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Special Supplement TWO ARTICLES FROM: W'RKERS VANtiUARD April 1977 1973-1974 Brookside Strike Bloody Harlan Once Again -' I I I I I I I I I I I I I I i . , - -, I I I Workers (UMW) leadership under Arnold Miller, which withheld active support to the Harlan County strikers for over a year and then sold out the right to strike over grievances in the 1974 national coal contract. Kopple's use of historical clips from the 1930's never allows the audience to forget that this is Harlan County. This is bloody Harlan: "there are no neutrals here." Dramatic scenes of class confron-. tation in the 1970's are prepared by images of pitched battles in the past. The screen is filled by the government's tanks ripping through the streets on the way up to the mines. The troops form a corridor of the state's armed might through which scabs are driven. In these times when the slick bureaucrats of business unionism boast, as AFL-CIO head George Meany does, that they never walked a picket line; when "labor statesmen" like the Steel- workers I. W. Abel sign no-strike agreements; when "rebel" bureaucrats like Ed Sadlowski appeal to lhe bosses' government as a "neut.l'cll arbiter" between labor and capital, Harlan County. U.S.A. presents an unsophisti- cated truth and drives it home in graphic scenes: the class struggle is not dead. The miners and their wives speak for themselves in this story of a year-long struggle at Brookside, Kentucky. Con- temptuous and paternalistic, the Duke Power Company which owns the mine refused to accept the standard UMW contract, forcing the miners to strike in July 1973. Jailed en masse by mine- owning judges, beaten by state troopers, shot at by scabherding gun thUgs, the strikers held out and finally forced recognition of the union by the mine bosses. Kopple's camera allows us interviews of the older folks who remember the martyrs who died. For them the UMW slogan, "fight like hell for the living," is no abstract rhetoric. Throughout the continued inside State troopers arresting pickets at Hlghsplint Mine in JUly 1974. Blood and Coal: Harlan County, -U.S.A. Reprinted from WV No. 144, '11 February 1977 Scene from the film: strikers take aim at scabs. Cinema 5 Bloody class warfare is a rare theme in American movies. Barbara Kopple's Harlan County. U.S.A., which recently opened in New York City, is a documen- tary film about one of those battles, a 13-month strike in the Appalachian coal fields that ended in a limited victory for the miners. The film is a first-rate documentary. It has impact because it is not only the story of a strike but also a compelling portrayal of the power of labor tradi- tions. It is a historical document of union militancy and working-class solidarity. It also records, but has no answer for, the treachery of the United Mine Movie Review: government has been typified by the fact that, while dozens of miners have been arrested on trumped-up charges, no- thing at all has been done in response to reports of a machine gun in the mine office. Strikers say they were fired at by this gun on July 8; moreover, state police admit that a company employee has applied for a license for an automat- ic weapon! As for the miners' "constitu- tional rights," one Brookside striker expressed the situation well: "What good is the right to picket if the state police can come in here and break the picket line?" (quoted in the Mountain Eagle [Whitesburg, Kentucky], 18 July). At a brief press conference after the rally, Miller said he was "reasonably certain" he will call a national miners' "memorial period" focusing on mine safety and, in particular, on enforce- ment of the 1969 Coal Mine Health and Safety Act. (Under the present contract the union has the right to call such "memorials" for a period of up to ten days.) However, Miller refused to set a deadline for such a work stoppage, hinting only that it would be called "when it is most appropriate." He also said the memorial period would "not hinge on what happens here." Miller's purposely vague speech was a disappointment to many of the union members present. Clearly the UMW bureaucracy intends to continue its "strategy" of refusing to broaden labor support for the crucial Harlan struggle. So far, in more than a year of bitter struggle, Miller's defeatist tactics have proven completely impotent. Miller is trying to use his currently strong bargaining power vis-a-vis the continued inside Reprinted from WV No. 50, 2 August 1974 HARLAN COUNTY, Kentucky- Amid scenes of picket-line violence reminiscent of the bloody battles fought here during the 1930's, the bitter Brookside miners' strike passed the one- year mark on July 26. Since picketing began at the neighboring Highsplint mine three weeks ago, two strikers have been shot by company thugs, a machine gun has reportedly been set up in the mine office and dozens of Kentucky State Police have been mobilized to herd out-of-state scabs into the pits. The presence of one state trooper for every three strikers and the repeated arrests, despite a previous court decision ruling the picketing legal, led to wide- spread rumors last month that United Mine Workers (UMW) president Ar- nold Miller would call a nationwide coal strike in support of the Brookside miners. However, on July 16 Miller abruptly canceled a press conference which had presumably been called to deal with the possibility of a national work stoppage. Later in the week miners were led to believe Miller would announce the industry shutdown at a rally here on July 21. At that rally, attended by more than 4,000 people (mostly miners and their families), Miller was introduced by UMW vice president Mike Trbovich as "the man who will tell you what to do." Yet the possibility of a national strike was not once mentioned from the speakers' platform during the meeting. Instead the union chief announced that he would meet the following day with Kentucky governor Wendell Ford "to see his response before giving you an alternative." To date the response of the bosses'
Transcript
Page 1: Special Supplement W'RKERS VANtiUARD

