#canadian labour movement

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"LABOR SITUATION IS WORSE TRADES CONGRESS DECLARES," Toronto Star. September 3, 1943. Page 3. --- Says 'Good Intentions' Voiced by Ottawa 'Are Seldom Realized --- SOME BENEFITS ---- Quebec, Sept. 3 - (CP) - The Trades and Labor Congress of Canada yesterday approved a report of the committee on legislative activities which said the "labor situation" has progressively deteriorated.

"As on former occasions," the report said, "The prime minister, on behalf of the government, expressed a cordial good will towards labor and the Trades and Labor Congress. These good intentions, however, are seldom realized.

"It will augur ill for our war effort, as well as for the morale of our people as a whole," the committee's report continued, "when there comes the bitter disillusionment and understanding that the government's unwillingness even to begin to fulfill the promises for a better world, may be taken as the blueprint of its intentions for the post-war period."

"The report noted with approval that, "arising out of the program presented by the congress," there had been beneficial changes in legislation dealing with unemployment insurance, old age pensions, income tax, and physical fitness."

Two delegates from an A.F.L. affiliated union told the convention they were not consulted when two international representatives of their union left the hall Wednesday as J. L. Cohen, K.C., member of the national war labor board, was about to address the meeting.

J. H. Higgins of Toronto, spoke also for Sam Finlay of Toronto, said they "strenuously disapprove of the action taken," and that the matter would be referred to the international officers of the union.

Delegates argued at length, without definite decision, on the degree of co-operation advisable with C.I.O. unions affiliated with the Canadian Congress of Labor, in order to further "unity" in organized labor.

Arthur Martel of Montreal said he "learned with astonishment that we should be hand in hand with the rivals." There were other ways of bringing about unity, he added.

J. H. Higgins said he wondered why the executive worked with "individuals who put a knife in our back and give it a twist."

"I wonder what the thousands of boys from the A.F.L. and the C.C.L., who are fighting together side by side, would think if they were present and listened to the arguments here," a New Westminster delegate commented.

A resolution to give "entire support to the organizing campaign now being carried on by the A.FL. unions in the aluminum industry," was adopted.

[handweavers]

i'm very interested in reading more explicitly marxist analysis on the exploitation of black and brown workers in the imperial core (like the prev post) but updated to consider the economic changes that have happened since de-industrialization to the present, because while a lot of what winston discusses is still very relevant i do struggle a bit to connect the present economic realities in canada/usa with an understanding of our working class as being an industrialized mass production labour force. so if anyone has any recommendations on readings up this alley please let me know 🙏🏼

[fickle-minded]

The Nine Hour Movement

The Nine Hour Movement

Understanding the workers’ protests that paved the way for the creation of unions to advocate for workers’ rights.

[whencyclopedia]

D-Day was 80 years ago today!

D-Day was the first day of Operation Overlord, the Allied attack on German-occupied Western Europe, which began on the beaches of Normandy, France, on 6 June 1944. Primarily US, British, and Canadian troops, with naval and air support, attacked five beaches, landing some 135,000 men in a day widely considered to have changed history.

Where to Attack?

Operation Overlord, which sought to attack occupied Europe starting with an amphibious landing in northwest France, Belgium, or the Netherlands, had been in the planning since January 1943 when Allied leaders agreed to the build-up of British and US troops in Britain. The Allies were unsure where exactly to land, but the requirements were simple: as short a sea crossing as possible and within range of Allied fighter cover. A third requirement was to have a major port nearby, which could be captured and used to land further troops and equipment. The best fit seemed to be Normandy with its flat beaches and port of Cherbourg.

The Atlantic Wall

The leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), called his western line of defences the Atlantic Wall. It had gaps but presented an impressive string of fortifications along the coast from Spain to the Netherlands. Construction of gun batteries, bunker networks, and observation posts began as early as 1942.

Many of the German divisions were not crack troops but inexperienced soldiers, who were spending more time building defences than in vital military training. There was a woeful lack of materials for Hitler's dream of the Atlantic Wall, really something of a Swiss cheese, with some strong areas, but many holes. The German army was not provided with sufficient mines, explosives, concrete, or labourers to better protect the coastline. At least one-third of gun positions still had no casement protection. Many installations were not bomb-proof. Another serious weakness was naval and air support. The navy had a mere 4 destroyers available and 39 E-boats while the Luftwaffe's (German Air Force's) contribution was equally paltry with only 319 planes operating in the skies when the invasion took place (rising to 1,000) in the second week.

