A federal judge
yesterday ruled against the Sierra Club and other organizations in a case
brought before the court to preserve Blair Mountain, a historic landmark in
American and labor history. The ruling opens up the ability of a coal company
to destroy the mountain, or at least a significant portion of it, through
mountaintop removal mining.
I
use this cyber soapbox often to point out how mountaintop removal is destroying
our ecological and cultural heritage. In this case this mining practice will
destroy part of our history as well. The largest armed conflict on American
soil since the time of the Civil War occurred on Blair Mountain. In 1921, after
years of lawless exploitation, 10,000 West Virginia miners marched against the
oppression of the mine owners. Met with armed resistance by the local sheriff,
hired mine guards, and a makeshift militia at Blair Mountain, a battle ensued.
The conflict lasted ten days. President Warren G. Harding sent in the Army,
including the Air Force, and included the use of aerial bombing.
Once
the Army came in and the bombs started to fall from the sky, the miners went
home. The mine owners won this battle. It was not until 1933, under FDR’s first
term, that West Virginia coal miners gained unionization.
As
far as labor history goes, the Battle of Blair Mountain bears the same
significance as John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry does to the Civil War. And
just as our understanding of the Civil War is incomplete without a knowledge
and appreciation of Brown and his quixotic raid, we do not fully understand the
New Deal or other achievements of the labor movement without a knowledge of the
struggle of Blair Mountain.
Details
about the court ruling can be found here. Briefly summarizing, the plaintiffs
in this case were trying to have Blair Mountain returned to the National
Register of Historic Places, which the National Park Service had bestowed on
the landmark in the spring of 2009. Being on the register would keep the
mountain safe from mountaintop removal. The judge ruled that the Sierra Club
and others lack standing, the ability of a plaintiff to demonstrate to the
court that the actions of the defendant would cause harm to the plaintiff.
Mountaintop
coal mining has decimated the United Mine Workers, depressing wages and the economy
of West Virginia and rolling back the accomplishments of the UMW and organized
labor. What those miners fought for at the Battle of Blair Mountain is being
lost. Losing the mountain as well makes this irony especially bitter.
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