The Revolution Game
The Short Unhappy Life of the Company of Young Canadians
Daly, Margaret
Publisher: New Press, Toronto, Canada
Year Published: 1970
Pages: 242pp Price: $3.50 Dewey: 322.420971
Resource Type: Book
Cx Number: CX6533
A historical overview of the Company of Young Canadians.
Abstract:
Margaret Daly's book is an important historical overview of the CYC. Daly chronicles its successes and failures in English Canada and their very strong and effective political skills in Quebec. There is also a description of the internal politics of the CYC which shows that many did not understand the work they were doing and few could judge the competence of their colleagues as organizers. The results of this were twofold. In English Canada the CYC was seen by the general population as merely a group of long haired hippy radicals whose beliefs did not have to be taken seriously. Conversely in Quebec after the kidnappings of Laporte and Cross and the invoking of the War Measures Act the CYC because of their skills in galvanising Quebeckers to take an actice role in political life were perceived as being a threat. In English Canada there was little resistance to the WMA and the governments' suspension of civil rights, mass dawn arrests and detention and confiscation of papers as well as prosecution for political beliefs. In Quebec the police were given carte blanche to inquire into a person's allegiance to the political status quo. To this end many of the CYC organizers were held in detention under the WMA.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1 The Government: Harnessing idealism to polish statues
2 The New Left: Something that had to be tried
3 The Early Projects: I can give you a definite maybe on that
4 The Calgary Project: Up against the Oiltown wall
5 Ottawa: Getting hard
6 The St-Jerome Project: Turning workers into human beings
7 The Vidal Era: Ideology for a banana republic
8 The Cape Breton Project: Just getting together is important
9 The Collapse: Bang bang Maxwell's silver hammer
Conclusion
Subject Headings
