When Red Meets Green: Perceptions of Environmental Change in the B.C. Communist Left, 1937-1978. by Eryk Martin B.A. (Honours), University of Victoria, 2006 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of History © Eryk Martin, 2008 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. ii When Red Meets Green: Perceptions of Environmental Change in the B.C. Communist Left, 1937-1978. by Eryk Martin B.A. (Honours), University of Victoria, 2006 Supervisory Committee Dr. Richard Rajala, Supervisor (Department of History) Dr. Eric Sager, Departmental Member (Department of History) Dr. Larry Hannant, Departmental Member (Department of History) Dr. Jeremy Wilson, Outside Member (Department of Political Science) iii Supervisory Committee Dr. Richard Rajala, Supervisor (Department of History) Dr. Eric Sager, Departmental Member (Department of History) Dr. Larry Hannant, Departmental Member (Department of History) Dr. Jeremy Wilson, Outside Member (Department of Political Science) Abstract From the 1940s to the 1970s the communist left in British Columbia used debates and perceptions of environmental change as a means to engage in a critique of capitalist society. In engaging in these debates, communists articulated a Marxist understanding of the connections between capitalism and environmental change. However, these articulations were heavily connected to broader occurrences that situated the communist left alongside a diverse group of social actors. Beginning in the 1940s the communist left situated their critique of provincial forest policy into a wider social debate over the management of forest resources. During the 1950s and 1960s, concerns over environmental change were transformed into debates over the effects of nuclear weapons and industrial pollution. From the late 1960s through to late 1970s elements of the communist left once again engaged with the environmental changes taking place in the forest sector, as renewed concerns developed over the status of the forest economy and the preservation of wilderness areas. To investigate the communist left’s perceptions and politicization of these issues this thesis focuses on the activities of communist controlled unions such as the International Woodworkers of America as well as the B.C. section of iv the Communist Party of Canada/Labour Progressive Party. In addition to these organizations, this thesis also follows the experiences of Erni Knott. As a woodworker, a founding member of the IWA, a member of the Communist Party, and an active environmentalist, Knott’s experiences highlight the complex way in which communist politics merged and conflicted with perceptions of environmental change. v Table of Contents Supervisory Page ii Abstract iii Table of Contents v Acknowledgments vi Dedications vii Introduction 1 Chapter One: Entering the Woods 23 Chapter Two: Forest Policy, Environmental Destruction, and the Cold War 41 Chapter Three: Foreigners, Fordism, and the Second Sloan Commission 84 Chapter Four: Using Peace 97 Chapter Five: Pollution, Parks, and Profit 111 Chapter Six: The Communist Party of Canada and the Continued Struggle to 138 Define the Forest Chapter Seven: Settings for Regulation and Resistance: The Tsitika-Schoen 154 Controversy, 1972-1978 Conclusion 198 Bibliography 203 vi Acknowledgments Thank you to my committee members Richard Rajala, Eric Sager and Larry Hannant, and my outside reader Jeremy Wilson for their time and energy in supervising this project. Special thanks to Rick for all his patience, support, inspiration, energy, enthusiasm and commitment. He has been fundamental to this project and the evolution of my studies. Graduate director, Elizabeth Vibert, has played a vital role in my graduate studies, and her good advice, hard work, and kind words have contributed enormously to a wonderful experience in the department. Thanks also to Ian MacPherson, Greg Blue, Tom Saunders, and Lynne Marks for their inspiration and support. Staff at UVic’s Department of History and MacPherson library, as well as at Rare Books and Special Collections at the UBC also played important roles, as have the archivists, librarians, and staff at the BC Archives, Ministry of Forests Library, Victoria Labour Council and Legislative Library. Thanks also to my brother Andrew and my good friends Brian, Mark, Marty, Reburn, Trevor, Robin, and Kirk for putting up with my blathering and my absenteeism. Although there are too many to name, the “cohort to contend with” provided feedback, emotional support, and much needed debauchery. Thanks also to fellow MA students Grant Burns, Justin McGillivary, Nick Melchin, Anne Dance and Devon Drury for their friendship. A special thanks to Ben Isitt for his encouragement and important information sharing. Likewise, this project could not have proceeded without the gracious support of Freda Knott. Thank you to my family for their love and support, and for understanding why I was unable to come and visit more often. Finally, I