From the Workplace Trenches
Noted war historian J.L. Granatstein once argued that labour history and other forms of social history were killing Canada’s national history. His unleashed a storm of controversy arguing against examining our history from many angles, including the history of working people and their organizations. ’s winter edition explores some of the neglected corners of Canadian work life with an eye to proving Granatstein wrong and enlightening our readers about what some historians have called history from below. Here, readers will find accounts of Indigenous miners, women in non-traditional trades, coal and radio strikes, and efforts to encourage labour history in schools. Readers will also visit the grave of labour martyr Ginger Goodwin, learn about the 1909 evangelic campaign in the Kootenays, revisit the impact of the American Taft-Hartley Act on BC unions, and sing solidarity songs. Also of interest are stories about the foreign workers who built the SkyTrain’s Canada Line, South Asian forestry workers, and BC’s first daily newspapers devoted to workers.
