“With new motions to dismiss the case recently filed by the Militant, Salt Lake Tribune, and Deseret Morning News, a court hearing is expected early this fall,” said Norton Sandler, an organizer of the Militant Fighting Fund campaign. “For the next six to eight weeks, defenders of labor rights, free speech, and freedom of the press have an opportunity to reach out broadly in the trade union movement and ask for support.”

The newest endorser of the Militant Fighting Fund is Ed Mayne, president of the Utah AFL-CIO who himself is a defendant in the Co-Op lawsuit. Mayne introduced the defense campaign at an executive board meeting of the Utah AFL-CIO last month and said he encouraged the union officials present “to support the miners, the UMWA, and the Militant.

C.W. Mining, owners of the Co-Op mine here, and its allied International Association of United Workers Union, are suing the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), 16 individual Co-Op miners, trade unions that have supported the miners, and newspapers that have covered the union-organizing struggle.

“Trade union locals, labor officials, and workers across the country who sign on as endorsers of the Militant Fighting Fund are doing so to give support to the miners and the UMWA in the nearly two-year-long battle at Co-Op,” said Sandler. “At the same time they are defending the right of a newspaper published in the interests of working people to cover what the miners and their supporters have to say about the struggle to win a union, and secure decent pay and working conditions.”

The Militant is a target in the C.W. Mining lawsuit because of its weekly coverage of this fight and its editorial support for the miners’ struggle. The coal bosses’ suit cites 75 Militant articles and editorials as “defamatory.”

Already, three union locals have endorsed the Militant Fighting Fund: International Longshore and Warehouse Local 10 in San Francisco; United Steel Workers Local 12-578 at the Flying J and Holly refineries near Salt Lake City; and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3800 in Minneapolis. The Toronto and York Regional Labor Council in Canada has also endorsed.

Those interested in the progress of the campaign can download the weekly updated endorser list on the Militant’s website, at www.themilitant.com.
 
 
Related articles:
Expand labor support for Militant Fighting Fund
World youth festival delegates back Utah miners’ fight for union  
 
 
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