The State, the unemployed, and the communist party in Calgary, 1930-5

Canadian Historical Review

Volumn 78, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 537-565

  Bright, David ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 67649589968     PISSN: 00083755     EISSN: 17101093     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3138/CHR.78.4.537     Document Type: Review

References (162)

1. Ronald Liversedge, Recollections of the On to Ottawa Trek, edited by Victor Hoar (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1973).
2. Other discussions of the trek can be found in Victor Howard, 'We Were the Salt of the Earth': The On-to-Ottawa Trek and the Regina Riot (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center 1985);
3. Ivan Avakumovic, The Communist Party in Canada: A History (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1975);
4. Lorne Brown, When Freedom Was Lost: The Unemployed, the Agitator, and the State (Montreal: Black Rose Books 1987).
5. See also Doug Smith, 'On to Ottawa,' Horizon Canada 9, 99 (1987): 2353-9.
6. On unemployment and the working class in Alberta in this period, see Larry Hannant, 'The Calgary Working Class and the Social Credit Movement in Alberta, 1932-35,' Labour/Le Travail 16 (fall 1985): 97-116;
7. Alvin Finkel, 'Social Credit and the Unemployed,' Alberta History 31, 2 (1981): 14-22;
8. Finkel, 'The Rise and Fall of the Labour Party in Alberta, 1917-42,' Labour/ Le Travail 16 (fall 1985): 61-96;
9. Finkel, 'Populism and the Proletariat: Social Credit and the Alberta Working Class,' Studies in Political Economy 13 (1984): 109-35;
10. Warren Caragata, Alberta Labour: A Heritage Untold (Toronto: James Lorimer 1979), 96-110.
11. For biographical details of Evans, see Keith A. Parker, 'Slim Evans Western Radical,' Alberta History 26, 2 (spring 1978): 21-29
12. Howard, 'We Were the Salt of the Earth,' 90-1; Calgary Albertan, 7, 8 June 1935
13. Howard, 'We Were the Salt of the Earth,' 91
14. Howard, 'We Were the Salt of the Earth,' Ibid., 95
15. Liversedge, On to Ottawa Trek, 102.
16. Michael Lonardo provides an account of O'Neil's activities in the 1930s in 'Under a Watchful Eye: A Case Study of Police Surveillance during the 1930s,' Labour/Le Travail 35 (spring 1995): 11-41.
17. Calgary Albertan, 11 June 1935
18. Quoted in Howard, 'We Were the Salt of the Earth,' 93
19. Desmond Morton with Terry Copp, Working People: An Illustrated History of the Canadian Labour Movement (Toronto: Deneau 1987), 147
20. Quoted in Lonardo, 'Under a Watchful Eye,' 24
21. Howard, 'We Were the Salt of the Earth,' 100.
22. For Davison's telegram, see Calgary Albertan, 6 June 1935.
23. On Bennett, see J. Petryshyn, 'R.B. Bennett and the Communists, 1930-1935,' Journal of Canadian Studies 9, 4 (1974): 43-55.
24. Calgary Albertan, 13 June 1935
25. James Struthers, The Limits of Affluence: Welfare in Ontario, 1920-1970 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1994), 4
26. See Lorne A. Brown, 'Unemployment Relief Camps in Saskatchewan, 1933-1936,' Saskatchewan History 23, 3 (1970): 81-104;
27. Glen Makohonuk, 'The Saskatoon Relief Camp Workers' Riot of May 8, 1933:
28. An Expression of Class Conflict,' Saskatchewan History 37, 2 (1984): 55-72;
29. Gordon Hak, 'The Communists and the Unemployed in the Prince George District, 1930-1935,' BC Studies 68 (winter 1985-6): 46-61;
30. Laurel Sefton MacDowell, 'Relief Camp Workers in Ontario during the Great Depression of the 1930s,' Canadian Historical Review 76, 2 (1995): 205-228
31. Wayne Roberts and John Bullen, 'A Heritage of Hope and Struggle: Workers, Unions, and Politics in Canada, 1930-1982,' in M. Cross and Gregory S. Kealey, eds., Modern Canada, 1930-1980s (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1985), 109
32. For details, see David Bright, 'Class Dismissed? A Social History of the Calgary Labour Movement, 1883-1929' (PhD dissertation, University of Calgary 1995), 275-328.
33. See also Max Foran, 'Idealism and Pragmatism in Local Government: The Calgary Experience, 1911-1930,' Journal of Canadian Studies 18, 2 (1983): 91-105.
