Résumés
Abstract
The making of songs is an important, yet under-explored tradition amongst steel workers throughout North America. Steel making has been an essential part of Cape Breton Island’s economy and landscape since the mid-nineteenth century. The first steel mill was constructed in Sydney Mines in the 1870s; a larger mill was built in the newly emerging city of Sydney, the island’s largest centre, by 1901. Distinctive traditions of work and leisure began to emerge amidst the grid-patterned streets and company-owned homes of workers and managers. In the early years of the twentieth century, a close-knit working-class consciousness had taken root in the steel making centre of Sydney, Cape Breton Island. Songs explore topics such as the harsh conditions of work in the steel plant, personalities and places, tragedies, the industrial conflicts of the 1920s, and the attitudes of workers toward management. Many are often tinged with satire and witty analysis of working-class life.
Sydney, as with many communities in North America, has profoundly experienced the process of deindustrialization in the latter part of the twentieth century. The last operating coal mines closed in Cape Breton the 1990s and the Sydney Steel plant shut its doors in 2000. This paper explores the questions: what role did songs about steel play in the development of class consciousness during the development of the steel industry in Sydney? Do songs play an equally significant role in the latter part of the twentieth century when the community was undergoing the process of deindustrialization? What types of songs about steel making and the steel mill are found in each of these significant periods in Sydney’s history? An exploration of some of these songs reveal much about how human beings respond to the processes of industrialization and deindustrialization.
Résumé
La composition de chansons chez les travailleurs de l’acier en Amérique du Nord constitue une tradition importante, bien que peu étudiée. L’industrie de l’acier a joué un rôle majeur dans l’économie et le paysage de l’île du Cap-Breton depuis le milieu du XIXe siècle. La première aciérie a été construite à Sydney Mines dans les années 1870, et une usine plus grande a été construite dans la ville naissante de Sydney, le plus grand centre urbain de l’île, en 1901. Des traditions distinctes de travail et de loisirs ont commencé à émerger au sein du quadrillage de rues et des habitations de la compagnie pour ses travailleurs et gestionnaires. Dans les premières années du XXe siècle, une conscience de la classe ouvrière avait pris racine au coeur de l’industrie de l’acier à Sydney. Leurs chansons traitaient de sujets tels que les conditions difficiles de travail dans l’aciérie, les lieux et ses grandes personnalités, les tragédies, les conflits de travail dans les années 1920, et l’attitude des travailleurs envers la direction. Beaucoup de ces chansons étaient souvent teintées de satire et témoignaient d’un regard acerbe de la vie de la classe ouvrière.
Sydney, comme de nombreuses communautés nord-américaines, a profondément subi le processus de désindustrialisation de la fin du XXe siècle. Les dernières mines de charbon du Cap-Breton ont cessé leurs activités dans les années 1990 et l’usine Sydney Steel ferma ses portes en 2000. Cet article explore les questions suivantes: quel rôle a joué des chansons sur le développement d’une conscience de classe au cours du développement de l’industrie de l’acier à Sydney? Ces chansons ont-elles joué un rôle tout aussi important dans la dernière partie du XXe siècle, lorsque la communauté a subi les processus de désindustrialisation? Quels types de chansons sur l’industrie de l’acier trouve-t-on pour chacune de ces périodes dans l’histoire de Sydney? Une analyse de certaines de ces chansons révèle somme toute beaucoup sur la façon dont les êtres humains réagissent aux processus d’industrialisation et de désindustrialisation.
Parties annexes
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