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CLASS STRUGGLE UNIONISM, AUTO WORKERS, REDS, AND THE 1930S  
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Ken Theobald
August 19, 2025
Canadian Dimension
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_ How the 1937 Oshawa GM strike and radical industrial unionism
reshaped labour—and why its lessons matter today _

A large crowd gathers outside the General Motors plant in Oshawa,
April 9, 1937. The strike was a key moment in the fight for industrial
unionism in Canada and a significant event in the history of the
United Automobile Workers (UAW)., Photo courtesy the Oshawa Museum.

 

The current moment is an ominous one for the workers’ movement in
North America. In response to Trump’s tariffs and trade wars, there
has been a noticeable lack of class struggle perspectives or even
basic solidarity coming from labour leaders on both sides of the
border. The top leadership of some of the largest unions in the United
States, notably the United Auto Workers (UAW), the United Steelworkers
(USW), and the Teamsters Union, have embraced the tariffs, while, in
Canada, many unions have fallen into the “Team Canada” trap of
allying with the largest corporations and the state.

One of the main priorities of the now ascendant far-right is to
undermine workers’ collective power in order to better serve the
interests of capital. Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government
Efficiency, or “DOGE,” have terminated 30,000 federal employees,
ignoring their unions and their collective agreements. The recently
published _Global Rights Index_ for 2025, produced annually by the
International Trade Union Confederation, the world’s largest labour
federation, states that “the Donald Trump administration has taken a
wrecking ball to the collective labour rights of workers and brought
anti-union billionaires into the heart of policymaking.” Many
employers have followed suit, taking a hard line or refusing to
bargain with unions and aggressively resisting organizing drives. At
the same time, far-right politicians like Trump and Pierre
Poilievre pose as friends of workers
[[link removed]] while
camouflaging their true anti-union agenda.

Canada’s federal election on April 28 was yet another sobering
wake-up call for the left and the labour movement. While a Pierre
Poilievre government was avoided, the Conservatives did win a record
high share of the popular vote, at 41.3 percent, and made significant
inroads
[[link removed]] among
working class voters. The Conservative gains were the most startling
in the Windsor-Hamilton corridor, the former industrial heartland.
This is home to auto workers, steel workers, skilled trades, and
workers in many other sectors. The NDP lost all its seats in Windsor,
Essex County, and Hamilton and now has no MPs from Ontario. This was
the worst electoral outcome for the NDP since its founding in 1961. As
Sid Ryan, former president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, noted
in _Canadian Dimension_
[[link removed]],
the election result was “a catastrophe for the entire labour
movement.”

In North America, the workers’ movement has been stagnant for far
too long. Unions have seen a steady decline in membership, in
bargaining strength, in impact, and in political power. Since 1954,
union membership in the US has been declining steadily. Union density
reached a record overall low
[[link removed]] of
9.9 percent in 2024, and only 5.9 percent in the private sector. In
Canada, union density has declined to 30 percent of the overall
workforce and 15 percent in the private sector.

Before it descended into the morass of business unionism and embraced
social democratic gradualism, organized labour had a long history of
militant class struggle, direct action, and effective organizing both
north and south of what was, until recently, the world’s longest
non-militarized border.

Since its inception, the workers’ movement has grown in often
dramatic and sometimes unexpected surges. These historic moments, when
workers overcame their sense of powerlessness, brought about real
change. These periods of progress were often followed by renewed
offensives by employers and the state, forcing labour to constantly
fight to defend its hard-won gains. There is renewed interest in these
eras of union growth and militancy. They vividly demonstrate the
importance of class struggle perspectives, of uniting the whole class,
and of solidarity.

One period that stands out sharply is the 1930s: a time of dramatic
working class struggles and radicalization against a backdrop of
far-right ascendency and austerity. Against overwhelming odds and with
few resources, workers built new forms of organization—industrial
unions—as vehicles of class struggle, resistance and defiance.

Sam Gindin, former research director of the Canadian Auto Workers
(CAW), writes about the significance of the 1930s in his article
“Resuscitating the Working Class
[[link removed]]”:

When it comes to inspiring Canadian trade unionists, the 1930s stand
apart. Few narratives match the era’s dramatic sit-down strikes, the
on-to-Ottawa trek and the triumph of modern unionism. Moreover, the
1930s are not just an inspirational marker. It was then that
capitalism last faced a degree of economic uncertainty comparable to
the present and it was also at the beginning of that decade that
labour last experienced an identity crisis akin to what unions now
face.

Of the thousands of struggles waged by workers during the Great
Depression, a number have had an enduring impact. One notable example
is the dramatic sit-down strike by workers in Flint, Michigan, against
General Motors, in 1937, the eighth year of the Great Depression. This
was followed, within a few weeks, by workers in Oshawa, Ontario, going
on strike against GM.