Special SupplementTWO ARTICLES FROM:

W'RKERS VANtiUARD April 1977

1973-1974 Brookside Strike

Bloody HarlanOnce Again

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IWorkers (UMW) leadership underArnold Miller, which withheld activesupport to the Harlan County strikersfor over a year and then sold out theright to strike over grievances in the1974 national coal contract.

Kopple's use of historical clips fromthe 1930's never allows the audience toforget that this is Harlan County. This isbloody Harlan: "there are no neutralshere." Dramatic scenes ofclass confron-.tation in the 1970's are prepared byimages of pitched battles in the past. Thescreen is filled by the government'stanks ripping through the streets on theway up to the mines. The troops form acorridor of the state's armed mightthrough which scabs are driven.

In these times when the slickbureaucrats of business unionism boast,as AFL-CIO head George Meany does,that they never walked a picket line;when "labor statesmen" like the Steel­workers I. W. Abel sign no-strikeagreements; when "rebel" bureaucratslike Ed Sadlowski appeal to lhe bosses'government as a "neut.l'cll arbiter"between labor and capital, HarlanCounty. U.S.A. presents an unsophisti­cated truth and drives it home in graphicscenes: the class struggle is not dead.

The miners and their wives speak forthemselves in this story of a year-longstruggle at Brookside, Kentucky. Con­temptuous and paternalistic, the DukePower Company which owns the minerefused to accept the standard UMWcontract, forcing the miners to strike inJuly 1973. Jailed en masse by mine­owning judges, beaten by state troopers,shot at by scabherding gun thUgs, thestrikers held out and finally forcedrecognition of the union by the minebosses.

Kopple's camera allows us interviewsof the older folks who remember themartyrs who died. For them the UMWslogan, "fight like hell for the living," isno abstract rhetoric. Throughout the

continued inside

State troopersarrestingpickets atHlghsplintMine in JUly1974.

Blood and Coal:Harlan County,-U.S.A.

ReprintedfromWV No. 144,

'11 February1977

Scene from the film: strikers take aim at scabs.Cinema 5

Bloody class warfare is a rare theme inAmerican movies. Barbara Kopple'sHarlan County. U.S.A., which recentlyopened in New York City, is a documen­tary film about one of those battles, a13-month strike in the Appalachian coalfields that ended in a limited victory forthe miners.

The film is a first-rate documentary.It has impact because it is not only thestory of a strike but also a compellingportrayal of the power of labor tradi­tions. It is a historical document ofunion militancy and working-classsolidarity.

