Document généré le 26 sept. 2021 15:52 Labour / Le Travail Reviews / Comptes Rendus Volume 63, printemps 2009 URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/llt63rv01 Aller au sommaire du numéro Éditeur(s) Canadian Committee on Labour History ISSN 0700-3862 (imprimé) 1911-4842 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer ce compte rendu (2009). Compte rendu de [Reviews / Comptes Rendus]. Labour / Le Travail, 63, 259–346. All rights reserved © Canadian Committee on Labour History, 2009 Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur. L’utilisation des services d’Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d’utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS Ben Swankey, What’s New: Memoirs of the need for more exploration of conse- a Socialist Idealist (Victoria, BC: Trafford quences. Swankey is a great advocate of Publishing 2008) left-wing unity, and speaks with pride of his success, as Alberta Young Com- Ben Swankey is a charter member of munist League leader in the mid-1930s, that heroic generation that built the in forging a united front with the social Communist Party of Canada, sustained democratic Cooperative Commonwealth it through the grueling days of the Great Federation Youth Movement. But while Depression, stuck with it on the roller- Swankey mentions that the ccym was coaster of World War II, and persisted “the junior section of the United Farm- through the even more desperate Cold ers of Alberta,” (85) and that the rcmp’s War era. Swankey and other devoted violent suppression of the 1932 Hunger members then watched, with greater or March came “on the authority of the ufa lesser cognizance of what was happening government,” (59) he doesn’t tease this and why, the daring project turn to dust out to speak to the larger question of the and virtually disappear by the 1990s. Communist Party’s “Third Period” politi- Swankey joined the party (via the cal strategy. Too often it is the commu- Young Communist League) in 1932 and, nists who are condemned for sectarian despite occasional doubts about its spe- prejudice against socialist democrats in cific policies, remained in it for the next the years 1928 to 1935. Swankey himself 59 years, rising to the position of Alberta implicitly supports this argument. But he leader of the party. Not until April 1991, might well have asked why communists as the Soviet Union hurtled to its demise, should have been favourably disposed to did Swankey leave the party. Before join- social democrats, when, in situations like ing and after leaving the cp, however, the Hunger March, it was social demo- Swankey did not turn his back on politics. cratic party orders that unleashed repres- What’s New is Swankey’s memoir about sive police violence on starving workers three quarters of a century of activism, and farmers. based on a constant democratic socialist Another significant section in What’s perspective. New deals with the critical years 1939 This is a memoir far stronger in its to 1941, when the Communist Party depiction of actions than in its reflec- faced the immense challenge of how to tion on the significance of them. Swan- respond to World War II. From Swan- key is at his best when he recounts the key’s perspective, the party failed left details of the great organizing efforts of and right. The party’s stand that the war his youth. Among the first of these was was imperialist and must be opposed – a the 12,000-strong Hunger March in policy adopted, Swankey argues, out of Edmonton on December 20, 1932, which unquestioning acceptance of the out- the Royal Canadian Mounted Police look of Joseph Stalin, the ussr, and the suppressed with sadistic abandon. But Communist International – “was a seri- his description of that event illustrates ous mistake, perhaps the most serious in Book LLT-63-14-03-2009.indb 259 4/7/09 8:44:38 PM 260 / LABOUR /LE TRAVAIL 63 its history. … The war had an anti-fascist correct line in the years 1939 to 1941. character right from the start.” (87) Moreover, with considerable foresight, This could have been an opportunity to the Communist International had also take on a thorough review of the cp line in anticipated the German invasion of the that critical historical moment. One ele- ussr, advising communists worldwide ment of it would be to recognize that in the that if there were “a counter-revolution- midst of such a crisis flexible tactics were ary attack on the Soviet Union,” it was the essential. The international bourgeoisie duty of all progressives “to do everything recognized this and acted on it. What else possible for the defeat of the imperialist explains the complete reversal in policy and fascist forces.” that occurred when Winston Churchill In effect, what is commonly referred to replaced Neville Chamberlain as British as World War II was not one war at all, prime minister in May 1940? And why, but a series of wars with different charac- in June 1941, as Nazi Germany attacked teristics at different moments. For coun- the ussr, the fiercely anti-communist tries like Canada, during the 8-month Churchill embraced the Soviet Union period of the Phony War, for instance, it as an ally? An international communist was not an anti-fascist war at all, but a movement that did not similarly adjust war by the bourgeoisie against domestic its tactics to keep abreast of new develop- leftists, civil liberties, and workers’ rights. ments would be doomed to oblivion. But in 1941, the bourgeoisie’s own stand In any case, before World War II com- on the war changed. The communists’ munists in Canada and abroad did in fact tactics had to be based on actual condi- foresee the need for tactical shifts based tions at any one moment in that complex, on political principle. On February 1, shifting situation. 1941 the Ottawa Clarion – just a mimeo- Perhaps the most significant aspect of graphed newsletter struggling to survive Swankey’s criticism of his own party’s in a period when the party was illegal – stand on the war is the extent to which it laid out a strategic war vision under the reveals that even middle-level leaders of headline, “Communists and the War.” the party were not acquainted with or did After 17 months of war, the paper wrote, not understand the line of the party and its character in Canada was clear. Civil the international communist movement. liberties had been suppressed, national Several factors might account for this. registration and conscription legislation One that comes immediately to mind is passed. “War profiteers are having a field that when the party was outlawed and day. … The rich grow richer, the poor key militants were arrested the result was grow poorer.” The Communist Party, disruption in communications from lead- it added, had anticipated this, and at its ers to the scattered sections of the coun- Eighth Dominion Convention in 1937 it try. Obviously there are other plausible had urged Canadians to fight for peace. explanations that ought to be explored in However, the cpc had declared in 1937, memoirs such as this. “should imperialist war none the less Finally, this volume would have been break out despite the struggle for peace,” stronger had Swankey supplemented his communists would follow the plan of the memory and notes by using objective his- Communist International, which called torical records. Most important would be on progressive people “to work for [the the addition of Royal Canadian Mounted war’s] speedy termination” and use the Police records that he could have obtained opportunity to “hasten the downfall of through the Access to Information and capitalist class domination.” Hence the Privacy Act. Book LLT-63-14-03-2009.indb 260 4/7/09 8:44:39 PM REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS / 261 I have to admit that my experience “ever” short-changes future historians. with Access Act requests for that genera- Indeed, there are certain inexplicable tion of communists is mixed. Invariably, gaps in Renegades that historians might the Canadian Security Intelligence Ser- wish to explore to write a more com- vice – with its determined effort to erase plete history. For example, to paraphrase the historical record – rips out almost all Frank Scott’s famous question to E.J. useful evidence from the rcmp records it Pratt about his poem on the construction vets. But occasionally some details sur- of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, “Where vive, and they can be fascinating and his- are the women?” torically highly useful. Raising these caveats is not to say that This brings me to my pitch for civic Petrou’s Renegades isn’t good. It IS good activism by historians. Every historian in – ironically – because it’s the very type of Canada should be in an adopt-an-activist history that Professor Granatstein dispar- program. Seek out a politically engaged ages – social history. With the able assis- person of a certain age who would have tance of archivist and historian Myron a record with government departments. Momryk – whose immense labor Petrou Sit down with the person and identify gratefully acknowledges – Petrou has put every possible department that might together a comprehensive factual data- hold records on the person and make a base chronicling the personal details of request for his or her files.