Participating in the meeting were miners from Colorado , anthracite miners from eastern Pennsylvania, and miners from southwestern Pennsylvania and from Alabama.

The meeting took note of recent advances by units of the party in the coalfields in orienting their activity to a broad array of working-class struggles and organizing regular sales of socialist books and newspapers at mines where socialists work and expanding door-to-door sales in nearby communities. Through these efforts the socialist coal miners are also fighting to get a number of workers and young people to the June 14–17 Active Workers Conference in Oberlin, Ohio, sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists.

A socialist coal miner from Colorado, David Bayer, explained, "We need to build on the things we have done; in this process, the Militant becomes part of strengthening the fights working people are involved in." Coming out of the meeting, socialist coal miners plan to anchor teams in the western coalfields and southern West Virginia to make their goals for the circulation campaign and get contacts to attend the active workers conference.

"Winning a broader hearing for revolutionary ideas is based on what is happening in coalfield communities," explained Frank Forrestal, a member of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Local 1248 and an underground miner in southwestern Pennsylvania, in a report to open the meeting. He pointed out there is "more happening, more hiring, more organizing by the UMWA. There are also more protests against environmental disasters and some strikes taking place in coalfield communities like the recent Hollander strike by garment workers." We are seeing "more groups of workers ready to fight and with that mood are open to socialist ideas." Socialist coal miners from eastern Pennsylvania attending the meeting pointed to the confidence of Hollander garment workers from Frackville, in the heart of the anthracite mining region, as they returned to work after their strike, and the receptiveness among many of them to the Militant newspaper.

Coal miner Mary Reston from Colorado highlighted the work being done by the SWP organizing committee established in the western coalfields. Socialist workers there have reached out to uranium miners and their families fighting government and capitalist indifference to the conditions many of them face after years of mining this radioactive substance, discussing with them what sort of government working people need. Socialists in Colorado have also met with meat packers and won new subscribers to Perspectiva Mundial, and participated with students helping to get out the truth about the Cuban Revolution, as well as stepping up efforts to meet coal miners at portals and through door-to-door efforts. In the past six months they have sent a number of teams to Wyoming and Arizona to renew contacts with UMWA members who were on strike there last year.

In eastern Pennsylvania, anthracite miner Beth Francis explained that socialist workers moved deeper into the coalfields there and as a result found themselves more a part of the working-class resistance, linking up with garment workers who went out on strike at Hollander and also winning miners to read the Militant.

The meeting of socialists working in the mines took up some of the changes taking place in the coal industry. With the price of coal rising rapidly in the last several months, there has been increased hiring in the mines. Forrestal pointed to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal noting that this job growth "has emboldened miners." The Journal reported one Kentucky coal boss as complaining, "If they don’t like the way you talk to them or don’t like the work you give them, then they up and leave." In the last year, the number of miners working in Kentucky has grown by more than 1,000.

This mood has been reflected in other ways, such as renewed activity around union organizing and discussions on how miners can effectively fight for their rights. A recent industry newsletter had a headline saying, "Wild market gives the UMWA stronger hand."

Miners from the eastern and western coalfields discussed at the meeting how at the same time as there is a growth in hiring, the coal bosses continue to drive on production, and through the increased use of contractors, attempt to divide workers and increase their profits. Participants reported on one nonunion mine in Colorado where workers can be hired on as permanent, temporary, or work for a contractor--all with different wage and benefit levels.

This production drive also results in worsening safety conditions on the job. Just prior to the meeting, the eighth mining fatality for the year occurred at an Illinois mine where one of the miners at the meeting had previously worked.

The meeting also discussed the Bush administration’s recent appointment of David Lauriski to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). An article in Coal Age, an industry magazine, noted that Lauriski was the safety director at the Wilberg mine in Utah at the time of the 1984 disaster that claimed 26 lives. Miners at the meeting pointed out that this was the worst disaster in 30 years.

Meeting participants discussed how the UMWA will become stronger as a result of the changing composition of the workforce, with many young miners getting jobs and the coal bosses looking to bring immigrant workers from Mexico, Russia, and the Ukraine into the mines. One newspaper article quoted at the meeting reported on a group of workers from Honduras who had recently taken coal mine training in eastern Kentucky.

"Immigrant workers beginning to get mining jobs is part of the changing face of the working class in this country," Forrestal said, "which strengthens the entire working class." In Colorado, which is in the heart of the western coalfields, the population has grown by 30 percent in the last 10 years and the Hispanic population has grown by more than 70 percent. A quarter of the population there is under 18 years old.

The meeting also began a discussion around how communist workers should respond to the debate that is opening up on the energy plans of the capitalists--the push for nuclear power, expansion of oil drilling, and coal mining. Forrestal explained that these questions "have to be approached from the point of view of a working-class leadership that is serious about the development of the whole world and how to do that safely--for the benefit of humanity not profits for the capitalists."

A number of participants in the meeting noted that many union officials are standing behind Washington’s energy policies, no matter how detrimental for the working people, to get some crumbs of jobs from the capitalists’ table. They pointed to the Machinists union’s stance in support of Washington’s plan to develop and deploy a missile defense system, and the UMWA leadership’s response that President George Bush’s energy policy is "welcome news," as examples of this. These positions taken by the union officialdom reflect narrow interests and weaken the unions.

Socialist coal miners noted that many mining communities are fighting the effects of a number of environmental disasters--from gas spills in the anthracite region to mountain top removal mining in West Virginia. One newspaper article described the situation this way: Pennsylvania "has glorious mountains, picturesque farms--and about 40 percent of the country’s coal-land disaster areas. Vast stretches of its northeastern coalfields look like a moonscape. Streams carrying iron oxide flow a bright orange."

Participants at the meeting pointed out one of the positive sides of the recent action organized by the United Mine Workers in southern West Virginia was its focus against union-busting coal operator A.T. Massey that put the spotlight on Massey’s record of environmental destruction and its antiunion stance.

The socialist coal miners also discussed ways to financially strengthen the work of the communist movement. The meeting set a goal of doubling the number of socialist miners pledging more than $50 a week, and increasing by two the number of those pledging more than $75 a week. One coal miner is already in the over $100 a week club.

Tony Lane is a member of United Mine Workers of America Local 1248 in southwestern Pennsylvania.  
 
 
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