Coady

Unlike other biographical work on Moses Coady and the Antigonish Movement, Cape Breton native Donald Calabrese uses archival material and the Coady papers to focus on private misgivings and personal struggles in addition to his contributions to the co-operative movement and social justice. 

Moses Coady (1882-1959), was a Roman Catholic Priest born in Margaree, Nova Scotia who famously inspired and led The Antigonish Movement: the co-operative education / economic movement that spread internationally during the mid-twentieth century. COADY explores Moses Coady’s personal triumphs and misgivings alongside a contemporary historian’s attempt to reconcile the spirit of Twentieth Century revolutionary economics with the vanishing political resistance of post-industrial Atlantic Canada. The Antigonish Movement blended adult education, co-operatives, microfinance and rural community development to help small, resource-based communities around Canada’s Maritimes to improve their economic and social circumstances. A group of priests and educators, including Coady, led this movement from a base at the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University (St. F.X.) in Antigonish, NS. The credit union system owes its origins to the Antigonish Movement. Coady argued that if workers took the time to understand their circumstances and assumed the risks of co-operative action, they could achieve economic security and greater freedom and self-realization. Coady is metahistory that asks questions about how we mythologize our past and form our cultural identities.

Donald Calabrese is a cartoonist, musician, academic and labour activist from Cape Breton. His work has appeared in Nova Graphica (Conundrum Press, 2020), The Dalhousie Review, Broken Pencil and Word Hoard. The graphic mytho-biography COADY is Calabrese’s first full-length book. In his work, Calabrese thinks about identity and history, interiority and pain. He lives in Cape Breton and thinks about the place a lot.