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........SENATE 

?

SENATE ? 

UNDERGRADUATE 

STUDIES 

P1)POSE6 NEW COURSE - HIST 20 3-3 - 

Subject.. . ....

•9••

CLAS. 

?

Date

.....OcTOBER 14, 1982 

Action undertaken by the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies 

at its meeting of October 5, 1982 gives rise to the following motion: 

MOTION: ? 

"That Senate approve and recommend approval to the 

Board of Governors, as set forth in S.82 - 110, the 

proposed new course HIST 203-3 - The Canadian Working 

Class 1820-1980." 

.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES 

NEW COURSE PROPOSAL FORM 

j

?

Calendar Information 

?

Department ? 

History 

Abbreviation Code: JuST Course Number: 

_203 

?

Credit Hours: _ 

?

Vector: 

2-1-0 

Title of Course: The Canadian Working Class, 

1820-1980 

Calendar Description of Course: The development of the working class in the 19th and 

20th centuries, with an examination of the nature and changing character of working- 

class institutions and unions, of the struggles at the workplace, of political action, 

material life, ideology and culture. 

Nature of Course Lecture/tutorial 

Prerequisites (or special instructions): 

?

History 101 or 102 recommended. 

What course (courses), if any, is being dropped from the calendar if this course is 

approved: ? 

None 

2.

Scheduling 

How frequently will the course be offered? Once a year 

a ?

La...t. .1.. __. 

?

ai1 CJ.. ?

k.. ..CC..1')

emeser

in

which

thecourse 

WLJj. ?

L.LLL ?

LI ?

83-3 

Which of your 

present faculty would be available 

to make the proposed offering 

possible? 

A. ? 

Seager, B. 

Palmer 

3.

Objectives 

of_Cours 

To

provide students 

with a background in Canadian 

working class 

history and to 

develop their skills 

in historical research and analysis. 

4.

Budgetary and Spe Requirements (for information only) 

What additional resources will be required in the following areas: 

Faculty ? 

None 

Staff ? 

None 

Library ? 

See attached bibliography. 

Audio Visual None 

Space ? 

None 

Equipment ? 

None 

5. Approval 

Date: 

(

2gVYl(4%

Dar tint Chairman 

? Dean 

OFFICE OF ]HE DEAN

JUN 4 198 ?

FACULTY OF ARTS

Chairman, SCUS 

US 73-34b:- (When completing this form, for instructions see Memorandum SCUS 73-34a. 

ach course outline). 

Arts 78-3 

Proposal for a 200-level course to be taught by 

Seager and Palmer 

?

The Canadian Working Class, 1820-1980 

Course Description 

The course explores the development of the working class in the 19th and 

20th centuries, and examines the nature and changing character of working- 

class institutions and unions, struggles at the workplace, political action, 

material life, ideology and culture. 

?

Specific attention will be paid to a 

series of roughly chronological periods, within which the experience of workers 

and the transformations of productive life can be discussed. Among .the areas 

of consideration will be: 

1.

diverse experiences of different labouring groups in the period of 

colonial domination and the trade in staples prior to 1850. 

2.

emergence of working-class activism and protracted struggle in the years 

of industrial capitalism's beginnings from the 1850s into the 1870s. 

3.

labour's upheaval in the 1880s and the disintegration of the 19th century 

workers movement (centred in the Knights of Labor and the Provincial Work- 

men's Association) in the crisis of the 1890s. 

4.

the rise of craft ('business') unionism and the American Federation of 

Labor in the pre-World War I years and the consequent battles within the 

labour movement between the advocates of international unionism and more 

radical socialistic or syndicalistic workers, often based in the West, as 

well as an outline of the general, working-class struggle to wrestle free 

from the interventionist state and to combat managerial/employer initiatives 

like scientific management and the open shop, culminating in the episodic 

struggles of the war years and the Winnipeg General Strike. 

