Horny Hands across the Border

Horny Hands across the Border CHRISTOPHER ARMSTRONG Robert H. Babcock. Gompersin Canada:A Study in American Continentalism before the First World War. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974. 292 pp. His title succinctly conveys the theme of Professor Babcock's book, and a very fine book it is, undoubtedly a major contribution to the labour history of Canada. Babcock describes the growing domination of the Canadian labour movement prior to 1914 by Samuel Gompers' American Federation of Labour. By the First World War only shreds and patches of unionism remained under Canadian control, a few dual and industrial unions along with the confessional organizations in Quebec. The Trades and Labour Congress, instead of being the vital centre and voice of Canadian unionism, retained little more independence than a state council of A.F.L. locals in Ohio or Indiana. The consequences for both membership recruitment and political activity by organized labour were considerable , and decisions taken then cast a shadow right to the present day. The first half of the book explains the background of the decision taken at the 1902 T.L.C. meeting in Berlin, Ontario to exclude all dual unions, those in competition with A.F.L. affiliates for members. At a single blow the Congress expelled more than 2,000 of its 13,500 members. Why should Canadian labour leaders have participated so willingly in the fragmentation of their feeble creation ? Babcock points out the developing feeling that only international unionism could cope with international capitalism and a continental labour market; branch plants needed branch plant unions. After 1897 the Canadian economy was booming and the interest of workingmen in improved wages and working conditions grew along with it. Gompers quickly capitalized upon this by appointing a Hamilton man, John A. Flett, to act as a fulltime organizer in 1900. By 1902 there were over 16,000 Canadian unionists paying A.F.L. dues, and a mounting challenge from Eugene Debs' American Labour Union in the west was sufficient to convince Sam Gompers that the time had come to carry his battle against dual unionism north of the border. Most Canadian union men were quite happy to see effective control of their affairs pass to Washington. The rest of Babcock's book is devoted to an examination of the consequences of the Berlin decision. Instead of aggressive organizational drives amongst discontented Canadian workers much energy continued to be spent upon the battle against dual unionism. The skilled craftsmen who made up the bulk of A.F.L. membership were content to leave such organizational tasks to others, Canadian unions or the radical Industrial Workers of the World. Much as he detested the THE CANADIAN REVIEW OF AMERICAN STUDIES VOL. VII, NO. 1, SPRING 1976 Wobblies, Gompers did little to provide alternatives to them in western Canada where they steadily gained strength. Perhaps Gompers' most significant legacy was the direction which he gave to the fust hesitant steps taken by Canadian labour towards political activism. To Gompers it was simple: at election time unionists must punish their enemies and reward their friends, regardless of party. On no account must they have any truck or trade with the detested dogmas of socialism. But to Canadian workers it seemed less simple. A socialist party had already begun to make its influence felt in British Columbia; could there not be a nationwide socialist organization, modelled on Britain's Labour party, set up with the backing of the T.L.C.? All of Gompers' influence was thrown into the fight against any formal alliance between socialism and organized labour in Canada, influence that could not be ignored. As a result a political party of labour developed only slowly and painfully , the ties remaining feeble and uncertain. The eagerness with which most Canadian unionists sprang into the embrace of Gompers and the A.F. L. brings a note of pathos to Babcock's story. Indeed, there are depressing parallels between the events of 1900-1914 and those of the late 1930's described in Irving Abella's Nationalism, Communismand CanadianLabour (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973). Then Canadian workers flocked to Join the industrial unions of the American-based C.I.O...