Vol.64/No.3 January 24, 2000
Socialists discuss politics with coal miners
{Campaigning with 'Capitalism's World Disorder' column}
BY MIKE ITALIE AND SHELTON MCCRAINEY
After taking a look at the Pathfinder Press title Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium, a coal miner and member of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in Morganfield, Kentucky, asked, "Can I get this at Barnes and Noble" in Evansville, Indiana? "That's where I buy my books." Following up on his suggestion, a team of socialist workers changed plans and drove the 40 miles to Evansville the same day. While no Pathfinder orders were sold at bookstores in town, the team laid the groundwork for a follow-up trip by Pathfinder distributors. And a librarian at the local public library pointed out to us where we could meet farm workers in the region.
Four volunteers from Chicago, Miami, and St. Louis teamed up with others in the Tri-State area of the Midwest to meet, discuss politics with, and distribute socialist literature to hundreds of coal miners, garment workers, and others in Illinois and Indiana in the final days of 1999.
Nearly 90 of the 100 copies of the Militant sold over the course of three days were purchased at coal mines in the region, both union and nonunion. One farmer hauling livestock stopped for a copy, as the team was selling the paper at an intersection near one southern Illinois mine.
Team member Mike Italie approached UMWA member Mike Cowan on his way out of work and asked, "What's going on in the mine?" Cowan parked his truck and stopped for a long conversation on a fight against company demands for concessions. He explained that the bosses are demanding the miners give back a number of sick and personal days before the current contract expires, or face the closure of the mine.
In spite of the combined pressure from the bosses and the union officials to approve this contract, Cowan was glad to report that the proposal had just recently been rejected by a vote of 136 to 127. "We're fighting not just for ourselves, but for those coming 20 years from now," he concluded, "just like the guys in the 1950s set things up for us today."
Garment workers count for an important part of the labor movement in this coal mining region, and the team got out to two sewing plants. One is organized by the United Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) and the other by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. Lisa Potash, a team member and sewer at a garment factory in the Chicago area, shared experiences with union members at a plant that employs 125 workers. She learned that while few of the shops in the area are union organized, the UNITE local at this sewing plant has remained in place since 1957. Team members set a priority of getting back to the workers they had met to discuss new developments in the class struggle in the Tri-State area and beyond.
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