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3
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Beyond Social Unionism: Farm Workers in Ontario and Some Lessons from Labour History
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Spring
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Jonah Butovsky and Murray E.G. Smith, "Beyond Social Unionism: Farm Workers in Ontario and Some Lessons from Labour History," Labour /Le Travail, 59 (Spring 2007), 69-97.
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(2007)
Labour /Le Travail
, vol.59
, pp. 69-97
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Butovsky, J.1
Smith, M.E.G.2
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4
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Justicia for Migrant Workers is apartial exception inasmuch as the demands it raises objectively call into question the continued existence of the SAWT. Even so, JMW stops short of calling for its abolition. A statement on its website reads: Justicia for Migrant Workers urges Canadians to rethink the SAWP and to extend the rights of citizenship and STATUS to migrant workers and their families. http:// www.justicia4migrantworkers.org/saw.htm.
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Justicia for Migrant Workers is apartial exception inasmuch as the demands it raises objectively call into question the continued existence of the SAWT. Even so, JMW stops short of calling for its abolition. A statement on its website reads: "Justicia for Migrant Workers urges Canadians to rethink the SAWP and to extend the rights of citizenship and STATUS to migrant workers and their families." http:// www.justicia4migrantworkers.org/saw.htm.
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5
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In a revealing comment, Basok writes: Improvements in [migrant workers, living conditions, paid public holidays and a healthier working environment will create additional costs for growers. And while for some growers the additional costs may make it difficult to stay in business, most can afford these extra costs. Their losses would be much greater if they did not have this 'captive' labour force. With their working and living conditions improved, Mexican workers are likely to feel even more loyal to their patrones than they do already, and from that point of view these improvements would be an investment well spent, Tortillas and Tomatoes, 151
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In a revealing comment, Basok writes: "Improvements in [migrant workers'] living conditions, paid public holidays and a healthier working environment will create additional costs for growers. And while for some growers the additional costs may make it difficult to stay in business, most can afford these extra costs. Their losses would be much greater if they did not have this 'captive' labour force. With their working and living conditions improved, Mexican workers are likely to feel even more loyal to their patrones than they do already, and from that point of view these improvements would be an investment well spent." (Tortillas and Tomatoes, 151)
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In this article, Canadian workers refer to workers who enjoy citizenship or landed-immigrant status in Canada. In the broader literature on the subject, and in some contexts within this article, the expression domestic worker is also used in counterpoint to migrant worker.
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In this article, "Canadian workers" refer to workers who enjoy citizenship or landed-immigrant status in Canada. In the broader literature on the subject, and in some contexts within this article, the expression "domestic worker" is also used in counterpoint to "migrant worker."
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The critical discussion of social unionism in this article targets the way in which union officials have appropriated the progressive themes and sensibilities associated with rank-and-file social unionism in order to deflect attention from the need for a class-struggle policy. Accordingly the article does not discuss the more salutary aspects of social unionism as a manifestation of democratic, grassroots union activism. For a discussion of this dimension of social unionism, see Kim Moody, Workers in a Lean World London 1997
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The critical discussion of social unionism in this article targets the way in which union officials have appropriated the progressive themes and sensibilities associated with "rank-and-file social unionism" in order to deflect attention from the need for a class-struggle policy. Accordingly the article does not discuss the more salutary aspects of social unionism as a manifestation of democratic, grassroots union activism. For a discussion of this dimension of social unionism, see Kim Moody, Workers in a Lean World (London 1997)
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and Dan Clawson, The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements (Ithaca 2003). Some suggest that a new social movement unionism has surpassed the limitations of the social unionism of the 1980s and 1990s and should be regarded as a new trend in the labour movement distinct from the latter. We discuss this development in the conclusion to this article.
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and Dan Clawson, The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements (Ithaca 2003). Some suggest that a new "social movement unionism" has surpassed the limitations of the social unionism of the 1980s and 1990s and should be regarded as a new trend in the labour movement distinct from the latter. We discuss this development in the conclusion to this article.