34. See Patricia Roome, 'Amelia Turner and Calgary Labour Women, 1919-1925,' in Linda Kealey and Joan Sangster, eds., Beyond the Vote: Canadian Women and Politics (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1989), 89-117.
35. Calgary Herald, 23 June 1931.
36. See also Peter M. Sibernik 'Points of Departure: Urban Relief in Alberta, 1930-1937,' in Louis A. Knafla, ed., Law & Justice in a New Land: Essays in Western Canadian Legal History (Toronto: Carswell 1986), 313-32.
37. The source for Lenihan's remark is Provincial Archives of Alberta (paa), Warren Caragata Papers, 80.218/18, box 1, interview with Patrick Lenihan, Sept. 1978, 42.
38. Struthers, The Limits of Affluence, 77-116
39. Calgary Herald, 3, 8, 25 Jan., 22, 28, 31 Oct., 14 Nov. 1930, 5 Nov. 1932, 4 Jan., 2, 7, 28 Feb., 5 April, 7, 13 June, 18 July 1934, 6 Feb. 1935
40. See Ruth Roach Pierson, 'Gender and Unemployment Insurance Debates in Canada, 1934-1940,' Labour/Le Travail 25 (1990): 77-104;
41. Margaret Hobbs, 'Rethinking Antifeminism in the 1930s: Gender Crisis or Workplace Justice? A Response to Alice Kessler-Harris,' and Kessler-Harris's reply, both in Gender & History 5, 1 (1993): 4-19;
42. Margaret Hobbs, 'Equality and Difference: Feminism and the Defence of Women Workers during the Great Depression,' Labour/Le Travail 32 (fall 1993): 201-23;
43. Struthers, The Limits of Affluence, 14-16.
44. Statements on the importance of gender to the study of history include Joan Wallach Scott, Gender and the Politics of History (New York: Columbia University Press 1988);
45. Joy Parr, 'Gender History and Historical Practice,' Canadian Historical Review 76, 3 (1995): 354-76:
46. Bettina Bradbury, 'Women and the History of Their Work in Canada: Some Recent Books,' Journal of Canadian Studies 28, 3 (1993): 159-178
47. Alice Kessler-Harris, Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1982), 251
48. Joan Sangster, Earning Respect: The Lives of Working Women in Small-Town Ontario, 1920-1960 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1995), 122
49. Pierson, 'Gender and Unemployment,' 77-8.
50. On the concept of the family wage, see Michelle Barrett and Mary McIntosh, 'The "Family Wage": Some Problems for Socialists and Feminists,' Capital & Class 11 (1980): 51-72.
51. Calgary Herald, 19, 25, 29, 30 Aug., 10, 11, 13, 17 Sept. 1930, 23 April 1932
52. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 31 May, 24 Oct., 18 Feb. 1930;
53. City of Calgary Archives (cca), City Clerk Papers, rg 26, box 221, file 1481, M.A. Parkyn to Mayor Andrew Davison, 6 Sept. 1932
54. City Clerk Papers, box 252, file 1665,
55. 'Single Girls' Relief totals, August 1934';
56. Alberta Labor News, 30 April 1932
57. Census of Alberta, 1936, 1066
58. Pierson, 'Gender and Unemployment,' 103
59. paa, Alberta Provincial Police Papers, 69.289/138 a, Annual Report, 1930
60. Medicine Hat News, 2 May 1930
61. Interview with Pat Lenihan, 28. On Lenihan, see Gilbert Levine, 'Patrick Lenihan and the Alberta Miners,' Labour/Le Travail 16 (fall 1985): 166-78.
62. On the size of the Communist Party in Calgary, see also Lita-Rose Betcherman, The Little Band: The Clashes between the Communists and the Political and Legal Establishment in Canada, 1928-1932 (Ottawa nd), 157.
