...the Crowsnest Pass had produced a socialist workers' movement that seemed resilient and united, and that had strong ties to the communist movement. Our objective is to explain why the socialist workers' movement on the British Columbia (BC) side of the border proved to be much more resilient in the face of Cold War pressures than its companion movement in Alberta (AB). The study concludes that the difference in cross-border resilience was largely due to the successful pursuit of labour unity politics in the BC Crowsnest and to the collapse of a labour unity strategy in the Alberta Crowsnest. The Cold War represented the strengthening of reactionary elements within dominant social groups (locally and nationally), and open ed the door for aggressive attacks against militant working-class politics and left-wing movements. The comparative methodology and localized focus of our research demonstrates that such periods of intense struggle do not lead inevitably to the defeat of workers' movements. However, the success of leftist resistance to reactionary offensives depends, then, as now, on working-class unity around struggles, organizations, and public figures that enjoy widespread public sympathy and loyalty.

There is a significant body of scholarship on working-class politics in Canada during the Cold War. The key works, however, have concentrated on national or provincial events and on the political struggles within labour federations, major unions, and political parties. (1) While there are a few interesting memoirs of Cold War politics in Local Unions, there is an absence of detailed research on the ways that working-class politics in particular geographic locales were affected by the Cold War. (2) This type of study is necessary not only to recover the lived experiences of workers in different communities during these years, but also to explain how local processes influenced the character of working-class politics in the Cold War. Despite the omnipotence often attributed to the reactionary political forces of the early Cold War years, these forces were never mechanically superimposed on a given locale; rather they were mediated through local political forces and their impact was modified by the experience of particular working-class struggles. (3) As Doreen Massey asserts, the relative degree of influence of social processes operating on different spatial scales must be investigated rather than assumed, just as it is necessary to study the ways that "smaller scale processes operate in articulation with wider ones." The empirical and theoretical challenge confronting studies such as this one "is not only to assert the importance of the local level but to analyse its articulation into a spatially multifarious set of forces." (4)

In neglecting local processes and workers' lived experiences, scholars have necessarily disregarded the constituency branches of political parties and their relationships to local workers' movements. One consequence of this neglect is that generalizations about the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and Labour Progressive Party (LPP) during the early Cold War years continue to be replicated in the historical record without qualification or engagement with a range of evidence. A most unfortunate aspect of these generalizations is that political activists are characterized as if party affiliation tells us everything we need to know about them; no attention is paid to local circumstances or activists' strategic initiatives in those circumstances. For instance, some recent publications have carried on the tradition of harshly judging Communists in the early Cold War, even questioning whether they were legitimate socialists. Concomitant with this is a tendency to uncritically sanitize the actions of the CCF . (5) There is also continuing dispute about the degree to which the wartime policies of the Communist Party (CPC) restrained workers' struggles. To address the validity of existing generalizations, much more historical research needs to be done to unravel the dynamics of CCF-LPP relations in particular locales and to ascertain the role of Communist workers in wartime struggles. Our research setting is particularly important in this regard, since, as we detail in the next section, at war's end the Crowsnest Pass was one of the few areas of Canada where the LPP had considerable political support.

Case Study Design

Our theoretical interest is in the resilience of socialist workers' movements during the early years of the Cold War in Canada. One empirical approach to this subject is to select cases that represent very strong socialist workers' movements at the end of World War II on the presumption that they will have the best chance to exhibit resilience. Both the Alberta and BC Crowsnest movements fit this criterion. These two cases are also interesting because one movement was very resilient (BC) and one suffered an electoral collapse (Alberta). Finally, it is easier to isolate the causal factors in this divergence because the two cases are geographically adjacent, involve the same dominant industrial base and labour process, and are part of the same union.

Although we can justify the utility of the two cases on theoretical grounds, we did not begin our research with this logic in mind. Indeed, our initial research stemmed from curiosity about what happened to the left in the Alberta Crowsnest Pass between the 1944 provincial election, when the labour unity candidate (the respected Communist mayor of Blairmore, Enoch Williams) was narrowly defeated, and the surprise election of Garth Turcott (Alberta's first New Democratic Party MLA), in a by-election in Pincher Creek-Crowsnet in 1966. Through our study of primary sources on the Alberta Crowsnest Pass as well as our reading of the literature on labour during the Cold War, we developed an understanding of the theoretical import of this case as well as an appreciation of the need to carry out a parallel study of developments in the BC Crowsnest. Therefore, our research fits the theoretical case approach described by John Walton: "The processes of coming to grips with a particular empirical instance, of reflecting on what it is a case of, and contrasting it with other case models, are all practical steps towards constructing theoretical interpretations." (6)

This article compares the resilience of the two socialist workers' movements between 1945 and 1958, a period that encompasses all of the main events of the early Cold War as well as the rapid decline in the market for railway steam coal. The remainder of this section provides background details on the workers' movements that existed on either side of the border in 1945.