Neptune to Normandy

Preparation for Overlord occurred right through April and May of 1940 when the Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Air Force (USAAF) relentlessly bombed communications and transportation systems in France as well as coastal defences, airfields, industrial targets, and military installations. In total, over 200,000 missions were conducted to weaken as much as possible the Nazi defences ready for the infantry troops about to be involved in the largest troop movement in history. The French Resistance also played their part in preparing the way by blowing up train lines and communication systems that would ensure the defenders could not effectively respond to the invasion.

The Allied fleet of 7,000 vessels of all kinds departed from English south-coast ports such as Falmouth, Plymouth, Poole, Portsmouth, Newhaven, and Harwich. In an operation code-named Neptune, the ships gathered off Portsmouth in a zone called 'Piccadilly Circus' after the busy London road junction, and then made their way to Normandy and the assault areas. At the same time, gliders and planes flew to the Cherbourg peninsula in the west and Ouistreham on the eastern edge of the planned landing. Paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st US Airborne Division attacked in the west to try and cut off Cherbourg. At the eastern extremity of the operation, paratroopers of the 6th British Airborne Division aimed to secure Pegasus Bridge over the Caen Canal. Other tasks of the paratrooper and glider units were to destroy bridges to impede the enemy, hold others necessary for the invasion to progress, destroy gun emplacements, secure the beach exits, and protect the invasion's flanks.

The Beaches

The amphibious attack was set for dawn on 5 June, daylight being a requirement for the necessary air and naval support. Bad weather led to a postponement of 24 hours. Shortly after midnight, the first waves of 23,000 British and American paratroopers landed in France. US paratroopers who dropped near Ste-Mère-Église ensured this was the first French town to be liberated. From 3.00 a.m., air and naval bombardment of the Normandy coast began, letting up just 15 minutes before the first infantry troops landed on the beaches at 6.30 a.m.

The beaches selected for the landings were divided into zones, each given a code name. US troops attacked two, the British army another two, and the Canadian force the fifth. These beaches and the troops assigned to them were (west to east):

Utah Beach - 4th US Infantry Division, 7th US Corps (1st US Army commanded by Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley)

Omaha Beach - 1st US Infantry Division, 5th US Corps (1st US Army)

Gold Beach - 50th British Infantry Division, 30th British Corps (2nd British Army commanded by Lieutenant-General Miles C. Dempsey)

Juno Beach - 3rd Canadian Infantry Division (2nd British Army)

Sword Beach - 3rd British Infantry Division, 1st British Corps (2nd British Army)

In addition, the 2nd US Rangers were to attack the well-defended Pointe du Hoc between Utah and Omaha (although it turned out the guns had never been installed there), while Royal Marine Commando units attacked targets on Gold, Juno, and Sword.

The RAF and USAAF continued to protect the invasion fleet and ensure any enemy ground-based counterattack faced air attack. As the Allies could put in the air 12,000 aircraft at this stage, the Luftwaffe's aerial fightback was pitifully inadequate. On D-Day alone, the Allied air forces flew 15,000 sorties compared to the Luftwaffe's 100. Not one single Allied aircraft was lost to enemy fire on D-Day.

Packing Normandy

By the end of D-Day, 135,000 men had been landed and relatively few casualties were sustained – some 5,000 men. There were some serious cock-ups, notably the hopeless dispersal of the paratroopers (only 4% of the US 101st Air Division were dropped at the intended target zone), but, if anything, this caused even more confusion amongst the German commanders on the ground as it seemed the Allies were attacking everywhere. The defenders, overcoming the initial handicap that many area commanders were at a strategy conference in Rennes, did eventually organise themselves into a counterattack, deploying their reserves and pulling in troops from other parts of France. This is when French resistance and aerial bombing became crucial, seriously hampering the German army's effort to reinforce the coastal areas of Normandy. The German field commanders wanted to withdraw, regroup and attack in force, but, on 11 June, Hitler ordered there be no retreat.

All of the original invasion beaches were linked as the Allies pushed inland. To aid thousands more troops following up the initial attack, two artificial floating harbours were built. Code-named Mulberries, these were located off Omaha and Gold beaches and were built from 200 prefabricated units. A storm hit on 20 June, destroying the Mulberry Harbour off Omaha, but the one at Gold was still serviceable, allowing some 11,000 tons of material to be landed every 24 hours. The other problem for the Allies was how to supply thousands of vehicles with the fuel they needed. The short-term solution, code-named Tombola, was to have tanker ships pump fuel to storage tanks on shore, using buoyed pipelines. The longer-term solution was code-named Pluto (Pipeline Under the Ocean), a pipeline under the Channel to Cherbourg through which fuel could be pumped. Cherbourg was taken on 27 June and was used to ship in more troops and supplies, although the defenders had sunk ships to block the harbour and these took some six weeks to fully clear.

