism and war, violence racy? Was tbe "Bolshevization" of the versus peaceful means, and the demand western European left an unfortunate for organizational and political indepen­ result of Lenin's premature departure dence, brought them into congruence with from the scene, or was it an inherent part the interests of the general left in the adult of his approach to the world revolution? parties and the international. How might subsequent world history have At the end of the war, young socialists been different if the Bolshevik Party had were rightly proud of their defence of followed the path of conciliation with the internationalism in the light of "social- other Russian workers' parties in a con­ patriot" treachery. This pride soon text of political democracy, if it had became translated however, into a "youth REVIEWS 307 vanguardism ' ' that saw itself as the Germany. He had had to face stiff Russian defender of the ideological purity of the opposition to the location (western Europe entire socialist movement. A planned rather than Moscow), and the myth of IUSYO conference which would have youth independence was finally laid to embraced all anti-reformist trends in 1918 rest when the Comintern intervened to or 1919 came about in November 1919 in stop the congress, to be resumed after the Berlin, when the Communist Youth Inter­ Third Comintern Congress in Moscow in national was formed. The "centre" of the June 1921. Its obituary was signed by socialist movement was excluded. In part, Munzenberg when he failed to protest this this was a consequence of the dominant heavy-handed interference in the most "ultra-left" colouration of the youth basic of organizational matters. With the movement at the time; but nevertheless rejection of the leftist "revolutionary the congress was also the scene of attacks offensive" line at the Third Congress, the by the Russian delegates on anarchism CYI became considerably less useful, and and other trends considered suspect by the its independence actually harmful. The Bolsheviks. Although autonomy was still CYI congress rubber-stamped the Comin­ strongly upheld, and (he seat of the CYI tern decisions, the headquarters was remained in Berlin, at the same time cen­ moved to Moscow, and Munzenberg left tralism and discipline under the Comin­ the organization. Needless to say, the tern and Russian authority were seen as result was not what radical socialist youth necessary and not in contradiction. had been fighting for since 1907. The young communists in the west The rest of the story, to me, is without held longer than others the belief that rev­ a great deal of interest, telling the familiar olution was imminent, and it was this story of Russian mastery of the Comintern which justified in their eyes a semi- under the slogan of "Bolshevization." military discipline nationally and interna­ Examples of Russian interference in Ger­ tionally in the communist movement, and many, Sweden, and most outrageously in Russian-style "democratic centralism." Norway, are reviewed from the angle of Defence of revolutionary purity was the the youth organizations. The actualizing entrenched mission of the CYI, and the of the decisions of the Fourth Comintern Comintern was naturally seen as the final Congress (1922), which allowed for non- arbiter of this substance. delegated election to the executive com­ The CYI was therefore in a weak posi­ mittee, decision-making powers of the tion when, in 1920 and 1921, a "Berlin ECCI over member parties, and the hold­ vs. Moscow" split opened up over the ing of party and youth congresses after role of youth. The CYI activists were blind Comintern congresses so no one could go to the issue of power relations between to the latter with a mandate, revealed the communist organizations, the need for hidden rewards of the CYI policy of cen­ national independence, democracy na­ tralization and ideological conformity. tionally and international ly, and a We can use Cornell's rather dry narra­ struggle against bureaucracy. Democracy tive as a jumping-off point for a number was upheld to defend youth organizations of issues in radical strategy and commu­ against the parties, but not in relation to nist history. It provides added raw mate­ views that dissented from Comintern rial for the examination of the " two Marx­ orthodoxy and those parties which upheld isms" treated recently by Gouldner, it. Jacoby, and others. The figure of Mun­ In spite of this, youth leader Willi zenberg in particular is one caught Munzenberg nevertheless cast a wide net between the two worlds occupied by in calling together the second CYI con­ Luxemburg and Lenin. Revolutionary gress, which convened eventually in Jena, Vanguard thus helps us think about the 308 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL role of democracy, not only as a means, papers, magazines, film companies and but also as an end for the left. Can a film distribution societies, vocational movement that stifles dissent and non­ associations, friendship societies, organi­ conformity "before the revolution" offer zations against fascism and imperialism, real liberation afterward? The nightmare organizations far transcending the bound­ of the Stalin period is shown to be already aries of Germany and even of Europe." in formation in the first years of the Bol­ (Jorgen Schleimann, "The Life and Work shevik revolution. of Willi Munzenberg," Survey 55, April Cornell's book also poses the ques­ 