Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada
Though the Canadian labour movement’s postwar political, economic and social achievements may have seemed like irrevocable contributions to human progress, they have proven to be anything but. Since the mid-1970s, labour’s political influence and capacity to defend, let alone extend, these gains has been seriously undermined by the strategies of both capitalist interests and the neoliberal state. Electoral de-alignment and the decline of class-based voting, bursts of unsustained extra-parliamentary militancy and a general lack of influence on state actors and policy outcomes all signal that the labour movement is in crisis.
Despite much experimentation in an attempt to regain political clout, labour continues to experience deep frustration and stagnation. As such, the labour movement’s future political capacities are in question, and the need for critical appraisal is urgent. Understanding how and why workers were able to exert collective power in the postwar era, how they lost it and how they might re-establish it is the central concern of Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada.
With essays from established and emerging scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this collection assesses the past, present and uncertain future of labour politics in Canada. Bringing together the traditional electoral-based aspects of labour politics with analyses of the newer and rediscovered forms of working-class organization and social movement-influenced strategies, which have become increasingly important in the Canadian labour movement, this book seeks to take stock of these new forms of labour politics, understand their emergence and assess their impact on the future of labour in Canada.
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CONTENTS
Stephanie Ross & Larry Savage – Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada: An Introduction
Part I: Contextualizing Labour and Working-Class Politics
Donald Swartz & Rosemary Warskett – Canadian Labour and the Crisis of Solidarity
Stephanie Ross – Business Unionism and Social Unionism in Theory and Practice
Part II: The Challenge of Electoral Politics
Bryan Evans – The New Democratic Party in the Era of Neoliberalism
Peter Graefe – Québec Labour: Days of Glory or the Same Old Story?
Larry Savage – Organized Labour and the Politics of Strategic Voting
Dennis Pilon – Labour and the Politics of Voting System Reform in Canada
Part III: The Prospects of Extra-Parliamentary Activism
Amanda Coles & Charlotte Yates – Unions, Gender Equity and Neoconservative Politics
Suzanne Mills & Tyler McCreary – Social Unionism, Partnership and Conflict: Union Engagement with Aboriginal Peoples in Canada
Dennis Soron – Canadian Labour and the Environment: Addressing the Value-Action Gap
Simon Black – Community Unionism and the Canadian Labour Movement
Kendra Coulter – Anti-Poverty Work: Unions, Poor Workers and Collective Action in Canada
Aziz Choudry & Mark Thomas – Organizing Migrant and Immigrant Workers in Canada
Charles Smith – Labour, Courts and the Erosion of Workers’ Rights in Canada
Bibliography
Photo by Saad Akhtar