Operation Neptune officially ended on 30 June. Around 850,000 men, 148,800 vehicles, and 570,000 tons of stores and equipment had been landed since D-Day. The next phase of Overlord was to push the occupiers out of Normandy. The defenders were not only having logistical problems but also command issues as Hitler replaced Rundstedt with Field Marshal Günther von Kluge (1882-1944) and formally warned Rommel not to be defeatist.

Aftermath: The Normandy Campaign

By early July, the Allies, having not got further south than around 20 miles (32 km) from the coast, were behind schedule. Poor weather was limiting the role of aircraft in the advance. The German forces were using the countryside well to slow the Allied advance – countless small fields enclosed with trees and hedgerows which limited visibility and made tanks vulnerable to ambush. Caen was staunchly defended and required Allied bombers to obliterate the city on 7 July. The German troops withdrew but still held one-half of the city. The Allies lost around 500 tanks trying to take Caen, vital to any push further south. The advance to Avranches was equally tortuous, and 40,000 men were lost in two weeks of heavy fighting. By the end of July, the Allies had taken Caen, Avranches, and the vital bridge at Pontaubault. From 1 August, Patton and the US Third Army were punching south at the western side of the offensive, and the Brittany ports of St. Malo, Brest, and Lorient were taken.

German forces counterattacked to try and retake Avranches, but Allied air power was decisive. Through August 1940, the Allies swept southwards to the Loire River from St. Nazaire to Orléans. On 15 August, a major landing took place on the southwest coast of France (French Riviera landings) and Marseille was captured on 28 August. In northern France, the Allies captured enough territory, ports, and airfields for a massive increase in material support. On 25 August, Paris was liberated. By mid-September, the Allied troops in the north and south of France had linked up and the campaign front expanded eastwards pushing on to the borders of Germany. There would be setbacks like Operation Market Garden of September and a brief fightback at the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, but the direction of the war and ultimate Allied victory was now a question of not if but when.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Palestine solidarity activists across Canada co-ordinated blockades at the offices of several arms manufacturers this week and renewed calls for an immediate embargo on all military exports to Israel. The Maple was on the ground in Toronto and Calgary at the protest actions that took place in those cities. Other blockades also took place in Vancouver, Quebec City, Peterborough, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Victoria this week. More than 200 workers, union members and other activists from across the Greater Toronto Area set up picket lines and blocked the morning shift of the TTM Technologies facility on Monday morning. The action included activists from World Beyond War Canada (WBW), Labour for Palestine (LFP), Jews Say No To Genocide, Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), and trade unions.

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada

[punisheddonjuan]

Canadian Investigation: The Canadian Commission on War Criminals in Canada (Deschênes Commission) that look into allegations of war criminals residing in Canada, has not named any of the members of the Nachtigall Battalion. Moreover, it concluded, that units collaborating with the Nazis should not be indicted as a group and that mere membership in such units was not sufficient to justify prosecution.[22]

Very cool that Canada is so deep in the thrall of Ukrainian Nazis that there are two statues of Nachtigall Battalion commander, Roman Shukhevych, in this country. You know, the Nachtigall Battalion, a subunit of the Nazi Wehrmacht Brandenburgers, who were responsible for the murder of at least 300,000 Poles and Jews. You know the collaborationist group who participated in the murder of Polish intellectuals and professors in Lwów during the Lwów pogroms in 1941. I dunno, but maybe joining a fully volunteer Nazi collaborationist group should be sufficient to justify prosecution. Frankly we should've given all of these fucking collaborators and fascists over to the Soviets, but no, we had to discipline labour movements at home.

[dailyanarchistposts]

At the forest entrance to Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek, a pickup truck aggressively swings in, engine revving and music blaring. Obscenities are yelled at the people on the ground. When the truck is asked to please go, lewd comments are sneered back. And then, the truck just stays, the two men inside glaring and watching the bystanders. One of them gets out and shifts around a parked vehicle, continuing to watch. After what seems like an eternity, the man gets back into the idling pickup truck and they peel out in a cloud of dust and black exhaust fumes.

