Coal miners

People have worked as coal miners for centuries, but they became increasingly important during the Industrial revolution when coal was burnt on a large scale to fuel stationary and locomotive engines and heat buildings. Owing to coal's strategic role as a primary fuel, coal miners have figured strongly in labour and political movements since that time. After the late 19th century coal miners in many countries were a frequent presence in industrial disputes with both the management and government. Coal miners' politics, while complex, have occasionally been radical, with a frequent leaning towards far-left political views. A number of far-left political movements have had the support of both coal miners themselves and their trade unions, particularly in Great Britain. In France, on the other hand, coal miners have been much more conservative.

From the mid-19th century onward, coal miners have often built strong connections with the organized labour movement, and sometimes as well with radical political movements. Coal miners were among the first groups of industrial workers to collectively organise in protection of both working and social conditions in their communities. Beginning in the 19th Century, and continuing through the 20th Coal Miners unions became powerful in many countries, the miners becoming leaders of Left or Socialist movements (as in Britain, Poland, Japan, Canada, Chile and (in the 1930s) in the U.S.) Historians report that, "From the 1880's through the end of the twentieth century, coal miners across the world became one of the most militant segments of the working class in the industrialized world."

The statistics show that from 1889 to 1921 British miners struck between 2 and 3 times more frequently than any other group of workers. Some isolated coal fields had long traditions of militancy and violence; those in Scotland were especially strike-prone. Coal miners formed the core of the political left wing of the Labour Party and the British Communist party.

In Germany, the coal miners demonstrated their militancy by large-scale strikes in 1889, 1905 and 1912. However, in political terms the German miners were middle-of-the-road and not especially radical. One reason was the formation of different unions—Socialist, liberal, radical and Polish—that seldom cooperated.

In British Columbia, Canada, the coal miners were "independent, tough, and proud" and became "among the most radical and militant labourers in an extremely polarized province." They were the core of the socialist movement; their strikes were frequent, long and bitter.

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Wikipedia