DArcy Martin v.s. Michael Newman - Essay Example

? Book Review – Comparative Analysis The following dis embarks on to a literary journey where we have the idealist essayist D’Arcy Martin on one hand with the skeptic & analytical Michael Newman on the other. Their books, a clash of montages & ideas leads us to two identical yet separate worlds from where it becomes difficult for the reader to choose from. Incidentally the history of the Canadian trade unionism began as early in the 1830s (Coats, 232; Sirois, Creighton and Mackintosh, 11). Here in the book, Thinking Union: Activism & Education in Canada’s Labour Movement’ D’Arcy Martin highlights the routine realities of being a labor educationist, and the challenges & humanism intertwined with the profession. In Thinking Union, Martin discourses on his own schooling as a labor activist and a labor mentor (Joe and Worthen, 1). The Third Contract Theory & Practice in Trade Union Training by Michael Newman provides a slightly altered approach towards labour training & education. The author makes an attempt to investigate the variation in trade union education and other forms of adult tutoring and teaching. He also deduces some of the theorists from the arena of adult learning, society’s adult education, and human resource expansion in a manner which turns their ideas and practice applicable to unionists. D’Arcy Martin’s chronicle evolves a loving yet plausible portrayal of union customs in Canada for more than two decades. Opening with when he took an employment as the Canadian education director for the Steelworkers (USWA) in Toronto in 1978, he brings us up all the way through the mid- 1990s, by when he had been misemployed by the Steelworkers, worked for the Communication and the & Electrical Workers of Canada (CWC) & subsequently on a nationalized job training format & ultimately finished up with the communication, Energy & paper workers (Canada) amalgamated union (Joe and Worthen, 1). Newman on the other hand took the unique policy of sharing ideas with diverse groups of union educators, predominantly during the courses at Clyde Cameron College. Those official teaching sessions and the debates that followed them helped Newman to authenticate his own ideas & review others (Newman, 4-7). Newman explains his own experiences & tactical moves as a union trainer. It maybe connoted that Newman deciphers a more professional approach towards his duty, while Martin goes through an emotional journey while penning down the phrases of his book. Newman produces a detailed analysis of his stint as a union trainer under the Australian Trade Union Training Authority (TUTA) & provides wholesome tactical as well as mechanical approaches to deal with immediate hurdles & hindrances (Newman, 6-10). Martin appears to more of a rebel who feels for the causes for which he incidentally has been appointed. Newman’s approach is often based on clusters of questionnaire, which he himself answers for the readers, thus proving his theoretical mettle in labour & educational programming. Newman treats his entire book like a course or guide book while Martin is earthy, robust, humanist & anti establishment. Newman shares the light moments, fun, & frolic associated during the time of the training but somehow can never escape the ‘mechanical attitude’ (Newman, 6-12). Newman extensively writes about the training schedules & how the students are trained according to the curriculum. He also speaks from the ‘trainer’s point of view’, & speaks about a few whom he deems worthy of. Newman speaks about the inventive John Griffith, a visual trainer by profession. He depicts Griffith (Griffo) as a visual trainer, who made “inventive use of overhead transparencies, writing and ‘drawing quickly but elaborately with different colored pens on the whiteboard, revealing diagrams and drawings already prepared on large pieces of newsprint”. Newman says: “He moved energetically, walking deep into the U to listen to one particular participant, and then whipping around to throw a question at another. He gestured a lot, pulled faces, dressed flamboyantly, and was a little larger than life. Watching him train was to watch a person happy in his work. I have seen Griffo in the process of drawing ideas out of a group, stop in the centre of the U, and burst into delighted laughter” (Newman, 11). Newman writes about another of his colleagues named Chilla Miller. He writes about miller’s teaching tactics in following fashion: “Chilla Miller’s training was anarchic. One was never quite sure where one of his sessions would end up. He would go in with a clear area to cover or an exercise to run but such was his respect for his participants that he would often let them take control. He had no fear of tangents, and often seemed to follow rather than lead. Chilla moved outside the U. Often after he had set a discussion going, or uncomplainingly let one take over in the middle of a set-piece presentation, he would drift away from the front of the room.” (Newman, 12) Newman denotes that the “participants would be arguing with one another and gradually register that the trainer was no longer there, but someplace at the rear of the training room, looking glumly out a window or examining the wall” (Newman, 12). These could be magic moments. The discussion would falter. Newman says that he even heard of a participant asking anxiously: “What are you doing over there, Chilla?” After this “with no figure of authority, no focus in front of the U, the discussion would pick up again, but at another level of intensity altogether” (Newman, 12). Newman narrates his experiences with the representatives of the Metropolitan Water & Sewerage Employees Union where he labels the workers as spirited & highly interactive. He appreciates their strive to learn something new by writing: ‘It was clear from their demeanor that this was their