The article and subsequent forum were the first major publicity for the March 15–April 15 walk by widows of coal miners who are demanding full federal black lung compensation for miners and their spouses. The widows' walk is sponsored by the National Black Lung Association, the United Mine Workers of America, and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalitions.

Widows are planning to kick off the action March 15 in Charleston, West Virginia. They will hold rallies in Fairmont and Morgantown, West Virginia, and other cities along the way.

The forum was widely publicized in the area, including with calendar notices in four local newspapers. Flyers were posted up in local mini-marts and grocery stores.

Jason Alessio, a member of UMWA Local 1984 and a member of the Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists, was the featured speaker at the meeting.

"As the Bush administration is proposing cuts in Social Security, Medicare and other government-funded entitlements, and increasing funding to 'homeland defense' and the military budget," Alessio said, "coal miners' widows are organizing a walk from the West Virginia coal fields to Washington, D.C., demanding black lung benefits."

The month-long action, he said, is a good example of how working people "can make history and transform the future--something we never learn in school or in any textbooks."

In addition to the widows' walk, the forum discussed the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that imperils the 1992 Coal Act and benefits for retired miners; proposed cuts to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA); and the attacks on mine safety that have led to an increase in the number of miners killed in the last several years. These issues have received no news coverage in western Colorado, a major coal mining region of the United States.

Alessio described the social movement that developed in the coalfields in the 1960s and 1970s in the fight for black lung benefits, mine safety, and health care.

"In 1968 the Black Lung Association (BLA) was born in southern West Virginia," he said. "The BLA led some of the most important wildcat strikes in 1969, forcing the government to provide black lung benefits. At the height of the struggle, more than 40,000 miners from West Virginia alone were out on strike. Their motto was, 'No Law, No Coal.'

"The black lung strike," the socialist said, "was instrumental in passing the federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. This established in law that black lung is an occupational disease and forced the government to mandate inspections of dust concentration levels in coal mines for the first time."

Participants in the meeting discussed why it is important for coal miners and other workers to support the demand by the widows for federal black lung compensation in any way they can. Linda Chapman, a leader of the walk, sent a statement to the forum (see below).

"People like Linda Chapman see themselves not as victims but as fighters," Alessio said. "In her message to this meeting she said, 'I knew something had to be done.'" With this kind of determination and fighting spirit, said the socialist, "working people are making history."
 
 
Related articles:
'We will not stop until the laws are changed'
Socialists sell 'Militant' to miners in Colorado  
 
 
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