It also records, but has no answer for,the treachery of the United Mine

Movie Review:

government has been typified by the factthat, while dozens of miners have beenarrested on trumped-up charges, no­thing at all has been done in response toreports of a machine gun in the mineoffice. Strikers say they were fired at bythis gun on July 8; moreover, statepolice admit that a company employeehas applied for a license for an automat­ic weapon! As for the miners' "constitu­tional rights," one Brookside strikerexpressed the situation well: "Whatgood is the right to picket if the statepolice can come in here and break thepicket line?" (quoted in the MountainEagle [Whitesburg, Kentucky], 18 July).

At a brief press conference after therally, Miller said he was "reasonablycertain" he will call a national miners'"memorial period" focusing on minesafety and, in particular, on enforce­ment of the 1969 Coal Mine Health andSafety Act. (Under the present contractthe union has the right to call such"memorials" for a period of up to tendays.) However, Miller refused to set adeadline for such a work stoppage,hinting only that it would be called"when it is most appropriate." He alsosaid the memorial period would "nothinge on what happens here."

Miller's purposely vague speech was adisappointment to many of the unionmembers present. Clearly the UMWbureaucracy intends to continue its"strategy" of refusing to broaden laborsupport for the crucial Harlan struggle.So far, in more than a year of bitterstruggle, Miller's defeatist tactics haveproven completely impotent.

Miller is trying to use his currentlystrong bargaining power vis-a-vis the

continued inside

ReprintedfromWV No. 50,2 August1974

HARLAN COUNTY, Kentucky­Amid scenes of picket-line violencereminiscent of the bloody battles foughthere during the 1930's, the bitterBrookside miners' strike passed the one­year mark on July 26. Since picketingbegan at the neighboring Highsplintmine three weeks ago, two strikers havebeen shot by company thugs, a machinegun has reportedly been set up in themine office and dozens of KentuckyState Police have been mobilized toherd out-of-state scabs into the pits.

The presence of one state trooper forevery three strikers and the repeatedarrests, despite a previous court decisionruling the picketing legal, led to wide­spread rumors last month that UnitedMine Workers (UMW) president Ar­nold Miller would call a nationwide coalstrike in support of the Brooksideminers. However, on July 16 Millerabruptly canceled a press conferencewhich had presumably been called todeal with the possibility of a nationalwork stoppage. Later in the week minerswere led to believe Miller wouldannounce the industry shutdown at arally here on July 21.

At that rally, attended by more than4,000 people (mostly miners and theirfamilies), Miller was introduced byUMW vice president Mike Trbovich as"the man who will tell you what to do."Yet the possibility of a national strikewas not once mentioned from thespeakers' platform during the meeting.Instead the union chief announced thathe would meet the following day withKentucky governor Wendell Ford "tosee his response before giving you analternative."

To date the response of the bosses'

Page 2: Special Supplement W'RKERS VANtiUARD

Blood and Coal:Harlan County,U.S.A....

film are woven the miners' own songs,articulating their plight and their deter­imination. At a strike rally, FlorenceReese sings "Which Side Are YouanT-the song she wrote duringHarlan County's labor battles of the1930's.

Things are straightforward in Harlan.We see picket lines held by the wives onthe highway because the mines are heldby machine guns. Those who cross arescabs-there's no confusion here. Wesee the Brookside women lie down in thestreet to stop the gun-toting thugs. Thecops drag them away, but they return.We see men and women defying courtinjunctions which would mean death tothe strike. They have no illusions thatthe cops who arrest them or the courtswho jail them are anything but anofficial extension of the company and itsgunmen.

Over and over again Kopple sees thesource of the strikers' courage in thememory of prior battles, in the class­struggle traditions of the coal mines ofHarlan. After numerous confrontationsand mass mobilizations, the miners arefaced with the decision to defendthemselves with arms against the guns ofthe union-busters and the cops. Work­ers self-defense is also a tradition inHarlan, and the climax of the film is

United Mine Workers Journal

Brookside miners' wives

surely when the strikers train their gunbarrels on a convoy of scabs trying toenter Highsplint Mine.

