I thought Hamilton's "Jobs First" rally might be a sighing, eye-rolling, disappointing experience. I thought the highlight might be betting how far David Christopherson's spit would fly when he took the mic, or whether or not he'd give himself a hernia. (I mean that in the fondest way possible :-) But there was a heck of a lot more to it than that. Hamiltonians are reeling after US Steel announced its virtual shutdown of Hamilton and Lake Erie operations.

Local performer Steve Sinnicks started things off with a few numbers, including a familiar one about old lefty Hamilton mayor Sam Lawrence and, fittingly, REM's "It's the end of the world as we know it." A retired steel worker belted out an angry poem, lambasting the industry and government. The daughters of steel workers weighed in with their own poetry, and recently laid off 1005er Remo Cino performed a song he wrote after getting the news he was losing his job. Almost no one left the mic without receiving a standing ovation, and it wasn't contrived.

The most moving words came from Shannon Horner-Shepherd. Laid off after 10 years as a heavy equipment operator, she has twin boys and a disabled daughter to care for. She didn't yell into the mic. She didn't cry (though others were near tears). She simply told it like it is with a calm strength. She told the audience how she spent her good wage on a van and house to accommodate her daughter and asked: "Have I lived beyond my means?" She answered her own question with confidence: "No, I have simply lived."

The labour leaders on stage roused the crowd as well. One joked that if you'd bought a thousand dollars worth of beer a couple of years back you'd have more value in the empties than if you'd bought Nortel stock. Another waxed pathetic about company promises to provide workers with access to computers and fax machines to find new jobs. Most employed a nationalistic rhetoric about buying Canadian. Some implied nationalization of industry; another countered subtly with mention of the South and fair trade then, a breath or two later, explained he had no problem with massive cash infusions to the banks to maintain liquidity. Somebody even said the word "occupation" at one point, but at the end of the march the NDP speakers stressed the political arena, meaning wait for elections.

It was a good show. I'll give it that. Cutting the heart out of steel making in Hamilton really is shocking, and a huge blow to thousands of people. It really is important to come together at events like Saturday's and be inspired, keep strong, maintain hope. But hope for what? A little more EI? For the NDP shoring up its base in Hamilton or picking up a few more seats? For Steven Harper and the scary bunch to pull a Chavez? I'm not a steel worker, so far be it for me to tell anyone what to do, but these strategies seem as empty as the federal building where we ended the march.

But what would work? An Argentinian (or Chicago!) style takeover? (When the Argentine economy melted down there in 2001 it was, unlike now, relatively isolated. That's one key difference.) A general large scale, trans-industry strike? And it was great to see calls for steel to be produced locally for conversion to renewable energy sources, light rail, etc, but right now it's only the state that can make all that happen. How do we build for more?

To build on a Zapatista saying, we've got a not-so-coherent "No" and no real promising "Yes."