This is a collection of commissioned essays that are purposively eclectic, but that address themes of importance in understanding labour's significance and history over the course of the last century, as well as suggesting how labour will inevitably face changing circumstances.

Comprised of articles from the original periodical, Woman worker.

Seafarer, poet, labour activist, short story writer, Christian, philosopher, journalist, political economist, cultural critic and socialist -- Colin McKay (1876-1939) was all of these, a true working-class intellectual. Restless and inquiring, McKay left the South Shore of Nova Scotia as a boy; when he was not at sea, he lived at various times in Montreal, Saint John, Toronto, Glasgow, London, Paris, Halifax and Ottawa. From these centres, he wrote hundreds of articles for the popular press and for literary, political and labour publications. McKay's insights into a broad range of twentieth-century social, economic and cultural issues make a forceful, but until now unrecognized, contribution to Canadian intellectual history. For a Working-Class Culture in Canada rediscovers this author and his ideas. Ian McKay and Lewis Jackson have gathered more than 125 of Colin McKay's most trenchant essays, and Ian McKay's introduction and annotations set them into their intellectual and social context. Acadiensis Press and the Canadian Committee on Labour History have co-operated to publish this unique document in the history of the Canadian working class.

This autobiography of Patrick Lenihan chronicles a lifetime of rebellion, protest and organizing against the backdrop of the major economic, social and political struggles of the 20th century. He held a leading role in the Communist Party of Canada and in the formation of the first national union of public employees.

Bill Walsh began his career as an organizer for the Communist Party of Canada. He led the drive to organize the rubber workers in Kitchener and subsequently the auto workers in Windsor. He was jailed along with several hundred other Communists. Upon his release, Walsh fought overseas in Holland and Belgium. After the war he took a staff position with the United Electrical Workers in Hamilton.

The broad range of topics covered by the essays in this collection provide a sense of the diverse experiences and efforts which constituted important aspects of working-class life in Brandon. The authors provide a compelling account of how workers used the cultural and institutional resources at their disposal to attempt to work toward a future of their own design.