The central figures of the movie arethe miners' wives, whose BrooksideWomen's Club was in many ways thebackbone of the strike. Their grittydefiance of gun thugs and state trooperssustained the picket lines throughmonths of strikebreaking terror. For theBrookside women, as well as theirhusbands, the union meant survival.(See "Brookside Organized After 13­Month Strike," in Women and Revolu­tion No.7, Autumn 1974, for an on-the­spot report of the strike and the role ofthe Women's Club.)

The urgency of class solidarityundercut traditional racial and sexualprejudices. The powerful contradiction,pervasive throughout the U. S. proletari-

UMW strikers at Brookside mine.

at, between militant unionism andreactionary social attitudes is particu­larly intense in the isolated miningregions. The West Virginia textbook­burning campaigns are an example. Theappeal to god-fearing anti-communismhas traditionally been the bosses' rally­ing cry in the coal fields. In the 1930's itwas not only prosecution on charges of"criminal syndicalism" that defeated theCommunist Party (CP)-Ied NationalMiners Union in Harlan and Bellcounties, but also a hysterical scarecampaign against "Marxist atheism."

Today UMW bureaucrats play on thesame backwardness to harass militantoppositionists and try to purge "reds"from the union. Last September's MineWorkers convention turned into avirtual witchhunt as a result. In thisrespect Arnold Miller, Mike Trbovichand the rest of the bureaucrats follow inthe footsteps of their anti-communistpredecessors, from John L. Lewis on.

While the film is able to record theclass-struggle traditions in Harlan, itfails to explicitly deal with the politicalreality of the bureaucratized labormovement which dragged out theBrookside strike and made it into suchan agonizing struggle. As a politicalstatement, Harlan County, U.S.A.never goes beyond the militant union­ism it depicts. Acknowledging Miller'sbetrayals-and the miners' anger inresponse, as they burn his 1974contract-the film shows nothing of thepolitical roots of these betrayals.

When the movie was first shown atthe New York Film Festival last fall amilitant unionist commented in theensuing discussion that the story of thestrike showed the need to link the trade-

United Mine Workers Journal

union struggle to a fight for power-forsocialist revolution-or the limitedgains would again be taken away. Theaudience cheered, and one "old-timer"commented, "Well, I'm glad somebodyfinally said it."

In the film, "Jock" Yablonski, thelong-time UMW bureaucrat whofounded Miners for Democracy and waskilled by Boyle supporters, dies anuntarnished martyr; Miller is seen asjust one more personally corruptedbureaucrat. But in fact Miller's politicalbehavior was utterly predictable (andYablonski's would have been the samehad he lived). Unlike their fans invirtually every allegedly socialist groupin the U.S., the Spartacist Leaguewarned from the outset against illusionsin these darlings of the liberals (see"Labor Department Wins Mine Work­ers Election," in WV No. 17, March1973).

Miller's reliance on the capitalistgovernment-through its courts andLabor Department-to climb to powerin the UMW presaged his later collabo­ration with the class enemy in breakingwildcats, his stifling of the miners' rightto strike and his heavy-handed suppres­sion of internal opponents in the union.Today those who backed Miller­"critically" or otherwise-are fleeinglike rats from his sinking ship, as thetreachery of this "reform" bureaucrathas become obvious to all.

But there is one group of Millerenthusiasts which has remained loyal tothe bitter end. The Communist Party'sreview of Harlan County, U.S.A.attacks "Barbara Kopple's limitationsas a labor documentary filmmaker" ...for putting Miller in a bad light! This, it

says. aids the "unholy alliance" of pro­Boyle forces "skilled at taking advan­tage of the disruptive attacks on Millerby some of the so-called 'leftist' sectsoperating among the miners" (DailyWorld, 2 November 1976).

