This somewhat underwhelming result can be placed in some perspective
by undertaking a brief comparative analysis of the image of labour
on British, Australian, French, and American postage stamps. In each
case the gaze of assertion confirms the presence of organized labour
to a greater extent than in the Canadian case.
In Britain the presence of organized labour was confirmed in May 1968,
with the issue of a stamp to mark the centenary of the Trades Union
Congress; this one features the faces of early union leaders (#564).
The gaze of history was also directed at organized labour in 1976, at
the time of the 50th anniversary of the General Strike, when a series
of four stamps paid tribute to 19th-century industrial and social
reformers. The most notable here is the recognition of an early
northern coal miners' leader, Thomas Hepburn, who is represented by
the working hands of a miner holding a pick. The others in this group
included Robert Owen, Lord Shaftesbury, and Elizabeth Fry, represented
in turn by a child's hands working in a textile mill, a boy's hands
sweeping a chimney, a woman's hands holding prison bars
(#781-784). As in Canada, the ILO
was celebrated in 1969 (#586). Beyond this British workers have
appeared on a variety of other occasions, most notably in a 1981
series devoted to the fishing industry
(#956-959).23
United Kingdom Scott 781: "Social Reformers, Thomas Hepburn," 1976
Reproduced courtesy of Royal Mail.
|
|
Similarly, Australia acknowledged the 50th anniversary of the
Australian Council of Trades Unions (#668) in 1977. In 1947
there were scenes of workers pouring steel and loading coal (#208-209).
The ILO (#461) received recognition in 1969. In 1986, on the
centennial of the Amalgamated Shearers' Union, the work of rural workers
was shown in a strip of five stamps entitled "Click Go the
Shears" (#987a). More recently (1993) a handsome set of stamps
based on union banners has shown images of 19th-century trades and labour
under the title "Working Life in the 1890s"
(#1320-1323).
24
|
Australia Scott 1321
"Working Life in the 1890s: Stevedores and Seamstresses," 1993
National Philatelic Collection, Australia Post
(© Australia Post. Alteration of this image in any way is forbidden.)
|
In France we find unambiguous representations of the working class
presence, and the following examples refer to only a few instances
of representation. The coal miners appeared, on the march, as early
as 1938 (#343). As elsewhere, the
ILO was commemorated in 1969 (#1247). The legalization of unions
in 1884 was marked a century later on a stamp honouring Pierre
Waldeck-Rousseau (#1907). The 100th anniversary of the
international workers' holiday, May Day, was celebrated in 1990
(#2221). Other stamps paid tribute to a variety of workers'
crafts and occupations and to political figures such as Louise
Michel and Jean Jaurès.25
France Scott 343 (YT 390): "Mineurs" (2 francs, 15 centimes), 1938.
Stamp issued to commemorate the miners of the Nord, a region
characterized by a heavy industry and mining economy.
Reproduced courtesy of La Poste, République française.
|
|
Somewhat surprisingly, it is in the United States that the gaze of
history has been most extended in focusing on the presence of
organized labour. It begins, perhaps, with a 1933 stamp (#732)
marking the National Recovery Act and the "common determination"
to get the country back to work under the New Deal. Certainly it is
visible on a 1950 stamp issued on the centenary of the birth of Samuel
Gompers, the founder and long-time president of the American Federation
of Labor (#988). In 1956 a Labor Day stamp
(#1082) featured a detail from the
mosaic at the headquarters of the newly established AFL-CIO. Workmen's
compensation was given special recognition in 1961, on the 50th
anniversary of the enactment of compensation laws in Wisconsin; this
stamp (#1186) showed the scales of justice balancing factory,
worker, and family. The inauguration of industrial legality in the form
of statutory protection for collective bargaining was commemorated most
specifically in 1975, on the 40th anniversary of the Wagner Act
(#1558); the stated theme was one of reconciliation - "out of
conflict accord." In 1989 a second labour leader was honoured on a
stamp, again on the centenary of his birth, in the person of A.
Phillip Randolph (#2402), America's most important black labour
leader. He was followed in 1994 by a third labour leader, George
Meany (#2848). Other representations of workers on American stamps
can also be noted, ranging from the post horse and rider of 1869
(#113) to celebrations of various occupational groups and industries,
postal employees again, as in most countries, being over-represented.
Two interesting bicentennial series, one in 1972 (#1456-1459) and
another in 1977 (#1717-1720), featured "Colonial Craftsmen"
(glassmaker, silversmith, wigmaker, and hatter) and "Skilled Hands
for Independence" (seamstress, blacksmith, wheelwright, and
leatherworker).26
United States of America Scott 3085 : "John Henry ", 1996
Stamp design © 1995, United States Postal Service
Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved
|
|
|
United States of America Scott 1082: "Labor Day," 1956
Stamp design © 1956, United States Postal Service
Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved
|
This comparison suggests that, despite the variety of evidence that
workers can be found in incidental and subordinate positions in a
good deal of the Canadian postal issue, Canadian labour has been
relatively slow to gain admission to the public imagery contained in
postage stamps. Unlike several of the capitalist democracies, Canada
has no stamps marking the establishment of unions, the enactment of
labour laws, or the celebration of labour days, and only one stamp
commemorating an individual union leader.