![Annie Buller addressing a crowd before the Estevan Riot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Annie_Buller_addressing_a_crowd_before_the_Estevan_Riot.jpg)
Annie Buller (9 December 1895 – 19 January 1973), also known as Annie Buller-Guralnick, was a union organizer as well as co-founder of the
Communist Party of Canada (CPC) and manager of many CPC publications.
[
]
Background
Annie S. Buller was born on December 9, 1895, in
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
to a
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish family with three brothers. Her father was a carpenter. She emigrated to Montreal with her parents in the early 1900s. She became politically active in socialist politics during World War I and followed her friend
Becky Buhay (1896–1953) to study Marxist thought at the
Rand School of Social Science
The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served a ...
in New York. In May 1920,
Algernon Lee, educational director, presided over the graduation of the second-largest class ever at Rand, whose members included: John J. Bardsley, William D. Bavelaar, Annie S. Buller, Louis Cohan, Harry A. Durlauf, Clara Friedman, Rebecca Goldberg, William Greenspoon, Isabella E. Hall, Ammon A. Hennsey (
Ammon Hennacy
Ammon Ashford Hennacy (1893–1970) was an American Christian pacifist, anarchist, social activist, member of the Catholic Worker Movement, and Wobbly. He established the Joe Hill House of Hospitality in Salt Lake City, Utah, and practiced tax ...
), Hedwig Holmes, Annie Kronhardt, Anna P. Lee, Victoria Levinson, Elsie Lindenberg, Selma Melms, Hyman Neback, Bertha Ruvinsky, Celia Samorodin, Mae Schiff,
Esther T. Shemitz, Nathan S. Spivak, Esther Silverman, Sophia Ruderman, and Clara Walters.
[
]
![WinnipegGeneralStrike](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/WinnipegGeneralStrike.jpg)
While at Rand, Buller helped raise funds in New York for Canadians in the
Winnipeg General Strike.
Career
By age 13, Buller was working in a tobacco factory, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. By the age of 16, she had become a clerk in a "five and dime store." By age 17, she had a job in Almy's Department Store, where she became head buyer of china and glassware. With Buhay, she became involved in a Socialist youth group.
Montreal Labour College
In 1920, on her return to Montreal from the Rand School in New York City, Buller, Buhay, fellow Rand student
Bella Gauld (1878–1961), and others founded the
Montreal Labour College. They modeled the school on the Rand School and the
British Plebs League. The start-up committee comprised: Buller, Becky Buhay, Becky's brother Mike Buhay, Bella Gauld, a Mrs. Frankel, Mike Garber of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Canada (CPR), Nathan Mendelssohn, George Lloyd, Dick Kerrigan, Bill Long, and Sylvia Robertson. Visiting professors included
Scott Nearing
Scott Nearing (August 6, 1883 – August 24, 1983) was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, pacifist, vegetarian and advocate of simple living.
Biography
Early years
Nearing was born in Morris Run, Tioga Coun ...
.
Union organizing
![RCMP officers during the Estevan Riot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/RCMP_officers_during_the_Estevan_Riot.JPG)
Throughout the 1920s, Buller worked as a union organizer and traveled extensively throughout Canada organizing the needle trades and supporting miners and steel workers. In 1931, she led a general strike for better wages and working conditions for dressmakers in Toronto.
In the mid-1920s, she became business manager of ''The Worker'' newspaper.
Following the 1931
Estevan Coal Miners Strike, Buller spoke in support of formation of the
Mine Workers' Union of Canada. On February 23, 1932, she faced preliminary hearing for rioting, for which she was convicted. On March 10, 1933, a retrial began; again, she was convicted and imprisoned for one year without fine in the North Battleford Prison. During the later 1930s, she managed the ''Mid-West Clarion'' party newspaper of Winnipeg until its repression under the
War Measures Act
The ''War Measures Act'' (french: Loi sur les mesures de guerre; 5 George V, Chap. 2) was a statute of the Parliament of Canada that provided for the declaration of war, invasion, or insurrection, and the types of emergency measures that could t ...
(
Defence of Canada Regulations
The ''Defence of Canada Regulations'' were a set of emergency measures implemented under the ''War Measures Act'' on 3 September 1939, a week before Canada's entry into World War II.
