REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS Andrew Neufeld and Andrew Pamaby, Nigel Morgan, along with "depres­ The IWA in Canada: The Life and Times of sion-weary" woodworkers who remained an Industrial Union, (Vancouver: IWA committed to industrial unionism, Canada/New Star Books, 2000) founded the International Woodworkers of America in Tacoma, Washington, as IN THE IWA IN CANADA, Andrew Neufeld part of the CIO boom. Neufeld and and Andrew Parnaby record the "life and Parnaby make the important point that the times" of an industrial union that has IWA's immediate success in the United played a major role in the development of States was not matched north of the bor­ British Columbia (and to a lesser extent der in BC where a hostile legal and politi­ Canada) since the 1930s. The union has cal climate prevented the great organiza­ ensured some redistribution of wealth tional breakthrough until the changes from the exploitation of Canada's forests; brought by World War II. By 1946, how­ in BC it also has played a role in promot­ ever, the IWA had won a master agree­ ing social justice and combating racism. ment on "the Coast" of BC and further or­ As former BC premier Dave Barrett puts it ganizational and contractual gains in the (with feeling) in a video I show my BC his­ 1950s and 1960s allowed the rank-and- tory students, "(the IWA] set a standard file to participate in the post-war boom that everybody got the same wage and you and compromise "shaped by big govern­ didn't get cheated because you were an ment, big unions, big wages, and big prof­ immigrant." its." (183) As is well known, during this The IWA in Canada is a well written "golden age," anti-communists allied and illustrated chronicle that deserves a with the CCF and helped by government broad audience. Throughout the book, pursed the "reds" from the union. Neufeld Neufeld and Parnaby place the struggle to and Parnaby portray the "reds" sympa­ establish a union of all woodworkers in thetically as effective unionists who were the industry, "from the stump to the fin­ respected by the membership. As IWA ished product," at the centre of the story. historian Clay Perry put it for many of the They locate the union's origins in the rank-and-file, "[There was] a sense that early efforts of groups like the Industrial since companies, in their heart of hearts, Workers of the World and the One Big did not believe that there should be un­ Union to organize the West's ions, it was not a bad thing that they be blanketstiffs and bunkhousemen in a sin­ matched with union reps that did not be­ gle organization. Following the collapse lieve there should be companies." (120) of the 1919 labour revolt, organization in From the 1970s to the 1990s, govern­ the forest industry almost disappeared for ment and company attacks on the IWA and over a decade. Then, in 1937, "reds" like a series of deep recessions marked the end Harold Pritchett, Ernie Dalskog, and of the postwar boom and compromise. Neufeld and Parnaby describe how the union and its members fought back Review Table of Contents — pp.5-6. I through strikes, support for technological 272 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL change to make the industry more effi­ opment of the union. There are histories cient and competitive, and the continued of the locals but not much sense of what it promotion of sustainable harvesting prac­ was like to be a member of the union or tices. During the 1990s, some NDP poli­ what the union has meant to its members cies in BC supported woodworkers and and communities. There is also little re­ their communities. In other cases, govern­ flection in the latter part of the book on the ment (and not just in BC) sided with envi­ nature of the leadership and the organiza­ ronmental groups that wanted large areas tion during the era of the postwar compro­ of forest lands left in their natural state. mise and beyond. For example, the au­ As the Lumber Worker put it about the thors cite Bryan Palmer's critical analysis "Lands for Life" policy in Ontario: "The in their evenhanded description of the result was parks for the preservationists, long ago purge of the "reds" but rely compensation for companies, and nothing heavily on Jack Munro for their discus­ for workers, communities, or First Na­ sion of the IWA's more recent role in tions who depend on the forests for their "stopping" Operation Solidarity in 1983. living." (277) Today, the union and its Interestingly, the current IWA president, members face a major assault by the Dave Haggard, recognizes past mistakes neoliberal policies of provincial govern­ and the need for change in his "Reflec­ ments in provinces such as