63. Lenihan interview, 29
64. Lenihan interview, Ibid., 28;
65. National Archives of Canada (na), Communist Party Papers, mg 28, iv 4, file 12,
66. 'Report of the First Representative National Convention of the Canadian Labor Defense League' (Toronto, 14-17 July 1933)
67. Calgary Herald, 14, 15, 24, 25, 28 Nov., 1, 8, 10, 12 Dec. 1930;
68. Alberta Labor News, 22 Nov., 6 Dec. 1930
69. Calgary Herald, 29, 30 Dec. 1930, 2 Jan. 1931
70. On the social significance of parades, see Timothy J. Meagher, 'Why Should We Care for a Little Trouble or a Walk through the Mud? St. Patrick's and Columbus Day Parades in Worcester, Massachusetts, 1845-1915,' New England Quarterly 58, 1 (1985): 5-26;
71. Sallie A. Marston, 'Public Rituals and Community Power: St. Patrick's Day Parades in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1841-1874,' Political Geographical Quarterly 8, 3 (1989): 255-69;
72. Mary Ryan, 'The American Parade: Representations of the Nineteenth-Century Social Order,' in Lynn Hunt, ed., The New Cultural History (Berkeley: University of California Press 1989), 131-153
73. Calgary Herald, 23 Feb., 25, 27 April 1931
74. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 2 May 1931;
75. Medicine Hat News, 3 May 1931. The six were James Robinson (aged 18), Fred Leventovsky (35), Zevol Collins (42), Emil Jensen (22), William Geddes (26), William Martin (21), and Jabez McLean (age unknown).
76. Calgary Herald, 27 May, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 22, 24, 25 June 1931
77. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 25, 27 June 1931
78. This account of the incident is based on the following sources: na, Department of Labour Papers, rg 27, Strikes and Lockouts files, vol.348, strike 51 (June 1931);
79. Western Weekly Reports 1931, 729;
80. Labour Gazette 32 (1932): 105-6;
81. Calgary Herald, 30 June, 3, 4, 9, 20, 21, 23 July 1931;
82. Unemployed Bulletin, 9 Oct. 1931.
83. Quoted in Western Weekly Reports 1931, 717
84. Western Weekly Reports 1931, Ibid., 727-729
85. Quoted in Strikes and Lockouts files, vol.348, strike 51 (June 1931)
86. For example, eighteen local labour and unemployed organizations recorded their protest with the city clerk. Calgary Herald, 4, 20 July 1931.
87. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 29, 30 June 1931
88. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 30 June 1931. Sheinin and Dworkin had been among those arrested previously on May Day 1930.
89. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 30 June 1931
90. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 4 July 1931.
91. On this issue, see Mark Leier, 'Solidarity on Occasion: The Vancouver Free Speech Fights of 1909 and 1912,' Labour/Le Travail 23 (spring 1989): 39-66,
92. and, more generally, Thomas R. Berger, Fragile Freedoms: Human Rights and Dissent in Canada, rev. ed. (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin 1982), esp. 127-162
93. Canadian Labor Defender, July, Nov. 1932;
94. paa, Premier Papers, 69.218 74b, Deputy Attorney General to Premier J.E. Brownlee, memorandum re Hans Thernes, 27 July 1932
95. Calgary Herald, 19, 26 Nov. 1931;
96. Canadian Labor Defender, Oct., Nov., Dec. 1931
97. Western Weekly Reports 1931, 720-1 (emphasis added).
98. Harvey based his interpretation of the law on the earlier case of Reners v. Reg, an account of which is available in Labour Gazette, 26 (1926): 618-624
99. Calgary Herald, 15 Nov. 1932
100. City Clerk Papers, file 1477, C.E. Wahl (chairman, Calgary Unemployed Council) to City Clerk, 1 Aug. 1932
101. City Clerk Papers, Ibid., file 1481, Wahl to City Clerk, 1 Aug. 1932;
102. City Clerk Papers, ibid., W. McKenna (secretary, United Workers Council) to Calgary City Council, 23 July 1932;
103. City Clerk Papers, ibid., E.K. Foster (secretary, Unemployed Ex-Servicemen's Association) to Mayor and Aldermen, 19 Sept. 1932
104. Kenneth McNaught, A Prophet in Politics: A Biography of J.S. Woodsworth (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1959), 253-63;
105. Finkel, 'Labour Party in Alberta,' 91
106. Medicine Hat News, 9 Nov. 1932
107. Calgary Herald, 1, 3 April 1933
108. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 4 April 1933
109. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 7, 8 April 1933
110. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 24, 25 April 1933
111. Lenihan interview, 45-46
112. Calgary Herald, 25 April 1933
113. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 26, 28 April 1933;
114. Lenihan interview, 47
115. Caragata, Alberta Labour, 105.
116. For more details, see Communist Papers, vol.61, file 61-7,
117. 'The Alberta Hunger-March and the Trial of the Victims of Brownlee's Police Terror' (Edmonton: C.L.D.L. Hunger March Defense Committee 1932).