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Trotsky, and a number of mid-century academic sociologists, see Richard Hyman
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For a survey of the literature on this question up to the 1970s, including the contributions of, London
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For a survey of the literature on this question up to the 1970s, including the contributions of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Michels, Gramsci, Trotsky, and a number of mid-century academic sociologists, see Richard Hyman, Marxism and the Sociology of Trade Unionism (London 1975).
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(1975)
Marxism and the Sociology of Trade Unionism
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Marx1
Engels2
Lenin3
Michels4
Gramsci5
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12
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0039999622
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On the concept ofthe dialectic of partial conquests, see
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On the concept ofthe dialectic of partial conquests, see Mandel, Power and Money, 66-67.
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Power and Money
, pp. 66-67
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Mandel1
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35148828344
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Marxists deny this assumption on three main grounds: 1 ephemeral improvements in the material conditions of the working class under capitalism are unevenly distributed across the world system (such that working-class gains in some countries or regions are offset by losses in others, 2) such improvements are conjuncturally reversible, owing to the fact that the recurrent crises of the capitalist mode of production must periodically compel capital to attack working-class interests in order to restore an adequate average rate of profit; and 3) the historical interest of the working class lies not in gradual improvements to its position as a social class, but in the realization of a classless society committed to human emancipation. The first consideration points to the need to combat national chauvinism and racism within the working class, to champion working-class internationalism, and to organize workers on an international level; the second points to the need to educate the la
-
Marxists deny this assumption on three main grounds: 1) ephemeral improvements in the material conditions of the working class under capitalism are unevenly distributed across the world system (such that working-class gains in some countries or regions are offset by losses in others); 2) such improvements are conjuncturally reversible, owing to the fact that the recurrent crises of the capitalist mode of production must periodically compel capital to attack working-class interests in order to restore an adequate average rate of profit; and 3) the historical interest of the working class lies not in gradual improvements to its position as a social class, but in the realization of a classless society committed to human emancipation. The first consideration points to the need to combat national chauvinism and racism within the working class, to champion working-class internationalism, and to organize workers on an international level; the second points to the need to educate the labour movement that the contradictions and laws of motion of capitalism are such that global progress in the quality of life of working people is impossible under this system; and the third points to the need to construct a socialist workers movement that regards the realization of world socialism as the only way to secure general human progress.
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We hasten to add that such vanguard formations within the trade unions may or may not take the form of ostensibly Leninist vanguard parties, and they may or may not be committed to an ostensibly revolutionary practice and program. Syndicalists, classical Leninists, Stalinists, Trotskyists, left social democrats, radical nationalists, and socialist-feminists have all played vanguard roles in particular times and places, demonstrating a capacity to spark and lead workers struggles that have heightened class consciousness and transgressed the boundaries of struggle normally imposed by the trade union bureaucracy. It should also be noted that in many countries the role normally played by Social Democracy in containing workers' struggles within a reformist framework was also assumed by mass pro-Moscow Communist Parties
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We hasten to add that such vanguard formations within the trade unions may or may not take the form of ostensibly Leninist vanguard parties, and they may or may not be committed to an ostensibly revolutionary practice and program. Syndicalists, classical Leninists, Stalinists, Trotskyists, left social democrats, radical nationalists, and socialist-feminists have all played vanguard roles in particular times and places, demonstrating a capacity to spark and lead workers struggles that have heightened class consciousness and transgressed the boundaries of struggle normally imposed by the trade union bureaucracy. It should also be noted that in many countries the role normally played by Social Democracy in containing workers' struggles within a reformist framework was also assumed by mass pro-Moscow Communist Parties.
