The legacy of the UMWA

 In happier times, my home state of West Virginia was known as a union stronghold. This tradition of labor action and struggle goes back to at least 1877, when railroad workers in Martinsburg set off something close to a nationwide general strike. 

It continued as coal miners faced company and government repression, including brutal private mine guards, military intervention, airstrikes, legal injunctions, arrests, and imprisonments.  

On my watch with AFSC, I’ve tried to support the struggles of unions on picket lines and at the policy level, ranging from metal workers to building trades to retail workers to teachers and school service workers. Sometimes things got a little wild.  

I’ve made it an informal but unbreakable rule that whenever a good labor dustup happens within my range to drop everything and show up. I’m probably at least as loyal to unions as to the church I belong to … but if I had to choose between them, all bets are off. 

For people unfamiliar with the labor movement, there are three main kinds of unions: craft unions representing primarily skilled trades; industrial unions representing workers at all skill levels in a sector; and public employee unions such as those representing education workers or government employees. The AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. federation of unions, comprises around 60 unions of different types and industries. 

Where I come from, you’ll hear people talk about this or that union, but when they say the union, there’s one they have in mind: the United Mine Workers of America. Coincidentally or not, AFSC has a long history of supporting this union and the workers and communities it represents. Over a century ago, AFSC began providing food assistance and supporting economic alternatives for unemployed miners and their families. More recently, it has supported UMWA members in strikes, legislative struggles, mine safety, and corporate bankruptcies that threaten retirees and surviving family members. 

People outside Appalachia may think of the UMWA, if at all, as a relic of an earlier age and a dying and dirty industry. In fact, even though its membership has dramatically declined over the last decades, it has arguably had the greatest impact on economic justice of any single organization. To the extent there’s still a middle class in this country, much of that is due to its direct and indirect influence.  

The UMWA was founded in 1890 by the merger of the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union. At a time when most unions represented skilled craft workers—mostly white, U.S. born, and male—the new union’s first goal was “to unite in one organization, regardless of creed, color or nationality, all workmen eligible for membership, employed in and around coal mines, coal washers, and coke ovens on the American Continent.” It was thus an early example of an industrial union, one that tried to represent all workers in a sector. 

The union’s progress in West Virginia was slow and sometimes bloody. It was long known that the state was rich in coal and other minerals, but it required the coming of the railroads to make large-scale extraction economically feasible. Outside investors began gobbling up land and mineral rights and displacing mountain families, generally with the support of state politicians.  

Let’s just say the good guys lost that one.  

After wiping out most of the state’s old-growth forests, corporations began building coal camps in isolated mountain communities and instituting a system of total control, including company towns, company stores, company doctors, armed company mine “guards” to enforce obedience up to and including the use of violence, and company-controlled schools and churches. In many cases, workers were paid with company scrip or currency. Those with the temerity to organize or strike faced eviction from company housing, at the very least. 

Companies actively recruited African Americans from the deep South, mostly white locals, and recent European immigrants to the camps. They hoped a “judicious mix” of different ethnicities would prevent union organization. 

They were wrong. 

From Colorado to West Virginia miners struggled, sometimes physically, for the right to organize, with something like guerilla warfare breaking out in my state during the Paint and Cabin Creek areas in 1912-1913. The struggle inspired writer Ralph Chaplin to pen the song “Solidarity Forever,” an international anthem of the working class. More militant struggles followed, including the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest workers’ uprising in American history. So far. 

It wasn’t until the New Deal era that the right of miners to organize was firmly established. For a generation or two… 

And in the 1930s, the UMWA, under the leadership of the theatrical and sometimes confrontational John L. Lewis, launched the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which initiated vast organizing drives in steel, auto, rubber, and other industries. Unafraid to confront the highest levels of authority, he once said “you can’t mine coal with bayonets.” 

During the CIO organizing drive, he proclaimed with characteristic flourish, “Let the workers organize. Let the toilers assemble. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges. Let all thoughtful citizens sustain them, for the future of Labor is the future of America.” 

These organizing drives eventually won union recognition along with higher wages, better benefits, and improved working conditions for millions of American men and women. These new industrial unions, such as the United Auto Workers (UAW), would become strong financial and political supporters of the Civil Rights Movement. 

