Cathy Brigden

CONFERENCE REPORT

Labouring Feminism and Working Class History in North America and Beyond

On the evening of Thursday 29 September 2005, participants gathered at the Munk Centre for International Affairs at the University of Toronto for the 'Labouring Feminism and Working Class History Conference'. Following the welcome by Ruth Percy and the opening by Rick Halpern, Franca Iacovetta chaired the initial plenary in which the six speakers, each introducing a stimulating array of ideas and broad range of issues, set the scene for what was be a jam-packed program over the next few days. With the reception immediately following the last speaker, participants channelled their energy into another important feature of the conference: the ongoing facilitation of social interaction blended with spirited discussion.	1
Thus began a conference which, numbering nearly 300 participants, had grown well beyond the expectations of the organisers, drawing together both established and younger scholars for three days of stimulating debate and discussion around an excitingly broad range of issues and topics. While the planning committee included many well-known labour and feminist historians (Ava Baron, Mary Blewett, Eileen Boris, Bettina Bradbury, Ardis Cameron, Dorothy Sue Cobble, Patricia Cooper, Liz Faue, Leon Fink, Dana Frank, Venus Green, Julie Guard, Karen Hagemann, Sharon Harley, Nancy Hewitt, Karen Hunt, Alice Kessler Harris, Jennifer Guglielmo, Molly Ladd Taylor, Kim Phillips, Tera Hunter, Nancy MacLean, Francille Wilson), the deliberate strategy to reach out to younger scholars created a program with a rich generational and geographical mix. Although Canadian and American participants not surprisingly were in the majority, those of us representing 'the beyond' came from countries including Australia, England, Germany, Mexico, Scotland and Sweden, while research reached even further afield to Latin America, including Panama and Buenos Aires, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Korea, Africa, China and the Soviet Union.	2
The next two days included parallel sessions in the mornings, a plenary after lunch followed by more parallel sessions. While the parallel sessions created their usual dilemma of what to attend, the prior posting of papers on the conference website (through the sterling efforts of Rick Halpern) meant papers could be read before and immediately after the conference. Ten minute presentations and five minutes for commentators allowed plenty of time in each parallel session for questions and discussions. Blessed with wonderful weather, the attractive surrounds of Munk Centre court-yard provided space for discussion outside of the formal sessions, as well as the spirited singing by the Red Berets in their performance during the Saturday lunchbreak.	3
The breadth of topics and approaches drawn together in this conference demonstrated the vitality and depth of research being undertaken. By drawing together research in labour and working-class history, a broad canvas was painted, imaginatively stretching and pushing the boundaries of how both 'labour history' and 'working-class history' are conceived, understood and intersect. Papers with the enticing titles of 'Troublemakers in Tassels and G-Strings' and 'What's a Working Girl to Do?' explored the experiences of strip tease dancers and sex workers, while issues of gender, ethnicity, class and the nature of masculinity were explored in 'George the Queer Danced the Hula'. Stories of Sicilian fisherwomen, African-American models and midwives in Mennonite communities, sat alongside sessions examining the experiences of different immigrant communities in North America, including Ukrainian female activists in Canada, Afro-Cuban women in 1930s New York, patterns of militancy amongst unionised Portuguese cleaning ladies and generational change amongst Japanese Canadian women. Stories of union-organising campaigns across different industries and time periods demonstrated the effect on the lives of working women, whether they worked in laundries, casinos or call centres.	4
While a session 'Sites of Consumption' was specifically dedicated to the late Susan Porter Benson, the testimony to the impact of her scholarship, in particular her book Counter Cultures, was evident through numerous sessions around the intersections of production and consumption and the historical and contemporary shaping of consumer culture, as explored by Nan Enstad in the plenary session on 'Labouring and Consuming Bodies'. Also spanning several sessions was the exploration of the body, encompassing work demands on the body, reproductive rights, disability and disease (such as Janet Zandy's sensitive and thought-provoking 'What are Two Hands Worth?' and Esyllt Jones' exploration of the impact of the 1918-19 influenza epidemic in a working-class community).	5
The reception on the second night sponsored by the Labor and Working Class History Association again provided another opportunity for participants to get together at the end of the day, while the conference party on the Saturday night, kindly hosted by Craig Heron at his home, gave everyone a chance to unwind and relax (and dance). Sunday morning saw the speakers in the closing plenary rise to the challenging job of both drawing out the conference themes and drawing together the various threads of debate that had emerged over the past few days, after which the audience offered their thoughts on the conference. The Toronto organisers of the conference, Franca Iacovetta, Ruth Percy, Rick Halpern and Parminder Mann are to be congratulated on the work they did, and the hospitality they extended to so many of us. This was certainly a conference that left many participants with a desire for more, as evidenced by the comments on the final morning about where the 'next' Labouring Feminism conference should be held!	6
Cathy Brigden is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Management at RMIT University, Melbourne. <cathy.brigden@rmit.edu.au>

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