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In a recent critique of postmodernist political fashions, The Postmodern Prince (New York 2004, John Sanbonmatsu. has written: If Gramsci today is largely remembered as the theorist of hegemony, the forging of political unity across cultural differences, Foucault might well be described as the theorist par excellence of anti-hegemony, what Aronowitz describes as a politics 'recognizing the permanence of difference, and in which 'movements for liberation, will remain autonomous both in the course of struggle and in the process of creating a new society, 131) Sanbonmatsu points out correctly that to say that experience is only a 'discourse' is to remove any basis for substantive human knowledge of any kind, including knowledge that might be helpful to the oppressed, 113) Against Sanbonmatsu, however, we regard Gramsci's ideas as congruent with an authentic (that is, non-Stalinist) Leninism, and in particular with Lenin's concept of
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In a recent critique of postmodernist political fashions, The Postmodern Prince (New York 2004), John Sanbonmatsu. has written: "If Gramsci today is largely remembered as the theorist of hegemony - the forging of political unity across cultural differences - Foucault might well be described as the theorist par excellence of anti-hegemony, what Aronowitz describes as a politics 'recognizing the permanence of difference,' and in which 'movements for liberation ... will remain autonomous both in the course of struggle and in the process of creating a new society'." (131) Sanbonmatsu points out correctly that to "say that experience is only a 'discourse' is to remove any basis for substantive human knowledge of any kind, including knowledge that might be helpful to the oppressed." (113) Against Sanbonmatsu, however, we regard Gramsci's ideas as congruent with an authentic (that is, non-Stalinist) Leninism - and in particular with Lenin's concept of the vanguard party as a "tribune of the people."
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16
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84917308759
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For two quite different treatments of the Leninist theory, see, London
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For two quite different treatments of the Leninist theory, see Ernest Mandel, The Leninist Theory of Organization (London 1971)
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(1971)
The Leninist Theory of Organization
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Mandel, E.1
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Thus, as Palmer argues: Social unionism ... might be seen as simply a progressive façade behind which a wing of the labour hierarchy adroitly masks its traditional business unionist refusal to use and extend the class power of the unions to launch a struggle for social change. (Working-Class Experience, 372)
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Thus, as Palmer argues: "Social unionism ... might be seen as simply a progressive façade behind which a wing of the labour hierarchy adroitly masks its traditional business unionist refusal to use and extend the class power of the unions to launch a struggle for social change." (Working-Class Experience, 372)
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Both Basok's study and the documentary film El Contrato focus on the area surrounding Leamington, Ontario, considered the centre of the greenhouse industry in Canada.
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Both Basok's study and the documentary film El Contrato focus on the area surrounding Leamington, Ontario, considered the centre of the greenhouse industry in Canada.
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As the absolute number of farms has decreased, the average farm operation in Canada has grown dramatically since the 1960s, and particularly since the early 1990s. Statistics Canada (2005) reports that between 1996 and 2001, the number of farms in Canada dropped to 246,923 - an 11 per cent decline, which was the greatest census-to-census change since 1971. In Ontario, the number of farms appraised at less than $100,000 decreased by 58 per cent between 1996 and 2001 (from 4730 to 1995), while the number of farms worth more than a million dollars increased by 38 percent from 15,050 to 20,580 over the same period.
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As the absolute number of farms has decreased, the average farm operation in Canada has grown dramatically since the 1960s, and particularly since the early 1990s. Statistics Canada (2005) reports that between 1996 and 2001, the number of farms in Canada dropped to 246,923 - an 11 per cent decline, which was the greatest census-to-census change since 1971. In Ontario, the number of farms appraised at less than $100,000 decreased by 58 per cent between 1996 and 2001 (from 4730 to 1995), while the number of farms worth more than a million dollars increased by 38 percent from 15,050 to 20,580 over the same period.
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HRDC, retrieved 23 September
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HRDC, Shift in Employment by Industry Division, htttp:// www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/on/lmi/eaid/industry/3865_3.shtml (retrieved 23 September 2005).
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(2005)
Shift in Employment by Industry Division, htttp
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retrieved 5 May 2005
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Niagara Chamber of Commerce, http://www.nigaracanada.com (retrieved 5 May 2005).