course, not the Secretary’s and certainly not mine’ (Newman, 15). Newman speaks as to how the Australian unions have been looking to amalgamate with each other to constitute a bigger & stronger platform (Newman, 18). The fundamental difference between martin & Newman’s analysis lies in the fact that they speak about labour movements originating in two diverse & different nations. Martin comes across as a defiant Samaritan of labor rights whereas Newman appears to be an accomplished ivory tower philosopher. Newman is creative, inventive, & innovative, but all his decisions are governed by rationality as opposed to martin’s personal involvement in the movements & programmes. Martin uses technique & tactics only for the larger goal of welfare (Martin, 15-30). Martin’s penchant for idealism & internationalism comes to forefront in different parts of his book. He writes: “First was my interest in Latin America, developed in my early twenties as a student of politics & culture of underdevelopment & revolutionary change. My perspective on Canada, on learning & on power was deeply shaped by this exposure. The ideas of radical educators like Paulo Freire affected my sense of what was possible & necessary in developing dialogue with oppressed people rather than presenting them with top down solutions. In recent years, largely through associates in the Doris Marshall Institute, I have broadened connections with popular educators in Mexico, Central America, Southern Africa, & East Asia. Their faith in the wisdom of the oppressed, their capacity to innovate with limited resources & their linking of education to organizing for change continue to affect me deeply”. (Martin, 24) Martin emotionally speaks of seniors who motivated & made him into a fighter with special kudos & thanks to them (Martin, 24-26). This bears testimony to the fact that the author shared a deep emotional bondage with the characters & incidents cited in the book. It can also be definitely said that Martin’s political & social arena was larger than that of Michael Newman, as the former writes with an incident based approach, while the latter writes with a more specific & theoretical agenda. As an example it can be cited that Martin participated waist deep, into the politics of southern Ontario, focusing mainly on assisting to construct small scale community organizations that had successfully sustained critical social movements & upheavals (Martin, 24-28). Martin’s knowledge at the grass roots level has been thoroughly reflected in his book. The book bears testimony to fact that he conducted workshops with principals, trustees, parents, & students to educate & enlighten those people, thereby removing the agnosticism prevailing in their ranks (Martin, 24-28). Even though the framework of the book is martin’s individual anecdote, the content is enriched by his judgments about learning the art to master his unique job. His position got him in touch with factory workers from all over the Canadian territory. These brotherly relationships are the ones which form the crux of this enthralling academic journey (Joe and Worthen 84). The focus on these relationships remains the pivotal fulcrum of this book. Martin depicts numerous, almost pictographic instances of observation - the impact of an insensitive statement by a manager, the way a remark came down in a probable assimilation on a plane or at a lunch kiosk reverberate later in another milieu, the tranquil temper of a petite faction of rank & file members after a vote, the decisions taken by union leaders as they draw near a contested ballot vote. Martin projects on all these instances to enlighten the decisions he took as a labor educationist who is both a ‘radical democrat’ & a ‘conscious romantic’ at the same time. He also generalizes his decisions, in an effort to build up a tactic appropriate for union schooling & educators (Joe and Worthen 84). Martin delves out the 10 dynamics or ‘cross currents’, which he utilizes to establish his own work throughout the phases of the union movement in the initial stages of his book (Nesbit, 5). He also romps in the version of ‘3 metaphors’ to classify the gush of communication & power inside the union formation: staircase, web, & channel (Joe and Worthen, 84). Despite the fact that he does not reside on these, they let the booklover acclimatize with the kind of reasoned structure that underlines his ideologies. He beautifully compiles the book with brief narrations that emerge as something far stronger than mere moral lessons (Joe and Worthen, 84). The book has been artistically illustrated with concise black & white photographs of individuals who figure in the story line making the characters more humane as well as engaging (Martin, 1-60). As a matter of fact, it is extremely important get the wholesome picture of the author D’Arcy martin. Over the precedential seventeen years, trade union educationist D'Arcy Martin has lead hundreds of curriculums for the downtrodden Canadian work force. Along the line, he's also got to know a lot about himself--as part of a group of people of "conscious romantics" amidst the union movement (Martin, 5-10; Taylor and Draper, 103). Martin belongs to an endangered species of noble souls who dream of an added egalitarian world while embattling the hindrances that stand in the way of constructing it. This book is all regarding these women and men, their visions, their goals and their principles. The language, the treatment, the defiance of the writer, can be experienced while going through this unique compilation. The troubles which have been faced by the author as a dark skinned individual are skillfully enumerated in the book. The political hassles as well as the social trauma of the embittered labor class are the topic of concentration. The liberalist economy & the issues of suppression remains the crux of discourse of Martin’s