1965.) tion: are young radicals inherently irre­ Whatever Lenin had in mind when he sponsible? Cornell argues, wrongly I set Munzenberg up in business in 1921, believe, that the error of early communist the "Munzenberg Concern" became a youth (and also of the new left and its successful, independent means of successors) was in refusing to face reality mobilizing progressive sentiment, particu­ and work for practical results within the larly in the struggle against fascism. Mun- system. Nevertheless, he paints a disturb­ zenberg's eventual break with the Comin­ ing picture of youthful self-righteousness tern over its attempts to manipulate the which can ignore positive traditions and Popular Fronts, over the purges in the the need for democracy, in the pursuit of Soviet Union, and finally over the Hitler- "purity." The practice of denouncing and Stalin pact, allowed him to express poli­ splitting, upheld to this day as a hallowed tics which Cornell shows to be present Marxist-Leninist method of debate, can from the time of World War I. In working be seen to have been largely shaped by the for a new united German socialist party role of youth as the vanguard of Bolshevi- and preparing with others a programme zation. for post-Hitler Germany, he rejected the Finally, there is the place of leader­ Soviet Union as a model and demanded ship, exemplified by Willi Munzenberg. the liquidation of the KPD along with With his departure from the CYI in 1921, Hitler as both representing dictatorship. a false termination is imposed on commu­ His death while fleeing the approaching nist experience. Revolutionary Vanguard German army in France in 1940 was would have been a more powerful book if almost certainly the work of someone act­ it had gone on to examine his later life in ing for the Comintern. the context of his role as marriage broker Cornell adds the story of Munzen­ between "the two Marxisms" within the berg's activity within the youth movement youth movements. This later life allowed to the existing literature on his time in him to carve out an independent and pow­ Berlin and Paris as ambassador-at-large erful role as the Comintern's "department for communism. Given the lack of a biog­ of public relations" in the west from 1921 raphy in English of this fascinating figure. to the late 1930s. It was during this period it seems a shame not to have taken the that his earlier attempts to combine revo­ opportunity to follow one thread of oppo­ lutionary organization with mass mobili­ sition to "Bolshevization" through to the zation were actualized. What began as the time of World War II. "International Workers Aid" for the vic­ tims of famine in Russia became "a vast complex of famine relief committees and Ken Hansen aid organizations, committees of solidar­ Vancouver ity with strikers, imprisoned socialists. and oppressed colonial peoples, of mobile canteens, children's homes, and holiday Victor Rothman, Britain and the Cold settlements, of publishing houses, news­ War, 1941-1947 (London: Jonathan Cape 1982). REVIEWS 309

VICTOR ROTHMAN'S BOOK provides an many. Later in the war the British and extremely useful addition to the vast liter­ Russians argued over the degree of ature on the Cold War. Until recently most territorial dismemberment and deindus- of the studies on this subject have had a trialization which should be imposed on decidedly American perspective. This is their vanquished adversary; the "les­ especially true of the revisionist work of sons" of World War I convinced British the "new left** historians who have criti­ officials that harsh and vindictive peace cally reassessed the foreign and domestic terms would be a tragic mistake and policies of the Roosevelt and Truman would lead inexorably to another world administrations. Victor Rothman goes a war. But difficult though their relation­ long way towards correcting this situation ship with the Soviets was, British leaders through a detailed examination of British believed, at least until 1946, that it must foreign policy between 1941 and 1947. be preserved because of a fear of resurgent The German invasion of the Soviet German militarism "within a foreseeable Union fundamentally altered the policies period after Hitler's defeat." (4) of the British Foreign Office; now the In many ways the British Foreign Russians were wartime allies rather than Office still acted as if Pax Brittanica was Nazi collaborators. During the initial possible, though there was a strong sense stages of the Anglo-Soviet alliance, of apprehension about the future. As Churchill, his Foreign Secretary Anthony Under-Secretary Sir Oliver Harvey wrote Eden and the latter's officials were con­ in July, 1945: "We have many cards in vinced that the U-S.S.R. could not with­ our hands if we choose to use them, our stand the German Blitzkreig. Their political maturity, our diplomatic experi­ first aim, therefore, was to sustain the ence, the confidence which the solidity of Russian war effort until the United States our democratic institutions inspires in the could be brought into the war. The inabil­ Western World and our incomparable War ity to launch a second front in 1942 placed record. Unlike our two rivals we are not a serious strain on Anglo-Soviet relations regarded either as gangsters or go-getters which the British sought to alleviate with but we must do something about it or we various forms of military assistance, including highly sophisticated secret shall