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Niagara Chamber of Commerce
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Of course, the phenomenon of racialization extends far beyond guest workers. Increasing numbers of immigrants to Canada from the Global South have been subjected to racialization in recent decades and find themselves in disadvantaged positions within a segmented labour market. For a comprehensive analysis, see Grace-Edward Galabuzi, Canada's Economic Apartheid: The Social Exclusion of Racialized Groups in the New Century Toronto 2006
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Of course, the phenomenon of racialization extends far beyond "guest workers." Increasing numbers of immigrants to Canada from the Global South have been subjected to racialization in recent decades and find themselves in disadvantaged positions within a segmented labour market. For a comprehensive analysis, see Grace-Edward Galabuzi, Canada's Economic Apartheid: The Social Exclusion of Racialized Groups in the New Century (Toronto 2006).
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American workers were employed in the Ontario tobacco harvest, although the numbers were typically less than 3,000 peryear. See Satzewich
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As early as the 1930s, 108
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As early as the 1930s, American workers were employed in the Ontario tobacco harvest, although the numbers were typically less than 3,000 peryear. See Satzewich, Racism and the Incorporation of Foreign Labour, 108.
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Racism and the Incorporation of Foreign Labour
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27
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0001900910
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Hired Men: Ontario Wage Labour in Historical Perspective
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See, for example, Spring
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See, for example, Joy Parr, "Hired Men: Ontario Wage Labour in Historical Perspective," Labour/Le Travail, 15 (Spring 1985), 91-103.
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(1985)
Labour/Le Travail
, vol.15
, pp. 91-103
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Parr, J.1
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29
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0031865911
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By no means do we mean to suggest that the Live-In Caregiver Program represents a benign or enlightened policy. See Nona Grandia and Joanna Kerr, Frustrated and Displaced: Filipina Domestic Workers in Canada, Gender and Development, 6 1998, 7-12;
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By no means do we mean to suggest that the Live-In Caregiver Program represents a benign or enlightened policy. See Nona Grandia and Joanna Kerr, "Frustrated and Displaced: Filipina Domestic Workers in Canada," Gender and Development, 6 (1998), 7-12;
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30
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84869555204
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Foreign Domestic Policy in Canada and the Social Boundaries of Modern Citizenship
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A.B. Bakken and D. Stasiulus, "Foreign Domestic Policy in Canada and the Social Boundaries of Modern Citizenship," Science & Society, 58 (1994), 7-33.
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(1994)
Science & Society
, vol.58
, pp. 7-33
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Bakken, A.B.1
Stasiulus, D.2
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31
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0035511577
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On Being not Canadian: The Social Organization of 'Migrant Workers' in Canada
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esp. 435
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Nandita Sharma, "On Being not Canadian: The Social Organization of 'Migrant Workers' in Canada," Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 38 (2001), 415-439, esp. 435.
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(2001)
Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology
, vol.38
, pp. 415-439
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Sharma, N.1
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32
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50349095613
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See Murray E.G. Smith, Political Economy and the Canadian Working Class: Marxism or Nationalist Reformism?, Labour/Le Travail, 46 (Fall 2000), 343-368. For a global account of the neo-liberal, post-fordist strategy,
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See Murray E.G. Smith, "Political Economy and the Canadian Working Class: Marxism or Nationalist Reformism?," Labour/Le Travail, 46 (Fall 2000), 343-368. For a global account of the neo-liberal, post-fordist strategy,
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Farms Website http://www.farmsontario.ca/.
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Farms Website
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It should be noted that while SAWP-enrolled migrant farm workers are severely disadvantaged compared to their Canadian counterparts their legally precarious position has not entirely prevented them from engaging in limited forms of resistance to their super-exploited status. The National Film Board of Canada documentary El Contrato reveals some instances of this resistance, along with harsh responses by agribusiness and the state
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It should be noted that while SAWP-enrolled migrant farm workers are severely disadvantaged compared to their Canadian counterparts their legally precarious position has not entirely prevented them from engaging in limited forms of resistance to their super-exploited status. The National Film Board of Canada documentary El Contrato reveals some instances of this resistance - along with harsh responses by agribusiness and the state.