This was not lost on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an ardent supporter of the labor movement. In his words, “During the ’30s, wages were a secondary issue; to have a job at all was the difference between the agony of starvation and a flicker of life. The nation, now so vigorous, reeled and tottered almost to total collapse. The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress.  

“Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the ’30s the wave of union organization crested over our nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society.” 

The wave that Dr. King spoke of has unfortunately receded over the last 40 years, with devastating consequences. But it remains an example of what can be done when working people act in solidarity. 

So year-round, but especially on May Day and Labor Day, I celebrate the victories and mourn the defeats of the world’s diverse labor unions. However, one union has pride of place. In more ways than one, it lit the way in many dark places. 

(I wrote this piece for Labor Day on AFSC's website.)

A yo-yo year

 Lots of people I know, myself included, spent a lot of time over the last year trying to get something across the line in terms of a federal reconciliation bill. We started with high hopes and saw things go off the rails on more than one occasion. 

Now, a possible new bill could be voted on very soon, one largely negotiated by a certain senator from West Virginia who has been front and center throughout the process. Although there are plenty of things in the bill not to like, and some things we wanted didn't make it, this is the first major federal legislation to address climate change, while also preserving health care benefits for millions, reducing prescription drug prices, and fixing Black Lung funding.

I'm pleased and proud that this action alert in support of the legislation is at the top of the AFSC webpage.

The United Mine Workers union has also come out strong in support of the Inflation Reduction Act. The release reads in part:

“We are very pleased that Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) were able to come to an agreement on legislation that includes full and permanent funding of the excise tax that funds the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. This will give victims of this insidious disease, their families and their survivors some peace of mind that the benefits they so desperately need will never be reduced.

“Senator Manchin never wavered in his commitment to secure the funding for this program, and he delivered. Thousands in the coalfields owe him yet another debt of gratitude, and the UMWA will never forget his dedication to getting this done.

“There is more to do regarding Black Lung, starting with the promulgation of a final rule to limit silica dust exposure in coal mines. We also must examine the entire Black Lung benefits system to make it more inclusive for victims, more efficient in the awarding of benefits, and to ensure its long-term viability in the face of a declining coal industry. The UMWA stands ready to meet with all stakeholders – victims and their families, labor, and industry – to work on solutions to these issues.

“We are also pleased to see that provisions were included in the IRA that will extend tax credits to renewable energy supply chain manufacturers that build plants in the coalfields, which will be a big step toward providing good jobs to these distressed communities. The enhanced tax credits for carbon capture and storage included in the legislation will also be a boon for coalfield jobs. We urge swift passage of this legislation by Congress.”

Now it looks like all eyes are on Senator Sinema. It's nice for once not to have to worry about someone from West Virginia breaking the deal. It would be nicer to finally get this one done.

Say it ain't so, Joe

 WV Senator Joe Manchin wrote an op-ed yesterday on his opposition to the HR 1/S 1 For the People Act, which was designed to protect and expand voting rights. No doubt that was good news to white nationalists, insurrectionists and their enablers and apologists, and vote suppressors--but, as this article shows, it was a slap in the face to Black West Virginians, who arguably provided his margin of victory in the last election, not to mention anyone who cares about democracy.

On a positive note, it was nice to see the United Mine Workers Union issue this statement today in favor of the proposed legislation. Union president Cecil Roberts said that  “Congress should be doing everything possible to not just maintain, but expand voting access and create freer and fairer elections. If only one party is interested in doing that, then so be it.”

I think somebody kicked a hornet's nest and I have a feeling this isn't over.

100 years ago today

Today is the 100th anniversary of what has become known to history as the Matewan Massacre,a key battle in the West Virginia Mine Wars. It happened in the context of miners trying to unionize and getting evicted from company housing, brutalized by private mine guards, and worse.

Usually in such situations, local law enforcement would be squarely on the side of the coal companies, but that didn't happen this time. Sid Hatfield, chief of police of the Mingo County town of Matewan, stood on the side of the miners and their families.

Events came to a head with a shootout that left ten people dead, including two miners and Cabell Testerman, the mayor of Matewan, on the side of the miners; and seven mine guards, including Albert and Lee Felts, leaders of the notoriously brutal Baldwin Felts Detective Agency.

