British Columbia History – Winter 2023
English | 52 pages | pdf | 59.86 MB
Noted historian J.L. Granatstein once argued that labour history and other forms of social history were killing our national history. His Who Killed Canadian History? unleashed a storm of controversy about the importance of examining our past from many angles, including the history of working people and their organizations.
This special edition of BC History explores some of the neglected corners of work life in British Columbia with an eye to proving Granatstein wrong and enlightening our readers about what some historians have called history from below. BC labour historian Mark Leier notes that the labour movement in BC began when the Hudson’s Bay Company arrived in the 1800s. “Those early employees of the HBC did not form unions,” Leier writes in the Encyclopedia of British Columbia, “but they did attempt to improve their working and living conditions by refusing to obey orders and even going on strike.”
Our special edition doesn’t go back that far, but readers will find accounts of Indigenous miners, the hard-rock miners’ strike for a shorter workday, and Vancouver’s 1975 CKLG radio strike. Readers will learn be introduced to worker solidarity songs and a poem about women in non-traditional trades.
An interview with a former Vietnamese “boat person” explores the experiences of securing LGBTQ rights in unions. A tribute to a South Asian organizer for the International Woodworkers of America reveals the strength of this dedicated union man. And a visit to the graveside of Albert “Ginger” Goodwin discusses the history of the famed labour martyr’s violent death.
Also of interest are stories about the foreign workers who built SkyTrain’s Canada Line, about the struggle to establish occupational health and safety standards, and about the challenge to union hierarchy in the Elk Valley.
We hope you enjoy this unique visit to BC history from the bottom up.
From – Ron Verzuh
Ron Verzuh is a writer, historian, documentary filmmaker, and British Columbia Historical Foundation board member. His most recent book is Printer’s Devils: How a Feisty Pioneer Newspaper Shaped the History of British Columbia (Caitlin Press, 2023). Ron lives in Victoria
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