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43
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For a more detailed discussion of the very limited scope of the Dunmore v. Ontario decision, see Leo Panitch and Donald Swartz, From Consent to Coercion: The Assault on Trade Union Freedoms, 3rd ed. (Aurora 2003), 210-213.
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For a more detailed discussion of the very limited scope of the Dunmore v. Ontario decision, see Leo Panitch and Donald Swartz, From Consent to Coercion: The Assault on Trade Union Freedoms, 3rd ed. (Aurora 2003), 210-213.
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In July 2005, the newly elected Liberal provincial government agreed to this inclusion beginning on 1 July 2006. Chris Ramsaroop of JMW points out however that When the changes come into effect, migrant farm workers will still be unprotected because the basic legal conditions of their employment have not changed, We] continue to press the government to implement real changes that ensure that migrant farm workers can refuse unsafe work without fear of reprisals from the employer. Quoted from interview by Mary-Jo Nadeau, Migrant Farm Workers Organizing in Canada, Arthur, 23 January 2006, 8-9
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In July 2005, the newly elected Liberal provincial government agreed to this inclusion beginning on 1 July 2006. Chris Ramsaroop of JMW points out however that "When the changes come into effect..., migrant farm workers will still be unprotected because the basic legal conditions of their employment have not changed .... [We] continue to press the government to implement real changes that ensure that migrant farm workers can refuse unsafe work without fear of reprisals from the employer." Quoted from interview by Mary-Jo Nadeau, "Migrant Farm Workers Organizing in Canada," Arthur, 23 January 2006, 8-9.
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46
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Quoted in United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, Status of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada, 2003 (Toronto 2003).
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Quoted in United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, Status of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada, 2003 (Toronto 2003).
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The UFCW, to its credit, has organized five support centres for migrant farm workers in Southern Ontario over the past decade, but not, evidently, with a view to preparing a serious organizing drive. In a 7 August 2005 press release announcing the re-opening of its support centre in Niagara, union-staffer Stan Raper noted: The migrant workers come to Canada under a federal program that contracts workers to specific area farms, but leaves the workers with no social, or legal support; and no protection from retaliation for reporting an abusive employer. UFCW Canada has filled this justice gap for over a decade, at its own expense, by providing health and safety training, translation assistance, ESL classes, legal assistance compensation, insurance, etc, and recreational activities. UFCW Canada has also fought a decade-long public and legal campaign to gain farm workers decent, safe working conditions and workplace rights. The UFCW maintains that a preconditi
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The UFCW, to its credit, has organized five "support centres" for migrant farm workers in Southern Ontario over the past decade, but not, evidently, with a view to preparing a serious organizing drive. In a 7 August 2005 press release announcing the re-opening of its support centre in Niagara, union-staffer Stan Raper noted: "The migrant workers come to Canada under a federal program that contracts workers to specific area farms, but leaves the workers with no social, or legal support; and no protection from retaliation for reporting an abusive employer. UFCW Canada has filled this justice gap for over a decade, at its own expense, by providing health and safety training, translation assistance, ESL classes, legal assistance (compensation, insurance, etc.), and recreational activities. UFCW Canada has also fought a decade-long public and legal campaign to gain farm workers decent, safe working conditions and workplace rights." The UFCW maintains that a precondition for any organizing drive among farm workers in general is a reform of the labour laws that currently prohibit unions in the agricultural sector.
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Our appreciation of the history of the UFW has been shaped by a number of scholarly as well as partisan accounts. An excellent, sympathetic overview written from the perspective of a liberal-minded agricultural economist is Philip L. Martin, Promise Unfulfilled: Unions, Immigration and the Farm Workers Ithaca and London 2003
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Our appreciation of the history of the UFW has been shaped by a number of scholarly as well as partisan accounts. An excellent, sympathetic overview written from the perspective of a liberal-minded agricultural economist is Philip L. Martin, Promise Unfulfilled: Unions, Immigration and the Farm Workers (Ithaca and London 2003).
