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Distributed for University of British Columbia Press

Rebel Youth

1960s Labour Unrest, Young Workers, and New Leftists in English Canada

Distributed for University of British Columbia Press

Rebel Youth

1960s Labour Unrest, Young Workers, and New Leftists in English Canada

During the “long sixties,” baby boomers raised on democratic postwar ideals demanded a more egalitarian society for all. While a few became vocal leaders at universities across Canada, nearly 90% of Canada’s young people went straight to work after high school. There, they brought the anti-authoritarian spirit of the youth revolt to the labour movement. While university-based activists combined youth culture with a new brand of radicalism to form the New Left, young workers were defying their aging union leaders in a wave of renewed militancy. In Rebel Youth, Ian Milligan looks at these converging currents, demonstrating convincingly how they were part of the same youth phenomenon.

252 pages | © 2014


Table of Contents

Introduction

1 The Challenge of Rebel Youth

2 Punching In, Walking Out: The Challenge of Young Workers

3 Say Goodbye to the Working Class? New Leftists Debate Social Change

4 Leaving Campus: The Outward-Looking New Left in Ontario, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan

5 Cold, Slogging Solidarity: Supporting Labour on Picket Lines in Ontario and Nova Scotia, 1968-72

6 A Relationship Culminates: The 1973 Artistic Woodwork Strike

Conclusion

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

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