One Big Union (Canada)

For the concept, seeOne Big Union (concept).

One Big Union

National Industrial Union of the Dominion of Canada
Federation merger	Canadian Labour Congress
Founded	March 13, 1919
Dissolved	1956
Headquarters	Winnipeg
Location	Canada
Members	70,000 (1919)
Key people	Robert B. Russell Victor Midgley Bill Pritchard
Affiliations	Socialist Party of Canada

TheOne Big Union(OBU) was a militantleft-wingindustrial unionbased primarily inWestern Canada.Launched formally inCalgaryon June 4, 1919, the OBU, after a spectacular initial upsurge, lost most of its members within a few years. It eventually merged with theCanadian Labour Congressin 1956.

Background

Towards the end ofWorld War I,labour activists in Western Canada became more radical. They protested the policies of theTrades and Labour Congress of Canada(TLC) and theAmerican Federation of Labor(AFL), both of which supported the war effort, as well as the governments in power. Western unions were represented by only 45 of 400 delegates at the September 1918 TLC convention. Their resolutions to condemn Canada's involvement in World War I were defeated. Moreover, the socialist TLC presidentJames Watters,who had held the post since 1911, was replaced by the conservativeTom Moore.

Amidst themounting labour unrest,the federal state clamped down on radical publications and organizations, outlawing 14 organizations including theIndustrial Workers of the World.Nevertheless, labour activists and socialists were determined not to allow their dream of a new society to die. They established a new organization with "Workers of the world, unite!"as its motto.

Western TLC unionists met annually at theWestern Labor Conference.The 1919 event was held on March 13–15, prior to the annual national TLC congress. The WLC conference was dominated by members of theSocialist Party of Canada,who favored secession from the TLC. The majority at the conference voted to form a new "revolutionary industrial union" separate from the AFL/TLC, to be launched officially at a convention in June.The conference's resolutions condemned the Canadian government and expressed solidarity with theBolsheviksinRussiaand theSpartacus LeagueinGermany.The conference also decided to poll Canadian workers on calling ageneral strike.

Rise

Crowd gathered outside old City Hall during the Winnipeg General Strike, June 21, 1919

Thegeneral strikethat began inWinnipegon May 15, 1919, was in large part inspired by the One Big Union's ideals.A number of OBU leaders, includingRobert B. Russell,were arrested in conjunction with the strike; Russell was sentenced to two years' imprisonment.Edmonton,Calgary,Drumheller,VancouverandVictoriabegan their own general strikes, spurred on by Winnipeg.Most strike leaders, such as Edmonton's Joe Knight, Calgary's Mrs. Jean MacWilliams, and Amherst's Frank Burke, were OBU affiliates.A.S. Wells, leader of theBC Federation of Labourat the time, was a founding member of the OBU.

The AFL and the TLC resisted the secession by what would soon become the OBU. OBU members and unions were expelled from most local trades' councils. Nonetheless, tens of thousands of workers left the AFL/TLC to join the OBU. They includedloggers,hard rock miners,coal miners,longshoremen,construction workers,metalworkers,and shop craft workers. The One Big Union aimed to organize by industry rather than by trade, in response to thecapitalist system'sde-emphasis of craftsmanship (Taylorism) and its burgeoning demand for cheap, unskilled labour.The OBU's revolutionary program was evident in its constitution's preamble:

The O.B.U.... seeks to organize the wage worker not according to craft but according to industry; according to class and class needs; and calls upon all workers irrespective of nationality, sex, or craft to organize into a workers' organization, so that they may be enabled to more successfully carry on the every day fight over wages, hours of work, etc. and prepare themselves for the day when production for profit shall be replaced by production of use.

By 1919 the OBU's membership had reached 70,000. Although primarily based in Western Canada, the OBU had a significant presence in Nova Scotia, organizing coal workers during the Cape Breton Labour War of the early 1920s as well as nearly all ofAmherst'smine workers.

Fall

The OBU's zenith was in late 1919 and early 1920. However, it rapidly declined due to the hostility of employers, the media, state authorities, and rival unions; it was also undermined by theCommunist Party.Employers refused to bargain with OBU representatives and organizers were beaten, kidnapped and dismissed from coalfields.The OBU was also wracked by an internal dispute over organization and funding that resulted in the exit of theLumber Workers Industrial Union.

By 1921, the OBU had only 5,000 members and by 1927 only 1,600, almost all of them in Winnipeg under Russell's leadership. By 1922, most of the union's income came from alotterythat ran in its weekly bulletin.At the time lotteries were illegal in Canada, but it took the authorities years to successfully prosecute the union. The bulletin had a large circulation because of the lottery, with even businessmen buying it for the lottery coupons.

During the late 1920s the OBU briefly joined theAll-Canadian Congress of Labourand considered joining theCanadian Congress of LabourduringWorld War II,but by then nearly all of its members were employees of theWinnipeg TransitSystem. In 1956, the One Big Union, consisting of 24,000 members, merged with theCanadian Labour Congress.

Works cited

• Haq, Gordon (1989)."British Columbia Loggers and the Lumber Workers Industrial Union, 1919-1922".Labour/Le Travail.23:67–90.doi:10.2307/25143136.JSTOR25143136.
• Logan, Harold A. (1948).Trade Unions in Canada: Their Development and Functioning.Macmillan.LCCN48003282.
• Monto, Tom (2012).Protest and Progress: Three Labour Radicals in Early Edmonton.Crang Publishing.
• Rinehart, James W. (1975).The Tyranny of Work.Longman Canada.ISBN978-0-7747-3029-7.

Further reading

• Bercuson, David J. (1978).Fools and Wise Men: The Rise and Fall of the One Big Union.McGraw Hill Ryerson.ISBN0070826447.
• Bercuson, David J. (1990). "Syndicalism Sidetracked: Canada's One Big Union". In van der Linden, Marcel; Thorpe, Wayne (eds.).Revolutionary Syndicalism: an International Perspective.Scolar Press. pp. 221–236.ISBN0-85967-815-6.
• Devine, Jason (2009)."You understand we are radical": The United Mine Workers of America, District 18, and the One Big Union, 1919-1920(PDF)(Honours thesis). University of Calgary.
• Friesen, Gerald (1976)."'Yours in Revolt': The Socialist Party of Canada and the Western Canadian Labour Movement ".Labour/Le Travail:139–157.JSTOR25139889.
• Heron, Craig, ed. (1998).The Workers' Revolt in Canada, 1917-1925.University of Toronto Press.ISBN9781442682566.
• Newell, Peter E. (2008).The Impossibilists: A Brief History of the Socialist Party of Canada.Athena Press.ISBN9781847483232.
• Warrian, Peter (1971).The Challenge of the One Big Union Movement in Canada, 1919-1921(MA thesis). University of Waterloo.

External links

• One Big Union,weekly bulletin, 1919-34.University of Manitoba Libraries