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However, Martin does not place union strategy and tactics in the forefront of his analysis. Two classics of the social movements literature do address problems of leadership, strategy, and tactics in the UFW's history, but are flawed by largely uncritical assessments of Chavez's policy. See the political process analysis developed by sociologists Craig Jenkins and Charles Perrow in their 1977 article Farmworkers' Movements in Changing Political Contexts, and the critical response to this by long-time UFW activist Marshall Ganz in Another Look at Farmworker Mobilization, both reprinted in J. Goodwin and J.M. Jasper, eds., The Social Movements Reader (Oxford 2003).
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However, Martin does not place union strategy and tactics in the forefront of his analysis. Two classics of the "social movements" literature do address problems of leadership, strategy, and tactics in the UFW's history, but are flawed by largely uncritical assessments of Chavez's policy. See the "political process" analysis developed by sociologists Craig Jenkins and Charles Perrow in their 1977 article "Farmworkers' Movements in Changing Political Contexts," and the critical response to this by long-time UFW activist Marshall Ganz in "Another Look at Farmworker Mobilization," both reprinted in J. Goodwin and J.M. Jasper, eds., The Social Movements Reader (Oxford 2003).
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Our understanding of the limitations of the UFW's methods of struggle under the Chavez leadership benefited greatly from a review of journalistic reports and analyses produced by American left groups in the 1970s, particularly those published in the International Socialists' Workers Power, the Socialist Workers Party's The Militant and the Spartacist League's Workers Vanguard. Correspondence with long-time California labour activist Howard Keylor provided several useful insights corroborating this understanding
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Our understanding of the limitations of the UFW's methods of struggle under the Chavez leadership benefited greatly from a review of journalistic reports and analyses produced by American left groups in the 1970s - particularly those published in the International Socialists' Workers Power, the Socialist Workers Party's The Militant and the Spartacist League's Workers Vanguard. Correspondence with long-time California labour activist Howard Keylor provided several useful insights corroborating this understanding.
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53
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While agreeing with Galarza that bracero strikebreaking was important in blocking unionization during this period, Martin argues that the mai factors were a surplus of workers, which made the traditional union weapon of withholding work (strikes) ineffective; inappropriate leadership and tactics, such as organizing workers via employers or contractors; and confusion among workers as to the source of their low wages, Martin, Promise Unfulfilled, 66
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While agreeing with Galarza that bracero strikebreaking was important in blocking unionization during this period, Martin argues that the mai factors were "a surplus of workers, which made the traditional union weapon of withholding work (strikes) ineffective; inappropriate leadership and tactics, such as organizing workers via employers or contractors; and confusion among workers as to the source of their low wages." (Martin, Promise Unfulfilled, 66)
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Bert Corona, a long-time labour organizer and Chicano nationalist leader, clashed with Chavez over this fundamental issue, as did many on the socialist left. Corona was quoted years later as saying: I did have an important difference with Cesar. This involved his, and the union's position, on the need to apprehend and deport undocumented Mexican immigrants who were being used as scabs by the growers ... [I] believed that organizing undocumented farm workers was auxiliary to the union's efforts to organize the fields. We supported an open immigration policy as far as Mexico was concerned qtd. in Rural Migration News, April 2001,
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Bert Corona, a long-time labour organizer and Chicano nationalist leader, clashed with Chavez over this fundamental issue, as did many on the socialist left. Corona was quoted years later as saying: "I did have an important difference with Cesar. This involved his, and the union's position, on the need to apprehend and deport undocumented Mexican immigrants who were being used as scabs by the growers ... [I] believed that organizing undocumented farm workers was auxiliary to the union's efforts to organize the fields. We supported an open immigration policy as far as Mexico was concerned" (qtd. in Rural Migration News, April 2001,
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and reprinted in Martin, Promise Unfulfilled, 53. By the late 1990s, the UFW had drawn close to Corona's position on the issue.
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and reprinted in Martin, Promise Unfulfilled, 53). By the late 1990s, the UFW had drawn close to Corona's position on the issue.
