Click On Title To Link To Article About Resistance To Levelling The Hills Down In Coal Country And Links To More Information About That Struggle.
Commentary
The above cited link provides information about the struggle down in Kentucky and West Virginia against the efforts various energy companies to work the again sought after coal in the historic coal regions, minus the unionized (and many times heroic class warrior) mine workers. Readers of this site, may or may not know of my (secondary) roots to coal country but these efforts to resist the ravaging of Appalachia bear attention. Frankly, although I know that the coal country singer/songwriter Kathy Mattea is involved in the efforts to publicize this issue I am not, at the moment, that familiar with the particulars down there. But I will be commenting more on this issue. Fr now though, the corporate cast of characters should, instinctively, tell the tale of where our sympathies should lie. Later.
The coal industry needs to be nationalized under worker's control. The government should fund research, and pay to implement a clean coal program. That would mean more jobs.
ReplyDeleteLet's be clear here. Nationalizations by capitalist governments are not part of a socialist political program, with or without workers' contol. The history of British capitalism's nationalizations of their post- World War II bankrupt coal industry is not what we look for (although we defend against attempts to de-nationalize, but that is a tactical question).
ReplyDeleteThe workers' control issue makes no sense without being linked to the slogan of a workers' government. Otherwise we get all the same old capitalist problems without workers solutions. Trotsky, (and Lenin) was very informative) about how the struggle for workers' control revolved around the struggle for workers power. What we, today, press the capitalist government to do, is a separate question but without the linkage of control/government we have the old social democratic minimum (day to day trade union struggles)/maximum (Sunday speecifying)program that in practice meant giving up that struggle for a workers government.