24 Hours or More

For 200 years, coal mining had been a way of life--and death--in Cape Breton. By 1920 things were looking up: miners were unionized and paid decent wages. Then the British Empire Steel Corporation arrived and bought every single steel and coal company in Nova Scotia. BESCO also owned stores, houses and land. Then the company cut wages by a third--setting off a bitter labour dispute. The miners tightened their belts and settled in for a long strike. Company stores were looted and burned, and finally in 1925 the military ended the unrest with brute force. But the miners, in an important sense, had won. They broke up the monopoly and provided an example to workers across the country.

Six student activists. Thirty-six Canadian towns. One giant corporation. A daunting experiment in activism. A group of six university students, calling themselves Wal-Town, take to the Canadian highway over two summers. Armed with thousands of pamphlets and fliers, and with one gonzo journalist along for the ride, they visit 36 of Canada's more than 200 Wal-Mart stores with one formidable goal: to raise public awareness about Wal-Mart's business practices and the effects of the company's policies on cities and towns across Canada. Wal Town: The Film is the story of their ambitious, exasperating and ultimately rewarding journey. Since the late 1980s, Wal-Mart has become an unstoppable force in the North American retail market. It is the largest corporation and the largest private employer in the world. Its growth rate is on an exponential curve that makes most economists blush. But not everyone believes Wal-Mart's soaring success to be a good thing. The members of Wal-Town foresee dire consequences for Canada and the rest of the world if the Goliath retailer is not challenged immediately. With youthful passion, they bring their message, in the form of often hilarious cultural jams, to the very heart of Canadian consumerism—Wal-Mart's front door. Interspersing frank exchanges between activists and Wal-Mart shoppers with interviews with a range of characters from either side of the issue, Wal Town: The Film takes us to the frontlines of the ongoing debate over the company's increasing dominance in the Canadian retail market. The film also creates an intimate portrait of six young activists as they experience the highs and lows of their first cross-country campaign.

World War II turns Canada into an industrial power, and creates a mass trade-union movement. Mackenzie King responds with unemployment insurance and full legal status for unions. In 1944, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation comes to power in Saskatchewan, under Tommy Douglas, the first socialist government in North America. With the formation of the Canadian Labour Congress in 1956, CCF and CLC energies are directed toward the formation of the New Democratic Party in 1961. Part 3 of the series.