Full bibliography

It is easy to forget today how desperate the need was for unions in the days of the worst exploitation and abuse of power by powerful companies. Who now could imagine workers being forced to strike to avoid wage cuts even in times of rising prices? Who could imagine them losing such a strike? This moving story of the miners and steelworkers of Cape Breton focuses on the issues which generated the most militant unions in Canada. Wage cuts, blacklisting, mine disasters, pit closings, police killings, collusion between management and government, company unions, bayonets and barbed wire, American interference, hostile legislation — all this and more have contributed to a century of labour violence and bitterness almost unparalleled in North America. This is a piece of Canadian history usually forgotten, a part of our history that affects us today more than we like to think. --Publisher's description