07) FIGHTING BACK DURING THE DIRTY THIRTIES
In our Feb. 15-28 issue, we examined the activities of the Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) during the 1920s. Our series of articles marking the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party continues with this look at the Workers' Unity League.
By the late 1920s, the efforts of the Communist-led TUEL to help unite Canadian workers faced enormous obstacles, forcing a major shift in strategy. Some historians claim this change was simply a tactic ordered by the Communist International. But in fact, the leaders of the Trades and Labour Congress and the All-Canadian Congress of Labour blocked the emergence of a united working class fightback. The TLC stubbornly refused to admit industrial unions, and the ACCL believed that the economic crisis made it nearly impossible to organize workers or win strikes.
As a result, the TUEL became the Workers' Unity League in January 1930, with a mandate to organize the unorganized and the unemployed into powerful industrial unions under rank and file control. Led by Tom McEwen, the WUL brought together industrial unions in the mining, clothing, lumber and textile industries, with an aggressive, militant approach towards the class struggle.
The WUL provided the leadership for the most important labour struggles of the early 1930s, including the strikes by miners in several communities and by furniture workers in Ontario.
While the TLC only admitted affiliates of the American Federation of Labour, and the ACCL was limited to Canadian unions, the WUL accepted "all wage workers, regardless of race, creed, colour, sex, craft or political affiliations." The WUL combined a strong central leadership, able to respond quickly to events across the country, with the maximum of membership involvement and democracy.
Although it never formally represented the majority of trade unionists in Canada, the WUL attracted significant support. Both the Lumber Workers Industrial Union of Canada and the Mine Workers Union of Canada broke with the ACCL in 1930 to join the WUL, as did the Industrial Union of Needle Trades Workers. In industries where no unions existed, such as furniture manufacturing, the WUL set up committees to organize the unorganized.
The first major test of the WUL came on Sept. 8, 1931, when 600 coal miners at Bienfait, Saskatchewan walked out against terrible conditions and pay cuts of 10 to 15 percent. The strike came just weeks after the arrest of Tim Buck and other top leaders of the Communist Party, including Tom McEwen. But when the miners asked for assistance, the MWUC quickly sent its president, Jim Sloan, Joe Forkin (later elected alderman in Winnipeg), former IWW organizer Sam Scarlett, John Stokaluk, and the famous Annie Buller.
On Sept. 17, the companies tried to open three mines with scab workers, only to be defeated by a mass picket line. The struggle continued, with Annie Buller speaking to a mass rally on Sept. 27. The next day, a peaceful parade of miners and their families in Estevan became the target of a police riot, with the RCMP murdering three workers and injuring fifty people. Several workers were charged, and Sam Scarlett and Annie Buller received lengthy jail sentences for "unlawful rioting."
While the miners did not achieve union recognition, they did win other key demands, proving that labour struggles could win gains despite the capitalist economic crisis.
Another important battle took place in Stratford, Ontario, where the Chesterfield Furniture Workers' Industrial Union struck against several companies. To support the bosses, the federal government sent in tanks and troops armed with machine guns to patrol the streets. But the unity of the workers and public opinion forced the companies and governments to concede defeat, and a pro-labour city council was elected in Stratford.
Other important strikes took place in Flin Flon, Manitoba, where several MWUC leaders were jailed, and in Corbin, B.C., where police used bulldozers to attack a picket line of miners and their families. On the Vancouver waterfront, the WUL led a major struggle to organize dockworkers, culminating in the "Battle of Ballantyne Pier."
By 1935, the WUL had built up a membership of over 40,000. From 1933 to 1936, the WUL led 90 percent of the strikes across Canada, winning many of these struggles.
Perhaps the most significant event came in 1935, with the historic On to Ottawa Trek, organized by the Relief Camp Workers' Union. Formed by WUL organizers working in the infamous "slave labour camps" for unemployed single men set up by the Conservative government of R.B. "Iron Heel" Bennett, the RCWU called a B.C.-wide strike in April 1935. Thousands of relief camp workers headed to Vancouver, taking militant actions for several weeks to demand real work and better wages.
Finally the workers decided to travel to Ottawa, and on June 3, hundreds boarded freight trains heading through the mountains. Receiving huge support, the strikers were in Regina by mid-June. Frightened by the prospect of thousands of radical unemployed workers, the Tory government offered to negotiate with the RCWU, while secretly preparing to crush the Trek. On July 1, 1935, police and troops poured into Regina's Market Square, savagely beating Trekkers and local citizens gathered to hear speeches.
The vicious attack was a turning point of the Great Depression. Within months, the Bennett government was defeated at the polls, and the next several years saw a series of important victories for the working class movement.
But the sharpening class struggle, in Canada and around the world, called for another change in strategy. The rise of fascism in Europe was met with a growing demand for working class unity at all levels, from the workplace to the ballot box. This included the need to build unity against the bosses within the trade union movement. The successes of the WUL and its counterparts in the United States had helped create the conditions for much stronger efforts to organize industrial unions across the continent, overcoming the resistance of the old reformist, craft union leadership.
In an upcoming issue, we will look at the role of Communists in the drive to organize steel, auto, and other mass production industries.
(The above article is from the March 1-15, 2011, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)