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'See as well Bert Corona, Memories of Chicano History: The Life and Narrative of Bert Corona (Berkeley 1994).
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'See as well Bert Corona, Memories of Chicano History: The Life and Narrative of Bert Corona (Berkeley 1994).
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This struggle would be spearheaded by domestic agricultural workers and their allies in the Canadian labour movement. To the extent that the organizing drive addresses the migrant labour issue successfully, SAWP-enrolled workers could be brought into the struggle at a later stage
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This struggle would be spearheaded by domestic agricultural workers and their allies in the Canadian labour movement. To the extent that the organizing drive addresses the migrant labour issue successfully, SAWP-enrolled workers could be brought into the struggle at a later stage.
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The hiring regime sanctioned by the SAW Program in Canada has parallels with the labour contracting system in California. Union control of hiring would be an important element in advancing the interests of the Ontario agricultural labour force as a whole
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The hiring regime sanctioned by the SAW Program in Canada has parallels with the labour contracting system in California. Union control of hiring would be an important element in advancing the interests of the Ontario agricultural labour force as a whole.
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In the fight with the grower-Teamster alliance in lettuce, Chavez relied on the consumer boycott tactic once again, but it was largely ineffective. Martin notes that the Teamsters wound up representing 70 percent of California lettuce workers and the UFW 15 percent, Promise Unfulfilled, 70) Despite this setback, the UFW held its own and even extended its base in other sectors of California agriculture over the next couple of years, reaching a high-water mark in March 1973 when it claimed sixty-seven thousand members and 180 contracts covering forty thousand farm jobs, although some UFW members were employed only a few weeks under UFW contracts, 70 In 1973, most table grape growers switched to the Teamsters with the expiry of the UFW's 1970-1973 contracts. By the end of the year, the UFW was left with twelve contracts while the Teamsters had 305
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In the fight with the grower-Teamster alliance in lettuce, Chavez relied on the consumer boycott tactic once again, but it was largely ineffective. Martin notes that "the Teamsters wound up representing 70 percent of California lettuce workers and the UFW 15 percent." ( Promise Unfulfilled, 70) Despite this setback, the UFW held its own and even extended its base in other sectors of California agriculture over the next couple of years, reaching a "high-water mark in March 1973 when it claimed sixty-seven thousand members and 180 contracts covering forty thousand farm jobs," although some UFW members "were employed only a few weeks under UFW contracts." (70) In 1973, most table grape growers switched to the Teamsters with the expiry of the UFW's 1970-1973 contracts. By the end of the year, the UFW was left with twelve contracts while the Teamsters had 305.
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61
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The attitude of the Teamster bureaucrats toward the UFW was captured in a newspaper interview with Einar Mohn, a West Coast Teamster official: I'm not sure how effective a union can be when it is composed of Mexican-Americans and Mexican nationals with temporary visas. Maybe as agriculture becomes more sophisticated, more mechanized, with fewer transients, fewer green carders, and as jobs become more attractive to whites, then we can build a union that can have structure, and have membership participation, Los Angeles Times, 28 April 1973
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The attitude of the Teamster bureaucrats toward the UFW was captured in a newspaper interview with Einar Mohn, a West Coast Teamster official: "I'm not sure how effective a union can be when it is composed of Mexican-Americans and Mexican nationals with temporary visas. Maybe as agriculture becomes more sophisticated, more mechanized, with fewer transients, fewer green carders, and as jobs become more attractive to whites, then we can build a union that can have structure ... and have membership participation." (Los Angeles Times, 28 April 1973)
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62
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35148857822
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According to a contemporary account in a revolutionary socialist publication: Teamster bureaucrats are using hired professional thugs largely recruited from motorcycle gangs, paid $67 a day and armed with clubs and chains to beat pickets and force workers to stay in the fields. (Workers Vanguard, 22 June 1973)
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According to a contemporary account in a revolutionary socialist publication: "Teamster bureaucrats are using hired professional thugs largely recruited from motorcycle gangs, paid $67 a day and armed with clubs and chains to beat pickets and force workers to stay in the fields." (Workers Vanguard, 22 June 1973)
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63
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35148851708
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In our view court suits by one union against another are anathema to the fundamental principles of labour solidarity, which include opposition to any and all intervention by the capitalist state in the internal affairs of the labour movement
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In our view court suits by one union against another are anathema to the fundamental principles of labour solidarity, which include opposition to any and all intervention by the capitalist state in the internal affairs of the labour movement.