What makes this obnoxious event stick out from any other, is that this is the same pickup truck that rammed through a Wet’suwet’en solidarity blockade just outside of Cumberland on February 10, 2020: an identical paint job, matching licence plates and the same plume of toxic black exhaust. In that February 10 incident, the men in the pickup truck filmed themselves giggling as they smashed through signs and wooden pallets with a confederate flag unabashedly displayed on their dashboard, as seen in footage broadcast by Global News. According to witnesses, men sporting masks with the Canadian flag on them then emerged from the forest and accosted land defenders. Chek news reported “close to 30 drunk people.”

Although these two incidents are 17 months apart, this pickup truck demonstrates a disturbing example of the presence and continuity of white supremacists actively engaged in disrupting both Indigenous and environmental organizing. To see the Confederate flag displayed alongside the Canadian Maple Leaf while assaulting Indigenous land defenders harks back to when a racist mob attacked Indigenous families at Whiskey Trench outside of Montreal in 1990. In that attack, hundreds of people assembled to pelt a convoy of Kahnawake residents with rocks while the police looked on, resulting in one death and dozens of injuries.

More ominous still is the consistency of this sort of behaviour with counterinsurgency tactics. British counterinsurgency doctrine, for example, emphasizes the use of vigilantes as an effective way to subdue anti-colonial movements and provide a means of evading responsibility. As vigilantes engage in their dirty work, the police are conveniently looking the other way or suddenly out of their jurisdiction. In a clever sleight of hand, the narrative is manipulated into one where the police become necessary to protect people’s physical well being from vigilante violence – a twist on the well used metaphor, ‘good cop, bad cop.’

It must be noted that the signs on the pickup truck – while harassing the people at the Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek entrance July 4th, 2021 – read, “Forestry feeds my family,” and, “I love Canadian Forestry.” These statements are misleading, considering last years’ workers’ eight-month strike against Western Forest Products, a Vancouver-based lumber company trying to chisel away workers’ safety, pensions and seniority benefits. With these pickup truck vigilantes openly displaying their allegiance to Confederate ideology and Canadian nationalism, their attempts to pass themselves off as forestry workers, or at least their allies, is nothing short of fraudulent. The essence and purpose of their actions are immediately laid bare when they are put against the core values of the labour movement: anti-racist, anti-colonial, and solidarity amongst exploited people. The interests, safety, and well being of forestry workers are directly opposed to the priorities of extractivist corporations to pry a profit. The history of labour struggle demonstrates the vast gulf between worker and company man.

In this chaos, the corporations and the Canadian state remain conspicuously silent. While playing the innocent, they continue to brutally subjugate Indigenous people for their own avarice; they continue to make fast money from ecological devastation; and they continue to squeeze profit from the ravaged bodies of workers and loggers.

While the Canadian state and its corporations engage in this exploitative rampage, they spin these issues as unrelated and non-existent. Nevertheless, they have their men on the ground, speeding around in pickup trucks adorned with Confederate and Canadian flags as well as in tactical gear with ‘Blue Lives Matter’ stripes adorning their police insignia.

The face-off at the Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek entrance is but one skirmish in the bigger picture. Do not let the issues be shifted away from their history and redirected into dead ends. Artificial barriers between struggles and people must be broken down, and solidarity re-energized. Indigenous and anti-colonial struggle, workers’ struggle, and ecological balance must not be played off against one another. With the status quo clinging onto power through violence and calculated skullduggery, their legitimacy is an empty myth. Through creativity, energy, and initiative, a more beautiful tomorrow is within reach. Every action creates a new reality!

[oleworm]

Recently I saw a post with very racist comments, about some changes in Canadian immigration law that had affected international students attempting to legally settle in Canada.

Some of the comments were quite mean, but I think the worst were those that said it was a good thing that the changes were being implemented because companies had been hiring temporary foreign workers in order not to pay appropriate wages to Canadian citizens, who would demand more.

Wouldn't it be more just to have equal wages for all, provided they are doing the same type of work, and employ a person according to their ability?

Especially with how well-documented these strategies are, employers taking advantage of nativist and racist sentiments to break up workers' movements or never allow them to form, or cut deals directly with other governments to import foreign workers like any other commodity, who would have little to no legal recourse to protest abusive working conditions, to cut costs and depress the wages of the local workforce.

