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Articles

Volume XLII, Number 2 (2013)

Labour Landmarks in New Waterford: Collective Memory in a Cape Breton Coal Town

Submitted
October 22, 2013
Published
2013-09-01

Abstract

Labour landmarks enshrine workers’ “public memories” as part of the larger “collective memory” of a community. But these manifestations of working class consciousness are not static. Two monuments in New Waterford (NS) – one to victims of a 1917 mine explosion and the second to William Davis (killed during the 1925 strike) – reveal many layers of historical memory and reflect changing conceptualizations of 20th century labour resistance in Cape Breton amongst the miners, their union, and the town’s citizens.