CALL NUMBER: T3601:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Lil Stoneman : The Women's Labour League and the Mothers' Council RECORDED: North Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-07-30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Lil Stoneman came to BC in 1913. Her father was a sail maker who hoped to start a canvas cover business in Saskatoon. She had an Oxford certificate and was able to teach with this, and so went to normal school. She first taught in Harris in a one-room school, and then in Lenning; living with a local family. In 1920, she married a master painter. In 1924, the BC economy was already in a slump, and by the early 1930s they were forced onto relief. They received eighteen dollars a month for two people. She became active in the unemployed movement as it formed to protest the distribution of food by gunnysack as opposed to script. She went to the relief office to represent recipients and participated in organisation on a local level; forming neighbourhood committees, block committees, halls and associations. Mrs. Stoneman joined the Women's Labour League. It organised for jobs, supported the unemployed's struggles, and fought for birth control. She returned briefly to Saskatchewan and organised there. The W.L.L. eventually became the Mothers' Council. They organised demonstrations for clothing, as well as food. TRACK 2: The Labour league grew in its membership and groups formed on Vancouver Island. She was secretary. The League was accepted into the local Council of Women. Mrs. Stoneman studied with Becky Buhay while she was in BC, researching the history of working women's struggles. Mrs. Stoneman was present at the "Battle of Ballantyne Pier" (1935), where she narrowly escaped from the police as they attacked striking longshoremen. CALL NUMBER: T3601:0002 RECORDED: North Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-07-30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: During the war, the Mothers' Council fought for decent allowances for soldiers' wives. [TRACK 2: blank?]; CALL NUMBER: T3601:0003 RECORDED: North Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-07-30 SUMMARY: [No content summary available.];