Eryk Martin
PhD Candidate
BA, History, University of Victoria, 2006
MA, History, University of Victoria, 2008
Supervisor: Mark Leier
Research Description
My doctoral work explores the experiences of five Canadian anarchists known as the Vancouver Five, who came together in the early 1980s to destroy a British Columbia Hydro power station on Vancouver Island, bomb a Toronto factory that was building parts for American Cruise missiles, and assist in the firebombing of pornography stores in Vancouver. In investigating the social, cultural, and political dynamics of these militant actions, the dissertation situates the emergence of the Vancouver Five within a longer pattern of anarchist militancy whose origins lay in the period between the late 1960s and the first half of the 1970s. While Vancouver was a critical setting for this anarchist resurgence, my research also places these radical movements into a broader geographical scope by highlighting how the Vancouver Five constructed and represented a distinctly Canadian perspective on political violence at a time when similar forms of armed struggle were spreading across the United States and Europe. Based on oral interviews and archival research, my dissertation argues that the Vancouver Five both shaped and were shaped by this global pattern of opposition to patriarchy, militarism, environmental degradation, capitalism, and imperialism that flourished after the 1960s. As a result, the dissertation not only provides a close examination of anarchism in the post-war period, but it also offers new insights into the connections between local, national, and transnational configurations of radical activism. Overall, my work looks to expand our understanding of how modern social movements were constructed through local experience and action, while also operating within a globalized nexus of political theory, culture, and organized resistance.
Working Dissertation Title
Burn it Down! Anarchism, Activism, and the Vancouver Five, 1967-1986
Publications
Journal articles
"Canadian Communists and the Politics of Nature in British Columbia, 1937-1956," Twentieth Century Communism, 5 (Summer, 2013): 104-125.
Book Reviews
Review of Along the No. 20 Line: Reminiscences of the Vancouver Waterfront by Rolf Knight, Canadian Journal of Urban Research vol. 21, no. 1 (Summer, 2012): 174-176.
Review of Perfect Youth: The Birth of Canadian Punk by Sam Sutherland, BC Studies. [Forthcoming]
Other Publications
“Victoria to Dawson: An Exchange in Co-operative Knowledge.” The Anthill: Newsletter of the BC Institute for Co-operative Studies vol. 7, issue 2 (Fall 2007): 2.
“University of British Columbia Department of Extension and West Coast Fishers: Co-operative Education and Development in BC, 1939-1953 (Part 2).” The Anthill: Newsletter of the BC Institute for Co-operative Studies vol. 7, issue 2 (Fall 2007): 12-13.
“University of British Columbia Department of Extension and West Coast Fishers: Co-operative Education and Development in BC, 1939-1953 (Part 1).” The Anthill: Newsletter of the BC Institute for Co-operative Studies vol. 6, issue 2 (Summer 2006): 14-15.
"Preserving Our History: Vancouver Island Co-operative Council (VICC).” The Anthill: Newsletter of the BC Institute for Co-operative Studies vol. 6, issue 1 (Spring 2006): 11.
"The Co-operative and Credit Union Movement on Vancouver Island.” The Anthill: Newsletter of the BC Institute for Co-operative Studies vol. 5, issue 2 (Fall 2005): 4.
"Doing Co-operative Research in British Columbia.” The Anthill: Newsletter of the BC Institute for Co-operative Studies vol. 5, issue 2 (Fall 2005): 10.
Conference Papers
“The Intersection of Illegality, Oral History, and Anarchist Autobiography in a Canadian Context” [Forthcoming], to be presented at the European Social Science History Conference, Vienna, 2014
“The Blurred Boundaries of Anarchism and Punk in the 1970s” [Forthcoming], to be presented to the Canadian Historical Association Annual General Meeting, Brock University, 2014
"Choosing a New Path: Revolting Women, Political Hybridity, and the Making of Anarcha-Feminism in Vancouver, 1969-1982," presented to the Canadian Historical Association Annual General Meeting, University of Waterloo, 2012
"'Cream and Punishment': Anarchism, the Counterculture, and the Politics of Pieing," Presented to the Qualicum History Conference, hosted by University of Victoria, 2012
"The Communist Left and the Politics of Nature in British Columbia," presented to the Local Communisms Conference, University of Glamorgan, Cardiff, Wales, 2011
"Debating the Tsitika: The Class Politics of Environmental Dissent in British Columbia, 1973-1978," presented to the Canadian Historical Association Annual General Meeting, Concordia University, 2010
"Watershed Woes: The Communist Left and the Shaping of Environmental Dissent in British Columbia, 1975-1978," public lecture sponsored by the Department of History, Simon Fraser University, 2010
"Pollution, Parks, and Profit: The Communist Left and the Politics of Environmental Change in BC," Presented at the British Columbia Studies Conference, University of Victoria, 2009
Awards
Alan David Aberbach Scholarship in United States History (2012)
SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (2009-2012)
Simon Fraser University Community Trust Endowment Fund Graduate Fellowship (2011 and 2012)
Simon Fraser University, President’s Research Stipend (2011)
Simon Fraser University, Department of History, Leon J. Ladner BC History Scholarship (2010)
Simon Fraser University, Graduate Fellowship (2009)
Simon Fraser University, William and Jane Saywell Scholarship (2009)
Simon Fraser University, Cook Conference Scholarship (2009)
Simon Fraser University, Special Entrance Scholarship (2008)
Courses Taught
Instructor (co-developed and co-taught with Sarah Nickel):
Resistance, Radicalism, and Revolution: Social Movements and Activist Currents in Canada and the United States since 1960 (Fall 2012)
Teaching Assistant:
Making of the British Isles (Spring 2014)
Environmental History (Fall 2010)
Canadian History (Spring 2009)
The Making of Modern Europe (Fall 2008)