This is information that is readily available, I could easily find it online and read a book that had a whole chapter about it. The one I read, back in 2020, was Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans by Ronald Takaki, but there are many more cases all over the world. Immigration and labour laws need to be reformed everywhere, not only in wealthy countries. I remember when several years ago the first wave of Venezuelan refugees arrived to my country. Locals blamed migrants for depressed wages and not the local business owners who saw desperate people in desperate situations and decided to take advantage of them instead of paying them the same amount that, until then, had been paid to everyone. It's easy to feel self-satisfied when you think you're better than someone else, and it's extremely hard to influence policy but Come on. At least be aware!

[agentfascinateur]

Arms Embargo Now coalition needs widespread support:

Some of the initial signatories of the Arms Embargo Now coalition include the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE), Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Centre international de solidarité ouvrière (CISO), the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), Independent Jewish Voices, Labour Against the Arms Trade (LAAT), the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), and the Palestinian Youth Movement. A full arms embargo would halt the export of all Canadian military goods and technology to Israel — including by revoking existing export permits — and also end all Canadian purchases of Israeli military goods, including the Department of National Defence’s plan to buy $43 million of Spike missiles, as announced last December. Such an embargo would also prevent any Canadian military goods from reaching Israel via the United States. This includes Canadian-made components that are fitted into U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets, which the Israeli military has used to bomb Gaza.

[puddlellama]

Decided to put all my stuff in one post at the top of the blog so I don't have to repeat things.

My name is PuddleLlama, or just Llama if you're short on time. I'm a panromantic abrosexual, non-binary person from the UK. they/it/ey pronouns. Right off the bat. if you are discriminatory on the basis of gender (as assigned at birth, or through identification as transgender in any way), race, sexual or romantic orientation (or lack thereof. Aphobes, you aren't welcome here), gender non-comformity, physical or mental impairment, religious practice, system, or hobby: leave right now. I will not put up with you. I will not debate you. you will be blocked and reported. I do not have the patience to deal with your bullshit. I am active here and on Discord, and have an inactive Reddit account. if people want to get in touch with me through Discord send me a message here and I'll send you my Discord name. I believe in peace and empathy. I would consider myself to be a pacifist, but pacifism only gets you so far. In cases where peaceful protest has failed, I support the use of careful force, avoiding as much collateral damage as possible. I will treat a person as a person, and I do not have the patience to coddle you if you cannot do this. Militarists, fuck off. I believe in the climate crisis, and disavow any environmental fuckery. Flat Earthers, fuck off. Climate deniers, fuck off.

I believe in modern medicine, including psychiatry and medical transition techniques. However, when a proven natural remedy can be approximately as effective as synthesised drugs, the natural remedy is superior. Anti-vaxxers, fuck off. Transmedicalists, fuck off. Essential oil pyramid scheme fuckers, fuck off.

I do not believe in the right of any person to claim ownership over a land or a people group. People deserve to travel freely and safely, with restrictions only serving to protect others. Restrictions should only serve to protect others and the individual freedoms of someone who acquired the rights to ownership over their land. Nationalists, fuck off. Zionists, fuck off. Monarchists, fuck off. Anti-democracy idiots, fuck off.

I do not believe in capitalism. I view capitalism as a system designed to squeeze profit from the people and funnel it into the hands of the elite, to the detriment of the people. Throughout my life, I have seen my family and people around me suffer as a result of capitalism, and I cannot in good conscience support its continued existence. Capitalists, fuck off.

I disavow the right-wing of the political spectrum. This includes British Conservatives and Labour, American Republicans, the Polish PiS, Canadian Tories, German AFD, and any others. I disavow religion as a dominant power in any area: religious-run parties are unacceptable to me, no matter their placement in the political spectrum. I especially disavow far-right movements such as authoritarianism, fascism, neo-Nazism, racial supremacy, and supporters of ethnostates. If you belong to any of these groups, seriously fuck off.

I do not tolerate exclusion of "fringe" communities, such as the furry community, the plurality community, the ASD community, communities of those with mental health issues. so long as your community is good-faith, you are welcome here. exclusionists of these communities, fuck off.

