Florence Custance
three quarter pose portrait of Florence Custance wearing glasses
Born
Florence Ada Ives

(1881-12-31)31 December 1881
Dartford, Kent,England
Died12 July 1929(1929-07-12) (aged 47)
Toronto Grace Health Centre, Toronto
Burial placeMount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto
Occupation(s)school teacher, writer, editor, union organizer
Years active1919–1929
Organization(s)Communist Party of Canada, Socialist Party of North America
Known forFounding member of the Communist Party of Canada
Notable workThe Woman Worker (1926–1929)
Political partyCommunist Party of Canada
SpouseGeorge Custance
Parents
  • John Ives (father)
  • Anne Eliza Munn (mother)

Florence Ada Custance was a trade unionist and labour organizer who helped found a number of socialist organizations in Canada, including a local Plebs League, the Ontario Labour College, the Socialist Party of North America, and the Communist Party of Canada. She was heavily involved in cultivating chapters of the Women's Labour League across Canada and edited the federation's monthly periodical, The Woman Worker, which ran from 1926 through to her death in 1929.

Early life

Florence Ada Ives was born 31 December 1881, in Dartford, Kent, England.[1][2] One of six siblings, Florence's parents were John, an iron worker, and Ann Eliza Munn.[3][2] Florence trained as a school teacher. She married George James Custance, a carpenter, in 1909. The couple emigrated to Canada shortly before World War I, most likely in 1910, settling in Toronto's East End. During this time she became a member of the Socialist Party of North America.

Labour organizing

Florence was active in socialist circles in Toronto and Southern Ontario in the early decades of the twentieth century. Along with Bill Moriarty, Tim Bell and Maurice Spector, Custance helped found and operated a local Plebs' League, a precursor to the Communist Party of Canada.[1][4] She also helped found the Ontario Labour College, where she taught courses on economics and economic geography.[5][1]

Communist Party of Canada

Florence was one of the original founders of the Communist Party of Canada. She was also the only woman who attended the secret meeting in a Guelph farmhouse in 1921 that founded the party.[6][1] She was secretary of the party's Women's Bureau for many years and also served on the Canadian Labour Defense League.[6][1] She was elected to the Central Executive Committee of the CPC in 1923, and also served on the Canadian Labour Defense League.[3] Local newspapers covered Constance's international travel and speaking engagements in Chicago, Germany, and Russia where she spoke at workers' conferences.[7][8] She was also under surveillance by the RCMP throughout the 1920s.[9]

Custance was secretary and spokesperson for a relief fund which raised $100,000 for famine relief in Russia in 1921.[10] She was the president of the Canadian Friends of Soviet Union.[11]

Womens Labour League and The Woman Worker (1926–1929)

Custance was active in organizing the Women's Guild of the Amalgamated Carpenters of Canada, and later worked to found and nurture chapters of the Women's Labor League across Canada as part of her work for the CPC.[12][13] She was secretary of the Federation of Women's Labour Leagues starting in 1921 until her death in 1929 and also served as president of the Toronto Chapter.[3][13] As part of her work, she launched The Women Worker, a monthly magazine aimed at Canadian women. Due in large part to her efforts, the number of league chapters had increased to 37 nationally in 1927. The Woman Worker had a broad readership that included working-class women, as well as women with a general interest in socialism and Marxist ideas.[14] Through the publication and her work as secretary of the Federation, she wielded considerable influence over the chapters, some argue more than the CPC leadership was ever able to assert.[15]

In her role as secretary of the CPC and her roles on the Toronto Labour Council, Constance was often a featured speaker at labour events in Toronto and across North America.[16][17] As editor of The Woman Worker, and as a public figure in Toronto labour circles, she is described as one historian as "one of the strongest intellectuals in the Party."[15] In her role as editor and public speaker, she was able to put forward issues and stories of interest to working-class women, including: access to birth control,[18][15][19] minimum wage abuse,[20] wrongful dismissal,[21] wafe theft,[13] and the criminalization of poverty and mental illness.[22] She also raised relief funds for striking Nova Scotia miners.[23]

