"They Didn't Starve Us Out" : Industrial Cape Breton in the 1920s

Kipping, Patricia, (film director.). Elliott, Floyd, (film producer.). Packwood, Keith, (film producer.). MacDonald, Douglas, (film producer.). Elliott, Floyd, (film producer.). National Film Board of Canada (Montreal), (film producer.).

Summary: For 200 years, coal mining had been a way of life--and death--in Cape Breton. By 1920 things were looking up: miners were unionized and paid decent wages. Then the British Empire Steel Corporation arrived and bought every single steel and coal company in Nova Scotia. BESCO also owned stores, houses and land. Then the company cut wages by a third--setting off a bitter labour dispute. The miners tightened their belts and settled in for a long strike. Company stores were looted and burned, and finally in 1925 the military ended the unrest with brute force. But the miners, in an important sense, had won. They broke up the monopoly and provided an example to workers across the country.

Record details

Physical Description: 1 streaming video (21 min., 04 sec.) : sound
remote
access
Publisher: Montreal : National Film Board of Canada, 2017.
Copyright: ♭1991

Content descriptions

General Note:	Agency - English program:.ACI East. Versions:.Original production on filmstrip, 1980.
Restrictions on Access Note:	Available to subscribers only.
Creation/Production Credits Note:	Director, Patricia Kipping ; producer, Floyd Elliott, Keith Packwood ; script, Patricia Kipping ; sound editing, Patricia Kipping ; music, Ronald MacEachern ; re-recording, Roger Lamoureux ; executive producer, Douglas MacDonald, Floyd Elliott ; animation camera, Raymond Dumas, Pierre Landry, Lynda Pelley.
Participant or Performer Note:	Narrator, Lulu Keating.
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:	Recorded 1991.
Target Audience Note:	15-18.
System Details Note:	Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Source of Description Note:	Description based on online resource; title from title screen (National Film Board of Canada, viewed 2023-04-05).