Pedophiles, fuck off. Zoophiles, fuck off. Groomers and manipulators, fuck off.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Police commissioner Perry decided to invite three of the “Revolutionary Socialists” to a secret meeting to get a sense of their intentions. Victor Midgley, Bill Pritchard, and Jack Kavanagh were all stalwarts of the Socialist Party of Canada from British Columbia. Midgley was the union official beaten by veterans during the sympathetic strike in Vancouver the previous August. He was one of the main organizers of the Calgary conference, which named him secretary of the One Big Union central committee. Pritchard joined him on the central committee. With his spectacles and a quiff, he had more the appearance of a mild-mannered school teacher than a longshoreman on the Vancouver waterfront. But Pritchard was a fire-and-brimstone orator who had played a pivotal role planning the Calgary conference, then guiding its debate. He would later serve a year in prison as one of the convicted leaders of the Winnipeg General Strike. Kavanagh, also a longshoreman and newly installed as the president of the BC Federation of Labour, was in charge of the committee that was meant to proselytize in favour of the One Big Union [OBU] in British Columbia.

In the report of the meeting that Perry made to his superiors, he described the trio of Reds as “intelligent, well-read men.” “They are tireless in pursuit of their objects,” he wrote, “and have all the fervour of fanatics.” He did not think they were plotting a violent overthrow of the government, but he feared them nonetheless.

I am not prepared to say that they are aiming at a revolution in the ordinary sense of that word, but I do say that they are influencing a section of labour in the West and unchaining forces which, even if they so desire, some day they will be unable to control. Here is grave danger to the peace and security of the country.

Even so, Perry urged caution. He feared that repressive measures would simply radicalize the more moderate members of the labour movement. Returning to the subject of armed revolution, he observed that “it can only succeed if a considerable number of returned soldiers join the movement.” The Reds knew this and were doing their best to court the veterans. He urged the government, therefore, to promote full employment and whatever other policies it could to placate the grievances of the soldiers.

Another crucial document influencing government thinking about the labour situation was a “Memo on Revolutionary Tendencies in Western Canada” prepared in early April by C.F. Hamilton. Hamilton was a former journalist (he covered the Boer War for the Toronto Globe) and wartime press censor. He had been assistant comptroller of the Mounted Police before the war and rejoined the Mounties afterward as an intelligence officer. He was a highly influential official within the force who reported directly to the commissioner. In his thirteen-page memo, Hamilton argued that there was a small but active band of revolutionaries at work in western Canada attempting to subvert the Canadian government.

Their openly avowed aim is to procure the establishment of a Soviet government, with its concomitants of the disappearance of parliamentary government, the subversion of the rule of the majority, the abolition of private ownership of property, and the destruction of the other institutions upon which society is founded.

Hamilton admitted that armed insurrection seemed unlikely in Canada, but he argued that there were circumstances in which it could occur. The key was the troubled labour situation, he said, and he sketched out a plausible scenario for the “would-be revolutionists.”

What they aim at is an intense conflict between labour and capital, embittered by riots and bloodshed; they calculate on a general dislocation of the industrial system, passing into an uprising of the working classes, probably reinforced by masses of discontented returned soldiers. The whole project turns upon the propagation of bad temper and mutual hate between classes …

Despite his dire prognosis, Hamilton did not believe that direct repression was the correct response. Instead, he called for a campaign of counter-propaganda highlighting the failure of Bolshevism to bring social peace and prosperity to Russia.

As alarmist reports piled up on the desks of senior ministers in Ottawa, the acting prime minister, Sir William Thomas White, panicked. White, a Montreal financier who had won his seat in Parliament in the 1911 election as an opponent of freer trade with the United States and had been rewarded with the finance portfolio in cabinet, was filling in for Prime Minister Borden who was still away at the peace negotiations in Europe. He cabled the absent prime minister in mid-April with the news that Bolshevism was rampant in Canada among soldiers and workers, especially in British Columbia. There was a revolution brewing, White reported, and he wanted Borden to ask the British government to dispatch one of its warships to Vancouver where “the presence of such ship and crew would have steadying influence.” Borden was in Paris hobnobbing with heads of state, making the world safe for democracy. He was impatient at White’s bothering him with what no doubt seemed like petty, and exaggerated, domestic problems. “I would very much like to reply, For Heaven’s Sake, let me alone,” he peevishly confided to his diary. Instead he advised White to do the best he could with the armed forces at his disposal. There would be no request for British help."

- Daniel Francis, Seeing Reds: the Red Scare of 1918-1919, Canada’s First War on Terror. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2011. p. 82-84.

[daywalkers-fic]

12. why the 1880s?

something about this decade really sings to me. I find in particular, nearing the end of the nineteenth century, so much was happening on around the world in terms of arts, politics, technology, colonization. world events and global news don’t personally reach the day-to-day lives of the everyday folk, but they are an important part in gauging what life, thought, and society was about—what things were important then and now?

basically for myself, reminding me of notable things that occured during the 1880s—some thematic, some of relevance to context and characters, and the rest just ?? interesting and/or wild?

cocaine is a hot new cure for everything and anything. perscribed, sold in foods and more. heroine introduced as a lesser-addictive substitute for morphine…

lots of developments in fields of psychology; many experiments and happenings; Freud starts his work 1886.