The Flint and Oshawa workers were members of the recently founded
United Auto Workers (UAW), which held its first national convention in
1936. Previous auto unions, mainly organized by communists and
leftists, laid the basis for the UAW. In Canada, communists organized
the Workers’ Unity League (WUL), which pioneered industrial unionism
in many industries. These WUL unions included the Auto Workers
Industrial Union (AWIU). The WUL operated from 1929-36 before merging
into the new CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations).

Tony Leah has written a fascinating text about this period, _The
Truth About the ’37 Oshawa GM Strike_
[[link removed]],
recently published by Baraka Books. Leah is a long-time union activist
with extensive experience in bargaining, shop-floor representation,
labour education, and political mobilization. He worked at GM Oshawa
for almost 40 years and is a member of CAW Local 222. He has held many
positions at the local and the national union level. He also holds a
master’s degree in labour studies from McMaster University.

Based on extensive research and primary sources, Leah’s book is a
captivating reconstruction of a dramatic event and period in working
class history. Leah focuses on the roots of radical industrial
unionism, taking a “peoples’ history” approach to researching
and writing about the 1937 Oshawa strike. His book is a riveting
account of what was happening on the ground in Oshawa, on the shop
floor, in the workers’ frequent mass assemblies, and in the broader
community. He succeeds in capturing the class and power dynamics of
the time.

Leah describes the horrible working conditions in the auto plants,
where assembly workers were averaging about $600 a year in income. The
mammoth plants were generally filthy, unventilated, noisy, and unsafe
places. Workers endured irregular shifts, speed up, arbitrary wage
cuts, and long layoffs. “They were subject to relentless efforts to
intensify their work and were under constant observation by
supervisors who had total power to fire workers on the spot for any
reason.”

In the US, plants were often segregated by race as well as gender.
Women were in the lowest paying jobs such as sewing or sorting parts.
GM frequently used spies and thugs to try to intimidate workers.
Workers were not even allowed to talk during their lunch breaks, and
joining a union was a fireable offense.

The militancy of the new industrial unions like the UAW had dramatic
effects. The gains won by the unions made a significant difference in
the individual lives of members and the working class as a whole.
These unions improved workers’ wages, working conditions, and job
security. They gave workers a voice on the shop floor and in the
community. At a societal level, the new industrial unions advocated
for social programs and fought for the rights for workers and the
oppressed. They fought for racial and gender equality. They promoted
workers self-activity, class and political consciousness.

Union membership in the US grew from less than three million in 1933
to almost 15 million by 1945. Union growth in Canada lagged slightly
behind the US during this period. But, by the early 1950s, Canada’s
unionization rate had caught up to the US and then surpassed it
beginning in the 1960s with the organizing of the large public sector
unions.

The Great Depression

The 1930s were a turbulent and contradictory period which saw a
devastating global depression, and the rise of militarism and fascism.
It was also a decade which witnessed a heightened level of class
struggle.

In corporate circles in North America at the time, there was notable
sympathy for fascist ideals. Faced with a looming war against Nazi
Germany, many in elite circles favoured non-intervention. Government
and corporate bosses were much more worried about the “red menace”
than fascism.

The Great Depression began in the fall of 1929 and lasted for a
decade—one of most severe economic crises in the history of
capitalism. An eight-year drought that decimated the prairie economy
started the same year. The length and severity of this global economic
slump, which was preceded by a drop in world commodity prices, dealt a
devastating blow to workers, farmers, small businesses, and
communities. Factory closures, cuts to production, and job losses
soared. Homelessness, displacement, poverty, and hunger were all
widespread.

After 1929, the US ramped up its protectionist measures and world
trade dwindled. By 1933, Canada’s GNP had fallen by 42 percent and
30 percent of the workforce was unemployed. The unemployment rate
remained high in Canada until 1942. For those who still had a job,
wages were cut by as much as 40 percent, hours of employment were
irregular, and the conditions of work deteriorated. For many,
austerity and hardship continued during the war years.

Despite the hardship and despair of a seemingly endless depression,
working class people organized, mobilized and fought back on a massive
scale. For workers, the 1930s was a period of struggle, resilience,
and resolve.

Leah emphasizes the significance of “the particular moment in
history” when the Flint and Oshawa strikes took place. “Fascism
was on the rise and international rivalries were setting the stage for
a world war. The Western capitalist powers were trying to respond to
the deep economic crisis of the Depression, then in its eighth year.
Popular movements in opposition to the devastation wreaked by the
Depression, war, and fascism, were calling into question the
continuation of the capitalist system.”

