Book Review

The Woman Worker 'represented the first, and for many years the last, separate English-language socialist paper for women in Canada'. This publication reproduces and introduces an extensive selection of extracts from this short-lived monthly paper, including the contents of the first issue in their entirety. In doing so, the editors have done justice to the significance of the paper, both as an exceptionally rich primary source for labour feminist history and as an early socialist-feminist endeavour.	1
The introduction examines the political context in which the paper was produced. Somewhat ironically, this local labour feminist paper was the indirect result of attempts by an almost exclusively male Communist Party of Canada (CPC) to implement directives originating overseas. Instructed by the Comintern to involve more women in its revolutionary struggles, the CPC set up a Women's Department in 1924. One of the CPC's few female leaders, Florence Custance, led the Department's efforts to establish a communist-controlled working class women's movement by re-invigorating and extending local Women's Labor Leagues (WLLs) which had a history dating back to before World War I.	2
The Leagues had traditionally consisted mainly of the female relations of trade union and Labor Party activists, but the CPC hoped to expand their membership to include large numbers of female wage earners and working class housewives. The latter group was considered to be of particular importance, as their pivotal role in the working class household could potentially be used either to bolster or undermine the industrial struggles of men. The use of WLLs as a vehicle for organising working class women was also in keeping with the Comintern-endorsed 'united front' strategy of cooperating with progressive groups in order to identify Communist sympathisers and develop their revolutionary potential. The WLLs had a history of both strong socialist tendencies and of working with more moderate labour, women's and reform organisations.	3
Custance managed to establish a Federation of WLLs controlled by CPC activists. However, despite her success and its significance to CPC objectives and strategies, she received little support from her male comrades in the movement and, in addition, encountered outright opposition to the Federation from more moderate laborites concerned about communist influence. Custance's creation of the Woman Worker as the organ of the Federation of WLLs represented her realisation that 'if we were to make headway, we must do things for ourselves'. Through its pages, an embattled female leadership attempted to reach out to a more politically diverse membership of working class women in order to preach a Marxist message. They encouraged local activists to exchange ideas and engage in debate through both letters to the editor and WLL reports. In the process, they addressed issues and elicited responses that did not always sit easily with CPC priorities and processes. The paper's demise coincided with Custance's death and international Communism's shift away from the 'united front' to more rigid political strategies.	4
The contents of the paper reproduced in this publication reflect the conjunction of circumstances that gave life to the Woman Worker. There are chapters containing extracts on 'Feminism and Social Reform', 'Peace and War', 'Women and the Sex Trade', 'Marriage, the Family, and Domestic Economy' and 'Birth Control and Abortion', as well as on 'Women, Wage Work and the Labour Movement', 'Protective Legislation' and 'Solidarity: National and International'. The extracts are selected from amongst both editorial and external contributions. A final chapter, 'The Local Women's Labor Leagues at Work', consists entirely of extracts from local WLL reports. Each chapter contains its own introduction which sets the extracts in their historical context and includes suggestions for further reading. Given the diversity of subjects addressed, this format makes the publication a useful starting point for secondary reading in relation to early twentieth century Canadian labour feminist history, as well as a valuable primary resource.	5
Many of the themes highlighted by the editors and evident from the extracts will be familiar to those interested in Australian labour feminist history. The frequently veiled disappointment at the indifference of union men to labour women's struggles is there, as is the more open hostility towards middle class feminist reformers who combined consideration for their less fortunate sisters with condescension. In evidence also, is the simple faith of the female leadership of the Federation that socialism could solve every problem: '[prostitution] will go on until the day that the workers wake up and destroy the whole profit system'. Less obvious, but nevertheless apparent, is the ability of local female activists to use the limited political education offered to women through labour organisations and publications to articulate forthright positions that pinpointed the connections between socialist and feminist thought and industrial and political action. Take this statement in relation to the potential of consumer boycotts to support industrial action and to politicise housewives: 'Actually the Leagues are UNIONS OF HOUSEWIVES, but because of the social character of the home, their work as producers is lost sight of'.	6
However, Australian readers will also be struck by certain differences. These Canadian activists faced a more ethnically diverse working class than their Australian counterparts in the early twentieth century. Probably for this reason, they were also, apparently, more willing to acknowledge ethnic differences and to endeavour to bridge them in the interests of class solidarity. This is particularly reflected in the League reports, although there were limits to the extent to which an English-speaking paper could cater to such differences. In addition, some of the political priorities of the WLL movement do not accord with Australian experience, in particular, the degree of emphasis on the public dissemination of birth control information and the apparent absence of any sustained campaign for state-sanctioned family endowment. These continuities and contrasts suggest that comparative colonial labour feminist history could prove a fruitful endeavour.	7
The material presented is a testament to the fact that, when given both the responsibility of speaking for themselves and the space to learn how to do so, these working women faced the challenge squarely: I went on the platform, but as this was my first try I guess I was not a great success. But I will sure keep trying. There was a lot I wished to say but could not say it as it should be said. Although their license to speak was conditional and the forums provided were not free from external constraints, it did not take long for them to start saying: 'We are no longer asking our men how we should think or how we should have to say aloud our thoughts'. However, the Federation of WLLs was fragile, dependent on political support, which could not, in the end, be sustained, and on the financial support of a membership whose economic future was about to become even more uncertain. It is fitting, then, that a new generation of labour feminists with greater institutional clout should rescue these voices from the past.	8
University of New South Wales KATE DEVERALL

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