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The Long Sixties

The Long Sixties

Stories from the New Left

Inspiring stories from seven Canadians who have spent sixty plus years fighting for social justice and transformative change.

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About the book

The sixties were not just “sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” Social movements aimed at overcoming patriarchy, colonialism, and corporate capitalism were equally part of the sixties revolution. These movements are still very much alive.

In The Long Sixties, seven veteran political activists from the sixties, all still engaged in campaigns and organizations across Canada, tell their stories of transformational activism. What could veteran activists from the sixties teach about activism? In addition to telling their stories — how they got involved, why they stay involved, how they persevered into their twilight years — they also critically reflect on their victories and defeats, their personal and political challenges, what they learned, and how their perspectives deepened and changed along the way.

This book provides hope, chronicling the significant gains — in advancing peace, international human rights, Indigenous rights, women’s and 2SLGBTQ+ rights, workers’ rights, and environmental protection. Weathered voices open an intergenerational conversation about social solidarity and transformation to address the grave crises we face globally and nationally, including climate catastrophe, escalating warfare, extreme wealth inequality, ethno-nationalism, and a heightened continental threat to Canada’s sovereignty.

With inspiring contributions from Bob Bossin, Joan Kuyek, Dimitri Roussopoulos, Lib Spry, Cathy Walker, Peter Warrian and Jim Harding.

Activism & Social Movements Canadian Studies Political Economy

Author

Jim Harding

Jim Harding is past director of the School of Human Justice at the University of Regina. He served as inner-city representative on Regina City Council and as mayor of the Village of Fort San. He is the founding board chair of the Qu’Appelle Valley Centre for the Arts and a founding director of the Qu’Appelle Valley Environmental Association.

Harding was involved in the formation of the Student Union for Peace Action, the early NDP and the Combined University Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He has authored several books, including After Iraq (2004) and Canada’s Deadly Secret (2007), and he edited Social Policy and Social Justice (1995), and has written widely in newspapers, journals, and magazines.

Historian Bryan Palmer calls Jim Harding “one of Western Canada’s leading New Leftists.” For Jim, writing and activism have always been interwoven: “Beliefs based in ideology always let me down. Without more fully, concretely understanding what is happening I would have been greatly limited in both strategic and tactical foresight. Without learning the importance of critical reflection, early on, I would never have been able to stay in movement activism for the long game.”

Chapter 1: Coming Out of the Sixties (Jim Harding)
Chapter 2: Local Organizing, Global Networking and Everything in Between (Jim Harding)
Chapter 3: A Brief History of the Brief History of Rochdale College (Bob Bossin)
Chapter 4: Learning to Organize (Joan Newman Kuyek)
Chapter 5: Politics, Performance, Play (Lib Spry)
Chapter 6: Working Women, Occupational Health and the Creation of Canadian Unions (Cathy Walker)
Chapter 7: Politics, Spirituality and Resilience (Peter Warrian)
Chapter 8: It Started with the Anti-Nuclear Arms Movement (Dimitrios Roussopoulos)
Chapter 9: And Here We Are (Jim Harding)