find we have no partners to play weapons and devices. No territorial con­ with. Time is not necessarily on our side." cessions, such as a guarantee of Poland's (148) His final sentence was perhaps the boundaries, were asked for in return for most perceptive. The October 1943 meet­ this aid, and no Soviet commitment to the ing of Allied Foreign Ministers in Mos­ principles of national determination and cow was "the last important occasion human rights embodied in the Atlantic when Britain spoke for the West, with the Charter were sought. But this was cal­ United States accepting a subordinate culated generosity, for British statesmen role." (108) By Yalta, Britain had defi­ had few illusions about the motives of nitely become a secondary partner — Soviet leaders. Stalin's dramatic dissolu­ excluded from such important discussions tion of the Comintern in 1943, for exam­ as the conditions associated with Russia's ple, was regarded by the Foreign Office as entry into the war against Japan. Of even "a propaganda measure designed to more significance, given Britain's sub­ appeal to public opinion in the United stantial contribution to the Manhattan States and to facilitate the British Com­ Project, was the unilateral decision by the munist Party's application for affiliation United States to use the atomic bomb to the Labour Party." (104) Great Britain against Japan. also feared that the Soviet Union might Britain was clearly in decline as a negotiate a separate peace treaty with Ger­ great power, but her ability to act as an important liaison between the U.S.S.R. 310 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

and the United States was real nonethe­ Soviet citizens, a commitment which less. This was, however, no easy task. meant "the complete suppression of American leaders were often uncertain humanitarian values in British foreign pol­ about their goals and inconsistent in their icy." (140) policies. As Rothman notes, in 1944 In relation to this and other key American Secretary of State Cordell Hull episodes Rothman provides many new both denounced "greed for territory" as a insights into Britain's relationship with war aim, while at the same time "declar­ the Soviet Union and the United States ing territorial issues utterly unimportant during a most critical period. Although he compared with the setting up of the views the history of the period from the United Nations." (Ill) There was also standpoint of Foreign Office officials, his the grave danger that the United States approach is generally quite successful. would retreat once again from Europe, a What emerges is a fascinating saga of a spectre reinforced by the isolationist group of highly-skilled and determined lobby in the American Congress and the diplomats seeking to guide their political refusal of either Roosevelt or Truman to masters through a tumultuous European make a military commitment beyond the and world situation in which many of the maintenance of the American zone of traditional assumptions of British foreign occupation. The British were particularly policy were now anachronistic. His access anxious that they receive American to hitherto restricted Foreign Office docu­ support for their own involvement in east­ ments provides Rothman with an opportu­ ern Europe; it was in this region that the nity to answer some of the important ques­ first major dispute with the U.S.S.R. was tions which earlier studies of the Cold to occur. War had to skirt because of the thirty-year One of Britain's wartime commit­ rule. In this regard Britain and the Cold ments was the re-establishment of the War should be used alongside other such London-based Polish government- recent monographs which had utilized in-exile. During the early stages of the new archival sources, most notably Hugh Anglo-Soviet alliance there seemed to be De Santis. Diplomacy of Silence: The a possibility that a hard-pressed Stalin American Foreign Service, The Soviet would consider an independent Poland. Union and the Cold War, 1933-1947. By 1945. however, the death of Polish Although Canada is rarely mentioned in leader General Ladyslaw Sikorski, the Britain and the Cold War, the book pro­ indifference of Roosevelt to the Polish vides the essential context in which this "problem" and above all, the gains of the country's policies towards the Soviet Red Army convinced Churchill that there Union and the United States in the same was now little chance of preventing the period must be understood. Of particular creation of a communist Poland. Church­ interest here is Rothman's account of the ill's "realism" was also influenced by the increasingly tough line which Foreign British attempts to maintain a presence in Secretary Ernest Bevin took towards the eastern Europe through secret negotia­ U.S.S.R. as Britain moved towards an tions with their ever more powerful Rus­ anti-Soviet alliance with the United sian ally. Thus, in October 1944, during States. his celebrated second trip to Moscow, Omitted in thé sweep of Rothman's Churchill agreed with Stalin on the need book is a discussion of the British, Ameri­ for "British and Soviet spheres of influ­ can, and Canadian participation in the ence in south-east Europe." (129) Four creation of the atomic bomb and the months later, at Yalta, Churchill accepted debate among them over control of atomic Stalin's insistence on the forcible repatria­ energy in the post-war years. The exclu­ tion of all prisoners of war who