Does Canada have a working-class movement? Though many of us think of ourselves as middle class, most of us are, in fact, working class: we work for a wage. And though many of us are members of unions – the most significant organizations of the working-class movement in Canada – most people do not understand themselves to be part of this movement. Canadian Labour in Crisis asks why this is so. Through an analysis of the contemporary Canadian working-class movement and its historical development, David Camfield offers an explanation for its current state and argues that reform within the movement is not enough. From the structure of organizations to their activities and even the guiding ideology, Camfield contends that the movement needs a radical reinvention – and offers us a new way forward in reaching this goal.

David Camfield is a professor in the Labour Studies Program and the Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Manitoba. He is the author of Future on Fire: Capitalism and the Politics of Climate Change, We Can Do Better: Ideas for Changing Society, and Canadian Labour in Crisis: Reinventing the Workers’ Movement and has written many articles on Marxism and left politics. He is on the editorial board and editorial advisory committee of Labour/Le Travail and the advisory board of Alternate Routes. He has long been involved in social justice activism, served on the executive of the Winnipeg Labour Council, and is active in the University of Manitoba Faculty Association. David is on the editorial board of Midnight Sun and hosts the podcast Victor’s Children.

David Camfield's profile page

“…a rich and compelling account of what is happening within unions in Canada and Quebec, and a detailed agenda for a new kind of working class movement. This should be read by anyone concerned with the future of unions in Canada and Quebec and would be a useful text in a union course or an introductory university course on unions.”

Wayne Lewchuk, McMaster University for Labour/LeTravail 69, Spring 2012