They overwhelmingly rejected two contract offers. They defied Carter’s Taft-Hartley back-to-work order. They won massive support from other working people across the country.

On the third contract proposal, the ranks of the United Mine Workers finally voted 57 percent to 43 percent for acceptance.

"Although the agreement falls short of our expectations, the rank-and-file can take a lot of credit for blocking management’s efforts to destroy our union," declared Jack Perry, president of southern West Virginia’s District 17. "To that extent, miners have won a major victory."

The fact is that the determined rank-and-file battle against the coal bosses and government strengthened the miners’ union.

The miners fought back against the bosses’ drive to cripple the union.

The miners used the steps they had won toward union democracy--especially the right to read, discuss, and vote on their contract--to force the coal operators to back down.

The miners stood up to strikebreaking action by the president of the United States.

And the miners defeated the attempts to pit other workers against them and went on to win the solidarity and material aid of unionists across the country.

This example dramatically altered the expectations and consciousness of millions of other working people.  
 
April 6, 1953
The snooper with the big ears, who has really come into his own with the witch-hunt, may now receive an official stamp of approval. Attorney General Brownell is preparing to ask Congress to legalize the use of evidence obtained by wiretapping "in cases of espionage."

The invasion of individual privacy by wiretapping is so widespread that many people are surprised to learn that until Congress gets around to rectifying the situation, the practice is actually illegal.

In 1934, Congress incorporated into the Federal Communications Act a clause intended to outlaw all wiretapping. Violations carried a two-year prison term, a $10,000 fine, or both.

In the 19 years since the passage of that law, one lone individual has been prosecuted and convicted. That was a private citizen who got caught cutting in on the phone conversations of a government agency.

The government’s stubborn refusal to prosecute anyone else for violating this law was best explained in a candid moment by former Attorney General Jackson, who said, "I cannot feel that the Department of Justice can in good conscience prosecute persons...for a practice...engaged in by the Department itself."

It is precisely this government violation of the law , and its ignoring of its violation by others, that has made this insidious perversion of constitutional rights so common a practice.  
 
 
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