book (Martin, 1-10). The book renders an entire chapter on the chronicles of the civil war that took place in 1984- 85. In this milieu, the author frames in a unique par phrasal written by Marge Piercy at the introduction of the chapter. It reads as follows: “It is not blind chance I rail at, The flood waters that carry off One house & leave its neighbor Standing one foot above the high Water’s swirling grasp. It is that good go down Not easily, not gently, Not occasionally, not by random Deviation & the topple Of mischance, but almost always. Marge Piercy, ‘The Good go down’” (Martin, 65). For the romantics, Thinking Union would come as nothing short of a reader’s pleasure. The language, the simplicity, & the detailing would undoubtedly motivate even the most cynic of readers. The Third Contract on the other hand would remain as an official document of tremendous authenticity & first hand facts. Conclusion: The Canadian labor force was never or nothing like their American counterparts. Martin proves that the entire labour work force had an inclination towards the Soviet model of socialism rather than the US model of consumerism. This fact can also be read from the book Read Canadian: a book about Canadian books, where the author trio Robert Fulford, Dave Godfrey & Abraham Rotstein speaks along a similar faction. The book transparently depicts the reasons as to why the Canadian organized labor & peasantry decided to support a socialist party rather than following the American model of working within the periphery of the dominant political parties besides discussing various other issues (Fultord, Godfrey, and Rotstein, 26-27, 90-91, 133). This was not the case for the Australian work force. Unimaginative, institutional, & disciplined are the terms by which one can define their approach. As Newman pens down: “In 1903, following a period of recession in which the extension movement had been faltering, the Workers’ Educational Association was established. The major force behind the Association’s formation and its early days of extraordinary growth was Albert Mansbridge. He saw the WEA as forging an alliance between the university extension programs on the one hand, and working class people and the organizations that represented them on the other. By 1914 there were 179 local WEA branches in the country. Branches were autonomous, run by committees representing members and affiliate organizations. These branches in turn were organized into districts with district committees. And all worked within a federal system guided by a central office in London. Branches worked closely with universities, enrolling students for their extension courses, but also providing complementary courses of their own. For the first time Britain had a national, and democratically structured, adult education organization. And this organization was strongly committed to the liberal adult education tradition” (Newman, 53). Martin articulates the existence & power of youth in the Canadian labour infrastructure. This can also be observed in the writings of S. Tannock. He observes that Canadian youth labor activists pinpoint the shift in official labor attitude toward working youth in Canada to the 1996 Canadian Labour Congress convention in Vancouver. “It was there that the CLC adopted a resolution calling for the youth to become a central outreach and organizing priority for all union affiliates”. (Tannock, & Flocks, 3) Marxism & socialism have never been the determining factors of the Australian labor dichotomy. The Marxists have been conducting some crucial inroads within the labor superstructure, but political success has eluded them for long. The book Australian industrial relations system by Kenneth Frederick Walker speaks volumes in testimony to this fact. The Australian unions were never quite receptive or prone to the ideologies of equality. As a result the labor forces were neither a propagator nor an advocate of socialistic values. Communist ideology was not the factor which governed the main stream political gush (Walker, 58 -60). This schooling remains evident in Newman’s book quite evidently in a very subtle fashion. The analytical journey of these two engaging literary works gives us a concrete picture of labour movements in the so called first world or developed nations. But D’Arcy martin’s basic approach gives him the edge. Hence, it is better to remain immoral than amoral, as amorality is actually immorality in disguise. References 1) Coats , R, H, The labour movement in Canada, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, (1923) 107: 282-285 2) Fulford, Robert, Godfrey, Dave & Rotstein, Abraham, Read Canadian: a book about Canadian books, Toronto:James Lorimer & company, 1972. 3) Joe, Berry & Helena Worthen, Book reviews: thinking union: activism& education in Canada’s labor movement, Labor Studies Journal, (2003) 28.2: 84-85 4) Martin, D’Archy, Thinking union: activism & education in Canada’s labour movement, Toronto: Between the lines, 1995 5) Newman, Michael, The Third contract: Theory & practice in union training, Sydney: Stewart Victor Publishing, 1993 6) Nesbit, Tom, Training for Labour’s Professionals, Just Labour, 1 (2002): 94-103, August 23, 2011 from: http://www.yorku.ca/julabour/volume1/jl_nesbit.pdf 7) Sirois, Joseph, Creighton, Donald Grant and William Archibald Mackintosh, Report of the Royal Commission on Dominion, J. O. Patenaude, Printer to the King, 1940 8) Tannock , Stuart & Flocks, Sara, “The Canadian labor movement’s big youth turn”, Labor Center, 2002, August 23, 2011 from: http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/youngworkers/canadian.pdf 9) Taylor, Maurice Charles and James A. Draper, Adult Literacy Perspectives, Krieger Pub, 1994. 10) Walker, Kenneth Frederick, Australian industrial relations systems, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1956 Read More