5.

crises of the false prosperity of the 1920s and the depression of the 19308, 

when communism, the organization of the unemployed and the unorganized, the 

development of industrial unionism, and the hint of a broad-reaching politics 

of dissent all affect Canadian labour. 

6.

World War It and the legitimization of labour. 

7.

the world of the worker since 1945, when the increasing participation of 

women in the workplace, the rise of public sector unionism, and new develop- 

ments in Quebec have revitalized the workers movement at just that point in• 

time when a host of new and threatening social, political, technological, 

and economic forces challenge Canadian labour. 

Suggested Texts 

A wide range of material might be used including the CHA pamphlets by Forsey 

(1812-1902) and Abella (1902-1970s) on Canadian labour; some New Hogtown Press 

pamphlets like those of Roberts on women workers or Pat Schulz on organising 

the unemployed In the 1930s; documents collections like Kealey on the Royal 

-2-

Commission of 1889, Cross on 19th century workingman, or Abella and Millar 

on labour in 20th century; 

?

a very useful source would be Patricia Wijer 

and

Howie Smith's Fighting for Labour: Four Decades of Work in British 

Columbia (1978) an overview of developments in the province from 1910-1950. 

Palmer's Working-Class Experience in Canada (forthcoming from Butterworth's) 

might be used, as might the two 19th century volumes that McClelland & Stewart 

are

about to issue, edited by Kealey and Cross. 

?

Morton's Working People and 

a series of pamphlets on the 1940s by Wayne Roberts are also possibilities. 

Lecture Schedule 

1.

On the Study of Class in Canada 

2.

Pioneers of Labour: Early Organizations of the Skilled 

3.

On the Canals and the Rivers 

4.

Labour and the Battle for Responsible Government 

5.

The Beginnings of a Working-Class Presence: Class and Community from 

the 1850s through the 1870s 

• ? 

6.

Nine Hours and the Breakdown of Localism 

7.

The Knights of Labor 

8.

Miners and Late Nineteenth Century Workers: East & West 

9.

Pre-Socialist Working-Class Thought: Labour's Eclectic Radicalism of                                       

•

the 1880s 

•

?

10.

The End of an Epoch: The 1890s and the Fragmentation of the Workers 

Movement 

11.

Sam Gompers Comes to Canada: International Unionism, 1890-1920 

12.

The Alternative to 'Business' Unionism: the IWW and Genera]. Labour 

Militancy, 1905-1917 

13.

The Politics of Labour: Socialism and the ILP 

14.

The War for Democracy 

15.

The Calgary Conference and the 

?

Winnipeg General Strike 

16.

One Big Union: The Rise and Fall of the House of Labour 

17.

Labour in the 1920s: Communists and Others 

18.

The Depression: Struggles of the Unemployed 

19.

Industrial Unionism in the 1930s and 1940s 

20.

Labour's 

p

olitical Voice: the Rise of the CCF 

21.

War and the Legitimization of Labour 

22.

Quebec: Quiet-and-not-so-Quiet Revolution 

23.

Battling Liberals and Conservatives 

24.

Women and White ColLrs              

.

25.

The Contemporary Crisis of the Canadian Workers Movement 

(this leaves one lecture slot open for. an 

in-class test) 

-3-

Attendance at lectures and tutorials (two lectures, one tutorial weekly) 

?

.

One in-class test 

One final exam 

One brief written assignment (a comparative review of two books or some 

?

such paper) 

Core Reading List 

?

HIST 203 

I. ABELLA, Irving, Nationalism, Communism and Canadian Labour 

(1973).

S ?

2. ABELLA, and David M1LLAR (eds.), The Canadian Worker in the Twentieth Century 

(1978).

2. ANGUS, Ian, Canadian Bolsheviks (1981). 

4 .

AVERY, Donald, 'Dangerous Foreigners': European Immigrant Workers and Labour 

Rad i cal i sin in Canada 

(1979)

S. BABCOCK , Robert, Gompers in Canada 

(1974).

IIERCIJSON , 

?

David 

J . , 

?

