Last week, I read two news articles about pizza and social movements. To be specific, the articles used the purchase and consumption of pizza by protesters in an attempt to frame the movements negatively.
The first was an article from Abbotsford News titled “B.C. legislature occupiers ate pizza, mocked ‘colonial government’” (which is possibly one of my favourite headlines of all time). The other was an article from HuffPost on the Ontario teachers’ union strike, titled, “Doug Ford Defends Government’s ‘Tremendous Concessions’ In Talks With Teachers,” subtitled: “He also slammed the previous government for buying teachers’ negotiators pizza.”
Now look, I’m not here to choose a side (or point out how biased some media has been on both these social movements). Rather, I’m here to say: pizza is the people’s food, and always has been.
Pizza is an historical dish; the modern version of pizza originated in Naples, Italy at a time when the economy was struggling and pushing many people into poverty. These poor folk were known as lazzaroni, for their shabby demeanour, resembling Lazarus, a biblical figure who was restored to life by Jesus — but who, after being dead for four days, looked pretty weathered. These lazzaroni would eat pizza, because it was something quick to eat that they could buy from street vendors on-the-go as they were bustling about in search of work.
In an article from History Today, it is explained that food critics and foreign visitors to Naples looked down on pizza as disgusting. A quote about pizza from the inventor of the telegraph, Samuel Morse, reads as follows: “[Pizza is a] species of the most nauseating cake … covered over with slices of pomodoro or tomatoes, and sprinkled with little fish and black pepper and I know not what other ingredients, it altogether looks like a piece of bread that has been taken reeking out of the sewer.”
It wasn’t until Queen Margherita venerated the pizza as something delicious and to be valued that the hot, delicious dish took off as a trend. Appropriated by the rich and made famous, the pizza now enjoys international status as, arguably, one of the world’s most favourite foods.
In the article from Abbotsford News, Indigenous youth, who were occupying the legislature in support of the Wet’suwet’en land defenders, were referred to by the journalist as having a “pizza party.” In the HuffPost article, Ford criticizes the Liberal’s financial support of teachers, citing that the money given to teachers’ unions to help them with the cost of negotiation talks was used to buy “large orders of pizza,” stating that it was “out of control.”
What these journalists and Ford failed to consider was that pizza has always been the food of the people, and both the journalists and Ford had no right to say it was a frivolous party treat. Teachers and land defenders do a lot for us; they deserve a large order of pizza now and again. I think that what we really need is a collective pizza party — I’m sure that it would bring both sides of these conflicts together, non-violently and unbiasedly, to discuss our differences while cheers-ing to some cheesy slices of dough.
Darien Johnsen is a UFV alumni who obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree with double extended minors in Global Development Studies and Sociology in 2020. She started writing for The Cascade in 2018, taking on the role of features editor shortly after.
She’s passionate about justice, sustainable development, and education.