Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 20, 1921 U.M.W. of A. Supports Fighting Miners of West Virginia and Alabama
From the United Mine Workers Journal of January 15, 1921:
Official Notice of Assessment Indianapolis
Indianapolis, January 4, 1921.
To the Officers and Members, United Mine Workers of America:
Brothers—For many months about three thousand miners in the Mingo county coal section of West Virginia have been locked out by their employers. In Alabama twelve thousand miners have been on strike for many months because the coal operators, who employed them, refused to negotiate an agreement based upon the award of the Bituminous Coal Commission. The locked-out and striking miners in these two fields, together with their families, who are dependent upon them, have been cared for and supported by the International Union of the United Mine Workers of America. All together about fifty thousand men, women and children have been and are now being clothed, fed and cared for by the International Union of the United Mine Workers of America.
Evicted Miners and Families Live in Tents in Mingo County, W. V.
Since the beginning of the lock-out in West Virginia and the strike in Alabama the International Union has supplied $ 1,345,000 out of the International treasury, for the support of our striking brothers and their families. The suffering which the men, women and children living in both these coal fields have undergone challenges the admiration of every member of our union. They have been thrown out of their homes; have been denied the right of free assemblage; have been subjected to the brutal treatment of a private army of gunmen, guards and thugs employed by the coal operators, and to the repressive military regulations which have been established by state and federal troops ordered into these mining communities.
The fact that thousands of men, women and children are living in tents during these bitter cold wintry days and nights, fighting and struggling for recognition, the right to bargain collectively and for justice, excites our most profound sympathy. Such heroic action calls for our full support in the struggle these brave men and women are making against the forces of corporate greed and corporate power.
The financial demands made upon your International treasury in caring for the thousands of our people in Alabama and West Virginia have been and are very heavy. It is costing the International Union thousands of dollars each week. These struggles can not go forward to a successful issue unless funds are supplied in a sufficient amount each week and month to guarantee food, clothing and shelter.
Consequently, the International Executive Board, after surveying the situation carefully and most comprehensively, decided that the full moral and financial support of the International Union, which from the beginning has been cheerfully accorded our striking brothers and their families in the coal fields of Alabama and West Virginia, must be continued. It expressed its determination to give this spport in full measure and to use every honorable means at its command to bring about satisfactory settlements. In order to do this the International Executive Board decided that the revenues to the International Union must be increased. More money must be made available so as to enable the International Union to meet the increasing demands that will be made upon it during these trying winter days, if present existing conditions continue.
Your International Officers, therefore, were instructed to call for an assessment of $ 1.00 per month, per member, for two months; consequently, you are hereby officially notified that an assessment of $ 1.00 per month per member for the months of January and February, 1921, is levied by the International Executive Board, United Mine Workers of America, upon all members of the United Mine Workers of America. Local union secretaries will collect this assessment from the membership and forward it, with monthly per capita tax, to International Secretary-Treasurer William Green, 1107 Merchants Bank Building, Indianapolis, Indiana.
This assessment is levied by authority conferred upon the International Executive Board, as set forth in Section 25, Article IX, International Constitution, and is to be used for the express and specific purpose of caring for the members of our union and their families, numbering fifty thousand, who are locked out and on strike in West Virginia and Alabama. We appeal to the membership to respond promptly and in that spirit of true unionisme which has always characterized action of the members of the United Mine Workers of America.
Your brothers, their wives and little children, in Alabama and West Virginia are looking to you and to us for support and help. After they have fought so nobly for many months we must not and cannot fail them now. Their success, happiness and well-being depends entirely upon your whole-hearted and unreserved support.
By order of the International Executive Board, United Mine Workers of America.
JOHN L. LEWIS, President. PHILIP MURRAY, Vice-President. WM. GREEN, Secretary-Treasurer. United Mine Workers of America.
The following graphic account of a visit to the coal field of Mingo county, West Virginia, was written by a staff correspondent of the International News Service and published in newspapers throughout the country:
WILLIAMSON, W. V., Dec. 15.-“So this is Matewan!”
…..I read the story written by a baby’s footprints in the snow…..
United Mine Workers Journal, Volume 31
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-Jan 1-Dec 15, 1920
Official Publication of the United Mine Workers of America
(search: alabama strike) https://books.google.com/books?id=2hg5AQAAMAAJ
United Mine Workers Journal, Volume 32
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-Jan 1-Dec 15, 1921
Official Publication of the United Mine Workers of America
(search: alabama strike) https://books.google.com/books?id=oHItAQAAMAAJ
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