The connections between the assault by the superwealthy U.S. ruling class on working people at home and abroad was graphically brought home to the socialist workers as they met shortly after U.S. and British imperialist forces began bombing Afghanistan and in the wake of an explosion at a nearby mine that killed 13 workers September 23.

Mine workers came to the meeting from Alabama, Pennsylvania, and western Colorado, where the SWP has four branches or organizing committees in the coalfield regions. Several belong to the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) while others are working in nonunion mines. The auto workers are members of the United Auto Workers (UAW).

Paul Mailhot, a national leader of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), gave the opening report at a joint session of miners and auto workers. The events since the September 11 attacks in Washington and New York don't "reveal anything new in world politics," he said.

Instead, the war drive and bombing of Afghanistan, combined with the assault on workers' rights at home, "are an acceleration of the trends" that have marked the deepening crisis of world capitalism since the 1987 stock market crash and the collapse of the regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe several years later. With ongoing tactical differences over how far and how fast to move, Congress and the administrations of Clinton and Bush the elder and younger have been pushing along the same lines for 15 years.

In a report to the socialist workers in the UMWA, Frank Forrestal, a member of UMWA Local 1248 in Pennsylvania, said the experiences of members of the SWP and Young Socialists in the coal mines and mining regions in the United States are "further verification of the political space, growing receptivity, and interest in a communist explanation of world politics when we reach out to the struggles. As the rulers crank up their assault against workers around the world we are becoming a part of a broader vanguard of workers who are searching for allies and methods to fight against the bosses' offensive," he said.  
 
Campaign against imperialism
Socialists who work together in the mines meet regularly, Forrestal said, and discuss how to be part of developments in the union and industry, what political questions to bring to co-workers, how to build upcoming political events or protest and strike actions on the job, and how to expand the number of workers reading the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, Pathfinder books, and New International. "Our challenge is to build political fractions and our success will be measured by how we respond to the ongoing changes in working-class politics. We often lag behind co-workers in recognizing political space on the job," he said. One indication of the potential has been the serious response by miners to Forrestal's socialist election campaign for mayor of Pittsburgh.

A UMWA miner from western Colorado said on the day Washington began bombing Afghanistan the company organized a "safety" meeting that was used to whip up support for the U.S. war. He said in spite of this he has been able to openly discuss what is behind the brutal military assault and why working people should not support it.

Top officials of the UMWA back Washington's war. The union's magazine, the Journal, called on all UMWA locals to participate in blood drives and fund collections, and for members to wear patriotic stickers. The magazine called for full support for President Bush.

The socialist workers at the meeting discussed a number of struggles they are involved in, from the fight in the coal mines to defend health and safety and the social movement around black lung benefits, to layoffs in the auto industries and other struggles that continue to break out here as the U.S. government has begun its war abroad.

Ilona Gersh, a member of the UAW in Detroit, said the auto bosses have already laid off 30,000 workers, with more in the works. As in the airline and other industries, the "bosses claim that the September 11 attack has sent a crisis through the industry," she said. "But the downturn in the auto industry, apparent long before September 11, is the product of the capitalist business cycle," Gersh noted.  
 
Health and safety on the job
"The death of 13 miners in an explosion at Jim Walter Resources Blue Creek Mine No. 5 in Brookwood, Alabama, September 23 was a result of the company turning a blind eye to warnings by miners of the unsafe conditions," said Forrestal. "Miners said that the company cut corners on roof support and rock dusting--crucial elements in maintaining safe working conditions in all underground mines--in their drive for increased profit rates."

Following the mine explosion, many of the miners placed full responsibility for the deaths on the company, which has no regard for the heath and safety of miners, said Bill Tyler, who works at a nonunion mine in the state. Socialists "visited miners in the area to discuss the disaster, and brought the Militant and Pathfinder along with us. Through these house visits we furthered our political relationships with miners that are in a fight right now."

Beth Francis, a miner at a nonunion company in eastern Pennsylvania, said, socialist workers there are "starting to gain experience and win the respect of co-workers." She was discussing the ways in which socialist miners are beginning to do political work in nonunion mines. She noted the importance of one-on-one political discussions that are open on a broad range of political questions.

Socialists who work at a Robert Murray-owned mine in Pennsylvania described the stepped-up battle over jobs, safety issues, and union rights. Murray, the largest independent coal operator in the United States, recently lost charges it had filed with the National Labor Relations Board against the union for taking an "illegal memorial day." Miners at the Powhatan No. 6 mine in Ohio and Maple Creek in Pennsylvania recently took two memorial days, which are traditionally taken to protest company assaults on union rights or safety violations, or serious injuries and deaths.

"The question of safety on the job is part of discussing the resistance to the war against the working class at home," said Tony Lane, who works at the Maple Creek mine. "Several times this year methane levels have hit 10 percent at the mine where I work, the most explosive range. This is a direct result of the drive for production and profits, which has led to more accidents."

Alice Kincaid, a coal miner from western Colorado, described the ongoing struggle with the bosses in that part of the country. "There are not just questions about methane gas, but also about coal dust, roof support, and the maintenance of belt lines where you can get 'hot rollers' that can cause fires."

At the same time as socialist miners met in Birmingham there was a national meeting of the Black Lung Association in Beckley, West Virginia. Other socialist workers from Pittsburgh, Alabama, and North Carolina participated in that event of some 80 people from six coal-mining states. Women whose husbands have died from black lung discussed organizing a march next year in southern West Virginia to defend benefits that miners afflicted with the disease and their spouses are supposed to receive from the government.  
 
Branches and organizing committees
The socialist coal miners and auto workers are also working to recruit workers and young people to the branches of the Socialist Workers Party and chapters of the Young Socialists in the areas where they live. One focus of their work has been getting the local branch and Pathfinder bookstore established within a workers district in their cities, reaching out to struggles in the area from a solid base of workers and youth who know, support, and look to the party and YS.

Branches also organize weekly sales of the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and Pathfinder books at plant gates, mine portals, and mills, which is something that greatly strengthens the political work of socialists employed in the mines and other industries.

Several participants talked about the progress that has been made along these lines since the last meeting of socialist coal miners when many of the participants had been hired recently and just beginning to do political work on the job. Miners from western Colorado talked about the impact that the portal sales of the Militant have had where they work.

Participants in both meetings discussed the importance of meeting the national goals in the subscription drive to the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and New International to miners and auto workers. Several pointed out how the drive is part of getting known as a socialist on the job.

Socialist coal miners also discussed, given their relatively higher wage levels, the importance of setting an example for financing the communist movement. Party members make a weekly contribution to the party based on their means, and the miners fraction discussed that socialists working in mines with union-scale wages join the "Over $50 Club" with their first paycheck. They set a goal of getting one more member of the national miners fraction to be in the "Over $100 Club" by December 1.

On the first evening of the two-day meeting, 30 people attended a Militant Labor Forum here featuring James Harris, a national leader of the SWP and a textile worker from Atlanta, who spoke on the U.S.-British war against Afghanistan.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home