Conditions in the early 1930s were ripe for mass radicalization.
Building on the experiences of the Canadian Labour Revolt
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in the period from 1917 to 1925, workers formed new radical unions and
used direct action to win recognition and contracts. Workers went on
strike at an astounding frequency, using new tactics such as sit-down
strikes and plant occupations. There were general strikes in multiple
cities. The jobless organized into Unemployed Workers’ Councils and
called for “wages for all.” People physically blocked evictions
and farm closures and organized rent strikes. There were frequent and
militant demonstrations and mass rallies demanding relief and
government assistance. Leftist were able to channel collective anger
into prominent campaigns for social reforms. In the US, there were
public campaigns against Jim Crow laws, racism, and white supremacy.

The profound shock of the economic collapse led many to question the
basics and rationale of capitalism. There had been difficult periods
before for workers, such as the 1919-1921 depression, which fuelled
the Winnipeg General Strike and a strike wave in 1919, but nothing
like this.

Many were radicalized during this period, not just workers, but also
artists, writers, intellectuals, and professionals. Many became
communists, socialists, left-leaning social democrats, or anarchists.
After the pointless carnage of the First World War, and then the Great
Depression, people were looking for an alternative social order, a
better world than wage slavery.

Leah writes that: “Capitalism as an economic/political system was
increasingly called into question. Communist movements gained in
strength and influence as workers looked for alternatives to improve
their conditions of work and life.”

Job losses often hit men the hardest and the longest during the
depression. Women were somewhat more insulated because they were
employed in more stable sectors such as health services, teaching,
domestic and clerical work. Some men abandoned their families. Others
left in search of work. Women’s unpaid workload increased
significantly as they were expected to maintain the household and the
family during hard times with much less income.

Throughout the 1930s, women were prominent in the wave of activism and
the campaigns for relief and social reform. Much of the community
organizing was done by women. They provided strike support and
organized protests, notably in both the Flint and Oshawa strikes. The
new industrial unions were open to women and they made up a
significant percentage of the membership. These new CIO unions fought
for equality for women workers, including equal pay.

There were countless struggles in the garment, textile and
clothing-manufacturing sectors. The bitter Dressmakers’ Strike
[[link removed]] in
Toronto in 1931 lasted for two and a half months, during which the
1,500 women strikers endured assaults, arrests, and jail. In 1937,
there were sit-down strikes in department stores, restaurants and
hotels in the US. Five-and-dime sales clerks occupied their work
sites.

The impact on youth growing up during the Depression was severe. In
many parts of North America, schools reduced the length of the school
year, or even closed altogether. Out of desperation, masses of
unemployed youth and workers rode the rails, crisscrossing the country
in search of work or relief. Shantytowns proliferated across the
country.

Relief programs in Canada were paltry where they did exist. Single men
were not eligible for any type of relief. Both the Conservatives and
Liberals did not even see it as a responsibility of the federal
government to intervene or to provide any help. The provinces,
municipalities and private charities were expected to do that.

In his 2014 essay, “Rethinking the Great Depression
[[link removed]],”
historian Edward Whitcomb states that: “two of the most important
questions in Canadian history are why Ottawa did not do more to deal
with the suffering and why it did almost nothing to address the causes
of the crisis.” Whitcomb notes that the federal government’s
“wartime spending just a few years later jumped to over six times as
much” as it spent on Depression relief.

Conservative Prime Minister R.B. Bennett, elected in 1930, did
introduce make-work projects and prison-like work camps which were
supervised by the military. The camps were often in remote locations
and had terrible living conditions. In British Columbia, communists
organized the Relief Camp Workers’ Union and took their protests
demanding better relief and support to Vancouver. From there, they
organized the On-to-Ottawa Trek which was brutally repressed by police
and the RCMP in Regina in what was called a “police riot.” Police
shot into a large crowd of strikers in Regina, injuring hundreds, and
arresting 130. Two people were killed in the carnage.

At the beginning of the Depression, there were no national standards
for labour rights or social programs in North America. In the US, the
struggles of the early 1930s created mass pressure for the programs
and reforms rolled out by FDR starting in 1933 as part of the New
Deal. For a variety of reasons, both jurisdictional and ideological,
the Canadian state was slower to pass labour legislation, but
eventually did in 1944 and 1948.

The rise of industrial unionism

The most dramatic and successful development in the workers’
movement in North America during the 1930s was the surge of industrial
unionism to the forefront. Previously there had only been a few unions
formed on an industrial basis, most notably miners. Workers in
industry were often split into a dozen or more separate craft unions.
Craft unions often excluded people based on race, sex, or even
politics. In the challenging period of a depression, it became obvious
that all of those employed in one industry should be united in one
powerful union in order to increase the strength and effectiveness of
workers’ collective power.

