Job disputes in the mines are often life-and-death questions of safety. But the federal courts see fit to act only when it is the mineowners seeking fines and injunctions against the workers.

The UMWA national leadership did not back the strike and ordered the miners back to work. The nationwide strike grew out of a dispute between the mineowners and Local 1759 at Cabin Creek, West Virginia. The local had demanded that a union member fill a new job monitoring safety telephones and electrical controls outside the mine. That phone would be the underground miners' only link to the outside in case of an emergency. The Cedar Coal Company wanted to hire a supervisor. A federal arbitrator ruled that the job had to go to a unionist, but the company ignored the decision.

When the UMWA local tried on June 23 to get a court order forcing Cedar Coal to abide by the arbitrator's ruling, federal judges in Charleston said they were too busy to hear the case. The next day Local 1759 struck.  
 
August 13, 1951
Events last week made it increasingly clear that Washington does not want a cease-fire in Korea. The U.S. negotiators have been making every effort to blow the cease-fire conferences sky-high, and to do it in such a way that the blame will fall on the Chinese and North Korean authorities.

General Ridgway and the U.S. Far East Command have broken off negotiations again, this time on the pretext that a squad of armed Chinese soldiers was seen in the vicinity of the conference site. The Chinese command made an extremely apologetic explanation, saying that this was a mistake, and that the responsible company commander would be disciplined, but Ridgway found even this unsatisfactory.

Plainly attempting to goad the Chinese and the North Koreans to break off the negotiations, Ridgway again refused to accept the apology. He asked the Chinese to submit a declaration which would virtually admit that they had sent troops into the area on purpose, placing the onus for any future break on themselves.

The fantastic exhibition of bad faith by U.S. negotiators makes it plainer than ever that U.S. imperialism would like to bust up the talks and continue the war. They are doing this because, short of armed conquest, they don't have a chance in the world to install a U.S. puppet government in Korea, or even any part of Korea. In addition, peace in Korea would remove the excuse for holding the Seventh Fleet in Chinese waters, American troops in Japan, and American naval and bombing bases all through the Far East.  
 
 
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