Document generated on 09/26/2021 12:50 a.m. Labour/Le Travailleur Reviews / Comptes Rendus Volume 53, 2004 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/llt53rv01 See table of contents Publisher(s) Canadian Committee on Labour History ISSN 0700-3862 (print) 1911-4842 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article (2004). Reviews / Comptes Rendus. Labour/Le Travailleur, 53, 257–356. All rights reserved © Canadian Committee on Labour History, 2004 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS Judy Fudge and Eric Tucker, Labour Before the Law: The Regulation of Workers ' Col­ lective Action in Canada, 1900-1948, by Todd McCallulm / 257 Peter S. Mclnnis, Harnessing Labour Confrontation: Shaping the Postwar Settlement in Canada, 1943-1950, by Tom Langford / 259 Laura C. Johnson, The Co-Workplace: Teleworking in the Neighbourhood, by Leah F. Vosko/261 Ian MacLachlan, Kill and Chill: Restructuring Canada's Beef Commodity Chain, by Cynthia Loch-Drake / 264 John Douglas Belshaw, Colonization and Community: The Vancouver Island Coalfield and the Making of the British Columbian Working Class, by Robert Mcintosh / 266 Anthony Winson and Belinda Leach, Contingent Work, Disrupted Lives: Labour and Community in the New Rural Economy, by Alicja Muszynski / 268 Margaret C. Kechnie, Organizing Rural Women: The Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario, 1897-1919, by Louise Carbert /271 Mathieu Denis, Jacques-Victor Morin, Syndicaliste et éducateur populaire, by Peter BischofT/ 273 Indhu Rajagopal, Hidden Academics: Contract Faculty in Canadian Universities, by Peter Krats / 275 Tom Mcintosh, éd., Federalism, Democracy, and Labour Market Policy in Canada, by Tod D. Rutherford / 277 Vanda R. Rideout, Continentalizing Canadian Telecommunications: The Politics of Regulatory Reform, by Sid Shniad / 279 Cole Harris, Making Native Space: Colonialism, Resistance and Reserves in British Columbia, by John Lutz / 281 Donna Vogel, Challenging Politics: COPE, Electoral Politics and Social Movements, by Warren Magnusson /284 Kathryn Carter, éd.. The Small Details of Life: 20 Diaries by Women in Canada, 1830-1996, by Gail G. Campbell / 286 Roberta Hamilton, Sef//wgf/ie agenda: Jean Royce and the Shaping ofQueen's Univer­ sity, by Mary Kinnear / 288 Stephen Clarkson, Uncle Sam and Us: Globalization, Neoconservatism, and the Cana­ dian State, by Steve Patten / 290 David Gagan and Rosemary Gagan, For Patients of Moderate Means: A Social History of the Voluntary Public General Hospital in Canada, 1890-1950, by James M. Wishart / 292 Justine Brown, Hollywood Utopia, by Robert Sklar / 294 Suzanne Morton, At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969, by Christina Burr / 296 Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped American Citizenship, by Kate Masur / 298 Timothy J. Minchin, The Color of Work: The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Southern Paper Industry, 1945-1980, by Bruce Nelson / 301 Michelle Brattain, The Politics of Whiteness: Race, Workers, and Culture in the Mod­ ern South, by Joseph A. McCartin / 303 Glenna Matthews, Silicon Valley, Women, and the California Dream: Gender, Class, and Opportunity in the Twentieth Century, by Donica Belisle / 306 Charles D. Thompson Jr. and Melinda F. Wiggins, eds., The Human Cost of Food: Farmworkers' Lives, Labor, and Advocacy, by Cecilia Danysk / 308 Charles P. Korr, The End of Baseball as We Knew It. The Players Union, 1960-1981, by Colin Howell/311 Katherine Frank, G-Strings and Sympathy: Strip Club Regulars and Male Desire, by Michael Uebel/312 Daniel W. Lehman, John Reed and the Writing of Revolution, by James Gilbert /314 David W. Noble, Death of a Nation: American Culture and the EndofExceptionalism, by Robert T. Schultz /316 Henry Veltmeyer and Anthony O'Malley, eds., Transcending Neoliberalism: Commu­ nity-Based Development in Latin America, by Fred Judson /319 Darlene J. Sadlier, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, by Rosana Barbosa Nunes / 321 Haia Shpayer-Makov, The Making of a Policeman: A Social History of a Labour Force in Metropolitan London, 1829-1914, by Greg Marquis / 323 Archie Potts, Zilliacus: A Life for Peace and Socialism, by Keith Laybourn / 325 Ray Hemmings, Liberty or Death: Early Struggles for Parliamentary Democracy, by Nicholas Rogers / 327 Alain Corbin, The Life of an Unknown: The Rediscovered World of a Clog Maker in 19th-century France, by Iorwerth Prothero / 329 Laura-Lee Downs, Children in the Promised Land: Working-Class Movements and the Colonies de Vacances in France, 1880-1960, by Roxanne Panchasi /331 George Cheney, Values at Work: Emmployee Participation Meets Market Pressure at Mondragon, by George Melnyk / 333 Michael Melancon and Alice K. Pate, eds., New Labor History: Worker Identity and Experience in Russia, 1840-1918, by Sarah Badcock / 336 Stephen Crowley and David Ost, eds.. Workers After Workers States: Labor and Poli­ tics in Postcommunist