Development and underdevelopment and the rise of trade unionism in the fishing industry of Nova Scotia, 1900-1950

Abstract

This is a study of the development of capitalism in the fishing industry of Nova Scotia between 1900 and 1950. In particular, it traces the patterns of growth of two intertwined institutions through two distinct periods that up to 1930, and after. The first is the growth of business organisation - from mercantile capitalist through industrial capitalist to modern monopoly capitalist; the second, the rise of trade unionism - from initial beginnings in co-operativism to militant "industrial" unionism. Structural links between the rise of capitalism and the development of trade unionism, as a defensive class response to it by a proletarianized workforce, are made through a discussion of the socio-economic and subjective class attitude changes engendered by the latter as a result of the development of capitalism. As a second major theme throughout the study, the development of organisation in the fishing industry is linked to the overall process of regional economic underdevelopment to show the peculiarities of this growth and the dependent links between it and national and international capital.