Dear COR colleagues,

You are invited to the colloquium by Prof. Barry Eidlin, McGill
University

“Labor and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada”

Date: Friday, October 26, 2018
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
Location: SSPB, Room 4250

ABSTRACT: Why are unions weaker in the U.S. than in Canada, despite the
two countries’ socio-economic similarities? Many view this cross-border
difference as a byproduct of long-standing differences in political
cultures and institutions. But using detailed archival and statistical
data, I find this divergence is relatively recent, resulting from
different ruling party responses to working class upsurge in both
countries during the Great Depression and World War II. In Canada, an
initially more hostile state response ended up embedding “the class
idea”—the idea of class as a salient, legitimate political category—more
deeply in policies, policies, and practices than in the U.S., where
class interests were reduced to “special interests.” I illustrate this
through comparative studies of party-class relations, postwar Red
scares, and divergence in labor policy between the two countries.

BIOGRAPHY: Barry Eidlin is Assistant Professor of Sociology at McGill
University. He is a comparative historical sociologist interested in the
study of class, politics, social movements, and social change. His book,
Labor and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada was published
by Cambridge University Press in 2018. Other research has been published
in the American Sociological Review, Politics & Society, Sociology
Compass, and Labor History, among other venues. He also comments
regularly in various media outlets on labor politics and policy.