Quelle est la valeur du travail?
Passé, présent et futur de la classe ouvrière
et des études sur le travail
Préserver notre passé et lutter pour notre présent : l’Alberta Labour History Institute
Labour scholarship versus Labour schools
Alvin Finkel
Labour federations in several provinces as well as individual unions often run labour schools that offer one-week courses on labour topics, including labour history, work with First Nations, occupational health and safety, mental health in workplaces, and tools courses for union stewards. Materials in Labour/Le Travail are sometimes used in such programs. But more often than not, everything in an L/LT issue is written at a level that assumes both an advanced background in labour history or labour studies and a vocabulary that only holders of graduate degrees in Arts can access. That’s unsurprising in an academic journal that gets an important part of its funding from SSHRC, which assumes a readership of professors and graduate students for journals that it funds.Going forward, what can L/LT do to connect with labour activists as opposed to labour scholars? What might a section of the journal devoted to « Labour Activist Education » look like and who should the journal involve in producing such a section? I’d be interviewing Winston Gereluk who has taught labour history at Labour Schools for 45 years plus others who have taught in such programs, and including my observations from my recent experience teaching labour history at the Alberta Federation of Labour labour school.
Preserving/Archiving Labour History
Paula Kirman
Publications like L/LT play an important role in documenting and preserving the history of the labour movement – after all, as it says on its website’s About page, the journal is « primarily interested in a historical perspective on Canadian workers ». It also demonstrates the necessity of both traditional and digital media to carry its messages. L/LT utilizes traditional media by producing a semiannual publication, as well as digital media for its online archive – which has the potential to reach a far wider audience than just for its print publication alone. Likewise, organizations like the Alberta Labour History Institute also play an important role in documenting, preserving, and archiving labour history through the work of committed activists creating resources that are free, accessible, and utilize multimedia (text and video) to appeal to a broad audience. Another example is Radical Citizen Media, a citizen journalism initiative documenting progressive social movements, through photography and video. People have the power to tell, record, and disseminate their stories and those of their communities, and in doing so, can collectively create a publicly-accessible archive of labour history, thus augmenting the work of traditional print publications like L/LT. How can L/LT be part of this digital movement going forward? What sort of relationship could L/LT have with labour documentarians and archivists? There are creative ways activists and L/LT can collaborate to work towards building a people’s history of the labour movement.
Bringing History to Life
Donna Coombs-Montrose
Through her appointment as Edmonton Historian Laureate, Donna Coombs-Montrose has been experimenting with performance, music, and community engagement to connect the community to its rich and varied history. This presentation will reflect on these recent experiences and connect them to the broader history of Coombs-Montrose’s life and its relation to histories of immigration, race, activism, and community involvement.
- Sébastien Rioux
Biographies
Alvin Finkel has served as the president of the Alberta Labour History Institute since 2016; he was a founding member of ALHI in 1999. Finkel was book review editor for Labour/Le Travail from 2000 to 2012 and has served on the editorial board continuously since 2000; he is a long-time member of the editors’ advisory committee. He taught History at Athabasca University from 1978 to his retirement in 2014. A prolific and co-author of history texbooks, monographs, book chapters, and articles on labour history and social policy history, his 14 books include 7 editions of the 2-volume History of the Canadian Peoples; Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History; Working People in Alberta: A History; The Social Credit Phenomenon in Alberta: Compassion: A Global History of Social Policy and Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality.
Paula Kirman is the Administrator, Website Manager, and Records/Archives Manager with the Alberta Labour History Institute (ALHI). She graduated with a Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) from the University of Alberta in 2023. Since 2005 she has been independently documenting Edmonton’s activist scene, including labour actions, at RadicalCitizenMedia.com. She works as a freelance communications and media consultant mostly with non-profit and community media organizations. Paula has received numerous awards for her media activism, including Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal, Edmonton Social Planning Council Award of Merit for Social Advocacy, and the Human Rights Champion Award from the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights.
Donna Coombs-Montrose is a Community Activist and History Advocate who has resided in Edmonton, Alberta for over 20 years. Donna’s activism began while a student in Toronto during the 1970s and continued her heritage exploration in her home country during the succeeding years, after completing her academic training in librarianship and archives. Since coming to Edmonton with her family she has served on the board of CARIWEST – Western Carnival Development Association – 1999-2017, including the last 10 years as its President. A recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal in 2022, Donna is an avid painter who plays in the music band iLand.+ and serves as City of Edmonton Historian Laureate, 2024-2026.