So @unifor594 workers are still locked out, Saskatchewan still has the LOWEST MINIMUM WAGE in the country, and it seems like a GREAT TIME to live-tweet a reading of the SK labour history "On the Side of the People" by Kathleen Carlisle and Jim Warren #canlab #skpoli

This is going to be FUN and we are going to LEARN A LOT TOGETHER about things like “Why the RCMP is and always has been against workers” and “How Indigenous ppl have been systematically excluded from the economy” #AbolishThePolice #AbolishTheRCMP #skpoli

Like 90% of men mentioned in this book are named Lorne or Fred. Trying to figure out if there’s some kind of statute. “All political parties in Sask must contain a minimum of one (1) Lorne and one (1) Fred at all times.” #skpoli

Bolshevism is mentioned at least four (4) times, so hold on tight for that. (Wheat is only mentioned TWICE which is astonishing to me) #canlab #skpoli

So ok, first of all, the history of settlers in SK is built on the unpaid labour of Indigenous women. They did everything: diplomacy, interpreting, guiding, manufacturing equipment, food prep. It can’t be overstated how dead the fur traders would have been w/o these women #skpoli

I mean they died A LOT anyway. Which is usually framed as, "welp! That's the harsh, unforgiving terrain for you!" But ACTUALLY dying on the job from starvation or scurvy or freezing to death is an OH&S issue. HBC (& NWC) didnt GAF about workers, so they didnt outfit them properly

Warren & Carlisle say the first labour disaster in what would be Saskatchewan was the collapse of the buffalo economy. It was absolutely catastrophic for the Plains people. "No other event or catastrophe displaced and denied a living to so many people so quickly." #skpoli #canlab

The loss of the grain elevators in Saskatchewan over the past 20 years has really been symbolic of the loss of a way of life, and in particular a very community-oriented way of life. Warren & Carlisle point out that those elevators when up at the expense of another way of life.

Sask labour history is profoundly white & male, and you can trace that back to this moment when settlers coordinated efforts to completely sideline Indigenous people from participating in the economy. #skpoli #canlab

The fur trade economy wasn’t exactly a walk in the park for Indigenous/Metis people, but they were still integral to that labour sector. Once Ottawa decided to settle the West & turn the land over to agriculture, they were forced out.

Last of the big buffalo hunts happened in 1878-79. Extinct in the region by 1880. John A. MacDonald was PM at this time (eff that guy, seriously). This is probably the closest a conservative would ever get to a planned economy in that they planned to eliminate FN people from it.

Early Canadian unions were technically illegal, but they flew under the radar by limiting their activities to things like training, operating libraries (!), providing group insurance/funeral & welfare funds. If they actually tried to bargain, they could be prosecuted. #skpoli

The railways brought the first unions (called "brotherhoods") to Saskatchewan (before it was Saskatchewan). Warren & Carlisle are like “the railroad wasn’t a benevolent plant to provide transportation to the nations citizens!” and like, obviously? #skpoli #canlab

“Western development was a scheme to line the pockets of eastern business elite.” That’s all the west has ever been – semi-autonomous resource extraction colonies intended to produce capital for the bourgeoisie in ON and QC. #skpoli #canlab

“Canada as a nation was an invention of the Montreal business community…the settlement of the west was to be their coup – the creation of a market only they would be able to service.” That’s Warren Caragata. Canada is and always has been a corporate entity – no surprises there.

7600 wage labourers to build the CPR across (not quite yet) SK. A lot of immigrants from all over Europe, but also Americans who had built the Union Pacific rail (Chinese workers didn’t lay any rail east of the Rockies, which is why they don’t show up here) #canlab

Imagine laying rail in Saskatchewan in the summer time, with the heat and the humidity and the mosquitoes and making like $1.25-$2.50 a day? And then going "home" to a packed rooming house and eating trash food

Warren & Carlisle point out that there was nothing to do but drink & gamble. Which is basically what it's like to work in oil country today. You're working 7 10s or more & at the end of the day, there's nothing for you to do but put your money in a slot machine or up your nose

“The business class from central Can. were offended by the manners & ‘foul language’ of the crews & at times intimidated by their physical presence.” Lmao. These same dynamics still play out. The effete eastern dandy vs the burly western working man. Women DO NOT EXIST APPARENTLY

Women were not invented until 1914, when the first prototype was designed to aid with factory production during the First World War. #TheMoreYouKnow

The western separatist movement is a fundamentally white supremacist movement, but a lot of their foundational assertions – alienation, disrespect from Ottawa, the sense that the wealth created here is being funneled back to eastern elites – are rooted in history & reality.

Okay, so this is 1882 – the feds are ALREADY dishonouring treaties. They’re starving the people they shook hands with. This is where the Mounties come in (the NWMP then). They come for the specific purpose of coercing (and killing, if necessary) Indigenous ppl #AbolishTheRCMP

Chief Piapot knows the CPR is a direct threat, knows Ottawa has been dishonouring treaties, so he engages in an act of civil disobedience, blocking the construction of the CPR. This is a great tactic, bc the gov’t NEEDS this rail.

This is part of labour history, folks. Chief Piapot is disrupting the economy in order to win better terms for his people. But of course, the NWMP are here to bust heads. Always remember the dual purpose of the RCMP is to control Indigenous ppl & protect Dominion assets #canlab

The cops come and physically dismantle the camp, remove Piapot & his people. Around the same time, the NWMP is cracking down on rail workers who attempt to strike. They’re strikebreakers and a colonial occupying force. They'll repeat this role ad infinitum #AbolishTheRCMP

The strikers literally just wanted to get paid. The CPR had financial trouble almost from the start (lmao – conservatives have always been great at business) so workers sometimes waited MONTHS for pay. But the NWMP is always there to support business. They abused ppl back to work

Macdonald and his cronies used the North-West Resistance in 1885 as an opportunity to fund the railroad. We need troops to assert Cdn sovereignty! And they need to get there by rail! So let’s fund the railroad! Cynical af – but effective. #cdnpoli #canlab

1885, they drive "the Last Spike" which was the end of CPR construction. Of course there was the famous photo op where someone who had never laboured in his life mimed for the camera. The rail workers waited til the dandies had left, pulled out the spike, & drove it in themselves

That's as good a place as any to leave off for today, I think. Tune in next time for: wage cuts! Strikes! Secret messages!