I have two peer-reviewed articles stemming from my dissertation (information on my home page or my dissertation tab). The first is entitled “‘The Force of All Our Numbers:’ New Leftists, Labour, and the 1973 Artistic Woodwork Strike.” (Labour/Le Travail, Fall 2010). Here is the abstract:

Through late 1973, the Artistic Woodwork strike captivated not only the left-wing milieux of Toronto – from young New Leftists, to rank-and-file union members, to activists from a plethora of political groups – but also the entire city. Artistic was a first contract strike by immigrant workers organized by the Canadian Textile and Chemical Union (CTCU). The narrative of the strike came to be dominated by supporters after many of the workers picketing left due to both fear and the availability of alternative employment. By November, mass pickets of four hundred people added to political pressure and helped secure a first contract settlement. Coming at the end of a period of intense political debate and discussion concerning the agent of social change and the role of the working-class, Artistic assumed special significance in the personal trajectories of many supporters. On these violent picket lines, supporters had an opportunity to act out the prevailing Marxist sociology of the time. Artistic demonstrates the confluence of a variety of forces at the end of the long sixties: the widespread turn towards Marxism and the working-class as a necessary component of social and political change; the importance of nationalism as a unifying feature between some New Leftists and unions such as the CTCU; and the continuing social responsibility of the student and the intellectual. While Artistic was decertified in 1975, we can take valuable lessons from the strike concerning the impact of allowing strikebreakers as well as the power and importance of a social network in garnering widespread strike support.

The second article stemming from my dissertation is forthcoming in BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly. Entitled “Coming off the Mountain: Forging an Outward Looking New Left at Simon Fraser University,” (BC Studies #171, Autumn 2011, forthcoming) it argues that we need to expand our understanding of sixties radicalism and the student movement. An excerpt from my introduction:

[My] article argues that we can see a significant current of off-campus engagement throughout SFU’s radical history. Every major on-campus conflagration, from the 1967 dismissal of five TAs that nearly set off a student strike, to the arrest of 114 students in the wake of the November 1968 occupation of the Administration Building, to the PSA strike, revolved around one central issue: the responsibility of the student or New Leftist to the broader world. While the SFU New Left largely failed to achieve their on-campus objectives, they made a significant impact and left a considerable legacy in Metropolitan Vancouver. New Leftists spawned the Service, Office Workers, and Retail Workers’ Union, out of the Vancouver Women’s Caucus, as well as other institutions such as the Community Education Research Centre. The interest of Vancouver’s New Left in finding ways to collaborate with working people and unions mirrored attempts to forge similar alliances across the country. Despite being geographically isolated atop of Burnaby Mountain, SFU’s New Leftists developed an outward looking, community focus that sought to bring their university “off the mountain” and into the service of the surrounding community.

A side project, “This Board Has a Duty to Intervene”: Challenging the Spadina Expressway Through the Ontario Municipal Board, 1963-1973,” (Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine, Spring 2011) stemmed out of my graduate coursework, and looked at the crucial role played by the Ontario Municipal Board in stopping the Spadina Expressway. I argued that while grassroots activism played a very important role, the OMB was a forum in weighing minority versus majority rights, and its unique mandate allowed it to consider evidence from other expressway disputes. While the OMB ruled in the expressway’s favour, its decision was the first non-unanimous decision in its long history. Chairman Joseph Kenney’s dissenting opinion stood up for minority rights, set the stage for a debate around the role of the OMB in municipal planning and governance, and made it palatable, legitimate, and respectable for the Ontario Premier to cancel the expressway four months later.

Finally, in my first article, “Sedition in Wartime Ontario: The Trials and Imprisonment of Isaac Bainbridge, 1917-1918,” (Ontario History, Autumn 2008) which stemmed out of my Master’s Major Research Paper and an undergraduate thesis at Queen’s University, I looked at repression in wartime Ontario. Here is the abstract:

This article examines the trials and imprisonment of Isaac Bainbridge, publisher of the Social Democratic Party of Canada’s newspaper Canadian Forward, for seditious libel between 1917 and 1919. Charged and convicted for his opposition to militarism, capitalism and conscription, Bain- bridge’s encounter with the legal system illustrates the degree to which the courts acted as both a coercive force and as a space for resistance. While the selective nature of seditious libel became apparent during the trial, conflict between the judiciary and the government allowed Bainbridge to obtain his release from prison on a legal technicality.