
During Labour Day week of 2016, The Tyee publishes five excerpts from Drawn to Change: Graphic Histories of Working-Class Struggle. Among the real life stories, told comic-book style by various artists, are those of Great Depression-era radical Bill Williamson, Indigenous longshore workers, a women-led revolt at a B.C. mine, a bloody clash on Vancouver’s docks, and a new kind of union pioneered by feminists in the 1970s.
The Tyee highly recommends this fascinating anthology edited by the Graphic Histories Collective with Paul Buhle and rolled out this year by Toronto-based publisher Between the Lines.
In This Series
‘To Hell with the Boss!’ A Labour Radical’s Own Story
Sample a powerful page from the new graphic history ‘Drawn to Change.’ And meet BC’s Bill Williamson, one tough working class hero.
Working on the Water, Fighting for the Land
The little told story of BC’s activist Indigenous dockworkers. From the new book ‘Drawn to Change’.
The Battle of Ballantyne Pier
For three hours in Vancouver a war raged over who can work, and organize. From the new book ‘Drawn to Change.’
Coal Mountain: Where Women Paid in Blood
A true tale of tenacity in the face of brutality lies buried in a BC ghost town. Excerpted from ‘Drawn to Change.’
An ‘Entirely Different Kind of Labour Union’
This 1970s feminist-led experiment was miles ahead. Last excerpt from ‘Drawn to Change.’