Youth Boycott spreads across Canada In 1947, youth in Chemainus and Ladysmith, B.C. led the first ever children’s strike. It was a protest against the rising cost of chocolate. The price of a typical bar had ballooned suddenly from five cents to eight cents. The kids had had enough, and Read more…
Finding South Asian Workers in West Kootenay History Guest post by Greg Nesteroff The BC Labour Heritage Centre’s recent book Union Zindabad! cites a newspaper item revealing South Asian sawmill workers in the Kootenay Lake town of Kaslo “successfully struck for more wages” in May 1907. This fleeting mention piqued Read more…
“A Great Tide of Humanity Protesting Against Inhumanity” Researched and written by Donna Sacuta 6,000 March in Vancouver Despite police predictions that it would be a “dismal failure”, 6,000 men, women and children descended on the Powell Street grounds—now Oppenheimer Park—in Vancouver on 22 February 1932 for a “Hunger March”, Read more…
Content provided by Patricia Wejr and Rod Mickleburgh Download the lesson plan Listen to the podcast The intense class struggle of the first two decades of the twentieth century in B.C. included a small but strong group of women. Many showed their mettle during early strikes. An example was the Read more…
Ray Haynes was head of the B.C. Federation of Labour from 1966 to 1973 and, arguably, the most influential leader in the long history of the B.C. Fed. Excerpted from a speech by Rod Mickleburgh, November 24, 2022 to the 60th BC Federation of Labour Convention, Vancouver B.C. I Read more…