Then things got really interesting...

When I was growing up, these events were censored from our history, as was the case with generations of West Virginians. It took a lot of work to reclaim that history. One thing that helped was the release of director John Sayles' 1987 movie Matewan, filmed in Thurmond in Fayette County.

It's not on Netflix or Amazon Prime but you can probably find it if you look. If you haven't seen it, it's worth a look. And if you have, it might be a good time to take another look.

Mine Workers pledge solidarity with teachers, school workers

In case you missed it, below is a statement from United Mine Workers president Cecil Roberts about the WV senate majority's attack on teachers and school support workers (I italilcized my favorite part):

“Once again, the Republican leadership in the West Virginia State Senate have demonstrated that they are mere tools of the radical out-of-state billionaires who pull their puppet strings. No one who actually cares about West Virginia schools, children and families would ever propose such meaningless nonsense, let alone codify it in legislation.

“Teachers and school support personnel already do not have the right to strike in West Virginia, but they ignored that and demonstrated the power of solidarity in each of the last two years. Their fight for better education for our kids remains an inspiration to education professionals across the nation, and the UMWA was proud to stand with them.

“From the Baldwin-Felts thugs at Paint Creek and Cabin Creek to Sherriff Chafin at Blair Mountain to Don Blankenship at Massey Energy, the UMWA has a long history of standing up to union-busting bullies in West Virginia. Mitch Carmicheal and his minions in the Senate are no different, and we will never back down to their kind.

“Let me make this very clear: If our state’s education workers believe they need to take to the streets once again, we will be there with them. And if someone comes to arrest them, they will have to go through us first.”​

Calling all politicians who pretend to care about miners: prove it

Politicians around the country have shed a lot of crocodile tears for coal miners and their families in recent years. I suspect that many of these have been theatrical in nature.

Now there are a couple of chances to find out who’s for real and who isn’t. Two bills have been introduced in Congress that could make a real difference for coalfield communities.

One is Senate Bill 27, the American Miners Act of 2019, introduced by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and supported by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.

It’s basically about keeping promises.

The bill would modify the federal Surface Mining Reclamation and Control Act of 1977 to allow funds to be transferred to the 1974 United Mine Workers Pension Plan, which was originally created by President Harry Truman in 1946 to ensure health and pension benefits to the miners who put themselves at risk for decades to build the country’s industrial might and raise the standard of living. It would impose no new costs to taxpayers.

The UMWA pension fund has taken hits over the years. One of these was the most recent recession, which hit hard around 10 years ago. Even worse has been the steady stream of corporate bankruptcies.

(Sad to say but, these days, it seems like it’s easier for coal companies to dodge paying promised benefits than it is for an ordinary worker to get relief from student loan debt.)

According to Manchin, “In the past two years, contributions into the plan have dropped by more than $100 million, leaving less than $25 million per year still coming into it. The average pension is $600 per month, modest by most standards, but still critical to the 87,000 beneficiaries who depend on it.”

Capito told WV MetroNews: “These retirees are not getting rich on their pension plans and they are not taking lavish expenditures. Without this monthly benefit, many of them would be living on the edge of poverty, if they are not already.”

The bill would also prop up funding for black lung benefits for miners and their families by extending the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund tax for 10 years. This step is urgently needed because the problem is getting worse.

According to a 2018 NPR news report, “One in five working coal miners in central Appalachia who have worked at least 25 years now suffer from the coal miners’ disease black lung ... . It’s the highest rate in a quarter-century and indicates that the disease continues to afflict more miners in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.”

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor estimated that black lung has killed more than 76,000 people since 1968. Unfortunately, we can only expect those numbers to increase in the future. In 2018, more than 25,000 miners and dependents received benefits from the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.

Another bipartisan measure that could benefit coalfield communities is the RECLAIM Act (House Resolution 2156), which stands for “Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More.”

RECLAIM would release money from the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Fund to help communities clean up some of the damage caused by mining—and its decline. It could also help put former miners and other dislocated workers back to work.

Both of West Virginia’s senators have supported the principles of the RECLAIM Act. A version of the bill cleared the House Natural Resources Committee on May 1.