Later life and death

As Constance's power and influence grew through her work with Women's Labour League, The Woman Worker, and the Women's Guild of the Amalgamated Carpenters, concern and suspicion grew amongst the inner circle of the party. The Women's Labour League was excluded from the Toronto Labour Council in 1927 during an anti-communist campaign, prompting Constance to comment that "The council is becoming altogether too conservative [...] they may soon rue their action. Their leaders fear us because they have no control over us."[24] In early 1929, Pro-Stalin CPC members targeted Custance, as her values were seen as more feminist than communist.[25] While she was not expelled from the party, scholars have noted that Custance was pushed out of the inner circle, and was criticized internally by party members for harboring what was interpreted as reformist (rather than revolutionary) ideals.[26][3] Pro-Stalin CPC members also distrusted Constance's association with Alexandra Kollantai.[5][20] She was removed from the Central Executive Committee in 1929.[4]

Custance suffered declining health in the late 1920s. Suffering from physical exhaustion, she was ordered to three months rest in October 1928.[13] She was removed as editor of The Woman Worker and from her role on the Canadian Labour Defense League in January 1929, with the publication citing an unspecified illness.[1] In July 1929, she was admitted to Grace Hospital, where she died a week later, the death certificate noting periodotitis as the cause of death.

Electoral politics

In 1925, Florence ran unsuccessfully for city council in Ward 8 (East Toronto).[27][28][29][30] When she attempted to run for school trustee in 1926, she was disqualified (along with another candidate, Mrs. Adelaide Blumptree) as they both were not listed on assessment rolls in their districts.[31] In 1926 she ran on a platform that would eliminate cadet training for working class youth in Toronto schools.[20] In both elections, candidates called her out as a communist, and newspaper editors characterized her as "untried" and "freakish".[32]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 PETRYSHYN, JAROSLAV (1977). A. E. Smith and the Canadian Labour Defense League (Thesis). Canada – Ontario, CA: The University of Western Ontario (Canada). Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  2. 1 2 1901 England, Wales & Scotland Census. Kent. Dartford. Holy Trinity. RG 13/703 pg. 34
  3. 1 2 3 4 Allen, Myrna Jeannine (1997). Outside looking in: A study of Canadian fringe parties (PDF) (Thesis). Canada – Nova Scotia, CA: Dalhousie University (Canada). Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  4. 1 2 Hopwood, Bill (22 April 2021). "Canada's Revolutionary Elders: Florence Custance". Socialist Alternative (Canada). Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  5. 1 2 Butt, Michael (2003). Surveillance of Canadian Communists: A case study of Toronto RCMP intelligence networks, 1920–1939 (PDF) (Thesis). Canada – Newfoundland and Labrador, CA: Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada). Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  6. 1 2 Easterbrook, Ian (1995). ""A Very Good Barn in Guelph" – The Founding of the Communist Party of Canada" (PDF). Wellington County History. 8: 20–34.
  7. ↑ "Would Start Homes with Canadian Cash. Mrs. Florence Custance Raising Money to Help German Children. Through With Russians". The Globe and Mail. 9 June 1924. p. 11. 1351867534 – via ProQuest.
  8. ↑ "Says That Bishops Fought Communism: Mrs. Florence Custance, in Speech, Defends Execution of Vicar-General. Religion is Denounced". The Globe and Mail. 23 April 1923. p. 14. 1351867534 – via ProQuest.
  9. ↑ Kealey, Gregory S. (1995). "In the Canadian Archives on Security and Intelligence" (PDF). Dalhousie Review. 75 (1): 26–38.
  10. ↑ "Florence Custance: Communist and Labor Leader in Canada Dies at Toronto". The New York Times. 14 July 1929. pp. N5. 104726922 – via ProQuest.
  11. ↑ Khouri 2007, p. 66.
