Homer Stevens: A Life in Fishing

Gerald J. Stortz is an assistant professor of history at the University
of Waterloo.

The new fashion in working-class history is the as-told-to book by
retired union leaders. Like all oral histories, these are often either
self-serving or sanitized accounts. In this case, however, Homer
Stevens, former leader of the United Fisherman and Allied Workers Union,
has teamed with Rolf Knight, a prolific writer in British Columbian
labor history (whose skill was recognized by a 1992 Canadian Historical
Association regional history award), to create what might well serve as
a model for this genre.

Among the most appealing aspects of this book are the personal
details—such as the description of Stevens’s lapse from Catholicism,
and the family anecdotes, including a genealogy in Chapter 1—that are
interwoven with the accounts of official union activity. Stevens’s
frank account of his involvement in the Communist Party is refreshing,
and illustrates how important the party was to the development of
Canadian labor. Similarly, he readily admits his anti–World War II
stance (he later tried, unsuccessfully, to enlist). The best chapters,
however, are “The Everyday Life of a Union,” in which Stevens talks
about the unglamorous work of organization, and “Native Workers and
the Native Brotherhood.”

Some readers will find Stevens’s accounts of run-ins with the
judicial system and prison life somewhat shocking. Most will find this
well-written and well-illustrated book a pleasure to read.