These bills obviously aren’t a total fix to undo the harm done to workers, communities and environments over the last 100 or so years, but they would be steps in the right direction. And a promise is a promise.

(This ran as an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.)

This day in West Virginia labor history

On this day in 1989, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) began its historic strike against the Pittston Coal Company. The issues leading to the strike were mostly regarding retiree health benefits.

The union had been working without a contract for a full 14 months when the strike began, which was pretty much unheard of at the time. During that time many miners received training in nonviolent action and civil disobedience.

Around 1,700 miners in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky participated in the strike, which lasted until Feb. 20, 1990.

It was my first big fight. I had only been working on economic justice issues with the American Friends Service Committee for a month or so, although I followed events as closely as I could in the Charleston Gazette in the year leading up to it. Everybody paying attention knew something was going to blow.

I remember sitting in the cafeteria of the WV capitol and being told by a UMWA rep that it was starting as we spoke. It would come to absorb my attention, energy and chi for the next 10 months and I forged some strong relationships that continue to this day. I'll always be grateful to AFSC for giving me the chance to jump in. I can't say that I had a huge impact on the strike, but it had a huge impact on me.

It was intense and exhausting, but, to be honest, I was having the time of my life.

When I look back on it, I think of friends, picket lines, burning houses, evictions, crashing coal trucks, (alleged) jackrocks, singing, banter, jokes, learning guitar, anger, Christmas, courage, goon guards, provocations, state police, constant motion, solidarity, direct action, mischief, learning, absorbing history, brave women holding the line, places, and the threat of violence, all to a Bob Dylan soundtrack.

At times, the atmosphere on the picket lines reminded me of the movie Matewan just before the shootout. It seemed to me at the time as if the fate of the world, or at least the labor movement, hinged on the outcome. Eventually, the union won a restoration of benefits, which have helped thousands of retirees and survivors over the years. But UMWA membership continued to decline.

The strike developed in the aftermath of another less fortunate strike against Massey subsidiaries earlier in the decade. Like Pittston would later do, Massey withdrew from the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA), the industry bargaining group. This was the beginning of Massey's spree of union busting, environmental failures, intimidation, political manipulation, safety shortcuts and the rest.

Massey's power would grow over the years in power and influence, like the rising power of Mordor in The Lord of the Rings.

Ironically, Pittston withdrew from the coal industry in the years following the strike, with many of its assets sold to Massey.

Fast forward to this date in 2010, when a mammoth explosion at Massey's Upper Big Branch underground mine in Montcoal WV killed 29 miners. Before Massey bought the mine from Peabody Coal in 1993, it had been a union operation. But after a strong anti-union campaign led by former Massey CEO and now candidate for the US senate (!), the union was decertified by the late 1990s.

Without a union, miners had less of a voice in working conditions, and especially mine safety. With terrible consequences. You can read all about it here.

Much happened in the wake of the disaster. There were investigations, lawsuits, fines and criminal prosecutions, including the first ever conviction of the CEO of a major corporation for conspiring to evade safety rules. Massey no longer exists. But eight years later, the Republican controlled congress has yet to pass meaningful mine safety legislation, such as that advocated by the late great Senator Robert C. Byrd.

This day reminds me of the best and worst in West Virginia history, of what working people organized in unions can achieve and of what can happen if unions are weakened and defeated.

During WV's recent and successful teachers' strike, I felt echoes of Pittston days, with crowds at the capitol almost as large as the ones in 1989. And it was great to feel the warm presence of UMWA members rallying in solidarity.

Times have changed but our recent and more distant history shows that the need for working class solidarity is as urgent as ever. And that's not likely to change.

With the old breed

The title of this post comes from a great World War II memoir by Eugene Sledge, who told his story of horrific battles in the Pacific Theater of that war, which was where my father and two uncles served. It came to mind today when I met a veteran of a different kind of struggle, although he was probably a military veteran as well.

The occasion was a small community forum on ending child poverty in a coal mining community in southern West Virginia. I was privileged to meet and talk briefly with one of the Old Breed of West Virginia coal miners, union men (they were mostly men) who know what it means not only to work hard in a dangerous calling but to stand together in solidarity and fight back against corporate greed.

