The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-12-18

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lieving built of thin wood, with gem
erous cracks, ramshackle, two to four
rooms, many on stills to keep the
damp out. During working times the
miners paid the exhorbttant sum of
81 a month a. room for these paper
boxes Of houses. Today they can't
pay that. From day to day the cup
board grows more bare. There is only
plenty Of the brackish water from the
one pump of the settlement
Little children play in the road
barefoot. The miners wear their last
pair Of tattered overalls. The miners
wives wear scrupulously clean calicoes.
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And today these American miners
are fighting mad at this hunger
enforced on them by the callousnesS,
the inefficiency, the decrepitness of
the dying capitalist system.
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Galloway miners have been union"
men for long time. Their women
have gone through other strikes by
the side of their men, through the
sell-outs of the UNfWA, the IWW.
Galloway men have learned about
the N. M. U. And like nothing else
they have ever known, the people are
for the militant policy Of this union.
In organizing for it they speak again
and again that it is "a rank and file
union" ~
Today Galloway miners belong al
most 10 per cent to the N. M. U. and
their women are fast becoming into
the "women's Branches"
All Forces for the Strike
Nothing is more important these
days in Galloway than the strike
that is to begin Jan. !, 1882 because
the miners are confident that the
strike can win better conditions for
them. They themselves are organizers
They go out into surrounding camps,
and bring back signed union applca-
ton cards in wadS of 30, 40, so. One
of the principal demands of the strike
is "re-establishment of all blacklisted
miners" This effects the Galloway
miners directly, because these miners,
noted for their militancy, have been
refused jobs by other coal companies.
Today, both the Women's Branch
and the local N. M. u. met to speed
preparations for the strike. The
women left babies to their husbands
care, left washing the dinner dishes
Of the herbs picked In the mountains,
the bread and potatoes, and came to
the meeting.
The Women Are m the Fight
Grandma" mother Of five miner
sons, IS years old,--a little married
woman of II, married already two
years, -Della-fighters in two strikes
along with her rothers and her hus-
band-Miss Taylor rouse the other
women of the settlement to the meet
ing. A girl of 20 is chairman, con-
ducts her office in dignified, Of
fetal way. Committees are elected.
What is more important than this
what is more important than Or
ganizing to fight against starving to
death here in this hole in the noun
tains
The main business of these women
is the setting up of q community
kitchen. Constructive suggestions.
A few OF the men came TO the
women's meeting. One speaks Of how
in former strikes the women have
sent their men back to work, and that
the Galloway women must join in the
Women's Branches, and fight Shout
der to shoulder with the men on the
committees on the picket line.
81 amt never learned how to read
nor write" says one woman, but I
knows how this is going to be
serious fight. Amt just plaything.
We all got to put our shoulders to
the wheel and push real hard" And
all the women agree, and the work
is divided evenly among them. They
too are organizers, and go from camp
to camp organizing the women for
the strike,
Full Steam Ahead
Imedmiately after the women's
meeting, the men follow. These Ken
lucky miners, unlearned in the con-
Quoting of their own meetings do a
top-rate job. Their characteristic
boyisl1ness and ever-present quiet
humor does not preclude their dead
seriousness about this business of Or
ganizing the union, or preparing for
January 1st.
Galloway, KY, is going full steam
ahead preparing for the strike. They
repeat to one another Wagenknecht's
assurance that the working-c class OF
this country will stand solidly behind
them with food, clothing, funds. Their
struggle will be bitter one. But these
Kentuckians are fighters and deter
mined to win.
They say Death is sure anyway
we've got nothing to lose"
But the answer of this struggle
must not be death for the Kentucky
miners. forgotten by the bosses in
the Kentucky hills. The answer
must be victory in the fight against
the bosses starvation and terror. The
answer will not be found only in the
hands of the. fighting Kentucky