had been sion of the Soviet Union from the atomic REVIEWS 311 club, at least until 1949, is also ignored as whereby the struggle for socialism can be a factor in the development of the Cold advanced. It is this task that Geoff War. Nor do real and imagined reports of Hodgson has undertaken in Labour at the Soviet espionage activities receive atten­ Crossroads, a study of the British Labour tion. According to Rothman the major Party's prospects in light of its defeat by impact of the report of the 1946 Kellock- Margaret Thatcher's Tories in 1979. Taschereau Royal Commission on Hodgson is one of the many British Espionage was that it provided the British socialists who believe that the most prom­ Foreign Office with "some interesting ising — if not the only — route to an thoughts on what Russia might attempt in effective vehicle for socialist western Germany." (253) This seems transformation lies through reforming the understated, particularly in light of the Labour Party. His book, in essence, is a American communist ' 'witch-hunts' ' sustained defence of this belief, not­ which were to occur in the United States withstanding the party's 1979 electoral after 1946. This reader would also have defeat, combining a breadth of analysis appreciated some comment on the and attention to empirical evidence which activities of Soviet "moles" in the British make it the most significant statement of Foreign Service and security agencies. this position since Ken Coates' article in These criticisms notwithstanding, this the 1973 Socialist Register. book is a fascinating analysis of a most Hodgson's defence involves two complex subject. separate but not unrelated arguments. One concerns the nature of the party's Donald Avery weaknesses and the prospects for over­ University of Western Ontario coming them. He begins by arguing that the Labour Party by 1918 was an avowedly socialist working-class party Geoff Hodgson, Labour at the Cross­ whose ensuing reformism was caused by roads (Oxford: Martin Robertson 1981). structural (rather than congenital) defects — particularly the substantial powers ONE OF THE MOST remarkable features accorded its parliamentary caucus — of the current crisis of capitalism, by far traceable to the de facto division of labour the deepest since the 1930s, is the absence between the party itself and its trade union of a significant advance in popular base. "Labour Party policy has been cor­ support for the left in the west. rupted less through the adoption of Stagnation, if not an actual loss of reformist and other inadequate ideologies support, has been the order of the day. than through the operation of this institu­ This is true not only for the revolutionary tional power." (35) left (to the point of dissolution in some Hodgson then challenges Ralph cases) but also, and perhaps more Miliband's argument that the 1945-51 unexpectedly, for social democratic par­ Attlee government was the "climax of ties, particularly in those countries where labourism" followed by steady decline they have a long history. ideologically, electorally, and in terms of If this discouraging reality has led working-class involvement, with its some people historically linked with the implication that transforming the party is struggle for socialism, such as Eric a pointless if not impossible task. This, he Hobsbawm in Britain (see his article in argues, is too simplistic and fails to con­ Marxism Today, October 1983) or Jim sider the counteracting processes of Laxer in Canada, to advance reformist renewal arising from the party's link to strategies, others have turned to the diffi­ the working-class movement, backing his cult task of articulating the means argument with a wealth of empirical evi- 312 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL dence. Above all Hodgson points to the upon increasing Britain's historically low re-emergence of a labour left in the late level of productivity and that the AEs can 1960s, led by Tony Benn and Stuart Hol­ accomplish this insofar as it entails a pro­ land, and traces the growth of its weight gressive reform of the principal cause of in the party and particularly its success in this low productivity — the social rela­ radicalizing the party's economic growth. tions of production. Secondly, Hodgson Finally Hodgson assesses the 1974-79 argues that the AES also provides a means Labour government and its legacy. Its of moving towards socialism. While defeat, he argues, while serious should incomplete, it substantively entails not be viewed as an epochal one, socialist measures of democratic control signalling a right-wing populist revolt of the economy, and strategically com­ against the welfare state, citing opinion bines extra-parliamentary mobilization polls showing that Labour's support in with parliamentary measures, thus being 1978 was as high as in any year of a consistent with the "dual strategy" he Labour government since 1966. "Labour holds appropriate in advanced capitalist lost because it first abandoned and then societies. Hodgson concludes his book chose to confront its base among the with an urgent appeal for support in the working class." (122) struggle to complete the task of reform Indeed, Hodgson suggests that there underway. "The threats are real and with are grounds for cautious optimism con­ us now. But so, too, are the instruments cerning Labour's electoral future. of change waiting to be seized." (227) Labour's reforms facilitating