In these sad days, when union membership has declined and CEOs pose as protectors of the workers (like weasels claiming to  protect chickens), such voices are hard to find and are all too seldom heard. I was glad to hear it again. I can't say how much I've missed hearing it. If only such voices were as common today as in the past...

Fittingly, the meeting took place near Cabin Creek, the site of a major episode in the WV mine wars of 100 years ago.

THERE'S STILL HOPE for more prosecutions in the wake of the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine disaster. May the goddess Nemesis be swift to render that which is due. And if she isn't swift, may she at least be sure.

A POSITIVE TREND. I mentioned in yesterday's post the WV is getting smarter about how it approaches criminal justice and prison issues. Here's an item that shows similar progress in dealing with school discipline problems.

ONE MORE THING. The Future Fund cleared another hurdle in the state senate. Now it heads to the floor. I want this one bad.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Lean, mean, green

I have mentioned before that a major hazard at this time of year for people living near gardens is an attack of summer squash, an aggressively imperialist species.

The above picture is living proof if more was needed of the dangers of these pernicious plants. Not content to lie there like most vegetables, these green miscreants are about to slither out of the basket and rampage over an unsuspecting world.

DEAL WITH IT. Here's Krugman on the Affordable Care Act and the right wing's state of denial.

THE LATEST JIHAD. It looks like it's true love between WV's anti-gay uterus-police and its attorney general. I figured the latter would be busy recusing himself from cases started by his predecessor which challenge abuses of sleazy corporations.

WOULD THIS BE IRONY OR HYPOCRISY? Although the same WV AG mentioned above seems to be deeply concerned with the personal decisions of women, he pretends to believe that some parts of the Affordable Care Act threaten  privacy. Judges? Personally, I'm leaning towards hypocrisy.

ONE MORE WV AG RANT. As I've pointed out before, this was the same "pro-life" person who expressed regret at Governor Tomblin's decision to expand Medicaid, despite the fact that around 223 West Virginians die prematurely every year because they don't have health coverage. I think that would be another one for the hypocrisy column.

PATRIOT. Union miners overwhelmingly approved an agreement with Patriot Coal. I think it's a pretty big win for the UMWA and would like to congratulate union members and allies who made a bad situation better.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Who's next?

Union retired coal miners and their families hoped for justice from a federal judge in the Patriot Coal bankruptcy case--and found none. Corporate promises these days aren't worth the paper they are written on. I think it's time once again to quote Leonard Cohen:

Everybody knows the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes.
And everybody knows.

MIGHT AS WELL eat bugs.

Honk if you love the class system

In his book Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen relates the story of an interesting experiment on American attitudes towards social class and status.

It had to do with honking horns and cars.

Two students drove around Burlington, Vermont, first in a new luxury car and then in an old junker. In each case, they would sit at a stoplight after the light turned green to see how long it would take drivers behind them to honk.

The results were pretty striking. It took less than seven seconds for drivers to honk at the junker, but almost twice as long (13.2 seconds) for them to honk at the luxury car.

When you consider that statistically speaking most of the honkers were working class people, this shows how many Americans unconsciously ascribe respect and deference to people who seem to enjoy a higher social position.

That explains a lot.

CHANGING OF THE GUARD. From Ken Ward's uberblog Coal Tattoo, here's a post about Rich Trumka, the new president of the AFLCIO. Trumka is former president of the UMWA.

HEALTH CARE REFORM. Here's a statement from Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on Senator Baucus' health care reform plans and here's Paul Krugman on whether the bill is or can be made to be up to snuff.

WHY THE #*$& DO WE CUSS? Dealing with pain may be part of the answer.

URGENT T REX UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Getting warmer

This is Holden 22, where Don Blankenship's Labor Day inversion was held. The picture was taken when there was still a mountain there.

I had planned on leading with another topic today, but an item from Ken Ward's Coal Tattoo blog caught my eye.

Since Labor Day, I've written here and elsewhere about the contrast between the United Mine Workers of America and Don Blankenship's effort to present himself as the voice and protector of coal miners. The subject of Ward's post, an interview with union president Cecil Roberts on Living on Earth, is a case in point.