Confrontation at 

Winnipeg ? 

(1974)

.

BERCUSON , ? 

David 

J . , 

?

F'oo 1.s 

?

and ? 

Wise ? 

Men ? 

(1975

CRAVEN, 

Paul, 

?

'An

Impartial ? 

timp ire' : 

I ndust.r Ia I 

?

Relations and 

?

the Canadian 

State, 1900-1911 ? 

(1980). 

CROSS, 

Michael 

( ed . ) , 

?

The Work i ngman in the Nineteenth Century ? 

(1974).

10.

I)RACHE , 

flan.i ci 

( ed . ) , 

?

Only ? 

the

?

Beginning: 

?

The Mart i festos of 

?

the Common Front 

?

(1.972)

I!. DUMAS,

Evelyn, 

The flitter Thirties 

?

in

Quebec ? 

(1975).

12. FORSEY Eugene, Trade Unions in Canada, I 81 2- I 

902 (1982).

I.').

HANN , Russe I I ? 

et al (eds..), Primary Sources in Cariad : 

i an Working Class History 

(l)7S). 

• 14

.

.JAMIESON,

Stuart, Times of Trouble (1908). 

I 5. ? 

KI:ALI;Y , Gregory S. 

?

quid Peter WARRIAN, (eds. ) , Essays in Crhrd ianWork in Class 

II i story (1976). 

10.

. KJ:ALI:Y , Gregory S. , Toronto Workers Respond to Industrial Ca pita I ism (1980) 

I

7 .

LAXER , Robert, Canada' s Unions ( 

1976).

IS. LOGAN , HM-01d, Trade Unions in Canada: Their Development and Functioning ( I 

1'). ? 

McCORNIACK , A. Ross, Reformers, Rebels and Revel ut i onari es 

(1977)

20. MORTON, Desmond, with Terry COPP, Working People: An Illustrated Histor 

y

of

Canadian Labour ( I ')50 

21 . PALMER, Bryan. ACulture in Conflict 

(1979)

22. ? 

PENNER. Noi'mari , The Canadian Left 

(1977)

22. ? 

PENNER, Norman, (cJ.), Winnipeg: 1919 (l)75). 

.

PHI lilt'S,

Parr I ? 

'II ?

B.C. ( ft)h7 

•

25. ?

s1'EJ:vt:s , Iorot

liv . TIi' Compi ? 

i on;i 

I t

,

Rels' I ( I 1)h0

1(077

.1 err rita I 

L;r boll ri' to t rirva i I I ciii', 

?

I rrii I )7( 

?

I ?

iririnheis I o 

?

I

• c . 

?

;eaget/P;r I inc c/Ba nih I I I 

Collection Evaluation for New Course Proposal: History 20.3 

The SFU collection has excellent support for this course. Labour 

history has already been taught at the upper level as well as having 

been the subject of graduate work in history. And the resources, both 

primary and secondary, for its parents, British labour history and 

socialism are here in abundance. 

For Canadian labour history the picture is this: 

Books 

The library has been acquiring Canadian mate 

r

ials in English for all 

fields inclusively and French language materials selectively since 

1965 and purchasing the retrospective books as they are reprinted or 

appear on the out-of-print market. 

?

it has all published bibliographies. 

Journals and newspapers 

The library has all the Canadian economic, political, and historical 

journals and all the indexes that exist to them. 

?

It has complete runs 

of the major papers and all available newspaper indexes. 

Source materials 

These may be required if the plan is to introduce research methods at 

this level. 

The library is a depository for Canadian and B.C. Government public- 

ations, purchasing other provinces publications selectively. The 

Canadian resources include: Debates, Sessional Papers, Censuses, 

Statistics Canada, Law Reports, Labour Arbitrations, etc. 

Two microfiche collections flesh out the 19th and early 20th century: 

the Toronto Public Library's Canadiana Collection and the Peel 

collection on the Prairie provinces. 

Helen Gray, 

Senior Librarian for History and Political Science. 