E.P. Thompson vs Harold Logan: Writing about Labour and the Left in the 1970s

KENNETH MCNAUGHT E.P.Thompson vsHarold Logan: Writingabout Labour and theLeftin the 97øs OVER THEPAST TENYEARS ORSOmanyyoungerhistorians havecast criticaleyesontheratherslenderaccumulation of writingonCanadian labourorganization, strikes, and'industrialrelations' whichtheywere askedto consultas graduatestudents.They were not favourably impressed. The existingliterature,they observed, concerneditself almost entirelywithendeavours toorganizelabour,andtheevolution of governmentaland business responses to suchefforts.Moreover, mostof theliteratureexpressed anestablishment pointof view;it was '61itist,' ignoringtherealexperience of theworkingclass andminimizingthe 'aberrant'manifestations of proletarian radicalism. The Young Turks deplored equally the meliorist mentalitywhich permeated discussion of political actionontheleft.In thesocial-economic sphere, formalmainstream unionismand collective bargaininghad received the lion's share of attention. Conventional wisdom endorsed either socialdemocracy or Liberal reformismas the mostlegitimateand promisingpoliticalexpressions of labour'sinterests.In short, the receivedversionwasmyopic,biased,and managerial.H.A. Logan's classic, if mind-numbing, account of tradeunions in Canadaexhibited starklythe bias both in subjectmatter and in the social-political preconceptions which lurked behind a liberal objectivity.Deeply disturbing washisappraisal oftheroleof thecommunists: 'Allinallthe effort of the Communists, for all their idealistic sacrifices, seems to havebroughtmainlylossto progressive trade unionismin Canada whenviewedthroughotherthanMarxianeyes... In theircriticalassessment ofallthis,manygraduate students in the • H.A. Logan,TradeUnions in Canada (Toronto •948), 344.Someothertitlesrepresentativeof the institutional, socialdemocratic, or reformist view of labour historyareE .A. Forsey, 'Historyof theLabourMovement in Canada' in Canada Year Canadian Historical Review, LX•, 2, •98• OOO83755 /8•/O6OO-O •4• $O •.•,5/O¸Universityof TorontoPress 142 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW •96osandearly7oswereattracted byoneor moreexpressions of that diaphanous phenomenon,the New Left. They readandtookto heart the criticsof liberal corporatecapitalism.They found particularly congenial thosewhoconcluded thatthedirigiste andrepressive nature of the systemhad achievedsucha degreeof sophisticated social manipulationand 'hegemony' that directactionwasrequired.The complicityof Canadian6litesin supportof American-dominated westerncapitalismled the young rebelsto contemplate meansof obstructing andevenreversing thecourse of events astheyperceived them.Unhappy,also,withthe expansive, prosperous complacency of Canada'ssixtiesthey identifiedthemselves, not infrequently,with foreignmovements of protest andrevolution - withthecampaigns for nucleardisarmament,with left-wing nationalistmovements in the beleaguered regions of EuropeanandAmericanimperialpower,with volatile Americanmovements for racialequality, participatory democracy ,and endingthe interventionin Vietnam.Nor wastheir excitementmerelyvicarious . Particularlyin protesting against theVietnam war and the lack of student participationin the governanceof universities theytookpartin 'confronting' andsometimes disrupting universityadministration,conducting'occupations,' teach-ins, and guerillatheatre,andachieving somechanges in theatmosphere and structure of universities. The writingof thepastdecade hasbeeninfluenced notonlybythe political-social ambience of the sixties but alsoby a shiftof emphasis withinthe historicalfraternitiesof westernEurope,Britain,and the UnitedStates. A markedstress onsocial historyworkedtogether with Marxistand other egalitariancritiquesof advanced capitalism and imperialism to definenewquestions to be askedof Canadianhistory. The trendsfromabroadbroughtwiththemimplicitguidelines - both for those attracted totheleftandthose whowished primarilytoflesh outthesomewhat skeletal academic version ofourpast? A general Book (Ottawa•967);Douglas Kennedy,TheKnights ofLabour in Canada (London, Ont. •956);JohnCrispo,TheRoleofInternational Unionism in Canada (Toronto •967);Stuart Jamieson, Times ofTrouble :Labour Unrest andIndustrial Conflict inCanada ,ß9oo-66 (Ottawa•968); G. Horowitz,Canadian Labour inPolitics (Toronto •968); Martin Robin,Radical Politics andCanadian Labour (Toronto•968);D.C. Masters, TheWinnipeg General Strike (Toronto•95o);KennEth McNaught, A Prophet inPolitics: a biography ofJ.S.Woodsworth (Toronto•959);WalterYoung, The Anatomy ofaParty:the National CCF,•932-6• (Toronto•969);WilliamRodney, Soldiers ofthe International: a History oftheCommunist PartyofCanada, •9•9-29 (Toronto •968). A perceptive articleon recenttrendsin social historyisLaurence Stone,'The Revivalof Narrative:Reflections on a NewOld History,'PastandPresent, no85, •979. A verycriticaltreatmentof sociological history,particularly interesting be- LABOUR HISTORY AND THE LEFT 143 stimulus came from the French Annales school, from the work of Antonio Gramsci and from the German neo-Marxists, which stressed the cultural underpinningsof capitalismand employedmodern, complex conceptions of thestate. Moredirectinfluences werethose of 'empirical' Marxismevident in Britishhistorical analysis. E.P.Thompson ,E.J. Hobsbawm,RaymondWilliams,G. StedmanJones,and others, produced a torrentof writingwhichsuggested newapproaches, new questions to be askedabout Canadiansocietyand labour. Particularly appealing wastheBritishefforttorediscover thepositive characteristics of working-class life,apartfromtradeunionism, andto applya neo-Marxist, fluidconcept of class andtheevolution of class consciousness. Studentsfed on the notion of a nearly inevitable embourgeoisement of the lowerordersin Canadafoundexcitingthe Britishdepiction of a working-class cultureunderlyingthechanging expression of class consciousness and buttressing resistance to the discipline of industrial capitalism. Congenial also was theBritishstress on localityandlostcauses. Whenappliedto Canadianlabourhistory theseanalyticalthrustsled to a positiveinteractionwith the more generaltrend to studythe rolesof regionalism, urbanization, and 'limited identities.' The Britishinfluencewasstrongalsoin theUnitedStates whereit wasreflectedin theworkof labourhistorians suchasDavidMontgomery ,HerbertGutman,andMelvinDubofsky. In America thecritique of traditionallabour historymergedwith the generalassaulton 'consensus' history whichhadevolved in the •95os.Withaheadymix of...