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July 16, 2010

Blair Mountain Battlefield Mysteriously Being Bulldozed

In 1921, union miners staged the largest armed insurrection in American labor history on Blair Mountain, in Logan County, WV. Between 10,000 and 15,000 UMWA miners were stopped en route to Mingo County, where they were marching to liberate union men imprisoned under martial law and to organize the coalfields by force. For five days, the miners confronted a private army run by coal operators– and were only defeated when the US Army intervened on industry’s behalf. While the miners lost on Blair, the battle led to a much stronger American labor movement that went on to win numerous concessions, including minimum wage and standardized work weeks.

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July 15, 2010

Protestors who stopped highwall miner speak

In this video, the four protestors, all of whom are awaiting arraignment in Beckley, WV’s Southern Regional Jail, speak about why they took action. You can read their written statements here.

July 14, 2010

Activist Statements from Highwall Miner Lockdown

Colin Flood, 22, Vermont:

In West Virginia an entire way of life is not only being destroyed but is becoming impossible to resume. The water is no longer fit to drink; it has to be store bought. Every mountain that is destroyed takes with it hunting grounds, fishing waters, and many species of edible mushrooms and plants, all of which once provided income and sustenance free for the using. When the timber is gone, when the topsoil is gone, when the air and water are destroyed, the less than 4% of our nation’s energy needs that mountaintop removal provides will be small consolation. Explosives equivalent to a Hiroshima bomb are detonated across Appalachia every week, destruction on the same scale as the oil spill in the Gulf and the result of the same criminal disregard for health, safety and the law that companies like Massey and BP display on a daily basis.

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