Sweatshop Strife: Class, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Jewish Labour Movement of Toronto, 1900-1939

by Ruth A. Frager

In the first half of the twentieth century, many of Toronto's immigrant Jews eked out a living in the needle-trade sweatshops of Spadina Avenue. In response to their expliotation on the shop floor, immigrant Jewish garment workers built one of the most advanced sections of the Canadian and American labour movements. Much more than a collective bargaining agency, Toronto's Jewish labour movement had a distinctly socialist orientation and grew out of a vibrant Jewish working-class culture. Ruth Frager examines the development of this unique movement, its sources of strength, and its limitations, focusing particularly on the complex interplay of class, ethnic, and gender interests and identities in the history of the movement. She examines the relationships between Jewish workers and Jewish manufacturers as well as relations between Jewish and non-Jewish workers and male and female workers in the city's clothing industry. In its prime, Toronto's Jewish labour movement struggled not only to improve hard sweatshop condistions but also to bring about a fundamental socialist transformation. It was an uphill battle. Drastic economic downturns, hard employer offensives, and state repressions all worked against unionists' workplace demands. Ethnic, gender, and ideological divisions weakened the movement and were manipulated by employers and their allies. Drawing on her knowledge of Yiddish, Frager has been able to gain access to original records that shed new light on an important chapter in Canadian ethnic, labour, and women's history.

Genres: Canada, History

330 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 1992

Reviews

[BOOK BOOKS]

MEME, ARE THERE ANY BOOKS OR MEMOIRS ABOUT THE EXPERIENCES OF JEWISH IMMIGRANTS WHO CAME TO THE US AFTER WWII?

I'M MOSTLY CURIOUS THE VERY INITIAL PERIOD WHILE THEY WERE SETTLING IN IN LOLMERICA, LIKE HOW THEY FOUND JOBS OR IF THEY WERE SUPPORTED BY ANY LOLMERICAN CHARITIES OR SYNAGOGUES OR ALREADY-IMMIGRATED FAMILY MEMBERS, OR HOW THEY ADJUSTED TO LOLMERICAN CULTURE AND DEAL WITH ITS POST-WAR ANTISEMITISM OR, IDK, WHAT IT WAS LIKE WHEN NUCLEAR FAMILIES HAD TO IMMIGRATE IN STAGES INSTEAD OF ALL TOGETHER AT ONCE. HONESTLY, IF YOU HAVE ANY BOOKS THAT YOU'D RECOMMEND AT ALL OVER THAT PERIOD I'D BE RLY INTERESTED.

YOU MIGHT ENJOY SWEATSHOP STRIFE BY FRAGER BUT IT'S LOLNADIAN HISTORY.

[R.J. Gilmour]

Frager looks at the history of labour organizing and how it relates to the garment trades in Toronto.

[J. Pearce]

This history book focuses on the activities of Jewish people in the needle trade between 1900 and 1939. It includes an ethnic, gender, and class-based analysis of the labour movement in Toronto, with a particular focus on Communism's influence.

Frager highlights effectively the reasons why Jewish women had low participation rates in the general labour movement, the Jewish-specific labour movement, and the general feminist movement in Canada. In particular she brings attention to how the middle-class Anglo-Celtic maternal feminism would be unappealing to working class Jewish women who were not subject to the ideas of "lady-like behaviour" and "the cult of true womanhood" that were its primary focus.

Frager also highlights the gender divide within the needle trade in particular. Women were considered unskilled labourers as most women knew how to sew: striking workers could be easily replaced with other "unskilled" workers. (This mirrors similar experiences in "unskilled" labourer jobs held by men. "Unskilled" work was the most similar to work men and boys would have done on the farm.) As such, more skilled jobs - and higher paying ones - were held by men. As such, men might not strike over labour issues most affecting women. One notable exception is when male garment workers were going to have addition sewing jobs without additional pay, but at the expense of their "sister" workers. Frager describes this as male self-interest coinciding with female labour needs, and both men and women went out on strike.

I did not find this as engaging a work as I would have liked. Frager divides her discussions up thematically, and although I understand her decision to do so, I don't think the end product was effective. Even within the same chapter, the narrative traveled back and forth in time, and it was difficult to see cause-and-effect, particularly with strike actions. As well, there was a great deal of repetition and reminders of specific events. Other authors (most notably Laurel Thatcher Ulrich) have been able to lay out arguments both thematically and chronologically very effectively, and this work suffers because of that lack.

On the other hand, I did enjoy Frager's pointed highlighting of issues regarding how feminism has historically been less effective in engaging with working-class and "ethnic" issues. Feminism in Canada had a Christian foundation, which made it alienating (and alienated from) non-Christian women in particular.

Frager does dedicate a full chapter to highlighting the experiences and life stories of several female Jewish labour activists. I enjoyed this, but would have liked to see a similar chapter dedicated to highlighting male Jewish labour activists as well. This may seem like a boorish "but what about the men", but my concern is that many male activists are discussed throughout the work, but their life stories are difficult to pin together. Interweaving women throughout the work and including a chapter on male activists would have been more effective on both fronts.

Regardless, I found this book interesting as a labour history, and could see much application to my own interest in disability-focused history.