unionization Are they really? However thorough early in its term, together with its later Hodgson has been in constructing his break with post-war consensus economic defence, the arguments are not convinc­ policies left Britain more polarized and ing. To begin with, while Hodgson may "class-divided than at any time since the well be correct to deny that the 1979 war." (137) If Labour is to regain office defeat was the beginning of the end for the in the 80s, however, he argues, it must Labour Party, he seems to have find a way of solving Britain's economic underestimated its seriousness. Labour's crisis while maintaining the support of its loss of support in 1978-79 may have working-class base. appeared to be a sudden one, but only This leads to Hodgson's second argu­ because its support from the "middle ment for working to transform the Labour classes" was increasing from 1974-78. Party — the economic programme of the Meanwhile Conservative support among Labour left. These are the policies devel­ trade union members — the base for oped by Benn, Holland, and others and Hodgson's future scenario — was increas­ adopted by the Labour Party in the early ing from 23 to 36 per cent. (121) This 70s which are now known (since the rightward shift was fully revealed in the 74-79 Labour government rejected them) 1983 election when, with the newly as the Alternative Economic Strategy formed Social Democratic Party in

(Socialist Register 1983, 117) But the real might develop is surely to be applauded. issue isn't the ' 'possibility' ' of But to suggest that the economic wounds transforming the party, which can have no British and foreign capital would inflict in a priori answer; it is the Labour left and retaliation against such a government can its strategy. Hodgson's reference to "the be salved by turning on the workers' con­ instruments of change waiting to be trol tap — that many if not most workers seized" quoted above is most revealing. It wouldn't pay a considerable price for eco­ is a strategy of "capture" predicated on nomic and political power — is to pander the assumption that gaining control of the to reformism rather than to address its party is tantamount to capturing its base of limits. In this respect it seems more press­ support — an assumption that Hodgson's ing to articulate a long-term socialist depiction of Labour as an "avowedly vision rather than short-term policies, and socialist" party, corrupted less by its a political strategy to unify and mobilize ideology than its structure, is designed to the working class rather than the eco­ make credible. nomic programme that could be This is questionable to say the least. implemented in the event that this occurs. The 1983 election saw right-wing Labour Hodgson does recognize these issues in Party leaders publicly repudiate certain his final chapter and it is unfortunate that party policies — a reflection of the left's they weren't developed more. In sum, advance since 1979 much more than however remote the possibility of a actual changes in policy per se — Labour government in the 1980s, the pos­ signalling that the right's commitment to sibility that it will be bent on a socialist reformism was rather greater than its com­ project is virtually non-existent. mitment to the party. This commitment, Donald Swartz moreover, is one which is shared by much Carleton University of the union leadership. Hodgson notes that it was with reformist objectives in Peter Richardson, Chinese Mine Labour mind that the unions created the Labour in the Transvaal (London: Macmillan Party as their parliamentary wing in the 1982). first place, and he is too honest a scholar to suggest that objectives of many present FACED WITH A labour crisis, and anxious union leaders arc substantially different. to recover from the losses of the South Consequently, it is virtually incon­ African war, the Witwatersrand gold min­ ceivable to transform the party without ing industry implemented its so-called alienating a substantial element of its Transvaal experiment. Between May support (and dividing the unions along 1904 and November 1906, 63,695 inden­ ideological lines at least for the fore­ tured Chinese labourers embarked for the seeable future). While this might prove to Rand mines. Employed on three-year con­ be more of a shortcut to a mass socialist tracts, the overwhelming majority of these party than beginning anew, it is patently not men came from the northern provinces of the shortcut envisioned by the majority of China. Only a tiny minority — in all, the Labour left and they demonstrated this 1,689 of the total number — came from by lining up behind the Kinnock-Hattersley the traditional recruiting grounds for emi­ "dream ticket" at the 1983 Labour Party grant labour in southeast China. Conference. Before this scheme could be Finally, there is the question of implemented, however, the mining indus­ Hodgson's defence of the AES. The try had to allay the fears of business, efforts of the British left to address the labour, and farmers. The industry made whole issue of what economic policies a provisions to ensure that the Chinese government bent on a socialist project would not pose an economic threat. Thus 314 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