The Daily World complains that, "Aspresented in the film, the UMW presi­dent is apparently turning out to be justone more labor bureaucrat. Actually inthe real miners' world, it's a differentsituation." In the spirit of the Stalinists'"documentary films" of the RussianRevolution that "edited out" the role ofLeon Trotsky. the CP would prefer a"documentary" about the coal miners inwhich Arnold Miller is not seen as asellout. The problem is, Kopple'scamera and microphones recorded whatUMW miners thought of Miller's selloutcontract; they reflected the fact that themembership struck for a month beforehe could shove it down their throats.That's what the Daily World doesn'twant to see on film.

Kopple has limitations, but they arenot that she shows what the angryminers thought of Miller's sellout.Unfortunately, the film's indictment ofthe UMW leaders is only implicit andincomplete. The director sees the strikethrough the eyes of the most militantminers in the area, who were frustratedby Miller's betrayals yet had no strategyto defeat them. Toward the end of thefilm one sees the Harlan miners trying tograpple with the Miller bureaucracy;there are arguments, a young minertalks of the need to continue thestruggle. Here one hopes for an analysisof the role of the union bureaucracy, acall for constructing a class-struggleopposition in the UMW against all thelabor fakers and an explanation of theneed for a political struggle by theworking class against the parties andstate of big business. Instead there is anemptiness, at best platitudes of the kindthat one can find in endless stories aboutHarlan in the pages of the CommunistLabor Party's People's Trihune.

The strike is finally won-after ayoung miner is murdered, shot in theface-through the mobilization of120,000 miners in a five-day "memorialperiod" which shut down every UMW­organized mine in the country. Asubsequent NLRB representation elec­tion was lost at Highsplint Mine andMiller agreed that Brookside would beexempted in any contract strike later inthe year. Above all, the necessarysupport-a nationwide coal strike­deliberately withheld by UMW leadersfor months, could have won the strike inshort order at the onset. The "reformer"Miller, however, was committed not toclass struggle but to accommodationwith the coal bosses.

For many in the movie theateraudience, Harlan County, U.S.A. mustseem a curious historical oddity. Notonly bloody Harlan of 1931 but Harlanof 1974 must seem like ancient history,fighting labor traditions of days goneby. For the labor fakers-who havecorrupted these traditions as much asthey can, instituting the "informational"picket line, the "productivity clause,"the no-strike agreement-this film mustcause them to shudder in fearfulrecognition of the class militancy whichbuilt the unions they now lord over andwhich will one day drive them out oftheir cushy positions.

Harlan County, U.S.A. shows thatthe basis for class struggle is rooted deepin the capitalist mode of productionitself. The old-timers recall the bloodybattles fought a generation ago ineastern Kentucky, only to be foughtagain when the mine bosses drove theunion out. But if today's militant youngminers are to go forward they must gobeyond the limits of labor reformismand the tenuous victories of defensivebattles. It is through the fight to throwout the Abels and Sadlowskis, theBoyles and the Millers that the workerswill recover their militant traditions,forge a class-struggle leadership and goon to make the revolutionary history ofthe future.•

WV SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

Page 3: Special Supplement W'RKERS VANtiUARD

Despite NLRB ruling pickets legal, pollee escort scabs Into mine.

Bloody Harlan OnceAgain ...major coal producers to put pressure onthe union's adversary in Harlan, theDuke Power Company. As a result ofthe "energy crisis" steel companies arenow down to a four- to nine-day supplyof coal. Consequently even a short coalwork stoppage could have powerfulconsequences. But Miller is not seekingto mobilize the union's strength to winthe Brookside strike and immediatelyextend the victory through a massiveorganizing drive in Kentucky andTennessee. Rather he wants to induceDuke Power to negotiate. through a"judicious" display of power, emphasizeto the Bituminous Coal OperatorsAssociation the UMW's favorablebargaining position and perhaps allowmutinous miners to blow off steam in alimited. legal walkout.

