A Place in History

The message of Pierce Power is simple, but profound. All people have the right to be treated fairly and decently. If they are not, they have the right and the responsibility to try to change their condition. They must help improve the lives of their neighbours and friends. "If you show contentment with the life of a serf and if you are content with the meagre amount doled out, then you can stay home tomorrow. If you want to impress on these people your rights and if you want to work, you must parade. We don't intend to die peacefully in a land of plenty," he shouted at a meeting at Beck's Cove on February 25, 1935.31

Power told people not to be ashamed of their poverty, but to be angry about it. He believed and taught others to believe that action can cause change. He did not seek violence, but he lived in violent times. Power thought that the terrible conditions of the poor were a crime committed by the government against the people. It had to be challenged. "The Commission of Government is responsible today, just as much as gangsters that would shoot a man down on the street," he told a crowd gathered on the courthouse steps on February 3, 1935. "For every person that dies they are responsible for the death of that person, and they should be brought to account."32

So why doesn't Pierce Power appear in Newfoundland history books? The Unemployed Committee was the only real opposition to the Commission of Government at that time. Their protests led to a riot, a sensational trial and, in the end, a jail sentence for their leader. Perhaps it is because Power was a common man and not a rich or famous person. But it might be something else.

The story of Pierce Power and the Unemployed Committee of 1934 and 1935 challenges a popular idea. Newfoundlanders are often said to be a hardy and long suffering people. This patience and calm is considered part of Newfoundland culture. It is highly praised.33 The young worker from the Southside Road just doesn't fit in with that image. His life challenges those ideas. His words mock the picture of the good Newfoundlander. Pierce Power did not admire meekness. He would not have thought much of anyone who did.


31 From Detective Mahoney's report to Police Chief O'Neill on February 25, 1935, notes from an unemployed meeting.
32 From Detective Mahoney's report to Police Chief O'Neill on February 3, 1935.
33 Memorial University sociologist Jim Overton has written about the Unemployed Committee of 1934 and 1935. In his essay "Riots, Raids and Relief" (Violence and Public Anxiety, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University, 1992) Overton discusses the popular image of Newfoundlanders as passive, nonviolent people.