NLFL Projects

A Class Act

A Class Act: An Illustrated History of the Labour Movement in Newfoundland and Labrador

A Class ActThis is the story of how Newfoundland and Labrador union members turned the nation, the colony and the province into the most highly organized jurisdiction in North America. Author Bill Gillespie’s research reveals union losses and victories, their weaknesses and strengths and ultimately, their success. Includes more than a hundred photographs.

Union activists rarely make it into the history books and when they do the picture is seldom flattering. In this new edition of A Class Act retired journalist Bill Gillespie confronts the myth.

This is the story of how Newfoundland and Labrador union members turned the nation, the colony and the province into the most highly organized jurisdiction in North America. Gillespie’s research reveals union losses and victories, their weaknesses and strengths and ultimately, their success. The narrative is illustrated with more than a hundred photographs.

Work Work Work

Work Work Work: Work and Labour History in Song

Work Work WorkThis multi-media project features over 50 musicians and songwriters from all over Newfoundland and Labrador, whose songs cover the gamut of work-related experience from the traditional sea-faring, fishing and lumbering trades to the modern industrial oil and mineral sectors, and all manner of work and labour activity in between. Accompanied by extensive liner notes and a variety of archival photographs, you’ll find traditional and contemporary songs representing the population and linguistic diversity of the province, including those from Innu, Inuit and MiqMa’q communities, French-speaking western Newfoundland, and a Gaelic song from the Codroy Valley.

“Songs related to work in all its forms have always comprised a significant portion of our traditional music heritage.”

This project contributes 28 songs not widely heard or recorded–some traditional, some written for or about specific job actions, some especially for this collection–to the repertoire related to the history of work and labour in this province. It is by no means complete or definitive, nor was it meant to be, but the songs and the voices that sing them reflect both historical and contemporary struggles, and celebrate the working people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The production of this double CD collection has been a collaboration between the Greening Memorial Fund of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, NS, the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour, the Research Centre for Music, Media and Place, (MMaP) at Memorial University, St. John’s, NL, and SingSong Inc.

 

 

Track Listing:

  1. We Are Coming, Mr. Coaker – Labour Notes
  2. The Waterford Strike – Anita Best
  3. The Picket Line Carols – Labour Notes
  4. Journée du passé – Mark Cormier
  5. Gonna Retire – Ron Harvey
  6. Labradorimiut – Joan Dicker
  7. One Last Ride – Glen Tilley
  8. The Jolly Poker – A Crowd of Bold Sharemen
  9. The Engagement Song – David Penashu
  10. Home Free – Stephanie Payne
  11. A Miner’s Song – Kevin Blackmore
  12. Elegy for Donald Dunphy – Jim Payne
  13. Crossing the Line – Colleen Power
  14. The Trappers’ Song – The Flummies
  15. Fear a’ Bhâta – Vanessa MacArthur Newman
  16. One Fine Union Man – Dave Penny
  17. The NAPE Picket Line – Gerry Strong
  18. Mémoire franco terre-neuvien – Jessica Hall
  19. Heave Away Me Nurses – Labour Notes
  20. The Anthem of NAPE – Bob MacDonald with Labour Notes
  21. Leave the Ore in the Ground – Ron Harvey
  22. Taitsumanitanik Unikkâlimmat – Joan Dicker
  23. The Grand Falls Tragedy – Pamela Morgan
  24. Maqtukwek (Humber River) – Paul Pike
  25. The Luck Went with the Sealers Since Brave Kelloway Led the Strike – Fergus O’Byrne
  26. In Her Day – Shirley Montague
  27. Old Black Spruce – Kevin Blackmore
  28. Work Work Work – The Secrets