A History of Successful Union­Busting

The struggle at Broohide began in1965 when Harlan Collieries, owner ofthe mine, decided not to renew theUMW contract. A long strike ensued,marked by considerable violence, withthe company eventually succeeding indriving out the union due to thetreacherous misleadership of theUMW's gangster president, TonyBoyle. In July 1970 the Duke PowerCompany, through its subsidiary East­over Mining Company, bought theBrookside mine. (Around the same timeDuke also purchased the nearby High­splint mine and the Arjay mine in BellCounty.)

Only five days later, while the UMWwas in the process of an election carddrive, the new management abruptlysigned a sweetheart contract with thebogus "Southern Labor Union," acompany scab-herding outfit. Naturallythe contract was never voted on by the"membership." The wages provided by

the "SLU" contract were as low as $1.89per hour for some workers, and therewere no health and safety provisionswhatsoever.

Not until 1970 were Brookside minersable to vote in a secret-ballot electionconducted by the National LaborRelations Board, for their union repres­entation. When they finally got a chancethey voted down the "SLU" and selectedthe United Mine Workers as theirbargaining agent by a 113-55 margin.

The key issue in the Brookside strikeis the miners' right to be represented by alegitimate union, not the company-front"SLU." Also in dispute is the need for a

APRIL 1977

safety committee elected by the workersand adequate hospital insurance tocover sickness and injuries. (Both areroutine provisions of the contract in1,300 UMW-organized mines.) In thestandard Mine Workers' contract, aunion safety committee has the power toclose down the mine, any part of themine, or any particular piece of machin­ery it determines to be immediatelydangerous to life or limb.

However, if this occurs, miners arelaid off without pay until the danger isfixed. Also, the UMW contract permitsmine operators to remove membersfrom the elected safety committees if anoutside arbitrator . decides that their

actions are "arbitrary or capricious." Inactual fact, the safety provisions of thecontract are almost never used. Millerprefers to rely on the Nixon-appointed,coal operator-dominated Interior De­partment instead.

The second major issue is thenecessity of real hospitalization cover­age. Under the SLU "contract," Brook­side miners paid one dollar a week intothe union welfare fund. This fundtotaled only $10,000 per year, a pitifulsum inadequate to cover major illness orinjury among the miners. Thus mosthospitals did not accept the SLU card.In comparison, the UMW contract

requires coal operators to pay a "roy­alty" of 75 cents per ton to finance thehealth, hospitalization and retirementbenefits of the miners. At Brookside thiswould amount to approximately$400,000 per year for the 180 miners andtheir families.

Wages have not been a main factor inthe strike, as SLU members are nowpaid at rates similar to those of theUMW. However, portal-to-portal pay,standard in the UMW contract, is amajor demand. At present, Brooksideminers are forced to travel more thanone hour from the time they enter themine until they reach the coalface-allwithout pay. During this route they are

Minersmarch atHarlan,KentuckyinAugust,1974.

forced to crawl over one third of a mileon their hands and knees. The sameapplies at the end of the shift.

Until recently picketing has contin­ued at Brookside around the clock, withEastover Mining making several at­tempts to recruit strikebreakers andresume production. However, the strik­ers, greatly aided by women from theBrookside Women's Club, have success­fully prevented scabs from entering themine. On the other hand, the strike hasbeen unable to prevent Duke Powerfrom obtaining the coal it needs for itsgenerating stations in North Carolina.Duke, with total assets of $2.5 billion, is

one of the nation's largest purchasers ofcoal. While its reserves have reportedlybeen cut from a normal70-day supply toa 40-day level as the result of the strikeand defaulting by commercial suppliers,Duke still claims to have available coalstocks in excess of those held by theTennessee Valley Authority, the na­tion's largest utility.

Nineteenth-Century Conditions

Conditions in the mines and thedilapidated housing of many of theworkers reflect the inct:edibly depressedconditions of Appalachia. Brooksideminers live in the company-ownedminers camp only because they areunable to afford or find anything better.Only three of the 30 houses in the campeven have indoor plumbing. Moreover,a report from the Harlan County HealthDepartment in October of last yearrevealed that the drinking water at theBookside coal camp is "highly contami­nated" with fecal bacteria. The coliformcount is 24, almost five times the highestpermissible "safe" level.