the imported labour would be used exclu­ governed the Chinese labour market. His sively for "the exploitation of min­ analysis of the different fortunes of erals" within the Witwatersrand district, recruiting in the north and south is a care­ and then repatriated. While in southern ful consideration of local politics, the Africa, the miners would be legally peasant economy, the transportation sys­ excluded from the skilled trades, and pro­ tem, and historical circumstance. Indeed, hibited from engaging in any form of mar­ in one propitious stroke the Russo- ket gardening. Japanese war eliminated emigration to Peter Richardson sets the introduction Manchuria, the single most important of Chinese labour in South Africa within source of competition for the South Afri­ the larger context of the international cans in the north. Although the Transvaal political economy. He ties the circulation experiment and attendant emigration pro­ of Chinese labour to the development of cesses were heavily regulated, the coolie metallurgical mining and the global system was inherently exploitative, and expansion of capitalism during the subject to abuses. Reconstructing the nineteenth century. Chinese Mine Labour organization of the coolie trade, the in the Transvaal is an economic history of author shows how the miners were the Transvaal experiment. It is a detailed exploited even before setting foot in South account of the workings of the mining Africa. In short, Richardson has industry's labour policy from its inception addressed a complex historical problem, to its withdrawal. Unlike Watt Stewart's and not merely rehearsed the superficial earlier study of Chinese labour in Peru, push-pull factors in presenting a reduc­ Richardson's work is less impressionistic. tionist analysis of coolie emigration. The latter considers the Chinese labour As it happened, the Transvaal experi­ question from the industry's perspective. ment was short-lived. The victory of the Thus, Richardson speaks of labour as a Liberals in Britain, and the Het Volk commodity rather than as people, and party in the Transvaal spelled its explains the South African experiment in termination. By then, however, the crisis terms of supply and demand, working had passed, and the mining industry capital, costs, and risks. Richardson is at replaced the departing Chinese with Afri­ his best discussing the origins and nature can contract labour. Although the trial of the crisis which threatened the gold ended just as the Chinese labour force was mining industry, and how the industry in reaching its maximum efficiency, turn dealt with that threat. Richardson argues that "the employment Social historians with a special of indentured labour, far from being a interest in Chinese emigrants will, on the phenomenon associated with decaying or one hand, be disappointed with transitional forms of capitalist enterprise, Richardson's book because it reveals little actually became the means of continuing about the miners' own experience. His and accelerating the process of accumula­ passing references to labour unrest, tion in an advanced capitalist industry in a Chinese crimes, floggings, "the crisis of colonial setting." (189) While his asser­ social control," and widespread desertion tion may hold true for the Transvaal, it will titillate their interest but not satisfy must be tested for application elsewhere. their curiosity. On the other hand, they will appreciate the thoroughness of his The shortcoming of this narrowly- research in bringing into focus the rela­ focused study is that it relegates the social tionship between industry and the state in and political aspects of the Chinese labour mobilizing labour on an international issue to the background. Consequently, scale, the mechanisms of coolie recruit­ we are left with an uneven treatment of ment, and the structural factors which the Chinese question. Although the author REVIEWS 315 does briefly discuss Chinese labour in the Mikiso Hane, Peasants, Rebels and Out­ context of British domestic politics, he casts: The Underside of Japan (New presupposes that his readers are conver­ York: Pantheon Books 1982). sant with the issue in South Africa and British imperial history. Hence, he tends THIS IS A WELCOME book. As the author to leave things unsaid. For instance, it is Mikiso Hane rightly notes in his preface unclear why the imperial authorities about western scholarship on Japan, "The relented to Milner's lobbying and literature on political, economic, social, negotiated the agreement with the Chinese intellectual, and cultural developments in government when Chinese labour was so modem Japan is copious, but relatively unpopular. Nor are we told much about little has been written about the actual popular opinion at the local level in the experience of ordinary people." (xi) Transvaal. Richardson tends to underplay The greatest strength of Hane's study opposition to the scheme within the indus­ is its translated selections from writings try. He gives us the impression that it was and oral recollections of ordinary people only a matter of time before economic who participated in or observed "the imperatives would prevail, and force the underside of modern Japan" from the opposition to support the Chinese meas­ middle of the nineteenth century until the ure. He neglects to mention Colonel present. These interesting first-hand F.H.P. Creswell's "white labour pol­ accounts are important to the English- icy," and perhaps underestimates its language student of modern Japanese his­ support. tory because they are not found else­ where. Indeed, the subjects of this book The book also lacks an adequate