<scp>Right‐wing</scp>populism, organized labor, and white workers in Sudbury, Ontario: A cautionary tale from the 2018 Ontario election

King, Adam D. K.

doi:10.1111/wusa.12489

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 34 publications

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“…In his case study of the 2018 Ontario provincial election in Sudbury, Adam King argues that while the ndp-labour link continues to benefit the party in Northern Ontario, the right-wing populism and cultural political messaging of the Progressive Conservative campaign clearly resonated with members of the region's largest union, usw Local 6500, representing 3,000 mineworkers employed by Vale (formerly Inco). 137 The national leadership of the United Steelworkers has exclusively endorsed the ndp in federal and provincial elections since the party was launched in 1961. In Sault Ste.…”

Section: Delivering Union Votesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organized Labour and the NDP

Savage

2021

L/LT

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organized labour and the ndp / 79Canada, for much of the early 20th century Gomperism very much steered craft union approaches to electoral politics. 3 Narrowly concerned with securing the best possible economic deal for workers, Gomperism, often referred to as business unionism, is named for Samuel Gompers, the founding president of the American Federation of Labor. While Gompers conceded that capitalists and workers did have some conflicting interests, he was well known for his political pragmatism, rejecting outright suggestions that the capitalist system needed to be replaced or that workers needed an independent labour party to promote their interests more effectively. 4 In the realm of electoral politics, Gompers argued that labour could strengthen its economic clout in the workplace by employing a strategy of rewarding friends and punishing enemies. 5 In the words of Stephanie Ross, "business unionists will mobilize their members to support politicians with a labour-friendly record but will work to shift that support if those politicians do not deliver for labour." 6 Generally, Gomperist political strategy is geared toward the narrow interests of a specific group of union members rather than issues of wealth redistribution or justice with broader implications for the working class as a whole. 7 The most widely embraced alternative to business unionist approaches to labour politics in the early to mid-20th century was socialism. While socialist thought and action took various competing and complementary forms, its most prominent electoral expression was undoubtedly the ccf. Created in the midst of the Great Depression by socialists, farmers, labour groups, and social reformers to challenge the capitalist economic orthodoxy of the Liberals and Conservatives, the ccf competed with the Communist Party to carry the mantle of working-class politics and managed to secure significant support from industrial unions. 8 In its first decade, the ccf managed to make inroads in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, both federally and provincially, and would eventually emerge as the dominant electoral force on the left.From its earliest days, ccf activists debated the pros and cons of formal labour affiliation to the party. Some worried that mass affiliation would water 3.

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Section: Delivering Union Votesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organized Labour and the NDP

Savage

2021

L/LT

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“We Can’t Just Wrap Ourselves in the Flag:” Labour Nationalism, Global Solidarity, and the 2016 Fight to Save gm Oshawa

Fairweather

2021

J. Labor Soc.

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Global labour studies scholarship has increasingly recognized the importance of building global solidarity of workers and their unions in response to globalization. Despite this, the labour movement’s embrace of global solidarity as a response to globalization has been incomplete, and at times contradictory. The more common response to globalization has been labour nationalism, which has commanded far less attention in the literature. This paper considers labour nationalism from the perspective of emerging theories of global solidarity, offering a 2016 rank-and-file-driven campaign to save a General Motors plant in Ontario as a case study in labour nationalism. Although nationalism continues to be a relatively effective mobilizing device, Unifor Local 222 has had very little success ‘keeping good jobs in Canada.’ Instead, the union has entrenched a collective action frame that makes space for more xenophobic and racist expressions of nationalism and undermines the prospects of building solidarity abroad and, paradoxically, at home.

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Right‐wingpopulism, organized labor, and white workers in Sudbury, Ontario: A cautionary tale from the 2018 Ontario election

Cited by 2 publications

References 34 publications

Organized Labour and the NDP

Organized Labour and the NDP

“We Can’t Just Wrap Ourselves in the Flag:” Labour Nationalism, Global Solidarity, and the 2016 Fight to Save gm Oshawa

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