Submission to Right Honourable J. Diefenbaker and Cabinet by National Unemployment Lobby Committee, April 24, 1961

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: Submission to Right Honourable J. Diefenbaker and Cabinet by National Unemployment Lobby Committee, April 24, 1961

Calling unemployment at the time a "national emergency" this submission by the National Unemployment Lobby Committee to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet in 1961 looks at the stark reality faced by the jobless at the time.

This was a Canada prior to the liberalization of Unemployment Insurance in 1971, prior to universal medical coverage in every province and prior even to 40 hour work week laws. 

The submission outlines a number of solutions, including proposals from the Canadian Labour Congress and the Ontario Federation of Labour. It also talks about issues around housing, the threat of deportation that hung over unemployed immigrants and the need for higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, among other things. 

Finally it exposes the common refrain of reactionaries that the unemployed are somehow simply "lazy"as well as Pierre Berton's response that such an opinion is "pure, unadulterated hogwash".  

(Click on scans to enlarge)

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com