con­ — peasants, factory workers, coal clusion, and Richardson does not draw his miners, outcasts, prostitutes — are almost analysis together, putting it in perspec­ invisible in most English-language tive. The importation of Chinese labour textbooks and monographs about modern appears as an isolated episode, its histori­ Japan. This invisibility exists in spite of cal significance obscure. Richardson fails the fact that in Japan many scholars, jour­ to relate the Transvaal experiment to the nalists, and writers have been and con­ evolving colour bar in South Africa. He tinue to be extremely interested in the should have emphasized that the legal experience of the human beings who paid restrictions, which barred the Chinese the price of the seemingly "miraculous" from a range of work on the basis of race, modernization of Japan. Peasants, Rebels were subsequently applied to Africans. and Outcasts introduces general readers to He could have stressed that indentured the work of some of these Japanese schol­ labour served to reinforce racial ars, journalists, and writers and for this, segregation and widened the wage dispar­ too, one is grateful. ity between skilled and unskilled labour. Finally, as a footnote, it should be noted Nevertheless, in its eagerness to tell a that Canada excluded Chinese immigra­ story which has previously been neglected tion in 1923, not earlier as Richardson and with its regrettable lack of an analyt­ states. These criticisms notwithstanding, ical framework, this book is filled with this book makes an important contribution overemphasis which both distorts and to our understanding of Chinese inden­ oversimplifies. The description of the tured labour. lives of peasants during the Tokugawa period (1600-1868) as minutely regulated by the samurai class (7) is only half of the T. Jin Tan picture. Internal autonomy in many farm­ Ontario Institute for ing villages which were ignored by their Studies in Education lords as long as they paid their taxes was 316 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

also a fact of Tokugawa peasant life. The the incidence of fatal death and disease stress placed upon the moral textbooks in was higher among (often urban) textile post-1890 public elementary schools as factory workers than it was among the indoctrinators of mindless national population at large (including the rural chauvinism (58-59) produces a similarly population), concrete support for his unbalanced portrait because it omits con­ claim must be put forward. sideration of the often very different mes­ There are also too many sages in the Japanese language readers. unsubstantiated conclusions in the vol­ Yet Japanese school children spent many ume. Too often conclusions emerge from hours each week studying their language assumptions rather than analysis. For readers while morals lessons were held example, there is the conclusion that work only once a week. in the early twentieth-century textile fac­ In the same vein, Hane's insistence tories was easier than farm work during upon the male head of the family as the the same time period. (80) It appears to "decisive voice" in family affairs (68-9, rely rather heavily upon the recollections 79) underplays the tradition that those in of elderly, former factory workers who, senior positions of authority and power at as the author correctly points out, not only least consult and receive passive consent survived the factory system but have from their inferiors, especially juniors and reached an age from which they can afford subordinates within the family. Indeed the to look back nostalgically upon the youth book is marred by one-sided, they spent within the factory. Hane says stereotypical sketches of Japanese family that, "The girls in the silk plants evi­ life. Sometimes Hane's own evidence dently dreaded more than anything else intrudes upon these sketches: for instance, the thought of being sent back to the a quotation on page 81 suggests that the farm" (180) and quotes a silk reeler's real power within the family could song on this theme. But he makes no men­ sometimes be not the oppressive mother- tion of the many, many textile workers' in-law or husband but the young wife, pic­ songs which expressed hatred of their fac­ tured elsewhere as a totally helpless tory work and of their factory bosses — victim. although many such songs are collected in Distortions and oversimplification the source which contains the song he also arise from incomplete information. cites. Mention is made of left-wing doctrinal It is implied that family size and issues and leadership struggles which con­ perhaps population increased during the tributed to the defeat of tenant union Meiji period (1868-1911) because abor­ struggles (111) and of organized outcast tion and infanticide were made crimes. activism. (162) Yet no details of these are (209) Yet I can find in the book no given and the reader is left with little more statistics or other data comparing family than the old cliché about left-wing fac­ size or analyzing population increases tionalism as a "cause" for "failures" in over time. Such omissions often cloud the left-wing organizing. The claim that the significance of the information we are poor in the countryside were worse off given. We are told the absolute number of than the poor in the cities because the lat­ deaths in coal mines during selected years ter enjoyed "cultural and technological but are not given deaths