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The Fishermen's Protective Union (sometimes called the Fisherman's Protective Union, the FPU, The Union or the Union Party) was a workers' organisation and political party in the
Dominion of Newfoundland Newfoundland was a British dominion in eastern North America, today the modern Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was established on 26 September 1907, and confirmed by the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Westmi ...
. The development of the FPU mirrored that of the United Farmers movement in parts of Canada.


Origins and purpose

The FPU was founded on 3 November 1908 by
William Coaker Sir William Ford Coaker (October 19, 1871 – October 26, 1938) was a Newfoundland union leader and politician and founder of the Fisherman's Protective Union, the Fishermen's Union Trading Co., and the town of Port Union. A polarizing figure ...
and nineteen men following a speech by him at the
Orange Hall Orange Hall may refer to: ;in Ireland * Orange Institution The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protes ...
in
Herring Neck Herring Neck is a local service district and designated place in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is on the northeastern extremity of New World Island, Notre Dame Bay. The community encompasses several small contiguous commu ...
Formation of the Fishermen's Protective Union
Maritime History Archive, Memorial University. Retrieved 20 February 2008.
as a
cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
movement for
fishermen A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreat ...
on the northeast coast of
Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
. It was the first serious attempt to organise fishermen as a mass political movement along class lines. With a rallying cry of "to each his own" the FPU sought to achieve reforms in Newfoundland society to attain an equitable distribution of wealth in the
fishing industry The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including ...
. At its peak, it had more than 21,000 members in 206 councils across the island; more than half of Newfoundland's roughly 40,000 fishermen. The FPU set up the Fishermen's Union Trading Co. (UTC or FUTC), which established stores throughout the province that would purchase fish from fishermen for cash. It would also import goods to sell to fishermen directly at a non-inflated price. This circumvented the St. John's fish merchants. Previously, merchants did not pay cash for fish but advanced fishermen staple goods at an inflated price on credit and then took the fishermen's cured fish at the end of the season at rates determined by the merchant. This
Truck system Truck wages are wages paid not in conventional money but instead in the form of payment in kind (i.e. commodities, including goods and/or services); credit with retailers; or a money substitute, such as scrip, chits, vouchers or tokens. Truck ...
kept most fishermen in perpetual debt to the merchant.Fisheries Policy
''Canadian Encyclopedia''. Retrieved 18 February 2008.
The FPU's newspaper, "The Fishermen's Advocate", was founded in 1910 and ceased publication in 1980. From 1914 to 1924, the Advocate was published in both daily and weekly editions, and for a short time in 1917, had three editions, evening, morning, and weekly. It published as a weekly from 1914 to 1980.


Electoral Politics

The FPU believed that the interests of fishermen were being ignored by the mainstream parties, and that candidates elected on a class basis would be able to hold the balance of power and influence government in the interests of fishermen. As early as 1910, the FPU began to lay the groundwork for a formal entry into parliamentary politics. In the next few years, Coaker toured the country, enlisting members, helping start new councils, and rallying support for the FPU's eventual entry into politics.


The Bonavista Platform

In 1912, the FPU adopted the Bonavista Platform, a political manifesto calling for radical change in fishery policy, social policy and governance. Consisting of 31 planks, it advocated
co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
marketing and government regulation of fish grading. In social policy, it proposed the reduction of
tariffs A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and polic ...
on staple foods, improvements to
old age pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
s, free and compulsory education and a
minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...
. The Platform also called for democratic reforms such as the right to
recall Recall may refer to: * Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop * Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure * ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning * Recall (memory) * ''Recall'' (Overwatch ...
Members of the
Newfoundland House of Assembly The Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly is the unicameral deliberative assembly of the General Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It meets in the Confederation Building in St. Jo ...
and having a salary for elected representatives to make it feasible for those who are not independently wealthy to be involved in politics.Union and Politics
Maritime History Archive, Memorial University. Retrieved 20 February 2008.


The Union Party

The FPU entered electoral politics in 1913 by establishing the Union Party, campaigning on the Bonavista Platform and in particular calling for government regulation of the fisheries, administrative and constitutional reform, and the extension of education and
social welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet Basic needs, basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refe ...
. Eight members of the FPU were elected to the
House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...
in
1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos (1913), Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not ven ...
including Coaker himself, having won one of the three seats for the district of Bonavista. In his maiden speech to the House of Assembly, Coaker spoke of the significance of outport fishermen gaining a measure of political power. "It is not an accident we have come here," he said, " revolution ... has been fought in Newfoundland. The fisherman, the toiler of Newfoundland has made up his mind that he is going to be represented on the floors of this House."


