Solidarity

The year 1983 began like any other year in Canada’ s West Coast province. Then suddenly everything changed. The newly elected provincial government announced an avalanche of far-right legislation that shocked the country. A resistance movement called Solidarity formed across British Columbia and there were massive street protests, occupations, plans for an all-out general strike. Revolution in one province? Filled with revealing interviews and lively, insightful prose, David Spaner’ s Solidarity goes behind the scenes of one of the great social uprisings in North American history. This book is a documentation of the Solidarity months of 1983 and more than that — 1983 is intimate storytelling, mixing popular culture and rebel politics, finding political answers in the personal lives of those touched by Solidarity. Like other uprisings — from France in 1968 to the anti-racism protests of 2020 — Solidarity arrived unexpectedly and rocked social foundations. In recreating this one singularly dramatic event, 1983 becomes the history of 20th century B.C. that hasn’ t been written — exploring its great divides and unions, cultures and subcultures, conflicts that continue into the 21st century. The book 1983 brings Canadian history to life like never before.