A few days ago one of the old movie channels ran the movie "Matewan." Sweet Thing and the Old Redneck watched "Matewan", switching occasionally to CNN to watch the growing demonstrations in Wisconsin.
And then we were hit with a blinding flash of the obivous: NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN A CENTURY. NOTHING.
We all need to watch “Matewan.” Doesn’t matter if you’ve seen it already, watch it again. If you’ve never seen it, do so now. "Matewan" is one of those stories that never becomes irrelevant or outdated.
Matewan (pronounced "mate - wan" as in Obie Wan Kanobe) is a coal mining town in Mingo County, WV. In the years after WW I, the WV coal fields were the scene of violent, bloody encounters between miners trying to unionize and the mine owners who hired “detective agencies” to defeat the unions and keep the miners in line by any means necessary.
Most folks know nothing of the bloody history of the coal wars in Central Appalachia – Southern West Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Southeast Kentucky, and Northeast Tennessee. I won’t try to retell three decades of violent history here – just search for “West Virginia coal wars,” “Matewan,” “Battle of Blair Mountain,” and for my favorite West Virginian, Sheriff Sid Hatfield – murdered on the front steps of the McDowell County Courthouse by “detectives” from the Baldwin-Felts Agency who were in the hire of mine owners who hated Hatfield.
The Battle of Matewan (also known as the Matewan Massacre) was a shootout in the town of Matewan, West Virginia in Mingo County on May 19, 1920 between local miners and the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency.
The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest open class war in United States history and was the second largest overall armed insurrection next to the American Civil War.[citation needed] For five days in late August and early September 1921, in Logan County, West Virginia, between 10,000 and 15,000 coal miners confronted an army of police and strikebreakers backed by coal operators in an effort to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. Their struggle ended only after approximately one million rounds were fired, and the United States Army intervened by presidential order.
So – you say – why should I spend Saturday night watching a movie about coal miners in the early 1920’s?
Because, friends, it’s happening again. Well, no, let me correct that – it has never stopped.
In the Central Appalachian coalfields, as the miners tried to unionize, the mine owners – abetted by the state and federal governments – did everything to stop the unions, including murder.
In those days, miners lived in houses owned by the company. They were paid, not in cash, but in script, redeemable only at the company store. Miners were required to pay for their shovels, clothing, picks, and other mining supplies and equipment as well as buying all their family’s necessities – and it all came from the company store. Miners quickly found themselves indebted to the company for the food on their table and the shoes on their children’s feet. If a miner showed pro-union tendencies, not only was he fired, he lost his home and his entire source of livelihood.
Ol' Tennessee Ernie Ford sang about it:
You load sixteen tons and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go,
I owe my soul to the company store!!
As miners tried to unionize, the mine owners brought in “detectives” – thugs hired by the Baldwin-Felts, Pinkerton, and other agencies. Many of these men were WW I veterans who were sought out by the detective agencies because of their combat experience.
In some instances, the state National Guards were called out to force miners back to work.
Somehow, some way the miners unionized.
Now, let’s leap forward almost a century to today where a state governor wants to destroy public employee unions and is threatening to use the state National Guard to enforce his decrees.
By now we all know that the Koch brothers, who are funding much of what local and state Tea Parties do, have paid for busloads of Tea Partiers to go to Madison to support the governor and shout down the unions.
The union-busting in Wisconsin is bad enough but it's not an aberration. The Republican Party has done everything they can for over a century to destroy labor unions and they are about to succeed. Union membership is at its lowest point in our history. Ever heard a Republican talk about union members? No, you haven't -- to Republicans, a union member is a "union thug" -- just listen to them and their mouthpieces on Fox. (In fact, tomorrow, watch the Sunday talk shows and count how many times a Republican says "union thugs.")
And that, folks, is why you need to watch the movie “Matewan.” And when you’re finished with Matewan, watch Norma Rae. By then, you'll be so pissed you'll want to grab the nearest Republican and . . . (can't say that on Kos).
Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!!
-- Mother Jones