Conditions in the mines are no better.Federal mine inspectors report numer­ous safety violations. In Brookside No.3 mine proper weekly examinations forhazardous conditions cannot even becarried out because of water accumula­tions of 18 inches or more in fourdifferent parts of the mine. Federalstatistics show that the Brooksideoperation had a "disabling injury rate"three times the national average in 1971.

There has been a determined com­pany campaign to crush the strike andthe union from the very beginning,although the bosses' violence has beenstepped up lately. Early in July a 66­year-old retired miner was shot twice bya Duke security guard while walking alegal picket line. The company openlypaid the bail for the gunman's release. Aweek later another miner was shot in theleg while picketing. On one occasion lastOctober, three Brookside miners rid'mgin a pickup truck, including some of theleading union militants, were shot at bya Duke-employed strikebreaker using ahigh-powered rifle. The bullet missedone of the strikers by two or threeinches. The man who did the shootingwas later promoted to foreman atanother of Duke's mines.

The union's expose of attempts tobribe leading union militants has beeneffectively used to discredit the com­pany before public opinion. The UMWhas obtained documented proof of anattempt to break the strike by buying offtwo strike leaders, who in turn weresupposed to convince other men to goback to work. The strikers, armed withtape recorders concealed in their clo­thing, recorded the conversations of thebribery attempt. In addition, photo­graphs of the meeting were taken withtelephoto lens showing money beinghanded over to the strikers.

Local courts are naturally rigged infavor of the company. An initialrestraining order limited pickets atBrookside to two. However, rather thanhave union picketers arrested, womenfrom the Brookside Women's Clubmarched on the picket line, placingthemselves in front of entering vehiclesand successfully prevttlting scabs fromentering. When a jury was convened inOctober to hear charges that these unionsupporters had violated the anti­picketing injunction, it appeared thatthe accused would be acquitted. Instead,Judge Byrd Hogg, a mine ownerhimself, summarily dismissed the jury!Hogg proceeded to fine .the women,retired miners and strikers $500 each,plus imposing a six-month suspendedsentence. When they refused to pay thefine, the women were jailed. Theybrought their children to jail with themrather than leave them at home alone.

Intervention of the BourgeoisState

The first principle of class-struggletrade-union policies is independence of

continued on next page

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political, the SL emphasizes that thestruggle for a new militant leadership inthe unions is fundamentally 'politicaland cannot be separated from buildingthe Trotskyist vanguard party, whichmust centralize and lead forward theentire working class to a lasting victoryover the capitalist system ofexploitation.•

harmed, coal operators would certainlybe more inclined to negotiate.) Insteadof reliance on pro-company governmentbureaucrats to correct safety violations,militants must demand that the UMWshut down production in dangerousmines.

Miners' problems are no differentthan those facing the rest of U.S.workers and, moreover, even with amilitant UMW leadership they couldnot hope to achieve lasting gainswithout a generalized working-classupsurge against capitalism. Thus in theface of runaway inflation and mountingunemployment it is necessary to call fora full cost-of-living escalator (slidingscale of wages) and a shorter workweekwith no loss in pay-make the bossespay for the economic crisis. And againstthe union leaders' support for the twinparties of capital and impeachment ofNixon (i.e., put Ford in the WhiteHouse), militants must call for immedi­ate elections and a labor candidateopposed to both Democrats andRepublicans.

How can the ranks of labor be won toa program of working-class indepen­dence? About this there are widedivergences among ostensibly socialistgroups. The vast majority of the U.S.left has repeatedly demonstrated itsinstinct for tailing after whatever ispopular. In the case of the UMW, thismeans giving "critical support" toMiller, despite his use of the capitalistcourts and Labor Department againstthe union. What these tailists got wasMiller's subsequent campaign to sup­press wildcats and enforce the Boylecontract.

