The Militant - October 1, 2007 -- Letters

Vol. 71/No. 36 October 1, 2007

Letters

Troy Davis
This is to update readers on Troy Anthony Davis, who won a stay of execution from the Georgia Board on Pardons and Paroles on July 18, just 24 hours before he was to be executed for a murder he didn’t commit. (See article in August 20 Militant.)

The Georgia Supreme Court has agreed to hear his appeal in November. Davis’ website is www.troyanthonydavis.org.

Cheryl Goertz
Atlanta, Georgia

Safety in the mines
The Militant supplement in August 2007 described the dangerous retreat mining methods that were used at the Crandall Canyon mine where six miners remained trapped underground.

I worked at a number of UK collieries where different methods were used.

In 1969 coal bosses changed the method of support from steel girders to roof bolting. This system is cheaper than using more conventional supports, and mining unions have long been skeptical about the safety of it.

At Bilsthorpe colliery in Nottingham a technique known as “skin-to-skin working” was used where roof bolts were used where a new roadway was driven directly alongside an older working. In 1993 the roof collapsed, killing three miners.

The National Union of Mineworkers “does not accept the concept of roof bolting as substitute for orthodox support,” according to The Hazards of Coal Mining.

Jim Spaul
London, England

Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home