Champagne and Meatballs: An Autobiography of Sorts

348 Pages·2011·4.36 MB·English

by  Larry Hannant

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Whyte in his prime, cigar at the ready,
in Moscow, about 1968
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Champagne and Meatballs
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Working Canadians: Books from the CCLH
Series editors: Alvin Finkel and Greg Kealey
The Canadian Committee on Labour History is Canada’s or-
ganization of historians and other scholars interested in the
study of the lives and struggles of working people throughout
Canada’s past. Since 1976, the CCLH has published Labour/Le
travail, Canada’s pre-eminent scholarly journal of labour stud-
ies. It also publishes books, now in conjunction with AU Press,
that focus on the history of Canada’s working people and their
organizations. The emphasis in this series is on materials that
are accessible to labour audiences as well as university audi-
ences rather than simply on scholarly studies in the labour
area. This includes documentary collections, oral histories,
auto biographies, bio graphies, and provincial and local labour
movement histories with a popular bent.
Series Titles
Champagne and Meatballs: Adventures of a Canadian Communist
by Bert Whyte, edited and with an introduction by Larry Hannant
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Champagne
and
MEAT BA L LS

ADVENTURES of a
CANADIAN COMMUNIST
Bert Whyte
edited and with an introduction by
Larry Hannant
Canadian Committee
on Labour History
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© 2011 Larry Hannant
Published by AU Press, Athabasca University
1200, 10011–109 Street Edmonton, AB T5J 3S8
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Whyte, Bert, 1909–1984
Champagne and meatballs : adventures of a Canadian communist
/ Bert Whyte ; edited and with an introduction by Larry Hannant.
(Working Canadians, ISSN 1925-1831)
Includes index.
Also issued in electronic format (ISBN 978-1-926836-09-6).
ISBN 978-1-926836-08-9
1. Whyte, Bert, 1909–1984.
2. Communists — Canada — Biography.
3. Communist Party of Canada — Biography.
4. Journalists — Canada — Biography.
5. Soldiers — Canada — Biography.
I. Hannant, Larry, 1950–
II. Title.
III. Series: Working Canadians
HX104.7.W59A3 2011 335.43092 C2010-907657-5
Cover and book design by Natalie Olsen, Kisscut Design.
All photographs courtesy of the Whyte family.
Printed and bound in Canada by Marquis Book Printing.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government
of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for our
publishing activities.
This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons
License, Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works
2.5 Canada: see www.creativecommons.org. The text may
be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided
that credit is given to the original author.
To obtain permission for uses beyond those outlined in
the Creative Commons license, please contact AU Press,
Athabasca University, at [email protected].
A volume in the Working Canadians: Books from the CCLH series
ISSN 1925-1831 (Print) ISSN 1925-184X (Online)
Canadian Committee on Labour History
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Dedicated to Bert’s son, Rick Whyte,
and grandsons, Kevin Albert and Dylan Albert
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XI Acknowledgements
3 Introduction
by Larry Hannant
CHAPTER ONE Early Years
37
CHAPTER TWO The 1930s
107
CHAPTER THREE The War
177
CHAPTER FOUR Postwar Years
237
CHAPTER FIVE Letters from China
269 with a foreword by Monica Whyte
319 Appendix
321 Notes
331 Index
Images following pages 168 and 250

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