Fear of violence grows in mountaintop mining fight

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: AP, via The Washington Post

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- It was the slap heard 'round the coalfields: Cordelia Ruth Tucker, wearing the fluorescent-striped shirt of a miner, strode past West Virginia state troopers and into a stream of marchers protesting mountaintop removal mining to deliver an audible smack.

The 54-year-old Rock Creek woman isn't talking as she awaits trial on a battery charge. Her neighbor, environmental activist Judy Bonds, says she was on the receiving end of the slap.

And Bonds - like many in a place where labor disputes have a violent history - fears more blows will follow as the fight escalates over mountaintop removal, the uniquely Appalachian form of strip mining that involves blowing tops off mountains and dumping the rubble in valleys.

For nearly a decade, environmentalists and the mining industry battled in courtrooms and the Capitol. Arrests were unheard of.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/19/AR2009121901264.html

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Updates on the situation can always be found here;
http://climategroundzero.org

[elleng]

1. I hope everyone's OK!

A little slap in the face???

[destes]

2. Carnegie is smiling from his grave

[Enthusiast]

3. What the miners don't understand is

'mountaintop removal' gets to the coal and quickly removes it. The jobs it provides don't last long, then they are gone forever. I know, I know, the miners are only trying to get by, day by day.

But I have seen communities die once the coal is gone. As a matter of fact, I grew up in one. It's a sad thing to watch. Once thriving communities grind to a halt. Drugs become the major industry.

Conventional mining takes much longer to remove the coal. That at least allows for longer term employment. And conventional mining requires more miners.

Just my take.

[Mopar151]

5. Sad Irony

I've read here, that this particular project also ruins an excellent wind farm site.

[amborin]

14. +10 the miners practice short-term thinking to the extreme, so do

the deniers

[Mopar151]

4. I can't say it no better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeDWJqvpat0

And every word is true.

[Crowman1979]

6. The miners in this case remind me of the thugs who gunned down striking workers 100 years before.

They don't want to disobey their corporate masters, so they do their bidding with chump change.

[ensho]

10. agree

nt

[X_Digger]

12. "The miners in this case"..

.. are the grandsons and granddaughters of those gunned down in Maetwan, War Eagle, and Harlan.

Corporate masters my ass. Go talk to a UMWA member.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

15. MTR mines are non-union

not many miners working there at all, really.
more of a bunch of heavy equipment operators.
Don Blankenship, the kingpin of MTR, is an infamous union buster and refers to the early 1900s strikes that followed the killing of Syd Hatfield by coal guards as "union terrorism"

[Crowman1979]

7. Plus the mining companies are paying workers to troll on the facebook pages...

...devoted to protesting against mountaintop removal mining. They keep harping how safe it is, blah, blah, blah. What a bunch of damn tools! Their just a bunch of thuggish pee-ons, waiting for money to trickle down from the corporate masters who control them. No offense to those who like golden showers. :rofl:

[raystorm7]

8. AVATAR is a good movie. Perfect timing all around James, we could all learn something.

[Quantess]

9. Sad, and interesting.

[boston bean]

11. Everytime

I see a picture of a mountain that has been obscenely molested like that, it makes my blood boil and my eyes mist.

For what? This is OBSCENE!

[amborin]

13. k&r sad! it's the false dichotomy of jobs/environment taken to the extreme

[goldcanyonaz]

16. Watched Coal Country on Planet Green yesterday, fascinating! link inside.

http://www.coalcountrythemovie.com/about_page.html