1880-1914 had +twenty million immigrants to the United States: Germany, Ireland, England, China had the most arrivals.

William Dorsey Swann, the first self-proclaimed drag queen, organizes a series of drag balls in Washington, D.C. 1880-1890s.

Jack the Ripper claims his “first” victim in 1888 White Chapel, London. big scare.

Sherlock Holmes first appears in Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study In Scarlet as part of the British magazine’s Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887.

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is published in 1886. Gothic fiction, drawing from emerging fields of science and psychology. & Treasure Island was published earlier in 1883 by him too!

Mark Twain drops The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889).

Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant’s second novel is published in 1885. about a man who seduces and manipulates high society French women in the French colonies for power and wealth. MOVIE WAS ADAPTED IN 2012 STARTING ROBERT PATTINSON LOL

western European art movements very romantic and swirly and pretty: Monet, Debussy xoxo.

meanwhile, African American ragtime music becomes the “pop” music across the pond here.

North Dakota (1889), South Dakota (1889), Montana (1889), Washington (1889) become states.

train segregation laws flag beginning of Jim Crow; Civil Rights Movement of 1875 voided, making discrimination in private is not illegal, and prohibiting state intervention to personal or commercial segregation. l*nching continues throughout the south. slavery may be over on paper, but indentured labour is legal.

1882 infamous O.K Corral gunfight.

Gold Rush continues, all over the world—South Africa, to British Columbia, to California, to Argentina, to Russia-China borders.

centuries of American “Indian” wars continue.

American Dawes Act of 1887 granted American government authorization to regulate indigenous lands, including creating and assigning and enforcing reservations.

Sitting Bull’s 1883 speech of the atrocities experienced at the hands of white American settler colonists.

Canadian Pacific Railway 1881-1885. foreign labourers were hired to do a lot of heavy, dangerous, unwanted work. in America, more than 100,000km of tracks were laid by majority Chinese, Irish, Scandinavian workers.

America’s Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Canada’s Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 was officiated, enforcing law of a Head Tax to be paid for every Chinese person entering North America. over the course of the next couple of decades, the fee of $1,500 was doubled to $5,000 was increased 500% to $25,000 in today’s currency—per person. this had devastating and lasting impacts on generations and societies of Chinese living both overseas and already in North America. propaganda at this time created many racist myths that persist today: there are too many Asians, they are taking our jobs, (the men) are gross and effeminate and a threat to (white) women, they shady and scheming people. these were the first and only major federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality in American and Canadian history. (I study Asian Canadian history, I can go on about this all day)

Tong Wars (1883-1913) had Chinatown gangs and factions in violent street wars across America, San Fransisco to New York.

large, targeted, and repeated anti-Jewish rioting (pogorm) and antisemitism rampant throughout Imperial Russia, 1881-1882 had more than two hundred anti-Jewish events alone. Jews continue to be racialized and othered.

fuck ton of colonization happening in Africa and the Middle East, Southeast Asia. Berlin conference 1884-1885 literally chopped up Africa to distribute to European powers.

Irish nationalist efforts to push forth Home Rule bill of sovereignty is defeated in British Parliament. Irish are not “white”, they are “othered” in Europe and in Americas.

use of photographic film pioneered by George Eastman, who started manufacturing film. his first camera (Kodak) was ready for sale in 1888.

Thomas Edison gets lit in New York 1883 with first electrical power station. next several year sees major cities being lit up with street lamps and public lighting with the science and works of a Nikolas Tesla (1886-1893).

hell of a lot more inventions in the works and patents being claimed. Hertz and radiowaves, Bell for telephone services.

“Between the years of 1850–1900, women were placed in mental institutions for behaving in ways the male society did not agree with”

way too much history to cram, obviously. here are some keywords for further research oki

prison industry / spiritualism / opium epidemic / irregular and uneven “modernizations” in rural vs. urban areas / class and poverty gaps / morality scares, checks, comparisons, gaps / new businesses and gadgets, products, tech to help with anything / fascination of the (colonial) Other; side shows, “freak shows” and other human zoos

[racefortheironthrone]

Since you talk about labour issues a lot, do you have any tips or resources for organizing where there's little history of unions? For context, I work at a large-ish tech company (not a gigantic one or twitter, but one people would have heard of). I'm a SWE so I do okay for myself, but non-engineer coworkers do less so. I'm not sure what laws/orgs to look at because I'm in Canada working for an American corp. That's probably outside your expertise, but maybe you have suggestions where to look?

