Today in Labor History March 3, 1985: Arthur Scargill declared an end to Britain’s National Miners’ Strike. The miners returned to work without winning any major demands. After the strike, most of Britain's coal mines closed, supposedly because they weren’t profitable. Consequently, the union shrunk from 170,000 members down to 100 by 2015. Margaret Thatcher declared the miners the “Enemy Within.”
Today in Labor History February 19, 1990: After a 10-month strike, rank-and-file miners at the Pittston Coal Co. ratified a new contract. Ninety-eight miners and a minister occupied a Pittston Coal plant in Carbo, Virginia, inaugurating the year-long strike. While a one-month Soviet coal strike dominated the U.S. media, the year-long Pittston strike received almost no media coverage. The wildcat walkouts involved 40,000 miners in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. Over 2,000 people occupied Camp Solidarity. Miners and their families engaged in Civil Disobedience, pickets, work stoppages and sometimes sabotage, vandalism and violence. Over 4,000 were arrested.
Today in Labor History January 26, 1886: In Decazeville, France, miners attacked the home of the mine engineer, Watrin, after he slashed their wages by 10%. He died when they threw him from his window. Paul Lafargue, Cuban-French revolutionary and son-in-law of Karl Marx, who wrote about the strike in June of 1886, considered the strike to be one of the seminal moments for French socialists over the past 15 years.
Today in Labor History December 21, 1907: The Santa María School massacre occurred in Iquique, Chile. The Chilean Army attacked striking saltpeter miners and their wives and children, killing over 2,000 and destroying the strike. It also effectively quashed the union movement for the next decade. The saltpeter strike was part of a wave of strikes that started in 1905, including a General Strike earlier in December, 1907. The event is depicted in Volodia Teitelboim’s 1952 novel, “Hijo de salitre.”
This building was built from 1901 to 1904 by the "Allgemeine Knappschaftsverein" Bochum as a hospital for the treatment of lung diseases and especially tuberculosis.
Until 1986, lung diseases of miners from Bochum and the Ruhr area were treated here.
It is estimated that about 50,000 miners were treated here in 82 years.
Today the building is abandoned.
Situated in the middle of the forest, it is so quiet today that you can sense the ghosts of the people who were treated here for 82 years - a ghostly and almost mystical atmosphere.
This building was built from 1901 to 1904 by the "Allgemeine Knappschaftsverein" Bochum as a hospital for the treatment of lung diseases and especially tuberculosis. Until 1986, lung diseases of miners from Bochum and the Ruhr area were treated here. It is estimated that about 50,000 miners were treated here in 82 years. Today the building is abandoned. Situated in the middle of the forest, it is so quiet today that you can sense the ghosts of the people who were treated here for 82 years - a ghostly and almost mystical atmosphere. July 2023 Christoph Koester | #Meschede
This building was built from 1901 to 1904 by the "Allgemeine Knappschaftsverein" Bochum as a hospital for the treatment of lung diseases and especially tuberculosis. Until 1986, lung diseases of miners from Bochum and the Ruhr area were treated here. It is estimated that about 50,000 miners were treated here in 82 years. Today the building is abandoned. Situated in the middle of the forest, it is so quiet today that you can sense the ghosts of the people who were treated here for 82 years - a ghostly and almost mystical atmosphere. July 2023 Christoph Koester | #Meschede
This building was built from 1901 to 1904 by the "Allgemeine Knappschaftsverein" Bochum as a hospital for the treatment of lung diseases and especially tuberculosis. Until 1986, lung diseases of miners from Bochum and the Ruhr area were treated here. It is estimated that about 50,000 miners were treated here in 82 years. Today the building is abandoned. Situated in the middle of the forest, it is so quiet today that you can sense the ghosts of the people who were treated here for 82 years - a ghostly and almost mystical atmosphere. July 2023 Christoph Koester | #Meschede
If #copper is vital to the #GreenTransition then warnings from #miners about future capacity issues might need to be heeded (or considered).
Obviously, there is certain amount of self interest in the copper producers highlighting difficulties in mining, but equally if there is likely to be a squeeze on copper supplies later in the decade, then the costs of a shift to #sustainableenergy may be greater than current envisaged... or an alternative to copper needs to found!
My name is Nixon, and I'm an A'i Cofán filmmaker, artist, and member of the #Sinangoe#IndigenousGuard.
