Saturday, August 20, 2005
A gathering of angry strikers was charged by a wall of armed company thugs on horseback. One miner was wounded & trampled by horses. Gilbert Watson was shot in the stomach. William Davis was fatally shot through the heart.
Growing up in Cape Breton I was always aware of Davis Day (celebrated on June 11th by union employees and those who reside in towns with a strong connection to mining), but never quite certain about what exactly it represented. It seemed to be a remnant of a dying industry. It anchored us to our past and kept us paralyzed with nostalgia.
I was never taught a thing about Davis Day in school, I went to school in the city, Davis Day belonged to the poor towns that couldn't look to the future. The disdain wasn't explicit, but I learned it. I'm sure it contributed to my apathetic attitude towards unions and labour struggles. It's easy to romanticize the visions in songs like "Which Side Are You On" (Billy Bragg), It's hard to explain to a crying child/Why her Daddy can't go back/So the family suffer/But it hurts me more/To hear a scab say Sod you, Jack., and still not understand a word.
Clearly the Billy Bragg song and Davis Day are extreme examples of labour unrest and experiencing something similar is absolutely not necessary in order to understand what's at stake and what's important during a labour dispute (or in my case a lockout). I would have to be cracked in order to think that there is an obvious parallel, however the fact that during my entire education experience in Cape Breton I never once learned anything about the significance of Davis Day informs me quite a bit about my general apathy towards union participation. So though I am not going to get a bullet in the heart or have to tell my starving waif of a child that there's only bread and water, learning about that in school might have provided me with a more favourable attitude towards issues that I would face at some point in my lifetime.
Furthermore I may want to stop blaming a faulty education system that I have been out of for 8 years and suck it up and start changing my attitudes.
Tomorrow I put in 6 hours and finish off my twenty hours requirement. In all honesty, it has not been a bad week of picketing considering the circumstances, just confusing.
Further Reading on Davis Day :
http://www.honeyshaven.ca/davis_day.php
Growing up in Cape Breton I was always aware of Davis Day (celebrated on June 11th by union employees and those who reside in towns with a strong connection to mining), but never quite certain about what exactly it represented. It seemed to be a remnant of a dying industry. It anchored us to our past and kept us paralyzed with nostalgia.
I was never taught a thing about Davis Day in school, I went to school in the city, Davis Day belonged to the poor towns that couldn't look to the future. The disdain wasn't explicit, but I learned it. I'm sure it contributed to my apathetic attitude towards unions and labour struggles. It's easy to romanticize the visions in songs like "Which Side Are You On" (Billy Bragg), It's hard to explain to a crying child/Why her Daddy can't go back/So the family suffer/But it hurts me more/To hear a scab say Sod you, Jack., and still not understand a word.
Clearly the Billy Bragg song and Davis Day are extreme examples of labour unrest and experiencing something similar is absolutely not necessary in order to understand what's at stake and what's important during a labour dispute (or in my case a lockout). I would have to be cracked in order to think that there is an obvious parallel, however the fact that during my entire education experience in Cape Breton I never once learned anything about the significance of Davis Day informs me quite a bit about my general apathy towards union participation. So though I am not going to get a bullet in the heart or have to tell my starving waif of a child that there's only bread and water, learning about that in school might have provided me with a more favourable attitude towards issues that I would face at some point in my lifetime.
Furthermore I may want to stop blaming a faulty education system that I have been out of for 8 years and suck it up and start changing my attitudes.
Tomorrow I put in 6 hours and finish off my twenty hours requirement. In all honesty, it has not been a bad week of picketing considering the circumstances, just confusing.
Further Reading on Davis Day :
http://www.honeyshaven.ca/davis_day.php
# posted by Die Brucke @ 5:44 PM 