As opposed to these various reformistand centrist tailists, the SpartacistLeague calls for the construction ofna tional class-stuggle opposition cau­cuses in the union, based on a fullprogram of transitional demands, whichseek to defeat (and not merely pressure)the pro-company bureaucracy. Similar­ly, while many left groups seek to avoidany demands which are even remotely

opinion, Miller has consistentlypreached a Chavez-like pacifism in theface of blatant company and policeviolence. And, rather than industrialaction to achieve victory for the Brook­side miners, the UMW strategy has beento talk with the governor and organizean impotent consumer protest cam­paign against Duke Power's request foran electricity rate increase in NorthCarolina as a substitute for such action.

What is needed is a militant policy tounite the tremendous potential power ofthe labor movement in support of theHarlan strikers. The way to prepare forbituminous coal negotiations in the fallis not to demonstrate "reasonableness"(i.e., capitulation) now, but rather tocall an immediate nationwide coal striketo achieve victory for the Brooksidestrikers and launch a massive organizingdrive in non-union Southern coal fields.To answer the unrestrained police andcompany vi.olence against the strikers, aclass-struggle union leadership wouldorganize systematic armed defense ofthe picket lines and occupation of themines. (If they were concerned lest theirmines and expensive equipment be

Brooksidewomen ledpicketing inHarlan Countyin October1974.

Copsarreststrikers.

the workers from the bosses and theirstate. Thus the Spartacist League,unlike most of the ostensibly socialistleft, gave no support to Arnold Miller inhis campaign for the UMW presidency.Hiding behind the facade of the "Minersfor Democracy," an opposition caucusthat was disbanded as soon as Miller,Trbovich and their buddies gainedcontrol of union patronage, the basicthrust of Miller's campaign was to relyon the supposedly "neutral" LaborDepartment and bourgeois courts (see"Labor Department Wins Mine Work­ers' Election," WVNo. 17, March 1973).

The 1972 elections were broughtabout because of a successful court suitagainst the union mounted by liberallawyer Joseph Rauh. With Boylethoroughly discredited and widelydespised, the Nixon government wasglad to step in to ensure that "reformers"like Miller would take over, therebyforestalling the possible emergence of amilitant left-wing opposition in theunion. From the Taft-Hartley Act in thelate 1940's, to the Landrum-Griffin Actand Robert Kennedy's union-busting"investigation" of the Teamsters in the1950's, to Labor Department interven­tion in UMW elections and the currentspate of government "equal opportuni­ties" court suits against the unions,intervention by the capitalist state intothe internal affairs of the unions alwaysserves to weaken the labor movement.

Bloody Harlan OnceAgain ...

A Class-Struggle Program forMiners' Victory

After winning the 1972 UMW elec­tion with the aid of the Nixon govern­ment, Miller spent the next monthssending his lieutenants through the coalfields to put down a wave of wildcatsover dangerous working conditions.Rely on government safety inspectors,the miners were told, and abide by theBoyle contract until we can negotiate anew one. When gasoline-starved WestVirginia mine workers walked out thisspring to protest an arbitrary staterationing law, UMW leaders at firstignored this "illegal" strike, then told themen to go back to work.

The reform UMW leadership is sosubservient to bourgeois public opinion,trying desperately to appear as "respon­sible labor statesmen," that it has noteven made use of weapons which werelegally available to it. Thus the MineWorkers is one of the few U.S. tradeunions to have negotiated contractualprovisions for union safety committeesable to shut down production in the faceof dangerous working conditions. Butwhen does the UMW ever utilize thispower? Another example: even thoughthe NLRB ruled last fall that picketingat Highsplint mine was legal, not untilJuly did the union attempt to carry outsuch picketing. In the meantime, High­splint mine was delivering 3,500 tons ofcoal daily to Duke Power!

In addition to subservience to bour­geois legality and bourgeois public

WV SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT APRIL 1977


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