wish to vii thank, most profoundly, the love and support of my partner Kendra Milne. Without her, graduate studies, let alone this thesis, would not have been possible. viii Dedications This thesis is for Allan Ginsberg and Zack de la Rocha, whose writings and poems pushed me into an obsession with the past. It is also for Kendra and Diesel, fellow members of the pack. Introduction The Raging Grannies are a well known presence in Victoria’s activist circles because of their creative use of direct action as a mechanism of political resistance in the fight for peace and environmental justice. It was not protest, however, but commemoration that brought them to the Metchosin Community Hall on 11 January 2003 to celebrate the life of their friend and comrade, Erni Knott (1919-2003).1 The Grannies’ “Song for Erni”, which was sung to the assembled mourners, is a particularly emblematic way of introducing the individual that he was and the life that he led: Erni, Erni, we’ll always remember you. Freda’s mainstay and friend of the Grannies, too. We were all his sisters and brothers ‘Cos he fought for the rights of others. A worker, leader, union man- You were our hero, too. Not many loggers have fought to protect the trees, Grown a mighty garden with a prodigal crop of peas, Strawberries and potatoes Garlic and tomatoes. Erni knew a thing or two About all those birds and bees.2 Erni left an impression on the world, of that there can be no doubt, and his impact was felt in more than just the communist left to which he had been dedicated. Obituaries of his life experiences can be found in activist newsletters, local community papers, large trade union periodicals, and even national papers such as the Globe and Mail. These 1 The spelling of the short form of Ernest’s name “Erni” is sometimes spelt “Earni” or “Earnie”. I will use the spelling “Erni”. Where alternative versions of this spelling occur, it is the quoted or cited authors’ usage rather than my own. 2 Freda Knott’s personal papers, “Song for Erni.” 2 obituaries, with the exception of the one in the Globe, underlined three interlocking aspects of Erni’s life: his experiences as a logger and mill worker, his work as a union activist and long standing member of the Communist Party of Canada, and his commitment to environmental activism.3 It is the goal of this thesis to explore the intersecting relationship of these three aspects of his life, to help to explain how a commitment to socialism and environmentalism mutually reinforced one and other, and how they were applied. At the same time, Erni’s experiences can help to augment and enrich a greater understanding of larger political, economic, and social themes in British Columbia. In order to do so, however, this introduction begins with a brief history of forest sector from the colonial era through to the immediate post-war years. As Roger Hayter argues, the forest industry in British Columbia began in a context of marginality. Situated on the western edge of the North American continent and on the outer reaches of the British imperial domain, the exploitation of forest resources in what would become the province of British Columbia was shaped dramatically by geography and geo-political occurrences. Beginning in the colonial era, setters transformed the wood from trees into important commodities for international trade and commerce. In the 1850s, supplies of spars, lumber, and shingles were exported to San Francisco, Hawaii, China, and South America.4 Thus from its colonial roots, the west coast was integrated into a commercial global system. The increase in gold exploitation 3 “Founding IWA member was part of a pioneer generation,” The Allied Worker, March 2004, 18; “Longtime Communist never gave up activism,” Times Colonist, 28 December 2003, C1; “Erni Knott, A Life Well Lived,” Taproot: Together Against Poverty Society, 35 (February-March, 2004), 3; “Ardent B.C. Communist could never get elected,” The Globe and Mail, 2 January 2004, R5. The obituary printed in the Globe focused entirely on the number of electoral losses that Erni endured during his thirty some years running under the Communist Party/Labour Progressive Party slate in various ridings on southern Vancouver Island. 4 Roger Hayter, Flexible Crossroads, The Restructuring of British Columbia’s Forest Economy (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2000), 37; Ken Drushka, Working in the Woods: A History of Logging on the West Coast (Madeira Park, B.C.: Harbour Publishing, 1992), 29. 3 in California and the Fraser Canyon allowed the industry to expand its continental roots. Sawmills and production facilities developed along the colonial and American coast. Expanding levels of timber exploitation transformed Burrard Inlet into a major industrial centre for the British colony.5 However, prior to the 1880s no railway network existed to link the coastal forests to other continental markets, hindering the industry’s growth potential significantly.