In contrast to Blankenship and allies, who are taking the position that climate change cannot be real because it may cut into their profits, UMWA president Cecil Robert admits that it's a reality that must be faced. Roberts said:

The union has never taken a position arguing against the science of climate change. We've engaged in the debate as to how to deal with it.

That realistic response to a problem from labor is a welcome contrast to the ruling class hissy fit we've been subjected to lately. It shows once again the need for workers to have a voice independent of their employers. It is also reason #9484 why we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

SPEAKING OF HISSY FITS, here's Dean Baker on the opposition to a public option in health care reform.

WHILE WE'RE AT IT, here's Washington Post columnist Marie Cocco pointing out that we already have several public options and they're working pretty well. Senator Rockefeller said yesterday that he wouldn't support a bill without one.

STILL THERE. Cost of health insurance have increased faster than wages and inflation.

WONKY BUT IMPORTANT. Parts of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dealing with TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), can be used to do interesting things like beef up emergency assistance for families or even create subsidized employment. The catch is that states have to be willing to do it. Here's info about the possibilities. This is something I'm going to be pushing for with folks in WV.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Labor daze

United Mine Workers president Cecil Roberts speaks at the union labor day celebration in Racine, WV.

Labor Day in southern West Virginia traditionally means the United Mine Workers District 17 celebration in Racine in Boone County, which has traditionally drawn hundreds of workers, family and community members and any number of current or aspiring politicians.

This year's event had some competition, as anyone paying attention to what's going on in this state knows. Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who has probably done more than anyone else in this state to damage the labor movement--and the UMWA in particular--spent God knows how much money on a "Friends of America" concert/propaganda event that featured Ted Nugent, Hank Williams Jr. and Fox "News" celebrity Sean Hannity.

The bushes were beaten to draw thousands of people to attend this free event on an old strip mine site in Holden in Logan County.

The aim of the event was to oppose any kind of proposed actions aimed at addressing climate change, which after all couldn't possibly be true because that might inconvenience the coal industry. Also targeted were any measures that might regulate or tax the industry. All things progressive came under attack as well.

Nugent is reported to have once invited President Obama to "suck on my machine gun."

Nice...

By the way, the WV Chamber of Commerce, International Coal Group, the WV Coal Association and other such groups also co-sponsored the event. The extent to which Nugent speaks for them is unclear.

The irony of union busters pretending to protect American workers would make a cat laugh. On the other hand, Blankenship has suffered some setbacks lately in his attempts to influence state elections and court decisions so this may be the latest strategy. Here's hoping this one works as well as the last few.

Anyway, I attended the UMWA event as usual. Even without the bells and whistles, it was a good crowd. I had to walk about half a mile to get there. It was also nice to see that a large number of state elected officials, including Gov. Manchin, Congressman Nick Rahall, Treasurer John Perdue, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, House Speaker Rick Thompson and many delegates and senators not only attended but stayed all day.

UMWA president Cecil Roberts have his usual barn burning speech. My favorite part was when he said he received a call earlier in the week from Gov. Manchin asking if he was going to the Blankenship event. When Roberts said no, Manchin said that in that case he didn't have a ride and wouldn't be able to go either.

I don't know if that conversation really happened, but I'd like to think it did.

WHACKADOODLES. In keeping with last week's series on political paranoia, here are some of the odder conspiracy theories involving the president.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, here's the text of Obama's communist discourse for America's school children. I just scanned it and I'm already indoctrinated. The workers really do have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win! Arrgghh!!!!

PETS OR MEAT? Here's an unsavory look at the origins of dog domestication.

SPEAKING OF FOOD (SORT OF), a new study suggests it's not just what you eat that matters when you eat it.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Where the dangers are double

"I remember the ways in the bygone days
when we was in our prime
How us and John L. give the old man hell
down in the Blue Diamond Mine"

El Cabrero is basically a labor person. The issues that interest me and the ones that I've spent the most time working on are those that affect working and low income people. Unions have always important in that department and always should be.

In West Virginia, the union that has had the biggest impact historically has been the United Mine Workers of America. It has had good times and bad times but its high points were high indeed.

Founded in 1890, it was an early example of an industrial union, one which aimed to include everyone who worked in and around the mines, regardless of skill level. It was always racially integrated and reached out to immigrant labor, often having several different language committees working in the same big mines. And it fought titanic battles (sometimes literally) with companies to improve conditions for miners.

