On American Experience "The Mine Wars"

Posted: 2/13/2016

Recently watched this new feature documentary. Much to my dismay it portrayed the events and developments extremely one sided as you would expect from a leftist PBS.

Following quote from the Introduction gives you an idea what this documentary is about: “In the first two decades of the 20th century, coal miners and coal companies in West Virginia clashed in a series of brutal conflicts over labor conditions and unionization. Known collectively as the "Mine Wars," the struggle included strikes, assassinations, marches, and the largest civil insurrection in the United States since the Civil War.” (Source 1)

Some time has passed since I watched this documentary, so my memory is unfortunately beginning to fail me … (wish our scientists would finally come up with ways to improve human memory)

Notes

1. The documentary interview at least a dozen different historians, but each one of them seemed to be a clone of socialist historian Howard Zinn taking as if they were co-authors of “A People’s History of the United State”
2. To its grace, the documentary scarcely mentions that the coal mining business during those years was a margin business and that there were coal mines in other states in an intense competition with each other.
3. The documentary is an exaggerated glorification of Mary Harris Mother Jones “a notorious labor organizer known as "the miner's angel," and a self-proclaimed "hellraiser."”. This would be a subject for another blog post.
4. The documentary does not mention that the people who worked at those coal mines worked there voluntary and it did not research whether the compensation was so bad in comparison.
5. To its grace it mentions that many black Americans migrated to the coal mines in West Virginia from southern states. To its grace, the documentary shows that the racial conditions between white and black Americans were fairly good and compensation was equal, if I remember correctly
6. The documentary only tells the story of one particular mining worker union (i.e. United Mine Workers of America), while there was at least one other, much more aggressive and militant labor union trying to organize mining workers. Thus, the owners of mining companies had every reason to be concerned.
7. The documentary only in passing mentions that the mining workers resorted to severe sabotage of mining operations, assassinations (e.g. of so called strike breakers) and other violent acts, but the violence against mining workers by their employers is duly noted
8. Unfortunately, I do not remember, how the documentary portrayed the intervention of federal or state government, but I believe, the federal government exceeded its powers
9. “Thousands of men [evicted striking miners], women and children ended up in makeshift "tent colonies" set up by the UMWA on small strips of land not owned by the coal companies. These tent colonies included a trash dump, sanitary ditches, and cellars for storage and shelter. Water often had to be imported in barrels on wagons. With no running water or permanent homes, and no income to support their families, many miners returned to work, and the strike was broken.” (Source 1).
   The obvious question, why did the UMWA not ship the workers to other mining companies for better salary etc.? Why did the UMWA not offer these workers to find better jobs or even better establish a union owned mining company?
10. “With little protection from the state, [up to 3,000] strikers [in 1912] began buying guns, while sympathetic miners from neighboring coal camps smuggled weapons and ammunition into Paint Creek and Cabin Creek. They stashed rifles, pistols, bullets, and gunpowder in the woods, dynamited railroad tracks, and fired on trains -- anything they could do to stop mine production or kill a mine guard. ” (Source 1)
    Sorry, but these were criminal activities committed by the mine workers. Nothing to glorify here or to be proud of!
11. “However, in 1933, as the Great Depression threatened to undermine American Capitalism, Congress passed legislation guaranteeing the workers' right to unionize. It also outlawed the practice of blacklisting, private police forces like Baldwin-Felts, and industrial spies. This finally granted miners the full recognition of the union that they had fought and died for in the decades-long mine wars.” (Source 1)
    When democracy decays to become a tyranny of the majority or the mob! All this happened under the most socialist president the U.S. ever had, i.e. Franklin D. Roosevelt! What about the employers’ right to refuse unionization?

Sources

1. American Experience website: Introduction: The Mine Wars