Collection search - [Dowson, Ross - Lecture]

Record information – Brief

1

[Dowson, Ross - Lecture]

Item number (ISN):

374202

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1968/1969 ?

Item number (ISN):

374202

Type of material:

Sound recordings

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

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Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

CANADIAN TROTSKYIST MOVEMENT

Accession:

2006-0147

Media:

Sound

Part:

2 of 2

Production date:

1968/1969 ?

Description:

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Talk by Ross Dowson in Vancouver, British Columbia to members of the Canadian Trotskyist Movement about the history of Canadian Trotskyism. Subjects discussed include: concept of the breakout; the Vanguard Party; leftism in the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF); the movement to take on the Canadian bourgeoisie; the Trotskyist movement; the origins of the movement in the summer of 1921; the founding of the Communist Party of Canada; roots in the history of working class struggles elsewhere in the world; the One Big Union movement; the types of people attracted to the movement; the rejection of parliamentary and political action; the Socialist Party of Canada and its Marxist analysis of the economy; the revolutionary socialist movement in Canada; the first issue of the Communist Party of Canada newspaper Worker’s World and its early emphasis on international Communism; key questions such as what is the path to power and how movements other than Canadian Trotskyism fail to answer these questions; the impact of the Russian Revolution on the thinking of radical worker movements; meetings that were held in Winnipeg, Toronto and elsewhere; Max Armstrong; Jack MacDonald and Maurice Spector; the founding of the Workers’ Party of Canada in 1921; members of the National Executive Committee of the Canadian Communist Party, what happened to them and the Trotskyist views of some of them; some of the problems in the early movement; recollections by Maurice Spector as related to Ross Dowson about the early years of the Communist Party of Canada; differences between the American Communist Party and the Canadian Communist Party; harassment by the police; the Canadian Labour Defence League; Maurice Spector’s expulsion from the Communist Party of Canada in 1928; Jack MacDonald’s popularity; Spector’s skill as a theoretician; problems in the leadership of the Canadian Communist Party; Tim Buck as a supporter of Stalinism; Spector and U.S. Communist leader James Cannon; people who are labeled Trotskyists in Canada; the definition of Trotskyism back in 1921 and at the present; the argument about whether socialism can be built in one country and Leon Trotsky’s views on this; the intolerance of Maoists and extreme ultra-leftists; defeats suffered by the working class when movements in Germany and other countries collapsed, demoralizing workers in the 1930s; the problem of building on the Trotskyist movement amidst the atmosphere of defeat that permeated the revolutionary socialist movement of the 1930s; threats against members of the movement; survival as the main achievement of the movement; Dowson’s joining the movement in 1936 and the challenge posed to the Trotskyist movement by the mass populist agrarian movement embodied by the CCF; the League for Revolutionary Workers Party; the split in Trotskyism over whether to join the CCF in 1936; the founding convention in 1938 of the Socialist Workers’ Party where the two parts of the Canadian Trotskyist movement were reunited after the 1936 split; and the problem posed by the Second World War when the movement was declared illegal and driven underground. There is a gap when the tape recorder is turned off, during a question period, resuming in the middle of a comment by Dowson affirming that the Communist Party of Canada was formed in 1921, and then continuing with comments about the British Columbia movement and its early identification with the October Revolution; more about the role of Maurice Spector and Jack MacDonald and the people who supported the official censure of Leon Trotsky circa 1926, consolidation of trade unions in Canada; the lack of influence by the Trotskyists on the trade union movement; the status of the movement at present; the convention the past May; his recollection of previous conventions; the New Democratic Party; the attraction of the Trotskyist movement for youth; and the need to expand the membership and raise more funds. ~Dowson also comments on the strength of the movement in various parts of in various parts of the country, such as Quebec, Edmonton and Ottawa in addition to the longtime bases in Toronto and Vancouver, and efforts to build a national movement. The recording ends abruptly at the end of reel 1. Reel 2 This talk picks up the story of the movement at the start of the Second World War, when government restrictions forced the various movements on the political left to go underground. Subjects include: the banning of the movement’s newspaper; difficulties in distributing copies of the newspaper; the microfilming of the movement’s newspapers; Earle Birney; a problem of leadership in the movement around the time of the Second World War; Dowson’s role in the movement at the time; police surveillance of the group, cutting off contact between members in Toronto and Vancouver; the hope at the time that the Canadian working class would resume militant action after the war; the re-establishment of contact with comrades in Vancouver, Montreal, Lloydminster and a few other places; a convention in Montreal in 1944; his being in the army in Trois-Rivières by that time; pressure on unions to pledge not to strike during the war; the Communist Party; his article in Labor Challenge on how Canadian workers went to war; George “Paddy” Stanton; the launch of the newspaper Labor Challenge in 1945; the movement’s view that there would not be postwar peace without giving power to the workers; the Ford strike of 1945; the strike at the Stelco plant in Hamilton; the Revolutionary Workers Party; the CCF; new recruits to the movement around that time; the woodworkers’ union; the perpetual effort to build a mass movement against capitalism; the challenge of trying to relate to the CCF as a labour party in the years after the war; closer ties with the CCF in the 1950s; fears of a Third World War; Michel Pablo; schisms in the movement in the 1950s and reunification in 1963; the start of radicalization among youth; organizations such as Socialist Forum; the launch of the New Democratic Party; the challenge of how to adapt the movement to the radicalization of the labour movement and later to issues such as the civil rights movement, the opposition to the war in Vietnam, the women’s liberation movement and learning the art of revolutionary politics. From time to time his talk is interrupted by comments and questions from his listeners. At the end, he takes questions from the audience and only his replies are recorded. Among the subjects he mentions are membership in Quebec, McCarthyism, espionage in Canada, and Bill Whitney. <2h 25mn>

