Vol. 71/Supplement      August 2007

The July 4, 1931, issue championed a strike of coal miners in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio to expand the union in face of wage cuts and starvation conditions.

The Militant provided weekly coverage of the strikes led by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in 1977-78 and 1981.

It had prominent coverage of the 2003-2006 battle for unionization at the Co-Op mine in Utah. That struggle, led by miners who were majority Mexican-born, showed that fights for legalization of immigrants and unionization are intertwined.

“Unionize the Mines! Build the UMWA! No miner has to die!,” read the front-page editorial headline in the Feb. 6, 2006 issue. That was the paper’s response to the deaths of 12 miners at the Sago Mine in West Virginia.

Another five miners were killed in an explosion at the Darby Mine in Harlan County, Kentucky, in May 2006. In all, 47 miners died on the job that year. Hundreds subscribed to the Militant in mining towns throughout Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

The paper has also solidarized with miners’ struggles worldwide.

In March 2006 Militant reporters covered the strike of 4,000 miners at the two largest copper mines in Mexico against unsafe working conditions. In February that year, 65 miners died in a coal mine owned by the same company, Grupo Mexico.  
 
 
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