This monument was erected on Labour Day, 7 September 1992. It commemorates the life of labour leader J.B. McLachlan with a memorial stone placed at a location known as Campbell’s Corner in the middle of Glace Bay. The effort to create the monument was undertaken by the McLachlan Commemorative Society, chaired by coal miner Terry McVarish. [1] The plans for this monument had begun in 1989, when members of the Committee met with representatives of the UMW and the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers to discuss whether a bust, statue, or plaque for McLachlan would be most appropriate. The group gathered funds for the monument from individuals, local businesses, and labour organizations. Several hundred people turned out for the unveiling ceremony, which included a parade from the Miners’ Forum to the site of the memorial where a family picnic was held. [2]The McLachlan monument, built from Canadian and European granite by John D. Steele and Sons Ltd., stands eight feet tall. There are four major blocks of inscription on the monument. The first inscription, occupying the left side of the monument facing the street, reads “J.B. McLachlan 1869-1937,” and provides a number of biographical details. This inscription describes McLachlan’s birth in Scotland and emigration to Sydney Mines for work in the Princess Colliery, his affiliation and activism with the Provincial Workmen’s Association and UMW, his arrest and imprisonment, and finally his death in 1937. The final paragraph of this inscription reads: “A powerful speaker, a learned man, a radical, an individual completely committed to the cause of the worker. The epitaph on his gravestone, from the Old Testament reads: ‘open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.’”
The monument, aside from its commemoration of an individual, succinctly ties the historical labour struggle in Cape Breton to the modern concepts of social justice and workers’ rights. One commentator in the Cape Breton Post, two days before the unveiling of the monument, wrote:
It is tempting to conclude that with so many battles won on pay and working conditions and the dignity of workers, the days of J.B. McLachlan have truly faded into history. But then Westray blows up, undermining all assumptions about how far the coal mining industry has come and how secure the gains really are. [3]
The disaster at Westray, which occurred just a few months before the monument was unveiled, highlighted the importance of these themes and imbued the McLachlan monument with another layer of contemporary significance; the deaths of 26 workers proved the modern relevance of workers’ struggles. At the unveiling ceremony Eddie MacNeil, president of the Cape Breton Building Trades Council, referenced the Westray disaster and the importance of union membership. He argued that the labour movement has much to learn from the example of McLachlan and must turn its attention towards matters of education, women’s issues, homelessness, and the environment. Gerald Yetman, a former Canadian Union of Public Employees representative and former president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, echoed these arguments by asserting that the labour movement has become too accommodating. “We may have gotten too far away from J.B. McLachlan,” he said. [4]
The importance of all workers, past and present, is also symbolized by the inscribed quotation that describes the value of the working classes in the historical narrative, an uncommon concept prior to the advent of labour and social history in the 1960s. An editorial in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald argued that McLachlan “remains a symbol of the dignity, the majesty, and the strength of all who are the workers in our midst.” [5] In this way, the McLachlan monument extends its meaning from the commemoration of an individual to the collective empowerment of an entire group. The McLachlan monument is a reassertion of the same values that McLachlan attempted to instill in society during his own lifetime. The inclusion of his story in the tapestry of collective memory in Glace Bay ensures that these themes are remembered as that community completes its transformation into a post-industrial society.
Footnotes
[1] Cape Breton Post, 5 September 1992.
[2] Cape Breton Post, 5 September 1992.
[3] Cape Breton Post, 5 September 1992.
[4] Cape Breton Post, 7 September 1992.
[5] Chronicle-Herald, 9 September 1992.
The monument, aside from its commemoration of an individual, succinctly ties the historical labour struggle in Cape Breton to the modern concepts of social justice and workers’ rights. One commentator in the Cape Breton Post, two days before the unveiling of the monument, wrote:
It is tempting to conclude that with so many battles won on pay and working conditions and the dignity of workers, the days of J.B. McLachlan have truly faded into history. But then Westray blows up, undermining all assumptions about how far the coal mining industry has come and how secure the gains really are. [3]
The disaster at Westray, which occurred just a few months before the monument was unveiled, highlighted the importance of these themes and imbued the McLachlan monument with another layer of contemporary significance; the deaths of 26 workers proved the modern relevance of workers’ struggles. At the unveiling ceremony Eddie MacNeil, president of the Cape Breton Building Trades Council, referenced the Westray disaster and the importance of union membership. He argued that the labour movement has much to learn from the example of McLachlan and must turn its attention towards matters of education, women’s issues, homelessness, and the environment. Gerald Yetman, a former Canadian Union of Public Employees representative and former president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, echoed these arguments by asserting that the labour movement has become too accommodating. “We may have gotten too far away from J.B. McLachlan,” he said. [4]
The importance of all workers, past and present, is also symbolized by the inscribed quotation that describes the value of the working classes in the historical narrative, an uncommon concept prior to the advent of labour and social history in the 1960s. An editorial in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald argued that McLachlan “remains a symbol of the dignity, the majesty, and the strength of all who are the workers in our midst.” [5] In this way, the McLachlan monument extends its meaning from the commemoration of an individual to the collective empowerment of an entire group. The McLachlan monument is a reassertion of the same values that McLachlan attempted to instill in society during his own lifetime. The inclusion of his story in the tapestry of collective memory in Glace Bay ensures that these themes are remembered as that community completes its transformation into a post-industrial society.
Footnotes
[1] Cape Breton Post, 5 September 1992.
[2] Cape Breton Post, 5 September 1992.
[3] Cape Breton Post, 5 September 1992.
[4] Cape Breton Post, 7 September 1992.
[5] Chronicle-Herald, 9 September 1992.