Coal, Communists and the Arch-Betrayer John L. Lewis
The Communist Party USA was in the coal fields almost from its founding in 1919. From that first day, United Mine Workers of America (UMW) president John L. Lewis dedicated himself to stamping out their presence.
The communists’ main strategy from the late 1920s to the mid-1930s was to build a red union called the National Miners Union (NMU). This “revolutionary” union was a mixed bag of militant reform and calls for a soviet America.
First, Lewis and his henchmen directly assaulted communist organizers. They killed a number of brave comrades in this decade-long battle. The UMW signed sweetheart deals with mine owners to undermine strikes led by the communists.
In the 1931 strike in western Pennsylvania, the NMU drew out more than 40,000 miners including a large number of black workers. Soon after, they joined the famous Harlan County strike.
Black workers made up the core of the NMU organizers and party leaders around Birmingham, Alabama. Later, Mexican-American coal diggers led the charge against guns, bayonets and clubs during the famous New Mexico Gallup mine strike.
In each of these strikes, the party emphasized “the revolutionizing of striking workers, not just gaining material results.” In keeping with this goal, “the first thing the party considered was [recruitment].”
Communists launched educational campaigns everywhere in the mine country. Many miners could not read. At study groups, those that could would read out loud everything from the Communist Manifesto to the CPUSA’s Daily Worker. Thousands joined.
Throughout this time, Lewis and the UMW asserted that they would fight “Communist propaganda in the American trade union movement just as viciously as they fight strike-breaking non-union coal operations.” In practice, more so!
Lewis earned a front-page picture in the Daily Worker with a caption labeling him “The Arch Betrayer.”
Lewis and Co. couldn’t stop the CPUSA. Time and time again, miners— particularly black and Latin miners— turned to the party. The red unions were not successful in the trade union “material gains” sense, but the vision of communism inspired masses.
Lewis only succeeded when the CP publicly abandoned the revolutionary vision for an alliance with their arch-enemy in the CIO starting in the late ‘30s.
Could the red unions and their reformist illusions have been replaced with a direct mobilization for communism? It seems that many in the rank-and-file were ready. The united front squashed that possibility.
Much blood was spilled to learn that nothing short of mobilizing for communism will do. Now it is our turn. We will not forget!
Posted 3/17/2017
