Think fast.

Could you explain the significance for Canadian workers of:
-syndicalism and social democracy?
-The Wagner Act and the Padlock Laws?
-Operation Solidarity and the Social Contract?
-Proletarianization and pay equity?
If you're feeling a bit vague, read this book.

Most well-read Canadians know that government is complex. Right-wing newspapers assert that business is really complex. Academics live by dealing with issues that they find or make complex. Yet unions are supposed to be simple. Why? A discreet class prejudice among our opinion moulders holds that workers are simple and hence their organizations must be simple.

This book takes apart simplistic and hostile notions of unions. In a respectful but not romanticized way, the authors explain how and why unionists do what we do. They clarify many of the subtle, volatile, intricate workings of unionism. They make accessible the mechanics of the labour movement and the passions that fuel its politics. They are refreshingly fair on the range of social visions held by union activists and refreshingly free of technical jargon and acronyms.

What's their point? They call for a renewal of democratic citizenship, in the workplace and the society, with unions as a key vehicle for both. One look at the breadth and energy of union mobilization at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City suggests that the renewal is underway. This kind of careful, thoughtful, clear-eyed writing certainly nudges it forward.

Buy a copy of this book to read and keep for reference. Then buy a second copy to lend to your anti-union neighbours and/or relatives. That's a simple way to help in building a better society.

Dr. D'Arcy Martin, union educator and author of the book Thinking Union: Activism and education in Canada's labour movement, coordinates the Centre for the Study of Education and Work at the University of Toronto.