Support and Opposition

From the early days of the FPU's founding, the union attracted sympathy and support in some quarters and fierce opposition in others. While the FPU was popular among many fishermen, it was deeply unpopular among merchants, the political elite, and some religious elites.


Relationship with Political and Business Elites

Coaker initially had had a warm relationship with the progressive ''Plaindealer'' newspaper and Edward Morris's People's Party, and had eschewed the Liberals, who, under Prime Minister
Robert Bond Sir Robert Bond (25 February 1857 – 16 March 1927) was the last Premier of Newfoundland Colony from 1900 to 1907 and the first prime minister of the Dominion of Newfoundland from 1907 to 1909 after the 1907 Imperial Conference conferred do ...
had favoured
limited government In political philosophy, limited government is the concept of a government limited in power. It is a key concept in the history of liberalism.Amy Gutmann, "How Limited Is Liberal Government" in Liberalism Without Illusions: Essays on Liberal Theo ...
and
retrenchment Retrenchment (french: retrenchment, an old form of ''retranchement'', from ''retrancher'', to cut down, cut short) is an act of cutting down or reduction, particularly of public expenditure. Political usage The word is familiar in its most general ...
. But by the spring of 1909, he had incurred the enmity of the ''Plaindealers editors and financiers, and over time the FPU shifted its support toward the Liberals. The FPU was the target of heated rhetoric throughout much of its history, particularly in its early years. Journalists, parliamentarians and others attacked the union for attempting to undermine duly constituted order, for seeking to alter the inexorable law of supply and demand, or being "godless." Later, attacks on the FPU came in the form of attempts to associate it with the Bolshevik Revolution and Marxism. However, the acrimony between the FPU and Newfoundland's elites went both ways. One notable event in FPU history was its protests and petitions to arrest
Abram Kean Abram Kean (July 8, 1855 – May 18, 1945) was a sealing captain and politician from Flowers Island, Newfoundland. He was famous for his success in sealing, with capturing over a million pelts, and infamous for his role in sending 78 men to ...
for his role in the sealing disasters of 1914.


Where the FPU was inactive

The FPU was also mostly a non-factor in some areas of the country, including St. John's. While a United Trading Company store existed in the capital city, no local council did. The FPU did not seek to extend its influence or mandate to cover other members of the broader working class, though occasionally fishers or sealers held rallies in the city and sometimes received the support of locals. Moreover, the FPU's decision to limit the union's political influence to a balance of power strategy limited any impulse there might have been to extend its influence further. As Coaker said of the Union Party, "No effort will be made to control public affairs... The Union
embers ''Embers'' is a radio play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1957. First broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 24 June 1959, the play won the RAI prize at the Prix Italia awards later that year. Donald McWhinnie directed Jack ...
don’t want to rule..."“Editor’s Notes,” ''Fishermen’s Advocate'', October 29, 1910. This meant that even some fishing areas of the country, such as the southwest coast, were deprioritized and tended not to have many councils or UTC stores. This was partly owing to the fact that such fishers were involved in the inshore fishery, which was less conducive to or receptive of the union idea.


