The New Democracy : Challenging the Social Order in Industrial Ontario, 1914-1925

James Naylor traces the transformation of class relations in the industrial cities of southern Ontario, examining the character of the regional labour movement, the nature of employer and state response, and the reasons for the failure of labour's "new democracy." Contents 7 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction 11 Part One. THE INDUSTRIAL FRONT 23 1. Workers, Unions, and War 23 2. Beyond Craft Unionism: The Post-war Industrial Challenge 52 Part Two. THE POLITICAL FRONT 85 3. The Development of a Labourist Consensus 85 4. The Battle for Democracy 111 5. The Woman Democrat 139 Part Three. EMPLOYERS' DEMOCRACY OR WORKERS' DEMOCRACY? 169 6. Welfare Capitalism and Industrial Democracy 169 7. In Defence of Capital 199 8. Labourism Tested 225 Conclusion: Real Democracy 255 Appendix: Strikes and Lock-outs 265 Notes 271 Note on Sources 323 Index 329 "Wartime conflicts forged a regional working class capable of acting collectively on a number of fronts. Southern Ontario workers had a long tradition of craft unionism, and the nature of industrial cities and working-class communities was quite different from that in the West. In short, workers and bosses in southern Ontario fought in a different arena and under different circumstances than elsewhere. Building on their own experiences at work and in the war, workers developed their own vision of post-war 're-construction'--back cover