songs, solidarity
at labor festival

The organizing committee got their connections right this year and
the sun shone in solidarity for the more than 500 people who came to

Websters Corners.

_the 5th annual Burke Mountain Labor Festival, held this year at

As fresh spring salmon sizzled on the barbecue, hundreds of people,
from toddlers to trade unionists and pensioners, filled the grounds
(bottom right) to listen as a dozen entertainers took the improvised
stage to provide an entire afternoon of top-notch entertainment.

At top left, although smaller in numbers than at previous festivals,
Bargain at Half the Price had lost none of their energy — or audience
appeal. At left, Threesome Reel filled out a set with traditional material
while (at lower left) the Chilean group Los Andienos introduced the au-
dience to Chile’s colorful regional songs and dances including the inter-
nationally-known queca. A surprise performer was the Soviet accord-
ionist Valeri Surkov (top right) who is both a concert performer and
well-known recording artist in his native Moscow. He was in this prov-
ince as part of a tourist group. And ever popular was Fishermen’s
Union secretary and Tribune vice-president George Hewison (right)
‘who — as tradition dictated — doubled as entertainer and promoter

TRIBUNE PHOTOS— SEAN GRIFFIN

for the Tribune to which proceeds from the gala event will eventually

; TRIBUNE PHOTO—TONY BJARNASON

Black Around The Eyes is a
novel about Cape Breton coal
miners, by Jeremy Akerman,
who recently quit the leadership
of the NDP in the Nova Scotia
House of Assembly to take a job
with the Tory government.

(Akerman came to prominence
during the United Fishermen and
Allied Workers Union strike in
Nova Scotia in 1971 and won his
seat as a result of the labor up-
surge that accompanied the
strike.)

Akerman makes his opinions
through a soliloquy by his main
character, the aging Donnie Ross.

Ross is not the most understan-
dable of characters. He muses in
the language of a professor of
English but uses idiom and ‘“‘pit
talk’? when conversing with his
family or friends. He is presented
as a radical trade unionist and
secretary of his local but takes two
weeks off to skylark in the coun-
try while his union is engaged in a
crucial strike. He downplays the
value of strikes.

In the opinion of Ross,
William Davis, who was shot and
killed by company police at New
Waterford Lake during the 1925
strike, was anything but a hero.
He is depicted as an “‘innocent
bystander”’ who had started for
the store to get a nipple for his

baby’s bottle and got caught up in
a demonstration. ‘‘Maybe he
couldn’t resist a parade’”’ mused
Donnie Ross, and for yielding to
the temptation to join the march,
was murdered by the. BESCO
police”. --

Completely overlooked by
Ross is the fact that the
demonstration had long since
stopped being a “‘parade’’, if it
ever was one, and had become a
pitched battle between unarmed
workers and gun toting company
police.

Not all the slanders are as
straight forward as this. In fact *
the reader is seldom given an op-
portunity to meet one civilized
human being among Ross’
associates.

Strangely enough there was lit-
tle venom in his account of Tim
Buck’s address'to the District 26,
United Mine Workers’ conven-
tion. Tim is reported as telling the
meeting of the social progress that
was being made in the USSR.
Ross’ only comment was‘ “‘T
doubt that many of the men, even
in their desperation, found all this

totally convincing but it was great ,
stuff and the ranks were roused —

and cheered by it’’. The venom
was saved for McEwan’s version
of the Gallacher meeting.

Ross must have read
McEwan’s Miners and Steel-

‘

workers or his column of May 28,
1968 in the Cape Breton High-
lander. He tells the same fabricat-
ed story of the ‘‘confrontation”’
between J. B. McLachlan and

’ British Communist MP William

Gallacher in the Firemen’s Par-

lors at Glace Bay in the winter of.

1936-37.

Although both McEwan and
Ross (Akerman) had Gallacher
coming to Glace Bay to deal with
the resignation of J.B.
McLachlan from the Communist
Party, the record will show that
Gallacher came here as part of a
nation-wide speaking tour which
was for the purpose of warning
the Canadian people of the

‘danger of imperialist war.

When Gallacher had finished
speaking J.B. (or Jim as he was
commonly known) asked to be
heard. The chairman, Tommy

Sharpe, after a short consultation
with Gallacher, granted the re-
quest. J.B. then appealed to
Gallacher for vindication of his
stand that the labor movement

should not support anything that.

John L. Lewis, who was then
head of the Committee for In-

dustrial Organization (CIO) as

well as the United Mine Workers,

_had anything to do with. He

publicly declared that he loved the
Communist Party and would die
for it but, in this case, the party
was wrong.

Gallacher, instead of
“thundering” at J.B. as was
charged, spoke kindly of him and
told him what the position of
Communists the world over was
in regard to labor unity. He also
pointed out that, when a-good
Communist falls out with his par-
ty, the most reactionary and
disruptive elements gathered
round to use him as a club to beat
the party with.

J.B. McLachlan did not make
“the greatest speech of his life’’ as
is claimed by both Akerman and
McEwan. If there were cheers for
him I failed to hear them. There
was sympathy, but not the kind
he would have appreciated. For
my own part I felt sorry for J.B.
but not for the few miserable peo-

ple who brought him to the.

meeting.
* History shows that the advice

Slanderous portrayal of N.S. coal miners |

_ received wide and effective sup-|

paying job for him at a time when |

given by J.B. McLachlan was}
thoroughly rejected by the]
workers. Unity was established in}
District 26, UMW and the CIO}

port resulting in the organization}
of the Sydney steelworkers and
the enactment of the Nova Scotia]
Trade Union Act. ——7
_ The author assures his readers]
that the book is ‘‘a work of love}
and a song of praise’’. but the
fulsome praise lavished on the}.
beauty of the Cape Breton coun-|
tryside seems only to emphasizé])
the impression that one gets of the}
‘‘vileness’” of man. |

It is possible that theré was no}
intention to enlighten the readers}
regarding labor history. It may]
have been sufficient: for his pur-
pose to show how well off we are]
in comparison to the days]
“ecorded,’’ in spite of the}
“stupidity”? of the workers. In}
this Akerman could partly repay
the Tories for making a well-]>

his own party was going to a]
decline in ‘Glace Bay. ’
—George MacEacher™ |.

George MacEachern is @|\
retired coal miner who spent his |
life in the Glace Bay area of Nova |
Scotia. He was secretary for the |
Sydney local of the United Mine)
Workers and on the executive of
the union’s district council for thé }
Maritimes.

|

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 5, 1981—Page 10

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