BC, Ontario, tions" at the end of the book: "We need, and Alberta and the imposition of heavy for instance, to recover some of the social duties by the US Department of Com­ activism and union pride that motivated merce as part of the softwood lumber dis­ our founders and predecessors. We need pute. It appears that the IWA and its mem­ to rekindle the sense that the union is bers will make a great deal of history in "us," that the union is only as strong as its the next decade. members. Remember: although history is partly about "leaders," it is even more The IWA in Canada is popular history about the hundreds of thousands of work­ which emphasizes the heroic struggle of ing people who ... dream[ed] of a better woodworkers to build "one union in future ...." (305-6) The context for this wood." A large portion of the narrative fo­ significant and powerful statement cuses on BC, reflecting the longstanding needed more development in the book. commitment of the province's forest in­ dustry towns to the union. However, All in all, The IWA in Canada is a Neufeld and Parnaby also trace the un­ good and important popular history of the ion's efforts to expand across Canada. union that its members should be proud The authors' account of the dramatic and of. More books like this one need to be costly struggle to establish the union in written about the "great" unions of Can­ Newfoundland in the late 1950s reveals ada's past and present. the length to which the membership was prepared to go to expand the IWA and to Duff Sutherland improve the lives of loggers. The long and Selkirk College bitter 1986 strike against contracting out in BC also reveals "that when the exis­ tence of the union is threatened and obvi­ ous to the membership there is no limit to Andrée Lévesque, Scènes de la vie en the length the membership will go to save rouge. L'époque de Jeanne Corbin 1906 - it." (231) This is stirring stuff that union­ 1944 (Montréal: Les Éditions du ists and other Canadians should know remue-ménage, 1999) about. The only failing of the book is that it is EN DEHORS DE LA BIOGRAPHIE, on ne written largely from the point-of-view of trouve guère de genre historique où, face the leadership and the institutional devel­ à une apparente insuffisance de sources, il n'est pas de mise de renoncer. Cela tient REVIEWS 273 probablement au statut encore flottant du tion communiste. La jeune femme, en genre: ayant connu sa part de turpitudes effet, s'est coulée rapidement, et semble- au 20e siècle, la biographie est toujours t-il spontanément, dans les milieux en quête d'une méthode formelle, et par communistes. Institutrice de carrière, là d'une forme de respectabilité permanente du parti, son engagement lui épistémologique. aura notamment fait voir du pays: on la Il est toutefois heureux que certains voit s'installer successivement à Edmon­ historiens n'aient pas perdu le goût du ris­ ton, Toronto, Montréal et Timmins. Ses que. Dans un ouvrage qu'elle hésite responsabilités de militante furent à la elle-même à qualifier de biographie tant fois lourdes et nombreuses: organisatrice sa démarche et sa méthode semblent syndicale, agente commerciale des résister au jeu des étiquettes, Andrée journaux The Worker, L'Ouvrier cana­ Lévesque nous offre une histoire du dien et La Vie ouvrière, secrétaire de dis­ mouvement communiste canadien trict de la Ligue de défense ouvrière. Son procédant du point de vue des militants, et enthousiasme et son dévouement, qui ne plus particulièrement de celui d'une jeune se sont jamais démentis au cours des femme d'origine française, Jeanne années, lui valurent plus tard la réputation Corbin (1906-1944). Dépourvue en d'«héroïne du parti.» Atteinte de la tuber­ matière de sources documentaires, culose, Jeanne Corbin meurt prématuré­ Corbin ayant très peu écrit, Lévesque ne ment en 1944, à l'âge de 37 ans. pouvait certes aspirer à une biographie au Sous une premièreimpression, sens littéral du terme (écriture d'une vie). l'impossibilité pour l'auteure d'appro­ Ayant fait le pari d'instrumentaliser la vie fondir l'étude de son personnage nous de son personnage, elle nous convie plutôt fera croire à une perte: celle de la richesse à une étude du communisme de la et de l'irréductibilité de l'expérience première moitié du 20e siècle, une époque humaine; celle également de l'individu marquée notamment par la première qui résiste aux structures. En l'absence génération révolutionnaire, la dépression d'une pensée explicite et un peu significa­ économique, le Front populaire, le tive, il nous faut effectivement postuler stalinisme, la guerre d'Espagne, la me­ que Corbin n'a jamais dévié de la ligne du nace hitlérienne, l'antisémitisme.