Cape Breton Unions

Although the Communist Party of Canada had tremendous influence among miners in Cape Breton during the 1920s and 1930s, the rise of dual unionism among miners was not the result of the party's policy of "red unions". The CPC's influence in Cape Breton derived largely from the work and reputation of J.B. McLachlan, who had been involved in miners' struggles for decades. McLachlan maintained a principled position in support of the rank-and-file and the Leninist conception of the united front. As the CPC began to follow the sharp changes in the Communist International's line after the mid-1920s, McLachlan came into conflict with the CPC, and eventually resigned in 1936, marking the demise of Communist influence in Cape Breton.

Prior to the formation of the Communist Party of Canada, the socialist movement had already established deep roots in Cape Breton, largely through the Socialist Party of Canada. In 1909, when District 26 of the United Mine Workers of America was formed, J.B. McLachlan and other SPC members were elected as executive officers.[1] In 1911, Alex McKinnon, was voted in to the Nova Scotia legislature representing a riding in Cape Breton, claiming "the honour of being the first socialist candidate for any legislature east of Saskatchewan."[2]

Following the formation of the Communist Party of Canada in May 1921, the SPC split over the question of whether or not to join. By January 1922 most of the SPC's membership had joined the CPC.[3] Sometime in early 1922 McLachlan joined the CPC, having met Tim Buck in June 1921, and contributed to the CPC's newspaper, The Worker, in May 1922.[4]

McLachlan joined the CPC in a period quite different from the late 1910s. "[T]he Communist International had reached the conclusion that the tide of revolution was receding and the collapse of capitalism in other countries was not imminent. Communist parties around the world were instructed to undertake the long hard work of preparing the working class for future struggles."[5] This conclusion was in stark contrast to the sectarian attitude towards trade unions by many of the newly formed communist parties. Regarding this attitude towards trade unions and working class organizations in general, Leon Trotsky wrote in 1921,

A purely mechanical conception of the proletarian revolution Ð'-- which proceeds solely from the fact that capitalist economy continues to decay Ð'-- has led certain groups of comrades to construe theories which are false to the core: the false theory of an initiating minority which by its heroism shatters "the wall of universal passivity" among the proletariat.[6]

Lenin had already sought to combat the same problem in his pamphlet "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder, which, according to Ian Angus, proved crucial in shaping the trade union policy of Canadian Communists.[7] Rather than acting as an elite vanguard acting on behalf of the working class, the CPC sought to build a mass party and adopted the program of working within existing unions rather than forming "red" unions as had happened in other countries. However, working within mainstream unions did not mean abandoning debate and trying to convince non-revolutionary workers of the necessity of socialism. Nor did it mean passivity in the face of the union bureaucracy.[8]

McLachlan had already operated by these principles for quite some time. With support from the CPC, McLachlan countered the temptation in 1922 to split District 26 of the UMWA and form a red union. Wages for miners, steelworkers and any British Empire Steel Corporation employees were cut by a third in January 1922. The union headquarters refused to strike on the grounds of insufficient funds, so a slow-down was authorized, as opposed to a strike. McLachlan and Dan Livingstone, another CPC member, were the minority left-wing members of the District 26 executive, and with the aide of the CPC they began to build a left-wing campaign within District 26. In June 1922, the CPC's work paid off. Delegates voted for a left-wing majority of nominations to the executive, which later led to a left-wing sweep of the executive.[9] At the same convention, the rank-and-file voted to affiliate with the Comintern's Red International of Labour Unions, much to the anger of John L. Lewis, president of the UMWA.

Once elected in mid-August 1922, the new left-wing leadership, which included McLachlan, called for a strike. Twelve thousand miners responded, including maintenance staff who kept the mines dry. Over a thousand soldiers arrived in Cape Breton to protect BESCO's property. The strike ended in three weeks when the union membership voted to accept an eighteen percent wage cut, as opposed to the 33 percent cut put forward eight months earlier.[11]

Meanwhile, as McLachlan and the left were elected to the leadership of District 26, John L. Lewis, "was carefully consolidating his control of the union and grooming his own image as a business-minded union leader."[12] Lewis was committed to the sanctity of the contract and peace between labour and capital. After becoming UMWA president in 1919, Lewis and his allies quickly came into conflict with McLachlan. McLachlan was cautious and asked Lewis how the UMWA would respond to the affiliation, while also noting that the RILU opposed dual unionism and the policies of the One Big Union and the Industrial Workers of the World.[13] The response, though, was not positive.

After an international board meeting of the union in Indianapolis, the union's vice president denounced the RILU and threatened District 26 "to withdraw its application," or else "the district would be suspended and the international union would assume direct control of local affairs."[14] The democratic will of the union membership was trampled, but the left leadership withdrew its application to the RILU, mindful of Lewis' iron-fisted treatment of rebellious districts elsewhere in North America. That the CPC did not make a stand regarding the RILU is proof that McLachlan and the party were operating a united front policy based on the interests of the rank-and-file, where "[t]he big issue was winning the UMW to a class struggle program, not formal ties with the RILU."[15]

McLachlan and Lewis came into conflict again in 1923 over a communist-led organizing drive of Besco's Sydney steelworks. McLachlan and the district's left-wing executive defied "an explicit order from UMWA international president John L. Lewis not to break its contract with Besco by calling a miners' sympathy strike."[16] Historian John Manley has portrayed the sympathy strike as "the perils of excessive