Scholar and activist Sam Gindin, who served as research director of
the Canadian Auto Workers from 1974–2000, describes the significance
of this turn:

Craft unionism, which was almost exclusively concerned with skilled
workers, had exhausted its role and the mass of workers (the
‘riffraff’ as one craft official referred to the semi-skilled and
unskilled) moved to a form of organization that united workers across
skills, gender and—especially significant in the United
States—race. But no less important, this did not just happen; the
union rebirth cannot be understood apart from its intimate link to the
role of the radical left, communists in particular.

There had been previous attempts to organize workers on a class
basis—the Knights of Labour, the Western Federation of Miners, the
Industrial Workers’ of the World (IWW), the One Big Union (OBU), and
the “red unions” of the Workers’ Unity league (WUL). All of
these labour centrals had storied histories and notable successes. But
the emergence of the industrial unions in the 1930s was qualitatively
different.

Much of the union organizing in the early 1930s was community-based,
grassroots and egalitarian. There were a massive number of strikes,
many of them militant, with workers using new forms of organizing and
radical tactics. Between 1930 and 1941, there were 27,000 recorded
work stoppages in the US, while many more went unrecorded. _“We are
All Leaders”: The Alternative Unionism of the Early 1930s_
[[link removed]], edited by
Staughton Lynd, offers a glimpse into the plethora of organizing
initiatives.

The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was formed in 1935 and
began aggressively organizing the masses of “unskilled” and
“semi-skilled” workers. The emergence of the CIO led to
unparalleled growth of unions in mass-production industries in auto,
steel, rubber, oil, chemical, textile, transport, and other sectors.
Labour historian Eugene Forsey wrote that the emergence of the CIO
“lit a flame” for the labour movement.

Industrial unionism proved to be a more effective vehicle of
struggling against the boss. The early CIO unions were fearless,
militant, and creative. Workers used new tactics. A favourite was the
sit-down strike where workers would occupy the plant to stop
production and to keep out management and strikebreakers. The
Unemployed Councils and the women’s auxiliaries provided picket duty
and strike support. Workers frequently defied court injunctions and
often battled with the police and company thugs. Workers reached out
and built community and international support. Sometimes these
struggles escalated to general strikes in places such as Minneapolis,
Toledo, San Francisco, Seattle, and Stratford, Ontario.

Leah writes:

Although there were earlier attempts to establish industrial unionism,
the work of Communists in the late 1920s and early 1930s made its
success possible. Combined with this was a militant approach of
organizing workers to exercise their collective power against
employers… Militant actions, including strikes, sit-down strikes,
and the other ways in which workers organized to demonstrate their
power at the point of production were essential to the establishment
of the UAW in the U.S., and were important in the success in Oshawa as
well.

The 1930s were a period of prominence for communists, leftists, and
radicals. They were at the forefront of many of the most dramatic and
militant strikes. Communists took the lead in organizing among those
who had previously been ignored by established trade unions—the
great mass of so-called unskilled industrial workers, the ethnic and
minority communities, newcomers, Blacks, women, and the jobless.

‘Reds’ in the US and Canada were recognized as being amongst the
best and most effective fighters for the interests of the working
class. They were the main advocates pushing for the industrial union
strategy. Embedded in the working class, they were often the best
organizers. They were motivated and committed enough to do the
long-term work of building a core of activists on the shop floor or in
the community. The communist parties showed what a relatively small
and highly disciplined organization of revolutionaries could
accomplish.

There was also an upsurge in anti-capitalist organizations beyond the
scope of the communist parties. Former Wobblies and anarchists were
still prominent and active in many struggles. There were radicals from
many other tendencies in and around the Socialist Party. Trotskyists
played a pivotal role in a number of labour struggles, notably the
Teamsters’ strike and the general strike in Minneapolis in 1934.

Spurred on by the inability of the state to offer any real solution to
the Great Depression, there were fervent debates going on in left-wing
and workers’ circles. In both the US and Canada, there were
discussions about organizing a workers’ party, forming labour-farmer
alliances, carrying out independent political action, and fighting for
socialism and against fascism.

The level of repression by the state and police forces was brutal
during the 1930s. The threat of violence always hung in the air. In
his 1972 book, _Labor’s Giant Step: The First Twenty Years of the
CIO_
[[link removed]],
Art Preis wrote: “Almost all picket lines were crushed with bloody
violence by police, deputies, troops and armed professional strike
breakers.”

The Memorial Day Massacre, May, 1937, where police attacked strikers
outside Republic Steel in Chicago. Photo courtesy the Chicago History
Museum.

In 1937, steelworkers in Chicago—Black, Latino and white—were on
strike against Republic Steel. Union members, their families, and
supporters gathered peacefully for a Memorial Day picnic and then
planned to march to the steel mill. Chicago police blocked their path,
threw tear gas canisters, and fired bullets into the crowd. About 100
people were shot, most of them in the back. Ten were killed. A
coroners’ inquest later ruled that the police action was
“justifiable homicide.” This type of state violence with impunity
was common throughout the 1930s.

