BY LAURA ANDERSON AND ELI GREEN
KAYENTA, Arizona - We left Los Angeles January 5 and headed
out to the Black Mesa coal mining complex here along with
Manuel González, a Young Socialists member from Santa Cruz,
California. This was the third trip by Militant supporters to
this area since socialist workers decided to focus our energies
on political work among coal miners, meatpackers, and garment
workers (see article on page 8). The trip was a success in
beginning the kind of consistent work needed to develop and
maintain contacts with workers in this coal mining area.
The complex consists of two large mines, Black Mesa and Kayenta, located in the heart of the Navajo Nation, making them unique. Most of the workers are Navajo and the mines function under the jurisdiction of the tribal government. The private companies running the mines, have to agree to carry out affirmative action in hiring of Navajo miners, and institute reclamation of the land if they want to mine in the area.
The main headlines in the Militant issue we were selling were "U.S. hands off Iraq!" and "Illinois miners are stronger from strike." Drawing lessons from the strike of the United Mine Workers of America at Freeman United Coal was a major theme in our discussions.
We arrived at Black Mesa Complex at 6:30 a.m. on a brisk desert morning. We held up a sign that said, "Read the Militant" to encourage workers driving to and from work to stop. We sold outside the mine entrance for two hours and later returned for the second shift. The miners bought 15 copies of the Militants there. Many workers who did not stop acknowledged our presence with a friendly wave.
We also did an afternoon sale at the shopping center in Kayenta where we sold eight Militants. Some students at Dine College also bought a copy of the paper. They were happy to receive it and wanted to see if the school could buy a subscription.
Most workers noted that there had been some layoffs. They said there are about 750 workers at the Black Mesa mine, about 10-15 percent of whom are women. One worker noted that most of the women drive trucks at the mine, and said they were among the more recently hired workers.
The next day the team traveled to Gallup, New Mexico, visiting the University of New Mexico. Then we went to the main entrance of the McKinley Mine in Window Rock, Arizona, during the afternoon shift change. This is a vast complex of several surface coal mines. We sold four single copies of the Militant and two subscriptions to mine workers. There are 400 workers at the mine now, including about 100 hired over the last year. One worker said about 5 percent of the workers are women.
One of the workers who got a subscription pulled his truck to the side of the road and talked with the team for half an hour. He talked at length about the need to strengthen the union to help prepare for the new contract coming up in year 2000.