in terms of per­ conveniences of modem civilization" centages of total miners killed. We learn (38) is weakened by a failure to spell out that there were women as well as men just what these conveniences were. The working in the mines but are left in ignor­ claim may be reasonable, but since Hane ance regarding the percentage of the coal elsewhere mentions (190) the government mining force which was female. medical survey of 1913 which found that The lack of context of so much of the REVIEWS 317 discussion is particularly irritating over more than a century of the disposses­ because it undermines the very good sion of the aboriginal settlers. This was points the author sometimes makes. He carried out with varying degrees of brutal­ quite properly reminds us that illiteracy ity and by practices ranging from direct among rural girls of school age remained extermination to more subtle forms of a serious problem well into the twentieth "hegemony." Both methods were tried century. His observation that farm girls' out in Tasmania. Lieutenant-Colonel school attendance was low up to the tum Arthur attempted to drive the aboriginal of the century is true in comparison to the remnants into the sea in the 1830s, but following: 1) their later rates of attend­ later found a charismatic parson to win ance; 2) 100 per cent attendance; 3) the them to Christianity and a slower form of attendance of farm boys during the same extinction on an island in the Bass Straits. period. However in any reasonable inter­ Among the aboriginal rebels two are recorded here: the first, Musquito, was national comparative context these ' 'low' ' hanged after leading attacks on white rates do not seem low at all. In support of settlements; and the second, named his refutation of claims that illiteracy was Major, a leader of black guerrillas in almost gone from rural Japan by the early western Australia, was shot by the police years of the twentieth century he calls in the Kimberleys in 1908. upon statistics which give 1897 country­ wide elementary school attendance for A second group of protesters is taken girls as 50.9 per cent of the female from the British and Irish convicts, of school-aged population and for boys as which over 160,000 were settled in differ­ 80.7 per cent of the male school-aged ent parts of Australia between 1789 and population. (272) Yet those same the mid-1860s. In their case, the selection statistics report that in 1903 the percent­ of rebels has been more difficult to deter­ age of girls attending school was 89.6 and mine. It is one thing to draw up a list of that of boys was 96.6. (272) What hap­ protesters from among the many pened between 1897 and 1903? Hane thousands sentenced to transportation by never tells us. the Middlesex and Dublin assizes, but There are flaws in this book, and one quite another to select suitable candidates wishes the author had employed more ana­ for the title once they had arrived in the lytical skill. Still, as a corrective to those colony. But within the convict community itself there was little doubt: they counted numerous studies of the tip of the pyramid their heroes not among machine-breakers of modernizing Japan which concern or political radicals but among those who themselves only with leaders and elites, most boldly defied their jailers or experi­ Peasants, Rebels and Outcasts is worth enced the most daring escapes out of the its weight in gold. bush. Such a man was Ralph Entinstle, sentenced for larceny at Lancaster in E. Patricia Tsurumi 1827, who, after several years as an University of Victoria assigned government servant, became a rebel and a fugitive after being unjustly Eric Fry, éd.. Rebels and Radicals (Win­ flogged. He was caught, tried, and chester, MA: Allen & Unwin 1983). hanged outside Bathurst Jail a few months later. There was also Frank McNamara, a THESE DOZEN ESSAYS span the history native of Wicklow who, after delighting of Australian protest from the earliest his fellow convicts in Sidney with his days of settlement up to World War I. It is repeated defiance of authority, became a a mixed bag covering a wide variety of bush ranger and left a legendary record as experience and writing talents. a "poet in revolt." The collection starts with the history 318 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

With the exception of western Aus­ constitution; and who, several years after tralia, the early 1850s brought convict his death, was acclaimed as "one of the settlement, and therefore military govern­ truest democrats that ever lived." Other ment, to an end. In consequence, the notable portraits are those painted by Don remaining eight chapters concern the Baker of John Dunmore Lange and Eric activities of men and women engaged in a Fry of Monty Miller, "Australian different struggle — the struggle for worker," tireless marcher, and champion responsible self-government, a fuller of socialist principles. His death in 1920 democracy, socialism, feminism, and the concludes the volume. rights of women. Every reader will have These dozen portraits deserve study the right to assess the value of these chap­ because against the background of Aus­ ters. For myself I was particularly moved tralia's more familiar history, "they by the extraordinary career of the reveal the other side of the story." Irishman, Dan Denichty, who almost single-handedly waged a sustained and George Rude determined battle for a more democratic Concordia University