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man, would ask of you to dispel1 ail such ideas as they are
not only false but foolish and unwise ...y ou have the same
interests at stake as your white brother ... " (7) While Davis
proved his sincerity by literally giving his life to build industrial
unionism, it isn't very hard to see that he was
elevated into a high union office by white miners because
that actually represented their own narrow interests. He
was the mis-leader (although idealistic and honest) they
helped create for Afrikan miners.
Even today, after the decisive blows have fallen,
we find misleaders telling Afrikan coal miners that better
unity with settler workers, and reforming the settler
unions, are the answers to their problems. The damage in
this case is limited solely by the fact that no one can be killed
twice.
Bill Worthington, past President of the Black
Lung Association (of miners disabled from breathing coal
dust), is a prominent retired Afrikan miner. He often
speaks at national labor rallies, community and settler
"left" events. And he trots out with shameless disregard
for the truth the whole tired line of settleristic lies: "The
operators try to divide Black and white. It's a master plan
to keep con fusion among the workers. Keep the poor peo-
ple fighting one another."
This is the classic line invented by the settler "left"
to explain away national oppression. In point of fact,
Afrikan and Euro-Amerikan coal miners are not actually
fighting each other in the coal fields. By cooperating with
the imperialists, Euro-Amerikan miners have forced most
Afrikans out and now have whatever remains of the jobs.
Afrikan miners have been forced out and are in a difficult
position to fight. Imperialism has the coal mines, the settlers
have the jobs - and are going to try to hold on to
them - and the unemployed Afrikan workers get the inspiring
propaganda about "Black-White worker's unity."
This history proves concretely that the strategy of
settleristic assimilation and the tactics that flowed from it
were incorrect for Afrikan miners, and that their true
strategic interests lay not only in national liberation but in
developing their own fighting organizations which alone
could defend their true class interests. It was only from
that foundation that correct tactical relations could have
been made with Euro-Amerikan workers. Correct alliances
must be based on correct strategy.
We also see how the Euro-Amerikan labor
aristocracy uses tactical unity and the surface appearance
of advancing the common good, but only really acts to
protect settler privilege and maintain settler hegemony
over labor. It is always important to go beneath the surface
appearances of such tactical unity, no matter how good it
looks.
In the summer of 1974 the United Mine Workers
and the Euro-Amerikan "left" announced that a wonderful
breakthrough had just happened: the union was leading
thousands of settler miners to make common cause with
the Afrikan liberation struggle in South Afrika! This was
an event so improbable as to surpass anything but the propaganda
of the settler "left."
In its June 5, 1974 issue, the radical weekly Guardian
ran a large head-line: "MINERS HALT WORK TO
PROTEST S. AFRICA COAL." In the article underneath
they proclaimed that "spirited action" had "united the
worker's movement with the Black liberation struggle."
The article details how: "nearly 8000 miners went on a
one-day walkout throughout Alabama May 22. On the
same day 1500 people, also mainly miners, staged a mili-
[ant rally in common cause with the Black workers of
South Afrika. Carrying picket signs which read, 'Stop Imperialism
in South Africa', 'End Racism and Slavery', and
'Stop The Southern Co. ', the workers blasted the plans of
U.S. energy companies to import coal from racist South
Africa. "
The "militant rally" was organized by the
Birmingham-based Coalition to Stop South African Coal
and endorsed by UMW District 20. The next week the
Guardian ran follow-up material in its June 12, 1974 issue,
including a large photograph of a Euro-Amerikan and an
Afrikan kneeling together wearing miner's helmets,
holding a sign urging "Do Not Buy South African Coal."
Another photograph showed a Euro-Amerikan miner
holding a sign saying "Oppose Racism - In Africa And
At Home!" The Guardian further said.