Language:

English

Notes:

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1. Tapes are labelled "History of Canadian Trotskyism and C.P. - Dowson" and "Part II History of Canadian Trotskyism".~2. Audio hum throughout and some fluctuating audio levels (the audio on Reel 2 is muffled and tinny, particularly at the start).~3. No date on tape reels but Max Armstrong is still alive at the time of this talk (he died on 30 January 1970) and Jack MacDonald is dead.~4. Tapes are dry and stick periodically during playback.~5. Recorded on two tracks.~6. Track 1 of reel 1 begins with a few seconds of a Beatles’ song recorded at 7.5 ips (the talk is at 3.75 ips).
~7. On reel 1, after a lengthy gap following the end of the Dowson talk, Track 2 continues with a recording of an unidentified man making a microphone test and a Christmas party with unidentified people, including a man named Ward, and runs to the end of that side of the tape.~8. On reel 2, Track 1 is full and Track 2 continues for approximately 10 minutes.~9. Reel 2 starts out slightly too fast, distorting the speaker's voice.

Detailed holdings information:

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Vault ISN:

433860

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

2006-0147/1

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

ACETATE

Duration:

70:00

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

433861

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

2006-0147/2

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Duration:

75:00

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

433951

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A1 2006-12-0023

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Duration:

79:27

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

433952

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A1 2006-12-0024

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Duration:

79:27

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

433953

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A1 2006-12-0027

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Duration:

73:00

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

1003550

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A4 2006-12-0023
A4 2006-12-0024

Number of items:

2

Kind of sound:

CD

Made from:

2006-0147/1
2006-0147/2

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

1003552

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A4 2006-12-0027

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Made from:

2006-0147/1
2006-0147/2
2006-0147/3

Status:

MASTER
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

Open

Consultation copy number:

A1 2006-12-0023
A1 2006-12-0024
A1 2006-12-0027

Restrictions on consultation:

~No Restrictions / Pas de restrictions

Reproduction access:

With written permissions / Avec les permissions écrites

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