Abusive coal miners crash Independence Day Kayford Fest

discussion of video (4.00 / 4)

There's a lot of discussion about JK's comment and this video going on over at Coal Tattoo and on Facebook. I'll repeat a comment I made at the latter here:

I agree with JK's overall sentiment, though I would have worded it differently. I don't believe we are "fighting the miners"--I'm actively trying to make West Virginia a much better place for them, their kids and grand kids. Yet, there is a mindset of King Coal 4Evah that many miners share with the mining companies that I, for one, am actively trying to change.

I also believe that vocal activists and advocates of change in the coal fields do face threats of physical violence. From that standpoint, a comment along the lines of "this is what protesters are up against" is an accurate one.

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by: Clem Guttata @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 19:39:08 PM UTC

more coverage (4.00 / 1)

Over at Coal Tattoo

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by: Clem Guttata @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 19:40:18 PM UTC

such a shame (0.00 / 1)

and while things are heating up at kayford,  new york city is getting colder

http://forecast.weather.gov/pr...

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by: stevewvu @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 20:21:49 PM UTC

Why do those so-called "miners" think they're so special that the rest of us owes them a living? (4.00 / 2)

When any number of other WV industries discontinued their operations, their laborers have moved on without ever threatening violence against their neighbors.

Whether or not the government closes down the surface mine at which they're now working is somewhat irrelevant, because at some point they, themselves would have otherwise extracted all of the coal from it, anyway.  So come to think about it, it's really no wonder those intruders had to get liquored up before they tried intimidating their neighbors.  Taking it out on someone for merely trying to save their environment seems almost as stupid and self-destructive as the act of strip mining itself. There are, after all, other ways to extract that same coal which are far less destructive.

Besides, I sorta like the idea of the fatass bully in that video mining a 36 inch seam for the rest of his life.

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by: One Citizen @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 20:36:34 PM UTC

"the protesters" (2.00 / 2)

What many "protesters" miss is that the fight over MTR is not with miners, or even Massey Energy. Protesting Massey for conducting MTR is like protesting Moonpies because they made you fat. Nothing about Moonpies is ever going to change - so you gotta get the sumbitches out of the vending machine and replace with something better. Now...ask yourself who runs the vending machine? Thats where the darryl hannas of the world should be going to lay down and get arrested. But nooo - you'd rather parade yourself around the marshmallow factory and piss off the Moonpie makers and insult everyone in Moontown.  

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by: twilight campfighter @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 22:33:33 PM UTC

BofA protests in NC (4.00 / 2)

That reminds me of the long series of protests in Western NC at Bank of America. BofA provides funding for the vending machines (to use your analogy). That's getting closer to the power source.

At one level those protests were a success in that BofA changed its stated policy on what kinds of projects it would fund. It's not clear to me how that has had any larger impact on coal mining, though.

So, do you think protests outside of the W.Va. DEP every day demanding it do its job would have any greater success?

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by: Clem Guttata @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 23:17:30 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

We can't seem to get the WV DEP to even enforce the law. (4.00 / 3)

It's gotten so dangerous and destructive that the Feds have been all over them. read the entire U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement report here (pdf).

Our state's top ENVIRONMENTAL chief is supposed to be there to protect our ENVIRONMENT, not Big Coal's COMMERCE. Yet he was the only person at recent Senate hearings defending mountaintop removal. And he argued not on the basis of good safe industry practices, but on the need for COMMERCE.

"West Virginia and the nation need jobs and coal," Huffman told senators. "Coal production is the leading revenue generator for West Virginia, and many in the state are concerned about losing the opportunities for future economic development associated with mountaintop mining." source

Someone should explain to Randy Huffman that coal costs far more than it provides here, and that there's really no such thing as "opportunities for future economic development associated with mountaintop mining". Maybe for Wall Street, but not for our state.

He's our state's top ENVIRONMENTAL cop, dammit. He's SUPPOSED to be there to protect our ENVIRONMENT, not act as Big Coal's stooge.

sheesh

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by: One Citizen @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 23:26:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

In other news...... (4.00 / 3)

Blair Mountain, site of the historic battle between coal miners and the government, is now coming off the National Registry of Historic Places.

A Massey Energy surface mining site is expected to be located near by. How sad that a major piece of WV and labor movement history will be destroyed.  

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by: Randolph Clark @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 23:02:25 PM UTC

The miner and the cow. (4.00 / 2)

It has been interesting to me the fairly recent development of miners being hatchet men for the coal companies.

There is no need to hire Baldwin Felts anymore to break up the protests they have their shills (the miners) to do it. So the companies save when they get their own employees to essentially work overtime without pay in order to further the companies economic interests.

What the miners fail to see is that getting all the coal out as quick as possible with as little labor as possible and with as little safety and environmental oversight as possible will affect their long term incom and employment prospects and the long term prosperity and health of their communities well before any environmentalist will.

In a way the miners are to the coal companies what the cow is to the farmer. That cow thinks that farmer is the best pal he has till the day he's loaded onto the truck to go to the processing plant.  

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by: Hollowdweller @ Tue Jul 07, 2009 at 17:48:43 PM UTC