The UMWA helped give birth to the mass industrial unions of the CIO during the 1930s, which eventually enabled millions of workers to earn a living wage with benefits and enter the middle class. It has also often led the charge for workplace safety and for things like black lung benefits.

Unfortunately, the UMWA has been hit by all kinds of changes over the last several decades, starting with automation and the switch to less labor intensive (and, many would add, more destructive) kinds of mining.

It has also been the target of a major union busting campaign beginning in the 1980s, with Massey playing the key role.

Sometimes the UMWA is singled out for criticism by environmentalists, but their position is that their job is to represent their members, who don't get to decide under what conditions coal is to be mined. And they are caught in a bind over climate change and the future of coal, regardless of what happens with mountaintop removal.

It's a tough situation. But I think the position and interests of people who work in mining would be much stronger in all these controversies if the union itself was larger and stronger. It would be better positioned to take a stand independent of the coal companies who now claim to represent their interests.

It is really galling for me to see the same companies that have worked so hard to destroy the union to claim to be the protector and beneficiary of miners.

FORKED TONGUES. Opponents of health care reform are following a carefully crafted script.

GO TEAM! From the same source, the Episcopal Church passed a resolution supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.

USING THE T WORD. This item talks taxes.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

A HAUNTED LIFE

If you'd survey a group of reading Americans and ask them to name a writer whose life was a real downer, it's a pretty safe bet that Edgar Allan Poe's name would be at or near the top of the list.

There's no way around it. The dude had a melancholy existence. But people often tend to think it was worse than it actually was by identifying the man with the narrators of his stories and poems. He was jacked but not that jacked.

(On the other hand, who else could have written stories and poems like that?)

Poe was born in 1809 to David and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, both of whom were actors. The father appears to have deserted the family early on and his mother died around his second year.

He was raised although not adopted by John and Frances "Fanny" Allan of Richmond, Virginia. The relationship became frayed as Poe aged. He attended the University of Virginia but had to drop out when Allan refused to pay his debts, some of which may have been gambling related.

He eventually joined the army, where he did very well as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of sergeant major for artillery. When Fanny Allan faced her final illness at the age of 44, from her deathbed she urged the reconciliation of Poe and Allan.

(Note: another significant woman in his life died--major theme.)

With Allan's help, Poe gained an appointment to West Point. He did fine at first but lack of money and quarrels with Allan led to his eventual expulsion in 1831. In 1836 he married his teenaged cousin Virginia Clemm, his "child bride." Clemm was around 13at the time. There's all kind of speculation about the marriage and whether it was ever consummated. Along the way, he published short stories and poems and eventually worked as an editor and critic for several publications.

He lost a third significant other when Virginia died in 1847 after a long illness. During her sickness, Poe once wrote that "I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."

No wonder his writings are full of beautiful dead women...

Poe also had a drinking problem, although it may have had to do more with quality than quantity. He apparently didn't drink a lot but couldn't handle the liquor he drank. He died under mysterious circumstances in Baltimore in Oct. 1849.

Next time: Poe and the critics.

MARKET PLACE OF IDEAS. The right wing in the US has been engaged in yet another hissy fit over the presence of professors in our colleges and universities whose opinions they dislike. A group has been formed to preserve the free exchange of ideas on campuses. Many allied groups, such as the AFLCIO, have joined.

GLOOMY MOOD. Here's Paul Krugman on America's current mood of economic pessimism.

WHO'S RICH, ANYWAY? Definitions can be confusing, as this Washington Post column points out.

UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT. Can you believe this story from AP?

Service members seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan after they received a $10,000 bonus for enlisting are being asked by the Pentagon to repay portions of the incentive money, says a U.S. senator who calls the practice an example of military policy gone wrong.

Sticking with the Poe theme, I call that The Telltale Heartless.

A DANIEL COME TO JUDGEMENT! A NLRB judge has ruled that Massey Energy discriminated against union workers after it bought the Horizon mine in Kanawha County.

UH-OH--THEY'VE CAUGHT ON. Gorillas have been observed using "weapons" against human invaders for the first time. If goats follow their lead, El Cabrero could be in big trouble.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED