Communism and Unions

1935 was the worst year for the trade union movement in Canada with membership at its lowest point since 1914, comprising 280,174 workers, rebounding by1936 to 322,473 as craft unions grew as the depression abated. Communists organized the Workers Unity League and Housewives League, entities committed to the organization of the unemployed and support for industrial unionism. Fights between craft unionism, industrial unionism, the CCF (Cooperative Commonwealth Federation) and Canadian Communists played out as the labour movement grew. In B.C., and greater Vancouver Communists dominated the large industrial unions. There were energetic interventions by the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada and the American Federation of Labour and later the Canadian Congress of Labour, to root out left-leaning locals and individuals, and equally energetic attempts by Communists to direct the larger politics of labour policy and industrial organizing efforts and retain their leadership. The history of Local 28 and its at times rocky affiliation with the Vancouver Trades and Labour Council (for example, a1940 expulsion) illustrate this story.