The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-21

ny lOLf Il UhANGhAAh
PITTSBURGH, Pain the same
month that Edward England. Negro
coal miner and strike picket, was
murdered in the Alabama coal
strike, the UM.W.A. officials organ
lied a mass demonstration and two
dances, one for the white miners
and the other for the Negro miners.
Also few months before the 33rd
UMW.A. convention decided that it
could not pass a resolution on the
Scottsboro case, demanding the re-
lease of the 9 boys, because I'VE must
have more information" the UNI.
WA. leaders said.
There is no accident in any of the
above facts. They show the policy
of the U.M.W.A. leaders and the
fighting activity of the Negro and
white rank and file miners. The his
tory Of the mining struggles are full
of such incidents.
Among the Alabama coal miners
are many from the Northern fields.
They worked in the North before
the fields were organized. They help
ed build the U.M.W.A. After that
there were no jobs for the Negro
miners. They drifted South.
In every one of the Alabama
strikes land there were many the
Negro miners we're outstanding fight
ers. They are this way today The
coal company knows this and that's
the reason for the murder of Ed
ward England and the shooting of
the other Negro coal miners. They
want to terrori5e the rest of the
Negro coal miners. It's the policy Of
the capitalist class.
On the other hand, the rank and
file coal miners know that the Negro
miners are fighters. There we're
enough strikes in the mining sec
ton to prove this. The constitu-
ton of the UM.W.A. reads that
there shall be no discrimination be-
cause of color, creed or nationality"
This reads all right, but it is not
carried out in practice, In the Coal
Digger, paper of the Rank and File
of the UMW.A., there is a letter
from Negro miner in Finleyville.
He tells Of the conditions in his
mine, and writes that all of the
Negro miners must work in the l4th
Butt Entry. Also that this is the
worst section Of the pit and that the
water is very deep there. In the
same issue there is a letter from
miner in the Montour No. 10 mine.
This miner writes how a Negro
miner had to bail water out of his
place and that this took him about
three hours a day, For doing this
work for two weeks, the Negro miner
fot exactly $1.60, and was told that if
he did not like this he knows what
to do.
The Negro miner must live in the
worst section of the patch. The
company stores cheat everyone, but
a careful investigation might prove
that the Negro miner is cheated
more than the white miner.
The officials Of the U.M.W.A. know
this. They do nothing about this.
Some miners might think that they
are too busy. That they may find
time soon and see that this is re-
NEEDED. It's far from the truth. The
U.M.W.A. officials know this and
they believe in the system of jim
crowism and segregation.
That is the reason they organized
o separate dance for the Negro min
ers in Uniontown. This means that
it is the opinion of the officials that
the Negro miners are not good
enough to attend the same dance as
the white miners" This is not the
opinion of the rank and file coal
miners.
But even here many of the rank
and file miners fall for this stuff.
If not, why was no hell raised at
the time OF the dance in Uniontown.
The rank and file miners should
have all gone to the Negro dance,
and later gone to the other dance
and chased the officials out of the
town. This would have shown the
officials what the miners think. and
it would help unite the Negro and
white miners in the fight against
the bosses and their system of rob-
berry.
The killing of the Negro coal
miner in Alabama and the jim-crow
dance in Uniontown must be lessons
to the rank and file coal miners.
1t must be the beginning of real
fight against white chauvinism
against the coal operators and their
Lewis machine.