Echoes of the Miners' Strike in Nova Scotia (magazine article)
by J. S. Woodsworth
Appeared in The Canadian Forum (A monthly Journal of Literature and Public Affairs), vol. III, no. 28, January 1923, p. 106-107.
Woodsworth, an early social activist (in fact, the future founder of the New Democratic Party) and at the time a member of the House of Commons as part of the Independent Labour Party, wrote an op-ed column for a Canadian monthly on the miners' strike in Cape Breton in 1923. In simple language, he introduces Cape Breton's striking workers to his readership, explaining that they are very much Canadians, not transient foreigners, and value education. Accusing the government of Halifax of inaction, Woodsworth sides with the miners confronted with an intransigeant employer, BESCO. The federal government, he argues, was no better, having done nothing but send troops to quell the unrest. He is also viewing the dispute from the perspective of the 1923 resolution, which led to a temporary agreement on a small reduction of wages. This agreement made Nova Scotian miners among some of the best paid in North America, he argues, when we take into consideration the diminishing price of coal. In the following years, BESCO would drastically cut wages again. In the article, he congratulates the miners for having unified themselves and having exhibited a measure of "self-control" throughout the strike. The protesting miners in Sydney may have barricaded themselves in the mine, and performed a military demonstration (many of them were returned soldiers), but it never turned violent. Thus, Woodsworth considers that the coal miners were the victors in the 1923 dispute, given that their union organization remained "intact" and retained their dignity by not stooping to violence, and that they were able to agree on acceptable wages. In other words, from a 1923 perspective, it seemed to him, that Cape Breton's miners were on the right path toward securing and defending their rights as workers.
This magazine article allows us to understand the issue from the perspective of the segment of the population that may have been sympathetic to the miners' battle for workers' rights. It also allows us to view the issue through a political lens, asking us to question what ways the government should intervene in labour disagreements. Woodsworth's positive spin on the event expresses perhaps his own optimism and his own political dream of reforming and developing social policy that would favour workers, and less the actual gains and losses of the miners.
Appeared in The Canadian Forum (A monthly Journal of Literature and Public Affairs), vol. III, no. 28, January 1923, p. 106-107.
Woodsworth, an early social activist (in fact, the future founder of the New Democratic Party) and at the time a member of the House of Commons as part of the Independent Labour Party, wrote an op-ed column for a Canadian monthly on the miners' strike in Cape Breton in 1923. In simple language, he introduces Cape Breton's striking workers to his readership, explaining that they are very much Canadians, not transient foreigners, and value education. Accusing the government of Halifax of inaction, Woodsworth sides with the miners confronted with an intransigeant employer, BESCO. The federal government, he argues, was no better, having done nothing but send troops to quell the unrest. He is also viewing the dispute from the perspective of the 1923 resolution, which led to a temporary agreement on a small reduction of wages. This agreement made Nova Scotian miners among some of the best paid in North America, he argues, when we take into consideration the diminishing price of coal. In the following years, BESCO would drastically cut wages again. In the article, he congratulates the miners for having unified themselves and having exhibited a measure of "self-control" throughout the strike. The protesting miners in Sydney may have barricaded themselves in the mine, and performed a military demonstration (many of them were returned soldiers), but it never turned violent. Thus, Woodsworth considers that the coal miners were the victors in the 1923 dispute, given that their union organization remained "intact" and retained their dignity by not stooping to violence, and that they were able to agree on acceptable wages. In other words, from a 1923 perspective, it seemed to him, that Cape Breton's miners were on the right path toward securing and defending their rights as workers.
This magazine article allows us to understand the issue from the perspective of the segment of the population that may have been sympathetic to the miners' battle for workers' rights. It also allows us to view the issue through a political lens, asking us to question what ways the government should intervene in labour disagreements. Woodsworth's positive spin on the event expresses perhaps his own optimism and his own political dream of reforming and developing social policy that would favour workers, and less the actual gains and losses of the miners.
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