Eric Fry

A Communist Life: Jack Scott and the Canadian Workers Movement 1927-1985@@@Ralph Gibson: An Extraordinary Communist

including regular hours if any, copying facilities and phone number. Examination of this list indicates that the overwhelming majority of materials are to be found in Kelowna, the remainder almost all within easy commuting distance. The second section details each individual set of records. Entries contain inclusive dates, physical size, type of material, restrictions if any, a detailed summary of contents, possible finding aids, and any other useful information. This section makes clear that the history of the Okanagan fruitgrowing industry is just waiting to be researched and written. Also included are such diverse and tantalizing items as the reminiscences of Lady Aberdeens daughter, the financial records of a Chinese store at Yale from 1869 to 1884, and the minutes of a theosophical society during the First World War and of a Buddhist temple from 1933 to the present. The last major section, and possibly the most important, is a detailed index by subject and name. The lesson of this bibliographical tool should not be lost on us. If we are properly to fulfil our mandate as scholars of British Columbia, it is insufficient just to squirrel together the source materials most useful for our own private purposes. We have a responsibility also to ensure their accessibility to the broader intellectual community. Such agencies as British Columbia Heritage Trust and SSHRCC, through its Canadian Studies Research Tools programme, have provided the financial means to do so. Such publications as the Guide to Labour Records and Resources in British Columbia (Louise May, comp. Vancouver: Special Collections Division, UBC Library, 1985), the Vancouver Centennial Bibliography (Linda Hale, comp. Vancouver: Vancouver Historical Society, 1986), and, most recently, the Union Catalogue of British Columbia Newspapers (Hana Komorous, comp. Vancouver: B.C. Library Association, 1989) provide exemplars of what can be accomplished. The Central Okanagan Records Survey proudly stands in this tradition.

First International Conference of Centres for the Study of Labour History

The first international conference of centres for the study of labour history was held in Mexico City in July 1975. Although some national bodies have met each other in the past, occasionally or regularly, this was the first attempt to bring together representatives of all institutions throughout the world concerned with the study of labour history. The conference was sponsored by the International Labour Organisation and arranged by the Centre for the Study of the History of the Mexican Labour Movement (C.E.H.S.M.O.), to whose initiative participants are indebted. All who attended would wish to express their thanks to C.E.H.S.M.O. for the friendship with which they were received and the generous hospitality extended to them. It was a memorable occasion personally as well as for the study of labour history. In arranging the conference C.E.H.S.M.O. contacted bodies known to it and made inquiries through embassies for other bodies in all countries. Some invited were not able to attend and others have since been identified, as a result of the conference, which were not known at the time. The participants came from: the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (Dr. Peter Cook and myself) ; the Society for the Study of Labour History of Britain; the International Association of Labour History Institutions, centred in London; the International Insti tute of Social History of Amsterdam; the Friedrich Ebert Foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany; the University of Paris; the Insti tute of the International Working Class Movement of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences; the Institute for the Study of Labour, Costa Rica; C.E.H.S.M.O. itself; representatives of Mexican universities and the Congress of Labour of Mexico. This was by no means a full roll of centres concerned with the study of labour history throughout the world. But it was a good start for a first gathering and in many ways a representative group. Those present showed how many diverse types of institutions enter into the field of labour history and how broadly an international organisation should be conceived. We in Australia should realise this range of approaches and appreciate where we stand in relation to it. The Australian Society is a private body, supported by its sub scribers. It was modelled on the British Society, with which it may be categorised, although the latter has won more effective recognition from universities and trade unions than we have done. Our most active members feel some kind, of commitment to the labour movement and its history, yet we are literally a non-political body, nor do we seek more from trade unions than to stimulate their interest in their past. We are accepted in the academic world without being part of a university or receiving public funds. On the one hand this gives independence, on the other limited resources. It is the outcome of the social, political and ideological conditions in Australia over the fifteen years since the Society was formed. But this is not the only way in which the study of labour history may be organised. The International Association of Labour History Institutions co ordinates the sources for labour history held in about fifty West 71