The company will also present its case for proceeding to trial on its charges of alleged “defamation” by these publications. C.W. Mining and the so-called International Association of United Workers Union (IAUWU), which workers describe as a company union, have charged all three newspapers with defamation for reporting on what the Co-Op miners have said and done in their 20-month-long fight to win representation by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA).

The court has scheduled a second hearing on August 1 to hear similar motions to dismiss filed by the UMWA, 16 individual Co-Op miners, and other labor organizations and individuals who have supported the miners in their struggle for a union. C.W. Mining has charged these defendants with unfair labor practices, as well as defamation.

It is not known yet whether the judge will rule on all the motions to dismiss after the second hearing or decide first on the requests by the newspapers to throw out the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, supporters of the Militant have been pressing ahead to win endorsements and contributions to the Militant Fighting Fund, which was set up last year to help the Militant and Socialist Workers Party wage a defense campaign in this case. The plaintiffs have charged the SWP with defamation too on the false claim that the party owns and controls the Militant.

New endorsements by prominent individuals in the labor movement, Black struggle, civil liberties groups, churches, and college campuses show that support for this fight to defend free speech and freedom of the press is expanding.

“The notion that a corporation has been ‘defamed’ merely because the press decides to report on a labor dispute between the corporation and its workers, and include statements made by either side to the dispute, warps the legal concept of ‘defamation’ beyond recognition,” reads a statement issued May 11 by James Lafferty, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. “If freedom of the press still means anything in this country surely it means that a political party and a newspaper, (in this case, The Militant), as well as any other newspaper reporting on a labor dispute, is free to do so without the threat of having to defend a costly, frivolous lawsuit.

“The Militant newspaper is obviously right to characterize the corporation’s lawsuit as a naked attempt to silence, or at least alter, the way in which the press are covering the dispute. We salute The Militant for its statement that it, ‘will not be intimidated or censored from covering this fight.’ Knowing The Militant newspaper as I do, I would have expected no less.”

Such statements, which are beginning to multiply across the United States, help counter the mine bosses’ attempts to enlist the courts in thwarting the union-organizing fight at the Co-Op mine, and chill freedom of the press to report the miners’ side of the story.

Dee Rowland of the Peace and Justice Commission of the Catholic Diocese in Salt Lake City is another recent endorser of the Militant Fighting Fund. Rowland, a long-time backer of the Co-Op miners’ union-organizing struggle, was instrumental in mobilizing support for the miners among Catholics here. She helped coordinate a visit by Bishop George Niederauer to the Co-Op miners’ picket line in May 2004.

Niederauer’s visit, which received extensive publicity in the local media, was a significant boost to the miners’ morale. The bishop told the miners he backed their struggle and would continue to campaign on their behalf. As a result of the bishop’s actions he was included in the initial list of defendants in the C.W. Mining suit. When C.W. Mining and the IAUWU amended their complaint in December 2004, the coal bosses dropped Catholic Church defendants in an attempt to divide supporters of the Co-Op miners and dampen backing for their struggle by the church.

Hans Ehrbar, professor of economics at the University of Utah and another early defendant in the C.W. Mining lawsuit, endorsed the Militant Fighting Fund campaign as well. Ehrbar was sued for encouraging his students to write about the labor dispute at the Co-Op mine. On April 20, Judge Benson agreed to Ehrbar’s motion to dismiss charges against him because C.W. Mining attorneys had failed to serve him with court papers as required by law.

“I was teaching a class on Marxist economics,” Ehrbar told the Militant, “and I decided to give students the option of writing about labor struggles today. To encourage this I put up a web site with links to articles written about the Co-Op miners’ fight. For that I was sued for defamation.”

Ehrbar said he would be putting his web site back up next semester and again encourage students to get interested in the miners’ fight for the union at the Co-Op mine. He also made a contribution of $180 to help with the Militant’s defense campaign.

Militant supporters are campaigning to raise tens of thousands of dollars through the Militant Fighting Fund to pay for mounting legal and publicity expenses. Fund-raising is going hand-in-hand with getting new endorsers.

In Birmingham, Alabama, supporters of the Militant signed up Colonel Stone Johnson as such an endorser. Johnson, who is a member of the Birmingham chapter of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, is a veteran of the civil rights struggles in the South.

Shirley Hyche, a well-known miner and member of UMWA Local 2368 from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, endorsed as well.
 
 
Related articles:
Fighting for union, Utah miners picket Co-Op mine
Protest bosses’ effort to bring back fired workers without union  
 
 
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