Page 55 - From George MacEachern's Autobiography

ISSUE : Issue 45

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1987/6/1

meeting in Tom Edwards' barn. We got all the neigh? bours there--Henry Lelandais, Walter Edwards, and I suppose I had nine or ten people. We found that when we added them all together, we had quite an acreage under cultivation. We found a name for us that night--The Vulcan Avenue Self Help and Study Club. I had an unbelievable old L. C. Smith type? writer. I couldn't buy a ribbon for it because they had gone out of date and the ribbon was over an inch wide. I put two pieces of carbon paper to? gether and typed and hoped for the best. By this method I made up the necessary papers with .the name of our organization, its aims and membership and "acreage" under cultivation. I went down and presented it to the Relief Office. "What's this?" I said, "I understand there's a new regulation that if you have ground under cultiva? tion that you don't have to work for relief." Well, they didn't think it applied to us. "Well, if it applies to anybody, it applies to us. So there it is, now do what you want with it." We got away for a few weeks without working for relief and then they said that you had to be licensed or regis? tered or somehow be a part of the St. F. X. move? ment. So they took that away from me. It was con? sidered and is still considered by a great many people to be better that they do useless work like that than do nothing and collect unemployment in? surance. They don't give them credit for very much sense. People know when they're just being used to no value. I don't see any moral difference in loaf? ing altogether than in doing useless work like they did. They had all these strange moralistic i- deas. Morals had nothing at all to do with it. It First There is margaree windows And now there's LiWe Brother WINDOWS What's the Difference? Margaree Windows I Lifetime Warranty I Heavy Duty I Competitively Priced I Custom Finish I Superb Quality with 50% More Wood For more information contact us at: margaree windows @ P.O. Box691, ';' Sydney, N. S. Bl P 6H7 f Little Brother Windows I One Year Warranty I Lightweight I Lowest Price on Market I Custom Finish I Competes with any Window - except Margaree!! SYDNEY 562-3220 HALIFAX 861-1500 AN EMPLOYEE-OWNED COMPANY was Strictly economics. They had to keep the work? ing class in its place, I suppose. This was more important than anything else. One time, the People's School, St. F. X. Extension Department, called a meeting to discuss farming; that is, that the unemployed steelworkers, or unem? ployed anybody I suppose, would all get together and plant potatoes. There were some lots set aside here and there throughout the city and here they would help to feed their families and so on. I didn't see it the same as others saw it, I just saw it as an attempt to take pressure off the gov? ernment and to make these people have something to do regardless of how useless. That's pretty well the way it turned out I think. I had my say at this meeting. I thought that they were not an aw? ful lot better than scabs; I called them black- legged farmers, they were going to do the farmer's work, and what was the farmer going to do? We should be demanding that we be provided with this food that was being grown or capable of being grown and therefore the farmers would be able to make a living and we would have something to eat without this nonsense of growing potatoes. It didn't take very long for the wheels to get into motion that time; I believe it was the very next day when I reported to work and I was told there was no work for me until further notice. And I nev? er did find out why this took place. I could only connect it with my appearing at this meeting. The unemployed weren't loners, and the union had a wonderful effect on people that were unemployed. It gave them courage to go ahead. And the way they'd turn out! They certainly had a lot of re? spect for that unemployed union because when I say hundreds, there were hundreds. I don't know if it was the first night I went there or the second, but I know that the feeling was running pretty high. One guy got up and he moved that we go home and get our guns and march on City Hall and get a r'lFFlC What's a summer filled v/ith treats, tees, treasures, and trails, tans. talent, teas and tales.... T-riff ic, that's v/hat! Enjoy the many activities that Cape Breton County communities will be offering you this summer. Put on your T-shirt, take time, tickle your tastes, ond hove a T-riff ic summer! for more information, contact: 865 Grartd Lake!

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