In their 1969 study, “American Labor Violence: Its Causes, Character
and Outcome [[link removed]],” Philip
Ross and Philip Taft stated that the US had the bloodiest and most
violent labour history of any industrialized nation in the world.

On numerous occasions, the Canadian state also demonstrated its
willingness to rely upon its armed wing to serve the interest of
capital and repress workers’ struggles, as in the case of the
On-to-Ottawa trek mentioned earlier. Both countries routinely harassed
and imprisoned labour leaders and deported those who were “foreign
born.”

Barbara Roberts, in her book _Whence They Came: Deportations from
Canada 1900-1935_ [[link removed]],
documents how many municipalities asked the federal government to
deport immigrant workers simply because they had lost their jobs. Up
to 18,000 people were deported on the grounds that they had become
“public charges.”

Section 98 was enacted by the Canadian government in 1919 in response
to the period of labour unrest which culminated in the Winnipeg
General Strike. This law, which allowed strike leaders to be charged
with sedition, remained in force until 1936. In 1931, eight members of
the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) were tried, convicted and
sentenced to five years imprisonment. The CPC was declared unlawful
and was banned from 1931-1936. Hundreds of immigrant party members
were deported.

The 1937 Flint and Oshawa strikes against GM

On December 30, 1936, a group of auto workers defiantly took over
GM’s Fisher Body Plant in Flint, Michigan. This was the beginning of
the dramatic Flint Sit-Down Strike, which lasted for 44 days, and
spread to 150,000 auto workers in other cities.

The UAW was in a relatively weak position before the strike and the
odds seemed to be stacked against them. Leah quotes media coverage
in _Life_ magazine before the Flint strike, which characterized the
UAW as “puny” and “one of the least influential labor unions.”

The tactical decision to engage in a sit-down strike in Flint was
brilliant. A small number of workers stopped production, occupied the
plant, and kept out management and strikebreakers. In a classic picket
line, they would have been more vulnerable. By utilizing a plant
occupation they were more in control.

Leah references a fascinating account of the Flint Sit-Down Strike
written by union organizer Walter Linder:

Once inside they set about organizing one of the most effective strike
apparatuses ever seen in the United States. Immediately after securing
the plant, they held a mass meeting and elected a committee of
stewards and a strike strategy committee of five to govern the strike.
… Then committees were organized: food, police, information,
sanitation and health, safety, ‘kangaroo court,’ entertainment,
education, and athletics. … The supreme body remained the 1,200 who
stayed to hold the plant, the rest being sent outside to perform other
tasks. Two meetings of the entire plant were held daily at which any
change could be made to the administration.

On January 11, 1937, heat was turned off to the occupied plant and the
Flint police, armed with guns and tear gas, attacked in full riot
gear. They tried to force their way in and tried to stop the delivery
of food and supplies. The strikers were able to repel attacks by the
police, but 14 workers were shot and wounded. After the police were
forced to retreat, more than 4,000 National Guard troops then
surrounded the plant and set up machine guns. The workers were
defiant. They ignored two court injunctions and seized yet another GM
plant.

The Flint strikers relied heavily on outside support. The Women’s
Emergency Brigade, who armed themselves with clubs, played a pivotal
role of providing picket duty and support activities during the
sit-down strike. A women’s auxiliary helped with overall organizing.

Michigan National Guardsmen set up a machine gun on the road leading
to the Fisher Body Plant, Flint, Michigan, 1937. Photo courtesy the
Walter P. Reuther Library.

Even though the UAW represented only a small number of auto workers
before the Flint strike, they relied upon the discontent, militancy,
and solidarity of the rank-and-file across the industry and beyond.
The impact of the Flint strike was huge and it quickly expanded to
other plants and other cities in the US and Canada. Within a few
weeks, there were 87 sit-down strikes in Detroit alone. There were a
remarkable 477 recorded sit-down strikes across the US in 1937
involving over 500,000 workers.

On February 11, GM agreed to recognize the UAW as the sole bargaining
agent for its workers. The union movement now had a renewed
confidence. The following month, auto workers at Chrysler used a
sit-down strike to win a union contract. Within a few years, union
agreements had been signed with GM, Ford, Chrysler, and the rubber
companies, followed by the packinghouse, textile and electrical
industries. The UAW had grown from 30,000 to 500,000 members in a
matter of months.

Leah writes: “After forty-four days, the sit-downers achieved the
seemingly impossible—an agreement by GM to recognize the UAW and
bargain a contract with them. It would be difficult to exaggerate the
importance of the victory and its impact on workers in the United
States, Canada and internationally.”

