The Halifax-Dartmouth & District Labour Council is organizing the largest LABOUR DAY celebration that Halifax has seen in many decades for this year's 2011 event!

It is truly shaping up to be a fantastic event! A longer and more vibrant Labour Day March then in past years, followed by excellent speakers, a FREE BBQ, and a music concert.

There are several high-profile labour and political leaders who will be speaking on the day, including Canadian Labour Congress President Ken Georgetti.

I'm especially excited by one of the musical performances -- some of the musicians from the Tom Fun Orchestra will be performing songs from the Cape Breton Protest Songs Project, which has found archives of many old lyrics & poems (songs) from the 1920's and set them to music. Labour Day 2011 in Halifax will be the first public performance of these songs (a CD release is forthcoming over the next couple of months). This project is truly inspiring in many ways - it brings a tremendous working-class history from an important part of Cape Breton's militant past into the hands of an audience composed of new generations of workers. CBC Radio's "As It Happens" did an interview a few months ago with Professor Richard MacKinnon from Cape Breton University (CBU) about the project which is worth listening to and can be found at this link.

This project reminds me a great deal of the ...