Vol. 71/No. 32      September 3, 2007

The mood at the gathering, where relatives of the miners addressed several hundred people, was one of anger at the mine owners and the federal mine safety agency.

Over the past two weeks supporters of the Militant have fanned out through the coal-mining communities of Price, Huntington, Orangeville, Helper, Wellington, East Carbon, Carbonville, and Sunnyside to join in the discussions taking place among miners and other working people.

A miner coming off shift at the unionized Consol mine near Emery said, “You’ve got it right there!” when he saw the Militant headline, “Safety is a union question! No miner has to die!”

Going door to door in East Carbon, 20 miles east of here, a team got a good response to the Militant’s accurate reporting and working-class viewpoint. “Many of the people we met were miners, retired miners, and their wives,” reported team captain Frank Forrestal.

“The idea of fighting for safety in the mines struck a chord with them,” Forrestal said. Some had worked at the now-closed Kaiser mine in nearby Sunnyside, while others work at the West Ridge mine, one of three owned by Murray Energy Corp.

In a small trailer park in Wellington, we sat in the shade with miners and their wives. A worker who had been employed at one Murray mines and is now a coal hauler told us of his experience trying to organize fellow farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley when he lived in California.

At the post office in Price, Militant supporters have set up tables on several occasions. We encountered differing reactions. “Now is not the time for that,” one woman told us the day after three rescue crew workers were killed at the Crandall Canyon mine. On the other hand, many people expressed anger and frustration at the deaths and welcomed the Militant.

In a Huntington trailer park Vanessa Justesen, 29, who is married to a miner who left a Murray mine, said, “I feel a lot safer sending my husband out the door now that he works in a union mine.”

One team went door to door with the Militant in Hyrum, Utah, in a working-class, mostly Latino neighborhood near the Swift meatpacking plant where immigration police have carried out two raids since last December.

The team talked to a garment worker, a construction worker, and several families with relatives who work at Swift plant. Discussions ranged from the fight for safety in the mines to how to defend immigrant workers from raids and deportations.

So far supporters of the paper have sold 100 subscriptions in the Price-Huntington area. Another 10 subscriptions have been sold in other mining areas as teams here spread out. In all, 350 copies of the Militant have been sold.
 

Workers in the area bought 70 copies of the paper and seven subscriptions.

After a discussion about mine safety and the need for unions at a local bar, the bartender took a stack of special Militant supplements to distribute to patrons.

We sold the Militant at the entrance to the mine and power plant. At the evening shift change, cars started pulling up in a driveway and a number of miners and power plant workers came out to talk to us.

One worker asked, “Where is that paper? I heard a lot about it.” Another said, “We’re going to put it up in the dinner hole and make sure the word gets out.”
 

Many miners waved and gave us thumbs-up, when they saw our signs, “Read the Militant, get the truth about Utah mine disasters,” and “Oppose attacks on immigrant workers.” A truck driver told us, “I used to work for Murray; he screwed us at North American, at Maple Creek, at Century, at Powhatan. We know him here.”

As West Virginia University opened its fall session, the team sold 9 subs and 50 copies of the Militant. Twenty students signed up for more information on the Young Socialists. YS member Ben Joyce said, “Many students were incredibly receptive to the need to organize and use unions to prevent mine disasters like the one in Utah.” The school newspaper interviewed Joyce about the Young Socialists and the Militant.  
 
 
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