https://themilitant.com/2019/03/02/w-va-workers-discuss-crisis-importance-of-teachers-strike/
W. Va. workers discuss crisis, importance of teachers strike
Socialist Workers Party campaigns in coal country
By Roy Landersen
Vol. 83/No. 10
March 11, 2019
Above, picket line in Hurricane, West Virginia, during Feb. 19-20 strike
by school workers. Inset, Socialist Workers Party member Samir Hazboun,
left, talks with former miner Eddie McLaughlin in Kermit. SWP
campaigners went door to door talking to workers about conditions they
face and need for solidarity with strikers.
Militant photos: Above, Glova Scott; inset, Amy Husk
Above, picket line in Hurricane, West Virginia, during Feb. 19-20 strike
by school workers. Inset, Socialist Workers Party member Samir Hazboun,
left, talks with former miner Eddie McLaughlin in Kermit. SWP
campaigners went door to door talking to workers about conditions they
face and need for solidarity with strikers.
On Feb. 20 Amy Husk, Socialist Workers Party candidate for Kentucky
governor, and campaign supporter Samir Hazboun went to West Virginia’s
coal country to talk to working people at their doorsteps about
conditions they face, and about the school workers strike that day.
Their fight is shaped by the long working-class tradition of struggle
and solidarity that comes from decades of class battles waged by the
United Mine Workers union. The school workers beat back efforts by the
legislature to attack their unions and working conditions. After a
so-called education reform bill was voted down, the workers stayed out
on strike another day, saying they just didn’t trust the government.
In Williamson, in Mingo County, a stronghold of past battles waged by
the UMW, Husk and Hazboun talked to Austin Boles, a worker at Food City.
“We are living under a dictatorship of the rich,” Husk said, “and
workers are paying for their crisis with our health and lives.”
“Oh, I agree with that!” Boles responded. He said he had been born with
a heart condition and had three open heart surgeries. Boles said he
makes “barely enough to make ends meet.”
“And I hate the pharmaceutical companies,” he added. “They rob working
people and get young people hooked on drugs.” He knows a lot of people
who overdosed and died because of this.
“Young people suffer horrible despair and alienation because they have
nothing to look forward to under capitalism,” Husk said. “If there was a
social movement like the fight of the United Mine Workers to defend
workers on the job or a mass political movement like the civil rights
struggle or the mass mobilizations that forced the U.S. rulers to end
their war in Vietnam, young people would see their own power and learn
their self-worth. They wouldn’t turn to drugs and suicide like they do
today.”
“I agree with that too,” said Boles. He signed up for an introductory
subscription to the Militant and said he wanted to keep in touch.
Impact of miners’ battles
SWP campaigners got another picture of the depth of the impact of the
miners’ battles as they joined school workers in protests at the West
Virginia state Capitol during their strike. Retail workers Glova Scott
and Sarah Ullman met Makayla Amos there when they came from Washington,
D.C., to show solidarity.
Amos described how her grandfather, who used to work in the mines, loves
the teachers’ battles. “One of his favorite things is to drive around
and bring coffee to the teachers where they’re picketing,” she said. “In
rural areas where we live the schools are often up roads that nobody
travels on. So the teachers go to places where people can see them. In
Craigsville, where he lives, they go to Rite Aid. Where I live it’s
McDonald’s. So he goes out there to bring coffee and solidarity.”
Husk and Hazboun also knocked on doors in Kermit, where they met Eddie
McLaughlin, who’s unemployed. When Husk asked what he thought of the
West Virginia school workers strike, McLaughlin said he wasn’t sure
about their fight.
Husk, who is a health care worker, said a lot of workers “go into
teaching or health care because they think they can make a difference,
but you learn that the system isn’t set up to help people. Under
capitalism, health care is really about profits and the only education
the rulers care about is training young people to know their place.”
Hazboun added, “The rich don’t care about educating our kids. They can
send their children to the best private schools just like they can pay
for the best health care. But they educate our kids to be obedient
workers, not independent thinkers.”
“The school workers are standing up to attacks on all our living
standards,” said Husk, “They learned important lessons from coal miners’
battles over the years in this region. They reach out to involve the
working-class community, to see that kids get food and shelter during
their strike so parents can go to work. Their fight shows the way
forward to rebuild the labor movement.”
“I agree with that,” said McLaughlin, who used to work as a roof bolter
in an underground mine. “It was dangerous work. Everyone in the mines
deserves good pay and benefits.”
McLaughlin also served in the army in the Middle East. He described his
anger when his daughter died while he was overseas and the military
wouldn’t find a way to get him home in time to bury her.
He told Husk and Hazboun that he’d also been in prison. When he got out
a lawyer told him it would cost $30,000 to get back his voting rights
and his right to carry a gun. “They want to rob me just to get my rights
back!” he said.
“We’re fighting in Kentucky to get back the right to vote for those who
have been convicted of a felony,” Hazboun said. “They fought and won
this in Florida last year.”
McLaughlin got a copy of the Militant to learn more about the SWP and
working-class issues.
To join in campaigning with the SWP, or to find out more, contact the
SWP or Communist League branch nearest you.
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In This Issue
Front Page Articles •W. Va. workers discuss crisis, importance of
teachers strike
•Trump, Kim meet for talks to denuclearize Korea peninsula
•Social crisis continues in Venezuela — US hands off!
•UK out of EU is better for workers to struggle against British rulers
•Liberals champion FBI role in hysteria to oust Donald Trump
Feature Articles •‘These books give a perspective we don’t often hear’
•‘Sharing our histories and experiences is indispensable’
Also In This Issue •Yellow vest protesters stand up to French government
attacks
•SWP campaigns for ‘Amnesty for immigrant workers!’
•Oakland teachers strike for pay raise, smaller class sizes
•Florida prisoners fight seizure of their digital music
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