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64
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35148819423
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By the mid-1980s, Chavez was himself calling the ALRA/ALRB an obstacle to farm worker organization. The UFW, described as 'one of the biggest contributors to Democratic legislative election campaigns' in 1986, asked that the ALRB be defunded. (Martin, Promise Unfulfilled, 172)
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By the mid-1980s, Chavez was himself calling the ALRA/ALRB an obstacle to farm worker organization. "The UFW, described as 'one of the biggest contributors to Democratic legislative election campaigns' in 1986, asked that the ALRB be defunded." (Martin, Promise Unfulfilled, 172)
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68
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35148867258
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and Teamster Power (New York 1973),
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and Teamster Power (New York 1973),
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69
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35148867968
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as well as Sol Dollinger and Genora Johnson Dollinger, Not Automatic: Women and the Left in the Forging of the Auto Workers Union (New York 2000)
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as well as Sol Dollinger and Genora Johnson Dollinger, Not Automatic: Women and the Left in the Forging of the Auto Workers Union (New York 2000)
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70
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35148860373
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and Chris Knox, Revolutionary Work in the American Labor Movement: 1920s to 1950s, in Leon Trotsky, The Transitional Program, ed. International Bolshevik Tendency (London 1998).
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and Chris Knox, "Revolutionary Work in the American Labor Movement: 1920s to 1950s," in Leon Trotsky, The Transitional Program, ed. International Bolshevik Tendency (London 1998).
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75
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35148812806
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Such measures for increasing absolute surplus value differ from relative surplus value methods that involve displacing living labour from production through technological innovation, thereby producing what Marx called a rising organic composition of capital and a downward pressure on the average rate of profit. See Murray E.G. Smith and K.W. Taylor, Profitability Crisis and the Erosion of Popular Prosperity: The Canadian Economy, 1947-1991, Studies in Political Economy, 49 (Spring 1996), 101-130. It should be noted that one of the effects of the SAWP is to encourage continued reliance on back-breaking human labour and therefore to discourage investment in labour-saving innovation in the agricultural sector.
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Such measures for increasing "absolute surplus value" differ from "relative surplus value" methods that involve displacing living labour from production through technological innovation, thereby producing what Marx called a rising "organic composition of capital" and a downward pressure on the average rate of profit. See Murray E.G. Smith and K.W. Taylor, "Profitability Crisis and the Erosion of Popular Prosperity: The Canadian Economy, 1947-1991," Studies in Political Economy, 49 (Spring 1996), 101-130. It should be noted that one of the effects of the SAWP is to encourage continued reliance on back-breaking human labour and therefore to discourage investment in labour-saving innovation in the agricultural sector.
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76
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35148848424
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Bryan Palmer correctly notes that no successful struggle against capital and the state on our home ground, let alone internationally, can be successful with the working class inhibited by a leadership fearful to lead and antagonistic to the one force that has historically insured humanity's advance: civil disobedience. Quoted from What's Law Got to Do with It? Historical Considerations on Class Struggle, Boundaries of Constraint, and Capitalist Authority, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 41 (Summer/Fall 2003), 489-490.
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Bryan Palmer correctly notes that "no successful struggle against capital and the state on our home ground, let alone internationally, can be successful with the working class inhibited by a leadership fearful to lead and antagonistic to the one force that has historically insured humanity's advance: civil disobedience." Quoted from "What's Law Got to Do with It? Historical Considerations on Class Struggle, Boundaries of Constraint, and Capitalist Authority," Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 41 (Summer/Fall 2003), 489-490.
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