You might be wondering what that means: an Indigenous guard. To understand it better, allow me to take you on a journey into my ancestral territory in the Upper #Amazon, a land of dense #forests and towering trees, crossed by surging #rivers. A land preyed on by #loggers and #miners.
"Anywhere but Schuylkill" by Michael Dunn - coming soon from Historium Press! Check it out!! http://wix.to/M9gMx11
“The Banshees of Inisherin and 1917 are two of the best historical films I’ve seen in recent years, particularly the cinematography. Yet the visuals Michael Dunn creates in Anywhere But Schuylkill, are richer, more vivid, more imaginative, and more haunting and indelible than what I recall in those brilliant films. It’s like the author transports himself to each scene and brings to life each physical detail, each expression, each emotion, and each word of dialogue with the care of a Renaissance painter.”
—David Aretha, award-winning author of Malala Yousafzai and the Girls of Pakistan and Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1963 March on Washington.
This building was built from 1901 to 1904 by the "Allgemeine Knappschaftsverein" Bochum as a hospital for the treatment of lung diseases and especially tuberculosis.
Until 1986, lung diseases of miners from Bochum and the Ruhr area were treated here.
It is estimated that about 50,000 miners were treated here in 82 years.
Today the building is abandoned.
Situated in the middle of the forest, it is so quiet today that you can sense the ghosts of the people who were treated here for 82 years - a ghostly and almost mystical atmosphere.
This building was built from 1901 to 1904 by the "Allgemeine Knappschaftsverein" Bochum as a hospital for the treatment of lung diseases and especially tuberculosis. Until 1986, lung diseases of miners from Bochum and the Ruhr area were treated here. It is estimated that about 50,000 miners were treated here in 82 years. Today the building is abandoned. Situated in the middle of the forest, it is so quiet today that you can sense the ghosts of the people who were treated here for 82 years - a ghostly and almost mystical atmosphere. 2023/07/30 Christoph Koester | #Meschede
This building was built from 1901 to 1904 by the "Allgemeine Knappschaftsverein" Bochum as a hospital for the treatment of lung diseases and especially tuberculosis. Until 1986, lung diseases of miners from Bochum and the Ruhr area were treated here. It is estimated that about 50,000 miners were treated here in 82 years. Today the building is abandoned. Situated in the middle of the forest, it is so quiet today that you can sense the ghosts of the people who were treated here for 82 years - a ghostly and almost mystical atmosphere. 2023/07/30 Christoph Koester | #Meschede
This building was built from 1901 to 1904 by the "Allgemeine Knappschaftsverein" Bochum as a hospital for the treatment of lung diseases and especially tuberculosis. Until 1986, lung diseases of miners from Bochum and the Ruhr area were treated here. It is estimated that about 50,000 miners were treated here in 82 years. Today the building is abandoned. Situated in the middle of the forest, it is so quiet today that you can sense the ghosts of the people who were treated here for 82 years - a ghostly and almost mystical atmosphere. 2023/07/30 Christoph Koester | #Meschede
Today in Labor History July 27, 1918: Miner and union organizer Ginger Goodwin was shot by a hired private cop outside Cumberland, British Columbia sparking Canada's first General Strike. He was a labor activist and a member of the Socialist Party of Canada. Additionally, he was an antiwar activist who said that workers of one country should not be employed to kill workers of another country because of capitalist conflict. “War is simply part of the process of Capitalism,” he said. “Big financial interests will reap the victory, no matter how the war ends.” However, in spite of his protests, he was still drafted to fight in the First World War. In order to avoid conscription, he fled into the mountains, where he was murdered by a cop in 1918. Canada’s first General Strike began in response.
Today in Labor History June 26, 1917: IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) miners went on strike in Bisbee, Arizona. On July 11, authorities sealed off the county and seized the local Western Union telegraph office to cut off outside communication, while several thousand armed vigilantes rounded up 1,300 strikers, their supporters, and innocent bystanders. They were herded into manure-laden boxcars and dumped in the New Mexico desert, 200 miles away. During the Bisbee mine strike, company-hired vigilantes attempted to kidnap and deport Jim Brew, a miner and IWW member. However, Brew fought back and was shot and killed. Brew was a veteran of the West Virginia Cripple Creek strike of 1903-04.
“Bisbee ‘17,” (1999) by Robert Houston, is a historical novel based on the Bisbee deportations. There was also a really interesting film of the same name that came out in 2018. In the film, the town’s inhabitants reenact the events 100 years later. It also includes interviews with current residents.