Race and Revolution: Canada's victorian labour press and the Chinese immigragion (!) question

Spencer, David Ralph (author)

In the closing years of the Victorian Age, thousands of labourers from China and the Indian subcontinent were imported into Canada to help build the new country's infrastructure. In particular, these workers were employed laying the tracks for the cross country Canadian Pacific Railway. Although most workers professed to be only temporary wards of the state, hundreds if not thousands chose to stay in the Pacific Northwest and establish communities. This sense of permanence brought a strong reaction from Canadian labour unionsmost of whom adopted official policies demanding that Chinese and Asian labourers be deported from the country. The depth of their opposition appearedin many forms in the Canadian labour press of the period. It is here that one can sense precisely how emotional, irrational and racist the commentary was. The labour community, which pictured itself as the agent of reform in the country turned violently reactionary when confronted with this issue. The vitriolic racism that appears in journal after journal has done much to diminish the sense of reform to which labour subscribed in that period.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Kitajci
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2005
• Number of pages: Str. 15-32
• Numbering: Letn. 12, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-75346
• UDC: 070
• ISSN on article: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 24233053
• Publication date in RUL: 21.12.2015

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Javnost
• Shortened title: Javnost
• Publisher: Taylor&Francis
• ISSN: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 40119808

Secondary language

• Language: Unknown
• Title: Rasizem in revolucija: kanadski viktorijanski delavski tisk in vprašanje kitajske imigracije

Abstract

Ob koncu viktorijanskega obdobja je bilo na tisoče delavcev iz Kitajske in indijskega podceline pripeljanih v Kanado, da bi pomagali graditi infrastrukturne objekte, predvsem vsedržavno železnico. Čeprav naj bi delavci ostali v državi samo začasno, so stotine ali tisoči delavcev ostali na pacifiškem severozahodu in ustanovili svoja naselja. To je povzročilo ostre reakcije kanadskih sindikatov, ki so večinoma podpirali uradno politiko in zahtevali, da se kitajski in azijski delavci izselijo. Nasprotovanje tem delavcem se je jasno izražalo v kanadskem delavskem tisku, v katerem so se pojavljali čustveni, iracionalni in rasistični komentarji. Delavstvo, ki je sebe predstavljalo kot nosilca reform v državi, se je v odnosu do tujih delavcev izkazalo za nasilno reakcionarno. Odkrit rasizem, ki se je pojavljal v časopisih, je močno zmanjševal moč reformističnega duha, ki se mu je delavstvo zavezalo v tistem času.