118. See also Keith Hart, 'Military Aid to Edmonton,' Alberta History 31, 3 (1983): 35-38
119. Calgary Herald, 26, 28 April 1933
120. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 16 May 1933
121. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 29, 30 June, 3 Oct. 1933
122. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 3 Oct. 1933. Unfortunately, while the Provincial Archives of Alberta contain the decision to grant the appeal of the fourteen convictions, there is no record of the actual result of that appeal. See paa, 87.246, Appeal 2108.
123. Calgary Herald, 15 May, 6 Nov. 1933
124. City Clerk Papers, box 262, file 1730, Conference of Mayors of the Cities of Alberta Relating to Matters Concerning Unemployment, Relief Works, etc., 31 May 1934, 4
125. For unemployment totals, see Calgary Herald, 22 Nov. 1933, 18 Jan., 5 April, 19, 30 May, 13 June, 18 July 1934.
126. Details of the Alberta government's decision are from Calgary Herald, ibid., 4 June 1934.
127. na, rcmp Papers, rg 26 k, m1451, H.M. Nelson (assistant commissioner commanding 'K' Division) to Commissioner, rcmp, Ottawa, secret memo dated 5 June 1934. See also Gregory S. Kealey and Reg Whitaker, eds., R.C.M.P. Security Bulletins: The Depression Years, Part I, 1933-1934 (St John's: Canadian Committee on Labour History 1993), 96, 204, 210, 217-19.
128. For details of the federal government cuts, see Struthers, No Fault of Their Own, 114-116
129. Calgary Herald, 9 June 1934
130. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 14, 18 Aug. 1934
131. Struthers, No Fault of Their Own, 116-18;
132. Calgary Herald, 11 Aug., 5 Nov. 1934.
133. Claims of relief fraud in Calgary prompted an official investigation in September 1934. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 10, 11 Sept. 1934
134. Kealey and Whitaker, R.C.M.P. Security Bulletins, 340, 387-388
135. The United Workers' Council of Delegates consisted of a dozen or so organizations, including five unemployed associations (Unemployed Married Men's Association, Workers' Ex-Servicemen's Association, Married Men's Protective Association, and Calgary Workers' Federation). Calgary Herald, 4 Nov. 1934
136. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 19 Nov. 1931
137. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 13, 17, 19 Nov. 1934
138. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 20, 22 Nov. 1934
139. Calgary Herald, Ibid., 6 Dec. 1934
140. Copies of the Clarion may be found in City Clerk Papers, box. 242, file 1612.
141. A Report on Alberta Elections, 1905-1982 (Edmonton: Office of the Chiel Electoral Officer 1983), 49
142. Calgary Herald, 3, 4, 24 Jan. 1935
143. In 1933 Chief Justice Harvey ruled that a clause in Calgary's 1893 city charter rendered relief recipients ineligible to run for public office. See Western Weekly Reports, 1933, 385-93;
144. Labour Gazette, 34 (1934): 210-211
145. Calgary Albertan, 11 June 1935;
146. Liversedge, On to Ottawa Trek, 101
147. Compare the reaction of Mitch Hepburn to unemployment protests in Ontario that year. Struthers, The Limits of Affluence, 94
148. W.B. Herbert, 'The West,' in 'Five Views of Mr. Bennett,' Canadian Forum 15, 173 (1935): 168
149. Howard A. Scarrow, Canada Votes: A Handbook of Federal and Provincial Election Data (New Orleans: Hauser Press 1963), 231;
150. Report on Alberta Elections, 44, 49
151. Roger E. Riendeau, 'A Clash of Interests: Dependency and the Municipal Problem in the Great Depression,' Journal of Canadian Studies 14, 1 (1979): 50-8;
152. John Taylor, '"Relief from Relief": The Cities' Answer to Depression Dependency,' Journal of Canadian Studies ibid., 16-23
153. Calgary Albertan, 6 June 1935
154. Calgary Herald, 6 June 1935
155. Calgary Albertan, 13 June 1935
156. Calgary Albertan, Ibid., 22, 25 July 1935
157. Calgary Albertan, Ibid., 1 Aug. 1935
158. Edward Bell, Social Classes and Social Credit in Alberta (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press 1993), esp. 86-106.
159. See also Finkel, 'Social Credit and the Unemployed';
160. Ben Swankey, 'Reflections of a Communist; 1935 Election,' Alberta History 28, 4 (1980): 28-36.
161. Calgary Albertan, 1, 2 Aug. 1935;
162. Calgary Herald, 1 Aug. 1935