The Ford Company was the last holdout and it used brute force and
thugs to try to keep the union out. In the infamous “Battle of the
Overpass [[link removed]],” on
May 26, 1937, Ford’s “security service” and Dearborn police
brutally attacked UAW members who were peacefully handing out
leaflets. This assault was extensively covered by the press and Ford
was eventually pressured into signing a union contract.

On April 8, 1937, less than two months after the end of the Flint
strike, almost 4,000 workers went on strike against GM in Oshawa. As
Leah relates, this strike, which lasted for 10 days, and won
recognition for the union, is also regarded as a landmark struggle
that helped pave the way for the expansion of the UAW and other CIO
unions in Canada.

As in Flint, the odds initially seemed to be against the workers. They
were organized into the newly charted Local 222 of the UAW, up against
the wealthiest corporation in the world. GM dominated Oshawa, just as
it did in Flint.

There was no dues check-off in the 1930s, so unions had few resources.
Sam Gindin argues that this “force the union to find more creative
ways to gain members—the GM Oshawa local, not confident in its
ability to take on GM, attracted workers through bowling leagues and
hunting clubs—but when the opportunity to have a steady income came,
workers and their unions generally opted to lock that in.” He
continues:

The postwar struggle for unionization in Canada led at Ford to a
dramatic shutdown in 1945 and an arbitrated ruling (the Rand Formula)
that offered unions the dues check-off (“union security,” as it
was dubbed). This was generally hailed as a victory by unionists, soon
became a pattern in major industries, and was subsequently enshrined
in law. But in exchange, workers were to give up the right to strike
during the life of the agreement and the union was to take
responsibility for policing that ban.

In addition to facing a hostile press, the Oshawa workers were
confronting Ontario Premier Mitch Hepburn, who was determined to crush
the union. Hepburn had mobilized 100 RCMP officers, an OPP squad, and
400 “special constables” dubbed “Hepburn’s Hussars” to be
sent to Oshawa. He claimed that it was necessary to do so because he
had a secret report that the CIO was working “hand-in glove with
international communism.”

Leah’s analysis of the Oshawa strike reveals “a battle where rank
and file workers and shop floor militants were in charge.” He
examines in detail the role of women, something largely ignored in
other accounts of this strike. He looks at the particular historical
conjuncture, a period of intense class conflict, when workers’ class
consciousness and levels of resistance were high, and when workers
were prepared to take militant action. He gives credit to communists
and leftists for laying the ground work for the growth and expansion
of industrial unionism.

Leah contributes not only extensive research but also his perspective
as a rank-and-file union activist who is intimately aware of the
demands of militant class struggle. The Oshawa UAW workers had 300
shop stewards in a workforce of 3,700, with a high level of shop-floor
activism. Leah highlights the importance of the steward system: “The
stewards built enough shop-floor power that they forced management to
resolve workers’ grievances—even before the strike, and thus
before there was a collective agreement.”

Leah writes: “Solidarity was enhanced by ensuring that women workers
were represented on the GM bargaining committee and that women,
whether workers or relatives of workers, were engaged in providing
support for the strike through the establishment of a Ladies’
Auxiliary (an organization for women partners or relatives of workers
that engaged in strike support activities).”

A particular aim of Leah’s book is to counter the conventional
narrative of the Oshawa strike established by historian Irving Abella
and others. Leah shows how Abella downplayed or ignored the very
factors which made the 1937 strike a success—the organizing by Reds,
the extensive rank-and-file involvement, the role of women strikers,
the high level of community support, and the tangible support from the
International UAW. Abella disparaged the role played by the
international UAW in an article published in _Canadian Dimension_ in
March-April 1972, titled “The CIO: Reluctant Invaders.” While
promoting a Canadian nationalist agenda, Abella often erased or
glossed over the radical origins of the labour movement.

Reclaiming workers’ history

In keeping with the subtitle of his book, “They Made Cars and They
Made Plans: Reds, the Rank and File, and International Solidarity
Unionized GM,” Leah affirms:

The achievements of the workers in Oshawa were the result of the
incredible solidarity and mobilization of the rank and file members,
the establishment of radically democratic structures of
decision-making, the broad support from workers and community, and the
significant benefits of being part of the radically disruptive
international UAW.

Leah highlights the factors which made the early CIO industrial unions
so unique and so successful, including the power of the
“one-plant-one-union” approach as well as the emphasis on
organizing workers as a class, and not separating them based on skill
or trade. He emphasizes the way that the new industrial unions
conducted their affairs in a democratic and accountable manner with a
system of shop stewards, plant committees, and shop-steward councils,
all democratically elected. And he documents how the unions
consciously strived to accommodate and welcome all, regardless of
race, ethnic background, gender or political persuasion. Leah
highlights the emphasis on rank-and-file involvement and engagement,
the openness to radical, left-wing perspectives and leadership, the
centrality of direct action and mass struggle, and the importance of
building solidarity, locally and globally.

