"Sentiment Very Good for the IWW:" The Kootenay Logger Strikes of 1923 and 1924

Abstract

The paper examines strikes by loggers in the East Kootenay region of British Columbia in 1923 and 1924. The loggers were members of the Industrial Workers of the World that viewed the Kootenay campaign and strikes as part of a broader strategy to organize logger and farm labour across the heart of the continent in the early 1920s. Set within the context of an industry on the verge of collapse due to capital's overexplotation of the resource, the paper shows how IWW delgates and loggers organized significant job actions over two seasons in the face of an intransigent employers association. The paper views the strikes as part a resurgence of the IWW in the early 1920s; it also considers how the strikes reflected and were influenced by the nature of economic development and class relations in the Kootenays by the 1920s.