Sure! Before I give a list of recommendations, I do want to start by saying not to worry unduly about organizing in areas outside of those traditionally organized by labor unions; before the advent of industrial unionism, it was widely believed that the only workers who could be organized were skilled members of a craft, and that unskilled and semi-skilled immigrant factory workers couldn't be unionized. And the 1930s happened, and all of the sudden those exact workers became the bulk of the labor movement. After that, it was widely believed that public sector workforces, largely composed of women and racial minorities, could not be unionized - and the 1960s and 1970s happened, and all of the sudden those exact same workers became the bulk of the labor movement.

If you're working in Canada, Canadian labor law applies even to American corporations - but it's important to research the labor laws of your specific province or territory as well as the Federal code, because there are regional and industry-specific variations.

In terms of organizations to reach out to, you probably want to start with the Canadian Labour Congress, which is the main Canadian trade union federation. In terms of which Canadian unions have tech worker organizing projects, I know of CODE-CWA, and UFCW-Canada, but the CLC would know more than I do.

[tzifron]

In this singular firsthand account, a former migrant worker reveals a disturbing system of exploitation at the heart of Canada’s farm labour system.

When Gabriel Allahdua applied to the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in Canada, he thought he would be leaving his home in St. Lucia to work in a country with a sterling human rights reputation and commitment to multiculturalism. Instead, breakneck quotas and a culture of fear dominated his four years in a mega-greenhouse in Ontario. This deeply personal memoir takes readers behind the scenes to see what life is really like for the people who produce Canada’s food.

Now, as a leading activist in the migrant justice movement in Canada, Allahdua is fighting back against the Canadian government to demand rights and respect for temporary foreign labourers. Harvesting Freedom shows Canada’s place in the long history of slavery, colonialism, and inequality that has linked the Caribbean to the wider world for half a millennium—but also the tireless determination of Caribbean people to fight for their freedom.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The Canadian Labour Congress has launched an emergency task force to address escalating anti-2SLGBTQ+ hate as unions across Canada begin mobilizing to defend queer and trans people in workplaces and beyond.

Unionized workplaces, such as libraries and schools, have become battlegrounds in far-right attacks against queer and trans people across the country.

Gina McKay, president of CUPE Manitoba and CLC equity vice president for 2SLGBTQ+ workers, said she’s seen hate affect workers at many levels, from hostile parents to anti-drag protests to book bans.

But the role of unions goes beyond protecting individual workers facing this hate in the workplace. The labour movement has the power to mobilize on-the-ground support, something the 2SLGBTQ+ community needs right now, McKay explained.

“That kind of organizing is exactly what we need because we know that the right is organized,” McKay told PressProgress. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @vague-humanoid

[comrademidnighty]

My first blog

Just a young Canadian who is a big fan of history, socialism, and cats

Hello my friends, it is yours truly... Midnight!

This blog is going to detail stuff in my life, the date is August 23, 2024 and I turned 18 a few days ago. This blog will detail parts of my life as I head onto university, not all of it because that would be impossible and not very desirable.

Unfortunately, during the pandemic I never really made any good hobbies that lasted (Piano, chess, cooking, etc.), but perhaps the worst of all of them did stick, and those are history and politics.

I like history but it is not a profitable hobby and is pretty high risk if you seek to be employed through it, and I "like" politics but more so just want to have some sort of understanding of how the world works outside this small box I call life.

I hope that by the time I can say that these blogs are finished that we can see some improvement in world, whether that is in form of combating the climate crisis, or perhaps a second 1917, it feels like without such things humanity is doomed to being wage slave (without any possibility to survive outside of capitalism) or a climate crisis destroys much of life as it is doing right now, or both. Don't get me started on the fascistic movements that are rising which were only countered by decades old labour movement which no longer exist thanks to neo-liberalism (Defunding of welfare, increased policing, and a belief in the supremacy of competition in everyday life with state intervention serving to further that goal).

On final notes for this thing... man the last part of pretty long, I suppose I just wanted to dump it somewhere, but until then.

Free Palestine! Democracy to Sudan! Safety to all minorities! Death to America! Long live international solidarity!