It is refreshing to read an account of working class history where the
role of Reds and leftists is acknowledged as a central one.

The gains of those dramatic struggles of the 1930s and 1940s, such as
the Oshawa strike, include many of the things that working class
people now take for granted: union recognition, collective bargaining
rights, a minimum wage, unemployment insurance, social assistance for
those in need, labour standards, health and safety regulations, and
pensions.

GM Oshawa Strike 1937. Photo courtesy the City of Toronto Archives,
Fonds 1266, Item 44146.

Radical repression

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, communists and radicals became the
targets of orchestrated purges from the labour movement. These purges
involved collaboration between corporations, the state, the police,
and right-wing forces within labour. Radicals were effectively excised
from nearly all of the CIO industrial unions, while unions which still
had left-wing leaderships were forced out of labour federations. In
the US, the _Taft-Hartley Act_ of 1947 prohibited many of the
tactics used successfully by CIO unions and forced union officials to
sign anti-communist pledges.

In Canada, social democrats in the CCF played a very significant role
in ousting radicals. In a remarkably candid and exhaustive manner,
Irving Abella documented these purges of the left in his 1973
book _Nationalism, Communism and Canadian Labour: The CIO, the
Communist Party, and the Canadian Congress of Labour 1935-1956_.

John Stanton’s 1979 book _Life and Death of the Canadian Seamen’s
Union_
[[link removed]] illustrates
the underhanded tactics adopted in the purging of radicals from the
labour movement. The Canadian Seamen’s Union (CSU) was organized in
1936 by a few dozen communist and militant seamen. Within three years,
the CSU represented 9,000 workers, 90 percent of the merchant seamen
working the Great Lakes and ocean ports. The CSU was a highly
effective and militant union and a thorn in the side of the half-dozen
companies which controlled Great Lakes navigation. In the late 1940s,
the Canadian and US governments, in conjunction with the shipping
bosses, collaborated with American Federation of Labour (AFL)
leadership in a campaign to crush the CSU. They brought in the
Seafarers International Union (SIU), an affiliate of the AFL, headed
by known gangster Hal Banks. In 1949, a gang of armed SIU thugs
travelled by train from Montréal and attacked a CSU picket line in
Halifax, beating many with axe handles and shooting eight workers.
Barely 15 years after it was first formed, the CSU was crushed and
many of its members were blacklisted, never to work in the industry
again. According to Stanton’s account, both the Canadian government
and the RCMP collaborated with and protected the criminals of the SIU.
Just as during the ignominious Cold War period in the US, some top
labour bureaucrats collaborated with the State Department and the CIA
in suppressing popular movements and trade unions around the world.

In 1944, the AFL created the Free Trade Union Committee (FTUC)
designed to create divisions within labour. By 1949, the FTUC was
working with and receiving funding from the CIA to try to split the
European labour movement into rival ideological camps. This
anti-communist work of the AFL expanded into Asia, Africa and Latin
America.

Several authors have documented the collusion of top labour
bureaucrats with US foreign policy objectives. The latest is Jeff
Schuhrke, author of _Blue Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US
Labor’s Global Anticommunist Crusade_
[[link removed]].
Schuhrke writes:

The same twentieth-century labor movement that brought a measure of
economic security and personal dignity to millions of working people
also participated in some of the most shameful and destructive
episodes in the history of U.S. imperialism. For decades, trade
unionists in the United States have struggled to make sense of this,
reluctant to discuss or even think about it. … It is long past time
for a thorough reckoning.

This marginalization and silencing of radical voices within the labour
movement had a devastating impact. It was the beginning of a steady
decline for organized labour. It led to a more docile labour movement,
accommodating of bosses and the state. Unions became much more reliant
upon full-time paid staff and a growing labour bureaucracy, and far
less on the rank-and-file. Unions began promoting a very narrow
concept of political action centred mainly on the parliamentary arena
and voting, every few years, for the NDP in Canada or the Democratic
Party in the US.

As Leah writes:

The commitment to democratic and militant unionism… was eventually
undermined and largely destroyed by the adoption of anti-communism by
most of the union leadership during the Cold War years. The
destruction of left leadership in much of the labour movement was
followed by the era of concessions, team concept, and subservience to
the corporate capitalist class, as the gains of workers came under
increasing attack by corporations and government.

The Great Depression only came to an end with the advent of a vast
military conflict and the development of a war economy. During the
Second World War, 40 percent of manufacturing capacity in North
America was war related. In Canada, a surprising number of state-owned
corporations were established to ramp up production in shipbuilding,
aircraft, automotive, guns, heavy ammunition and a myriad of other
industries and sectors. One of those government-owned entities was
“Wartime Housing Limited,” set up in 1941 to rapidly build 46,000
houses for workers and later returning veterans. An obvious question
is why this massive industrial capacity could not have been used at
the height of the Depression, or in peace time.

