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Toronto's Poor: A Rebellious History
Toronto’s Poor reveals the long and too often forgotten history of poor people’s resistance. It details how the homeless, the unemployed, and the destitute have struggled to survive and secure food and shelter in the wake of the many panics, downturns, recessions, and depressions that punctuate the years from the 1830s to the present.
Written by a working-class historian and a poor people’s activist, this is a rebellious book that links past and present in an almost two-hundred year story of struggle and resistance. It is about men, women, and children relegated to lives of desperation by an uncaring system, and how they have refused to be defeated. In that refusal, and in winning better conditions for themselves, Toronto’s poor create the possibility of a new kind of society, one ordered not by acquisition and individual advance, but by appreciations of collective rights and responsibilities.
Written by a working-class historian and a poor people’s activist, this is a rebellious book that links past and present in an almost two-hundred year story of struggle and resistance. It is about men, women, and children relegated to lives of desperation by an uncaring system, and how they have refused to be defeated. In that refusal, and in winning better conditions for themselves, Toronto’s poor create the possibility of a new kind of society, one ordered not by acquisition and individual advance, but by appreciations of collective rights and responsibilities.
544 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2016
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January 31, 2018
From 19th-century working-class neighbourhoods resisting evictions, through to 20th-century relief camp workers' strikes, on to modern occupations and protests at party fundraisers, this behemoth of a book traces the continuities and adaptations of repression and resistance in anti-poverty campaigns.
It's a tale of two Torontos, highlighting the Dickensian aura one will feel from a quick walk through the downtown core.
Most of all, it's an invaluable read for understanding the strategy and tactics of a militant anti-poverty movement.
The tone ranges from harrowing accounts of the casualties of capitalism to defiant calls to action. There's a seemingly endless list of forgotten names whose struggles amounted to a literal footnote in history. It's a reminder that we may spend our lives in struggle only to see things get worse. Of course, it's also a reminder that steps forward are possible.
The book's overall point stands out: Dispossession, not "just" exploitation, is the foundation of class, and so the "lumpenproletariat" are just as proletarian as those producing surplus value in a workplace. The waged and the wageless continue a shared struggle.
It's a tale of two Torontos, highlighting the Dickensian aura one will feel from a quick walk through the downtown core.
Most of all, it's an invaluable read for understanding the strategy and tactics of a militant anti-poverty movement.
The tone ranges from harrowing accounts of the casualties of capitalism to defiant calls to action. There's a seemingly endless list of forgotten names whose struggles amounted to a literal footnote in history. It's a reminder that we may spend our lives in struggle only to see things get worse. Of course, it's also a reminder that steps forward are possible.
The book's overall point stands out: Dispossession, not "just" exploitation, is the foundation of class, and so the "lumpenproletariat" are just as proletarian as those producing surplus value in a workplace. The waged and the wageless continue a shared struggle.
Displaying 1 of 1 review