The extreme security measures permitted by the regulations ...
). In 1940, during a crackdown on Communist Party members, Buller was arrested along with
Louis Guberman and
Jock McNeil and jailed in Portage la Prairie (1940–1942). Her husband Harry Guralnick was also interned at that time.
Upon release from prison, she joined the
Dominion Communist–Labor Total War Committee in Manitoba. She partook in the first national convention of the
Labor-Progressive Party
The Labor-Progressive Party (french: Parti ouvrier-progressiste) was the legal front of the Communist Party of Canada from 1943 to 1959.
Origins and initial success
In the 1940 federal election, the Communist Party led a popular front in se ...
, when she was elected to the National Committee.
Political organizing
![Fred rose2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Fred_rose2.jpg)
Arising from efforts in the Montreal Labour College, Buller became a co-founder of the
Communist Party of Canada in Montreal." In August 1931, the Government of Canada made the Party illegal and sentenced eight Part leaders to a total of 37 years (an average 4-5 years each) in prison.
Buller ran for public office several times. In 1932 she ran for a Toronto City Council position as a
Workers United Front candidate. In 1952, she ran as a Labor-Progressive Party candidate in
St. Paul's and again in 1956 (at age 61) in
Spadina Ward.
After World War II, Buller continued to be involved in CPC activities such as the campaigns to roll back prices organized by National Women's Commission and the Housewives' Association.
She remained active in the CPC until her retirement from her publication responsibilities in the late 1950s. In 1955, Buller and Guralnick visited the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. She visited the Stalin auto plant in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
.
Buller wrote that she was 'greatly impressed' by the organization of the plant's workers and their working conditions.
During the 1960s, she was active in the
Anti-Vietnam War movement
Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War (before) or anti-Vietnam War movement (present) began with demonstrations in 1965 against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social mov ...
.
Personal life and death
![The Rebel Girl cover](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/The_Rebel_Girl_cover.jpg)
Buller married Harry Guralnick (died 1972), who was an activist in the Jewish Labor League; they had one son, Jimmy.
Buller met and knew "her American counterpart,"
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was a labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union ...
, who supported Buller's efforts in writing and public speaking. Buller wrote for causes the Flynn supported, including
Sacco and Vanzetti
Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...
.
Buller was also friends with French-born
Jeanne Corbin (circa 1909–May 1944).
Buller died on January 19, 1973.
William Kashtan
William Kashtan (27 June 1909 – 1993) was the general secretary of the Communist Party of Canada for 23 years beginning in January 1965, several months following the death of Leslie Morris, until his retirement in 1988. The delay in his ...
, CPC general secretary, spoke at her funeral.
Legacy
CPC member John Weir called Buller Canada's
Rosa Luxemburg and
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was a labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union ...
.
Buller, friend Becky Buhay, and precursor
Florence Custance, were some of the few women in the early CPC: Buller and Buhay "came to symbolize female leadership in the CPC for the next thirty years."
Works
Articles:
* "Path of Struggle: The Toronto Dressmakers" (1951)
* "Glorious Heritage of Canadian Women" (1952)
* "Sam Scarlett" (undated)
* "International Women's Day" with Florence Theodore (1953)
[
]
See also
*
Communist Party of Canada
*
Worker's Unity League
*
Mine Workers' Union of Canada
*
Estevan riot
The Estevan riot, also known as the Black Tuesday Riot, was a confrontation between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and striking coal miners from nearby Bienfait, Saskatchewan which took place in Estevan, Saskatchewan on September 29, 1931. ...
*
Rand School of Social Science
The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served a ...
*
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was a labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union ...
References
External sources
Annie Bullerat CanadianEncyclopedia.ca.
Progress Books OnlineContains PDF version of She Never was Afraid: The Biography of Annie Buller
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buller, Annie
1895 births
1973 deaths
Communist Party of Canada politicians
Ukrainian emigrants to Canada
Women in Ontario politics
Canadian prisoners and detainees
Prisoners and detainees of Canada
Jewish socialists
Canadian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Canadian socialists of Ukrainian descent
Ukrainian Jews
Jewish Canadian politicians
Jewish women politicians