Item AAAB4020 - Liz Wilson interview

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Elizabeth Wilson : unemployed struggles in the 1930s in Vancouver RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-05-26 & 27 ; 1979-06-04 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Wilson describes the conditions and the struggles of the unemployed during the 1930s. A meeting on the Cambie Street grounds was broken up by police on horseback with riot sticks. The organizers were deported. She worked for the CCF to build Dorothy Steeves' campaign. Inhabitants of Vancouver East were particularly militant, fighting evictions and assisting the less aware West Enders. Mrs. Wilson was forced onto relief; she had formerly worked as a waitress. After a demonstration at the Holden Building, Gerry McGeer read the Riot Act at the cenotaph (1935). Relief recipients all received the same marked clothing. Women received thirteen dollars a month on relief. Andrew Roddan, the minister of the First [United?] Church, preached to the unemployed and visited False Creek, and distributed loaves of bread to the shantytown of unemployed men. The Communist Party was central in leading the unemployed. TRACK 2: Women during the Depression faced great difficulties in controlling unwanted pregnancy. Many women resorted to abortion using knitting needles or slippery elm. Only one local doctor, Dr. Telford, dispensed birth control. The welfare system provided constant harassment of recipients by social workers. Deserted women were forced off relief and onto alimony, but most of their husbands never paid up.