At the end of World War II, the Crowsnest Pass was a major producer of steam coal for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The five mining companies in the area operated a number of underground mines, some of which had been in operation for over twenty years, and others which had only recently been developed. In addition, to keep up with the high demand for coal during the war, the companies had started to strip mine coal at places where the seams outcropped on mountainsides. At war's end there were approximately 1,750 working members in the 3 Alberta Crowsnest Locals of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), while the 2 BC Crowsnest Locals had approximately 750 additional working members. These miners and their families made up the majority of the population in a series of five tightly bunched communities in Alberta, and three communities in BC (two side-by-side in the Pass itself and a third on the banks of the nearby Elk River).

The two BC Crowsnest Union Locals (Fernie and Michel) made up Sub-District 8 of District 18 of the UMWA. The three Alberta Crowsnest Locals (based in Coleman, Blairmore, and Bellevue) made up Sub-District 5 of District 18. Although geographically proximate (today it takes less than an hour to drive from Bellevue in the east to Fernie in the west of the Pass), the two Sub-Districts were somewhat distinctive, partly because there were different mine operators on each side of the provincial border and, consequently, different histories of workers' struggles, but also because provincial politics were so different between Alberta and BC. (7)

Four aspects of socialist politics in the Crowsnest Pass deserve mention. First, unlike the situation in most places in Canada, on the Alberta side of the Pass the LPP was the stronger of the two leftist parties. In the 1945 federal election, the LPP candidate was the president of the Blairmore Local of the UMWA; he gained the largest share of Pass votes in a five-party race, winning 37 per cent of the 3,646 ballots cast. (8) In comparison, the CCF candidate, an outsider to the Pass, finished third with thirteen per cent of the vote. Second, on the BC side of the border the two leftist parties were much more evenly balanced. In the same election the LPP candidate, Harvey Murphy, a well known Communist organizer who had helped reestablish a union at Michel-Natal in the 1930s, won 29 per cent of the 2,890 ballots cast. In comparison, the CCF candidate, the Reverend James Matthews of Fernie, who had also run for the CCF in the 1941 national election, won 33 per cent of the vote. (9) Third, on both sides of the b order the left had experienced considerable electoral success in the years preceding the Cold War. In the provincial constituency of Fernie in BC, the long time socialist and Boer War veteran, Thomas Uphill, had been elected continuously since 1920 as the candidate of the Fernie and District Labour Party (FDLP). Uphill was very friendly with the Communists throughout the Pass, a point that infuriated the anti-communist leadership of the BC CCF. (10) In Alberta, Communists and their supporters had controlled the town of Blairmore's council and school board since the mid- 1930s, as well as the village of Frank's local government. Furthermore, as mentioned above, Blairmore's Communist mayor, Enoch Williams, had almost been elected to the Alberta legislature in 1944. Fourth, labour unity politics in the Crowsnest were rooted in the struggles of coal miners and their families, and therefore never countenanced unity with pro-capitalist parties, even at moments such as the mid-1940s when the national leadership of t he CPC called for such an alliance, On both sides of the border, labour unity meant the unity of labour unions and socialist parties. (11)

At war's end, therefore, there were strong, indigenous socialist workers' movements in both sections of the Crowsnest Pass. These movements had matured during a half-century of struggles in the coal mines and in miners' communities. The ascendance of the CPC-LPP to a position of political pre-eminence in the region is tied to the peculiarities of militant union and socialist political organizing in the Pass. This dates back to the late 19th century when the militant Western Federation of Miners (WFM) organized the area, especially on the BC side. The WFM represented miners on both sides of the border until 1903, when the UMWA moved in. After World War I, and in the early 1920s, the area became a hotbed of support for the One Big Union. Politically, the area had also been a stronghold for the Socialist Party of Canada and its left wing, whose local militants went over to the CPC in their majority in the early 1920s. This gave local Communists a long-standing purchase on support and loyalty within the area that was not available to the CCF, which was not founded until 1932. Communist activists were deeply rooted in the region's history and working-class culture, although the same can be said for some of the anti-communist elements of the workers' movement. (12)

