Generations and the Transformation of Social Movements in Postwar Canada

Historians, particularly in Canada, have yet to make a significant contribution to the study o f contemporary social movements. State funding, ideological conflict, and demographic change had a critical impact on social movements in Canada in the 1960s and 1970s, as this case study o f the Ligue des droits de l’homme (Montreal) shows. These developments distinguished the first (1930s-1950s) from the second (1960s—1980s) generation o f rights associations in Canada. Generational change was especially pronounced within the Ligue. The demographic wave led by the baby boomers and the social, economic, and political contexts o f the period had a profound impact on social movements, extending from the firstand second-generation rights associations to the larger context including movements led by women, Aboriginals, gays and lesbians, African Canadians, the New Left, and others.