Relationship with Roman Catholics

The union had Protestant and Catholic supporters, but retained the bulk of its support from Newfoundland's
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
fishers in the northeast of the island. It was distrusted and opposed by some elements within the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, including
Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
M.F. Howley of St. John's and his successor, Archbishop E.P. Roche, who varyingly took issue with the union's links with the
Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants, particularly those of Ulster Scots heritage. It also ...
, the initial requirement that members swear an oath of secrecy, its unionism, its alleged
socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
and
atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
, its decision to enter politics, and its perceived threat to the "feudal an paternal system" that had structured outport life. The church's hostility initially discouraged the continuation of FPU locals in Catholic areas of the southern Avalon Peninsula, such as those in
Argentia Argentia ( ) is a Canadian commercial seaport and industrial park located in the Town of Placentia, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is situated on the southwest coast of the Avalon Peninsula and defined by a triangular shaped headland which r ...
, Salmonier, Riverhead and
Trepassey Trepassey () is a small fishing community located in Trepassey Bay on the south eastern corner of the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was in Trepassey Harbour where the flight of the ''Friendship'' took off, with Amelia Earhart ...
. Yet other Catholic officials, including the Bishop of St. George’s, Neil McNeil, permitted Catholic membership in the union. Several parish priests, such as those in Tilting, were either permissive or supportive of Catholic membership in the union, and Catholic schools and community halls were often opened up to receive Coaker and FPU candidates during tours and election campaigns.Liam O’Flaherty, "Rogues Among Rebels: Entanglements between Irish Catholics and the Fishermen’s Protective Union of Newfoundland," SFU Theses, 2017, chapter 3, retrieved from: https://summit.sfu.ca/item/17553. By late 1909, the Church quietly dropped its ban on Catholic membership in the union, partly due to these fissures within the church, pressure from lay Catholic fishers, and the FPU’s elimination of the oath of secrecy. Catholic councils that had previously folded in Salmonier and Riverhead were reconstituted, and new FPU locals formed in heavily Catholic towns such as Branch, North Harbour, Witless Bay, and Petty Harbour. Coaker estimated that the union had 1,200 Catholic supporters in northern districts. The vice-president of the union, Andrew Broaders, was a Catholic from Bay de Verde, and during the acrimonious election of 1913, pressed the case that Catholics could belong in the union.


Years in Office

The election held on October 30, 1913, launched a new chapter in the history of the FPU as it started to make political gains. However, within a year of their inaugural election, the Union Party's agenda was waylaid by the onset of the First World War.


The First World War Years

FPU members of the
House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...
joined
Edward Patrick Morris Edward Patrick Morris, 1st Baron Morris (May 8, 1859 – October 24, 1935) was a Newfoundlander lawyer and Prime Minister of Newfoundland. Born in St. John's, the son of Edward Morris and Catherine Fitzgerald, he was educated at Saint Bonaven ...
' wartime National Government of 1917 with Coaker as minister of fisheries. The FPU's reputation was hurt, however, by its support of the government's
conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
policy which was unpopular in Newfoundland's outport fishing villages, particularly as by taking their sons overseas it hurt the ability of fishing families to earn enough to support themselves. Coaker had promised that there would be no conscription without a
referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
but he and the FPU ended up supporting the government's decision to implement the measure without a vote resulting in some FPU council's passing resolutions to censure Coaker.


The Post-WWI Years

In 1919, the FPU joined with the
Liberal Party of Newfoundland The Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador is a political party in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The party is the provincial branch, and affiliate of the federal Liberal Party of Canada. It has served as the Government ...
led by
Richard Squires Sir Richard Anderson Squires KCMG (January 18, 1880 – March 26, 1940) was the Prime Minister of Newfoundland from 1919 to 1923 and from 1928 to 1932. As prime minister, Squires attempted to reform Newfoundland's fishing industry, but failed at ...
to form the Liberal Reform Party. The Liberal-Union coalition won 24 of 36 seats in the 1919 general election with half of the coalition's seats being won by Union candidates.Fishermen's Protective Union
Maritime History Archive, Memorial University. Retrieved 20 February 2008.
Coaker was appointed Fisheries Minister and attempted to introduce regulations to control the prices of fish exported abroad but the rules were too weak and failed in its goal of preventing Newfoundland's exporters from undercutting each other. The fishery declined in the 1920s, causing high unemployment, falling fish prices and emigration from the island. The influence of the FPU subsequently declined and it withdrew from electoral politics in 1924 though it attempted a return in the 1928 election winning 9 seats and becoming a junior partner in the government of Frederick C. Alderdice with much less influence then it enjoyed a decade earlier. Coaker became
minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...
and again attempted to pass reforms to the fishing industry but was not successful. The downward economic spiral caused by the decline of the fishing industry was aggravated further by the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
resulting in the collapse of
responsible government Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability, the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments (the equivalent of the executive bran ...
in 1934 and the implementation of direct rule from Britain via the
Commission of Government The Commission of Government was a non-elected body that governed the Dominion of Newfoundland from 1934 to 1949. Established following the collapse of Newfoundland's economy during the Great Depression, it was dissolved when the dominion became ...
. Coaker resigned as FPU president in 1923 but retained his position as leader of the Fishermen's Union Trading Company.


