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Jim Warren and Kathleen Carlisle, On the Side of the People: A History of Labour in Saskatchewan.

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Jim Warren and Kathleen Carlisle, On the Side of the People: A History of Labour in Saskatchewan (Regina: Coteau Books 2005)

COMPREHENSIVE HISTORIES of working people in Canadian provinces are few and far between. This is certainly one of the best, and deservedly won the Saskatchewan Book Award in 2006 for the best scholarly book that year. Researched and written by trade union activists, with funds donated from both unions and progressive individuals, On the Side of the People focuses on the evolution of the province's trade union movement and on union struggles. The book is based on interviews with trade union leaders, extensive archival materials, the labour press, and secondary works. It succeeds very well in demonstrating continuities and changes affecting the labour movement in Saskatchewan throughout the period of non-Aboriginal settlement in the province and in linking provincial labour, political, and social history. But its analyses are limited by a populist approach which, while progressive, downplays debates within the union movement about political and industrial strategies, and ignores discussions about changes in the composition of the labour movement over time and its impact on possible class strategies.

The book begins with a chapter on the fur-trading period which the authors acknowledge is mostly based on the work of the excellent Saskatchewan labour historian and trade union activist Glen Makahonuk, who died in 1997 at age 46...

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