The Labour Day Parade: a road paved with good intentions

Catholic New Times, Oct 24, 2004 by Jean Smith Cavalluzzo

If you're like me, you have internal dialogues with yourself : "Gee, I really should do this" or "Maybe one day." One of my intentions was recently carried out.

As a child, I'd always wanted to be in a parade. As an adult I'd intended to march in the Labour Day Parade. As a child I thought my destiny would be in the Santa Claus parade, preferably in costume, twirling a baton as a majorette, possibly while roller skating at the same time.

The closest I'd come as an adult to being in a parade was wearing a T-shirt with a slogan in a protest march or two.

However, in September, I finally marched in the Labour Day Parade in Toronto. My only costume was a hat and sunglasses to protect myself from the sun.

No white boots, no twirling baton, uniform or roller skates. Life isn't perfect. You gotta roll with the times.

Then again, at my age, with spider veins behind the knees, an aging bladder that requires many pit stops, and too many arthritic fingers for baton twirling, maybe my guardian angel was looking out for me. But I digress ...

The sky on Labour Day was an expansive canopy of blue. The 75-degree temperature was perfect for a parade either as a participant or as a spectator. Catholic New Times had had an impressive labour issue which I could promote, with a cover designed by Dean Jalonen. The cover depicts a female worker dressed in a blue Wal-Mart vest, stocking shelves.

The theme of this year's parade was "Organizing the Unorganized."

Several Wal-mart employees marched in the parade with the United Food and Commercial Workers, who have successfully organized a store in Quebec.

Our CNT labour issue was appropriate to the time. It was as if planets were in the right alignment for spreading the word and the work of CNT.

This award-worthy cover was current, yet timeless. It should be a poster on the walls of all social justice groups and union offices: a powerful image and a powerful quote from Pope John Paul II: "Unions are an indispensable element of social life, a mouthpiece for the struggle for social justice."

Our editor had sent out a notice for CNT supporters to participate in the parade. I followed this call and made my way, marching teachers under the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association banner. As we filed into the CNE grounds, we passed the reviewing stand filled with various dignitaries like Jack Layton, Olivia Chow, David Miller, and union leaders like Syd Ryan.

As each union passed by the stand, union leaders announced the history of that union and the changes to social and labour legislation it had contributed to in the Province of Ontario and Canada.

Many "taken for granted" rights and benefits in labour law have been the result of lobbying, unionizing, the political organizing of labour unions and organizations. My few hours marching, watching and listening was a history lesson in Canadian Labour studies.

The march, the camaraderie and the energy of the marchers nourished me.

I saw masses of workers proudly march behind union banners that in fact reminded me of a different Ontario, an Ontario of my youth that was presided over by the Orange and Masonic Lodges of long ago. Yet, here behind banners that sometimes clearly displayed symbols reminiscent of an white, Protestant Ontario, there walked the multicultural faces of Canada: Blacks, Asian, South-Asian, First Nation, Latino brothers and sisters.

These were banners representing unions integrated in race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and ability.

For me, taken as a whole, these 20,000 workers and 35 labour groups represented the body of Christ. I swayed to the music. I marched to mournful tunes of the bagpipes of the highland bands, including the "The Church Street" rainbow Highland Band of gays and lesbians. I bobbed to the Dixie Land Bands. I "jumped up" to the Caribbean beat of steel drums. The excitement of the workers energized me.

The day was as much of a sensory experience, as it was a history lesson. The union movement has made the lives of working people better. The mainstream media with their corporate agenda do not cover Labour Day Parades in Canadian communities very well. Take the time next year to participate or spectate; the experience will feed your soul.

Jean Smith Cavalluzzo is a Toronto writer.