http://themilitant.com/2018/8219/821957.html
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Vol. 82/No. 19 May 14, 2018
W.Va. workers proud of victory of teachers strike there
BY NED MEASEL
BLACKSVILLE, W.Va. — A team of Socialist Workers Party members and
supporters returned to the coal mining region in West Virginia April
27-30 to speak with miners and other workers the party had met during
the recent school workers strike and to get to know others in the area.
We found workers’ spirits buoyed by the experience of the strike
victory, and from more hiring in the coal, gas, oil and related
industries. “Now Hiring” signs are visible all around.
Support for the teachers and other school workers is nearly universal
among working people. Many we met were downright proud of what was
accomplished. And we found that many had a tradition of fighting.
We met with Derrick Conaway, a 27-year-old worker, and his mother
Deborah around their kitchen table here. Derrick met SWP members a few
weeks ago when they knocked on his door, and he got an issue of the
Militant. He liked what he read and called the paper’s office in New
York to invite members of the SWP to come back to visit and talk some more.
His mother explained that she used to work at Walmart, and had a fight
with the bosses to try to keep her job when she got sick. “I had to
fight Walmart to get unemployment, when they tried to prevent me from
getting it,” she said. “I won.”
They subscribed to the Militant and got two books, Teamster Rebellion
and “It’s the Poor Who Face the Savagery of the US ‘Justice’ System.”
Derrick Conaway decided to join the team the next day to go door to door
in areas he suggested, helping convince two people to get subscriptions
to the paper.
Our discussion with Ryan Spiker, a pipe welder, on his stoop in New Hill
was wide ranging. Both Spiker and Conaway, like others we met, were
intimately familiar with police brutality. Conaway was once severely
beaten by the cops. Spiker told us about a friend who was beaten so
badly he hasn’t been the same since. He couldn’t work and lost his
house. He tried to sue the police, but said his attorney sold him out.
After leaving Spiker’s place, we watched the video “Maestra,” a
documentary about the 1961 literacy campaign in Cuba after the victory
of the revolution there, while sitting at the local Sheetz gasoline and
convenience store.
As team members said goodbye to Conaway and prepared to return to
Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, we agreed we would stay
in touch and get together again. Malcolm Jarrett, a supporter of the
party from Pittsburgh, who had joined the team and an earlier one during
the teachers’ protests in Oklahoma, decided to order a weekly bundle of
the Militant.
Related articles:
Teacher battles: Example for all working people! Arizona teachers,
school workers get broad solidarity
Workers are starting to act up today. Join in!
South Africa workers strike, protest for wage raise, rights
On the Picket Line
‘Hardhat Mass’ marks deaths of construction workers
Denver rallies demand school funding, pay raises
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