Decline

The FPU's political role ended entirely with the suspension of
responsible government Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability, the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments (the equivalent of the executive bran ...
in 1934 (which Coaker supported). The union became a service organisation for its members, running businesses and its activities on behalf of fishermen and loggers. The FPU survived into the post-confederation period when democratic politics resumed in 1949 though it ran no candidates and had faded away by 1960. The Fishermen's Union Trading Co. survived until 1977 when it fell into
receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...
resulting in its ten remaining stores being sold.Fishermen's Union Trading Company Limited (Greenspond) fonds, 1914–1922
''Maritime History Archive''. Retrieved 18 February 2008.


Legacy

In 1999, the town founded by the FPU, Port Union, was designated a
National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of t ...
as the only town in Canada to have been established by a union.


Song

The original anthem of the FPU was titled "We are Coming Mr. Coaker" which was sung or chanted at FPU meetings to show support for Coaker and his movement to unite the fishermen. The author of the work is unknown. The source of the tune has been identified as the American Civil War song "We Are Coming, Father Abraham, Three Hundred Thousand More", a call to arms written in 1862 by James Sloan Gibbons.
:We are coming, Mr. Coaker, from the East, West, North and South; :You have called us and we're coming, for to put our foes to rout. :By merchants and by governments, too long we've been misruled; :We're determined now in future, and no longer we'll be fooled. :We'll be brothers all and free men, we'll be brothers all and free men, :We'll be brothers all and free men, and we'll rightify each wrong; :We are coming, Mr. Coaker, we are coming, Mr. Coaker, :We are coming, Mr. Coaker, and we're forty thousand strong. : :We are coming, Mr. Coaker, men from Green Bay's rocky shore, :Men who stand the snow-white billows down on stormy Labrador. :We are ready and awaiting, strong and solid, firm and bold, :To be led by you like Moses led the Israelites of old. :We are ready for to sever, we are ready for to sever, :We are ready for to sever, from the merchants' servile throng; :We are coming, Mr. Coaker, we are coming, Mr. Coaker, :We are coming, Mr. Coaker, and we're forty thousand strong. : :We are coming, Mr. Coaker, blood of Saxon and of Celt, :You arouse a feeling in us, that before we never felt; :Valiant men from far Placentia, who the angry oceans brave, :They are with you heart and spirit, breasting Cape St. Mary's waves. :They are with the fight for freedom, they are with the fight for freedom, :They are with the fight for freedom, and the Union is their song; :We are coming, Mr. Coaker, we are coming, Mr. Coaker, :We are coming, Mr. Coaker, and we're forty thousand strong.
An additional verse was added to the song during the 1990s when Port Union was being brushed up to be a heritage site.
:We're still people, Mr. Coaker, with a spirit strong and true; :We will follow in your footsteps, and we know just what to do. :We'll rebuild the town you dreamed of, and we will not back away; :For we're looking to our future, that began just yesterday. :Will we perish? We'll say NEVER! Will we perish? We'll say NEVER! :Will we perish? We'll say NEVER! Port Union's here to stay; :We are coming, Mr. Coaker, we are coming, Mr. Coaker, :We are coming, Mr. Coaker, and we're forty thousand strong.


Leaders

*
William Coaker Sir William Ford Coaker (October 19, 1871 – October 26, 1938) was a Newfoundland union leader and politician and founder of the Fisherman's Protective Union, the Fishermen's Union Trading Co., and the town of Port Union. A polarizing figure ...
, 1908–1923 * J.H. Scammell, 1923–1934 * K.M. Brown, 1934–1948 * C.R. Granger, 1948–1954 * Gilbert Yetman, 1954–1960


See also

* List of political parties in Newfoundland and Labrador * General elections in Newfoundland (pre-Confederation) *
Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union The Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) Union is a trade union in Newfoundland and Labrador that represents 15,000 workers. Most of the members are in the fishing industry but the FFAW also has organized workers in the hotel, hospitality, brewin ...


References


External links


The Fishermen's Protective Union
a web site of the Maritime History Archive (MHA) at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN).

* ttps://www.mun.ca/mha/fpu/fpu_stores.php Map of Fishermen's Union Trading Company (FUTC) Storesbr>The Fishermen's Protective Union and Politics
{{Authority control Political parties in the Dominion of Newfoundland Orange Order Cooperative parties Labour parties Fishing industry trade unions Political parties established in 1908 Organizations disestablished in 1977 Ulster-Scottish Canadian culture 1908 establishments in Newfoundland 1977 disestablishments in Newfoundland and Labrador Trade unions established in 1908 Cooperatives in Canada