Today we are seeing eerie echoes of the 1930s as the world descends
into a period of instability punctuated by economic crises, military
conflicts and rising global inequality. Right-wing populism,
militarism, and fascism are on the rise once again. We’re witnessing
increasing nationalism, protectionism, the scapegoating of migrants
and newcomers, and mass deportations.

The 2025 _Global Rights Index_ states: “We are witnessing a coup
against democracy, a concerted, sustained assault by state authorities
and the corporate underminers of democracy on the rights and welfare
of workers… This attack is orchestrated by far-right demagogues
backed by billionaires who are determined to reshape the world in
their own interests at the expense of ordinary working people.”

There is an urgent and pressing need to revitalize the labour
movement. An effective fightback strategy would be muted without the
central role of a militant workers’ movement. Such a movement is
needed to defend all of those under attack—immigrants, refugees,
precarious workers, trans and queer people, racialized people, and the
Palestinian people, as well as workers—and to articulate a different
vision of how the world could be.

There are occasional stirrings that show the potential and possibility
of renewal. In the US, during the May Day Strong demonstrations,
hundreds of thousands of workers and allies in 1,600 cities reclaimed
the historic significance of the day to protest against Trump’s
reactionary agenda. But much more needs to be done to revitalize the
labour movement. In this context it is helpful to learn more about the
history of the workers’ movement and the dramatic struggles of the
1930s. We need to reclaim that history, just as Leah’s book does,
and draw inspiration from the radical dimensions of the labour
movement.

As Tony Leah reminds us: “Radical industrial unionism requires
radicals—people who understand that capitalism is a system designed
to rob us and needs to be replaced. The successes of 1937 would not
have been possible without the contribution of this outlook, and it is
the ‘missing ingredient’ that we need in the labour movement
today.”

_KEN THEOBALD is an activist and community worker in Toronto. He
previously worked in the global education/international cooperation
sector and was a board member with the Canadian Council for
International Co-operation (CCIC), now called Co-operation Canada._

_CANADIAN DIMENSION_ is the longest-standing voice of the left in
Canada. For more than half-a-century, CD has provided a forum for
lively and radical debate where red meets green, socialists take on
social democrats, Indigenous voices are heard, activists report from
every corner of the country, and the latest books and films are
critically reviewed. Our dedicated and longstanding readership is
comprised of activists, organizers, academics, economists, workers,
trade unionists, feminists, environmentalists, Indigenous peoples, and
members of the LGBTQ2 community.

_Canadian Dimension_ draws on a very wide spectrum of writers on the
left. Some of the earliest contributors included Charles Taylor,
George Grant, Gad Horowitz, C.B. Macpherson, Kari Levitt, John
Warnock, James Laxer, Leo Panitch, Mel Watkins and Reg Whitaker. More
recently, frequent contributors have included the likes of Pamela
Palmater, Michal Rozworski, James Wilt, André Frappier, Bryan Palmer,
Sam Gindin, Andrea Levy, Peter Kulchyski, Yves Engler, John-Henry
Harter and Ian Angus.

History

Founded in 1963 by Cy Gonick, _Canadian Dimension_ was published
from the beginning in Winnipeg, home of the famous 1919 General
Strike. In its earliest years, the magazine was produced in Gonick’s
basement with the help of family and a core group of volunteers. It
soon attracted some brilliant young writers to its pages and a very
talented layout designer.

In 1975 a collective took over editorial responsibility. Although its
composition has changed many times, and includes members from around
the globe, a Winnipeg-based group still functions as the hub of the
organization. The dramatic change in the very definition and scope of
left politics since the inception of the magazine is reflected in the
evolution of _Dimension_. Topics that were, in the past, often
marginalized by mainstream left politics—the environment, the
family, the division of labour in the home, food, community
development, coalition building, gender and racial inequalities—now
feature in a significant portion of our content.

_Dimension_ remains what it has always been—an independent forum
for left-wing political thought and discussion—including just about
the entire range of what passes for the left in Canada. In 2019 we
decided to take CD digital, drawing the curtain on 56 years in print.
We made this decision to embrace CD’s digital platform as a
springboard to a lively role in the 21st century resurgence of radical
socialist thinking and organizing, and to express confidence in
ourselves and in the efforts of numerous others to revitalize the
political life of our country.

We still offer the in-depth analytical pieces that have been our
hallmark for more than half a century, but going digital will enable
CD to be more responsive to the fast pace of left debate and intervene
more quickly in ongoing discussions. A digital future for CD just
makes sense, and focusing on this platform will better allow us to
achieve CD’s primary goal: to spread socialist ideas and thereby
change the world.

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