On November 21, 1927, Colorado state police massacred six striking coal miners at the Columbine Mine in Serene, in what was just one of so many instances in American history of government using police
This is the grave of Jock Yablonski. Joseph “Jock” Yablonski was born in 1910 in Pittsburgh. His parents had moved to the U.S. from Poland not long before. Not uncommonly at all for a poor
This is the grave of John L. Lewis. Born near Cleveland, Iowa in 1888, Lewis came from a largely lapsed Mormon family that he later claimed influenced his desire to fight for the poor. At the age of 1
On December 30, 1970, a coal mine exploded on Hurricane Creek, near Hyden, Kentucky. Thirty-eight miners died that day, yet another example of the terrible safety conditions of coal mining, even at a
On June 22, 1922, a night and early morning of angry United Mine Workers of America members massacring strikebreakers and mine guards ended in Herrin, Illinois. Twenty-one people died, 19 of which wer
On March 25, 1947, the Centralia Coal Company’s No. 5 mine in Centralia, Illinois exploded, killing 111 workers. This disaster, caused by extremely unsafe working conditions from employers utter
Let me recommend Trish Kahle’s Jacobin piece on the Miners for Democracy (1970s reformist United Mine Workers members) and the potential of energy workers embracing environmentalism. Brief excer
The Labor and Working-Class History Association has started a new blog called Labor Online. I was asked to be a contributing editor. Here’s my first post, on the United Mine Workers attacks on e