As a consequence, where leaders of the Crowsnest workers' movements were members or sympathizers of the LPP, this hardly meant that they slavishly followed a party line dictated by provincial, national, or international leaders. Their leadership depended upon understanding the complex realities of class struggle in the local area and keeping in close touch with the needs and desires of the coal mining working class. For instance, throughout the 1942-45 period, the national LPP leadership opposed strikes in the interests of maximizing wartime production, but Communists in the Crowsnest Pass were active organizers in the continent-wide strike of coal miners' in November 1943, in the September-October 1945 strike in District 18 over inadequate meat rations, and in numerous wildcat strikes over local issues. (13) These cases thus afford the opportunity to study the impact of Cold War processes on workers' movements with long socialist traditions that were grounded in the history of struggles in the Crowsnest Pass coal mines.

Research Questions and Organization

Our interest in the resilience of these two socialist workers' movements between 1945 and 1958 encompasses a number of dimensions. The first concerns support for the Communists within the workers' movements: at what point did the LPP experience a significant decline in its electoral support, was the decline similar on both sides of the border, and did the decline reflect a drop in party membership and activism? Do structural or political factors explain the decline in Communist support in the Crowsnest Pass? Secondly, was there an overall decline in support for socialist political candidates in the provincial and federal elections between 1945 and 1958? As in the first question and for all subsequent questions, we desire to know whether the pattern was the same in Alberta and BC. Relatedly, did the CCF benefit from LPP decline? What factors account for the decline or persistence in support for socialist candidates? Thirdly, did Cold War pressures affect miners' willingness and capacity to struggle with their bosses or with the District 18 Mineworkers' leadership in Calgary? Fourthly, was working-class involvement in local government adversely affected by the Cold War? Finally, was the culture of worker solidarity which animated these two movements undermined by Cold War processes, and if so, how did this happen? Concomitantly, was the growth of the union movement in other industries in the Pass arrested?

Our material is presented in four sections, divided by time period (1945-53 and 1954-58) and locale. The first period coincides with the span between the 20th and 22nd Canadian general elections. Since the LPP and CCF each ran candidates in both elections on both sides of the border, the change in electoral strength of the parties can be measured for this eight year period. In addition, the first period approximately coincides with relatively high levels of coal production on both sides of the border (1952 would have been a better cut off on this count because production in the Alberta Crowsnest declined by over twenty per cent in 1953), and encompasses the entire Korean War. The second period, 1954-58, is dominated by the economic crisis caused by the rapid shift to diesel locomotives by the CPR. A number of mines on both sides of the border were closed in these years, although the industry in Alberta was much harder hit than in BC.

In a study of the communities of the Crowsnest Pass during the Cold War, it is impossible to go into what was happening at the same time on provincial, national, and international stages. We are among those who understand the Cold War as originating in the Truman administration's desire to establish the US as the single hegemonic power in an integrated capitalist world economy, although from the late 1940s Soviet actions also contributed to a sense of deep crisis in international relations. (14.) We also accept the position that the anti-communism of the Cold War was much more intense in character than earlier forms of anti-radicalism due to the military and economic rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. (15)

Three Contexts

Before turning to the influence of Cold War events on working-class politics in the Crowsnest Pass, three contexts need to be established. The first has to do with the history of District 18 of the UMWA, a district with jurisdiction over the three Western Canadian provinces. District 18 signed its first contract in 1903 (with the Crow's Nest Pass Coal Company (CNPCC), which operated in Fernie and Michel-Natal, BC). The District suffered major reversals in the mid-1920s when the CNPCC used lockouts to break the Fernie and Michel-Natal UMWA Locals in 1924-25, and when many Alberta Locals withdrew later that year. Between 1925 and 1936 a "dual union" organized by Communists, the Mine Workers Union of Canada (MWUC), was more important than the UMWA in the Alberta coal fields. (16)

In 1936, however, District 18 consummated an agreement with the Communist leadership of the dual union. The MWUC Locals rejoined the UMWA, Communist activists committed themselves to organizing non-union "home locals" into District 18, and Communists were appointed to a few of the leadership positions in the District. The most prominent of these appointments was John Stokaluk, who shortly thereafter became vice-president of the District, a position he held continuously until his retirement at the end of 1959. Another Communist, Enoch Williams, was appointed as Sub-District 5's representative to the District...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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