  12. ↑ "Women's Labour Leagues | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Manley, John (1984). Communism and the Canadian working class during the Great Depression the Workers' Unity League, 1930–1936 (Thesis). Canada – Nova Scotia, CA: Dalhousie University (Canada). Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  14. ↑ Irvine, Dean Jay (2001). Little histories: Modernist and leftist women poets and magazine editors in Canada, 1926–1956 (Thesis). Canada – Quebec, CA: McGill University (Canada). ProQuest 304767995. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  15. 1 2 3 Margaret Hobbs; Joan Sangster (1999). The woman worker, 1926–1929. Canadian Committee on Labour History. St. John's, Nfld.: Canadian Committee on Labour History. ISBN 1-894000-01-3. OCLC 42138260.
  16. ↑ "Defence League Meeting Sunday". Daily World (Montreal Quebec). 18 September 1926. p. 3 – via ProQuest.
  17. ↑ "Mrs. Florence Custance Addresses Carpenters". The Globe and Mail. 8 March 1921. p. 7. 1366246559 – via ProQuest.
  18. ↑ "Communist Victory in Labor Elections May Disrupt Party: Railway Carmen Cannot Remain With Reds in Control, Their Chairman Says Smith Again President". Globe and Mail. 26 April 1926. pp. 1–2. 1435761418 – via ProQuest. we are not Malthusians, but we are fighting for the freedom of the women of the working-class homes. But birth control is a move to bring greater happiness and leisure to poor homes than is possible at present.
  19. ↑ "Agree with Rabbi on Birth Control. Dr. Hastings and Others Point to Arguments in its Favor". Toronto Star. 29 April 1929. p. 1 – via ProQuest.
  20. 1 2 3 Sangster, Joan (1985). "The Communist Party and the Woman Question, 1922–1929". Labour / Le Travail. 15: 24–56. doi:10.2307/25140552. ISSN 0700-3862. JSTOR 25140552. S2CID 55008203.
  21. ↑ "Hear Different Story". The Globe and Mail. 6 December 1924. p. 16. 08393680 – via ProQuest.
  22. ↑ Custance, Florence (17 April 1926). "More "Law" Than Charity". Toronto Star. p. 6. 1436971372 – via ProQuest.
  23. ↑ "Appeal for Assistance". Toronto Star. 15 December 1926. p. 5. 1437142716 – via ProQuest.
  24. ↑ "Go Ahead Despite Ban Says Women's League. Exclusion by Trades Council Inspired by Fear, Leader Declares". Toronto Star. 5 November 1927. p. 15. 1437273959 – via ProQuest.
  25. ↑ Beswick, Lorne (7 July 2017). Reds in Beds: The Communist Party of Canada and the Politics of Reproduction, 1920–1970 (Thesis). Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  26. ↑ Toews, Anne Frances (2009). For liberty, bread, and love: Annie Buller, Beckie Buhay, and the forging of communist militant femininity in Canada, 1918 – 1939 (Thesis). Simon Fraser University (Canada). Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  27. ↑ "Mrs. Florence Custance only woman candidate for the board of alderman. Mrs. Custance, who has been active in labor circles for many years was nominated in Ward 8 to-day". Toronto Star. 20 December 1924. p. 20. 1436790773 – via ProQuest.
  28. ↑ "1925 Toronto municipal election", Wikipedia, 9 April 2022, retrieved 30 December 2022
  29. ↑ "Aldermanic Candidates Recommended in Ward 8". Toronto Star. 31 December 1924. p. 2. 1437133709 – via ProQuest. The voters in Ward Eight should just naturally vote for Dibble, Baker and Turner. The ward should make sure of Turner and take no chance with untried and freakish material.
  30. ↑ "Labor Candidates for Civic Honors: Trade Unionists, Communists and Unemployed Put Up as "Timber"". Globe and Mail. 2 December 1924. p. 11. 1356668209 – via ProQuest.
  31. ↑ "Four Aspirants are Nominated as Candidates for Mayoralty and Eleven for Control Board: Over Threescore Will Battle for 24 Aldermanic Seats on City Council". Globe and Mail. 22 December 1926. p. 13. 1354635420 – via ProQuest.
  32. ↑ "Trustees Split Over Woman as Chairman. D. O. Ranking Leads Opposition to Plan Discussed at Jarvis Collegiate". Toronto Star. 15 December 1926. p. 20. 1436991582 – via ProQuest. Mrs. Florence Custance, Labor candidate for Ward 8, was termed a Communist by Trustee [D.O.] Reid, on account of what he termed her attempt to influence education with communisitic ideas.

Works cited

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