Workers, youth, eco-activists unite to save Blair Mountain
Published Jun 15, 2011 8:51 PM
By Jeremy B.
Blair Mountain, W. Va.
On June 11 a multinational crowd of about 1,200 workers, students and
environmental activists held a rally and march in Logan County, W. Va., to
commemorate the largest armed conflict in U.S. labor history, the 1921 Battle
at Blair Mountain. The rally and march wrapped up a week-long, 50-mile march.
According to organizers, roughly 600 people marched throughout the week, while
an additional 600 people showed up for Saturday events. A range of groups
endorsed the march and rally, including Appalachia Rising, Sierra Club,
Industrial Workers of the World, United Electrical Workers Local 170, and
United Mine Workers Local 1440.
In late August 1921, miners were fed up with the miserable conditions in the
mines, as well as with the violent harassment from the criminal coal companies
and their hired goons, better known in miners’ terms as “gun
thugs.” So they organized a march to liberate the coal fields throughout
southern West Virginia. To repel the gun thugs, the miners marched with their
own guns.
To identify themselves as pro-union, the marching miners wore red bandannas
around their necks. When the miners reached Logan County, they were confronted
by a vehemently anti-union and violently pro-company sheriff named Don Chafin.
Chafin ordered his deputies to wear white scarves to distinguish themselves as
the armed enemy of the miners.
A gunfight broke out that lasted five days. During that time, Chafin hired
private planes to drop homemade bombs on the miners. In the midst of the
battle, the federal government intervened. Many, if not most, of the miners
were World War I veterans and refused to shoot at U.S. troops the way they did
the company thugs and even the sheriff’s deputies. As a result, the
miners surrendered; ultimately their fight ended in defeat.
Regardless of how the Battle of Blair Mountain ended, it is an important part
of workers’ history that the U.S. bourgeoisie has always tried to hide.
It is an uprising hardly ever mentioned in history books or textbooks.
Today, much of the land where the battle took place is privately owned by two,
predominantly non-union coal companies, Arch Coal and Alpha Natural
Resources.The latter recently bought Massey Energy, the murderous outfit
responsible for the Upper Big Branch disaster in 2010. The two coal companies
want to turn Blair Mountain into a mountain-top removal site. MTR is a
procedure used to extract coal that is just as ecologically devastating as
hydraulic fracturing. “Fracking” is currently being conducted by
Big Oil in New York, Pennsylvania and now northern West Virginia.
The week-long march and rally united labor and eco-activists around one goal:
to preserve Blair Mountain as a historical landmark, not to be blown to bits by
MTR.
Ray Greenwood, UE Local 170, Department of Health and Human Resources chapter
president, stated, “Ninety years after the Battle of Blair Mountain, we
need to honor the sacrifices of the miners who fought for their rights then as
we fight for our rights today, especially for the right to collectively
bargain. We need to carry on their militant tradition if we want our class to
win.”
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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