Tim Buck | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Tim Buck

Timothy Buck, machinist, trade unionist, communist leader (b at Beccles, Eng 6 Jan 1891; d at Cuernavaca, Mexico 11 Mar 1973). Like many skilled British workers, Buck immigrated to Canada in 1910 in search of a better living. He was soon immersed in radical working-class politics in Toronto.
Portrait of Tim Buck, leader of the Communist Party of Canada


Timothy Buck, machinist, trade unionist, communist leader (b at Beccles, Eng 6 Jan 1891; d at Cuernavaca, Mexico 11 Mar 1973). Like many skilled British workers, Buck immigrated to Canada in 1910 in search of a better living. He was soon immersed in radical working-class politics in Toronto. Buck later claimed to have been a founding member of the COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA, organized in a secret 1921 meeting in a barn near Guelph, and soon became a leading architect of its trade-union policy.

Canadian Communist Party
Canadian communist leaders, pictured in 1942. Front row, left to right: Henri Gagnon, Fred Rose, Tim Buck, Émery Samuel and Sam Lipschitz. Back row, left to right: Gus Sundqvist, Bill Kashtan, Évariste Dubé, Jim Litterick, Sam Carr, Willie Fortin, Stewart Smith and Stanley B. Ryerson.
Communist Party of Canada
Canadian communists march in Vancouver in the 1930s.
After struggles against a party leader who supported Trotsky's critique of developments in the international communist movement in 1928, and alleged supporters of Nikolai Bukharin in 1929, Buck emerged as the party's general secretary, a post he held for 32 years. He published many articles, pamphlets and books. He spent over 2 years in jail 1932-34 and 3 years underground during WWII when his party was banned. In 1971 he received the Order of the Great October Revolution from the USSR.