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Tory historians had a field day
at the recent weekend conference
hosted by the Ontario Historical
Society to mark the sesquicen-
tennial of the Revolution of 1837.
The two-day conference, held at
Black Creek Pioneer Village in
Toronto, held out the promise of
hearing ‘“‘opposing views on the
causes and results of the Rebel-
lion’ but the panels were packed
with upholders of the Tory inter-
pretation of history. Likewise,
the way the workshops were
structured allowed very little or
no time for those who held oppos-
ing views to express themselves.

Entitled 1837: The Rebellion
Remembered, the conference
could more accurately have been

Sesquicentennial ff

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called 1837; The Rebellion Dis-
membered. Emboldened by the
carefully engineered lack of op-
position, professors Stagg, Wise,
Armstrong and Careless but-
chered history with rare abandon.
Careless outdid himself, he was
reckless. Lamenting that he was
unable to pin responsibility for the
economic depression of the 1830s
on the radicals, he, nevertheless,
called them and their supporters
‘‘a scruffy lot’’ and ‘‘scum’’ and
sought to deny them even their
firmly held political convictions
by suggesting they had all been
seriously misled or duped by Wil-
liam Lyon Mackenzie. The
scope, boldness and enterprise of
the Tory project to rewrite the his-

Remembered or
« dismembered

tory of 1837 was, at times, breath-
taking.

Though it is easy to understand
why the most recent generation of
Marxist historians have been
drawn to study, almost exclusive-
ly, the period of large-scale indus-
trialization with its consequent
growth of the working class, the
conference made it clear that too
much of the history of pre-Con-
federation Canada has been
ceded to the Tory historians as
their private preserve. If, in the
battle of ideas, we are not to suffer
a rout similar to that which took
place at Montgomery’s Farm 150
years ago, this historic high
ground will have to be retaken.

For those who missed the con-
ference there is an interesting ex-
hibition in the Visitors’ Centre at
Black Creek Pioneer Village (in
north west Toronto). There are
display cases dedicated to the
memory of such prominent radi-
cals as Joseph Gould, Samuel
Lount and William Lyon Mac-
kenzie, but the highlight of the
exhibition is the revolutionary
banner under which the radicals
marched. This famous red cloth
banner with its slogan BIDWELL
AND THE GLORIOUS MA-
JORITY was captured by Sir
Francis Bond Head after the bat-
tle at Montgomery’s Farm in 1837
and taken back to England as a
trophy of war. It was returned to
Canada by his descendants in the
1960s and is now on public view.

— Brian Davis

Heatin g up Thatcher’s chill

THE
i HOUSE

MARTINS

The Housemartins are four
young working class lads from
the industrial city of Hull, Eng-
land. Their music, a catchy
mixture of British pop stirred
in the Black acappella

suasions, has been riding near
the top of the charts in Britain.
Their message, a combination
of socialist politics, religion
and feminism, has made the
group a new voice of social
protest in the chilly climate of
Thatcher’s Britain. Their lyrics
are of a nursery rhyme quality
set to’an infectious beat.

The people who grinned

themselves to death

smiled so much they failed to take

a breath

And even when their kids were

starving

they all thought the Queen was

charming. :
‘The People Who Grinned

Themselves To Death is the

second album for the House-

sounds of groups like the Per- -

martins. The songs are little
vignettes of life under That-
cher. But what makes this
group different from some of
the other ‘‘political bands” in
Britain is that they’re fun to
listen to. The band members
have stated that there is no
point in carrying a message if
no one is going to listen to it.
The Housemartins know the
main thing is to play music
people will enjoy — the con-
‘tent comes second.

How long the Housemartins
will last is another matter.
They themselves have ad-
mitted the pressures of the
music industry are not condu-
cive to maintaining one’s prin-
ciples. Whatever, it’s refresh-
ing to find a band on the left
that delivers its message while
not forgetting to have a good
time. Facing the prospect of
more years of. Thatcher that
may just be the thing the kids of
Britain need.

—P.O.

nuns

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OF LOVE AND SHADOWS
By Isabel Allende
Alfred Knopf Inc. HC $25
(soon to be available in paper-

back)

There are certain works of
fiction that have the ability to
capture a period of time, to
capsulize a moment of history,
often better than any political
analysis or studious journal-
ism. Fiction has the ability to
delve into the emotions of
people, and, if it’s good writing
—to strike a responsive chord
with the reader.

Of Love and Shadows is
such a book.

This, the second novel for
Isabel Allende, niece of Sal-
vador Allende, is the story of
Irene Beltran, a daughter of
faltering privilege on a con-
tinent where few live without
the most basic of worries.
Irene works as ajournalist fora
womens’ magazine in a Latin
American country living under
a military dictatorship.

JTHOR OF THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS

Irene lives ‘for the day’ and
that ‘day’ is not that bad. There
are the latest fashions and a
new-found independence as a
career woman. In the back-

Tuming flirtations
into commitment

ground lurks the pain and hor-
ror of the state but as long as
one plays within the rules of
the game one can do quite nice-
ly. For Irene, with her sense of
independence, her work even
allows her to stretch the limits
of the game, to thumb her nose
a little at the dictatorship, as a
child would do when the
teacher’s back is turned.
Irene’s mother Beatrice is a
member of the upper class.
Despite the fact her husband
-has long since abandoned her
and she has since had to turn
her huge house into a rest
home for senile members of the
artistocracy Beatrice main-
tains her false air of dignity.
For Beatrice, like the other
people of her class, the
dictatorship is a necessary evil
—a way to keep the traitors in’
line and preserve that elusive
commodity known as the na-
tional dignity. Whispered
stories of torture or the
mothers of the disappeared are
merely the manifestations of
troublemakers and_ sub-
versives. But in the back of her

Isabel Allende: Novel reveals the choice between blind privilege

or facing the reality of life under a dictatorship.

mind there is worry about the
direction her daughter is tak-
ing.

At that moment Irene’s
problems are of a more per-
sonal nature with her attention
divided between her ‘ar-
ranged’ fiancee, an officer in
the country’s army, and her
growing attraction to Francis-
co, her assignment photo-
grapher and a clandestine
worker in the resistance. But it
is a chance assignment to a re-
mote village that opens Irene’s

eyes to the true reality of her
country. q
At once the torture cells, the
students who disappear, the
thousands in exile; are no
longer the rumours of sub-
versives out to strip the nation
of its dignity — but the brutal —
reality of the dictatorship. —
Irene’s flirtations with rebel- —
lion cease, at this point, to be ~
the mischievous pranks of a
spoiled child and become the ~
sober commitment of a con-—
firmed revolutionary.
— Paul Ogresko

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 14, 1987