Eastern Europe, by Michael Haynes / 338 Sous la direction de Gérard Duménil et Dominique Lévy, Crises et renouveau du capitalisme. Le 20e siècle en perspective, par Christian Deblock / 340 Daniel Jacques, La révolution technique: essai sur le devoir d'humanité, par Jean-François Auger / 343 Beverly J. Silver, Forces of Labor: Workers' Movements and Globalization Since 1870, by David Camfield / 345 Ronaldo Munck, Globalization and Labour: the new "Great Transformation, " by Altha J. Cravey / 347 David McNally, Another World is Possible: Globalization and Anti-Capitalism, by El­ len Ramsay / 349 Barbara Hobson, Jane Lewis, and Birte Siim, eds., Contested Concepts in Gender and Social Politics, by Nancy Janovicek /351 Andy Merrifield, Dialectical Urbanism: Social Struggles in the Capitalist City, by An­ drew Herod /354 REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS Judy Fudge and Eric Tucker, Labour Be­ beginnings of the 20th century witnessed fore the Law: The Regulation of Workers ' an aggressive campaign on the part of em­ Collective Action in Canada, 1900-1948 ployers to use a combination of injunc­ (Don Mills: Oxford University Press 2001 ) tions and criminal law provisions to limit the effectiveness of strikes and sympathy LABOUR BEFORE THE LAW deserves a actions such as boycotts. British legal wide and appreciative readership. Fudge precedents, including the 1901 Taff Vale and Tucker offer compelling arguments decision, enhanced the effectiveness of about the increasing importance of the civil actions against unions. At the same law to the lives and movements of work­ time, the right of freedom of association ers and about the importance of labour re­ was not enforced, undermining the notion lations generally to the contours of state of state neutrality in labour relations. formation in the first half of the 20th cen­ Tucker and Fudge highlight the complex­ tury. Labour Before the Lay» nicely blends ities of governmental intervention during published accounts, unpublished gradu­ this period: responsible for the applica­ ate manuscripts, and an impressive tion and enforcement of criminal law, mu­ amount of original research. It ranges nicipal and provincial officials played a across the touchstones of labour history central role in the early years of the twen­ — yes, yet another account of the Indus­ tieth century, while federal officials fo­ trial Disputes Investigation Act (IDIA) — cused on creating bureaucratic mecha­ to lesser-known but highly revealing nisms of conciliation. Because of this di­ events such as the 1937-38 strike of lime vision, unionists were only too aware that miners in Blubber Bay, British Columbia, legislative victories, scant as they were, all the while maintaining an admirable could be easily eroded by magistrates consistency in its analysis. Fudge and with liberal definitions of watching and Tucker also convincingly demonstrate the besetting. descriptive power of a Marxist approach Labour Before the Law argues that the to the law itself. regime of industrial legality that emerged In the tradition of the famous Industry in the years before World War I combined and Humanity by Mackenzie King, La­ accommodation and coercion, not as al­ bour Before the Law is a long book, and ternatives but as mutually reinforcing will no doubt remind some readers of why strategies. The passage of the IDIA meant their choice to avoid law school was the that mandatory conciliation would be­ correct one. But if the detail is sometimes come the preferred mechanism of the fed­ too densely packed, the story is nonethe­ eral Department of Labour. At the same less thoughtprovoking. Fudge and Tucker time, the IDIA served to increase the begin their account with the rise of what power of the judiciary. Injunctions con­ they call "industrial voluntarism." The tinued to be a resort of employers looking to restrain union power, while magis­ Table of Contents for Reviews, pp. 5-6. trates frequently found themselves called 258 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL upon to chair IDIA conciliation boards. instruments of collective bargaining de­ Fudge and Tucker provide a succinct sur­ vised by workers. Mountie batons would vey of the workings of the IDIA, drawing never be used in board rooms. upon the work of Bob Russell and Jeremy Tucker and Fudge also deftly explore Webber. In particular, they highlight the provincial attempts to devise new re­ regional and occupational variations in gimes of industrial legality in the second the outcomes of the usage of the Act. Most half of the 1930s. These, however, fell far important, they suggest that the IDIA met short of a Canadian version of the Ameri­ with "pragmatic acquiescence" rather can Wagner Act. The most valuable con­ than "normative acceptance." Unions tribution of Labour Before the Law is continued to condemn the use of strike­ Chapter Ten, which covers the period breakers and restrictions on the right to from 1943 to 1948.