As a labour arts festival, Mayworks fulfills a unique role in Toronto’s extended cultural family; negotiating a common ground from which labour, the arts and other communities can work to further alliances, develop dialogue and organize collaboratively. The theme of the 14th annual Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts, Art Strikes Back!, acted as a reminder of the potency and power of art. As Toronto experienced a dangerous period of social demolition and reconstruction, Festival ’99 exposed the arts as a channel for education, social activism and above all, the building of community.