Canada’s steel industry is hemorrhaging. Hundreds of layoffs have already occurred. More are to be expected, along with factory closures. This isn’t the first time this has happened.
Cape Breton was once the industrial heartland of Atlantic Canada. It had dozens of coal mines in multiple towns, along with the Sydney steel plant. At the height of production during World War 2, the steel plant made up 1/3rd of the steel and iron in the country.
By the 1960s it was bought by the British monopoly Hawker-Siddeley. The plant was deemed unproductive and hundreds of layoffs took place. In 1967, it faced closure with 3200 jobs at stake.
This incited a mass mobilization by steel workers and their families, coal miners, city workers, fishermen, students, veterans, etc. into a 20,000 strong “Parade of Concern” for a 1 mile march in November. This would have been 2/3rds of the population of the city walking through the streets.
This forced the Nova Scotia government to nationalize the Sydney steel plant under the Sydney Steel Corporation in January of 1968.
However, the nationalization only saved jobs temporarily. The plant was eventually still was closed in 2001, at the same time as the remaining coal mines. What was left behind was a toxic wasteland known as the tar ponds, scarred earth, and thousands of people without good jobs. The island is now a shadow of its former self.
What was needed was the entire steel industry to be nationalized under workers control and linked to a socialist planned economy. The lesson is clear, we will not save these jobs and factories by asking politicians and companies nicely like the union leaders suggest. We need mass mobilizations to defend our livelihoods and ultimately, socialism.
– Robbie H., Halifax
