Al Campbell and the Left: Building UAW/CAW Local 27

Authors

  • Jason Russell

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/1705-1436.38

Abstract

The role of the Left in unions, women’s activism, and the rise of industrial unions in the post-World War II decades have been the subject of valuable academic scrutiny. This article seeks to add to our understanding of these topics by looking at the role that one prominent activist—Al Campbell—played in building UAW/CAW Local 27 from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. Campbell strongly advocated an independent Canadian autowork ers’ union, supported women’s activism, and was instrumental in helping expand a major composite local in the union. I argue in this article that, in order to understand the nature of the post-war Canadian labour movement, we need to devote greater attention to the role of devoted leftists in building local unions.

References

Archive of Labour and Urban Affairs (hereafter ALUA), UAW Region 7 Collection, Series IV, box 81, file: Local 27 London 1957.

Archive of Labour and Urban Affairs (hereafter ALUA),UAW Local 27 Collection, Series I, Box 1, file: Minutes General Motors Diesel 1958-1964.

Archive of Labour and Urban Affairs (hereafter ALUA), UAW Region 7 Collection, Series III, Box 65, file: Specht, George 1958 – 61. George Burt to George Specht, 4 May 1960.

Archive of Labour and Urban Affairs (hereafter ALUA), UAW Region 7 Collection, Series III, Box 65, file: Specht, George 1958 – 61. A. Simpson to George Burt, 22 April 1960.

Archive of Labour and Urban Affairs (hereafter ALUA), UAW Region 7 Collection, Series III, Box 65, file: Specht, George 1958 – 61. George Burt to George Specht, 10 May 1960.

Barnard, John. 2004. American Vanguard: the United Auto Workers During the Reuther Years, 1935 – 1970. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Cutler, Jonathan. 2004. Labour’s Time: Shorter Hours, the UAW, and the Struggle for American Unionism. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Gindin, Sam. 2005. The Canadian Auto Workers: the Birth and Transformation of a Union. Toronto: Lorimer.

Keeran, Roger. 1980. The Communist Party and the Auto Workers Union. New York: International Publishers.

Library and Archives Canada (hereafter, LAC), CAW Fonds, R3341-0-8-E, vol 164, file 14. U.A.W. Delegates, Election Results – 1969.

Library and Archives Canada (hereafter, LAC), UAW Region 7 Collection, Series IV, Box 82, file: Local 27 London 1967, Joe Abela letter to George Burt, 4 November 1966.

Library and Archives Canada (hereafter, LAC),, UAW Region 7 Collection, Series IV, Box 82, file: Local 27 London 1967, George Burt letter to Joe Abela, 5 December 1966.

Library and Archives Canada (hereafter, LAC),, UAW Region 7 Collection. Series IV, Box 82, file: Local 27 London 1967, Joe Abela letter to Walter Reuther, 18 February 1967.

Library and Archives Canada (hereafter, LAC),, UAW Local 27 Collection. Series 1, Box 3, file: Local 27 UAW General Membership Minutes July 1966 – June 29, 1969.

Library and Archives Canada (hereafter, LAC),, CAW Fonds, R3341-0-8-E , vol 164, File 15. Local 27 London, Ont. Correspondence, 1970-1971. Andy Paulick to Dennis McDermott, 8 May 1970.

Lichtenstein, Nelson. 1995. The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labour. New York: Basic Books. Local 27Archive (hereafter L27A), Local 27 News vol. 3, no. 11 (November 1959).

The Local 27 Archive is a collection of documents and images privately held by Canadian Auto Workers Local 27 in London, Ontario.

Library and Archives Canada (hereafter, LAC), Local 27 News vol 5, no 1 (January 1961).

Library and Archives Canada (hereafter, LAC), Local 27 News vol 6, no 1 (January 1962).

Library and Archives Canada (hereafter, LAC), Local 27 News vol 6, no 4 (November 1962).

Library and Archives Canada (hereafter, LAC), Local 27 News, July 1963.

Library and Archives Canada (hereafter, LAC), File: Miscellaneous UAW/CAW Documents. “Perspectives” June, 1976, 14. This publication was apparently produced by London labour activists during the 1970s London Free Press, 8 April 1971.

Meyer, Stephen. 1992. Stalin Over Wisconsin: the making and Unmaking of Militant Unionism, 1900-1950. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Portelli, Alessandro. “What Makes Oral History Different” in Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson, eds. 2006. The Oral History Reader, second edition. New York: Routledge.

Sefton-McDowell, Laurel. 2001. Remember Kirkland Lake: the Gold Miners’ Strike of 1941-42. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.

Stepan-Norris, Judith and Maurice Zeitlin. 2003. Left Out: Reds and America’s Industrial Unions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511499395

Sugiman, Pamela. 1997. Labour’s Dilemma: the Gender Politics of Auto Workers in Canada, 1937 – 1979. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum. Retrieved July 5, 2009 http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk.

Whittaker, Reg and Gary Marcuse. 1994. Cold War Canada: The Making of a National Insecurity State, 1945 – 1957. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Yates, Charlotte. 1993. From Plant to Politics: the Autoworkers Union in Postwar Canada. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Downloads

Published

— Updated on 2011-01-01

Versions

  • 2011-01-01 (2)
  • (1)

How to Cite

Russell, J. (2011). Al Campbell and the Left: Building UAW/CAW Local 27. Just Labour, 17. https://doi.org/10.25071/1705-1436.38

Issue

Section

Special Section